Chapter 10 #4
I turn away from it and message Mav, who said something yesterday about going to the library this morning. I let him know that we’ll be going to Grinder if he wants to meet us there.
Daisy is quiet as we walk toward the Quad.
Her eyes, usually fixed on where she’s going, wander to everyone we pass, suspicious and on-guard.
I slip my hand into hers and she looks at me in surprise, glancing down at our interlaced fingers before tightening her grip and giving me that little smile she seems to reserve only for me.
Something inside me relaxes. I didn’t break us. We’ll be okay so long as I don’t get caught up in my family bullshit again.
We go into Grinder to find Mav already at a table.
Lu Garrett is behind the counter making coffees, her personality, like sparkles and rainbows, are shooting out of her eyes and into our very souls.
I raise a brow at Mav who just shrugs, wincing a little when Garrett notices us and shrieks that her bestie is here.
I sit down at Mav’s table and watch Daisy and Lu catch up, my lips turning upward as I watch our girl. She never had any friends when we were at school, and, even though Lu is a Garrett and crazy as hell, I’m glad Daisy has her.
Daisy brings me a latte a little while later, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
'Hey,' she says, sitting down with us.
'Hey.'
'The message,' she says slowly, her expression shuttered. ‘The one from Andrew. What does it actually say?'
'He wants me to bring you to the house,’ I answer, taking out my phone and showing her.
She stares at it for a beat too long.
‘I should talk to him. I’d be stupid to think he hasn’t inherited me along with the rest of the Novelle holdings,’ she mutters bitterly. ‘Maybe he’ll get rid of the guardianship stuff if I ask him.’
I consider what she’s saying. ‘We might be able to convince him,’ I say thoughtfully. ‘He’s got a lot on his plate. Getting rid of something...’ I grimace. ‘Not that you’re a something. I just mean that—’
‘It’s okay,’ she says, laughing a little. ‘You’re right. If he’s busy, he might be relieved not to have to bother with me.’
‘If she goes, you’ll stay with her,’ Mav says, his eyes narrow, ‘You won’t leave her alone with him. And if things aren’t sounding right, you get out of there.’ He gives Daisy a pointed look. ‘And you go back into hiding.’
Daisy nods. ‘If he says anything I don't like, we’re leaving.'
'We’ll stay together,' I promise.
Daisy says nothing, but her lips thin.
'Hey.' I grab her hand. ''It'll be okay. We don’t have to go if you don’t want.'
‘No,' she says. ‘I can’t hide forever, and if I want freedom, I need to be prepared to stand up for myself.'
She stands up as she says the words, murmuring something about helping Lu since it’s getting busy, and leaves us.
‘Daisy has a class after this, and then we’re swinging by the club,’ I tell Mav.
He inclines his head a little. 'Sounds good. Gonna show Daisy? Bet she'd love to see where we're at.'
'Yeah,’ I nod. ‘Since we’re not far off from opening.’
‘Think she’ll want to move back in or stay at the hotel?’
I frown as I notice two guys at another table.
‘Not sure,’ I say absently.
They’re dressed in jeans and jackets, but I recognize them as Sauvage's guys in the corner. Both of them have coffees. They're keeping their eyes locked on Daisy and surveying the coffee shop subtly.
‘When the hell did they get here?’ I mutter.
Mav follows my eyes and lets out a small laugh. ‘You thought he’d let her out with only us watching her?’ He rolls his eyes. ‘Bon père wouldn’t trust us to get drunk in a bar, but maybe it’s a good thing. More eyes on her means she’s safer.’
‘I guess,’ I mutter.
My phone buzzes on the table and I see a message from my brother.
Dinner tonight @ the house. 6pm.
‘That was fast.’
I stay in Grinder until it's time for Daisy to go to class. I go with her, dropping her off at the lecture theater before I go to my own class, and reluctantly admitting to myself when I see Sauvage’s two guys get comfortable just outside in the hall, that it’s good that Sauvage is helping.
We can’t be everywhere at once, and I don’t want to involve the KIP brothers.
The fewer people who know that Daisy is out and about at the moment, the better.
Acouple hours later, and we're heading to the club. Mav is already there with Blake. I glance over at her in the car and smile, hoping she likes what she sees.
We pull up on the other side of the street to the club. I watch as her eyes move over the facade.
‘They fixed the windows,’ she murmurs.
'Yeah,' I say. ‘That was one of the first things.’
‘The bricks are still black in some places.'
'We had them cleaned to try and get the soot from the fire off, but not all of them came clean,' I explain. ‘We’ll probably have it painted.’
She glances back at me. ‘Leave it. It’s sort of in-keeping with the club name. Wrath. Sort of hellish. Smokey. Black. You know?’
I look up at the building and nod slowly. ‘You’re right. If we get a new sign, maybe red.’
‘Yeah!’
She gets out of my car, smiling wide, and I walk around to meet her on the other side. We go across the street to the side door. There are work vans and construction workers loitering outside. They recognize me, giving me nods as I go in with Daisy.
Although most of the main renovations are complete, inside is still a flurry of activity. The bar is being restored and a new floor has been laid. Daisy walks in, looking around, glancing up at the office that looks the same.
'That wasn't destroyed?' she asks.
I shake my head. 'Just the glass panels. They were shattered. They’ve already been replaced.'
She goes through the space slowly, taking in all of the changes we've made. When she gets to the cellar door, she turns back and looks at me in question.
I nod. 'They're not totally done down there,' I say.
'But I can look?' she asks.
I message the others, asking where they are.
Downstairs.
Daisy goes through the door and down into the cellar slowly. The steps have been widened and made more structurally sound than the crumbling concrete ones that led down there before. The lights have been updated, but we’ve left them pretty dim.
She gets to the bottom of the stairs and finds three doors. She glances back at me again.
'It's different,' she says.
I nod. 'We decided it would be a good idea to make some changes down here while we could.'
'What changes?' she asks.
I grin and open the first door for her. It leads to a small hallway that's well-lit and decorated with gray, paneled walls. The floor is wood, and it leads to a purpose-built apartment with two bedrooms and a small kitchen with a bathroom and shower.
She looks back at me again, a bit suspiciously.
'Is this where I'm going to live?' she asks.
I shake my head. 'No, sweetheart. We just realized that it might be a good idea to have a place that's private and secret where we could lay low if necessary.
It opens directly onto the tunnels behind a secret door, so we can come and go pretty much all the way to Sauvage's hotel without anyone knowing, without ever going outside.
This is for if we have guests or friends who need to hide out. '
She goes through the rooms slowly. My heart is in my throat. I'm not sure what she's thinking. She leaves again just as quietly and arrives at the next door.
I hold my breath.
This one leads to a nondescript storage room. She looks a little bit disappointed as she surveys it and I can’t help my smile.
‘There is more.’
I usher her out and to the third room, which leads to the old Dark Lounge, which has been completely cleared. It's just the bare bones of a room. She goes through it to the back bedroom but finds nothing in there, either.
‘We’re redecorating in here, too,’ I say. ‘It’ll be better than before, but it won’t be for us.’
‘Not for us?’ She lets out a small huff, and I decide to put her out of her misery.
I take her hand.
'Come on,' I say quietly, gently. 'Let me show you the rest.'
We go back out to the main hallway and through the second door, which led into the storage space. She doesn't say anything, but she gives me a look as I go to one of the shelves and press a hidden button on the wall behind. The panel slides out smoothly and quietly, revealing an opening.
I flash her a grin and go through first, hoping the guys are in here. I hear her gasp of surprise as we enter a lavish living space with a TV on the wall, a sound system, and soft lighting that mimics the daytime.
I go to one of the bookshelves on the wall and push another button; it slides open to reveal the lab.
She lets out a small hum of excitement as she goes into the space, breathing out slowly.
‘Wow,' she breathes, looking back at me with a shocked face.
I give her a sardonic look in return. 'You thought it would be the same as before?’
‘I… Yes,’ she admits.
I step closer to her and take her face in my hands. ‘I’m sorry it’s not exactly. I know you don’t like it when things aren’t how you expected.’
Her expression is rueful. ‘That’s true. I do like this though. It looks great.’
I raise my brows. ‘I'm just glad I was able to make all the payments before I was cut off by my brother,' I chuckle. 'Odds are, by the time he realizes, it'll be too late to try and get the money back. It was pocket change to him anyway.'
She nods, looking around the lab again.
'So, this is—'
'Just an upgrade,' I say. 'We don't have to live here. We don't have to do anything here. But we wanted it to be a place where you would feel comfortable spending time with us.'
She wraps her arms around my waist, giving me a quick hug before she leaves the lab again, obviously curious to find more.
Towards the back of the suite is an open archway. It leads to a small kitchen area, which then follows on to the bedroom. I follow her closely.
'Do you like it?' I ask as she sees the massive bed in the bedroom and the rest of the room that mimics what our old room looked like before it was destroyed.
She clasps my hand hard. 'Yes,' she whispers. 'You made it look exactly the same.'
'Of course. We figured this would be the most important to you,' I say, putting my arm around her.
I open the next door that leads to the bathroom, showing her the large space that has been created with a bath and everything.
'Won't it be damp?' she asks.
I point at the ceiling panels. 'I've had a state-of-the-art system installed. Nothing will flood, nothing will get damp. All of it is temperature and humidity controlled.'
'Perfect,' she mutters, almost to herself.
'Does she like it?' I hear Blake say from behind me, and I turn around to find them both in the doorway.
'I thought you guys would be in here,' I say.
'We wanted to give her space to take a look,' Mav says. 'Well?' he asks Daisy. 'Do you like it, Tulip?'
She comes to him and hugs him hard.
'I love it,' she says, smiling up at him.
'Enough to move out of the hotel?' Blake asks.
It's no secret that he hasn't enjoyed us staying there under Sauvage's watchful eye, but at his question, her open expression shutters the tiniest bit and I frown at him.
She nods in response, but the way she’s acting toward him now, coupled with earlier…
‘What did you do?’ I mouth at him when she turns away.
He looks as bewildered as I feel.
I take out my phone.
TALK TO HER
Daisy goes into the bathroom again and looks around before coming back out again.
'When will it be done?' she asks.
‘Grand opening is in a couple weeks.'
'And what about police raids?'
I shrug. 'I've made sure that there's no way they can find the lab, as usual.
It's actually safer down here. There's more than one way to escape now.
We uncovered a couple more entrances to the tunnels.
We'll show you them. I've also had the passages shored up after the blast so there's no way they're going to come down on us. '
Daisy looks wistfully at the huge bed. At the same time, Blake and Mav stare disappointedly toward the next secret room that we haven’t shown her.
She doesn’t notice and I shake my head at them, mouthing a silent ‘later’.
'Come on,' I say. 'We need to get going. Time to go see Andy.'
She wrinkles her nose at me.
‘We don’t have to,’ I remind her.
She glowers a little petulantly. ‘No, I said I’d go. Get it out of the way and see where I stand. But don’t leave me.’
‘Not even for a second,’ I promise, taking her by her shoulders and drawing her closer.
She nods. ‘We should also have a plan for if something goes…wrong. Like, if we don’t message Mav and Blake every half an hour, you guys should call Sauvage.’
She doesn’t wait for an answer, just turns away, and I look grimly at Mav and Blake.
But then she turns back and smiles brightly. It’s not fake, but it is clearly an afterthought.
‘I love the way the club looks, and I really like it down here. Even the changes.’ She looks down at the floor. ‘I didn’t know if I’d feel…safe, after what happened. But it’s different enough that it’s not the same… You know?’
Mav smiles at her. ‘We get it, Tulip.’
We all go upstairs and leave the cellar together, going our separate ways once we exit the club.
'I'll see you back at the hotel later,' I say to the others.
Blake looks like he wants to say something, but Mav shakes his head and gives him a look I can’t decipher.
'Stay safe,' Blake finally murmurs.
Daisy doesn’t turn around.
I nod and get into the Jag. We head toward the Novelle house. Next to me, Daisy stares out the window. She looks tense. I reach over to grasp her hand and she squeezes it.
'Are you okay?' I ask.
'Yes,' she says, her voice sounding strong. 'It's just dinner with your brother. I've been through worse in that house.’
I blanch but she just lets out a quiet chuckle. 'But not by much.’
I side-eye her and wonder how to broach the issue between her and Blake. I decide to be direct instead of tactful.
‘What is going on with you and Blake?’ I ask her straight.
She lets out a breath. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I just noticed you’re sort of ignoring him.’
She shrugs and then finally looks at me. ‘He did something, and he hasn’t spoken to me about it, and he hasn’t apologized.’
‘What did he do?’
She doesn’t answer.