Chapter 4 #6
I slip out of her and let her down, not wanting to let her go, but also conscious that Stephens said he’d send refreshments. And also, it’s cold as hell out here.
We gather our clothes, Daisy wrinkling her nose a little and I wince.
‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘I didn’t think—’
‘It’s okay,’ she says. ‘Worth it. And I’ll clean up when I’m done with my run.’
We hear a scratching at the door and she tenses, her scared eyes darting around like she’s looking to escape or for a place to hide.
‘Relax,’ I say, hugging her. ‘Stephens told me you were down here. He said he was sending drinks or something.’
I open the door carefully and find a small tray with a couple of mugs of hot chocolate and some cookies.
‘Good old Stephens,’ I say, bringing it in and putting it on the stone bench that I might just utilize if I catch Daisy in here again.
Now, fully dressed in her thick sweatshirt and running pants, she picks up a mug.
‘Well that was nice,’ she sighs, looking a little dreamy.
‘Yeah. God I miss you.’
‘Me, too,’ she says, taking my hand. I sit next to her on the bench and she leans against me. ‘It seems like weeks since I really saw you guys, not days. The other day at the coffee shop was so fast, it doesn’t count. How’s the club?’
‘The cops are done with it. The story is still that it was a gas leak, so I guess Sauvage did his thing.’
She nods. ‘But they can fix it?’
‘Yeah, even better than before. Insurance is paying out and they’ve already started. That’s how I was able to get your stuff out of there. Lu gave it all to you?’
She nods. ‘She’s coming over later.’
‘No more problems with Nasty Nurse?’ I ask carefully.
She doesn’t answer right away. Red flag.
But she shrugs. ‘Nothing I can’t handle.’
‘Okay,’ I acquiesce. ‘But if that changes, you tell us as soon as it does.’
She nods.
‘Promise me, Daisy.’
She looks up at me. ‘If it turns into something I can’t deal with myself, I’ll let you guys know. I promise.’
‘Good.’ I sigh, knowing that, same as me, a promise means something to her.
I relax a little, confident she won’t break it.
We drink our hot chocolates in companionable silence, our hands touching. But all too soon, she stands.
‘I’ll be missed if I spend any more time here,’ she says, squeezing my hand. ‘When will I see you again?’
‘I don’t know,’ I tell her truthfully. ‘Mav has been having some problems with Envy. Something isn’t right, but he can’t figure it out.’
‘Maybe I can help,’ she says, but I shake my head.
Her lips purse as she looks down at me. ‘I’ll message him, then.’
‘I don’t want you anywhere near Sauvage. Let us deal with it.’
Her face goes blank, and I know she doesn’t like what I’m saying. I take her hand. ‘It’s not because I don’t know you could one hundred percent figure out the problem. We just don’t want Sauvage noticing you. He already knows you exist. That’s bad enough.’
She tilts her head to the side. ‘What does some mob boss know about me?’
‘That you’re my stepsister. That we care about you.’
I leave it at that, and she turns away.
‘See you soon, Shade,’ she says with a sad smile and opens the door, sprinting quickly down the trail.
I put our mugs back on the tray and leave it where it is. I don’t want to make it obvious that I met Daisy out here. She’s not even supposed to speak to me, after all. Besides, Stephens will send someone to grab it later when no one’s watching.
I leave the pagoda and go in the other direction, up to the house and around to the front. Stephens opens the door, and I smirk.
‘Daisy get back okay?’
He nods. ‘That woman has emerged. She’s lurking, so watch what you say, Master Jack.’
I nod in understanding.
‘I’m just here to see Pop,’ I say loudly enough for anyone listening to hear.
‘I’m afraid he’s on an important call, sir. Perhaps it would be best to call on him later.’
‘You’re right, Stephens. My father is a very busy man and he hates interruptions. I’ll come back tomorrow. Any particular time?’
The butler thinks for a moment. ‘Evening, I believe, sir. Perhaps you and your father could have dinner.’
‘Perfect. Do I need to speak to his assistant?’
‘I’ll let her know, Master Jack. Good afternoon.’
He practically closes the door in my face, as I hear clicking heels and a woman who can only be that woman, demanding to know what I was doing there.
‘Master Jack is welcome in his family home, Nurse Smith,’ Stephens says in clipped tones. ‘He merely came to see his father.’
‘And where was she?’ I hear her cry in shrill tones.
‘Miss Marguerite was on her run around the grounds which she takes most days as you’re aware. She returned a few minutes ago and is now...’
I stop listening and go to my car, gazing up at her window for a second. I hate leaving her here. At least I was able to smuggle her in some clothes, and the shower products she likes.
As I leave my father’s house, a red Miata drives up, and I take my time so I can see who it is. My jaw drops when Lu Garrett steps out, wrapped in a fur coat complete with matching fur hat, and looking like she invests in blood diamonds.
I shake my head. She mentioned she’d be pretending to be someone else, but she’s gone full method actor.
Knowing Daisy will be in safe hands, I drive into Richmond, parking by the side of the club and going inside.
Work has only just started, so it’s still a blackened shell with a jagged, gaping hole in the middle of the floor from the blast. The lab, miraculously, was almost untouched.
I’ve locked it up and given strict instructions that if anyone needs to get in there, they’re to come to me.
Our bedroom off the Dark Lounge, however, was completely destroyed. Our bed was crushed. If Daisy or Blake had still been in there when the bomb went off…. I swallow hard and try not to think about it.
They’re alive. They weren’t killed.
I look around quickly, making sure everything is the way it should be. On the way out, I notice a parked car at the front with a guy sitting in it, reading the paper. At first, I think it’s a cop, but then I realize he’s familiar to me. One of Sauvage’s guys. He ignores me completely.
Why is he watching the club? Is this about the stalker? I pretend I don’t see him, though, and hope I’m not about to be pulled off the street into an unmarked van. That French fuck loves doing that shit.
I get a short message from a frustrated Mav, who is currently taking a break from working in Sauvage’s lab inside some bunker under his ritzy hotel.
He still can’t get Envy right. He’s made two batches and they’re not coming out the way Daisy’s do.
He’s getting pissed at himself and Sauvage is already starting to become impatient.
I wonder for a second if I should ask Daisy to contact Mav about it, but I shake the idea off instantly. Daisy has enough people who want to hurt her. I was serious before. We don’t want that crazy French asshole anywhere near our girl. I don’t even want to imagine what he might do to her.
I go back to the KIP house, where we’ve been spending most of our time, and find that Blake isn’t there.
I take a shower, fisting my dick to thoughts of Daisy this morning.
The sounds she made, the way my back burns under the hot water from the scratches she left.
I come hard, my body shuddering, but it’s nowhere near as satisfying as being buried inside her.
As I walk back to my room, I see that Blake is now in his room.
‘How is she?’ he asks immediately.
‘She was okay, considering. She was out for a run when I got there. I was able to spend a little time with her alone.’
‘Lucky fucker,’ he snarls good-naturedly.
I can’t help my Cheshire cat grin, but I take our conversation into less agreeable territory because, however much he’s pretending he’s fine, I know Blake and he’s anything but without Daisy here. She’s his anchor. I mean, maybe she’s all of ours, and maybe we’re hers too.
‘Found any info on the Winters family, the stalker, the bombing, or the fires? Anything at all?’ I ask with a sniff, assuming that ,as usual, there will be nothing new to report.
‘Yeah, actually,’ he replies, surprising me as he turns back around to face me. ‘I was just gonna bring it up.’
There’s a spark in his eyes. Whatever he found has intrigued him.
‘A family with the last name Winters used to live in Richmond like you said, like almost fifty years back. One of the richest families in the area. Mother, father, two kids. They moved away to somewhere in upstate New York. Looks like the mother and father have been dead and buried for a few years. The kids I can’t find. Nothing about them anywhere.’
‘Huh,’ I mutter. ‘Why was the name in Daisy’s file then? They were already long gone by the time she and April moved here.’
He sighs. ‘Another dead end. As for the rest of the stuff, nada. The stalker has gone silent since the attack. No notes, nothing in Daisy’s emails. Totally dark. But I will find something.’
‘I know you will,’ I say. ‘Anything on April, Mark, and John?’
He nods. ‘As we thought, Mark, Applegate, and your father all went to Birchwood Academy together back in the day.’
I feel my eyebrows rise. ‘My dad knew Applegate and Mark before?’
‘Not just that, bro. There’s pictures of the three of them looking cozy in some newspaper article I found online about cleaning up the local river for the ecology club. They were friends.’
I find myself walking up and down the length of Blake’s room. ‘Where did April fit into this?’
‘No clue. She definitely wasn’t enrolled at Birchwood. I’ll keep looking, though.’
I nod and he turns back to his screen.
‘What’s going on with Wrath?’ he asks absently.
‘They’re saying we can reopen in about twelve weeks, give or take.’
Blake glances back, shaking his head. ‘That isn’t great for our Envy sales. How the fuck are we going to distribute it without the club for three months?’
I put my head in my hands, letting out a long breath as I rake my hands back through my hair.
‘I don’t fucking know. I don’t want to get in deeper with Sauvage, especially with him calling himself ‘the good father,’ creepy fucker, but we might not have any other choice.
As far as I know, he’s exporting it into Europe, and not running it through his clubs. Maybe there’s a deal to be made.’
Blake shakes his head a little. ‘Fuck, if that’s our only option, then what choice do we have? Where’s Mav?’
‘Still trying to make Envy.’
‘He can’t do it?’ Blake side-eyes me.
I shrug. ‘He says that he helped Daisy with the timings but never actually made it himself. Apparently, it’s very temperamental. No matter what he does, it’s not coming out right. I think Sauvage is starting to believe he’s doing it on purpose.’
Blake winces. ‘The last thing we need on top of everything else is that French fuck turning on us. Shit. Can’t Mav ask Daisy for pointers?’
‘That’s what she said. But do we really want her anywhere near this, or Sauvage? Isn’t it better that he thinks she’s just some groupie we like hanging around with us?’
‘I guess so.’ He snorts. ‘She’d be so pissed if she heard this conversation right now, though.’
‘She’s already pissed that everything’s been taken away from her.
’ I sit down on Blake’s bed. ‘I didn’t realize, you know.
I was such a na?ve asshole. I had no idea my father would do something like this, that he could.
He just took everything, all she worked so hard for.
Overnight, like it was nothing. He’s stolen her life twice now.
For Larson and now Joe. Both times I just let it happen. ’
‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. What could you have done? The law is on his side as usual. We’ll fix this.’
‘I guess,’ I mutter, not really feeling it.
‘Do you think your father thought she really did kill Larson?’ Blake asks quietly.
‘I don’t know,’ I say honestly. ‘He thought she was nuts, kept telling April she was going to hurt someone. I never got that vibe off her. I mean she’d get upset and throw stuff around.
Sometimes another kid would get hurt because they were in the way.
But she was never violent toward other people directly.
The way he talked, it was like she was a psycho, just waiting to do something.
Then Larson happened. Maybe he really did think it was her.
’ I look up at my friend. ‘Or maybe he saw an opportunity to have his wife’s full attention by getting rid of the daughter who took up so much of her time. ’
‘Your family is fucked up.’
I snort. ‘Takes one to know one, dick.’
‘That’s fair. When is Daisy back on campus so I can watch her from afar like a pervert?’
‘Day after tomorrow. Lu Garrett is there with her now.’
Blake looks surprised. ‘Your dad let a Garrett into his home?’
‘She’s in disguise as some oligarch’s daughter. Even has the accent.’
‘No shit.’
‘Yeah, Daisy said something about her treating it like practice for a role she wants in another play.’
Blake laughs as he turns back around. I leave his room and throw on some clothes. I see an email from Applegate with a link to the classes he’s making sure are recorded for Daisy. I forward it on to her, so she can keep up with everything until we can figure out what we’re going to do.
But what are we going to do? The only thing I can think of is to get rid of Joe. It sounds so damned simple, but the nasty fucker is well protected, and Blake is right. If he’s murdered, the Bandervilles won’t rest until the perpetrators are found, and they have the means to do it.