Page 130 of Veiled Amor

Against her will, she was going back to Miami without him.

THIRTY-FOUR

“Blowing the doors off her gilded cage.” - Capone

Lucia was gone.

Capone knew it even as he searched up and down the street, dropping into Paige’s bakery because Lucia loved the pastries.

He knew it even as he pulled out his phone to call hers and realized it was in his pocket because she hadn’t wanted to carry it, and Capone had become her purse by shoving all her shit in his jacket.

He knew she was gone when he walked around the back alleyway.

His pulse was a steady beat of rising dread in his stomach.

She was fucking gone, and he knewwhy.

There was no way to bring his jackhammer heart under control.

It was too late to un-feel everything Lucia had made him feel.

He was too unhinged for that, too wild under his skin to even reason. But he punched out a number, and he waited on the street with his fist pressed to the brick wall while Armado Springs went about their daily life around him like his hadn’t just crashed.

The call answered, and Capone had a growl to his voice. “Tell me she’s alright.”

Nicholas Cole sounded bored when he answered, “Of course she is. She’s my daughter and will always be alright as long as she’s under my care.”

It was all Capone needed to hear. He hung up and swung a leg over his bike on autopilot, letting the engine roar to life beneath him.

There was only one path for him now, and that was to get to Miami.

First, he thumbed through his phone and hit a number again. “Hunt, it’s Capone. You need to move up your timetable on Cole.”

“What? I told you I’d be in touch when my team was ready. We’re nowhere near that yet, I have threads to tie up first.”

“Then it’s too bad you won’t get your cop commendation. I’m on the way to Miami. He snatched Lucia off the street.”

“Fuck,” Malachai Hunt hissed. “Listen, man, I need more time. Paperwork for arrest warrants don’t magically appear. She’ll be fine.”

Patient fury like he’d never felt before stung the back of Capone’s throat. His vision had narrowed, and all he could see, and feel was Lucia.

She’d be brave, of course. His woman was a tiny warrior and she’d know he was coming for her.

“You’re not listening,ese. I’m leaving now. You have the time it takes for me to get to Miami to get your man. If not, you’ll find him with his fucking throat slit. This is the only heads up you’ll get.”

Blood throbbed through his temples.

Only for Lucia’s sake was he putting a contingency plan in place because if it were up to Capone, he’d slaughter the man in the street with his bare hands.

But if Hunt didn’t beat him there, the fucker was going to die.

“Capone, listen, I need—” Capone hung up.

Within five hours, he had his boys with him sitting in a middle aisle plane seat with his fingers clasped together and his mind in a steel vault of control. Paying little attention to what Preacher, Texas, and Reaper were talking about.

All he could think about was his girl.

He knew there were many things Nicholas could do to hurt Lucia without laying a finger on her. His worst fear was Lucia was being shipped off somewhere he couldn’t find her.