“Captured?” Trisha scoffed, swatting the word from the air. “They were my marks.” She planted her hands on her hips. “With six kids at home, I ain’t got time to mess around. I came to fucking collect! Now, my babies will get everything they deserve. No more shitty healthcare. No more living in the projects or waiting for the bus. Fuck, it feels good to take from billionaires for once, instead of the other way around!” She adjusted her breasts with the aggression one would use to fluff a pillow. “Tax the mother fuckin’ rich! You know?” She cackled again, tossing her hair over one shoulder.
“S—sure,” Maggie said, unblinking.
“Eh, just another day of being a mom. Anyway, I gotta split. My tits and ass are a fucking biohazard, and I plan to sit in a bath for the next two days.” And with that, she swept back into the crowd like the force of nature she was.
Maggie and Daisy stared after her, mouths agape, then looked back at each other and burst into laughter.
The crowd pressed forward around them, bodies funneling toward the entrance. “We should probably get going,” Maggie said.
Daisy sobered. “Oh, I, um…” She glanced back at Jack, who had been pulled deeper into a cluster of hunters on the other side of the staircase. “I’m actually going to stay back.”
“What?” She followed Daisy’s gaze to the group of men. “Did you make a connection?”
“I think, yes. It’s a little too early to tell.”
Maggie studied her face and smiled. “Wow. This entire experience has been quite the surprise.”
It was Daisy’s turn to laugh. “I know. I want to stay in touch?—”
“Absolutely!” Maggie gripped her hand. “Let’s meet somewhere. One week from today. A café, somewhere proper where the rich go!”
“Where?”
Maggie’s face lit up. “Oh, let’s pick somewhere completely posh! You’re in London, right? What about that big gilded brasserie on Piccadilly? I’ve always wondered what it would be like to sip tea in that grand old room.” She paused, chewing her lip. “I’d have to figure out the logistics of getting there, but...” She waved the worry away like brushing a fly. “I’ll just figure out how to buy a seat on a plane. My God, Daisy, can you imagine what our lives will be once the dust from all of this settles?”
Daisy couldn’t. Not yet. It was still too enormous to conceive. “Next Saturday,” she confirmed, squeezing her fingers. “At noon.”
“Brilliant.” They hugged again, tighter this time. “I’d better go before my limo leaves without me.” She laughed again, already drifting toward the doors. “Another limo! Will you look at us?”
Daisy smiled and waved, then turned to search for Jack. He was deep in conversation with two men. One she didn’t recognize. The other made her blood run cold.
Broad shoulders. Tattoos. Thick neck. Flat, emotionless eyes. And arms wide enough to crush a woman’s throat.
The hunter from the hallway. The one who crushed her windpipe.
He stood across from Jack, black eyes narrowed, mouth set in an unforgiving slash. The man next to him grinned as he spoke to Jack, his icy blond hair and bright blue eyes a complete contrast to the beast at his side.
Daisy watched them from across the emptying hall. Jack’s hands were in his pockets, his expression unreadable. Whatever they were discussing held his full attention.
The hall was nearly hollow now. Stragglers lingered by the doors, exchanging tired embraces, but the great herd had moved on. Daisy didn’t want to conspicuously stand there alone, and she certainly didn’t want to go anywhere near the man who assaulted her a few hours ago in the hall. So she turned and climbed the stairs.
Aunt Vanessa stood on the landing, champagne flute still in hand, watching her with an expression that held no surprise whatsoever. “The limousines are that way, darling.”
Daisy stopped, her silence saying far too much to a woman who missed nothing.
“But I suspect you won’t be taking one back to the hotel tonight.” Aunt V said, sipping her champagne as her eyes creased knowingly with a hidden smile.
Daisy glanced down the staircase at Jack, still engrossed with the two men. “I’ve…decided to stay.”
Aunt V followed her gaze and nodded slowly. “I’ll have your personal belongings sent over by morning.”
“Thank you. For everything.”
She took Daisy’s hand, her grip warm but firm, the kind of hold that demanded attention. “Listen to me carefully, darling. Every hunter here knows how to dress well and hold a door. Men are remarkably good at being soft when it suits them. But never mistake manners for nature. Civilized is a choice they make. It takes effort. It is not who they are, and it’s not who you’ll see behind closed doors.”
The warning settled like stones in the pit of Daisy’s stomach. She wasn’t speaking against Jack specifically. She was arming her with the truth about men. At the end of the day, they were all hunters, predatory animals aching to break free of their societal cage.
But Daisy already realized what Jack was. And she still chose to stay.
