Jessica's Fate

Chapter 86

I woke up Sunday afternoon, still exhausted, mentally and emotionally. Mom was working today, and I had no plans, so it was well enough that I'd baked my night away last night. Lounging in bed and being lazy was something I'd earned today.

So I thought...

My phone was issuing warning beeps of incoming messages and I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment and grabbed it off the nightstand and thumbed it open before cracking my eyes open to see what awaited my attention.

I was expecting any number of texts from my assorted brothers, Sang or even Pete. But no... in only the way a true professional Russian could, there was a summons.

Diner. 3 PM. No argue.

I groaned, glancing at the time on my phone. Great. 20 minutes. Ok. Fine. I texted a terse 'ok' back and got out of bed.

I was going to kill Luke.

I loved him best out of all those extra brothers of mine but Sang was just going to have to figure out life with 8 husbands. Telling Raven anything about my distress was so far out of line, I wanted to scream.

I would have been perfectly fine until my Wednesday night meeting with Raven. I frowned at my reflection as I stripped down in the bathroom and reached in to the shower to turn it on.

Maybe not, I thought as I got in and started to wash my hair. Lunch with Pete was happening on Wednesday which means that I wouldn't have had a chance to run everything past Raven yet. I would have needed to bump our meeting up anyway if I wanted any hope of arriving at my lunch with my boyfriend with less confusion than I had now.

Because baking hadn't done enough to clear my head. All it had done was supply me with plenty of opportunity to knead my aggressions out on bread dough.

I shut my eyes and rinsed my head before taking a sketchy moment to run my loofa over myself with a bit of shower gel. I grew up with guys. That's probably the reason I didn't mind being a little sketchy with my shower this morning. The guys I was going to hang out with today, wouldn't care really and I could shower better later if I felt like it.

I blew out a breath and closed my eyes again.

Maybe Luke could be allowed to live to see another day.

Sang would probably appreciate that.

I strolled into the diner at 3:10 PM.

Yes, strolled.

I flashed a cheeky grin at Raven, scowling at me from his seat at a booth. I deliberately paused to give Luke a quick hug and stopped to get some coffee and a cup of hot water so that I could make myself some tea the Russian way before I joined Raven at our table.

"Jessica." He growled at me.

I arched an eyebrow at him and took my time putting my tea bag in the hot water and surveying our table. Nearly every inch of surface available was covered by plate. Plates containing a bit of everything that I'd made from my Russian recipe files last night. I grabbed a cherry kolache and took a bite before nodding slightly. "Da, Evgeni."

"You are late."

"You said I couldn't argue."

"Time was given."

The fact we were basically arguing in broken sentences and English was amusing. I almost laughed at his scowl. "I was sleeping." I pointed out. "You can't do that to me. A time is a guideline unless you say to not be late. You said don't argue."

He shrugged. "Same." He said, eyes still glaring at me before he grabbed a piroshky off the plate without looking at it and took a bite. His eyes lit up. "This is great."