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“Seriously,” DK says, sounding truly offended.

I raise my brows at the King. “You got a cat?”

“She has a cat,” Sy’s thumb jerks at his Duchess, but his tone softens just a notch.

“I’ve got a dog,” I offer. My mother always said to offer something about yourself if you want to get something in return. With that settled, I lean forward. “We’ve got a problem.”

Lavinia’s fork pauses halfway to her mouth. Sy keeps chewing.

“It’s a North Side thing,” I continue, “which is why we asked the Duchess to be here.”

DK picks up a menu and scans it. “You left a lot of people behind when you decided to blow daddy dearest off the map.”

Sy grunts like he’s already over it. “Not our problem.”

Lavinia wipes her fingers on a napkin. “There was collateral damage. I feel terrible about it, but the alternative would have taken out a lot more people.”

“This one is probably adjacent to collateral,” I tell her. “Sofia Martinez.”

“Who?” Sy asks, forehead creased. “Never heard of her.”

“Hold up,” DK says, waving over the waitress. She walks up, smacking gum between her overly red lips.

“You boys ready to order?” Her oval name tag says, ‘Gert.’

“I’ll take the breakfast plate. Scrambled, no toast, extra pancakes,” he peruses the back, “and a juice.”

He offers me the menu, but I wave it off. “I’ll have the same, but make my eggs over easy.”

“How about you, hon? Need another coffee?”

Sy gives her a tight smile. “Please.”

“Be back quick as a jiff,” Gert says, heading off.

“Who the fuck is Sofia Martinez and why should we care?” Sy asks, clearly growing impatient.

“She’s Bruno Perez’s half-sister.”

That gets Lavinia’s attention. She sets her fork down and brushes a lock of blue behind her ear.

“She kept it quiet. Sheisquiet, and she’s trying to stay that way. But someone’s following her. Sending her messages. DMs. She got marked and now she’s being hunted.”

Sy shrugs. “Still not our problem.”

“I thought you wanted to find who was picking off girls in Forsyth?” DK snaps. “Girls with connections to Royalty. Does it not matter if she’s related to someone you hate?”

I glance at Lavinia. Her lips are pressed tight, but there’s something in her expression that wasn’t there before. It seethes under the surface.

“Let me tell you one thing,” she starts, “if I didn’t know for a fact that Bruno Perez was dead, as in, I didn’t see his decapitatedhead at my feet, he’d be my number one suspect. He was a pig with zero respect toward women, or anyone else, unless it got him ahead. His frat, his family, no matter how distant, is not our problem.”

“We’re new to all of this,” I admit. “I asked around with the guys in Beta Rho, it’s well known that Perez had beef with everyone in Forsyth. He’d kidnapped the Lady at one point and word has it Nick Bruin killed him for simply looking at you.”

Lavinia blinks, but Sy simply pushes his clean plate in front of him and props those massive arms on the table. “What’s your point?”

“Story Austin had her Lords to save her from Perez when she needed it. If Bruin hadn’t gotten to him, I suspect one of your other Dukes would have.” My gaze flicks from the King to Lavinia. “Not only does Sofia Martinez have no one looking out for her, she may be a way for us to catch whoever is doing this.”

She doesn't say anything for a moment. Then, “Where is she now?”