Page 100 of Retribution

‘Come on. Let’s get her to her room and figure out next steps,’ Shade sighs.

We get to our feet. I’m careful not to disturb Daisy as we exit the office. In the hall, two of Sauvage’s guys are waiting.

‘Don’t try anything,’ one of them says, hand on the gun at his belt. ‘Mr. Sauvage says that we can’t kill you, but if one of you tries to take the girl off the premises, we’re allowed to shoot you.’ He grins. ‘He didn’t specify where.’

‘Relax, Cujo,’ I say. ‘Just show us to her room.’

He looks unimpressed as he takes us down the hall back to the elevators where we came up. We go inside and he puts in a key before pressing the topmost number.

‘The penthouse?’ Mav asks.

‘That’s what he ordered,’ is all the guy says.

The doors open out onto a large living room bathed in sunshine. There’s a huge TV on the wall and a massive, plush, u-shaped sofa complete with a see-through fireplace on the other side of the space. There’s a doorway that seems to lead to a room with a pool table and a couple of arcade games.

‘Fuck,’ I hear Mav whisper, and I have to agree with his sentiment.

This place is amazing. I don’t want to like it because Sauvage is a dangerous asshole, but I’m pretty sure Daisy’s going to love it too, when she wakes up.’

‘Where’s the bedroom?’ I ask.

‘Here, I think,’ Shade says from across the palatial main room, and I follow him down the short corridor to some French doors that lead into a large bedroom with a bed that rivals the one we had in the club…before it was crushed.

Shade closes the blinds with a remote, plunging the room into darkness as I put Daisy in the middle of the bed. I laydown with her and Shade does the same. Mav joins us a minute later. None of us sleep, we’re justtherewith her.

When her body locks up next to mine, and she whimpers in her slumber, we’re there to comfort her, though her cries make us all wonder what the fuck happened to her in the Novelle house.

‘She hasn’t had nightmares like this since she first came to Richmond,’ Mav murmurs, and Shade and I both nod.

‘Do you think she’ll tell us everything?’ I whisper.

‘I hope so,’ Shade says quietly, not taking his eyes off of her, like he’s afraid she’ll disappear.

I feel the same way, which is why my hands haven’t strayed from her skin even once since she threw herself into my arms in that office.

‘She looks thinner,’ Mav comments. ‘Pale, too.’

‘You think she really was sick like she said?’ I ask.

‘I don’t know.’

I run my hand over her cheek. ‘I missed you so much,’ I whisper.

She shifts, rolling toward me with a sleepy sound and putting her arm around my middle.

I sigh, feeling more at peace than I have in days now that she’s back with us.

I only hope that this crazy plan she’s decided to act on won’t blow up in our faces. With the luck we’ve been having, whether it will or not is anyone’s guess.

10

DAISY

I’m afraid it wasn’t real, that I dreamed that Shade, Blake, and Mav were in Sauvage’s office, that I never got to Sauvage at all and I’m still in my room at the Novelle house with Nasty Nurse holding me down while Joe….

I gasp, sitting up with a cry. But I’m not in my room. I’m in a different one. Instead of wet, coarse sheets under me or slippery satin, there’s soft white cotton.

‘Daisy? Hey, it’s okay. We’re right here.’