Page 59 of Retribution

Sauvage’s guy trails me to the elevators and comes inside with me. I press the button for the ground floor, accidently locking eyes with him in the mirror for a moment.

We both look away quickly and ride up in silence.

The doors open and I can’t get out quickly enough. Now that I’m back upstairs, my phone starts to go off with a plethora of notifications.

The first ones are on the chat, and as I run down the conversation, I see Shade and Blake’s messages getting more and more urgent as Daisy doesn’t get back to them over the course of the day.

Shit. She’s not answering and the Novelle butler is in the hospital after a hit and run.

I call Shade.

It only rings once.

‘Where the fuck have you been!’

‘You know where,’ I hiss harshly. ‘What’s going on?’

‘She’s not answering. Lu can’t get her either. I went by the house. I couldn’t see her. She was in her room and that bitch of a nurse followed me around like I was gonna steal something, so I couldn’t even sneak in to see her. My father’s on another trip until next week. Short of trying to break into my own family home, I don’t know what to do. Without Stephens there, I don’t know who I can trust, who I can even ask about her. Fuck!’

‘Can’t Garrett go over there?’

‘She did. Nasty Nurse wouldn’t let her in. Said Daisy was resting and was tired after a long day.’

‘It’s bullshit. She’s hiding something,’ I say.

‘No shit. She didn’t show up at school this morning for her pretend class either. She’s not reading anything we send.’

‘She might not have the phone right now. If Stephens was charging it for her, and he’s not there…’ I reason, trying to play devil’s advocate even though everything in me wants to go over to that house and bust down the doors that stand between us. I want to see with my own eyes that she’s okay. ‘There could be a simple explanation. Maybe we’re just jumping to conclusions.’

‘Maybe.’ Shade doesn’t sound convinced. ‘When are you done?’

I glance back at Sauvage’s guy who’s nearby and clearly hanging on every word I say. ‘Few more hours.’

‘This batch better? Say nothing if it’s not.’

‘Nothing.’ I start walking slowly, meandering like I don’t care if my babysitter can hear my conversation.

‘Dammit. What’s the problem? Same as before?’

‘Can’t say,’ I murmur carefully. ‘It could be one thing. It could be lots of things.’

‘How pissed was Sauvage when the last batch wasn’t right?’ Shade asks.

‘Hard to say,’ I reply evenly. ‘Not much of a yeller when he’s mad. More of a garrote you with a piano wire type of guy.’

‘You got that right,’ Shade murmurs.

My phone buzzes, but before I can look, Shade sighs with relief.

‘It’s her!’ he says. ‘Fuck! Thank God.’

‘What does it say?’ I ask, not looking at Sauvage’s guy.

‘Phone was dead. She only just got it back. She’s doing some work, and she’ll see us in a couple days, but she won’t be able to contact us much because the nurse is riding her ass since John isn’t there.’

‘Okay,’ I say, my stomach unclenching a little now that we’ve heard from her. ‘I’m gonna get back to work. I’ll see you later at KIP.’

‘Later.’