'Yeah,' I say. ‘That was one of the first things.’
‘The bricks are still black in some places.'
'We had them cleaned to try and get the soot from the fire off, but not all of them came clean,' I explain. ‘We’ll probably have it painted.’
She glances back at me. ‘Leave it. It’s sort of in-keeping with the club name. Wrath. Sort of hellish. Smokey. Black. You know?’
I look up at the building and nod slowly. ‘You’re right. If we get a new sign, maybe red.’
‘Yeah!’
She gets out of my car, smiling wide, and I walk around to meet her on the other side. We go across the street to the side door. There are work vans and construction workers loitering outside. They recognize me, giving me nods as I go in with Daisy.
Although most of the main renovations are complete, inside is still a flurry of activity. The bar is being restored and a new floor has been laid. Daisy walks in, looking around, glancing up at the office that looks the same.
'That wasn't destroyed?' sheasks.
I shake my head. 'Just the glass panels. They were shattered. They’ve already been replaced.'
She goes through the space slowly, taking in all of the changes we've made. When she gets to the cellar door, she turns back and looks at me in question.
I nod. 'They're not totally done down there,' I say.
'But I can look?' she asks.
I message the others, asking where they are.
Downstairs.
Daisy goes through the door and down into the cellar slowly. The steps have been widened and made more structurally sound than the crumbling concrete ones that led down there before. The lights have been updated, but we’ve left them pretty dim.
She gets to the bottom of the stairs and finds three doors. She glances back at me again.
'It's different,' she says.
I nod. 'We decided it would be a good idea to make some changes down here while we could.'
'What changes?' she asks.
I grin and open the first door for her. It leads to a small hallway that's well-lit and decorated with gray, paneled walls. The floor is wood, and it leads to a purpose-built apartment with two bedrooms and a small kitchen with a bathroom and shower.
She looks back at me again, a bit suspiciously.
'Is this where I'm going to live?' she asks.
I shake my head. 'No, sweetheart. We just realized that it might be a good idea to have a place that's private and secret where we could lay low if necessary. It opens directly onto the tunnels behind a secret door, so we can come and go pretty much all the way to Sauvage's hotel withoutanyone knowing, without ever going outside. This is for if we have guests or friends who need to hide out.'
She goes through the rooms slowly. My heart is in my throat. I'm not sure what she's thinking. She leaves again just as quietly and arrives at the next door.
I hold my breath.
This one leads to a nondescript storage room. She looks a little bit disappointed as she surveys it and I can’t help my smile.
‘Thereismore.’
I usher her out and to the third room, which leads to the old Dark Lounge, which has been completely cleared. It's just the bare bones of a room. She goes through it to the back bedroom but finds nothing in there, either.
‘We’re redecorating in here, too,’ I say. ‘It’ll be better than before, but it won’t be for us.’
