Page 50 of Retribution

There’s a spark in his eyes. Whatever he found has intrigued him.

‘A family with the last name Winters used to live in Richmond like you said, like almost fifty years back. One of the richest families in the area. Mother, father, two kids. They moved away to somewhere in upstate New York. Looks like the mother and father have been dead and buried for a few years. The kids I can’t find. Nothing about them anywhere.’

‘Huh,’ I mutter. ‘Why was the name in Daisy’s file then? They were already long gone by the time she and April moved here.’

He sighs. ‘Another dead end. As for the rest of the stuff, nada. The stalker has gone silent since the attack. No notes, nothing in Daisy’s emails. Totally dark. But I will find something.’

‘I know you will,’ I say. ‘Anything on April, Mark, and John?’

He nods. ‘As we thought, Mark, Applegate, and your father all went to Birchwood Academy together back in the day.’

I feel my eyebrows rise. ‘My dad knew ApplegateandMark before?’

‘Not just that, bro. There’s pictures of the three of them looking cozy in some newspaper article I found onlineabout cleaning up the local river for the ecology club. They were friends.’

I find myself walking up and down the length of Blake’s room. ‘Where did April fit into this?’

‘No clue. She definitely wasn’t enrolled at Birchwood. I’ll keep looking, though.’

I nod and he turns back to his screen.

‘What’s going on with Wrath?’ he asks absently.

‘They’re saying we can reopen in about twelve weeks, give or take.’

Blake glances back, shaking his head. ‘That isn’t great for our Envy sales. How the fuck are we going to distribute it without the club for three months?’

I put my head in my hands, letting out a long breath as I rake my hands back through my hair. ‘I don’t fucking know. I don’t want to get in deeper with Sauvage, especially with him calling himself ‘the good father,’ creepy fucker, but we might not have any other choice. As far as I know, he’s exporting it into Europe, and not running it through his clubs. Maybe there’s a deal to be made.’

Blake shakes his head a little. ‘Fuck, if that’s our only option, then what choice do we have? Where’s Mav?’

‘Still trying to make Envy.’

‘He can’t do it?’ Blake side-eyes me.

I shrug. ‘He says that he helped Daisy with the timings but never actually made it himself. Apparently, it’s very temperamental. No matter what he does, it’s not coming out right. I think Sauvage is starting to believe he’s doing it on purpose.’

Blake winces. ‘The last thing we need on top of everything else is that French fuck turning on us. Shit. Can’t Mav ask Daisy for pointers?’

‘That’s what she said. But do we really want her anywhere near this, or Sauvage? Isn’t it better that he thinks she’s just some groupie we like hanging around with us?’

‘I guess so.’ He snorts. ‘She’d be so pissed if she heard this conversation right now, though.’

‘She’s already pissed that everything’s been taken away from her.’ I sit down on Blake’s bed. ‘I didn’t realize, you know. I was such a naïve asshole. I had no idea my father would do something like this, that hecould. He just took everything, all she worked so hard for. Overnight, like it was nothing. He’s stolen her life twice now. For Larson and now Joe. Both times I just let it happen.’

‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. What could you have done? The law is on his side as usual. We’ll fix this.’

‘I guess,’ I mutter, not really feeling it.

‘Do you think your father thought she really did kill Larson?’ Blake asks quietly.

‘I don’t know,’ I say honestly. ‘He thought she was nuts, kept telling April she was going to hurt someone. I never got that vibe off her. I mean she’d get upset and throw stuff around. Sometimes another kid would get hurt because they were in the way. But she was never violent toward other people directly. The way he talked, it was like she was a psycho, just waiting to do something. Then Larson happened. Maybe he really did think it was her.’ I look up at my friend. ‘Or maybe he saw an opportunity to have his wife’s full attention by getting rid of the daughter who took up so much of her time.’

‘Your family is fucked up.’

I snort. ‘Takes one to know one, dick.’

‘That’s fair. When is Daisy back on campus so I can watch her from afar like a pervert?’