Page 88 of Lucy and Her Wicked Three

Chapter 30

Mateo

"How many more fucking hoops do I need to jump through?" I snap at my lawyer, who owns one of the seven last names on the firm's high rise only a few blocks from here. "What the fuck do I pay you for if you can't fix this immediately."

"Mateo, it's not that simple. You and your partner have two separate cases. As I've told you before, you can file a case against this Delaney, and Lucy can do the same, but you can't do so on behalf of Lucy. Now, I can contact her again and officially pursue a lawsuit against her for defamation of character for the original pictures, and with the police, we can sue her for sexual harassment and press legal charges for the death threat. I can do this on behalf of you and Lucy. From what you told me, there's more than enough evidence to prove she's behind all of this."

"Of course she's behind all this," I growl.

"Right. So, send me a copy of everything, and make sure when Lucy talks to the police that she shares my contact information with the lead detective, and we'll get this all underway."

"She's there now. And yeah, Silas and Noah have your info. They're already planning on passing it along."

"Okay. Great."

We sit in silence for a second, and I wonder briefly if he's counting down the clock, since I pay him nearly a thousanddollars an hour. I can't bring myself to give a shit what this phone call costs, though.

Finally, he breaks the silence. "It's going to be okay, Mateo. Lucy's safe. And now that the police are involved…"

"Right."

A knock on the door pulls my attention up. I've been pacing the kitchen for twenty minutes. This call started in the office, but I was too pissed to sit in front of the computer, and I could feel my fingers itching to throw the keyboard at the window.

All I can see is Lucy's face from last night, the fear and worry in her expression, the stress holding her shoulders up to her ears. As much as I wanted to hold her and remind her and myself that she was safe last night, I'm glad she asked to stay with Noah. I knew they'd be good together.

So Silas and I stayed up, taking turns with the whiskey bottle, silently swelling each other's anger by keeping company. In the dark and quiet kitchen, we admitted all the terrible shit we wanted to do to the person who hurt Lucy.

Eventually, drunk, we both passed out in my bed, and I woke up with a hangover and feeling even worse than last night.

Another knock at the door pulls me from my train of thoughts.

"Keep me posted." I hang up the phone and practically stomp to the door, swinging it open, praying whoevers on the opposite side is someone I can wail on.

Instead, it's a tiny blonde with bouncy curls.

"Lucy isn't home." Hoping she'll take the hint fails, when she wiggles in place.

"Oh, she told me she was on her way home, I must have beat her here. She was with your friends, right? Silas and Noah? I just really have to pee. I'm so sorry."

I stare at her, trying to channel Lucy. She'd want me to be nice to her friends. And since Lucy's having a hard day, I groan and step back, holding the door open for… Karen? Cara?

Karen squeezes past me, waving in the air as she hustles down the hall to use the bathroom. I pull my phone back out of my pocket and pull up my texts. The guys were supposed to let me know when they were on their way home.

I send them all a message in the group text, asking their ETA. I don't want to be stuck in this apartment alone with Karen for longer than necessary. I'm not very good at being nice to people I don't like and, unfortunately for her, I don't like anyone except my family.

And my receptionist at work, but that's because he's efficient and makes my life easier. I get no response from the guys or Lucy, so I draft an email to my lawyer, highlighting some of the things we talked about. I may pay him a shitload and he's an excellent attorney, part of an even better firm, and when it comes to Lucy, I don't leave anything to chance, so I don't really give a shit if I'm reiterating bullet points he's already working on.

After sending the email, I notice the time on my phone before I close it. Nearly nine. They've been gone less than an hour. I thought it would take longer than that. Maybe Karen's confused about when she'd be back.

Speaking of. I glance up and around, just now realizing she never came back from the bathroom.

The last thing I want to deal with is one of Lucy's friends, especially if she's having digestive issues. But five minutes turn to ten, and another five later, I'm growling, already in a terrible fucking mood and stalking down the hall, prepared to throw Shirley Temple out on her ass and pray she doesn't complain to Lucy.

But when I get to the bathroom, she's not in there. I knock, step in and look around. It's the only shared bathroom in the apartment, the other rooms, apart from the office, all have an en suite.

I take slow steps down the hallway, my annoyance growing with every foot forward. I peek in Silas and Noah's room first, but don't find her. Maybe Lucy asked her to… shit, I don't know. Get some tampons for her?

Not sure why she'd send her all the way here for something like that. My brain is still coming up with perfectly logical reasons why Karen would be using my private bathroom off my bedroom while Lucy isn't home, when I enter my room and find her stark naked, sprawled across my bed sheets.

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