Page 120 of Provocation
She leaves without a backwards glance, and I give Shade a look.
'She's called me a couple of times,’ he murmurs, ‘and she stopped by the house the other day. Same rules as Black. Don’t talk to her without a lawyer, okay?’
‘Okay. She can’t arrest me for that?’
‘No.’ He shakes his head with a small smile at me and looks at his watch. 'Your shift is almost over.'
I nod. 'Five minutes.'
‘I’ll wait for you.’
I go back behind the counter and finish up. We leave together when the next shift gets there and he walks me back to the KIP house.
'There's something I wanted to give you,' he says as we turn onto the driveway that goes up to the house. 'I'm sorry...after everything that's been going on, it completely slipped my mind.'
He takes something out of his pocket. It’s wrapped in a piece of old tissue paper. I open it with a frown to find a small, orange, stuffed cat with yarn for whiskers and black sewn eyes. My mouth falls open as I grip it tightly.
'Mr. Mittens,' I whisper. ‘Where was he?’
‘In the box Stevens gave us. All the way at the very bottom. I remembered it as soon as I saw it,' Shade replies. 'You went with him everywhere.'
'My dad gave him to me when I was little. He was just from one of those grabbing machines, you know.' I smile as I remember the day that my dad won him for me. 'It was my birthday, and we went to the shore in New Jersey?—’
‘I’m sorry,’ he murmurs, and I snort, giving him a playful swat.
‘Shut up. I loved it. There was this place on the boardwalk that had all these games, and they had this grabby machine, andmy dad spent like five bucks trying to get this little cat for me, and I was so excited when he did. I think my mom said that it was the first day I'd spoken. I didn't talk when I was little, and that day was the first time I said thank you.'
I hold the stuffed cat in my hand. 'I thought this was long gone,' I say.
'But she kept it. Of course she did,' Shade murmurs, taking my hand. 'Of course she did.'
I give him a watery smile, and I put the cat next to my nose, taking a long sniff. 'Smells a bit musty, but I can also smell a hint of her perfume. This must have been in her closet, too,' I say.
‘Anything interesting in the diary yet?’ he asks.
I huff. ‘I haven’t been able to read it. It’s at the club. When do you think we can go back? I need to get back into the lab.’
He grimaces. ‘Yeah, I know. We owe Sauvage another shipment. I’ll message Blake and see if he can find out if the cops are finally done with the scene. Once we reopen, our comings and goings won’t be so noticeable.’
We go back to the house and that night we go to Lu's Christmas show. They're doing Dickens’,A Christmas Carolat the dilapidated theater on campus. We sit in the front row.
The performance is great. I even get roses to throw on the stage for Lu at the end.
Some of her cousins are there, too, and the way they cheer for her makes me happy. I get the impression from the burly men in her family, and the older man who must be her grandfather, that she’s a bit of a black sheep. But they’ve all come to support her in her role of Scrooge’s housekeeper anyway, and I can see that she’s surprised they all showed up.
When I say to Shade, after most of the audience has left, that I’m going to go over to introduce myself to my best friend’s family, he opens his mouth to argue and I’m confused, but before I can ask what’s going on, a hush falls over the room.
I look up to see the man I assume is Lu’s grandpa. He’s standing in front of my seat.
‘You’re Marguerite Novelle?’ he asks, his voice low, but carrying a gravitas that echoes through the whole theatre.
‘Daisy Evans actually,’ I say, standing up.
My head only reaches to his chest, and I have to crane my neck to look at him.
He snorts, his eyes moving past me to look at Shade.
‘Lu tells me you’re herbestie,’ he says.
