Page 41 of Provocation (Den of Deception #3)

That night, Wrath is actually a little busier than we thought it would be.

I guess it's still a weekend, and all the people who live in Richmond still want to party. It’s just the students from the university who are notably absent.

There are even some of the VIPs in the Dark Lounge, since it’s Saturday though I’ve noticed that I never see any of them go in or out.

I guess privacy is the point of being a member of a secret underground sex room club, though.

The students not being around is kind of nice.

The clones and Bennet haven't been anywhere near the club since the night of Envy's launch.

I still giggle whenever I think about what I did.

I hope they know it was me. From the looks that I've been getting at Grinder whenever Laurie and Jolie pass by, I'm pretty sure they suspect.

That night, Lu comes by the club, too. She looks a lot happier now that Thanksgiving is over.

There's a guy with her whose face is covered in bruises, who she introduces as her cousin. He just stares at me with something in his eyes that I’m not really sure I understand.

I’m sure he doesn't like me at all, but Lu doesn't seem to notice, so I pretend I don’t as well.

As it's kind of quiet, I go behind the bar with Mav, and he shows me how to mix some more drinks. It's fun working with him, and working behind the bar is a little like the coffee shop, or making Envy.

Mav and I dance around a little bit as Lu sits on a bar stool and drinks the creations we make her. She goes off to dance a few times, and it’s nice being surrounded by the people I care about, and who care about me.

Envy is being sold by the employees, but they only have a few pills on them at a time with strict instructions to put them in the nearest liquid to dissolve if they need to get rid of what they’re carrying quickly.

The rest are kept in the lab in the safe and Shade goes down and gets them when we need more, which is a good thing, because around eleven, cops start to swarm in from the front door, headed by the Detective Black.

I see Sandra drop three of the green pills into her beer and then put it with the other bottles in the trash behind the bar as casually as if she was just cleaning up a little.

'Cops!' someone yells, and there's a frenzy of people running, trying to escape the club.

Behind the bar, I freeze, not sure what to do, but Mav grabs my hand and pulls me out from behind it into the fray of people who are screaming.

'Where are we going?' I ask, covering my ears at all the high pitched noises, my heart thudding hard in my chest.

'Downstairs,' he whispers, walking with me in front of him to the cellar door. He opens it, and we both slip in as Shade begins to loudly yell that he wants to see their warrant.

All heads turn as he starts making a scene from the stairs to the office. He’s making sure everyone’s looking at him and not us.

'What about the others?' I ask.

'Lu's fine. I saw her cousin get her out the side.'

'But Shade and Blake.'

'They have nothing on us. They're staying to make sure they don’t find anything.'

‘We’re the only ones leaving? Why?'

'Just come on,' he says. 'I don't have time to argue with you, Tulip. We don’t want you in the middle of all that. Black’s already targeting you.'

We go down the stairs and I make double sure that the lab is closed off properly as we go past it. We hear someone opening the door at the top of the stairs and begin to descend.

'Come on,' Mav whispers, pushing me gently down one of the dark tunnels. There's a door a few feet down that he opens and closes again quietly behind us.

Using the flashlight from his phone, he leads us down it. There are puddles on the floor, and I'm glad I'm wearing sneakers as we traverse the dank passage with my hand clutching his. We get to a fork, and he takes the left one without hesitation.

'How do you know which way to go?' I ask quietly, not wanting my voice to carry.

'I've explored everything down here,' he says, 'just in case we needed more than one way to get out. This one goes down to the river and the other to the sewers.'

I shudder, already cold from the wet down here.

We walk through the dark corridors for a long time before I see some light ahead.

At a set of cement stairs in a small antechamber off the main tunnel, we end up in an abandoned warehouse.

I follow Mav through a rotted side door and find myself on a cracked sidewalk in a derelict street.

'Where are we?' I ask.

'Dock lands by the river,' he says. 'Stay close.'

He puts his phone away. There's graffiti on all of the buildings here, and trash litters the walkways. There are broken windows and there's no one around except a couple of homeless men huddled in sleeping bags down an alleyway. Half the streetlamps have shattered bulbs, and the other half don’t work. I feel like I’m being watched although I can’t see anyone. I don’t like it here.

'When can we go back?' I ask, shivering in the cold.

He shrugs. 'The cops will be there for a while, but as far as they know, we weren’t even in the club when they raided it, so we’ll walk back slowly and by the time we get there, it should be fine.’

'What about Blake and Shade? Will they be okay?'

Mav nods, looking at me shivering. He frowns and takes off his sweatshirt, which I take gratefully and put on, breathing in the scent of him. It calms me down a little as we walk.

'They have nothing on us,’ he continues. ‘They won't find the lab, and Envy is well hidden. No one will even have one on them because the rule is they have to take it as soon as they buy it. Nothing will come of their search, like always.'

We walk back through the streets. The wind blows hard, and I huddle next to Mav. It takes longer to get back to the club than it did leaving, and when I say as much to him, he nods.

'Yeah. The tunnels extend really far under the town, but they’re pretty straight. We think they were used during Prohibition, maybe even during the Civil War too. The building is pretty old.'

When we finally make it back to Wrath, there are still some cop cars outside, but it looks like they’re about to leave.

I see Detective Black talking to some of the uniforms out front and I grip Mav’s hand tighter. I don’t like him. When he sees us, his eyes narrow. Guess the feeling is mutual.

'Just keep cool,' Mav whispers. 'They don't know anything.'

'Where have you two been?' he spits.

Mav shrugs. 'Just out for some dinner. How about you, Detective?'

His eyes narrow further. 'I heard some surprising news today, Miss Novelle. Apparently you're engaged to Joe Banderville. I bet Daddy's so proud,' he sneers.

'He's not my dad,' I say quietly. 'My dad died in a fire over ten years ago, remember?'

We walk past.

'I assume we're allowed in?' Mav says over his shoulder.

The detective snorts, but no one stops us.

We go inside, and I look around with wide eyes. Chairs and tables have been overturned, there’s broken glass all over the floor and everything’s been pulled out from behind the bar. Sandra is already sweeping up while Shade and Blake are putting the tables back.

'They've torn the place apart,' I say, scarcely able to believe the carnage. 'Those assholes.'

Mav and I go behind the bar and try to put everything back in place.

It takes forever, and by the time we’re done, it’s very early in the morning and all I want to do is go to bed.

I mutter as much to the guys, go downstairs, check on the batches of Envy, and then go to our little room.

Still shivering a little from the late-night cold walk, I’m happy to find that one of them already fixed the room up, so at least I can’t tell that the cops were here and I can just get into a warm bed.

It was starting to snow outside a couple of hours ago. I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere until Monday.

My heart sinks—except for the gala on Saturday night.

Tomorrow.

I close my eyes and try not to think about it. I need rest.

During the night, slowly, the other guys join me, until we're all together.

I sleep like the dead, and I wake the next day refreshed to find Shade already up. Hanging on the door is a long garment bag.

‘That’s for tonight,' he says.

I let out a groan, flopping back into bed. 'Do we really have to go?'

‘You know it might be useful,' he says. 'And yes, my father insists that we be there.'

'And if the Bandervilles are there?' I ask quietly.

'If they are, it doesn’t matter.'

He looks over at me.

'I spoke to Pop.'

'What did you say to him?' I ask.

'Just that I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to be going anywhere by yourself with them and that an unmarried girl having a chaperone in our circles isn’t uncommon.

I told him I found it weird that they haven’t insisted upon it, considering how old-fashioned their family is.

And then I might have suggested that maybe they don’t think our family is good enough to follow those kinds of rules. '

I grin. 'I'll bet he didn’t like that.'

Shade shakes his head. 'Nope. Anyway, the result is that you don’t go anywhere without me.' He gestures to himself. 'I’m your chaperone. As your stepbrother, it is my duty to keep you and your honor unimpeachable.'

I giggle. 'You haven’t been doing a very good job so far.'

He feigns outrage. 'I’ll have you know, I am a great chaperone. You’ll see.'

'What about Mav and Blake?' I ask, wishing they’d be there too.

He shakes his head. 'You know they can’t come tonight.'

I nod. 'Yeah, I know.'

I look over at Blake.

'Did he have to go out last night?' I ask quietly.

Shade nods. 'Yeah. A little after one. He was gone for a couple of hours. Came back with blood all over his knuckles.'

'Isn’t there anything we can do?' I ask.

'For now, keep selling Envy. None of us have the money to pay off the debt. Not yet. His dad owes a lot.’

I nod, wishing things weren’t like this.

‘And the guy I killed?’ I ask. ‘Anything?’