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“Her name is Catalina,” Alaric corrected his brother firmly as he pulled out a chair for me to sit.
“Awe, you are pretty,” the woman named Zoe admonished with a friendly smile.
Compared to her I looked like someone had put a russet potato in a silk dress. She was a gorgeous dark-skinned woman with a head full of thick spiral curls.
Beside her was Kyle, a well-groomed ginger with an equally friendly smile.
“Aren’t all Alaric’s women pretty?” Rebecca asked in a flat tone.
“No, because you used to be one and your bitter bitch behavior makes you ugly,” Niklaus retorted cheerfully.
No one said anything about him calling her a bitch, they simply laughed. I guess this was a normal thing for them. He’d called her a witch the first night we met. I cast a curious glance towards the end of the table. An additional two people sat there completing the dinner party.
A blonde with hair two shades darker than Rebecca’s and a brunette. I knew right away that it was one of them responsible for the obnoxious laugh I’d heard upstairs. Of everyone here I expected me to look the most out of place but these two had me beat, which was saying a lot.
They wore matching dresses—one black, one red—both were low-cut to show excess cleavage. You could tell they weren’t designed this way. Someone had taken a pair of scissors to the fabric and then tried to sew their mistakes away. Maybe I was the only one who noticed?
“Amber and Patricia,” Alaric introduced them as he claimed the seat beside me.
I nodded in greeting and then turned my attention to the spread that had been prepared for tonight. I had been smelling the aroma of food since I woke up for the second time.
Red sauced pasta rested in the center of the table. Vegetable dishes and a bowl of breadsticks, as well as a side salad, took up space beside it. I wouldn’t deny that I was impressed by Alaric’s cooking skills, but the food was hardly the reason I begrudgingly came down here.
As the dishes were passed around and he loaded my plate for me, topping it all off with a glass of water. It didn’t escape my notice everyone else had wine.
After my failed attempt at leaving this morning, I knew I was going to need help. He still had possession of my cellphone so calling anyone wasn’t possible and besides the police, there was no one for me to reach out to.
I didn’t think that was the right route to go either. Alaric had all but told me to call them before without any hesitation. He was undeniably confident with his stance in this situation. I was afraid getting the cops involved would cause even more issues for me. I could barely handle the ones I had now.
This dinner should have been my way of getting what I was seeking. Amber and Patricia didn’t seem competent enough to do anything more than panic on my behalf.
As the meal proceeded the two of them took turns openly flirting with Alaric and his brother. What had begun irritating me was now making me feel embarrassed for them. Neither was getting any kind of reaction. Why had they even been invited?
Feeling defeated and over this entire day, I mindlessly picked at my food. I wondered if Alaric would care if I excused myself. There wasn’t any reason for me to be down here. I would not be getting help from any of these people.
Zoe and Kyle were Alaric’s friends. They could be aware of his true colors and that wasn’t a gamble I was willing to take. Niklaus was his brother so that eliminated him automatically. Rebecca was too much of an unstable wild card for me to rely on. Every few minutes she was throwing daggers at me with her eyes. don’t know why she was giving me the territorial treatment again.
The last time we spoke she had openly warned me about the same man she wanted for herself. A slight nudge against my arm broke the concentrated stare I had aimed at my food.
“How does it taste?”
“Fine.” I scooped up another bite of pasta and popped it into my mouth. It honestly tasted far better than that. I wouldn’t have eaten this much if I thought it was gross.
“Fine? Is that all I get?”
I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. I wasn’t going to sing him praises. He leaned towards me, bringing his face closer to mine. “You can join in on the conversation. I swear they’re all harmless,” he teased.
“Yeah, we’re so glad to finally put a face to the name we’ve been hearing so much about,” Zoe chirped.
I looked across at the table at her. “You’ve been hearing about me?”
“Everyone knows about you,” Niklaus answered.
“But not how crazy you are.”
