Page 8

‘Better,’ I say, looking past him at Blake’s door.

Checking the cams will have to wait.

I sit back down and offer Shade a smile, thanking my stars that he didn’t come in ten seconds earlier and see the letter.

‘Did you get me these?’ I ask, touching the crutches.

He nods. ‘I know you like doing things for yourself. I thought these would make it easier.’

I nod, smiling despite my churning stomach. ‘I love them. You’re right, it’s much better being able to walk around by myself, you know?’

He nods. ‘Yeah, I know.’

He moves around the room almost as if he’s looking for something and I watch him, a little puzzled.

‘I got you something else, too.’

He pulls out a rectangular box and hands it to me.

‘A phone?’ I ask even though I can see the sleek picture.

I pull the lid off slowly and look at the thin, Pop Tart sized mobile… cell .

He nods. ‘I said I’d get you one. The battery is at a hundred percent and your number is saved as a contact, so you can easily find it. I put in mine, Mav, and Blake’s details already. Lu’s too.’

‘Thanks,’ I say, oddly touched that he’s done all this, even put in my best friend’s contact info.

I didn’t think he even liked Lu.

He nods. ‘It’s yours. It’s not a loaner, or anything. Please keep it charged, and with you at all times, okay?’

‘Okay,’ I say a little dubiously as the screen illuminates in my hand. ‘I’ve never used one of these before though.’

He looks amused. ‘It’s pretty intuitive. Just play with it a little and it won’t take you long to figure it out. I believe in you.’

I look up at him sharply. ‘Do you mean that?’

‘What?’

‘That you… believe in me?’

He nods, his lips forming a small, sad smile. ‘Of course I do, Marguerite. Always.’

We stare at each other, both of us at a loss for words for a few seconds, but then he looks away and clears his throat.

‘I spoke to Applegate, let him know that you can’t walk around. He emailed you some stuff to work on, so you can keep on top of things.’

‘Thanks,’ I murmur, giving myself a mental shake. ‘I certainly don’t want to put my classwork off. I only just caught up from before I changed majors.’

‘You’re caught up already?’ he sounds surprised.

I nod. ‘It was mostly reading,’ I mutter. ‘No big deal.’

He loiters a little while longer, commenting on random things and talking to me about nothing. Then he leaves abruptly, muttering a goodbye.

I stare after him in silence, wondering what’s going on with him because he’s definitely acting weird. And if I’m noticing, then he must be acting very weird.

I stare at my laptop, not wanting to check my emails at all, afraid of what will be waiting for me.

I decide to send my first phone message instead.

It takes a minute to find it, but Shade was right. It’s intuitive and quite logical.

‘Dear Lu. I hope you are well. This is my number. From, Daisy.

A reply appears almost immediately.

‘Hey, girl! Saved! This is gonna make it so much easier to tty!’

I frown as it makes me a moment to work out what ‘tty’ is.

‘Dear Lu. Yes. It will. Can you come to the house later? From, Daisy.

‘Ur not much of a texter, huh. I’ll b there, Daisy-bear.

I grin, but my eyes fall on the laptop. I can’t put it off. I need to start on the work that Applegate has sent anyway.

With a sigh, I cross the room and sink into my chair. I open the lid and log in, finding two emails in my Inbox from Applegate and one from a ‘no reply’ email address I don’t recognize. The sender is different from the one I got before. I open it and gasp as I’m met with a short, silent video of myself from one of the house cameras. I’m in the games room and Rob is slapping me to the ground, over and over in a loop.

‘Wish it was me. Try harder or it will be.’

I close the email, gritting my teeth.

Who is this asshole? What does he really want ? Just to torment me?

With renewed anger, I grab my crutches and make my way to the door. I crack it open quietly and listen. No one seems to be around, so I swing carefully across the hall into Blake’s room, shutting the door behind me and thanking whoever decided there should be carpeted halls in the house because my crutches would have given me away otherwise.

I go to his computer and open everything up. He never shuts it down properly when he leaves, but I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I find the camera that’s in my room and bring up the history from this morning. I see Mav and I moving around the room and he’s right. When we’re talking in bed, our words can’t be discerned. A few minutes later, when we’re louder, they’re easily heard though.

A moment later, I see myself leave to go to the bathroom. Mav leaves too, and there’s no note on the table. I breathe a sigh of relief because I don’t know what I’d do if I saw him pull it out of his pocket or something. But then the note just appears in the frame. I pause it with a frown, and rewind. It’s not there, and then it is. Like magic. But there’s no one in the room. I watch it again, paying attention to the time stamp. It jumps up by almost two minutes. I check the ones outside my door and even on the stairs, but they all seem to stop and restart.

Someone else has access. They must have shut off the whole system or rebooted it to cover their tracks the way that I do. Unless it was Blake… But he didn’t go into my room unless he doubled back after I went into the bathroom…

Deep in thought, I restart the system so there’s no record of me being in here.

Is Blake the one who’s doing this? Who else would have so much power over the security of the house?

I leave his room, quickly returning to my own, and sinking down into my chair.

Whoever this person is, they… he wants me to figure out what happened to my mom, so that’s what I need to do. Maybe if I do what he wants, then he’ll leave me alone.

But I can’t do anything until I’m back on my feet, so I try not to think about the weirdo stalker who can get into my room and likes watching videos of me getting hurt on repeat while writing me threatening letters.

Psycho.

I try to put it out of my mind and, instead, I work on what Applegate has sent.

Halfway through the day, I get an email from Mav with an encrypted link to the lab’s database. I’m surprised because, up until now, they’ve kept me on a leash in their space. Information has been drip-fed to me when I needed it. Now, I can see everything, and I wonder if Mav knows that, until I notice that my login is Level Four. It goes up to Level One, but it doesn’t seem to be working properly because I can open everything. Mav has given me all the information on a platter, and he doesn’t know it.

I look over as much historical data as I can while I can , and I see they’ve been working on this for the better part of two years. I don’t see anything that tells me what Envy is meant to do, though. The formula has been tweaked and changed a few times, and I can see where they’re trying to go because the drug is similar to LSD and other psychedelics in structure but also seems to share similarities with depressants.

They started this off the back of the first drug. It’s undeniable. I can tell by all the results from the past few months that they don’t know where to go next either. They can’t figure out the problem. The things they’re changing are just shots in the dark.

I eventually find a document buried in some obscure folder that looks like a typed note from Mav to Blake.

‘Not addictive, and danger levels nowhere near other substances such as Fentanyl and Methamphetamines. Potency fine. High similar to LSD, but not reliable. Keep green color if possible.’

Not reliable.

So, that’s the problem. At least, like the legal drug they made, it’s not addictive, which calms some of my moral obligations about being a part of this.

I keep working on my secret research for the next few hours, only stopping when Lu arrives as she messaged me earlier.

When she comes in, I get up and hobble over to her, taking her hand.

‘Thanks for the other night,’ I say.

She lets out a breath. ‘You don’t have anything to thank me for, Daisy,’ she says without any hint of a smile or a joke. ‘I’m here for you. Okay? I’m just so sorry.’

I let out a small sigh. ‘Stop. Let’s just both say that we’re sorry and give our thanks and let that be the end of it.’

‘Okay, Daisy Duke.’ She smiles. ‘Thanks, and I’m sorry.’

‘Thanks, and I’m sorry,’ I echo.

‘Cool.’ She throws her black backpack on my bed. ‘So now that that’s out of the way, where did you get the phone ? I mean, like, I knew you didn’t have one, but I didn’t want to make it a thing so…’

I laugh. ‘Shade got me it. He wants me to be contactable for safety.’

Lu nods sagely. ‘And how are you feeling? Do you need anything?’

‘I’m feeling okay. My ankle is a little better, I think. I’ve got a ton of work done, so silver lining, I guess. The guys are keeping me alive. I’m not allowed out, though. I can’t get down the stairs without them. It’s like I’m a prisoner in a tower,’ I mutter dramatically with a scowl at the door.

She snorts. ‘I could play the white knight and bust you out, if you want.’

‘Maybe in a couple days when I can walk again,’ I grin at her, but then remember the next battle is tomorrow.

I let out an annoyed noise. ‘I’m going to miss the next Dagorhir unless I can foamify my crutches and use them as weapons.’

Lu laughs. ‘Well, that’s a little soon, so I feel like you should probably rest up for the next one.’

‘I guess,’ I say a bit moodily.

Lu leans forward. ‘Did you hear what happened?’ she whispers.

‘With what?’

‘They found a pound of cocaine in Travis’ car.’

‘Travis? What happened to him?’

‘He’s in jail obviously!’

My mouth falls open. ‘How did they find it?’

Lu shrugs. ‘Tip off to some local, snitchy hotline. Anyway, the fucker is gone, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!’

‘Good,’ I mutter.

‘Mich is pretty happy about it. He was so over rooming with that racist, misogynistic piece of shit.’

I snort, remembering Halloween and then I frown as a suspicion enters my head. Did one of the guys do this to Travis because of his actions that night?

‘What is it?’

I lower my voice and hell her what I’m thinking. ‘It might have been them.’

‘What?’

‘What if Shade and the others planted those drugs so that Travis would get caught?’

The miscarriage of justice makes me feel uncomfortable, but Lu just shrugs. ‘If they did, kudos to them. They took out the trash. But why would they? They didn’t even know Travis, did they?’

‘Well, no, but he wasn’t very nice when I was at your building on Halloween. He called the campus police on me after Mich said I could wait for you in their room.’

Lu’s brows rise. ‘Mich didn’t tell me that part, but, yeah, it was definitely Blake.’

I frown, not sure how I should feel about them hurting people for me. But when I say as much to Lu, she just gives me a look like I’m being silly.

‘Just be glad you have people in your corner, buddy. In Richmond, that’s a fucking necessity for survival. It’s like the open ocean out there. Trust me. And be thankful.’

I nod, thinking through what she’s saying. It doesn’t sit right with me, though. I don’t want the guys to get in trouble for me.

Lu’s looking at me expectantly.

‘Sorry?’ I ask.

‘I was asking you if you’ve had anymore notes.’

I wince and nod. ‘Come to the desk where the camera can’t see and talk low,’ I whisper.

Lu follows me as I limp over and sit in my chair. I open the drawer and find the crumpled note, inadvertently bringing with it the birthday card I found in my mother’s closet weeks ago.

Lu looks at the note and glances at me. ‘What was the video of?’

‘Rob hitting me on repeat.’

She stares at me. ‘This is getting worse. You need to tell someone besides me. This is fucked. This person is dangerous.’

‘Who can I tell?’

‘Shade,’ she says instantly. ‘He might be an asshole, but it’s clear he cares about you. Do you really think it could be him?’

I sigh. ‘I don’t know. I don’t want it to be, but I don’t trust myself to see it.’

‘So, pick one of the others. Pick the one you think it’s not, or,’ she stares at the note, ‘pick the one you think it is, and see what happens.’

‘Isn’t that a little dangerous?’ I chuckle.

‘You have a phone. Tell me when it’s happening. I can be close by. I can call someone to help.’

‘Someone?’

Lu shrugs. ‘I have a ton of big, boy cousins who could be here in two minutes if I ask.’

I wrinkle my nose as I think. ‘Maybe,’ I concede.

‘What’s this?’ Lu picks up the card.

‘I found it in my mom’s room. She never sent it, but I know it was meant for me.’

Lu reads it out. ‘Daisy. Happy twenty-second birthday, my darling girl. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never meant for this. I was trying to prote– I never thought… I know you’ll never read this, that you don’t want to hear from me, but I hope that one day you’ll forgive me.’

She stares at it for a while.

‘I don’t get it.’

‘I don’t either. She wrote it, but it’s like she knew she’d never send it.’

Lu frowns.

‘We never had any contact. Once I was put in that place, I never heard from her again, but Shade said to me that she tried to contact me, that she sent me stuff. I think maybe John made sure we couldn’t talk to each other.’

‘Novelle? Why would he do that?’

I shrug. ‘Because he’s a controlling asshole? Because he wanted my mom to be a mom to his kids, and she gave too much of herself to her messed-up one? I have no idea. But that guy I was talking to at the party, he was at the gala that night when she went off the road. He told me she and John left together, and he was driving.’

Lu’s eyes widen. ‘But he’s not even mentioned as being in the car in the articles about it.’

I nod. ‘I know. I think he killed her and covered it up. He’s rich enough.’

Lu puts the card down. ‘I’m sorry.’

I shrug. ‘I want to find out what he did and expose him. I understand if you don’t want to help me anymore. It’s dangerous. The notes. The fact that it’s John Novelle.’

‘No way.’ Lu puts up her hand. ‘I’m your ride or die, okay? I’m there. I’ll be your Daphne, Thelma.’

I frown.

‘Okay, fine,’ she rolls her eyes. ‘I’ll be Thelma.’

I shake my head. ‘No, I don’t understand the reference. Sorry.’

She puts her face in her hands. ‘Never mind,’ she groans.

‘Oh!’ she perks up a second later. ‘I forgot to tell you. My cousin, Shannon, who works at Town Hall is back at work. She knows what she’s looking for, so, if there’s anything to find, she’ll dig it up. I forgot to tell you, I put in a request online for police report from your mom’s accident. It’s public record so they should release it. I’m not sure how long it’ll take, though. Maybe Shannon can speed it up. You’re welcome, by the way.’

I give her a small smile. ‘Thanks.’

Lu looks at her watch and stands up. ‘After we get the report, we should go out there and look at the site. See if there’s discrepancies.’

‘Okay,’ I say. ‘Are you leaving?’

She nods. ‘Sorry, sweetie, I lost track of time. I told my auntie that I’d go for dinner, so I gotta run. Let me know when you’re ready to go back to work and I’ll put you on the schedule. And message me later. I know there’s more going on with these guys than you’re saying.’

I give her a double thumbs up even as my cheeks heat and she giggles.

‘Later!’

Like a whirlwind, she’s suddenly gone, and I get back to my research. Shade brings me some dinner but can’t stay, so I eat by myself. I don’t mind, though. My mind is working overtime trying to figure out how I’m going to fix the formula for Envy and wondering about my stepfather’s motivations when it came to me and my mom.

That night, after I go to bed, Mav comes into my room and sleeps in my bed with me. He cuddles up to me in the night, but that’s all, and he’s gone before I wake up the next morning. I’m left feeling oddly frustrated after that and a little annoyed, but I don’t know why.

The next few days follow the same pattern, although I’m glad I have the time to research Envy and how I might be able to fix it, I’m going a little stir crazy. By the fifth day, I can’t take it anymore.

‘I need to get back to class,’ I tell Shade as soon as he comes to bring me breakfast on Friday morning. ‘It’s been almost a week, and my ankle only hurts if I try to walk on it. And I have the crutches.’

He gives me a commiserating look that I hate. ‘Give it another couple?—’

‘No, and if you don’t help me, I’ll find another way.’ I say firmly. ‘I’m going to fall behind if I don’t get back to it. And if I do, I won’t get the grades I need, and John will...’

I swallow hard, trying to hide my suddenly shaking hands.

This thing is getting worse, I realize. Panic and fear are quick to rise at the moment. They make me feel jittery and sick. My head hurts with it. Maybe it’s because I’m stressed in general. My room when I’m going stir crazy doesn’t make for a very calming and recuperative environment.

‘Okay,’ he puts his hands up. ‘But one of us will make sure you get to class and the lab.’

My eyes narrow. Like in the beginning.

He points at me. ‘And you have your phone on you at all times.’

Rude.

‘Fine,’ I mutter. ‘I have class in an hour. Will you be available?’

He checks his watch and lets out a noise of dissatisfaction. ‘Nope, I’m supposed to be in class myself just before.’

He gets his own phone out and sends a message. It vibrates almost immediately with a reply, and he nods.

‘Blake’s free.’

Oh… No.

I’ve successfully avoided him since last weekend. I don’t want to be around him. It’s practically an aversion at this point.

With a sinking feeling, I hobble to the bathroom and grab a shower. I put on some clothes, successfully getting my jeans on, but only able to wear one shoe because my foot is still a bit too swollen. I go for a sneaker on the good foot because it seems the most practical, and a sock on the other. I’m ready to go just before it’s time, when there’s a knock on my door.

I open it.

Blake is standing out in the hallway, and I stare at the floor. I was going to rail and rant, make sure he knows he was an asshole to me, but I guess, when it comes down to it, I’m all bluster because I just look at the carpet like it holds the secrets of the cosmos and edge past him as well as I can with my crutches, my mood falling quickly under his gaze.

‘Where’s your coat?’ His voice is sharp, and it suddenly makes me recall that the stalker really could be him.

It makes me feel like a coward because all I want to do is go back into my room and hide in the closet.

‘Don’t have one,’ I say and gasp as he steps in front me, halting my progress down the corridor.

My eyes find his, and I don’t know what I’m seeing in them. Is he going to do something to me here in the hallway? Would I even be able to stop him? He had blood all over him the other night.

I bite the inside of my lip, so it doesn’t tremble.

What is he into?