Then, it was almost time to go to New York.
One morning, Rian and I sat reading in the living room. Suddenly his head snapped up, and he gave me this weird look.
“What?” I frowned at him.
“I just realized you haven’t left this house since you got here.”
I opened my mouth to challenge his statement, but then my jaw dropped because he was right. I’d spent months in this house, on this property, without even wanting to go anywhere outside of the days surrounding my turning when we’d been at Holden’s place.
“Well… shit.”
Rian chuckled. “We need to figure this out. You’re not exactly a regular person out there.”
Right. I was a celebrity. My face had been on the covers of the biggest music and entertainment magazines. Hell, some fashion ones, too.
The hubbub around Kaiju’s potential demise had largely died down outside random speculation. I was literally days away from setting that nuke off with my statement and I wasn’t looking forward to it. What Iwaslooking forward to was for it all being over, which meant having to be a puppet for the label one last time.
“How about this: you text Ben and ask if he wants to go get lunch at the diner? We’ll meet him there. Take whoever wants to join us,” Rian suggested when I got lost in my head for too long.
“Do you think….” I licked my lips and fidgeted a little. “I mean, if anyone recognizes me…?”
Rian’s expression turned thoughtful. “They might. But people are pretty respectful here. Plus the brothers who run the diner won’t let anyone be assholey to their clients. Even other patrons.”
“Okay… okay.” Taking a deep breath, I took my phone out and texted Ben.
Since he was at work, I wasn’t expecting an immediate answer. Instead, I got off the couch and went to find the other studious Douglas brother. I knocked on the door, because he and Carys were sprawled on our bed, talking about something school related.
“Hey!” Carys said brightly. “What’s up?”
“Well turns out we’re heading to New York in two days and I haven’t actually left the house at all since I came here after being turned at Holden’s.”
Max frowned. “What?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. So, solution: we go to the diner to hang out. I texted Ben to see if he wants to come on his lunch break, but what about you two?” I went to sit on the edge of the bed next to Max and tugged on a string hanging from the hole on the knee of his jeans.
Carys smiled. “That sounds good! I have been out a bit more, but I could use the outing too.”
Right, because she’d been a prisoner in this house before Brodie had arrived, and her trauma was a valid reason for taking things slowly.
“Well now it’s gonna be a party. There’s no way I’m missing this,” Max said in that easy tone of his, then leaned up to kiss me.
Carys made an “aww” face at us.
“Maybe you should call Kye and Brodie? Aren’t they… somewhere?” I frowned, trying to think where they were going this morning.
“They’re at the Ramirez pack for lunch. Holden’s gonna drop by there, too, as the enforcer beta.”
“Oh, right. Well it’s still gonna be a party.” I smiled at them both.
My phone vibrated and I pulled it from my pocket, smiling as I read the message. “Okay, Ben’s in. If we leave in about an hour, we’ll hit the tail end of the lunch rush. He’s finishing a job before that,” I relayed the gist of the message.
“Yay!” Carys got off the bed and grabbed her laptop. “We’ll continue this later,” she told Max and left the room.
Max moved his laptop to the side and made room for me, then waited for me to get on the bed for a cuddle.
“You feeling okay about going?” he asked as I settled against his side, my head on his chest.
“Yeah. It might be tense at first, but I need to get used to people other than the pack. And the sensory stuff will be hard.”
