Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Daisy
Iwake up on a hard floor. I blink up at an insanely high ceiling, confused. My mind is groggy.
I try to move but quickly realize that I’m tied up. My wrists are basically immobile, the same with my ankles. I’m still in my dress from the club, thankfully, but my shoes are gone, and my mask. I errantly hope my new birthday earrings are still in my ears.
‘There she is.’
Why is Andy here? Where is here?
He’s pacing. Shade does that when he’s upset or nervous. Is Andy the same? I try to take in as much information as I can. I can see out the door where it’s open just a sliver. It’s night outside.
I’m in a huge space with a barrel-vaulted roof. A hangar, maybe. There are some small planes and a bigger one, along with spare parts and tools.
No one else besides Andy seems to be here. I swallow hard, because, while I have no clue what’s happening, I can make deductions and none of it is good.
Andy checks his watch and then his phone, muttering under his breath about something.
I groan as I sit up, my head hurting from whatever drug Andy must have used on me that put me to sleep. Multiple times, I realize.
‘You used that stuff on me in the club in New York,’ I finally say, ‘and on the plane, and again tonight.’
He snorts, not denying it. ‘Last night was too easy. Just a little prick with the syringe as I walked past you and then all I had to do was wait until you needed help standing up.’
‘And you used it on your father,’ I say. ‘The night my mother was killed.’
He smiles a little. ‘It was in his drink at the gala. A versatile little substance. Been using it for years.’
I regard him in stony silence for a moment.
I push my emotions deep, so I feel nothing in preparation for my next question.
‘You killed my mother, didn’t you?’
Andrew’s grin widens grotesquely.
‘Why?’
‘Because she had it coming,’ he snarls. ‘Getting into Novelle business like she had the right. Money-grabbing bitch found out about the marriage that Pop and I were planning with the Bandervilles. She was talking my father around, telling him we didn’t need to marry you to anyone, that we’d be okay without her family’s money. ’
His sneer is low. ‘She didn’t even know the Trust existed until she saw the paperwork in Pop’s desk, and then she decided she wanted you home, and my dumb father was about to let her go get you. He was always weak where she was concerned.’
He keeps talking without any more prompting from me. He doesn’t care what I know, I realize. Is that because he thinks I’m too stupid to do anything about it, or because he knows that I won’t be in a position to tell anyone what he admits?
‘And then she opened a letter she shouldn’t have seen, and she was pissed when she saw the agreement was being finalized. She made him promise not to do it, and he was going to keep her happy.’
Andy rolls his eyes. ‘She had to go. Fun fact, my father was supposed to die that night too. But the lucky asshole survived with barely a scratch,’ he shrugs. ‘Not everything can go to plan, I guess.’
‘And all this was about the money,’ I say. ‘And the notes? The stalker stuff? What was the point of that? If you hadn’t sent anything, everyone would have just assumed my mom’s death was an accident.’
Then he comes closer and crouches in front of me.
‘That was all for fun.’
I’m taken aback. I didn’t realize that Andy had such strong feelings about me these days. I mean, I wasn’t even here.
‘Why?’ I ask. ‘What do you have against me?’
He lets out a feral sound of rage that has my fingers splaying out and my body rocking a little. I hide my hands between my knees and stop myself from moving. I don’t want him to know that he’s upsetting me.
‘You’re such a dumb fucking bitch. You know that?
You had a mom who actually gave a crap about you.
You wouldn’t even hug her. You acted out and made things difficult for our family.
I had to deal with so much shit at school because of you.
All I got was an embarrassing stepsister and Pop’s anger that I wasn’t good enough.
And then your mom…when he married her, strutting around like she owned the whole fucking place.
Fuck her and fuck you. I hope Marcus destroys you—body, mind, and soul—and you end up at The Heath in one of their dumb little cells, mumbling to yourself in a straitjacket. That’s what you deserve.’
‘The Heath is gone,’ I can’t help but correct.
He ignores me, gets to his feet, and moves away quickly, stalking across the hangar.
I regard him almost thoughtfully. I’m angry, but I'll feel it later. Now, I want a clear head and to gather as much information as I can get while I have the opportunity. These are questions I’ve needed the answers to for a long time, and he’s very chatty when he’s anxious, apparently.
‘Did you kill my father too?’ I call after him.
He looks surprised when he turns back, then laughs.
‘That was all John. I was there, though. Hid in the back of his car. Saw how he did it. Pretty good job for a guy who hated science. I just thought he wanted the insurance. Then he up and married April, and I realized what he’d done it for—to get your father out of the picture.’
He snorts. ‘Always thinking with his dick.’
He taps the side of his head. ‘That’s where he and I are different.’
‘What about your dad and Joseph?’ I say. ‘Another Andy Special?’
‘No. Actually.’
He lets out a chuckle, like it’s a joke, but it seems forced.
He doesn’t elaborate.
‘I don’t get it,’ I say. ‘Why did you try to kill Jack? Why the fires and the bombs in the lab? The car that tried to run me down at Richmond U?’
‘I’ve had a copy of Shade’s phone for years. I saw everything. All the messages you sent to your boyfriends. If you’d just married Joe, none of this would have happened. But you just had to cause a problem. As usual. So, I decided to cause problems for you and all the people you care about.’
He tilts his head to the side a little. ‘The bomb was…an oversight on my part. It was bigger than I expected.’
‘And the car that tried to kill me?’ I ask.
He gives me a cold smile. ‘Not me, but you’re so fucking annoying that I can’t be the only person out there who hates you enough to want you dead.’
I ignore the barb, filing the information away for later, hoping I find a way to get out of this.
‘And the others?’ I ask. ‘What did you do to cause problems for them?’
‘I made sure Pop didn’t give anything to Jack in his will.’
Andy chuckles a little. ‘It wasn’t hard to convince him.
It was even easier to get Richmond U to do what I wanted regarding Maverick Shaw.
They’ll do just about anything for the right price and making sure you guys lost your precious lab was the cherry on top.
Genius, if I do say so myself. So simple. ’
‘What about Blake?’ I ask. ‘What did you do to him?’
Now, Andy throws back his head and genuinely laughs. ‘Who do you think had Kormak sell the debt to the cartel?’
I think my shock shows because his snickers echo through the hangar.
‘Those fuckers are animals. The shit they make Blake do for them. I’ll bet he kills himself over the guilt soon.’
My fists clench, anger finally making it through the numbness. ‘Fuck you, Andy.’
‘Not my thing, sis. I’m not my brother.’
‘So, why are we here?’ I ask, changing tack and keeping my emotions in check. ‘Who are we waiting for?’
He doesn’t say anything. Instead, he goes to the door and looks out.
I pull at my bindings, keeping an eye on him, but they’re too tight and I can’t budge them.
‘No trying to escape now,’ he admonishes from the wide, sliding door that’s open a foot or so. ‘You’re still marrying Marcus.’
I raise my chin in defiance. ‘You can’t make me.’
Andy’s nasty smile makes me cold all over. ‘I have a surprise for you.’
He practically skips to the nearest plane.
I realize the small door in the side is open. He pulls out a large bundle, someone tied up and unconscious.
‘Lu! What have you done to her, you sick son of a bitch?’
‘Just drugged,’ Andy says with a grimace. ‘I told you, I don’t let my dick make my decisions. She is cute, though, in a plebeian kind of way.’
‘Her family are going to kill you for this,’ I say.
‘The Garretts don’t scare me. I have bigger friends than them.’
He drops her next to me, and she hits the concrete with a thud. I wince.
‘So, do as you’re told,’ he says slowly, ‘and I don’t give your bestie to the cartel. I don’t care who her family is. They’ll never know what happened to her. As I said, they’re fucking animals. She would definitely beg for death before they finally offed her.’
I stare at him, seething, as I sink to my knees to see if my friend is okay. She groans a little, and I breathe out a sigh of relief.
‘Oh, shit,’ she grumbles, groaning. ‘I did not drink enough last night to feel like this right now.’
Her eyes crack open, and she blinks, her brow furrowing.
‘Daisybear, what are you doing in my room?’
‘We aren’t in your room,’ I say.
Blake
The firefighters finally locate the source of the smoke that’s filled the club in a small vent by the bar. When they pry off the cover, they find a smoke bomb stuck inside the shaft with duct tape.
‘You kids think this shit is funny?’ one of them asks, ripping off his helmet in the alleyway while another removes the still-smoking incendiary and drops it into a bucket a few feet away.
My eyes narrow.
‘This wasn’t us,’ I snarl, but I’m glad that this seems to be just a dumb prank, and not another full-blown attack on us.
I’ll check the cameras back inside, figure out who did this, and go from there.
I glance around out at the street. The entrance to the alleyway has been taped off, and there’s a large crowd of party goers who attended tonight still spectating on the other side.
‘Sorry, people,’ I say loudly. ‘Looks like the party’s over for tonight.’