Page 88 of Retribution

‘This is bullshit,’ I mutter, taking out my phone and calling Shade.

I leave the hotel, standing out on the busy street.

‘What is it?’

‘Sauvage won’t let me into the lab. One of his goons just told me they’recleaningit. What the fuck is going on? Has he contacted you?’

‘Nope.’

I hear Shade let out a frustrated breath. ‘Why is he playing games with us?’

‘I think he has someone in there trying to figure out the recipe,’ I say. ‘He told me I had another few days, but maybe he changed his mind. Maybe he found someone else to reverse engineer it and figure it out, so he doesn’t need us.’

‘Fuck,’ Shade mutters. ‘Did you see anyone?’

‘No, I couldn’t even get in there. Son of a bitch!’

Two women walking by side-eye me as they pass, and I lower my voice.

‘What are we gonna do? Is he trying to cut us out? We can’t let that happen. If we don’t have Envy, and we don’t have the club, and we don’t have Daisy, what do we have, Shade? Huh? What the fuck do we have left?’

I sound hysterical. Ifeelhysterical.

‘Come back to the house.’

He hangs up on me and I curse him out, gripping my phone so tightly that I hear the plastic creak.

I get in the truck and leave Sauvage’s swanky hotel. I get to the KIP house half an hour later, I’m still not feeling any better.

Inside, things only get worse. I find Shade pacing the kitchen. Never a good sign.

‘Whathappened?’

‘The cops were just here. The Bandervilles sent them. Joe thinks Daisy is with us.’

‘Well, she’s not,’ I mutter angrily.

Shade hits the kitchen counter with his fist, and then visibly tries to get himself under control.

‘As much as I hate it, it’s for the best right now,’ he says very quietly. ‘If she was here, they’d have found her and taken her back to my father’s house, or worse. Joe will have people watching us, now. My father called me, too. He told me to give her up. He doesn’t believe I don’t know where she is.’

‘This is why she didn’t want us to know anything,’ I say quietly. ‘She knew it would be like this. She didn’t want us to get into trouble for her.’

Shade nods. ‘I haven’t heard from her. Lu hasn’t either. You?’

I shake my head. ‘Could they be monitoring our phones somehow, too?’

‘Get us some burners. Just in case.’

‘Did you find out anything from the bodyguard?’

Shade makes a sound of disgust. ‘By the time I got to Grinder, the asshole was gone.’

He stalks toward the stairs and I follow.

‘This shit doesn’t make sense,’ he says. ‘They are so fucking interested in Daisy. Why? Joe could find someone else. But he’s obsessed with marryingher. And it’s not just him. Our fathers are invested in this like it's a multi-million dollar business merger. But she doesn’t have a dime of her own as far as they know! What are we missing?’

‘Maybe the Bandervilles just think she has money?’ I venture. ‘Your dad might be trying to get rid of her again. He could have lied to them, or made a deal with them for her.’