Page 112 of Veiled Amor

“Unlike you.”

“Unlike me.”

With each visit to Colorado, tension lifted from Mal’s shoulder. He didn’t have the first clue if he’d ever get to a good place with his twin again, but he kept trying. And when Tait suddenly said, “this Kingpin, Mal? Try not to get dead taking him down.” He felt a new sense of hope fill his chest that Tait wanted him around.

Mal smirked and clapped Tait on the back. “I have to keep breathing, there are too many beautiful women out there. Did I tell you about the gorgeous woman I went on a date with last week? A neurosurgeon, she has one of those yappy dogs, though. She’s worse than Penelope is with her goat. Not sure if I’ll see her again, I can’t be a puppy dad.”

The brothers shared an identical smirk.

It was a good day. Dinner with his brother and sister-in-law and then home to put a team together, the wheels in motion for him to work his way up the Director ladder.

Hooking Nicholas Cole, the most notorious Kingpin the states had ever seen, would undoubtedly get Mal noticed.

It was a damn good day to take the world away from a drug dealer.

THIRTY

“Three truths and a lie.” – Lucia

The best thing about living with Capone, besides living with Capone, was how tidy he was.

She’d never known a man to like things put away or who would pick towels up from the bathroom floor and not toss his clothes everywhere.

Lucia was messier.

He didn’t make a fuss about cleaning up after her in the kitchen. Whatever chaos she made while she tried to cook dinner, he came behind her, and the mess was gone a minute later.

“You’re good at that,” she remarked while she dried her hands on a dish towel, watching as he put a carton of milk away in the fridge. He cocked a brow and smirked a little. “It’s easy to toss milk away,amor.”

Smiling, she whipped him with the towel, then squealed when he threw out his arm and roped her in. “I mean, tidying up after me.”

“I enjoy being in here with you.” He shrugged as if it were no big deal. It was a huge deal to her, and she felt warmed by his words, “like it better that you made mama’s carnitas recipe.”

“It wasn’t quite like hers, I think she used magic in her spices.”

“It was perfect,amor.”

He was being nice, so she let him.

The slap on her ass startled Lucia out of her thoughts and she blinked up at his smiling yet sober face.

“We’ve eaten, cleaned up the kitchen. Are you going to keep avoiding what you want to tell me?”

Damn. He knew she’d been stalling.

“Does this goatee,” she gave it a little tug, “make you oh-so-wise, hm?”

Taking hold of her waist, Capone walked her backward until her knees encountered the edge of the couch, and he made her sit. “You’re stalling again,nena. Say what you have to say, then we can watch a movie, and I’ll make you my famous popcorn,” he offered with a sexy smirk.

She felt a little out of place, awkward in her limbs, so afraid to rock the idyllic boat they’d been in these past weeks. Did it matter if Capone didn’t have all the answers? He’d accepted their relationship, trusted in it, that’s all she’d wanted.

The truth was better. No secrets, she reminded herself.

Taking a deep breath, she curled a leg under her butt.

Another deep inhale. “I don’t know where to start…”

“Why you married Santiago?”