‘You must spread your wings once more,’ Sauvage nods sagely.
‘Like a butterfly,' he murmurs. 'Or perhaps a scarab beetle.'
'A scarab beetle?' I ask.
'One of my ancestors on my mother's side was Egyptian,’ he explains. ‘There it represents birth, rebirth, and creation.'
He smiles. 'The sun.'
'I'm like the sun?' I ask.
He nods. 'Bright. Renewal. Transformation and protection and immortality. Resurrection. You are transformed. No longer the girl who came, who stayed because her stepfather told her to. No longer the girl who was unsure of herself. You are a new creature, I think.'
I wonder if he's going to talk about blooming flowerslike he usually does, but he seems to have moved on to desert insects.
'Maybe,' I say a little dubiously, standing up to leave. ‘I have to get back upstairs.’
Sauvage stands as well.
'Thanks for letting me know,' I say, turning to leave.
'I will ensure you are protected, chéri,' the Frenchman says, and I'm still not really sure why he cares about me, but, as Douglas would say, probably best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
I walk toward the door, but a thought crosses my mind and I turn back around. 'Do you have contacts in the UK?' I ask.
'I have contacts everywhere.'
'There was a reporter at The Heath when I was there. She was undercover. I gave her documents. I wondered if she had… I don't know her real name, but I hoped that she would be a whistleblower, that she'd make it so that The Heath was shut down. But I haven't heard anything. There hasn't been anything on the news there about it that I’ve seen.'
‘I will have someone look into it for you.'
'Thanks.'
I leave Pierre’s office and go back up to our penthouse.
When the elevator opens, all three of my guys are sitting on the couch. My stomach clenches.
Time for the talk.
‘Hi,’ I say awkwardly, intending to sit down across from them so we can communicate, but Shade gets up and practically lunges across the room, taking me in a giant hug, picking me up off the ground.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he says, drawing back and looking into my eyes. ‘I’m so sorry, Daisy. I didn’t mean to make you feel likeyou were being frozen out. With my dad and Andy, I’ve just been... It’s no excuse. But I promise I’ll talk to you about everything, not to be so in my own head, okay? We never meant to make you feel like that.’
Very surprised, all I can do is nod and look past him at Mav who gives me a thumbs-up. ‘I thought I’d do the hard part,’ he says.
‘Thanks,’ I say, finding my voice.
I glance at Blake. He’s sitting in the corner of the room. He’s watching me, but he’s not giving anything away.
If he wants to walk away from this, I’ll try to make it as easy as I can, I silently promise. I don’t want him to be hurt.
He doesn’t move, doesn’t say anything as Shade brings me over to the couch and sits with me.
It's been days since I've really looked at Shade properly, I realize. He looks so tired. I’m hit with another pang of guilt that I was being such a jerk.
'What is it?' I ask.
He leans back with a sigh, closing his eyes and resting his head on the back of the couch.
