Page 15 of Retribution

They shake their heads.

‘Do we have any more ideas on who he might be? Nothing from the Forrests’ Gala before Christmas?’

‘No,’ Blake says, looking annoyed but more with himself than me. ‘I haven’t found anything but dead ends. He’s covering his tracks well and he leaves false clues to waste my time. All I can do is keep trawling through the footage that I was able to recover. Nothing came of the guest list from the Gala.

‘Christmas,’ I lament. ‘I can’t believe all this happened on Christmas.’

I gasp at the implications.

‘My presents!My coat!’ I wail.

‘I’ll get you a new coat,’ Blake promises immediately, leaning forward to plant a chaste kiss on my cheek. ‘It’s just stuff. It can be replaced. You can’t.’

‘You can’t buy meanothercoat. That’ll be the third one,’ I mutter.

He shrugs. ‘Third time’s a charm.’

Shade stands up and begins to pace the room. ‘Daisy, if we don’t leave, you’re in danger.’

I let out a sigh, leveling him with a look. ‘‘You threemightbe able to disappear, but Joewillcome after me and he has a lot more resources than we do. He won’t stop until he finds me.’

My head leans back almost of its own accord and my eyes drift closed. I suddenly feel exhausted again and pain is shooting behind my eyes.

‘There has to be another…’

It’s another couple of days before the headaches recede. The doctors seem pleased with my progress, but I still find myself tired a lot. The guys are always close by whenever I wake up, afraid I’ll be as upset as I was the first time.

But on the morning of the third day, there’s someone in the room when I open my eyes, who isn’t Shade, Mav, or Blake. I quickly close them again before I see the person clearly. When I peek, I see that it’s my stepfather of all people. My eyes flick toward the door as I wonder what he wants. Where are the others?

He notices that I’m awake and comes to stand at the end of my bed. He makes no move to sit down.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asks.

Like he cares. More likely he’s finding out for the Bandervilles.

‘Tired,’ I say. ‘Head hurts.’

He nods. ‘The doctor said that should pass in a few days.’

He takes out his phone and dials someone, putting it to his ear. ‘She’s awake and feeling a lot better. The doctor said she’ll be out in a couple of days. Yes. I’m here with her now. Of course.’

John holds out the phone to me. ‘He wants to speak with you.’

I take the phone with a questioning look, hoping it’s Shade.

‘Hello?’

‘Marguerite,’ Joe drawls from the other end of the line and I wince. ‘Feeling better, I hear.’

‘Yes,’ I say faintly. ‘A little.’

I hear him tutting. ‘Wrath. What were you doing in a place like that, hmm? That’s definitely not a venue that my future wife should be anywhere near. Jack should know better. To be honest, I thought you did after the last time we spoke.’

He’s silent for a moment, maybe thinking that I’ll apologize to him.

I don’t.

‘I was given to understand that you could make at least some day-to-day decisions without supervision, Marguerite, but I see now that I was woefully misinformed,’ he continues. ‘I’ve made sure to tell John that I expect you to be on a much shorter leash over the coming months before our nuptials.’