Billionaire Alpha's 99 Deadly Games novel Chapter 125

Chapter 125

“Is that any way to welcome your sisters?” Lily, my little sister, asked, with Kelsey in tow.

“Sorry, headache. This really isn’t a good time.” I tried to close the door, but she just stuck her foot in the way, and I knew they weren’t going to leave peaceably.

“What?” I asked a little snappier than I meant as they barged past me. “Please come on in,” I said under my breath, and not in a polite way.

“Don’t mind if we do,” Lily said, as Kelsey fished out an aspirin from her purse and handed it to me.

“Thanks,” I said, genuinely feeling like a tool for taking out my frustrations on them.

“Sit down,” Kelsey said, motioning to the sofa in a corner of the room. Something told me she meant business and that I wasn’t going to like it. “Shall I start, or you?” she asked my sister.

“Oh, I got this,” Lily said with a wicked grin. “Elise, it’s been over two months of the sulking, hiding, hermit crap. We’ve tried to be understanding and give you your space.” I snorted at her. “I said tried!Anyway, enough is enough. You don’t want to talk about whatever happened to you. Fine. But E, you’re really scaring us.”

“Kyle’s convinced you were raped and is ready to start interrogating every wolf in San Marco to get to the bottom of it,” Kelsey said matter–of–factly.

“What? Raped? He can’t be serious. Nothing happened to me. I appreciate the concern, but honestly I’m just busy, with a lot on my mind.”

“Bullshit,” Lily challenged.

“It’s just some personal stuff I’m dealing with, but I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. There’s nothing fine about you waking up at four a.m. and sneaking into the office. You are less of a morning person than I am. There’s nothing fine about locking yourself away from everyone, whether here in your office or at home in your room. If you had a smile on your face even once I’d think you were having an illicit affair you didn’t want anyone to know about, but E, you look completely miserable and it scares us.”

I sighed. I was going to have to stop being such a coward and start facing things. I certainly never intended to upset or scare anyone.

Chapter 125

“I’m fine. I promise. How about we head to lunch? I don’t want you guys to worry about me.”

“If it’s the new position at work, Kyle will hire another assistant to help with your workload,” Kelsey offered, fishing out reasons for my behavior.

“No, I’m fine. I can handle it.” Oh God, they thought I couldn’t handle my job now? This was getting bad. I’d just have to prove to them that everything was just fine.

“I hear the Crate is serving lunch. How about we go there?” Lily suggested. I knew she was really hoping to see Cole Anderson, whose tattoo parlor was only a few doors down, and who Lily had been crushing on forever.

“Sure,” I said. Of course I didn’t want to go, but I had to get some of the heat off my back, and I just prayed Patrick O’Connell was nowhere in the area.

Planting on my best fake smile, I grabbed my bag and we headed for the door. Maybe lunch out with the girls wouldn’t be so bad.

As we entered the Crate, I couldn’t help but sniff the air and look around. No sign of Patrick. I tried to breathe a sigh of relief, but if I were being honest, I was a little disappointed by it, too.

The Crate was really a bar and a bit of a dive, but it was a popular hangout in San Marco. Dark paneling covered the walls, matching the dark wood floors. A bar, with stools for seating, ran along the back wall. To the right was a small stage mostly used for karaoke night, but occasionally a group of local kids would attempt to start up a band and they’d play there some nights. The current hot group in town was my youngest brother Chase’s band. They really were pretty good, too.

We headed off to the left towards the booths that ran along that wall. There were also several tables that sat in the middle of the room and at nights were often pushed aside to clear a small dance floor. The place may have been a little dark, but it was always clean and when Jesse, who owned the bar, had decided to open for lunch, it had become a popular eatery too.

“Hey, Misty.” Lily waved to the pretty blond waitress who was as much a staple of the Crate as Jesse himself.

“Hey ladies. Elise,” she said, surprised but happy to see me. “We’ve missed you. How have you been?”

Fake smile in place, realizing that gossip and concern had spread beyond my family. “I’m good, just really busy. How are you?”

We chatted for a few and she took our orders before flitting off to the next table. Misty had always

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Chapter 125

reminded me of a hummingbird, the way she moved throughout the room. I couldn’t help but smile, genuinely smile, and realized it had been a long time since I’d done much of that. It felt good.

“So, Kels, how are you feeling?”

I didn’t miss the shared look she gave Lily with my change in character.

“Overall, not too bad. It’s still early. A little nausea in the mornings and a constant hunger, and I get overly emotional easily, which drives me nuts, but overall I can’t really complain. Micah thinks I’m about ten weeks, but that seems farther along than I thought. I go for my first ultrasound next week, so we’ll see.”

Everyone in San Marco knew Micah. He was the only doctor in town and the son of one of the Pack Council members.

“Okay, if you’re listening to Kyle, you’d think she’s about to pop, any second, always fussing over her.