Page 15 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

‘We did it,’ I say above the whirring, and she nods, her smile widening.

‘Hopefully it works.’

I’m not much of a prayer, but I send some thoughts up into the ether anyway.

Jesus, please work. Please, please, please create a stable high for every damn person who eats one! Get Sauvage off our fucking backs and make us some damn money!

A few minutes later, when the press runs out of mixture, it stops automatically. It beeps again and, again, Daisy copies the noise.

I grab a small Ziplock and count out ten of the little pills, separating them from the pile, and frown at her as she quietly makes the noise again.

‘What’s with the beeping?’ I ask, burning with curiosity.

‘The what?’

‘You keep copying the noise the machine made.’

Her cheeks go pink immediately. ‘I didn’t realize I was,’ she mutters. ‘Sorry.’

I smile at her, I hope reassuringly. ‘It’s nothing to be sorry for, Tulip,’ I say. ‘I just wondered.’

‘I…uh…just like the noise and…the way my lips feel when I make it,’ she says quietly. ‘Sometimes I don’t know I’m doing it. I’ll try to stop.’

I turn her to face me carefully. ‘You don’t need to stop,’ I tell her. ‘It’s nothing to be self-conscious about.’

She purses her lips, not looking at me.

‘I think it’s cute.’

She looks up with an incredulous face. ‘Cute?’

I nod. ‘Adorable, actually.’

Her cheeks get redder.

‘Oh,’ she whispers before she lets out a cough and moves away.

‘Where will the pills be kept?’ she asks, changing the subject.

It’s clear that she’s embarrassed about making the sounds, so I just motion her over to a cupboard and open it to reveal a hidden safe at the back that’s built into the brick wall, letting the moment pass entirely.

"We'll keep them in here.’

I show her the combination and we put Envy safely inside.

‘Those ten are for Shade’s… people ?’ she asks.

I nod. ‘They’ll let us know what they experience, and we’ll tweak the recipe from there.’

She nods slowly. ‘I should put the recipe in the safe, too.’

‘You wrote it down?’

She shrugs. ‘Only in the simplest of terms. I’m not an idiot.’

I chuckle. ‘You’re the furthest from an idiot that a person can be.’

Then, I turn to her and take her hands so that she knows I’m serious.

‘You’re so fucking smart, Tulip, you know?’ I tell her, and she beams, blushing a little.

‘But…’ I make sure she’s looking at me, giving me her complete attention before I speak again. ‘Never tell anyone that you’re the only one who knows how to make this, okay?’

‘Why?’

‘Because the knowledge is worth a lot and it could put a target on your back.’

‘Who would target me?’ She rolls her eyes. ‘I mean besides the stalker, and the sorority girls, and Marcus, and Joe, and stuff? I don’t think any of them would care about Envy except maybe the stalker, depending on who he is.’

‘I don’t know,’ I lie and close my eyes for a second.

How can I be bothered by Daisy not telling us everything when I’m doing the same? How fucking hypocritical is that?

‘His name is Pierre Sauvage,’ I find myself saying.

‘We had to go into business with him because his son was one of the juniors who took the fall for us last year when…. Me, Shade, and Blake would have lost everything. It was the only way. Now we owe his family, and a couple others too. But Sauvage is the worst. He’s a bad guy, Daisy. A really bad guy.’

‘What happened last year?’ she asks.

I sigh. ‘We had an assistant. Angelo Giuliani. He figured out what we were trying to do. He made a batch of Envy using the first formula in the lab on campus and sold it to some of the guys in KIP.’

‘What happened?’ she asks.

‘He fucked up something when he was making it. Two guys in KIP died. Giuliani too. One was in a coma for four months.’

My hands rub at my eyes.

‘He didn’t come back to Richmond after that.

Anyway, it was a huge thing, of course. Andre, Sauvage’s son, came to us and said he’d take the fall along with Chris Spencer and Vice Bond.

His dad kept them out of jail, sent them somewhere where all the shit that happened wouldn't follow them, and we got to keep our lives. But we have to make sure they’re taken care of. That was the deal.’

Daisy is silent for a moment before she speaks. When she does, she seems more curious than upset about my revelations. ‘So Sauvage is the reason you were in a rush. With Envy.’

I nod. ‘He can’t know the truth, okay?’

‘What will he do?’ she asks, probably wondering what she’s really gotten herself into.

‘I don’t know, Tulip. I don’t want to and, trust me, neither do you. Shade’s going to be pissed that I told you all this, but you need to know that, now that you’re being seen with us, you might be in danger.’

‘But he just wants the drug made, right?’

‘That’s what he says , but who knows? I’ve heard he’s into a lot and he’s an impatient guy.

We’re going to need to roll Envy out at the club next weekend even if it’s not quite ready.

An actual launch. It needs to be a success, and we need to make the first shipment for him a couple of days after that. ’

‘Let’s get the samples out then,’ she says.

She shuts everything down and turns off the lights. I make sure the lab entrance isn’t visible in case anyone comes down while we aren’t here.

It’s almost ten in the morning, and when we get upstairs, I’m surprised to find Dom waiting for us.

‘I thought you’d be long gone by now.’

My brother stares at Daisy like he’s trying to work her out and I chuckle. ‘You won’t be able to read her, bro. Her tells are very subtle.’

But he keeps watching her and I frown at him.

We don’t argue much, but if he’s going to be looking at her like she’s untrustworthy, even after we’ve vouched for her, he and I are going to have a problem.

We haven’t had a physical altercation in a long time, and we share the same physique, but I will take him down if I have to.

He seems to realize that I’m getting annoyed because he eases off, his hard eyes leaving her. Daisy, as usual, is oblivious to the animosity, which I’m glad about.

She looks at me blankly and then stifles a yawn as she looks toward the side door. She’s dead on her feet from yesterday, I realize. The few hours I made sure she got clearly weren’t enough. I want to get her home so she can sleep properly.

‘Here.’ I thrust the Ziplock at my brother. ‘Shade said you know where to take these.’

He nods. ‘Yeah, I know where to take them. We’ll have info within two hours.’

‘We need as much information as they can provide,’ Daisy pipes up, speaking to my brother for the first time. ‘Oh! Actually, I made a questionnaire.’

She takes out her phone and shows him the screen. He just looks at her and my eyes narrow at him. If he’s going to be an asshole to her, all bets are off.

‘This ain’t market research, kid,’ he says with a condescending chuckle that makes her open expression shutter instantly. ‘These guys spend every waking moment flying. They beg and steal for their next hits. They aren’t going to fill out a fucking questionnaire.’

‘Dom,’ I say quietly, and it comes out as a low snarl.

‘Any women?’ Daisy asks.

Her face is still blank, but she doesn’t seem upset by the way my brother is treating her. I think it might be bothering me more than her, to be honest.

‘Excuse me?’

‘You said ‘guys’. Is that just a turn of phrase? Are there any women in the group? We need a cross-section of our demographic. Men and women. Equal amounts if possible. If there aren’t any women in the group at all, I’ll have to take it myself.

’ Her brow furrows as she speaks. ‘I should be able to remain compos mentis at least enough to take notes on my experience for most of it.’

She nods to herself and my eyes flash at Dom.

‘You are not taking it, Daisy!’

She looks surprised. ‘I will if I have to. I’m not going to sell it to women if it’s never been tested on a woman. It’s unethical.’

I pinch the bridge of my nose, and I’m sure I hear Dom laugh and try to hide it with a cough.

‘Daisy, without you this drug wouldn’t even exist in its current form. It’s a little late to be worrying about ethics, don’t you think?’

Her hands come to her hips and she straightens, her jaw setting mulishly. ‘No, not at all. The only reason I fixed it for you was because I saw the memo about it not being addictive and harmful. Do you think I would have touched it otherwise?’

My mouth opens and then closes. I don’t have an answer. I never actually thought about it, but I find myself smiling at her in spite of her obvious anger.

Our girl has a thick ethical streak. Why didn’t I realize that? But of course it makes sense. She has a clear idea of what’s right and wrong, it just might not quite fit everyone else’s notions.

I give Dom a pointed look.

He puts the pills in his pocket. ‘I’ll make sure there are women junkies as well as dudes in the mix,’ he mutters, his expression resigned.

‘Great!’ Daisy says enthusiastically. ‘If they won’t do the questionnaire, I need an external observer to document how long it takes for the effects to begin, when they peak, and when the subjects begin to come down.

I need to know how they feel, what they see, if they like it. Maybe I should just come.’

‘No!’ I exclaim, staring at my brother beseechingly.

He swears under his breath, his eyes closing as he tilts his head back toward the ceiling. ‘How about I stay with them and ask them the questions?’

Daisy lights up. ‘Oh, would you? That would be lovely. Are you sure it’s no trouble? After the initial ingestion, absorption, metabolism, and, finally, excretion should take between four to six hours, depending on the subject. Are you sure?’

‘Yes,’ he says quietly, suddenly looking at Daisy a bit differently than he was a few moments ago.

Maybe he’s beginning to understand that she isn’t just here because she’s ours, she’s here because she’s smart as hell.

‘Come on,’ I urge her.

‘But the questionnaire,’ she says, looking a little worried.