Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates - Chapter 189

Chapter 189: 189-Back To My Stepbrother

Helanie:

“Guys!” he continued, and I quickly ducked, lowering my body and sitting under the table for a minute before crawling out to the other side of the café.

“Hey!” I heard Penn sound exhausted.

It seemed like Jenny and Rayden were having a deep conversation or maybe an argument, so Penn’s repeated calls to them were ignored.

“Oh, come on,” I heard Rayden’s voice as he angrily followed Jenny. I took the chance to reach behind the counter. Penn turned around to look behind him, but their argument was helping me escape. I ran behind the counter and then entered the kitchen, briefly standing there and staring at them.

Jenny finally saw her brother and approached him with Rayden tucked behind her.

I could tell Penn tried to tell her I was with him as he pointed at the empty chair, but then he looked confused when he didn’t find me there. He looked around, but I had stepped away from the small window in the door.

There were chefs and servers back there, watching me as I made my way through the back door.

“Really? You’re that type?” I heard from behind, my tongue between my teeth.

I turned and saw Benita standing there with her hands on her hips.

“I got an emergency call,” I said, though it sounded like complete nonsense.

“And instead of telling that poor guy the truth about wanting to leave, you’re sneaking out like a coward through the back door. What emergency? You know the jacket holders aren’t allowed to sell their bodies, right?” She had the nerve to say that word in front of her cooks.

I stared at them watching me, then gesturing at each other in shock.

“Don’t throw accusations when you don’t know me,” I straightened my back, realizing that if I didn’t shut her down today, she’d think she could say whatever she wanted and bully me.

“Huh, isn’t it obvious that you were going to the sketchiest streets with that guy who was here earlier?” She made sure everyone heard her as she accused me of going to that shady place.

I nodded, catching her off guard. “We accidentally took a wrong turn. But why were you there?” I placed my hands on my waist as I watched her posture falter.

“What are you insinuating?” Now that she was on the receiving end of such accusations, she sounded offended.

“What? I thought we were playing ‘Guess Who Was Doing What in That Street?’ For you to encounter me there, you must have been there too.” I rested my case, and as she fell short of an answer, her server gasped. I turned and ran out the back door.

I had a feeling her next move would be to call Penn in the back and have him catch me red-handed as I tried to escape.

Instead of going back to the hostel, I went straight to Maximus’ garage without informing him.

I was just scared, with so many thoughts running through my head, and I wanted to get away from everyone for a while.

Besides, I couldn’t go back to the hostel in fear. I had such a narrow escape from lunch, I might not be able to escape dinner.

While on my way to the garage, I wrote a text to Penn.

Me: Hey, I’m so sorry for leaving like that. I had an emergency and couldn’t leave from the front door.

I saw that he read my message instantly, but then he never responded, and I wondered if it was because I had upset him. Of course, I would be upset too if I took someone out for lunch and they left without telling me—especially through the back door.

While he didn’t respond, his sister did.

Jenny: I know you left because you saw me. I don’t understand why you’re hating on me. Please speak to Gavin; he’ll tell you I’m innocent.

I hissed under my breath, feeling guilty for hurting her. She was getting the wrong ideas because of how I was avoiding her. The timing of Rayden’s arrival had been so bad. However, now I had his name and knew a little bit about him.

When I reached the garage, as expected, I found it open. Maximus was shirtless, his pants hanging too low with a lug wrench in his hand. He was moving it around, staring at the dirty car in front of him. But then he suddenly stopped and turned his head to look at me.

“I want to be perfect at aiming my target,” I said, my words precise, my determination evident in my voice as I demanded he teach me.

“Helena, come in,” he instantly reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the garage.

I don’t know why I couldn’t speak another word for about ten minutes, but it wasn’t a problem since he didn’t ask me any questions either. He wrapped his brown leather jacket around me to warm me up and ordered me food.

“First, we’ll eat something, and then we’ll talk about the training,” he said, returning with a dirty white shirt on, paying the rider.

The minute he placed the food down, I attacked it. I was starving. I don’t know if it was from hunger or anger.

I grabbed the burger and started shoving fries into my mouth. However, it didn’t take long before I felt embarrassed when I looked up and saw him staring at me.

“Oh! A competition—I love it,” a proud smile spread across his lips before he grabbed the burger and started biting into it like crazy.

It made me feel better about myself and eased the guilt. We ate like barbarians, and once we were done, he returned with large stones.

They all seemed similar, but he laid them on the table for me and made a pyramid of some, a little further from the garage door.

“How about we play a game?” He smirked. “Whoever hits the target can kiss the other one anywhere they want.”