23. Daisy
“Blake started talking about selling you,” Otis blurted.
“He… what?” I felt like Otis was speaking another language.
“We thought he was kidding at first,” Jace said. “Being an asshole, because Blake could definitely be an asshole.”
“Except he didn’t seem like he was kidding,” Otis said. “You saw the texts the night of the party.”
We won’t let you do it.
Like you could stop me.
Dude, why are you putting us in this position?
No position. I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do. Nothing to do with you. Decision’s been made.
Then we’ll have to do what we have to do.
At the time, I’d been hyperfocused on the proof that the Beasts had killed Blake. I hadn’t had time to contemplate the subject of their conversation.
“He said he and Mr. X could get a lot of money for you,” said Jace. “Because you were a rich girl. Because you were a virgin.”
“That can’t…” I stood and paced to the window, taking big gulps of breath, feeling like I was about to hyperventilate. “That can’t be right. You must have misunderstood.”
“We didn’t misunderstand,” Wolf said. “He told us his plan the day of the party. He was going to drug you at home, say you’d run away, like— ”
“Like all those other girls,” I finished. “You’re not just saying Blake was going to traffic me… you’re saying he was trafficking other girls.”
I bent over at the waist, my mouth watering like I was going to throw up.
Otis brought a trash can and gently pulled back my hair while I tried to get it together. A minute later a glass of water appeared at my side. I looked over and saw Wolf, worry written all over his face.
I took the glass and drank.
Wolf gently grabbed my arms. “Sit.”
He led me to the chair. I thought I should probably leave, just get in the Mustang and go. Pretend this had never happened. Pretend I hadn’t heard what I’d heard.
But I couldn’t move.
“That’s why you killed him?” I asked.
“That’s why.” Jace’s voice was hard and when I looked up, his expression was hard too. “And we’d do it again.”
“It’s not what we wanted,” Wolf said gently. “It’s just… what had to happen.”
“To protect you,” Otis said. “Because we were always — are always — going to protect you.”
We sat in silence so long the room darkened with the setting sun, the shadows growing long in the corners of the room.
I was thinking, processing. Not just the past, but the present too.
“You think my dad’s still doing it,” I said. “That he’s responsible for the missing girls.”
“It makes the most sense,” Otis said.
“No, it doesn’t,” I snapped. “It doesn’t make sense at all.”
But even as I said it, I knew he was right.
It didn’t make sense to me because I was late to the party, but the pieces fit. To anyone without a horse in the race, meaning anyone whose last name wasn’t Hammond, it was the most logical explanation for everything that had happened.
“What about the Aventine alumni?” I hated the desperation in my voice. Stupid Daisy. Stupid, naive Daisy, who’d idolized her brother while he was plotting to sell her. “Blake was already dead when they got caught hunting those girls.”
“But your dad wasn’t,” Otis said. “Isn’t.”
“You think he was working with them?” I asked. “That he’s still doing it and just hasn’t been caught yet?”
“Those assholes at Aventine are mobsters,” Jace said. “They wouldn’t rat on a business partner.”
“You’re saying…” I took a deep breath because I felt like I was about to pass out. “You’re saying this is some kind of trafficking ring, that my dad is at the head of it.”
I was focusing on the logistics to keep myself from thinking about Blake. About why he’d wanted to hurt me.
“Your dad had Calvin kidnap you,” Otis pointed out. “Then he held you prisoner. We were scared we wouldn’t get there in time.”
There was something like anguish in his voice, and for the first time I understood that while I’d been sure my dad was just trying to teach me a lesson, they’d thought I might disappear forever.
But that meant…
“You think he was going to sell me?”
“We didn’t know. Not for sure,” Wolf said. “Is there anything you can remember from the dam? Something someone said or did that might have given you a hint about their endgame?”
I thought back to my time at the dam, the endless days in the concrete room, the rush of water from outside, the trays of food dropped off by silent, stone-faced guards.
“The food…”
“What about it?” Jace asked.
“It was… weird,” I said.
Otis scowled. “Weird how?”
“Good. Healthy. Salads and smoothies and sandwiches. But that’s my dad…” I was desperate to prove there was some other explanation, that this whole thing was just a misunderstanding. “He’s always been militant about healthy food.”
The Beasts exchanged a glance and I knew they weren’t buying it.
“I’m not an expert on trafficking,” Otis said, “but I’m guessing they’d get more for a girl in good condition.”
I felt sick.
“Fuck,” Wolf said, glaring at Otis.
“What?” Otis asked. “It’s true, right?”
Wolf swiped a hand over his face. “Just… easy.” His gaze slid to me and I knew he was trying to protect me.
But it was too late for that. If what they said was true, no amount of tiptoeing would change the truth.
My brother had planned to sell me. He’d been working with my dad.
And my dad had tried again when he’d had Calvin kidnap me.
I remembered the way my dad looked at me the day I’d told him I was moving out, the way he’d always looked at me: like I was a piece of furniture that didn’t quite suit the house, something he needed to have replaced.
Something he’d just as soon be rid of.
I almost forgot to breathe.
“We’ll go to the police.” The story they were telling was too outrageous to be believed, but I was willing to admit there were some red flags — definitely with Blake, and maybe even with my dad.
“The police?” Jace cursed and shook his head. “Spoken like a true fucking princess.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that the great Charles Hammond — one of the biggest donors to the Blackwell Police Benevolent Association — probably isn’t going to get the full investigative treatment from the Blackwell Police Department,” Jace said.
“But… they’re the police.” As soon as I said it, I realized how naive it sounded.
Naive and stupid.
“I think what Jace is saying is that it’s going to sound pretty unbelievable if you walk into the police department and accuse your dad of trafficking girls,” Wolf said. “But then it’ll be out. They’ll either talk to him just to act like they’re doing their jobs or someone will leak it to him.”
“And then he’ll go further underground with the whole thing,” Otis said.
“You drop this bombshell about my dad and then don’t want me to go to the police?” I said. “Sounds shady.”
“Let’s game it out,” Otis said.
“What do you mean?”
“You go to the police and tell them you think your dead brother was planning to traffic you,” Otis said. “Now you think your dad is trying to do the same thing. Assuming the BPD isn’t already in your dad’s pocket — and I think that’s a big assumption — how do they respond?”
I imagined it: walking into the little building off Main Street that housed the tiny Blackwell Police Department, saying I wanted to talk to someone about a crime, sitting across from one of the bored officers that shot the shit outside Jo’s Diner, telling them my dad was selling girls.
I didn’t have to go any further to know how it would play out: they’d think I was crazy, the bored hysterical daughter of the town’s most upstanding citizen.
I looked down at my hands, feeling defeated. I wasn’t sure I believed the Beasts about my dad (I’d think about Blake later, when it didn’t feel like someone was ripping my heart out), but I didn’t not believe them either.
There were too many coincidences to ignore: Blake’s mention of the boss and the fact that Blake probably hadn’t been capable of organizing a trafficking ring at the age of eighteen, the girls that had gone missing since Blake’s murder, Calvin shoving me into the car like it was nothing.
Like he’d done it before.
“What am I supposed to do with all of this?” I finally asked.
“Nothing right now.” Wolf’s voice was gentle. “Just… let us protect you at least.”
I wished there wasn’t so much between us, because right then all I wanted was to walk into his arms, feel him kiss the top of my head and tell me everything was going to be okay. “By moving back into the house you mean.”
“We can’t keep you safe at Cassie’s.” Jace shot an annoyed glance at Otis. “Fucking Otis in the guest bedroom doesn’t count.”
My cheeks flamed but Otis just shrugged, like it was true.
Because it was.
Cassie’s apartment couldn’t be made safe without turning the building into a fortress. Not only was it impractical, but I couldn’t do that to her. This was my problem.
“What happens if I move back here?” I asked.
“We double our security measures at the house,” Wolf said. “Keep tailing you when you’re in town for work.”
“I can’t… I can’t live like that,” I said. “Not forever.”
“It won’t be forever,” Wolf said.
“How long then?”
“Until we get proof,” Otis said.
Jace crossed his arms over his chest. “Until we know you’re safe. Then if you want us out of your life, we’ll go.”