Page 62 of Retribution

Shade nods his head. ‘Why wouldn’t she have anything else at all? She was there for ten years. What, she just worerobes and slippers every day? What about when she went outside and stuff?’

‘Weird,’ I murmur, folding everything up and putting it carefully back in the box in case Daisy wants it.

‘Heard anything from her?’

Shade shakes his head. ‘There’s no point in me trying to get in to see her. Even the staff don’t seem to be allies. They watch me like I’m a criminal whenever I go there now that Stephens is gone. Maybe when my father gets back, but?—’

‘We thought Lu Garrett might be able to,’ I interrupt. ‘If she goes there, and makes a giant scene this time, maybe she’ll get in to see her.’

Shade nods. ‘Worth a try. Mav, you ask her. She likes you the best.’

I make a face but message Lu our idea. She messages back a minute later with a thumbs up.

‘She’s in.’

‘What are we going to do if we find out she’s not okay?’ Blake asks.

‘We find a way to get rid of Joe that doesn’t point to us. We get her out of there and we hide.’

‘That’ll be almost impossible,’ Blake murmurs. ‘You know you’ll be the first person they look at, Shade. And, after you, it’s us. Your best friends from the wrong side of the tracks.’

He nods. ‘It needs to be perfect, and there needs to be a scape goat.’

Blake grins darkly. ‘Okay.’

Shade and I both look surprised.

‘Thought you said it couldn’t be done,’ I say.

‘Oh, it can be done. I just didn’t want you to think it’s my go-to every time shit gets rough because of what I do for Kormak.’ He shrugs. ‘I guess I didn’t want to go there too quickly. Doing something like that… It’s not a little thing. You know? But now with Daisy acting weird, and there being other stuff going on… I’ll find a way. We plan it, though, and I mean meticulously. We might just have a chance at killing that asshole before he’s supposed to marry Daisy without it leading to us.’

We both nod solemnly. There was a time when something like this would have phased me, but not now, not for Daisy. Hell, I’ll shoot Joe on a stage in front of a crowd of witnesses if it means that Daisy is safe from him.

6

DAISY

May 3rd

I keep forgetting to write. Or maybe it’s that I don’t want to remember this time in our lives.

Fin came by, asked if he could help. But he has his own problems. He looks thinner. Maybe from what happened. I don’t know. I can’t ask him.

We had to move. Without Mark, I just don’t make enough to pay the mortgage. They foreclosed on the house that Mark and I were so excited to move into. Our first house. Now Daisy and I live on a busy street in a tiny apartment. There are sirens all the time.

Daisy hates it.

So do I.

She hasn’t said more than a word or two at atime since the fire. Even Fin didn’t seem to be able to bring her out of her shell. They don’t have the afterschool programs she was in before here either. Couldn’t afford them even if they did, I guess.

I don’t know what to do except take it one day at a time until things get easier. If they get easier. God, I wish Mark was here. He always knew what to say, even to Daisy. Seems like everything I do and say is wrong. She gets so upset. She’s worn her ear defenders for three days straight. Got called into school because she won’t take them off. She won’t shower, won’t even wash her hands. Something about the water smelling funny. All the change over the past couple months has set her back. She got angry and threw a glass across the room yesterday. She’s getting worse and I don’t know what to do.

Iput the book down and stare at the ceiling. I’d thought the diary began when my mom married John, but there’s a lot here from before that. The entry prior to this one was about how she and my dad were going to the movies together and they weren’t sure if I’d be okay with the sitter. Then there’s a gap of three months. When the fire happened. I guess she couldn’t bring herself to write about it.

I remember when we moved and the ear defenders thing. All the kids in my new school were too loud. The streets, the park, even my bedroom were the same. There was no quiet. In the end, I caused such a problem that they let me keep them on in class after that. A large win in my tiny world back then.

I close my mother’s diary and put it next to me on the bed. No one’s come into my room since Jacob brought me back. There was some cold, congealed soup on a tray waiting for me, which I ate as soon as I could walk properly, even though I didn’t want it, because I’m conscious that I haven’t been given any food at all for days.