Chapter 12 #2
‘One day,’ Shade mutters to himself and I wonder what he means.
‘Want a bath?’ Blake murmurs, fingers still buried deep.
I shift a little and nod. I hear the water start and then Mav makes a sound of disapproval.
‘Leave her alone now,’ he chides. ‘Come on, Tulip.’
Afew days pass, and my time in the Novelle house under the thumb of the, now late, nurse becomes like a distant memory.
I suppose it helps that the bitch is dead.
I still have nightmares about it almost every night, though, and I’m pretty sure I keep waking up the guys with them, but none of them have said anything.
Mav, Shade, and Blake have been spending almost every possible moment they can with me, and the numbness begins to dissipate.
I cautiously begin to feel that contentment and happiness from before.
In fact, it rivals our time living in the club together, though I do miss our bedroom along with our giant bed.
The one in the penthouse bedroom is nice, but it just isn’t the same.
Stevens is out of the hospital and recuperating back at the Novelle house, running the house from a wheelchair. The doctors say he’ll make a full recovery, but the police still haven’t found who did it.
I doubt they’ll ever be led to the Banderville door, so I guess the trail is cold.
I set the pill press to begin, finishing up the final batch that I'm making this week. I’m more than ready to go upstairs and spend the evening eating pizza and watching movies with my guys.
I haven’t left the hotel since I arrived and I don't miss the outside world much, not that I thought I would. Lu comes to visit every couple of days to make sure I’m being treated right, in her words.
Sauvage gave me access to his private gym, too, so I can run on the treadmill whenever I want. I miss my runs with Mav though.
I've also been keeping up with my classes and my papers, and Applegate has been in contact a few times to ask me how I am.
I think he wants to reconnect, maybe talk about my mother and the past that he shared with my parents.
But I'm not sure I'm ready to delve into that stuff, at least not before I know what happened to my mom. I’ve finished her diary and it doesn’t hold any more information that would help me find her and my father’s killer…
or maybe killers, I guess. All she really talked about in the rest of the entries was the wedding to John, what married life was like, how much she liked Andy and Jack, and the ways she was going to try to get John and me to bond.
That part made me put it down for a while.
She never did see what I saw, not even when he got rid of me, and I’m not sure I can forgive her for discounting me in favor of her new, shiny life…
maybe the one she secretly always wished she’d chosen from the beginning.
I don’t like that thought either, that if she’d been able to go back and do it over, that she’d never have chosen my dad, and never have had me at all.
I haven't received any notes or emails, and nothing else has happened since the day of the club’s destruction. It's like the Stalker has gone into hiding.
We're no closer to figuring out who he is, and even the guys Sauvage tasked with finding whoever bombed the club seem stumped.
I’m just making a list of ingredients I need for the next week when I hear the door. Assuming that it’s one of my guys, since everyone else knocks, I don’t look up.
'If you were serious, chéri, now is the time.'
I jump when the voice is Sauvage’s, and I whirl to face him with my hand on my chest.
I’m not afraid of him per se, but I think he might be what Douglas from The Heath would call a ‘fair weather friend’.
I have no doubt he’ll drop me as soon as I’m not useful to him.
I don’t like that he knows so many of my secrets either.
It doesn’t seem right when I’m not close to him like I am with Shade and the others.
I wasn't lying when I said I liked him, though. I do. He has a funny way about him, and although we have a business arrangement, and I shouldn’t trust him, I get a strange feeling that I entertain him or amuse him, which goes a long way in how he is around me, I believe.
He definitely doesn’t act like the crazy, violent mobster that the guys warned me about.
He can barely stand Shade, Mav, and Blake, though, and even I notice, so it must be a blatant dislike.
'What do you mean?' I ask, realizing I’ve been staring at him for a beat too long.
'Your fiancé. I have had word. He will be at one of my clubs in New York tonight. His name has appeared on the VIP guest list. The fool has no idea you’re here. If he did, he’d never go into la fosse aux lions the lion’s den. He will be vulnerable there.'
He nonchalantly checks his watch as my heart begins to pound. I can get my revenge. I could end this. I could be free of the Bandervilles’ wedding contract. Maybe John would lay off, and I could begin the process of freeing myself from his guardianship.
His brow rises when I don’t readily speak. 'You do still want—'
I find myself nodding. ‘Yes, I still want to.’
'The journey will take more than two hours from here. We must go soon if you’re to have your chance at him.'
I nod again. 'Let’s go.'
'And your… stooges?'
He rolls his eyes at my unamused look. 'Paramours, then. Do you tell them your plan?'
I wince a little. I’m meant to be including them, not just making decisions without them. But what if they don’t understand? Try to stop me?
'I want to tell them,' I say, realizing that I really do, and it’s not just because I don’t want them to be upset with me.
I grimace. 'But not until we’re all in your car and on the way, so they can’t make us turn back.'
He chuckles. 'They will spend their lives trying to tame the untamable, I think, chéri.
He takes out his phone and speaks into it in rapid-fire French for a few seconds. When he’s finished, he puts it back in his breast pocket and glances over at me.
‘It is arranged, but your paramours stay in the car,' he grumbles.
I smile in spite of myself.
'How do you wish to do it, ma petite fleur? A gun? Electrocution would be apt, no?’
I don’t like the reminder of him being present in the vulnerable moment when I got zapped, and then in the aftermath when I showed the Stinger to the guys. But he's staring down at my little shopping list when he suggests it, so I don't think he's making fun of me.
'Will poison work?' I ask hesitantly. 'I've made something. Will I have a chance to slip it into a drink?'
He nods sagely, and makes a sound of thoughtful interest.
'Oui, you may use your Aqua Tofana.'
'What’s Aqua Tofana?'
‘A poison women gave to their abusive husbands in Italy during the Renaissance.'
'But I'm not married to him,' I say absently as I write down something I’ve forgotten on my list.
I turn back to him, and he waves a hand. 'Semantics,' he murmurs. ‘Poison is a good choice. It is a woman's weapon, but also fitting for a skilled chemist, non?'
I nod. 'I guess it is fitting.’
His eyes bore into mine. 'And you have done this before. Killed a man? Once you decide such a thing, you cannot go back on it.'
I nod. ‘One. Maybe two,’ I say with a shrug. ‘I’m not sure. One at least.’
He shakes his head a little and mumbles something about me being incorrigible.
‘When you came here, you were a dying…Daisy.’ He smirks. ‘Now you are blooming again.'
‘I suppose,’ I murmur, wondering at these constant flower metaphors he seems to enjoy.
Maybe it’s a French thing. But I suppose he's right.
‘So, if you wish to continue blooming, ma petite fleur, you must wash the poison from the soil around you.’
I nod, understanding what he’s getting at. He believes as I do. It’s not just about revenge, it’s about healing as well. After everything that Joe did and still would do if I let him, the only way I can take back the power he stole from me is to destroy him.
Sauvage picks up the list. ‘This is everything you need?’
‘For next week. Yes.’
‘I will ensure it is ordered for Monday.’ He turns away and leaves the lab.
‘There will be clothes waiting for you upstairs,’ he calls over his shoulder. ‘You must embrace the look of the ‘party girl.’ An assassin is invisible.'
I hear him climb the ladder as I put the finished batch of Envy into the cupboard with the others.
When I go upstairs to the penthouse, the guys are there and they're looking annoyed.
'We just received a message from Sauvage,' Shade says, crossing his arms.
The others nod.
I frown, wondering if the Frenchman has betrayed me. If he has, how much of his supposed hatred toward Shade, Mav, and Blake is manufactured? Has he been playing me?
'You guys have a group chat with Sauvage?' I ask carefully.
‘He made us join it,’ Blake mutters like a child and I can’t help my chuckle.
‘He made you?’ I ask.
Shade gives him a look. ‘Not important.’
His eyes focus on me.
‘He pretty much just ordered us to be in his car in ten minutes. You know anything about this?’ he asks, stepping close.
He pinches my ass and I jump with a little squeal.
‘Yes!’ I admit. ‘But you’ll find out more in a car.’ I meet his eyes. ‘Trust me?’
He lets out a long breath through his nose and his brow furrows. ‘Fine, but you tell us everything in the car?’
I nod vigorously.
‘We’re probably going to regret this,’ Mav says.
Shade looks like he agrees but he shrugs. ‘We trust you, Daisy. Get ready to go.’
I smile and put my arms around his waist.
‘Thank you.’
He reciprocates with a sigh, and I pull away to go into the bedroom and get ready.
I find a red dress with matching heels and I put them on.
Sauvage said that time was of the essence, so I quickly go into the bathroom and throw my hair into a high bun on my head.
Using some recently acquired makeup skills, courtesy of Lu, I sweep some mascara over my eyelashes and roll on some cherry red lip gloss.