“You’re a dick, you know that?”
I laugh but don’t get a chance to respond before the promise of food drags both women from their peaceful sleeps.
Lexi stumbles out of the bedroom first, delightfully rumpled and bleary-eyed. She’s pulled on one of my Henleys and a pair of her own sweatpants.
Pancake trots out of the bedroom after her. I’m surprised she hasn’t been nagging for breakfast, but maybe she needed the sleep just like Lexi did.
Laken sits up slowly, rubbing sleep from her eyes and meeting Nico’s eyes across the room before quickly diverting them.
He may be all in, but she’s going to need some time. She’s been through hell, and we don’t even know a fraction of what she’s survived, not just the last month, but her whole life with a father that’s treating her more like a prized racehorse than a child.
Lexi and Pancake make their way to our guest while I finish breakfast and bring it to the table.
I quickly feed our fluffy child so we can eat in peace, and by the time I sit down, Lexi is three tater tots deep and has a piece of bacon poised at her lips, allowing me to breathe a little easier.
“Thanks for breakfast, Colten,” Laken says quietly from beside Lexi.
“You’re welcome. If you don’t like anything, I can make you something else.”
“No, this is great. I can’t remember the last time I ate something warm.”
All our eyes turn to her as she takes a bite of eggs.
“Are you saying they starved you?” Nico growls, causing her eyes to widen.
I kick him under the table, causing him to turn his glare on me, and I shake my head slowly. She’s going to be jumpy for a while, and he needs to be gentle with her, especially when she’s sharing something traumatic.
“Sometimes they forgot to feed me, I think. Especially when we were on the road. Between drugging me and staying under the radar, it just wasn’t a priority for them. But mostly it was stale gas station sandwiches when they remembered.”
Nico’s seething beside me, Lexi is staring at her with horror, and I’m becoming more and more determined by the second to wipe these two fuckwits off the face of the earth.
Even if I could forgive them for what they did to Lexi, which I absolutely cannot, what they did to Laken was disgusting.
“It’s okay if you’re not ready to talk about it, but when you are, I’d really appreciate if you could tell me anything else you may know. If they spoke about their plans around you, anyone else that might be involved in their plot to delegitimize the Mafia Matchmaker.” Lexi’s voice is soft as she squeezes Laken’s hand.
Neither of them should have to deal with this right now, when their trauma is so fresh, but it’s important if we want to ensure their safety.
She nods and reaches for her orange juice. “They’ve been gaining support from what I can tell. There are quite a few families ineligible for the service, and that’s making a lot of people really angry. Honestly, I think if they got word of the things my father has done, I’d probably be cut as well, but I’m hoping to be matched before that can happen.”
“You will be,” Nico says confidently.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. God, for a man who is known for being good with the ladies, he’s not very smooth with this one.
“They’re collecting support and proof of bad matches, thinking it will make the service look bad enough that the families that are eligible will lose faith in it.”
“They can try, but every match I know of has been a huge success.” Lexi meets my eyes. “Have you heard of any matches that have ended badly?”
“A few. But they don’t claim a perfect success rate because that’s not realistic. People can be perfectly compatible on paper and not be able to make it work in real life.”
“What are we going to do now?” Lexi asks.
“Wearen’t going to do anything. I’m going to see if I can trace where Grant and Jay are hiding out, andyou’regoing to sit on the couch and binge-watch whatever reality TV show tickles your fancy that day.”
“Colten.” She rolls her eyes.
Laken watches our exchange with a small smile, and I’m glad the normalcy of the moment can offer her some level of comfort while she’s going through such a hard time.
“For once in your life, don’t argue with me, Wildcat. You and I both need you to stay close, and I don’t think my heart can handle you getting any more involved in this than you already are.”
