Chapter 6
IVY
The sound of smashing glass rings through the house. “Well, it looks like whoever was at the door can’t take a fucking hint.”
Bram inclines his head as if to say, I’m with you. Whatever happens, I’m right here by your side.
I slide the needle into Spencer’s neck, releasing half a dose of the sedative. He’s not going anywhere. I don’t want him unconscious for long, but we can’t risk him attempting a miraculous great escape when we’re this close. I’ll wait for him to come around again.
“Iv…” Spencer goes limp in his chair, his words trailing into nothingness.
I ready myself with a knife, pointing it at Maria.
“Don’t say a word,” I threaten, getting poised to face whoever’s coming.
Footsteps grow closer, and Bram kicks open the door to signal where we are. There’s no point waiting for them to find us. Let’s get this show on the road. The quicker we deal with intruders, the sooner we can send Spencer straight to the fiery depths of hell.
A figure runs at us. Bram is on them in a flash as soon as they cross the doorway. He grabs the man’s suit and slams him against the bookshelf with a crack.
“Easy tiger,” Seb groans.
“Seb?” I frown, blinking to check I’m not imagining him as Bram loosens his hold. “What’re you doing here?”
“There’s stuff you have to know. People you have to see. The Killers Club…” Seb garbles like a crazy person. “Their lies are even bigger than we thought.”
“Why shouldn’t I gut you like a fish?” I snarl, crossing my arms. “I know about the deal Freddie tried to make with the club. Did you know?”
“I…” He looks away. “I…”
A bitter coldness sweeps through my chest. I thought I shared a deeper connection with Seb. Bram slams him backwards—clearly he thought so, too.
“So you were all in on Freddie’s secret, huh?” I ask.
“We don’t have time for this,” Seb insists. “You need to see her for yourself.”
“See, who?”
“Me.”
A female voice comes from the doorway, and I turn to see… Daisy?
My knees go weak, and I stagger, struggling to stand. I pat myself down to check I’m not dead. Nope, not dead. Very much alive.
She stands before me. Her appearance has changed. She has blonde hair, a fuller figure, and the usual warm sparkle in her eyes has been extinguished, yet there’s no mistaking she’s my sister. I see Mum’s curled eyelashes, her freckle pattern that matches my own, and hear the voice I’ve dreamt about.
“Daisy?” I stutter, reaching for her. “Is that really you?”
Bram, equally stunned, drops Seb, who straightens his jacket.
Daisy doesn’t seem as shocked to see me. For a split second, her eyes momentarily glaze over, and then she blinks any emotion away. Her steely stare lingers on Spencer’s slumped body.
“Is he dead?” she asks.
I’d almost forgotten where we were. Right now, nothing matters but her. My entire world has stopped spinning on its axis. My little sister is alive!
“No, he’s not, but?—”
“Good,” she cuts me off. Instead of stepping into my open arms, she strides past me to check Spencer’s pulse. “You can’t hurt him, Ivy.”
“What?” I stammer. “I don’t understand.” How can she stand by the man who destroyed our lives? “I thought you were dead. I thought they killed you.”
“So, you decided you’d go on a revenge mission?” she snaps.
“I did it for you,” I explain. “After what they did to us…” My voice catches in the back of my throat as I fight back tears. “I wanted to avenge you.”
“You haven’t changed at all, have you?” she scoffs. “You’re still just as impulsive, reckless, and selfish as you always were. You only ever think about yourself, Ivy.”
Her words are like a kick to the stomach and take all the breath from my lungs. She’s acting like a different person. Her softness is gone, replaced by a hardened shell and brutal edge.
“No,” I say. “I did this for you.”
“You did this for yourself,” she says. “This isn’t something I’d have wanted, or didn’t you know me at all?”
“Who are you?” I ask. “And what have you done with my sister?”
“She’s the Lotus,” Seb supplies. “She works for the Killers Club.”
Daisy is the Lotus?
Over the years, I’d heard about the illusive assassin. She was cool, calculated, and often hired to do the toughest jobs. Our paths never crossed, despite my requests. Alaric wanted us to stay in our pods for security reasons. Our anonymity was the most important thing, and I blindly accepted his explanation without question. However, now I understand why he was so desperate to keep us apart. How many other agents knew? Had they been laughing at me for five years?
“The Lotus is what they call me,” Daisy confirms. “Amongst other things.”
A flicker of another emotion crosses her face as she lets her guard slip for a moment, and then it returns in force.
“Did you know about me?” I ask. The sentence tastes like ash in my mouth, and I’m not sure whether I’m ready to hear her answer.
“No,” she replies, meeting my gaze with a ferocity that tells me she’s being honest.
“How can you be so calm about this?” I question. “You’re acting like you’ve just run into an old school friend you haven’t seen for years. This is me, Daisy! You’re looking at me like I’m a stranger!”
“You were part of my old life.”
They’ve brainwashed her. Just like they brainwashed me. The club’s conditioning runs so deep that breaking their ties is almost impossible. It was easy for them to groom me to do their bidding and become a killer when I was already harbouring anger and resentment, but Daisy was different. She’d always been gentle, kind, and shy. To change her must have taken years of conditioning.
“The club lied to us,” I remind her. “They told me you were dead. They purposefully kept us apart.”
Bram, to my right, has paled. He looks at Daisy like she’s a resurrected zombie. When he found me at the crash scene, he told me that Daisy was dead. Judging by his reaction, I believe he was being genuine, but he must have been wrong. After he left, the Killers Club must have discovered Daisy when they cleaned up the mess.
“The club gave me a new life,” she says. “They looked after me.”
“They don’t care about you,” I say. “All they care about is money. They were happy for me to die after I gave them everything. You’re better than them. Let me help you.”
She bites her lip. Maybe I’m getting through to her? She crushes my hopes with a firm head shake.
“I can’t let you hurt Spencer,” she says.
“How can you defend him after what he and his men did to us?” I explode. “How can you stand to be in the same room as him?”
“It’s not about what you want, Ivy. It always used to be, and I never stood up to you. I let you get your way, but I’m not letting that happen anymore. I’m not the weak sister. I’m the strong one now.”
“I’m not leaving here while his heart is still beating,” I sneer. “Are you going to stop me? Are you going to kill me?”
She looks at me, dead in the eyes and says, “I’d do anything to protect my family.”
“I am your family,” I say. “I’m your sister!”
“And look what being your sister did to me. I didn’t have a choice all those years ago, but I do now.”
Her words tear open my heart and hurt worse than any knife wound. Daisy hated me for what Spencer did. She blamed me… just like I blamed myself.
It was my fault. I’d ignored all the red flags. I ignored Daisy’s concerns whenever she urged me to get away from him. I was the one who went to a bar and threw myself at Freddie, which drew Spencer’s attention and, ultimately, tipped him over the edge. She was right. Everything that happened to her was my fault.
“But I need to make him pay,” I reply, my confidence wavering.
If I don’t have revenge, what do I have? It’s been my sole reason for getting up every morning. I’ve been so driven towards my bloodthirsty goal that I never stopped to consider what would happen next. Revenge stretched in front of me like a dark, endless ocean. Without it, I had nothing. I was nothing.
“I won’t let you,” Daisy says.
“If this is about what happened that night…” Uncontrollable tears fall down my cheeks. “I tried to fight for you. I truly did. I would have given anything—my life—to make them stop. I’m sorry, I?—”
“None of that matters now,” she snaps.
“Then, why won’t you?—”
More footsteps come down the corridor. Quiet ones followed by louder banging. Suddenly, a little girl races into the room, heading straight for Daisy. She has red Penrose hair, freckles, a cute button nose…
A man follows the child, grabbing the girl by the waist and scooping her into his arms. He’s tattooed, a few inches taller than Bram, and falls firmly into the ‘never introduce to your parent’s’ category.
Daisy’s eyes narrow in fury. “I told you to stay in the car.”
“Sorry.” He smiles apologetically. “She didn’t want to leave without you.”
“Mummy?” the little girl says in the most adorable voice I’ve ever heard. She peers at me curiously, tilting her head to the side. “Why does the crazy lady look like you?”
Mummy? She looks to be around five years old, which would mean Daisy conceived a child around… No!
Bram catches me in his arms as I lose balance, holding me upright to stop me from falling.
“We’ll be leaving in a minute, sweetheart,” Daisy says, sounding just like the caring sister I used to know, only she’s not talking to me.
“But me and Maria were playing a game,” the girl whines.
“You heard your mum, Ivy,” the man tells her.
“You called her Ivy?” I ask.
That has to mean something, right? Daisy doesn’t reply as the child’s forehead wrinkles in concentration.
“Why is Daddy sleeping?” Ivy frowns. “It’s the middle of the day.”