Page 118 of Veiled Amor

Capone was missing his Lucia.

He could turn his head to a bit of crime while he decided what to do next.

It was disgustingly easy to grab photos of the cop coming out of the Mayor’s private home at stupid o’clock. Easier still to drop those photos into her mailbox, letting her know they had eyes on her too if she wanted to continue with her one-bitch campaign.

Lucia was never far from Capone’s mind, though.

His wounds were wide open.

And his thoughts packed with a lot of what-ifs.

THIRTY-TWO

“Take my advice, go at it until he forgets why he was angry.” - Luxe

Lucia wasn’t as nervous about coming to the club alone as she thought she might be.

Because she had a mission, and she never let it stray from her mind.

“This is a nice surprise, girlie,” Jed called out as he stood at the side of a blonde lady sitting on a stool at the bar. The grey-haired man grinned as she looked over.

“Hey, Jed, how are you?”

“I got no complaints. You met my old lady, Helen?”

“Not yet,” Lucia approached. Smiling, she held her hand out to the lady. “I’m Lucia. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh, she knows all about you.” His eyes twinkled.

“Only because you gossip worse than my mama does,” Helen elbowed her husband. “Nice to meet you too, sweetie.”

“It’s called passing on information, not gossipin’.”

“Says you.”

“Yeah, says me, woman.”

Grinning, Lucia left the older couple to their cute bickering and made her way across the common room where she saw a group of girls.

“Hey,” they greeted her.

“Hi, all.” Taking a seat next to Paige, her eyes scanned the room, looking for a dark-haired God she wanted to smack and kiss at the same time. “Do you know if Capone is here? I poked my head in the garage, and he wasn’t there.”

“I haven’t seen him. Wasn’t he dealing with the shop break-in?” Luxe said, and Lucia blinked. What break-in?

“You know it had something to do with that blonde cop-bitch.” Winter piped in, sucking air through her teeth. “Did I tell you she pulled me over the other day while I was taking the boys to the doctor?”

“That’s nothing. She followed me home, all the way to the curb of the house, I got out of the car and waved at the witch.” Added Poppy. “Texas was fit to burst when I told him. He wanted to go to the sheriff's department and lodge a complaint.”

“I knew nothing about the shop,” Lucia answered. “Capone and me had a bit of an argument last night, and I haven’t seen him since.”

Six sets of female eyes came to her at once, then they looked at each other like they knew something Lucia didn’t. Oh god, please don’t let it be another woman he spent the night with.

No, she trusted him, he wouldn’t do that, no matter how mad he was.

“What’s the story with the cop? Why would she have something to do with a break-in at the sandwich shop?”

“You haven’t heard about Sofia the bitcherella?” Luxe asked.