‘But the stuff you did for Kormak,’ I begin, but he just stands up and turns away.
I glance between Shade and Mav. Both of them look very grim.
'The cartel has got to be worse than Kormak,' Mav mutters.
‘Does Sauvage know about it?' Shade asks.
'He's the one who told me. He says that there's nothing that he can do. Even he won't pay the debt.' He glances up at us. 'And I wouldn't want him to.'
Privately, I think that being in Sauvage's pocket would be better than being in some drug cartel's. But I don't say that out loud.
'What arewegoing to do?' I ask.
'There's nothingyoucan do,' Blake says with a finality that I don't like. 'I just have to keep working. Pay the money owed. Not be seen with you guys.'
'This isn't fair,' I mutter.
'Life isn't fair, Daisy,' Blake says not unkindly.
He leaves the room, closing the door into the bedroom with a soft click that belies the finality of his statement.
'This isn't right,' I murmur. 'Everything's goingwrong.'
Mav, and then Shade, and now Blake.
'I'm just going to go down to the lab,' I murmur. ‘Check Envy.’
Mav gives me a knowing look that I ignore. I go back down to Sauvage's office. Thomas stops me at the door.
'He hasn't called for you,' he says.
'I know.' I fidget under his perusal. 'I just need to talk to him.'
He presses his ear and murmurs that I'm out in the hall.
'Yes, sir,' he murmurs, and then he opens the door.
Sauvage is still sitting at his desk.
'Is everything all right, chéri?' he asks.
'No,' I say. 'Mav has lost his grant to make his non… to make the drug that he was trying to make. Shade's brother has taken everything from him, and now Blake?—'
'Ah,' Sauvage says, 'the cartel. He has told you. Foolish boy.'
I look at Sauvage sharply.
'The truth is more important to me than anything else,' I say. 'Information kept from me on purpose just makes me distrustful.'
He doesn't say anything.
'Are you keeping things from me too?'
He shakes his head. ‘Only that which is not your business, chéri,' he says pointedly, and I wonder if I've annoyed him.
'I don't know what to do,' I say.
'There is nothing you can do, ma petite fleur.'
