Page 88 of The Vengeance You Crave
"I'll go," Elijah calls from the living room. Probably relieved to have a break from whatever Kayden is forcing him to endure on the TV right now. Kayden's infectious laugh keeps filling the house and melting my heart so I know at least one of them is enjoying it.
Elijah's deep booming voice fills Aunt Fee's small house as he greets whoever it is.
I don't give the visitor a second thought because there's very little chance it'll be for me. The only person who knows where I live is Luca and seeing as he sent Leon to be my bodyguard last night it seems he's not interested in seeing me himself. And that is more than fine by me because I'm not sure I've got any more fight left in me. I knew this semester would be hard, starting over in a new place, new classes, and all while trying to work to earn as much money as possible. Add Luca into all that and… I let out a long sigh.
"You okay?" Aunt Fee asks, looking over from where she's chopping vegetables.
"Yeah. It's just harder than I thought it was going to be."
She lowers the knife and turns to look at me at the same time Elijah calls my name.
He appears in the doorway a few seconds later. "It's for you. But if you don't wanna go, I'll happily keep the blonde entertained."
"Elijah," Aunt Fee snaps, sounding horrified, but there's a wide smile on her face. She knows all about what Marines get up to. Her late husband was one after all, and I heard a few stories about when she first met him from Mom.
"What?" He shrugs, pulling the refrigerator open and pulling out a beer. "So are you going or…" he says to me, pointing to the door.
"Uh… yeah." I wipe my hands on a tea towel and head toward the front door.
"Hey," both Ella and Letty say when I emerge.
"Uh… hey," I reply, looking between the two of them curiously.
"We hope you don't mind. We did a bit of detective work and found out your address."
"I-it's okay," I stutter, looking past them, half expecting Luca to jump out any minute.
"He's not here," Letty assures, clearly reading my thoughts.
"We knew it was your night off and we thought you deserved to have a bit of fun."
"Oh?" I ask, suddenly much more intrigued.
"It's not much but we thought you might like a trip around the mall and then grab some dinner."
Excitement fills me for the first time in a while as I look at the two women who've made an effort to come and make me feel better. I haven't had that… ever. They've no idea how much it means to me.
"I'd love to." I look down at myself in my ratty old jersey dress and leggings that are so old they're barely black anymore. "But I need to change."
"We can wait," Letty says.
"Okay." The words to invite them inside teeter on the tip of my tongue but then Kayden's smiling face pops into my head and I realize that I can't. "Let me just throw some decent clothes on and I'll meet you at your car. I'll be like two minutes."
They both look a little disappointed but I don't allow myself to dwell on it before swinging the door closed and running for the kitchen.
"Change of plan," I tell Aunt Fee. "I'm going out for dinner. Is that okay?" I ask in a rush, realizing that I'm totally bailing last minute.
"Of course it's okay. Go and have fun."
"Okay." I run up the stairs, rip my clothes off and replace my rags with a pair of skinny jeans, a plain white tee and my mom's old leather jacket I love that always makes me feel a little more like myself.
I swipe some mascara on my lashes and coat my lips in some gloss and figure that it'll have to do.
I say a quick goodbye to Aunt Fee and Elijah—who's escaped the cartoons—before poking my head in to see Kayden.
"Hey, bud. I'm going out for a little bit."
His face drops at my words and I immediately regret my decision. "But we're having dinner."
