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“I’ll be right there.”
“Damien said he will come up and help you with your suitcase,” she said.
That was sweet of him, but mom had taught me to be able to do things for myself. She said if you couldn’t take care of yourself, and always needed to rely on someone else, then you set yourself up to be a victim. I was sure she wasn’t talking about carrying a suitcase, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“Please tell him that I’m all set. I’ll double-check the room to make sure we have everything, and I’ll meet you at the café. But if you want to order me a tea and scone, that would be awesome,” I said.
I ended the call and my stomach grumbled. I hadn’t even thought about food until she mentioned it. But food wasn’t all that I was craving for. I wanted to see Damien again.
Grabbing my suitcase, I left the room. I couldn’t get down to the café fast enough.
CHAPTER12
Damien
It was great that Venus no longer argued about doing a little sightseeing. She actually seemed to be enjoying herself. Not that I would say she had relaxed and accepted my ‘relationship’ with MaKayla, but she wasn’t hostile to me. I could read people well, and I knew this wasn’t a change of heart, it was done strictly for MaKayla's benefit.
But both ladies were fast asleep, and my GPS said we were only moments away from their home. Arriving was bittersweet. I was glad to have seen them home safe and sound, but I wanted to stick around longer and knew I couldn’t.
Draven had booked me a flight from Halifax back to New York first thing tomorrow morning. Surprisingly, he also informed me he wanted to join me on the trip to Tabiq. I had a team that could back me up, but traveling with my brother would help with my cover that I was there on vacation. I just hoped I didn’t regret agreeing to it.
Reaching over I touched MaKayla’s hand. She stirred in her seat, and her eyes slowly opened. “Hi,” she said softly so as not to wake her mother.
“We are in Halifax.”
She looked around and said, “Wow. Almost home.” I nodded. “Sorry I fell asleep. I meant to keep you company on the drive.”
“That’s okay. I’m used to driving alone.” It gave me time to think about what was coming next. The more I learned about Tabiq, the more confused I was as to why Venus ran from there.
“I guess we should drop my mother off first,” she suggested.
“That was the plan.”
We pulled onto her street, and MaKayla said, “Mom. We’re here. You’re home.”
Venus yawned and woke. “That didn’t take long.”
Easy for her to say because she had slept for the past two hours. I shut off the car and got out to grab her suitcase. MaKayla followed. Venus said, “MaKayla you might as well stay here tonight so Damien doesn’t have to cross town to bring you home.”
Ah. Here is the old Venus I’ve come to expect.
I had no problem telling her no, but MaKayla beat me to it.
“Mom, I’m exhausted and all I want is to sleep in my own bed. I’ll call you tomorrow. Just not at the crack of dawn. We have one more day before we need to go back to work and I want to make the most of it, sleeping.”
“There are things we need to do before the restaurant opens again,” she said.
“I know. While you were sleeping, I placed an order for delivery. We will have all the food we need for the prep,” MaKayla responded.
I carried Venus’s suitcase to her door and then set it down for her. “It was a pleasure getting to know you.” Unfortunately, I hardly knew anything more about her than what MaKayla had told me. But what I was able to come away with was that Venus loved her daughter and would give her life to protect her.
That left me to find out who she was protecting MaKayla from. This would be so much easier if I could get Venus to come clean with that information. I knew there was no way she would divulge it willingly.
We left her mother’s house, and I headed to MaKayla’s. “What time is your flight tomorrow?” she asked.
“Six.”
“Oh, that’s a horrible hour. You must be there two hours ahead of time.”
