Page 53 of Loving Lex

Her eyes dropped to my gun then lifted to my face again.

Lucky stepped forward. “Why don’t you let me talk to her, guys?” He glanced at me. “Alone.”

I frowned.

“It’s fine,” he said, offering me his weapon. “Just wait outside the door. We’ll be fine for a couple of minutes.”

JD, Jarod, and I exchanged glances, but we finally nodded. Honestly, what did we have to lose at this point? I shot the girl one last look before we piled out the door, leaving her with Lucky.

Restless, I moved to check the other bedrooms while JD and Jarod stood watch. The place was like a fucking ghost town. It was eerie.

About five minutes later, Lucky emerged with the blonde behind him. “Guys, this is Nicki.” He tipped his head to the small woman, then pointed at me. “Nicki, this is Lex. It’s his lady we’re looking for.”

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Seriously? Five minutes with that big galoot and she’d started talking?

“You got a picture?” she asked me.

“Yeah.” I yanked my cell phone from my pocket and scrolled to a recent pic of me and Shay by the pool. “That’s Shay.”

Nicki’s eyes darted up to mine. “Princess.”

My skin burned. “Princess?” I echoed.

She shrugged. “I just knew there was something different about her when Viktor brought her in.” Her gaze softened a touch. “She’s spunky.”

That she was. “Where is she?”

“Downstairs,” she said, her tone sounding hollow. “With the others.”

“How are you up here?” I asked, palming my weapon as suspicion crept up my spine. “Do you help them? Are you one of—”

“No,” she cried, her voice cracking. “I mean, yes, they use me. They have for months. That’s how I—” She squeezed her eyes shut, and two tears fell when she opened them. “That’s why I’m still breathing. But I do everything in my power to keep those girls safe.”

“Safe,” I echoed.

“As... safe as they can be,” she said, her eyes clouding over. “I was one of them once,” she added. “There was no one to look out for me then.”

“Is there anyone down there with them?” Lucky asked.

“Just Viktor, I think,” she said. “He ran that way when it all broke loose.”

“Take us to the women,” I said. “Take me to Shay.”

She studied me a moment, then turned and walked toward a hallway without another word. JD and Jarod followed, while Lucky and I lagged to the rear.

“How’d you get her to talk?” I asked him, my voice low.

He flicked me a glance and a shrug. “My charm?” He wiggled his brow. “I also swore to her on my wife’s life and both of my balls that we’d get all of these women out of here along with Shay.”

I shot him a sideways glance. “You did?”

“Of course.” Nicki led us back to the kitchen and through a doorway that fed into a rock-walled basement. “But you wanna know the kicker?”

“What’s that?”

He jutted his chin toward her blond head descending the stairs. “She never once asked about herself.”

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