Page 27 of Retribution

‘Tulip, can we….’

‘What?’ I ask when Mav doesn’t finish his sentence.

‘Can we tell Applegate everything? He might be willing to make some kind of allowance.’

‘I think we can confide in him,’ I say after a moment. ‘He gave me a chance here and he was my dad’s best friend. I remember thinking he was a good guy when I was a kid. What do you think?’

Mav is silent. ‘I think we’re gonna have to.’

‘What about Envy?’ I ask. ‘Can you make it?’

‘Yeah,’ he says. ‘I can make it.’

I try not to feel upset that they’ll be doing everythingwithout me. I gave them the formula. I trust them. It’s just that it wasmybaby.

‘We have a month’s supply that you saved from the club, but Sauvage has pretty much ordered us to use his resources so that he can be sure he has his product. He knows about you. He knows that you’re important to us.’

‘Okay,’ I murmur. ‘And what about the club?’

‘It’ll be a few weeks,’ Shade says. ‘The bomb was hidden in the men’s bathroom. That’s why it blew out the floor to the cellar.’

‘But they can fix it? Our room, and everything?’ I ask quietly. ‘I thought it might be too badly damaged.’

I’ve been worrying about this. I didn’t realize it, but I have been. Very worried. I loved my little lab and our room where we could all sleep in one big bed. I need to know that, once this is all over, we can go back to it, back to the ways things were…however briefly.

‘They can fix it, gorgeous,’ Blake says. ‘It’s just gonna take a minute. But it’ll be exactly the way it was. Okay? I’ll make sure it’s perfect for when we can go back.’

‘Okay,’ I whisper into the phone, trying not to cry with relief.

Something niggles at me. There was something else I wanted to ask. What was it?

Cameras. Blake will be able to find out if there are any watching me with his tech mojo.

‘Oh, do you know if there are cameras up in here? In my old room? In the closet?’ I ask.

There’s silence for a moment.

‘I’ll check,’ Blake says. ‘Give me a sec, okay?’

I hear him tapping on his computer and let out a breath. I’m not alone. My guys are just on the other end of the phone.

I’m not alone.

‘What are you doing now?’ I murmur, closing my eyes so I can visualize them, probably in Blake’s room.

Shade will be pacing. Blake, at his desk and Mav maybe on the bed or by the window. I pretend I'm there with them and just for a second my body unknots itself.

‘We’re at the KIP house. In Blake’s room. We’re about to grab some dinner.’

I smile when I hear I was right. ‘What are you going to have?’

‘We aren’t sure, Tulip.’

‘Have pizza,’ I sigh, ‘and think of me while I’m having to hork down seabass under the watchful eye of Joe’s spy nurse.’

‘You…You’re not in danger, are you, Daisy?’ Shade asks quietly.

I pause for a second. I have no doubt that the nurse has the authority from Joe tocorrectme if necessary. He’s seen footage of me at The Heath. He even has that Stinger in the box on his desk that he showed me just before he and Marcus started playing their games with me and their sister interrupted. He knows how to make things as awful as possible for me, and he definitely will if I make trouble.