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“I was happy because, well, I really think you two deserve a second chance. Also, Annika is a horrible person. She stayed at our place for just a week and hurt the staff with her vicious tongue. Nothing is ever good enough to please her. The way you treat your underlings says more about a person than how you treat your superiors. It’s one of the things Kristoff told me once.” She rolled her eyes, her love for him clearly shining through. “He’s big on inspirational and tactical stuff like that. He made me read everything he had in his library that was about the human mindset.”
Elena took a sip from her cocoa. “I can’t imagine Kristoff Romanov as a man of the word,” she confessed. “He seems more like the type who thinks you can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.”
Katya almost choked on her laugh. Cocoa coated her lips, painting them a mocha brown. “Did you seriously just quote Al Capone?”
“I’m surprised you even heard that one.”
“My Uncle Damon is kind of obsessed with old school gangsters. He even named his pet tarantula Gotti.”
Even she, isolated as she’d been at the Morellis, had heard of the crazy twins and their extensive collection of exotic pets.
“Now, since you’ve mentioned them…that story about their killer gorilla. Is there any truth to it?”
Katya grinned and pretended to lock her lips. “Lucky Luciano? Sorry, my lips are sealed about any monkey business. I can say, however, that I know more about their animal kingdom than they’d like me to know, but not as much as I want to know.”
“That’s not helpful at all.”
“Oh, you just wait, I’m going to be plenty helpful. I’m going to help you take your mind off of things, even if only for one night.”
Suddenly Elena felt like she was being ungrateful. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Thanks so much again for the clothes and—”
Katya waved her apology away. “Forget about it. I meant that I’m taking you out!” she declared.
“You are?” Elena wasn’t so sure. Katya had that mixed look of deranged and determined on her face again.
“Yes. Why should we stay inside and be miserable, if we can have a girls’ night out to share our misery?”
That made sense. In a weird, don’t-want-to-think-too-much-about-it way. Except for one thing.
“I’ve never had a girls’ night out before.”
Katya’s big baby blues bored into her. Elena almost felt as if she was a bug under a microscope.
“Never?”
“Never. Lorenzo wouldn’t allow it.” Not that she had any friends left to have a girls’ night with, once he’d basically imprisoned her in the Morelli mansion.
“Kristoff didn’t allow me to have one until I turned twenty-one either.”
Somehow, Elena doubted his reasons had been the same as Lorenzo’s. One of the reasons Lorenzo kept her isolated was because he was afraid she’d spill his secrets. More so if she’d got drunk.
Elena set down her drink. “Also, I became a mom at eighteen. It was pretty much changing diapers and heating up bottles from then on. There was no time for nights out.” Nor had she wanted to. Vicky was her whole life, the one tangible proof of her time with Viking. She was the tendril of life that connected them.
“So, you’ve never even got wasted?” Katya asked, a gleam in her eyes.
“Nope.” There had been lots of things she had never experienced. Things girls her age—young, carefree, and restless—had been able to do without giving them another thought. She had envied them. Learning of former classmates going off to college, traveling around the world, or getting married to their high school sweethearts, had sent pangs of envy through her. At her lowest point, during another cold and lonely night holding her baby while fatigue drooped from her bloodshot eyes, she had even blamed her little girl. That memory still filled her with shame and regret. Then there had been times she had blamed the Universe.
Katya jumped from the couch, a huge grin on her face. She pulled out her phone and started typing like a madwoman.
“Get ready for tonight. You’re going to love this month’s theme,” Katya claimed.
“Theme?”
“Uh-huh, every month one of us gets to pick the dress code. It was my turn this time.”
She almost didn’t dare to ask. “And the theme is…?”
“Leopard. I can definitely see you in those spots. We are so going to roar!”
