Page 84 of Provocation
Shade stands up and begins to pace. ‘I’ll have to check, but I don’t think there is.’
‘Your father’s been spying on Daisy?’ Mav asks. ‘Writing those notes?’
‘Not really Pop’s M.O.’ Shade paces the room. ‘Unless it was all part of the test for the Bandervilles.’
Daisy sits back and stares at the ceiling. ‘If that was true, they’d have stopped by now, wouldn’t they?’
She delves into her bag and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. ‘This was thrown at me today.’
Congratulations on soon becoming the psycho’s wife. But he won’t do worse to you than I will if you don’t figure it out soon. Tick tock, bitch. You’re running out of time.
‘That doesn’t sound like my father,’ Shade mutters, pulling out his phone. ‘Wait. There is another estate out that way. I’ve just never been there.’
He glances up at us. ‘The Bandervilles.’
Daisy frowns. ‘It’s weird for the note to be talking about Joe like that if he’s the one who wrote it. Could it be Marcus?’
‘That or a double bluff. I’ll keep the program running. See if we can get anything else,’ I say.
‘Do you want me to put the movie back on?’ Mav asks.
Daisy shakes her head. ‘No, I have to check on the lab. I’ll be back in a minute.’
She leaves the room, and we hear her making her way down the stairs.
‘If it’s from the Novelle house but not your father, could it be one of the staff? The butler?’ Mav asks.
‘What about your brother?’ I say.
I’ve only met Andrew on a couple of occasions, but both times he’s seemed like a rich asshole to me.
Shade shakes his head. ‘Andy’s at Harvard. Has been since the day Daisy got here. I don’t even think he’s coming back for Thanksgiving.’
‘You’re sure?’
Shade shrugs. ‘I can find out.’
I nod. I don’t like him, but if he’s been at Harvard the whole time, it can’t have been him watching.
I let out a long sigh.
‘You saw your dad?’ Shade asks.
I nod.
‘How did that go?’
I snort. ‘About as well as could be expected, but it was weird. He didn’t bring me up there for money. There was another reason.’
Mav stands and looks out over the empty club ‘What was it?’
‘Damned if I know,’ I say. ‘He just told me Kormak is happy with me. Like I give a fuck what that asshole thinks. He asked me about Sauvage. Thought I was working with him, or something. Said he heard rumors. But that’s it. It was kind of like I wasn’t up there to seehim, you know? I was there for something else, but I can’t figure out what.’
My friends look grim.
I look out over the club, thinking. ‘Might be the rumors are about Envy and someone at the prison wanted a look at me. We should watch our backs. More than usual anyway.’
Shade and Mav nod.
