Page 40 of Provocation
‘Won’t have to,’ she says a little stiffly.
Then, she looks at me with a steeliness in her eyes that shows me she’s annoyed.
‘But if I had to, I would.’
‘I know you would,’ I say easily. ‘I wasn’t trying to tell you what to do, but you have two majors and your work in the campus lab, and that project coming up. Don’t run yourself into the ground, okay? That’s all I’m saying.’
‘Okay,’ she murmurs quietly. ‘I’ll ask for help if I need it.’
She’s quiet for a minute before she speaks again. ‘Your brother. He doesn’t like me, I don’t think.’
My jaw clenches hard. I was hoping she wouldn’t notice.
‘He doesn’t like many people,’ I say.
‘Why not?’
I sigh. ‘Our dad wasn’t around when we were kids. Dom remembers him a little, but he was long gone by the time I was born. My mom...she was a waitress in a diner. We didn’t have much, but she tried her best, you know?’
She nods and I force myself to go on. The guys know my sob story, but I don’t tell everyone this stuff.
‘Long story short, she was in an accident. She had chronic neck and back pain, and she was given meds to manage it.’
‘She got addicted to them,’ Daisy murmurs and I look at her sharply, but she’s just staring out the window.
‘Yeah. How did you...’
‘You created the first drug. I know Shade was there with you, but you worked on it the most. I’ve seen all the logs over the past two years. You’ve spent more time on it than anyone by far. It makes sense that you wanted to create a painkiller that wasn’t highly addictive, and you put so much into it because of a loved one. I’ve done a lot of research since I started working in the lab. I know there’s an opioid epidemic. It’s logical that you’d want to create an alternative.’
‘Logical,’ I echo, keeping my hands on the wheel, staring straight ahead. ‘She was fine for a long time. At least we thought she was. We didn’t know she had a problem. She OD’d when I was fifteen. Dom was twenty.’
She doesn’t look at me and her voice is devoid of emotion. ‘Your brother and you are close?’
‘Yeah,’ I say, making my hands relax on the wheel as we move into less emotional territory. ‘He worked three jobs to makesure that I was taken care of, that I’d have opportunities that he didn’t. Things weren’t always...legal. When we opened this place a couple of years ago, we made him the manager, mostly because I wanted him to be taken care of the way he took care of me. It works out that he’s great at it.’
‘I’m sorry that he doesn’t like me, then,’ she murmurs.
‘He’s just protective, forgets I’m an adult sometimes.’
I take my hand off the wheel and find her thigh, squeezing it a little. ‘Once he spends some time with you, he’ll come around.’
She snorts softly as if she doesn’t believe me.
‘He will,’ I insist.
‘If you say so.’
The rest of the journey is made in silence and, when we get to the house, Daisy lets out a long sigh. ‘I smell like the lab,’ she murmurs, wrinkling her nose.
‘Yeah, me too.’ I open the door and jump down, making my way briskly to the passenger side to open hers and lift her out. ‘Let’s take a shower and then get a little sleep.’
She nods, yawning widely as we go inside and up the stairs.
She tries to go to her room, but I pull her to the bathroom with me instead. She looks at me curiously as I turn on the water and pull off my shirt. When she tries to do the same, I stop her.
‘Let me.’
I ease her sweater off and pull her tank top over her head, leaving her in a yellow bra I don’t recognize.
