Page 49 of Guarding Colton’s Witness

“Sure. Sit here.” Matti slid off the barstool. Thanks to her interfering mother, she’d lost her appetite. She poured a cup of coffee, leaving it black the way Wyatt liked it, and set it in front of him. “You want a breakfast burrito, Sam?”

“No. I’m full from eating French toast.” He looked up at Ryan and grinned. “I had four.”

Ryan widened his eyes. “How’d you fit four in your tummy?”

“I smashed them in there.”

“If you’re full, then why don’t you go play with your fire truck and let Matti have your seat so she can have some breakfast.”

“Okay.” He jumped down and raced off to find his fire truck.

“I’m not really hungry,” she said.

Ryan picked up a tortilla, layered it with the egg-and-hash-brown mixture, topping that with the sausage, then the caramelized onions and grated cheddar cheese. “Only thing missing is hot sauce, but you don’t have any. I’ll bring a bottle over for next time.” He wrapped the tortilla closed, then set it on the plate. “Sit and eat.”

Wyatt chuckled. “Is he always this bossy?”

She rolled her eyes. “About like the rest of you men.” But she sat, secretly pleased that he liked taking care of her and that there would be a next time.

“This is really good,” Wyatt said around a mouthful of the burrito.

She took a bite. Okay, it really was. How had she never had one of these before?

Ryan had made himself one and ate his standing at the island in front of them. “Any news on finding those men?” he asked Wyatt.

“They’re like ferrets. You think you see them, but then they disappear so fast, you wonder if you really did. We’ve got a few leads we’re working on, one that looks promising. Maybe not as fast as I’d like, but we’ll find them.” He finished the last bite of his burrito, then picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. “For your ears only, okay?”

Both she and Ryan nodded.

“This is just my gut talking from my years as a detective, but I’d bet a year of my paycheck that this case is going to end up being bigger than anyone imagines at this point. There’s something off about it, something that doesn’t add up. I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but I think there’s more to this than meets the eye.”

Ryan furrowed his brow. “What do you mean by bigger exactly? Are we talking about some underground crime syndicate involved in this?”

Her brother shrugged, worry clouding his features. “It’s too soon to say for certain, but I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point. There are too many loose ends and unanswered questions in this case. And the longer it takes to find those men, the more I worry about what we might uncover. So, keep staying alert, and Matti, you and Sam are not to go anywhere alone. I mean that.”

“I won’t.” He had her even more scared now, and she had a little boy to protect. She wasn’t one of those TSTL women who went down the stairs of a pitch-black basement to investigate the strange sounds coming from down there. Or take off anywhere by herself.

Wyatt pushed away from the island. “Hate to eat and run, but I gotta get going.”

“Thanks for bringing Sam back,” she said.

“He’s a great kid. Thought he wanted to be a firefighter, but I convinced him he really wants to be a cop.” He glanced to where Sam was playing with his remote-controlled fire truck. “I’m so getting him a police car, then he can trash that fire truck.”

“I’m telling Aiden you said that.”

Wyatt grinned as he pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll save you the trouble.”

A minute later, her phone dinged with a text alert. She opened her messages to see the Colton siblings group had a new text.

Wyatt: Aiden, just trashed Sam’s fire truck. He likes his new police car better.

Aiden: You lie. My boy would never like a cop car more than a fire truck.

Cal: Sam told me last night he wants to be a sheriff, so you both can go eat dirt.

Kelly: Who’s Sam?

Matti: Call me, Kelly Belly.