Page 31

Maddox

The smell of frying bacon and eggs fills the kitchen. Ace breaks egg after egg onto the flat top while the rest of us sit at the long stainless-steel worktable out of his way.

Most of us know how to cook but aren’t skilled at it. We’d only get in the way.

“Got the pastries and some company,” Canyon shouts as he comes in carrying a huge bowl full of food. Fiona and Brie follow behind him.

“Baby, you shouldn’t have stayed up all night.” Pit rushes over to his wife. “Come sit down and put your feet up.”

“I couldn’t sleep while all those children needed help.” Brie lets Pit help her into a chair even though she isn’t that pregnant yet.

“Have you eaten?” He reaches for a plate.

“The baby could eat.” She places a hand on her abdomen.

That right there is why nights like this don’t destroy us. Simple little joys. Brie isn’t our woman. And that’s not our baby. But our brother can sleep well tonight knowing there are fewer predators in the world to threaten his child.

“Ace, eggs over easy on toast stat!” Pit pulls out an apple turnover and sets it on a plate in front of her.

“Got it.” Ace never stops moving across the flat top.

It hurts watching that as much as it feels amazing!

Will Mindy and I be stupidly in love like that one day?

My heart burns at the thought.

“Fea, how are we doing finding the kids’ parents?” I take a croissant out of the bowl and hold it out to her.

“We contacted all but five. Two of them ran away from violent homes. The other three are so traumatized they can’t remember their phone numbers.” She takes a donut out of the piles.

The bakery doesn’t make those here. They get ordered and delivered fresh every morning at four.

“I can help with that. Just let me know which ones they are, and I’ll run them through the missing persons list. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours.” Enzo takes an everything cookie and passes the bowl down.

“So, Maddox, what was that look about on the stairs?” Jacko passes the bowl without taking anything.

“What look?” Dyce reaches over Axe’s shoulder and takes the cream puff Canyon doubtlessly got just for her.

“Maddox looked into space for a second. Like he was thinking about a woman. Like Pit is staring at Brie right this second.”

Everyone turns to Pit, but me.

“What? I love my wife and don’t care if the world knows it. Are you seeing someone without telling us?”

I don’t move a muscle. Half of them have an idea, especially Ace. But if I look at Canyon, they’ll give him the third degree until he spills the beans.

Which wouldn’t take long.

“He totally is.” Pit stares in awe. “You fell in love without telling us. That means you finally got over Fea.”

Fea’s head spins around, like this is news to her. “What?”

Ace whaps Pit upside the head as he sets a plate in front of Brie. “You stupid? Fea is sitting right there.”

Pit rubs his head. “What, like everyone didn’t know Maddox was in love with Fea. He’s had a crush on her since the day she showed up. Half of this happened because of her.”

I want to groan and punch Pit in the face.

“Really?” Fea turns to me with a whisper.

There’s no point in lying now. “You looked so scared and determined to keep Daria safe. I couldn’t let something happen to you.”

“Not that part. The other part. The one where you fell in love with someone else.”

Wait. Does that mean Fea knew the entire time? If I were still a teenager, that would have destroyed me.

“The gig is up. Just admit it. You know Fea will weasel it out of you eventually.” Canyon really needs a good shove.

“Yes.”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Fea squeals and hugs me. “That’s wonderful.”

Fea isn’t a hugger.

We all know that. No one touches Fea. We ensure, when we can, that no one else even brushes up against her.

What do I do? Hug her back? Just let her hug me?

Fea sits back down. “So, tell us everything.”

“Yes, tell us everything.” Dyce grins at me.

“It’s all very new—”

Ace snorts.

“You know something I don’t?” Dyce turns her gaze to Ace, shooting daggers at him.

“I know lots of things that you don’t, woman.” Ace doesn’t even flinch as he winks back at her.

“Well then, who is Maddox in love with, Mr. Know-it-all?”

“Mindy.”

I groan.

Now, I’m not going to be able to fix things with her before all of them start prying into our business.

“Mindy!” Dyce’s jaw drops open, and everyone starts talking at once.

What am I getting Mindy into? It’s like having a million matchmaking women watching your every move, and that’s not to mention the three actual matchmakers that will doubtlessly want to get involved when none of this is their business.

Fea’s phone rings. “Hello.”

How she can hear anything over the chaos that’s my life, I don’t know. I better eat before the inquisition continues.

“Mindy? Is something wrong?”

What?

The entire rooms’ attention shifts.

“Of course. He’s right here.”

Something’s wrong. The worry on Fea’s face burns into my soul. What’s wrong with Mindy? Did something happen to her while I was taking care of the filth? Guilt eats me. I reach for the phone.

“But do you want to talk to Maddox?”

What? Mindy wasn’t asking for me?

She’s in trouble and didn’t ask for me.

“Are you sure?”

That’s right, maybe you misunderstood. Just hand me the phone, Fea.

“Okay. Hang on a second.” Fea stands up and walks over to where Pit is currently sitting with Brie’s feet in his lap. He’d probably be rubbing them if we all weren’t right here.

Pit looks at me.

What am I supposed to say? No, don’t talk to my woman even though she asked for you. I nod at him.

“Hello,” Pit answers.

My woman is in trouble and asked for another man’s help.

“What happened to you, woman?”

Rage builds up in me as the frustration boils over.

“That’s an understatement. You sound horrible.”

What’s wrong?

What happened?

“You sound like you need to be in the hospital.”

The hospital! I stand up. She’s not spending a second alone in the hospital. I don’t care if she’s mad at me or not. Mindy can just glare at me while I care for her.

Pit looks over at me as he asks, “Do you want to talk to Maddox?”

Say yes.

Please say yes.

He shakes his head. “Want me to send a doctor over?”

Mindy is not at the hospital. She’s alone—

Is she letting the pretty boy take care of her?

The idea of him—

“She hung up.” Pit hands the phone back to Fea.

I pick up the nearest thing to my hand and hurl it across the room.

The glass shatters into a million pieces.

“You’re cleaning that up,” Ace says without turning around.

“What did you do to make her that mad at you?” Fea asks.

“He doesn’t know,” Canyon says way too cheerfully as he reaches for the bowl and takes out a chocolate chip cookie croissant.

“Well then, you’ll simply have to fix it.” Fea leans forward. “And this is how you’ll do it…