Chapter 2 #3
‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I never fight with my Pop Pop, but I was so pissed that he was acting like that. I mean you’re not John, you know?’ She huffs. ‘But, when he met you the other night at the show, he liked you. He told me I could be friends with you.’
She looks uncertain. ‘I mean, if you don’t hate me for selling out our sisterhood like an asshole.’
‘I don’t hate you,’ I say. ‘Of course I get it. I didn’t know your family was…um…you know, into some stuff, until I met your grandpa at the theatre that night. I understand why you didn’t tell me.’
She winces again. ‘I’m sorry about that too. It’s just like. Everyone knows the Garretts in Richmond, and you didn’t seem to, and I sort of liked that. People treat you different, you know?’
I nod. ‘I get it.’
I let out a breath, glancing at my friend. ‘Look, there’s some new stuff happening. My stepfather is making me go live at the Novelle house. The club is pretty damaged, I think, and Joe Banderville has told him to put me on a ‘shorter leash.’
‘What the fuck?’ Lu snarls immediately. ‘Who does that asshole think he is?’
‘A rich and powerful man with lots of resources who doesn’t like hearing the word no?’ I supply.
She cocks a brow. ‘More like an entitled rich boy with tiny dick energy and no personality.’
I laugh. ‘I like yours better.’
She smiles at me a little and then frowns. ‘Where is Shade? The others?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t know where any of them are. I think…’ I take a breath, trying not to break down. ‘I think John made them leave because I’m not allowed to be around them anymore.’
‘No way are they just gonna leave. Come on. They care about you. Some dumb rule isn’t going to keep them away.’
‘Yeah,’ I say, attempting a smile that falls short.
Lu doesn’t understand that John can destroy their lives if he feels like it. He has the power to have them expelled from Richmond U. Probably worse if he’s some kind of crime boss.
I blink my tears away and sit down on my bed. Lu sinks down next to me.
‘Are you gonna be allowed visitors in Casa Novelle?’ she asks.
I snort. ‘Probably not from a Garrett.’
My friend gasps dramatically, her eyes widening and a smile playing on her lips. ‘I could go in character. Marcie.’
‘Who’s Marcie?’ I ask, laughing in spite of myself.
She stands and puts her hand up in front of her like she’s giving a monologue on stage. ‘A debutante from…Boston. She’s here for school. We’re in the same class and we’re working on a long-term project together. We have to see each other at least once a week. Maybe more.’
I give her a dubious look. ‘Do you think he’ll buy that?’
‘Bitch, he won’t ever see me. I’ll be a ghost. He’ll just hear about me from the staff, baby, and they will only know me as your rich girlfriend, Marcie Vandersnatch, from up north.’
‘Vandersnatch?’ I giggle. ‘You crack me up.’
She gives me an offended look. ‘Of course I do. I’m fucking hilarious.
Marcie can’t be as funny as me though. Give me a couple of days.
I’ll do some research, watch some vids. Get into Marcie’s head and do some method acting.
By the time you see me darkening Novelle’s door, no one will have any idea that I’m even from Richmond. ’
‘I believe you,’ I tell her. ‘At least I’ll be able to see you.’
She leans against me for a second, and I feel her phone vibrate. She takes it out of her coat pocket and her face shutters.
‘I gotta go.’
‘Why?’ I ask.
‘Family stuff,’ she mutters, standing up.
‘Lu?’
She looks back.
‘Can I help?’
She gives me a grin. ‘You can stay safe, my sister from another mister.’
She turns away and then turns back, hesitating before she speaks.
‘Everyone knows about the bomb in the club, and the fire in the Novelle Center. The cops covered up both, but people still don’t know who did it. My Pop Pop is unsettled, and when that happens, it means that other people with power in this town are too.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I say.
‘Just… be careful, okay? Just keep your eyes open. If anyone follows you, or you notice any shady cars, get somewhere safe and call one of your guys. Or me.’
I nod a little. ‘Okay.’
She gives me a smile and goes to my door, looking both ways before she exits my room. I stare after her, adding confusion to my already turbulent emotional state.
I grab my phone off its charger and try calling the guys. All of their phones go to voicemail.
I sit on my bed and wrap my arms around myself.
Where are they? Would they really just go because John told them to? Without even saying goodbye?
BLAKE
‘It’s been over two hours. We’ve been here too long,’ I snarl at Mav who’s sitting next to me in the corridor of a penthouse apartment, watched by no less than five armed guards.
They stand stoic and still as statues, like they’ll be pushed if they move even an inch.
‘She’ll be wondering where we are, and we can’t even message her to tell her why we aren’t there.’
Mav’s jaw works, but he doesn’t turn toward me.
Shade, on the other hand, shifts closer.
He doesn’t turn to look at me, but he does speak.
‘Stop making a big deal of this or he’ll make us wait longer just because he can,’ he says very quietly, his lips barely moving.
‘If you want to get out of here before my father locks her up in the tower, smile and fucking relax.’
I clench my teeth together and try very hard to look like I’m not about to lose my shit, but I’m not Daisy. I’m not able to pretend I’m not angry the way she can. I suck at it. I’d rather crack a skull than a smile.
We sit there in silence for another ten minutes at least, my body practically vibrating with the need to get up and move around, even if it’s to pace the hallways the way Shade usually does when he’s upset.
But my friend is right. If Sauvage knows we’re in a hurry, he’ll have us wait longer just to make sure we remember that it’s him who calls the shots here.
As I look around at the hired guns who are standing around, I wonder, not for the first time, if it was Sauvage’s guys who wanted me lured to the prison when I went to see my father.
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced there was a reason he wanted to see me because it sure as shit wasn’t to see me.
What did he get for making me come to him?
A few packs of cigarettes? A coveted job in the cafeteria?
The door at the end of the corridor opens, putting an end to thoughts of my dad for now, and one of Sauvage’s guys motions for us to get up.
‘Mr. Sauvage is ready for you.’
About fucking time!
Shade goes first as our unofficial leader, Mav second, and I bring up the rear, watching our backs. Just in case.
Sauvage knows that without us there is no product, but I wouldn’t put it past him to give us a little taste of what he’ll do to us if we don’t keep the supply flowing.
That has to be why we were encouraged to get into the black van that pulled up to us on the street outside of the hospital and brought us to see him.
Everyone knows about the gas leak at the club and the fire at Richmond U.
Did he know the truth before Shade called him?
Probably. The French fuck always knows what’s going on in his patch.
We walk inside to find the man himself sitting at a large ebony desk.
A flat screened monitor sits in one corner along with a keyboard and a trackpad, but not much else.
The office has a leather couch on one side with a small coffee table that matches the desk, and dark wallpaper with a swirling geometric design that makes my lip quirk up just a little.
Daisy would love looking at it the way she does my tattoo.
‘Bonjour, my friends. Please, sit,’ Sauvage purrs, sitting back in his leather chair and steepling his fingers Mr. Burns-style.
His dark hair is short, graying just a little at his temples.
His pinstripe suit is crisp and tailored to showcase his broad shoulders.
He might seem like a pencil pusher by day, but at night, I heard he’s been known to fight in the cage at his underground club in the city.
He’s no slouch, and his every movement is purposeful, like a panther.
We each take one of the three leather chairs in front of his desk. All of us look him in his piercing, dark eyes, not showing him anything less than strength.
After a moment, he sighs. ‘My operations. They run smoothly. I like this. It’s important. A well-oiled machine. You understand this, oui?’
We all give a curt nod, but it’s Shade who has Sauvage’s attention now.
‘Problems… like the ones that seem to follow you. They’re not smooth. They create problems for me.’
Shade opens his mouth to speak, but Sauvage puts up a hand for quiet.
‘When my son came to me last year, telling me that he had agreed to…how do you say…take the fall for the allegations that were brought against you and your friends, I was dubious. I wondered if three boys would be able to pay the price we agreed. To be honest, you did me a favor in some ways. I wanted to send my boy to school in Switzerland, not Richmond, but he wanted to be here. With his friends. His expulsion from this backwater was heureux serendipitous. He is now in Genève where he belongs. However…’
Sauvage sits back, taking in a long breath. ‘I was right to be dubious. Ever since this arrangement began, there have been delays and excuses, problems and money lost.’
His eyes find Mav and then mine, and then he brings his fist down hard on the desk.
Not one of us jumps, and he seems satisfied when we don’t quail in front of him.
‘This gas leak lie,’ he chuckles, moving on, ‘an ingenious story, but a lie nonetheless. It has destroyed your ability to make my payments, non?’
‘We’ll find another lab,’ Shade says stiffly, though we’ve been talking about it for days and still have no idea where we’ll be able to make Envy.
Sauvage makes a sound between a scoff and a snort. ‘Oui, where? Where is this special laboratoire that does not exist?’
‘We—’