Chapter 9 #2
I hear Shade swear and both he and Mav grab me, holding me back so I can’t get to him.
‘Let me go!’ I snarl. ‘He has her! He has Daisy! Where is she, you fucker?’
‘Jesus, Blake!’ Shade exclaims. ‘Calm the fuck down.’
‘No! She could be hurt. He could have—’
Sauvage rolls his eyes. ‘I have not hurt the mademoiselle and I will not.’
I continue to struggle fruitlessly and Sauvage tuts at us.
‘Little boys,’ he murmurs to himself with a sigh. ‘Mon Dieu, how did this become the life of Pierre Sauvage?’
He takes a sip from the coffee cup on his desk and motions at the three chairs.
‘Sit, children, if you can control yourselves,’ he stares at me specifically. ‘Bon père will tell you a story.’
‘You aren’t my good father,’ I seethe.
‘Non, your father is in prison. Un voleur a thief who sells your skills to his masters.’ He makes a noise of disgust.
‘What the fuck does that mean?’
But I’m afraid I already know, that I was right about why my father wanted me to come visit him in jail. He’s trying to get Kormak to sell the debt to someone else, probably get a nice kickback from whoever my new boss will be.
Fuck.
‘Why my petite fleur wants you… A mystery for the ages,’ Savage continues and I try not to think of my other problems while we’re dealing with the bigger one right in front of us.
‘Come on,’ Shade mutters in my ear. ‘We won’t get past his guys. If we want Daisy back, we need to play his game.’
‘We should just come back with more guys,’ I snarl. ‘Kill this fucker.’
But I let them lead me to the chair in the middle and sit me down. My hands curl around the armrests, holding on tightly as if that motion alone will stop me from launching myself over Sauvage’s desk and breaking his jaw.
The others sit as well.
‘Where is Daisy?’ Shade asks tightly and I see that he’s white knuckling the chair just as I am.
‘Safe. Now, the tale. Your stepsister came to me yesterday.’
‘No,’ Mav grinds out, ‘your goons kidnapped her off the street in front of our club!’
‘A misunderstanding,’ Sauvage says flippantly. ‘I wanted information about the destruction of the two labs, so I had her brought to me. But,’ he smiles almost wistfully, ‘she was there to be taken. She wished to see me. One of you told her that I was watching the building, perhaps?’
We all share a look. We did tell her that.
Sauvage’s smile widens.
‘She told me the truth about Envy.’ He shakes his head at Mav and tuts again. ‘Naughty children, lying to bon père. She is the chemist. Not you.’
Mav’s jaw tightens. ‘We were trying to protect—’
‘Oui, oui, protect her from the ogre.’ His eyes harden. ‘But you forget the ones closer to home, yes?’
‘What are you talking about?’ Shade asks, fear in his voice.
‘She is under my protection now.’
‘What the fuck?’ Mav mutters. ‘What the hell is this? You can’t keep her!’
‘I do not want to keep her,’ Sauvage laughs. ‘A man does not keep such a woman.’ He chuckles harder while we all look on in silence and confusion. ‘A man can only survive her.’ He snorts. ‘Or, men, perhaps. If that is what you are.’
‘I don’t get it,’ I say, forcing the words out in some semblance of politeness I don’t feel. ‘Daisy is under your protection? Why? What do you care? Is this just about her making the drugs for you? You don’t need to keep her prisoner for that.’
The French fuck shrugs. ‘Perhaps it is just that she is a brilliant chemist. Or, perhaps, she reminds me of someone I once knew,’ he looks away, a small reminiscent smile playing on his lips.
‘An amoureux a paramour. Someone who is lost to me now.’ He meets our eyes.
‘But she had the same fire. To see it go out,’ he shakes his head angrily.
‘Non. A travesty. I will keep her safe here. A secret.’
‘What do you mean, ‘a secret’?’ Shade asks quietly.
But Sauvage ignores his question. ‘She made Envy. A decent batch. She and I, we have a deal. She will—’
There’s a timid knock at the door and Sauvage breaks off.
‘Come,’ he murmurs in the softest tone I’ve ever heard him use.
The door opens slowly, and then she’s there in front of us.
I’m up and over the chair before anyone else can act, pulling her into my arms tightly, feeling like a huge part of me that was missing has been instantly restored.
She’s shivering and gripping on to me for dear life. I realize she’s sobbing and my heart breaks.
‘What happened?’ I whisper brokenly. ‘What did he do to you?’
But she just cries harder, and I cast a look of hatred behind me at Sauvage.
The Frenchman is still sitting behind his desk. His smug condescension is gone. He looks…sad. He doesn’t speak, just watches us huddle around her, holding her, whispering that everything’s going to be okay now.
She doesn’t say a word, and when Mav pulls her away from me and into his arms, she lets him hug her for a moment before she goes to Shade for the same.
I stand there in the middle of the room awkwardly, half wanting to grab her again and half wanting to throw myself toward the desk to tackle that asshole gangster to the ground.
But then she turns back to me and grips onto me again so tightly that it’s like she’s daring anyone to try to move her.
I swing her into my arms, and she buries her head in my chest. She’s still shuddering and crying, but her sobs have quieted now and, after a few minutes, she begins tracing the lines of the tattoo up the side of my neck with one fingertip.
‘Sit,’ Sauvage says very quietly. ‘Please.’
‘What did you do?’ Mav asks him, his face full of desolation.
Sauvage sighs, his eyes trained on the girl in my arms. ‘Her upset has not been caused by me, at least not completely. Though, I will admit that when she came to me yesterday, I was not kind to her. She is not well. I didn’t understand.
.. I thought… When people are brought to me, they’re always afraid,’ he explains quietly.
‘Sometimes, with good reason. They show it in many ways. I believed what I was seeing was simply fear. Perhaps adrenaline. I am to blame for that.’
In my lap, Daisy begins to relax, and a minute later, I see that her eyes are closed.
‘She’s asleep,’ I murmur, drawing her closer.
‘I have a room prepared for her. She will be staying here, in my hotel.’
‘No way,’ Shade growls.
‘Use the head that is on your neck!’ Sauvage hisses back. ‘Where will she go? Where can you take her that she will not be found and returned to her enemies?’
Shade opens his mouth to speak and then shuts it again.
‘You see? This is best.’
‘For her or for you?’ Mav says.
‘For all. Even you three. I will not keep her from you. She will make Envy. For me. For you.’ He scoffs.
‘She cares for you. I would have cut you out. She would only work for me if you three get your money too, and your percentage of the pills she makes. She will stay here. She will be safe. If you are quiet, no one will find her here.’
‘Fuck,’ I whisper, knowing he’s right. ‘She can’t come back to the house with us and, even if the club was anywhere near finished, that’s the first place they’ll come looking.’
‘No one will check here,’ Sauvage says. ‘Why would they? She is Marguerite Novelle, English Lit major and spoiled little rich girl.’ He smiles again. ‘They do not know her courage. No one would think she would come to me for protection. And why would Pierre Sauvage help the likes of her?’
He leans forward.
‘But whatever means you used to locate her, make sure no one else can do the same.’
I find myself nodding. ‘I already deleted the footage of your guys taking her off the street.’
Sauvage nods. ‘Bon.’
He stands. ‘Lionel will take you to the rooms I have had prepared. You may come and go as you please, but she cannot. Ensure you are never followed here.’
‘How are we going to do that?’ Mav asks, looking at Shade and me. ‘We’re being watched.’
‘Tunnels,’ Sauvage says. ‘You are familiar with some of them, I think. They extend much further than you realize. This town is like Emmental…Swiss cheese under its streets. There is an entrance through a crypt in the oldest graveyard.’ He smiles darkly. ‘The name is Banderville. Poetic, non?’
He walks to the door. ‘Take care of my petite fleur. Order what you need for her and it will be brought. When she is well, she will begin.’
He leaves us reeling in his office. We sit in silence for a moment.
‘Jesus,’ Shade mutters, raking his hands through his sandy hair that’s in dire need of a trim. ‘This was her plan. To come to a notorious gangster and make a deal.’
‘Because we couldn’t help her,’ Mav mutters.
He shakes his head at us.
‘I’m not sure what I thought she was going to do, but it wasn’t nearly this risky, or brilliant.’
He smiles down at the slumbering girl on my lap.
‘You’re crazy, Tulip, you know that?’ he says softly, moving her hair gently out of her face.
She doesn’t even shift in my arms.
‘Come on. Let’s get her to her room and figure out next steps,’ Shade sighs.
We get to our feet. I’m careful not to disturb Daisy as we exit the office. In the hall, two of Sauvage’s guys are waiting.
‘Don’t try anything,’ one of them says, hand on the gun at his belt. ‘Mr. Sauvage says that we can’t kill you, but if one of you tries to take the girl off the premises, we’re allowed to shoot you.’ He grins. ‘He didn’t specify where.’
‘Relax, Cujo,’ I say. ‘Just show us to her room.’
He looks unimpressed as he takes us down the hall back to the elevators where we came up. We go inside and he puts in a key before pressing the topmost number.
‘The penthouse?’ Mav asks.
‘That’s what he ordered,’ is all the guy says.
The doors open out onto a large living room bathed in sunshine. There’s a huge TV on the wall and a massive, plush, u-shaped sofa complete with a see-through fireplace on the other side of the space. There’s a doorway that seems to lead to a room with a pool table and a couple of arcade games.
‘Fuck,’ I hear Mav whisper, and I have to agree with his sentiment.
This place is amazing. I don’t want to like it because Sauvage is a dangerous asshole, but I’m pretty sure Daisy’s going to love it too, when she wakes up.’
‘Where’s the bedroom?’ I ask.
‘Here, I think,’ Shade says from across the palatial main room, and I follow him down the short corridor to some French doors that lead into a large bedroom with a bed that rivals the one we had in the club…before it was crushed.
Shade closes the blinds with a remote, plunging the room into darkness as I put Daisy in the middle of the bed. I lay down with her and Shade does the same. Mav joins us a minute later. None of us sleep, we’re just there with her.
When her body locks up next to mine, and she whimpers in her slumber, we’re there to comfort her, though her cries make us all wonder what the fuck happened to her in the Novelle house.
‘She hasn’t had nightmares like this since she first came to Richmond,’ Mav murmurs, and Shade and I both nod.
‘Do you think she’ll tell us everything?’ I whisper.
‘I hope so,’ Shade says quietly, not taking his eyes off of her, like he’s afraid she’ll disappear.
I feel the same way, which is why my hands haven’t strayed from her skin even once since she threw herself into my arms in that office.
‘She looks thinner,’ Mav comments. ‘Pale, too.’
‘You think she really was sick like she said?’ I ask.
‘I don’t know.’
I run my hand over her cheek. ‘I missed you so much,’ I whisper.
She shifts, rolling toward me with a sleepy sound and putting her arm around my middle.
I sigh, feeling more at peace than I have in days now that she’s back with us.
I only hope that this crazy plan she’s decided to act on won’t blow up in our faces. With the luck we’ve been having, whether it will or not is anyone’s guess.