Page 19 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

But it’s Sunday night. Nothing happened on Sunday nights and why would they lie to me? My eyes narrow. If I’m punished for lying, they should be as well. Otherwise, it isn’t fair.

‘Do you want a quick shower?’ Shade asks, clearly thinking I’ve moved on from our conversation.

There’s nothing I can do about it now, I rationalize, so I leave it for now and give him a cautious nod.

My body feels floaty and exhausted, but also sticky. I rise, sitting up and feeling my head swim. Giving it a second, I blink a few times and yawn as I get to my feet.

‘My legs feel like Jello,’ I say, shaking them out a little.

Shade smiles. ‘Well, you did come like five times, and that fourth one was pretty intense.’

I nod, blushing a little as he leads me to the bathroom.

Shade puts my hair up with one of my scrunchies, so it doesn’t get wet again, and we get in together.

He soaps me up like Mav did earlier and I smile a little at the thought that I’ve had two showers today, and I didn’t wash myself in either of them.

But I’m sort of glad he does it for me as the thought of doing anything but standing obediently still and moving only when asked makes me feel even more tired than I already do.

My weary eyes find the daisy tattoo on his chest, and I stare at it, committing every line to memory as Shade trails the loofa over my body slowly.

When we get out, I’m swaying a little as Shade dries me and he picks me up, taking me to my room.

I notice that there’s a small towel on my pillow and give him a lazy smile. ‘Thanks. What time is it?’

‘Almost eight,’ he replies. ‘Are you hungry or do you just want to sleep?’

‘Sleep,’ I whisper. ‘I thought I wanted pizza, but I’m not really hungry now.’

‘Okay,’ he says, pulling the cover over me before I feel him get into bed next to me.

‘Are you staying with me?’ I ask sleepily.

‘Yeah. If that’s okay with you.’

‘Yes,’ I murmur, closing my eyes and snuggling down. ‘That would be really nice.’

I feel him get closer, holding me against him. I’m glad that he’s here. I hope he’s not still upset about what happened before. I remember that contented feeling I had earlier and I sigh.

‘I love you, Jack,’ I whisper without thinking, and even in my half asleep state, I wince.

He freezes. He doesn’t even breathe.

What have I done?

‘I love you too, Marguerite.’

Relief floods me, and I turn to him, breathing in the sandalwood scent of his soap and keeping my eyes closed. ‘I think I always did. From that first day you showed me how to play videogames.’

‘Me too,’ he whispers.

BLAKE

When the buzzing of my alarm wakes me, I almost throw it across the room.

I’ve gotten barely two hours of sleep, and I feel like shit. I haul myself out of bed and into the shower, trying not to think about what I had to do last night.

It’s the begging that gets me, not from assholes who deserve everything they get, but from shop owners, and family members.

Last night when we arrived at some pizza place on some bad street, I did what I had to do.

Me and another guy I haven’t met before, Farley, trashed the shop because the owner, Sal, hadn’t paid his dues.

Farley started beating the shit out of Sal, which was part of what we were there to do, but we hadn’t known that his teenage daughter was in the back, so when she came out sobbing for us to leave her dad alone, Farley grabbed her and bent her over a table with a sickening laugh while they both begged him to stop.

My stomach churns at the memory. The kid looked like she was barely fourteen.

I pulled a laughing Farley off her and pushed her into a closet to save her from him, telling Sal we’d be back if he didn’t pay up, and hoping that he finds the money because that sick fuck is going to follow through with his threat, I know it. He wants to. I saw it in his eyes.

My shower is short and cold, mostly to shake off the lingering disgust that’s coursing through me.

When I see Daisy, make sure she’s okay after what we did yesterday, I don’t want to still be thinking about the things Kormak tells me to do.

My brow furrows as I remember Daisy laying in the bed. The way she looked when Shade was forcing her to come wasn’t something I enjoyed, and I hope Shade learned that being punished like that is clearly a hard limit for her.

I throw on some clothes and go downstairs, nodding at the guys in the kitchen and boiling some water for Daisy’s tea. There are some muffins out on the side, so I grab a triple chocolate one for our girl, knowing she likes her sweets.

‘You drink tea?’

I glance up at Jackson, one of the juniors I don’t hate. ‘Nope.’

I pour the water into the mug and worry it a little with the spoon, so it steeps quicker. I know she likes it strong, so I leave it to ‘mash’ while I put the muffin on a plate.

‘She’s got you whipped, huh? Never thought I’d see Eric Blake making a girl breakfast in the morning.’

I side eye this dude. He trying to make me feel embarrassed, or something?

I don’t, I realize. Not even a little.

‘If setting your girl up for the day with some breakfast in bed makes me whipped then I guess I am,’ I shrug. ‘But maybe you should mind your own fucking business.’

‘I didn’t mean anything by it,’ he backpedals. ‘It’s just… What makes this one so special?’

My eyes narrow. This doesn’t seem like a guy question. I stop what I’m doing and face him head-on, watching him closely and giving him my full attention.

‘Who’s asking, Jackson? It sure as shit ain’t you.’

He shifts, stepping back and looking uncomfortable. ‘Billing asked me. He said… He said Jolie asked him to ask you.’

‘Jesus,’ I mutter. ‘What is this, middle school?’

I pull out my phone and I message the bitch directly.

Stop bothering the KIP bros with ur BS or u won’t like what happens

‘Sorry, Captain,’ Jackson mutters.

‘Whatever,’ I mutter. ‘But you see Jolie in the house, you tell me or one of the others, understand? She’s banned.’

He nods.

‘Good. We’re having a party at Wrath on Saturday night. You and the guys are organizing. Make sure everyone knows there’s going to be a surprise product available.’

‘Yes, sir!’

He sounds so excited that I’ve given him a job to do. I snort and leave the room.

I take the tea and muffin up to Daisy’s room just in time to see Shade quietly departing.

He leaves the door open for me and I put Daisy’s breakfast on her desk. I know she has to be up in about ten minutes, so the tea should be just about the right temperature for her by then.

She stirs as I glance over at her but doesn’t wake, and I exit the room.

Shade’s waiting for me out in the hall.

‘Bad night?’

I snort. ‘That obvious, huh? Yeah, it wasn’t great.’

‘You might need to tell Daisy something,’ he says quietly.

‘Why, what did she say?’ I ask, my heart skipping a beat.

I don’t want her to know about this. I don’t want to see that look in her eyes like I’m some kind of monster when she finds out about the shit I have to do to work off my father’s debt.

‘She didn’t really say anything, and that’s what makes me think she’s wondering. Probably coming to the wrong conclusions.’

I sigh.

‘Oh, and you got mail yesterday.’

‘Mail? I never get mail.’

Shade hands me a small, brown envelope and I let out a groan when I recognize the paper and the handwriting. But I dutifully open it and read the familiar, slanted script.

‘My dad wants to see me,’ I mutter, crumpling up the note.

‘You gonna go?’

I shrug. ‘If I don’t he’ll just keep sending them. He probably wants me to put some funds into his account, or something. That’s all.’

‘Right. Why doesn’t he just call?’

I rub the back of my neck. ‘Because he doesn’t have my number.’

‘You hear back from Dom yet?’ I ask, changing the subject.

He shakes his head. ‘Maybe Mav has.’

‘Well, we need to make sure Daisy’s changes have actually fixed it otherwise there’s no point having that party at the club.’

Shade knocks on Mav’s door, and it opens almost immediately.

‘Heard from Dom?’

He nods. ‘He dropped by late last night.’

He hands us some papers.

‘What’s this?’ I ask, looking over the sheet. ‘Was Envy easy to swallow? How long before you started to hallucinate? Did you experience any dizziness?’ I look up at him in confusion. ‘What the hell is this?’

Mav laughs. ‘Daisy made my brother promise to make the ‘subjects’ do a survey.

The guffaw that explodes out of me surprises them both. Hell, it surprises me, too.

‘She made a questionnaire? What did Dom say to that?’

‘Before or after she told him he had to stay with them to document their trips and then threatened to take it herself if he couldn’t find any women to join the ‘test group’?’

I double over, wracked with laughter.

‘I can’t breathe,’ I wheeze, not able to stop my unmanly giggling.

People barely speak to Dom. He’s huge and angry-looking and he’s done hard time. He’s avoided at the club because everyone is terrified of him, but, of course, Daisy somehow has him playing the market research guy.

I laugh harder.

‘She’s awesome,’ I say, putting my face in my hands and wiping my streaming eyes so that I can actually read the papers Dom has written out by hand.

I have to make a concerted effort to be serious as I read through the papers.

‘How did she get him to… He even calls them ‘test subjects’ instead of ‘junkies’. He gave them each an ID number,’ I say, almost in awe. ‘He didn’t half-ass it. He made each one of them answer the questions, and he wrote their answers down.’

‘Yep,’ Mav says. ‘He took it very seriously, and he even found a couple of women for the trial. I’m really surprised. I thought he was just humoring her. I was going to give him shit for it today. But he did everything she asked him to, and then some.’

‘Do you want to tell her now?’

Mav shakes his head. ‘Let her sleep. The past few days have been pretty intense, and last night…’

That reminds me. I point at Shade. ‘First, we’re never doing that to her again.’