Page 2 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

Chapter One

DAISY

I ’m aware that I’ve been staring blankly at my stepfather for a few more seconds than is the social norm.

What did he just say? I must have heard him wrong. But I know in the fiber of my being that I didn’t.

‘Thank you,’ I hear myself echo automatically, as, internally, I scream.

He’s sold me.

To Marcus’ brother.

To the Bandervilles.

Like a strip of land or a horse.

I feel Shade’s tense hand at the small of my back. He’s next to me, shaking slightly. I wonder if it’s the dinnertime revelations that are upsetting him, or if he’s afraid I’m going to throw something.

What if Shade knew this was coming? What if he had a hand in it?

No. I can’t think that, not right now. Not while I’m in the wolf’s lair. I have enough to worry about in this moment.

I look properly at the man John is offloading me on for the first time this evening.

His hair is short and black. It’s slicked back and shiny.

His teeth are white and straight. His face is young, but there are faint lines near his eyes.

His cheeks are hollow. He must be in his late twenties, maybe thirties.

He’s fit. He goes to the gym, probably. He’s nowhere near as buff as Mav, but he clearly works out.

Outwardly, there’s nothing amiss. There’s nothing about him that I can pinpoint that would have me on edge other than the fact I’m being given to him like we’re in the sixteen-hundreds.

And yet my palms are sweating. My body is jittery. I feel like prey.

I don’t like it.

My heart is humming in my chest, making me feel lightheaded.

. My thoughts are stuttering, coming from all directions like my brain is misfiring.

I feel my polite smile tugging on my lips a little as I drain the rest of my water.

My expression is steady and still, unwavering and serene.

It’s been on my face since dinner was over.

I’ve practiced it in front of the mirror a million times, so I know I won’t let myself down.

Okay, not a million. A few thousand, probably.

Enough that none of them will notice anything more than the appearance of me…so long as I’m purposeful in what I do next, anyway.

‘Would you please excuse me for a moment, gentlemen?’ I ask, my voice sounding calm and collected, and not even choking when I call these sharks gentle.

I’m pleasant just as I was conditioned to be over the past decade.

One of the men nods. The older one. Banderville senior. He’s still assessing me, even now. That’s what this dinner was about. Ogling the goods.

I don’t wait for John’s permission as I move away from Shade’s comforting presence. Really, he’s just a placebo anyway. He can’t help me here.

I feel all eyes on me as I make my way slowly across the room to the closed door.

My instincts are screaming at me to leap away, to flee, to fling the door open and run from the house.

The urge to do just that is so strong. I already feel as if there’s a monster chasing me.

Panic wells up from my abdomen and makes my stomach twist.

But I do none of the things my body is demanding. I open the door slowly, staying poised and uptight, my heels clacking on the floor as I cross the threshold and carefully close the door behind me. There’s no one in the hall and the lights are dim.

Taking stock of where I am on an almost unconscious level, I finally give in, and I promise myself safety. I know I can hold on if I tell myself there’s somewhere I can go.

I walk to a nondescript door much more slowly than I want.

It leads to the backstairs, and I ascend them as if there’s someone watching.

For all I know, there is. John can be paranoid.

It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he’s put cameras in the stairwell to secretly observe his staff going about their duties.

On the next floor, I open the narrow door a crack and peer into the wide corridor. Seeing no one, I emerge, walking quickly to the bedroom that used to be mine.

It’s not anymore. My pretty-colored possessions, my stuffed animals that I was so attached to, have all been cleared out, and my pink walls painted over at some point to make way for some–no doubt hugely expensive–decorator to install a hotel-like room of grey and beige.

But the closet is still there.

In a move borne of habit, I glance over my shoulder to make sure there’s no one watching as I enter my old room.

I can’t wait any longer. My movements are almost jerky as I kick off my heels and sprint across the room.

I tear open the closet door the way I wanted to downstairs, but I shut it silently behind me, taking in the blackness all around me.

And I breathe.

I’m not sure how long I stand there in the dark, listening to nothing, staring into the black. I dig my toes into the thick pile of the carpet. I touch the dress I’m wearing, feeling the soft crushed velvet.

I want to scream and rail and tear at my hair.

But I don’t.

I can’t. It’s not allowed. I’d be heard, and, if I’m seen in disarray, they’ll know . But will John really have me carted back to The Heath when he’s just given me away to Marcus’ brother?

Maybe he’s done this so that I’ll be the Bandervilles’ problem now. Is it what they signed up for? There must have been rumors when I was taken abroad. What have they been told about me, what I did?

My stomach drops. What if Banderville senior or Joe becomes my guardian in John’s place? Can that happen? Is absolute power over one’s spouse still legal in these circumstances? And, if it is…with a second son I already know is so devoid of decency, what will the others do to me?

And, even if the law was on my side, would it matter? John has the money and power to do what he likes. I already know the Chief of Police is in his pocket after Lu’s cousin found those two accident reports on my mom’s accident.

I was planning to fight John in a court to be free of him, but realize with sudden clarity that no judge would rule against him.

My breathing quickens again, and I find my back against the wall behind the hangers in my preferred spot. I slide down to the floor and wrap my arms around my knees, rocking back and forth a little.

And that’s where Shade finds me. The door opening suddenly has me curling away from the light, but he closes the door as soon as he’s inside with me.

‘Daisy?’

I let out a breath, so he knows where I am, but I don’t speak. I don’t want to.

He lets out what sounds like a huff of relief and a moment later I feel him at my side. He sits down next to me and finds my hand.

‘I didn’t know,’ he whispers. ‘I didn’t know. I promise you I didn’t.’

I believe him and something inside me relaxes minutely. He didn’t do this.

I squeeze his hand to let him know and his head brushes against mine.

‘We’ll figure this out,’ he says.

But I already figured it out. I made Envy viable.

I made my Plan B a real option and I’ll be using it.

Are things all that different than they were before dinner, really?

I have a few months of leeway. I know that much now.

There’s a timeframe to work within before I need to be gone.

I didn’t have that an hour ago. In some ways, maybe I’m freer than I was before I came here tonight.

If this marriage deal is in the works, I won’t be sent back to The Heath. I just need to stay ahead of John.

The wheels in my head are already turning.

I need to make the best of this. Maybe I can convince John to let me finish the year at Richmond U before the wedding is supposed to happen.

He doesn’t know I’m a senior, so he won’t be suspicious .

Maybe I can even spin it that I want to be able to give my new husband my full attention.

Ugh.

‘Does Marcus know anything about what you were doing in the lab?’ I whisper.

‘Does he know about Envy, you mean?’ I hear Shade’s soft snort.

‘No. No chance. He was only there because of his dad. He’s not an academic in any sense of the word.

He’s only doing it because his brother is next in line to take over the Banderville businesses and he was told he needed something to do. Keeping him in the dark was simple.’

Shade lets out a long breath. ‘But he knows about your change of majors. He knows you got the assistant spot after he was fired. He hasn’t tattled yet. If he had, we’d know. But that makes me nervous. He’s waiting, which means he wants something.’

I nod in the dark. So long as Marcus doesn’t know about the drug, the rest doesn’t matter. I don’t have time to worry about that right now as well. If he’s kept his mouth shut, it’s for a reason and he’ll come to us with his demands.

‘How much time before Envy begins to make money?’ I ask.

‘As soon as you start making it.’

I nod in the dark. ‘Tomorrow. Take me to your lab as soon as possible.’

‘Okay,’ he whispers.

We sit in the closet for a few more minutes. I rise first and I hear him follow as I go to the door and open it slowly, making sure there’s no one lying in wait. All is clear so I leave, blinking in the light from the lamp that Shade must have turned on when he came in.

‘When did they change my room?’ I ask, going into the bathroom to make sure I look as put together as I did when I left the dining room.

‘Two years after you left.’ He stands behind me and fixes his hair, too. ‘I used to come in here almost every afternoon before they did.’

His eyes lock with mine in the mirror. ‘I’d sit in here and pretend you weren’t gone.’

‘They just did it one day. They got rid of your stuff, took down the wallpaper. I came home from school and it was all gone. That’s when I knew you weren’t coming back.’

He leans forward, kissing the place where my neck and shoulder meet.

‘I’m not losing you again,’ he whispers.