Page 95 of Provocation
He purses his lips. ‘What? It doesn’t. You were a kid, Daisy. Doesn’t count.’
He hands me a bottle of water and I drink it thirstily. ‘Want to call it a night?’
I nod. ‘Just have to start the next batch. And maybe a shower. I feel…’ I scrunch up my nose. ‘Death dirty.’
His lips twitch and he messages the others to let them know before he leads me out of the office and down to the cellar door. I go to the lab and mix the first ingredients together, putting them in the mixer and setting my alarm for a few hours later. Mav stays in the lab with me and locks it up when I’m finished. Just as we’re leaving, Shade and Blake return from one of the tunnels.
‘All done?’ Mav asks.
Shade nods. ‘Doubt he’ll ever be found, but if he is, there’s nothing to tie us to this. We wiped the gun and got rid of that, too.’
They both give me lingering looks, and I smile at them.
‘I’m not upset,’ I tell them. ‘I’m just glad that he didn’t kill Blake.’
Blake comes forward and, not touching me with his hands, puts his head to mine. ‘No one’s ever saved my life before, Daisy. Thanks doesn't seem like enough.’
‘Pizza or tacos should do it,’ I reply, glad we’re back in social realms I understand.
His slow grin makes something inside me unclench. He doesn't think I’m a freak.
‘You got it, gorgeous.’
‘Let’s go to bed,’ Shade yawns.
‘What about the launch party?’ I ask.
‘Dom can handle it. He—’ Shade frowns, pulling out his phone, his expression darkening as he reads whatever it is. ‘Son of a bitch.’
‘What is it?’ Mav asks. ‘Sauvage?’
‘My father.’ He shows us the message.
Marguerite, has been invited by the Bandervilles to Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve accepted on her behalf. Ensure she’s dressed appropriately and gets in the car they send. Alone. 2pm.
The Banderville estate? Alone? My palms are suddenly sweaty. I’m going to have to face Joe without Shade.
I look at him, my stomach clenching all over again.
‘I feel sick again,’ I announce quietly.
The next few days pass without incident, thankfully, because I’ve had just about enough excitement and danger for a while.
I make some more batches of Envy and have some shifts at Grinder. I see Lu a couple of times at work, but she’s really busy with all the stuff she has going on with school and her family, so we don’t get to hang out outside of our shifts together, just message each other at regular intervals.
Disappointingly, the weather has been wet and then very icy. Dagorhir is cancelled until after the holiday because the battlefield is literally a skating rink, and is deemed much too dangerous.
The guys keep me close all the time. There’s always one of them nearby, and if one of them isn’t available, then there are always two KIP brothers lurking. We don’t spend nights in the KIP house anymore at all, and I think it’s because they consider the club safer. I don’t mind. I like Wrath, and the people who work there. Even Dom seems to be warming up to me a little.Plus, the guys and I can all sleep together in the big bed in the bedroom off The Dark Lounge.
When I go running, one of the guys is always with me, usually Mav, and we explore the streets of Richmond together.
I don’t hear anymore from the stalker, and I haven’t found out any more about my mom’s death, but Blake says the program he wrote to fix the corrupted video files is almost finished running. Other than that, I try not to think about the guy I killed, and his body hasn’t been found so I put the whole thing out of my mind.
I read a little of my mom’s diary every day. It doesn’t seem to hold any secrets as yet, but I’m sifting through the entries quite slowly, fascinated by her perceptions of me and Shade, the snippets of her daily life with John just after they married. He doesn’t seem like the same guy in these pages at all. It’s almost as if, at first, he really did love her.
The fourth Thursday of November rolls around and I wake early. My stomach has been in knots as this dinner with the Bandervilles has got closer. I hate that I’m so scared. I literally killed a man a few days ago. Joe Banderville shouldn’t terrify me as much as this. But he and his casual cruelty, his rules and hiscorrection, it’s like they mirror The Heath in a weird way. Sure, they never beat me there, but the thought of living like that, being given rules to follow, being punished if I don’t do as I’m told, that’s no kind of life.
I’m in bed with all three guys. I think they’re all still asleep, but when I look over at Shade, his eyes are on me. His hand finds mine and he takes it in his, squeezing it gently.
