22. Daisy
DAISY
“Momma,” Elsie squeals. “This is amazing.”
She’s currently sitting next to me on the otherwise empty airboat being driven by Maren, who wrapped her generosity in the pretense that this is a belated birthday present.
Most people just text and say, Sorry I missed it, but Maren’s plan was to take Elsie out on a flat-bottomed boat with an engine loud enough to rearrange my internal organs.
We’re all wearing ear defenders, which isn’t comfortable either, but the look on Elsie’s face says it’s worth it.
She spent the whole morning over breakfast asking if alligators can jump. And then if they can climb. And then if alligators like pink glitter sandals. And if they can smell peanut butter crackers through a backpack.
Since we arrived at the Magnolia Bait and Marine Supply store that Maren runs, Elsie has found even more ridiculous questions. Did she need a special boat hat? Are alligators deaf? Can cars go faster than alligators?
“Do you have a pet alligator?” Elsie shouts to Maren.
Maren slows the boat so the engine quietens enough to let her answer. I’m about to tell Elsie that she doesn’t, when Maren nods.
“Technically, he’s not my pet to look out for, but over there”—she points to a cluster of trees in the swamp—“there’s a big hunk of a ‘gator that I’ve named Ernie, and I also go say hi and toss him some fish guts if any of the fisherman drop some off to be disposed of.”
Elsie’s nose crumples up in disgust. “That’s gross.”
Maren grins. “Not if you’re an alligator.”
She speeds the boat up until we’re moving so fast, it feels as though we’re flying just above the water. Then I chuckle at myself because…yeah…it’s called an airboat for a reason.
By the time we get back to the bait shop dock, Elsie’s cheeks are flushed, and her curls are wild from the wind. “Momma, can I get an airboat for Christmas? I’ll let you and Vandal and Maren drive it until I’m old enough.”
“That’s very generous of you,” Maren says.
Elsie looks up at me with both hands clasped under her chin like she’s begging. With those big sad eyes, it’s a dirty trick and she knows it.
“Do not look at me like that when you just spent the last forty minutes insulting every bird in the Everglades.”
“I was saying hello,” she says.
“You told one it’s legs were too skinny.”
Maren laughs so hard, she has to turn away.
“Why don’t we get a drink and some cake,” Maren says when she composes herself.
“Can we, Momma?” Elsie says, jumping up and down on the spot.
“Sure, if Maren says it’s okay.”
Maren takes Elsie’s hand. “It’s more than okay.”
There’s lots of metal fencing around the original bait store.
Maren told me a horrifying story of how it had recently caught fire and how she and Knox intended to rebuild it.
But the cafe has had to adapt. While it once used to sit inside the bait store, it’s now a temporary building made out of a shipping container in the parking lot. There are chairs and tables outside.
And the lady Maren has running it did a good job of trying to decorate the interior. There are nets hanging from the ceiling, faded photos of airboats and guests fishing, and a chalkboard menu. Because of the later hour of the day, it’s empty.
We order a lemonade for Elsie and iced tea for Maren and me. Plus three fat slices of Key Lime pie.
“We could have shared,” I say to Maren when she hands Elsie a slice with a mound of whipped cream that’s almost as big as her head.
“Thank you, Maren,” Elsie says without prompting, and I smile at her. She’s a good kid.
Maren looks to Elsie conspiratorially. “Birthdays require full slices that you don’t have to share, right, Elsie?”
Elsie already has a forkful of whipped cream in her mouth as she nods furiously.
We’re halfway through the pie when Sunny, Ridge, and a guy I haven’t met before walk into the cafe. “Sneaking off work, Maren?” Sunny asks.
She jabs her fork in Elsie’s direction. “I just had a VIP on my boat.”
I look at the third guy for a moment. There’s something familiar about him, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. He must be someone I’ve seen at the bar.
Or maybe he lives in my building and we’ve passed on the stairs.
Elsie grins, then turns to me, confused. “What’s a VIP?”
Ridge rustles her hair. “It means a very important person.”
Elsie shifts her head away from Ridge and looks up at him suspiciously. I’m never going to tell her that she has to allow men to touch her, even though Ridge meant no harm.
The new guy lifts his hand to his hair to slick it back from his face. And then I see it. The tattoo sits low on his wrist, over his pulse. Black ink. Sharp lines. A crown and blade.
Suddenly, I’m thrown back into the past again, my heart thudding in my chest. I nudge my chair closer to Elsie’s as I assess the exit. They stand between Elsie and me and the door.
I’m not sure what to do. Do Sunny and Ridge know who the man is? Are they here collectively for me? Or do they not know him and somehow this guy has gotten past the club’s or their safeguards?
If I just blurt what I know, the man could get violent or hurt Elsie.
My hand tightens on the edge of the table as I try to school my face. Carefully, I grab my phone and try to act casually while I type a message to the only person I can trust to help me navigate this.
Daisy: One of Alvarez’s men is at Maren’s with Sunny and Ridge. What do I do?
Vandal: What? How do you know?
Daisy: Don’t be mad. I recognized his tattoo.
Vandal: Let me call Sunny. Be ready to grab Elsie. I’m about twenty minutes away. I’ll fix this.
I have no choice but to put my faith in Vandal.
Casually, I throw my arm over the back of Elsie’s chair, even as my hands shake.
A moment later, Sunny’s cell phone rings.
He looks down at the number, then briefly at me, before he answers his phone, thankfully stepping back from the third man. “What’s up, Van?”
I see the humor fade from his features as he glances down to the cuffed sleeve of the stranger’s shirt. “Yeah, fancied some cake,” he says as if nothing is wrong.
The words don’t match the grim look on his face. He checks the stranger isn’t looking before he gestures that I should cover Elsie’s eyes.
“Yeah,” Sunny says. “Doing that right now.”
I reach for Elsie, cover her eyes. She squirms and wriggles against me, but I tug her close just as Sunny brings the handle of his gun down hard on the man’s head.
“What the fuck?” Ridge shouts when the man slumps to the ground next to him.
I let out a fast whoosh of air. I guess that move confirms that the club didn’t know who he is.
Maren slides her chair back and jumps up. “Oh my God, Sunny.”
Sunny drops to the floor and puts his knee on the man’s back before stripping him of weapons while he’s out. “He’s one of Alvarez’s men, right, Daisy?”
“He is,” I confirm as Ridge suddenly turns in my direction, the look of confusion still plastered to his face. Then he snaps out of it and produces a long cable tie from a pocket.
I don’t want to know why he carries them with him, because I doubt it’s for home renovation.
“Momma, you’re hurting me,” Elsie says as I stand with her still in my arms, her head pressed against my shoulder.
Ridge grabs my arm and Maren’s. “We can talk about how you know this guy in two seconds, but first we’re getting the three of you out of here.”
I follow his lead. And Maren points to the boathouse. “It’s concrete. We’ll be safe. I can lock the door.”
“Feels like I need hazard pay,” Ridge says, as he hurries us along. “If I fuck up looking after the prez’s old lady, unborn kid, and Vandal’s…” He looks at me and shrugs. “Fuck knows what you are…but both V and Knox are gonna kick my ass.”
“It’s one of Alvarez’s men,” I say quietly.
“He has a tattoo on his wrist. They all have them. A crown and blade on their pulse point. Like, they’d give their life blood for him or something.
I noticed that guy had one when he raised his hand to push his hair off his face.
I didn’t know why he would be with you, so I messaged Vandal. ”
Ridge blows out a breath. “Before we leave today, I’m gonna make sure you have my number so you can message me directly.”
Then he disappears, and I put Elsie down. She had been shaking in my arms, but it’s both a miracle and painful that she knew to be quiet until we were safe.
“Momma,” she says quietly. There’s a questioning fear in her tone.
I crouch down in front of her. I don’t want to lie to her and invalidate what she can sense, but I don’t want to scare her. “It’s okay, sweetheart. We’re safe in here. But a naughty man came into the cafe, and Sunny and Ridge had to make sure he couldn’t hurt us.”
She looks up at Maren. Understandably, my explanation on its own isn’t enough to settle her as fat tears fall.
Maren nods. “What your momma said is true.”
Elsie sniffles and wipes her face with the heel of her hand. “Was he gonna hurt us?”
“You know, I don’t know what he was going to do, but I don’t think he was expecting Sunny to take care of us,” I say.
Elsie looks unconvinced. And it’s understandable, because there’s only so much reassurance a child can absorb when she heard a grown man hit the floor and was carried out of the room by her momma.
“What’s Mr. Sunny going to do to him?” she asks quietly.
Maren glances at me briefly before answering. “He’s probably just gonna ask him some questions to understand what he was gonna do. I have a little apartment in here up those stairs. We should go wait up there.”
There’s no need for her to add the words until we know we’re safe.
Elsie curls herself around my leg, holding on tight to me.
“Come on, sweetheart,” I say. “Let’s go sit down.”
Elsie sighs. “I didn’t even get to finish my pie.”
Maren offers Elsie her hand. “I got plenty more pie where that came from. I’m sure we can send you a big piece home.”
It’s quite possibly the only thing she could have said to help Elsie release her hold on me. “Thank you, Maren.”
I’m just about to follow Maren up the stairs when my phone rings. And for one stupid second, my heart jumps into my throat before I even look at the screen.
Vandal.
The sight of his name nearly knocks the breath out of me.
Because it’s been almost two weeks since he walked out of my apartment. That’s a lot of days to have not heard his voice. I blink hard and force myself to answer the phone before it rings out.
“Vandal,” I say, anticipation fizzing in my veins.
“Hey, baby.” God, how those two words undo me. “Are you safe? Is Elsie okay?”
Something warm twists painfully through me at that. That he thought about both of us. “We’re okay. We’re about to head somewhere in Maren’s boathouse.”
“Good. Stay locked in there. Knox is on his way and knows how to get in. I’ll be there in fifteen.”
“Okay.”
“And, Daze?”
“Yes.”
“It’s good to hear your voice.”
The line goes dead, and I hurry up the stairs behind Maren and Elsie.
“Is Van okay?” Maren asks, as I step into a simple room that has a small kitchenette, a large bed, and a sofa that’s shaped to suggest it’s a pull-out bed.
Elsie is currently sitting on it, watching a cartoon on the television.
“You haven’t seen him?”
Maren shakes her head. “Knox said it was members only, no family, not even me. Guess they wanted to give Van some space.”
“Maren!” The voice booms from down in the boathouse.
Maren smiles and moves to the door. “We’re up here.”
Footsteps pound up the stairs, and a harried-looking Knox appears at the top of them, pushing his hair back off his face. “Jesus, sweetheart. Are you okay?”
“We’re good,” Maren says.
He grabs her and tugs her to him so firmly that her feet lift off the floor, and big hands span her back.
I’m glad that Elsie is so absorbed in the cartoon show on the television that she doesn’t look back to see what an indecent kiss it is.
Even I find my cheeks filling with heat, and I turn away to give them privacy.
“You sure you and the baby are okay?” The rough edge of fear taints Knox’s words.
“I promise. I’m fine. It was some quick thinking on Daisy’s part.”
Knox looks over to me. “What happened?”
I step closer to them, away from the earshot of Elsie. “I want to talk to Vandal before I explain more, but I know the tattoo on that man’s wrist. It’s a sign of Alvarez’s men. He likes them branded. I just didn’t know why he would be with Sunny and Ridge. So I messaged Vandal.”
Knox nods, but I can see the suspicion in his eyes, like he can see straight through to the missing pieces I haven’t told him yet.
Like, how do I know they have a problem with Alvarez, and why do I know about the tattoo.
“Good thinking,” he says. “Not sure what you saved us from, Daisy, but I’m grateful. ”
He squeezes Maren’s hands. “Just gonna go check in with Ridge and Sunny. Stay in here until I come get you.”
While Vandal said it would take fifteen, it takes only eleven minutes for me to hear a second set of boots on the stairs. And when he appears at the door, I’m taken aback by the sight of him.
His eyes look so much bluer. Without all the red lining them, they stand out more. The bags are lighter but not yet gone. And he’s showered. His hair, freshly washed, falls about his face. Gone is the puffiness and the signs of exhaustion. Instead, he looks a decade younger.
And he’s looking at me like he’s gonna eat me for breakfast.