Page 80 of Retribution

‘He’s one pissed off French dude,’ Mav answers. ‘I’ve convinced him that it’s his pill press that’s the problem, so he’s getting another. That’s bought me a couple of days to get the steps right. But it’s not looking good.’ He winces. ‘I didmessage Daisy about it. I know you didn’t want me to but… She didn’t read it anyway.’

I nod. ‘No, you were right to. If we don’t keep him happy, then he’ll kill us and all of this will have been for nothing AND we won’t be able to protect Daisy anyway.’

Blake glances at his watch. ‘I gotta go.’

He leaves without another word, and we watch him trudge back toward the parking lot.

‘Kormak is asking him to do more since that other guydisappeared,you know?’ Mav remarks quietly.

‘Yeah. I know,’ I say, staring at my friend’s back until he’s out of sight. ‘That and Daisy not being here is taking its toll on him.’

‘I knew he cared about her a lot, but I didn’t realize she’d gotten under his skin so deeply.’

‘Me neither,’ I reply. ‘Took him by surprise, too, probably. We should keep a close eye on him. He might do something crazy if she’s not going to be around.’

‘Crazy? Like what?’

I shrug. ‘Go to the Banderville house and blow him away in his own office on camera?’

Mav gives me a look. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Close eye. Track his phone. I gotta get back to the lab. You coming?’

‘In a bit,’ I say, deciding that maybe I should speak to that bodyguard while his defenses are down.

He’s probably still at Grinder. Maybe I can get something out of him, like what exactly has been going on in the Banderville house. Failing that, well, I know Stephens is still in the hospital. He might have something.

8

DAISY

The sack is still over my head and I’m sitting in a chair. I know that much. I’m tied to it. There’s whispering. I’m not sure how many hours it’s been but I sort of need to pee, so I hope this isn’t going to take too much longer.

Peeing myself without the excuse of the Stinger’s zap is not happening!

I try to glean what I can using the senses I do have. The air is cool and it smells a little damp. The chair I’m tied to is metal. There’s shuffling and movement, so I know there are a few people here with me. But I can’t get much else without my eyes.

After I was taken and tied up, I was left on the floor of the van to roll around a little during the short drive. I’ve got some lumps and bumps, but I wasn’t beaten, or anything, so that’s a plus.

The bag is ripped off without warning and I blink. A bright light is aimed at me, and I flinch under it, closing my eyes immediately. I think I’m in a room in a basement of some kind though. Every noise echoes a little.

No one speaks. I get the impression that they’re used to people who find themselves in this chair being a bit more hysterical from the outset.

I say nothing. I just sit.

‘Do you know where you are?’ a gruff male voice finally says a few moments later.

‘In a basement?’ I ask.

‘That’s right. A very deep basement, where no one can hear you screaming, so don’t bother trying, bitch.’

‘Okay.’

I crack an eye open, but can’t see anything beyond the bright light, so I close it again and sit back with a sigh. Compared with how I’ve been feeling at the Novelle house for days, this isn’t actually that bad, so long as I don’t think about what might happen to me next.

‘You don’t seem scared.’

‘The light is hurting my eyes,’ I say. ‘Maybe you could turn it off?’

‘You don’t call the shots here, sweetheart. I do.’