Page 23 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

‘I just got sent a picture of Daisy and… It looks like… The picture makes it look like she’s been with someone else.’

‘Who?’ His tone is more menacing than I’ve ever heard it before.

‘Bennet,’ I answer.

‘Bennet?’ His voice is incredulous. ‘Bennet from class Bennet? That talentless fucker with the topknot who thinks he can cut it in our lab?’

Shade shows him the picture and I watch as he pales and then his mouth curls up into a sneer.

‘There is no fucking way that is real.’

‘It’s easy enough to find out,’ Shade says, his voice calm.

Too calm.

‘Where is she?’

I look at my watch. ‘She should be here.’

‘Check if she’s at the house instead.’

Blake nods and takes out his phone. ‘Yeah, the door entry history says she entered about ten minutes ago.’

‘Let’s go, then.’

We grab our coats and walk the five minutes to the house briskly, in silence. But if my friends’ heads are anywhere near the same place mine is, they’re swirling with questions and fear.

It’s the fear that takes me by surprise. I care about this girl more than I thought possible. The idea that she wouldn’t choose me makes me want to simultaneously hurl and beat the shit out of someone. Preferably that asshole, Bennet.

‘I’m going to kill that sonofabitch,’ Blake mutters, showing his own upset. ‘There’s no way she would want him.’

But I hear the same panic in his voice that he pretends is anger. This girl could break all of our hearts as easily as breathing. That’s what should really terrify me.

We enter the house and find two of the guys talking in murmured voices at the bottom of the stairs. They look relieved to see us.

‘We were just about to contact you.’

‘Where is she?’ Shade snarls, making them both go white.

‘Upstairs. But, Admiral, she looked upset.’

We leave the two freshmen looking concerned at the bottom of the stairs and race up. I’m in the lead, taking three at a time to get to the top.

I go to her room, but she’s not in there. There’s stuff all over the floor though, clothes and books. The closet is open and the mirror on the inside of the door is cracked. I hear Shade swear softly.

Panicking, I run into Blake’s next but she’s not there either and then I hear a muffled sob echo in the bathroom.

I’m at the door and pushing it open within two seconds, and I find her kneeling beside the tub. I can’t see what she’s doing, but she’s crying and panting.

‘Tulip?’

She turns, her face twisted in anguish, her hair in disarray like she’s been pulling it.

‘They—They—,’ she hiccups.

She sobs harder and I go to her, falling to my knees and enveloping her in my arms. She clutches at me like a lifeline, her fingers digging into me as she buries her face in my chest. Her breathing is hard and erratic, like a panic attack, but I don’t think that’s what this is.

‘Feel my arms around you,’ I say. ‘I’m here. You’re not alone.’

She cries harder.

‘But they—’ She breaks off and her arm leaves me to sweep at the air over the tub before clutching at me again.

I peer into the water. It’s dark and murky. Her coat floats in it, waterlogged and covered in something black.

‘Your coat?’ Blake asks from behind us, confusion evident. ‘This is about your coat ?’

‘I’m sorry,’ she sobs.

‘What are you sorry for?’ he sounds so bewildered that it would be funny if our girl wasn’t so distraught.

‘I left it on a chair. I didn’t know they’d… My present ,’ she wails.

‘It’s okay,’ he murmurs, squatting down next to us. ‘I’ll get you another one.’

‘It won’t be the same!’ she cries against me.

‘It will be,’ he vows, and there’s something in his voice that makes me look at him.

There are tears in his eyes.

‘It’ll be exactly the same, gorgeous. I promise you. I’ll order it right now, okay? Please don’t be upset.’

‘Really?’ she whispers, still breathing hard, still gripping me tightly. ‘You’d get me another one? And it’ll be exactly the same? Not different?’

‘Of course. Same color. Same hood. Same buttons. Everything the same.’

She pushes herself against me, still crying but quieter now.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispers. ‘I’m sorry. Please…d-don’t go in my room.’

We exchange a look and Shade looks grim from the doorway.

He doesn’t say a word as he leaves the bathroom, taking out his phone as he goes.

I wonder what he’s doing, but I have more pressing matters, like the girl on my lap who’s pressing her body to mine like it’s the only thing that’s going to make her feel better.

I hold her close as I stand up with her, motioning for Blake to come too. I take her into his room because I know she’s spent more time in here, and I lay on the bed with her.

Blake goes to his desk and starts to sit down, but I beckon him. ‘Lay on the other side.’

He nods and does what I say, pressing himself against her so that she’s sandwiched between us. Her body is shuddering, but her breathing has slowed and she’s only occasionally whimpering quietly. Her eyes are closed. I wipe her wet cheeks with my thumbs and kiss her forehead.

My phone vibrates, and I find a message from Shade.

B there in sec. Just cleaning up her room and getting one of the guys to get a replacement mirror.

He should be here with us, but I concede it’s a good idea. She’s clearly embarrassed by her actions like she was in the lab with the noises. We don’t want to draw attention to it. She’s already upset enough.

‘How are you feeling?’ Blake asks, clearly deciding that now isn’t the time to broach the picture.

‘Better, I think,’ she says. ‘I’m sorry about the coat.’

She looks up at him and tears come to her eyes.

‘You got it for me and they…they ruined it! I didn’t even know they were there. I left it on the chair and went into the reading room to finish the project with…with Bennet.’

She breaks off and doesn’t say anything more, but she clutches at me harder.

Waiting for her to open up is torture, but that’s what we do. We wait for her to be ready to tell us the rest. I just hope she does.

No more secrets , I plead silently. Just tell us everything.

We lay together for a few minutes and Daisy gradually calms down, her body relaxing. I think she’s asleep, but then I hear her phone, and she delves into the pocket of her sweatshirt. She cracks one eye and looks at the screen. Nothing shows on her face at all.

Alarm bells ring inside my head.

‘What is it?’ I ask, only just stopping myself from tearing it out of her hand to see for myself.

‘There’s something I have to tell you.’ She winces as she turns the phone around.

I’m letting out a sound of fury before I realize it. It’s the same picture we got of her coming out of the library with the word ‘whore’ in red scrawled across it.

‘Who the fuck is that from?’ I snarl.

It takes everything in me to stay even that calm, but I’m rewarded when she lays her head on my chest.

‘I don’t know the number, but probably the stalker. I’m due a note. It’s been a week or so since the last.’

How can she be so calm about this, yet her ruined coat is the thing that causes her to trash her room and get so upset she can barely breathe?

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispers. ‘The picture…’

She fucked him.

My heart sinks. But I already know I’ll forgive her. She could fuck the entire school, and I’d get over it so long as she was still mine. I see those same sentiments mirrored in Blake’s eyes whether he knows it or not.

‘It’s okay,’ I say, holding her close.

‘It’s not,’ she persists, pulling out of my hold to sit up. She gets to her knees and turns to face us. ‘I didn’t realize. I’m not trying to excuse it, but I didn’t know he thought…I guess I did something to make him think that I…’

My eyes narrow and I see Blake’s do the same. This already doesn’t sound like what that photo we were sent seemed to hint at. Not at all.

‘Can you tell us what happened?’

In my periphery, I see Shade pacing just outside the door, listening.

‘We were at one of the small desks upstairs in the library. There was nowhere else to sit. We were working for a while and then it cleared out. There wasn’t much space.

He kept brushing his arm against me and it was really annoying, so when he said we should go into the reading room when it was empty, I thought it was a good idea.

More space. We were working in there and then we were finished, and I was going to leave, but he stopped me and said…

He said things that weren’t very nice, but I suppose I can see why he thought… ’

She breaks off, looking ashamed.

I can’t bear that expression on her face, but I say nothing, and when Blake opens his mouth, I shake my head a little at him, wanting to hear everything from her uninterrupted while she’s feeling like sharing.

‘He pushed me down on the desk. I didn’t even realize what was happening until it was, and then he was pulling at my underwear and his fingers were…’ She clenches her eyes shut and my hands ball into fists.

‘I didn’t ask him to. I didn’t like it. I pushed him away, and I slapped him, and then I ran for the door. It was locked and?—’

‘Who locked it, Daisy?’ Shade asks from the door.

‘He did,’ she whispers, not missing a beat, still not looking at us. ‘But I didn’t know he had.’

‘And the blinds? They’re closed in the picture. He did that, too?’

She nods. ‘He said there was a glare.’

‘Jesus,’ Blake snarls.

‘Calm down,’ I murmur in his general direction.

‘Calm down?’ he snarls. ‘He’s a dead man walking!’

Daisy looks torn. ‘It was my fau—’ she begins, but Blake puts a finger to her lips.

‘It was not your fault.’

‘But it keeps happening,’ she argues. ‘It must be me. I must be doing something that makes them think… I might not realize. He said that I was a tease, and everyone knows I’m fucking Applegate.

He told me I stole his lab spot and that I must sleep with all the guys in KIP because I live here.

If he believes all that, then I can see why he’d?—’

‘Assault a girl who wasn’t interested?’ Blake snarls.

She draws back from us, looking uncertain.