Chapter 5 #4
‘Hard to say,’ I reply evenly. ‘Not much of a yeller when he’s mad. More of a garrote you with a piano wire type of guy.’
‘You got that right,’ Shade murmurs.
My phone buzzes, but before I can look, Shade sighs with relief.
‘It’s her!’ he says. ‘Fuck! Thank God.’
‘What does it say?’ I ask, not looking at Sauvage’s guy.
‘Phone was dead. She only just got it back. She’s doing some work, and she’ll see us in a couple days, but she won’t be able to contact us much because the nurse is riding her ass since John isn’t there.’
‘Okay,’ I say, my stomach unclenching a little now that we’ve heard from her. ‘I’m gonna get back to work. I’ll see you later at KIP.’
‘Later.’
I end the call and look at Daisy’s messages. They’re all short and to the point. I frown at my phone. There’s something not quite right, but I’m not sure what. I open our private chat.
Miss you Tulip.
You too
What are you doing?
In bed. About to go to sleep.
I frown. It’s only about seven.
Not too early?
Tired. Maybe getting a virus.
Okay Tulip. Talk tomorrow.
Can’t. Phone dying.
Thought it was just charged…
Stephens not here. Only one maid can do it.
Love you.
My last message stays on unread and I stare at it for a minute before I put my phone back in my pocket, my heart heavy.
Sauvage’s guy is standing by the wall just staring. He smirks quite uncharacteristically. ‘Women, am I right?’
‘That easy to tell, huh?’
He nods.
I shrug.
I get back in the elevator for another awkward ride. I go back into the lab, where I spectacularly fail at yet another batch of Envy while this dude watches. The pills aren’t even fucking green! He can tell it’s not right.
When I throw my safety goggles down on the table, Sauvage’s guy looks as unimpressed with me as I feel about myself.
‘He told me if you failed again to let you know that you’re running out of time, big man.’
‘Yeah,’ I murmur. ‘Sounds about right.’
I turn off the lab lights and go back upstairs. The guy follows me through the lobby and out to the main doors, stopping at the threshold. He watches me as I walk to the curb in the light of the streetlamps and message one of the KIP freshmen to pick me up.
By the time my ride arrives, he’s not there anymore. I spend the car journey back to the KIP house running through all the reasons that the drug isn’t combining properly and just want to fall into bed as soon as I’m home.
I grab some mac and cheese that’s in the fridge and nuke it, eating quickly even though it’s not warmed all the way through. I don’t care.
I trudge up the stairs and into Daisy’s room, closing the door and getting into her bed.
Sleeping without her near is proving difficult and the only way I seem to be able to manage it is if I’m in her bed with her scent all around me. I fall asleep breathing in her pillow’s fragrance.
I sleep okay, and when I wake in the morning, it’s to an arm over my middle.
I open my eyes slowly, and find Blake staring into my eyes. I startle a little. His face is only about an inch and a half from mine.
‘Morning, gorgeous,’ he murmurs. ‘My how you’ve changed since we were last in this bed together. Your arms, so big. Your cheek, so coarse and hairy.’
I snort. ‘Jealous? Not my fault you can’t grow a beard, my friend.’
I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling.
‘Heard any more from our girl?’ he asks.
‘Not since yesterday. But she said about that nurse being on her ass, so…’ I glance at him. ‘I have a bad feeling though.’
He nods. ‘Me too, but we can’t get near her, not until she’s next scheduled to be on campus.’
‘When is that?’ I ask.
‘Two days from now.’
I swear. ‘That’s too long.’
He nods again. ‘Did she even say why she didn’t come to school like she was supposed to yesterday morning?’
‘Only that she was tired and thinks she has a virus.’
‘Huh,’ he snorts as he gets out of the bed.
‘I don’t know,’ I say, thinking aloud. ‘I feel like it would take more than that to keep her in the Novelle house. Coming to Richmond U is just about the only time she gets out of the gilded prison Joe is keeping her in.’
‘You got a point. Maybe we try to get in there later, pose as delivery guys, or something,’ Blake says, side-eying me.
I sit up. ‘Might be better to see if Lu Garrett can try. They know her. She might get lucky.’
He nods. ‘I went by the club last night.’
‘How’s it looking?’
He shrugs. ‘Still a gigantic fucking hole in the floor, but other than that, great.’
He gestures with his head over at Daisy’s desk where a cardboard box sits.
‘What’s that?’ I ask.
‘The box of Daisy’s stuff from that UK spa she was in. It was sitting just inside the door at Wrath. One of the construction guys must have signed for it. It’s addressed to John Novelle.’
We look at each other and both lunge toward it at the same time.
Blake gets to the box first and takes his flip knife out, cutting the packaging tape deftly.
We open it together, not sure what we’re expecting, but it’s not an old pair of jeans, a t-shirt with a cat on it, and a knitted stripy sweater. Blake turns the box upside down, shaking it, just as Shade comes in.
‘Thought I heard something in here. What are you doing?’
I show him the box and Shade stares at it. ‘Took their sweet time sending it, huh?’
I nod.
He looks through the small pile.
‘That’s it?’
He looks inside the box and then at the clothes again.
‘Anyone else sort of get the feeling that the spa wasn’t exactly like we think?’ Blake asks.
Shade nods his head. ‘Why wouldn’t she have anything else at all? She was there for ten years. What, she just wore robes and slippers every day? What about when she went outside and stuff?’
‘Weird,’ I murmur, folding everything up and putting it carefully back in the box in case Daisy wants it.
‘Heard anything from her?’
Shade shakes his head. ‘There’s no point in me trying to get in to see her. Even the staff don’t seem to be allies. They watch me like I’m a criminal whenever I go there now that Stephens is gone. Maybe when my father gets back, but—’
‘We thought Lu Garrett might be able to,’ I interrupt. ‘If she goes there, and makes a giant scene this time, maybe she’ll get in to see her.’
Shade nods. ‘Worth a try. Mav, you ask her. She likes you the best.’
I make a face but message Lu our idea. She messages back a minute later with a thumbs up.
‘She’s in.’
‘What are we going to do if we find out she’s not okay?’ Blake asks.
‘We find a way to get rid of Joe that doesn’t point to us. We get her out of there and we hide.’
‘That’ll be almost impossible,’ Blake murmurs. ‘You know you’ll be the first person they look at, Shade. And, after you, it’s us. Your best friends from the wrong side of the tracks.’
He nods. ‘It needs to be perfect, and there needs to be a scape goat.’
Blake grins darkly. ‘Okay.’
Shade and I both look surprised.
‘Thought you said it couldn’t be done,’ I say.
‘Oh, it can be done. I just didn’t want you to think it’s my go-to every time shit gets rough because of what I do for Kormak.
’ He shrugs. ‘I guess I didn’t want to go there too quickly.
Doing something like that… It’s not a little thing.
You know? But now with Daisy acting weird, and there being other stuff going on…
I’ll find a way. We plan it, though, and I mean meticulously.
We might just have a chance at killing that asshole before he’s supposed to marry Daisy without it leading to us. ’
We both nod solemnly. There was a time when something like this would have phased me, but not now, not for Daisy. Hell, I’ll shoot Joe on a stage in front of a crowd of witnesses if it means that Daisy is safe from him.