"Good," he said. "That's good."
"Are you okay?" asked Reece. "I know this clusterfuck has been stressful, but it's going to be okay."
Nico forced a smile. It might have been more of a grimace. "Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
Reece didn't respond to that. "We need to figure out what to do about her," Reece said, as if Elise was just a problem, not a person.
Nico had to catch the growl in the back of his throat.
"She might have seen something," Reece continued. "I just feel like she knows too much, you know?"
"I don't know," Nico said. "I've been with her basically this whole time. If not me, then one of the others. Maybe she thinks we're in a cult or something," he offered, finally taking up the story that Elise had given him. "There's nothing illegal about that."
Reece tilted his head and furrowed his brow. "You do remember that you kidnapped her, right?" he asked. "That's illegal."
"I don't think she's going to go to the cops," Nico said.
In fact, he was sure of it, but he couldn't tell that to Reece in a way that would assure the other man.
He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and chattering voices, and a moment later, Javi and Hugh walked into the kitchen.
Reece's smile evaporated. He looked at Nico and then at Javi and then at Hugh and then back at Nico.
"Is the human still sleeping?" he demanded.
Fuck.
Nico had been so intent on giving Elise enough time to finish healing Cole that he hadn't thought of an excuse if all of the betas ended up in the same place together.
"Yeah, she's sleeping." He nodded firmly.
It was a little late for that, but hardly late enough to cause comment.
"Oh, so we're bringing her breakfast in bed now?" Reece demanded. He bared his teeth, and Nico's own wolf wanted to match with teeth of his own.
"She needs food," he said. "Or do you think we should start starving our prisoners?"
Reece was still scowling, but he let it drop.
And he must have believed Nico's lie.
"I know what I'm doing," Nico told him.
Reece gave him an almost pitying look. "We all know that's not true."
Nico wanted to lunge at him, wanted to fight, but he had to be on his best behavior, had to ensure that none of these betas went upstairs and found Elise alone in Cole's room. If they smelled themagic that he had smelled last night … well, they would have a much different reaction than he had.
Which was good because he would rip out the throat of any man who touched her.
"Mark is going to fix Cole when he gets here," Reece said. "And then Cole is going to decide what we do about your little mistake. Are you going to be okay with that?"
Nico looked Reece dead in the eye and lied. "Of course."
"Now if you don't mind, I need to take this upstairs." He scooped up the tray and pushed his way out of the room.
It had been fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. Definitely not the half hour he had promised, but at this point, he didn't care.
Nico rushed up the stairs and was glad he hadn't brought a pot of coffee today because it would definitely have splashed everywhere. He opened the door to Cole's room and was relieved when he didn't smell the scent of magic. Elise was sitting back in her own chair and wiping her brow.
