46. Daisy
Chapter 46
Daisy
I was bleary-eyed by the time we arrived in Philadelphia, the sun setting behind the city, turning the glass and steel skyscrapers gold. The Beasts had given me the option to fly, but a road trip had sounded like more fun, and we’d spent the day crossing two states in Benji, swapping spots in the car, eating junk food, and sharing our favorite music.
It was the kind of thing I might have done to get to know a guy — or three guys I guess — in another life, one where I wasn’t trying to figure out the identity of my biological father, where I wasn’t trying to figure out who was out there kidnapping girls.
Putting Blackwell Falls in the rearview was like pushing a lead weight off my shoulders. My problems — Ruth and my dad and Mac and my future with the Beasts — still existed, but they didn’t feel quite so oppressive.
We got out of the car in front of the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton and handed our bags to the bellhop before checking in. Fifteen minutes later we were stepping out of the elevator on the thirtieth floor.
It had been a while since I’d stayed in a hotel, and I’d forgotten the cocoon-like feeling of being encased in miles of glass and steel while the rest of the world — troubles included — moved around you, far away.
“This is us,” Wolf said, using the key card to open the door to a room at the end of the hall.
He held the door so I could go in first and I stepped into a well-appointed living room, a wall of glass offering up a bird’s-eye view of the city, a huge bedroom visible through a set of open French doors.
“Whoa,” I said, looking around. “I’m not sure I can afford this.”
“You’re not paying,” Jace said, studying me. “That’s why I gave them my card. This trip is on us.”
“Are you sure you can afford this?” I made a point of not asking about the Beasts’ financial situation. I knew they had money from the illegal stuff they’d gotten into before going to prison, but it really wasn’t my business.
“I’m sure,” he said.
Looking at the mini-suite, I felt almost stupid for luring them with money to help with the renovation of the house. I’d used it as a motivator — letting them live rent-free while they helped out — in addition to the space I thought they might want from their families after being in prison.
Clearly I was off the mark on the money part.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Get what, doll?” Otis was opening drawers and cupboard doors, mapping the place like a spy looking for all the exits.
“Why did you do it?” I asked. “Why did you agree to help me with the house if you didn’t need the money?”
They exchanged a glance before Wolf spoke. “We knew about the missing girls from the news.”
“So?” Until I’d gotten the broken vase from my first stalker — Calvin — the missing girls hadn’t been connected to me at all.
“So do you think we were going to take a chance after what Blake tried to do?” Otis asked, finished with his inspection.
“You accepted my offer to protect me?”
“Among other things,” Wolf said.
I didn’t know what to say. I’d been totally focused on trying to figure out if they’d killed Blake, sure they were the enemy, but the whole time they’d been there to look out for me.
“You should take a bath,” Jace said, changing the subject so fast I almost got whiplash, “get ready.”
“Ready for what?” We’d come to talk to the professor who’d run the law review for the past thirty years, but we knew from his schedule that he didn’t have any night classes. We were going to see him in the morning.
“Dinner,” Wolf said. “We have a reservation at eight.”
“You made a reservation?” I asked Wolf.
“Yep.” There was a knock at the door — the bellhop with our luggage probably — and he headed for the door.
“I didn’t bring anything nice,” I said. A quick trip to Philly to talk to Professor Alvarez hadn’t seemed like cause for fancy clothes.
“There’s a dress in the bedroom,” Jace said. “I had the hotel staff put it in the closet.”
“You bought me a dress?” Why did Jace seem to enjoy buying me clothes? Maybe it was the choosing he liked, the way he’d filled my closet with shorter skirts and lower-cut tops when we’d first moved in together at the house.
“You can’t go to the restaurant in that.” There was no disapproval in his voice, and there was definitely no disapproval in his eyes as his gaze roamed my tight jeans and the curve-hugging sweater I’d worn in the car.
Wolf entered the room with the bellhop. “There’s something from Otis and me too.”
The bellhop unloaded our bags from a cart and I left to inspect the bedroom and bathroom. The mini-suite had a huge soaking tub and I was suddenly excited to soak. My body was stiff from the long hours in the car and I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I’d taken a bath.
I shut the door separating the living room and bedroom and kicked off my shoes, then padded to the bathroom. Ten minutes later I was soaking in rose-scented bath water up to my nose, feeling like I’d died and gone to heaven.
I added hot water three times before I got out, promising myself to take baths more often when we got home. I’d been so busy working on the house — with not just the labor but the endless online shopping required to decorate it — and at Cantwell that I hardly ever took any time to just relax.
It was dark by the time I walked back into the bedroom wrapped in one of the thick hotel robes I’d found hanging in the bathroom. Beyond the bedroom windows, the city gleamed like a jewel in the night.
The door to the living room was still closed, but I could hear the murmur of conversation as the Beasts talked. It was comforting, not just the sound of their voices but the fact that at least one of them was always close. I missed hopping in the Mustang and running around without having to coordinate my schedule like it was a presidential event, but I liked having the Beasts close and I liked that they liked being close even though I never would have admitted it.
I found the dress in the closet, just like Jace had said. I held it up to inspect it, gasping at the designer tag, the deep amethyst silk that would fall above my knees.
It was gorgeous, with a demure neckline that fell off one shoulder and a bias cut that would drape in all the right places. But my favorite part was the lavender feathers, soft and light and draped over the skirt in a feathery overlay.
Jace had nailed it, and not just with the dress. There were silver stilettos with the famous red bottom, light enough not to detract from the dress, and a clutch, studded with silver sequins, that was big enough to hold my phone.
I felt like maybe Jace had missed his calling as a fashion designer.
And there was something else: a small black box tied with a silky violet ribbon like the one that had been around the lingerie Jace had given me when we went to the Velvet Rope.
If the dress and accessories were a present from Jace, the black box must be the present from Wolf and Otis.
I sat on the bed to open it, pulling at the ribbon and setting it aside, removing the top from the box.
I dug through the tissue paper until my hands found a scrap of silky fabric that looked like a pair of expensive underwear in a deep purple that matched the dress. I was always happy to have new underwear, especially ones as nice as these, but when I lifted them out of the box I realized there was more to them than met the eye.
They were a little heavier than they should have been.
Nestled in a pocket in the crotch, I found the source of the extra weight: a slightly curved piece of rectangular silicone less than a quarter inch deep, barely there but obviously made to fit the pocket.
What the fuck?
I jumped a second later when it vibrated in my hand.
Double what the fuck?
The piece of silicone stopped vibrating, then started again. It took me a few seconds to put it together.
Someone else was controlling it.
I looked at the closed bedroom door, realized the murmur of conversation from the Beasts had dropped a decibel.
I marched to the bedroom door and flung it open. “I guess you think this is funny?” I asked Wolf and Otis.
But there was no humor in Wolf’s face when he shook his head. “Nothing funny about getting you off, sunshine.”
“What if I refuse to wear it?”
“Why would you do that, doll?” Otis asked. “Getting off is fun. Besides, aren’t you tired of sleeping alone?”