Chapter 2
DAISY
I’m running. Being chased through the corridors of The Heath. Blanks watch from the sidelines, all with buttons in their hands to correct me with a zap to the massive GED attached to my leg that slows me down.
I look over my shoulder and I know that Stoke is behind me, ready to catch me, but I can’t see him. I pass John Novelle who snarls at me and calls me an embarrassment. He tells me my mother never loved me.
I try to run faster and then Stoke is in front of me, but it isn’t Stoke at all. It’s Joe Banderville leering down at me. He’s tall and grotesque and he laughs as his hands dart out to grab me.
My eyes open and I scream, but the sound that comes out of me is small and hoarse.
Where am I?
My eyes move around the white room. I can hear beeping coming from next to me and the sounds of people on the other side of the closed door. My breathing accelerates.
It doesn’t smell like The Heath. It’s more modern looking too. Where have they put me?
‘She’s awake!’ I hear a familiar voice say.
‘Blake?’ I croak, my eyes finding him on my other side.
Why is he here? My mind jumps around, not knowing what to think.
My head is pounding. I cover my eyes with my hand.
I haven’t told him that I love him. I’ve told the others, but not him. What if they take me away and I never see him again?
I make a grab for him with my other arm, and I feel his hand tangle with mine, squeezing firmly.
‘I love you,’ I whisper. ‘I love you, Blake. I’m sorry I didn’t say it when you did. But I do.’
As if I’ve used all of the strength I had left just to say those words, my body sinks down into the bed.
I feel him kiss my forehead. ‘I know you do, gorgeous. I love you, too.’
I hear footsteps and shuffling, and there’s more people in the room. Blake’s hand leaves mine.
‘Marguerite?’
A new voice.
‘Can you hear me?’
‘Yes,’ I whisper.
‘Can you look at me?’
I take my hand away from my eyes and squint up. There’s a man in a white coat in front of me, leaning over me. My stomach flips and I’m afraid I’m going to throw up.
I’m in an institution. But not The Heath. The doctor is American.
A light is shined in my eyes. ‘I’m Doctor Redel. Do you know what happened?’
I try to think, but I have no idea. ‘The last I remember is being in the club.’
‘Do you work there?’ the doctor asks oh so casually, continuing to look into my eyes with his little light.
But I’m not fooled. Stoke used to do this, try to disarm me and the others at The Heath with relaxed questions as if he didn’t really care about the answers. But he did.
I keep it simple. ‘Yes.’
‘What do you do there?’
Tricks already? Fuck you, Redel.
‘Make drinks.’
I feel someone’s fingers brush mine and I pull away because I can’t see who it is past the light in the doctor’s hand. There are figures, but they’re just shadows to me.
‘You were in an accident. An explosion. You hurt your head.’
‘Okay,’ I murmur.
‘How do you feel? Any pain?’ the doctor asks, finally putting the light away.
I blink away the momentary blindness.
‘My head,’ I say, reaching up to touch and finding a bandage there.
‘I’ll get the nurses to give you something for that, okay, Marguerite?’
‘Yes.’
He leaves my bedside, and I close my eyes. I hear him murmuring to someone about me and I curl into myself. After everything I did, all the progress I made, they stuck me in another Heath.
Tears come to my eyes. I don’t want to cry in front of the Blanks, or the doctor, but I can’t help it.
‘Daisy, please don’t cry.’
Mav? What’s he doing here? And Blake. Blake was here, too. I didn’t imagine him, did I?
Did they bring me here? Why would they do that?
The long con. They were messing with me the whole time.
No, that can’t be it. They wouldn’t.
But a stifled sob makes its way out of me, and the chatter by the door stops.
‘Daisy,’ Mav says. ‘Open your eyes. Look at me.’
I shake my head a little, and I hear the door to my room close quietly.
‘It’s just us now.’
Shade.
They’re all here?
‘You’re okay,’ Shade begins, but I shake my head, silent tears tracking down my face.
‘There was an explosion at Wrath. We were outside, and we tried to get in to find you, but the basement was half destroyed. We thought—’ Mav’s voice wavers and he breaks off.
‘I went into the tunnels,’ Shade says quietly. ‘I found you just inside the passage that led to the club. You got inside and you were able to get the door closed, but you were hurt and… I carried you out.’
I take a shuddering breath. This time, when a hand takes mine, I squeeze it hard. ‘Where am I?’
‘She’s shaking.’
‘You’re at Richmond Memorial Hospital in the ICU.’
Not an institution. Just a normal hospital.
‘I thought…’ I trail off.
The sudden relief that floods me makes me shudder, and I begin to cry hard, great sobs that make my chest hurt and my head pound.
‘It’s okay. It’s okay,’ Shade says, sounding concerned and clearly having no idea what’s going on in my head. ‘You’re safe. The Doc said you’re going to be fine. You just need to rest.’
I nod, gripping the hand tighter as I try to get myself under control. I take deep breaths and focus on the fact that I’m just in a normal hospital room. I can leave when I’m discharged, when I’m better. I’m not a prisoner here. Not really.
‘What happened at the club?’ I ask, trying to figure out the events that led to me being here. ‘The last thing I remember was going into the lab. There was an explosion?’
I crack my eyes open when none of them answer and I see them all giving each other looks again. I huff loudly.
‘What happened to no secrets?’
Shade sighs. ‘The official story is that it was a gas leak. Even my father thinks that.’
‘But it wasn’t.’
Shade shakes his head.
Mav leans closer and speaks quietly. ‘It was a bomb, Daisy. Someone was trying to kill you, or us. Maybe even all of us. We don’t know.’
‘The stalker?’ I ask.
‘That seems most likely,’ Shade allows. ‘Unless you think it could have been one of the Bandervilles.’
I think for a moment and then shake my head. ‘Joe and his father seem to want the marriage to happen, and Marcus is all in too.’
‘Marcus?’ Blake snarls. ‘What does he care one way or another?’
I shrug as well as I can while still lying on the bed. ‘I think Joe has promised him that he can…’ Have a turn with me? I break off, not sure how to say it.
A low snarl is all I hear from Blake, but the others are quiet. They look very angry, though. I guess they get it.
‘Is there a way to sit up?’ I ask.
A remote with large, flat buttons and a cord attached to it is placed in my hand and I press one of the arrows. The top of the bed moves slowly until I’m sitting upright.
I search their eyes, trying to glean anything I can, but it’s not much. I can tell they’re upset and tired, but not much else. ‘Is the club destroyed?’
‘We don’t know,’ Shade says gravely. ‘But the cellar is inaccessible. Even the tunnels seemed like they were unstable when I was walking through them.’
‘The lab,’ I say softly. ‘Envy. What are we going to do?’
‘You saved all the pills you made,’ Shade says very softly. ‘In the tunnel, you kept giving me the bag. I didn’t even know what was in it until the ambulance ride here.’
‘Thank God,’ I say. ‘Actually, thank past me. Remaking them would have taken forever, especially without a lab.’
‘You shouldn’t have wasted time getting the pills,’ Shade mutters. ‘You shouldn’t have taken a risk like that. Daisy, it was stupid.’
I bristle at being called stupid. ‘If they’d been in the safe, well, the clue is in the name.’
I shrug and find it easier now that I’m sitting up.
‘They were probably out on the table,’ I reason. ‘I don’t remember. Maybe I was counting them, or something. I would have left them if they’d been in the safe. They would probably have been fine in there until we could get them so long as I closed the lab door and the fire didn’t burn too hot.’
I sigh, closing my eyes. ‘Anyway, that means we have seven batches, I think. Enough for Sauvage’s next drop-off. But what are we going to do after that?’
‘You don’t need to worry about that,’ Shade begins, but stops talking when the other two look at him.
‘A lot has changed in the space of a few days,’ Mav says instead, sitting down hard in a chair by the wall.
‘A few days?’
They all look at each other again and my heart sinks.
‘Gorgeous,’ Blake murmurs, stroking the pulse point at my wrist. ‘You’ve been here unconscious for over a week. It’s after New Years.’
I gape at him ‘Over a week? What’s the date?’
‘It’s the second of January.’
I let my head fall back against the pillow gently. ‘Then I’m off my schedule again. We need to find somewhere I can make Envy as soon as I’m let out of here. The campus lab?’
‘Daisy.’
I ignore Shade, pressing on. ‘I know it’s a risk, but maybe Applegate—’
‘Daisy!’ he says more urgently.
‘What?’
More secret looks have me gritting my teeth.
‘There was a fire in the lab at the Novelle Center at the same time. It’s not usable.’
I let out a groan. ‘He took out both the labs? Why? What would be the point of that?’
‘Stop us making Envy?’ Blake asks.
I frown. ‘But why would he care? He hasn’t shown any interest in any of that stuff, just Mom’s death, me, and that detective. It doesn’t make sense.’
Shade takes my hand again.
‘Look, it doesn’t matter, okay? We’ve decided that… Well, we think we have enough money between us all to leave and disappear. Really disappear. No one will find us. Not even Joe.’
I stare at him uncomprehendingly.
‘But what about everything you’ve worked for?’ I ask dumbly after a moment.
This was my plan, not theirs. They’re clutching at straws. They can’t leave everything behind because of me. Besides, they haven’t looked into Joe’s eyes like I have. He’ll never give up. There’s nowhere to run.
‘No,’ I say forcefully. ‘I won’t let you throw everything away. What will you do?’
‘It’s best,’ Blake tries, but I shake my head at him.
My stomach begins to protest and I stop immediately.