Page 53 of Gather the Storm

She was different from Blake that way.

When the truck was empty, we congregated in the kitchen and put away the food. Daisy and Wolf had gone all out, loading us up with basics like bread and milk and eggs, plus tons of snack food and cases of beer, soda, and specialty waters.

It must have cost a fortune.

“Want us to kick in for some of this?” I asked her as she popped the top on a can of Coke.

She shook her head. “Room and board is on me.”

Her braid and makeup free face made her look young and sweet, which was not to say I didn’t still want to fuck her, because I definitely still wanted to fuck her.

I shifted on my feet. “You sure?”

I didn’t like owing anybody anything, didn’t like relying on anyone else to take care of me. It was part of why I’d gotten involved in all the illegal side hustles with Blake, Jace, and Wolf when we were still in high school.

Jace had access to all kinds of shit. All kinds of opportunities.

Working with my best friends had been preferable to getting a job bagging groceries at the ShopRite one town over, which was probably a testament to what a twisted fuck I was underneath my nice parents and middle-class upbringing.

“I’m sure,” Daisy said. “It’s part of our deal.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

Her gaze landed on the package I’d brought in from the porch. “What’s that?”

“No idea,” I said. “It came for you while you were gone.”

She opened one of the kitchen drawers and withdrew some scissors. “I’ve ordered so much stuff for the house I hardly remember it all.”

I didn’t think I was imagining the hunger in Wolf’s eyes as he watched her cut the tape and I wondered if something had happened between them while they’d been out.

I didn’t trust Wolf tokeep his distanceany more than I trusted myself.

Jace was the only one who stood a chance, and that was just because he was such a dick that Daisy probably wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole.

Then again, he was Jace. Girls loved his big swinging dick — literally and figuratively — so anything was possible.

Daisy drew back the flaps on the box and scowled at what was inside. She reached in and withdrew a huge vase painted with dragons and women in kimonos.

Except it wasn’t whole. It had been broken.

“What the…?” Daisy said, studying the pieces. “This is… I know this vase.”

“What do you mean?” Wolf set his beer down, probably because he had the same bad feeling I was getting in the pit of my stomach.

“This isn’t something I ordered,” Daisy said. “This is from the house.”

“This house?” I asked.

She nodded. “It used to be next to the console table in the foyer.”

We followed her out of the kitchen, down the hall and into the large foyer at the base of the fancy staircase.

It wasn’t a cramped entryway like in a modern house. This was a room in and of itself, the ceiling three stories high, a bunch of tables and chairs pushed against the walls, some of them still covered in the sheets that made them look like ghosts.

She walked to one of the pieces and pulled off the sheet to reveal a long narrow table with carved legs.

She pointed next to it. “It used to be right there.”

---