Page 13 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

Shade’s lips thin as he looks at me. ‘I’m going to grab the ingredients for the press, put in a complaint about Black harassing Daisy and then I’m going to learn more about that fire he was talking about.’

‘You are?’ I ask. ‘But it was years ago. There won’t be anything to find, will there?’

‘You were in Pennsylvania back then, right?’

‘Yeah, in Allentown. That’s where his lab was,’ I say. ‘But why bother?’

Shade stares at me for several seconds. ‘Because maybe it’s not an isolated incident. You always thought it was an accident, but if it wasn’t then that means that both your parents were murdered, Daisy. Why? Do they have anything to do with each other?’

He runs a hand through his hair in frustration. ‘You could be in danger.’

I give him a wan smile. ‘I’m making drugs, marrying an abusive piece of shit, and I have a megalomaniac guardian controlling my life. You think I’m not already in danger?’

‘Fair enough,’ he allows, ‘but don’t you want to unravel this?’

I sigh, suddenly feeling ten times more exhausted.

‘The stalker is already making me play detective in my mom’s death.

I don’t think I have it in me right now to deal with that along with school, matrimony, Envy, detectives threatening me, and all the rest of regular day-to-day life,’ I say honestly.

Shade bends over me and kisses me ‘That’s why I’m doing it,’ he says quietly. ‘You’re not a one-woman show, Daisy. We can help you, if you’ll let us.’

The weight on my shoulders lifts a little and I find my eyes doing the same, searching his face. He’s right. All three of them are here. I don’t have to do everything alone. I can ask for help. I have them. I have Lu. They all care about me. They’re mine.

‘All right,’ I say, running my hand along his rough jaw.

He turns into my touch and kisses my hand and then he’s gone.

Mav gets up and goes with him, leaving me with Blake, who goes to sit at the desk. He opens a laptop, puts his feet up on the black mahogany, and eyes me over the top of his screen.

‘Rest, gorgeous. We have it under control and, don’t worry, that detective won’t be getting anywhere near you again.’

I put my feet up on the couch and yawn, closing my eyes and allowing my head to sink down to the armrest.

Life since I got here hasn’t been what I thought it’d be at all.

It’s more than I ever dreamed it could be, and yet there are so many dangers that I never even realized existed when I was a kid.

I hear Blake tapping away on his keyboard.

The incessant sound relaxes me, helping me to drift into a semi-conscious state.

I hear the door a few times, but I stay where I am. Someone puts a blanket over me, and I snuggle into it deeply.

‘Daisy?’

‘I’m up,’ I murmur with a yawn, not opening my eyes.

‘Daisy, there’s an alarm clock buzzing in the lab.’

I’m sitting up and trying to clear my sluggish brain immediately. ‘The alarm shouldn’t be going off yet. What time is it?’

‘Five.’

‘AM?!’ I exclaim. ‘But it’s been hours. You should have woken me!’

I finally look around the office properly and see that Blake is gone and it’s Mav who’s standing in front of me.

He puts his large hands on my shoulders, rubbing up and down my arms gently. ‘Everything is fine,’ he says calmly. ‘You were exhausted, Daisy. I checked every hour, and I made sure there were no problems, okay?’

‘Yes,’ I breathe.

‘Do you trust me?’

I nod. ‘Of course.’

‘Okay, then.’ He grins and turns away, picking a mug off the coffee table behind him and handing it to me.

‘Tea?’ I ask with a smile.

‘Yeah, Blake had to…go out last night. He grabbed the box from the house for you.’

‘That’s really nice of him,’ I yawn, taking the mug and having a sip.

I let out a small sigh, closing my eyes for just a moment.

As I slip on my shoes, I frown down at them, trying to recall when I removed them.

‘You looked uncomfortable,’ Mav says, ‘so I took them off just before Blake put the blanket over you.’

I nod. ‘Thanks. Okay, let’s see if it’s ready.’

He goes first, and I hear him stomping down the stairs.

Following, I take a moment to survey the club. I can see the whole thing at once from this height. It’s deserted now and I notice some of the same employees that were here yesterday. There’s a young woman behind the bar restocking bottles and some guys clearing tables and sweeping the floors.

I get to the bottom of the steps and the girl behind the bar raises her chin in my direction.

‘Want a cocktail, babe?’

I blink at her. ‘But it’s five am.’

She shrugs. ‘It’s cocktail o’clock somewhere.’

I raise my mug at her to show her I already have something, and she gives me a thumbs-up. ‘Let me know if you change your mind. I’m the best mixer they got here.’

Mav snorts. ‘Whatever, Sandy.’

She winks at me when his back is turned, and I can’t help my smile as we go through the door marked ‘PRIVATE’ that leads to the basement.

‘Won’t anyone wonder why we’re going down here?’ I ask as we descend.

I see Mav shake his head in the low light. ‘Nope. They won’t say anything. They’re paid not to notice.’

‘Does anyone else know the lab is down here?’ I ask.

‘Only my brother.’

I frown in the darkness. ‘But if no one knows it’s down here, why would you need to pay people not to notice people coming down here?’

He freezes for a second at the bottom of the stairs before he turns, and his eyes find mine and then flick to the left.

‘I’ll show you.’

He turns, and I realize there’s a narrow passage beside the steps that I didn’t see before. I hear a bolt unlock.

‘Come on.’

I peer after him and step into the corridor, noting one door on the left and two more on the right.

‘In here.’

I step over the threshold and blink as a switch is flicked and soft lighting floods a spacious room.

Its walls are black patterned wallpaper with accents of silver and green and there are pieces of furniture.

A normal looking couch and a coffee table are in the middle of the room facing a TV on the wall, but there are also some odd-shaped pieces as well like a padded table with ropes.

My eyes dart to Mav who’s watching me closely from just inside the door.

‘What is this place?’ I ask.

‘It’s another part of the club. VIP. A very exclusive part. Invitation only.’

‘Is this an invitation?’

‘Fuck,’ he splutters, his eyes widening at me.

‘If you want it to be,’ he chokes.

I turn back to the room, taking in a big, black X-shaped thing with restraints on it, and a unit of drawers and cabinets on one wall.

There’s a black swing hanging from the ceiling and a small bar in an alcove close to Mav.

There are a couple of other doors. I open the nearest and find a small, but clean bathroom complete with a shower cubicle.

‘Wish I’d known about this last night,’ I say to Mav.

‘Why?’

‘The only reason I came upstairs was to use the bathroom. If I hadn’t, that detective wouldn’t have caught me.’

‘The door to the Dark Lounge is usually locked,’ he says.

‘And there was a VIP in here last night, so you couldn’t have used it.

I’m sorry. I hadn’t realized. Any night but Saturday is fine though.

I’ll make sure you have the authorization on the app that Shade put on your phone for the other doors down here. ’

‘Okay,’ I shrug and then side-eye him. ‘Do you…bring people in here?’

He shifts. ‘I have. Once or twice.’

‘And the others?’

He nods.

‘Lately?’

His eyes don’t leave me as he shakes his head. ‘No, Tulip. Not lately. I don’t think any of us have been in here since we met you.’

A warm feeling floods me and I give him a pleased smile as I move toward the door.

‘The lab,’ I remind him.

‘Right.’

We leave the weird sex room and go across the cellar to the other side. Mav slides the door open, and I immediately check through the data that’s printed out overnight.

‘You tested every hour?’

‘Every hour on the minute,’ he assures me. ‘It stabilized around the eighth.’

‘The eighth. That’s earlier than my research into these types of drugs indicated. It won’t take as long to make each batch as I thought. You’re sure it was eight hours in?’

He nods. ‘I tested it three times to be absolutely sure.’

I catch his eye and see that he’s smiling. I’m not sure why though.

‘I think it’s ready to mix with the excipients and test in the machine.’

Mav nods, looking through the data himself. ‘Agreed. Shade should be back soon. He went to grab what you asked for from the lab on campus.’

‘Applegate doesn’t mind you taking things from his building?’

Rolling his eyes a little as he looks at the paperwork, Mav’s lips twist into a hint of a sneer. ‘Applegate thinks it’s hilarious that Shade does whatever he can to undermine his father. Sometimes I wonder if the prick wants Shade to get caught.’

‘What do you mean?’ I ask, not really able to marry up the image of the straight-laced head of department with what Mav is saying.

Applegate does not strike me as a man who thinks things are ‘hilarious’.

‘He sort of…I don’t know…goads Shade into taking risks he doesn’t need to. It’s just….’ He shakes his head. ‘I’m sorry. It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have said anything.’

‘They know each other? John and Applegate?’ I ask, ignoring him.

‘Only in that their families are both from this area. I think Applegate and John went to Birchmore Academy together. It’s a rich kid school about an hour north of here. Don’t know if they were friends back then, but they go out of their way to avoid each other now.’

‘But Novelle still gave the university the money for the new science building?’ I query.

People are so weird.

Mav nods. ‘John wasn’t given control of who Dean Wallis would hire. I heard he was pissed when he found out it was Applegate. But they mostly seem to stay out of each other’s way.’