Page 44 of Sweet Little Spies

“Oh, it’s fine,” Daisy said with a wave of herwell-manicured hand. Aidan’s sis was a few years younger and what Aidan likedto call a walking ball of chaos. She had good intentions, but things wenthaywire around the gorgeous brunette. Today she was dressed in shorts and apink halter top, her hair piled in a messy bun. She’d ditched her shoes at somepoint, or at least he thought she had. Daisy might have taken to the barefootlife. “It’s totally not the first time I’ve had a gun in my face, so don’t worryabout it. I do not take it personally.”

He was actually surprised she’d managed to sneak up on him.He was a light sleeper. Since the episode in Taiwan, he was definitelyconcerned with people attacking him while he slept. It was the very incidenthe’d mentioned to Carys the night before where his black belt had come inhandy. “What are you doing here? Aidan’s sleeping…”

“In front of Carys’s door,” she said with a wistful grin.“It’s romantic.”

“Well, he’s taking his turn.” He felt the need to point outAidan wasn’t the only one watching out for Carys. “I took the earlier shift.”

She shrugged, the action making the massive gold hoops inher ears shake. “Well, I’m sure that was easier. It would be better if he wasin bed with her, but I can understand why she’s upset. I have recently had todeal with men not treating me like the grown-up, capable woman I am. And I’mhere because I thought we should talk. We haven’t talked in a while, have we,Tristan?”

He wasn’t sure they’d ever really talked. She was his bestfriend’s kid sister. Daisy was close to Carys and to her brother, but it hadbeen years since he’d been in a space with the younger O’Donnell. The truth wasDaisy kind of scared him. “No, we haven’t. I’m not sure what we would talkabout.”

Were there cameras on him? Was this some kind of prank?

He felt…weird. Like someone was watching him. He glancedaround the small room the twins and Lou used as an office. Brianna, too, now.His sister was living here, and she didn’t want to talk to him at all. She’dlaughed in his face when he’d suggested he could sleep in her room on herlarge-enough-for-the-two-of-them, comfortable bed. It wasn’t like they’d nevergotten shoved into a small space together. They were brother and sister. Howmany times had she gotten scared and spent the night in his room? They’dsurvived a childhood together, but would she do her brother’s back a solid?Nope.

Something was definitely wrong but he couldn’t put hisfinger on it. Every instinct he had was tingling, but it might be the cloud ofcraziness that followed Daisy around.

“You can’t think of anything? Not a single thing?”

He sighed. Daisy could be relentless. “You want to talkabout Aidan?”

She nodded like she was thrilled a toddler had figured outhow to solve a problem. “Very good, Tris. Yes, I thought it would be good totalk about my brother. We should throw some Carys talk in, too. Lucas and I hada long discussion after the whole helicopter thing. I think I convinced him notto poison you.”

Carys’s brother used to be one of his best friends.“Poison?”

“Well, he knows you can probably take him in a fight, sohe’s using his talents,” Daisy said like they were discussing something normaland ordinary and not his death by food. “Like I said, I think I talked him outof it, but like me, Lucas takes his sister’s happiness seriously. Now Kyle andDavid are another story. You would think David would be the reasonable one, buthe’s studied a lot of history.”

“Kyle and David want to murder me, too?” Carys had a lot ofbrothers.

“Yes, but there’s some torture involved before your death.Like I said, David knows a lot about medieval torture techniques.” Daisynodded, and her spine straightened as though she was ready to get serious. “Idon’t know if it’s occurred to you, but you’ve been unfair to my brother andCarys.”

He had so much to fix. It made him kind of want to run. “SoI’ve been told.”

“Oh, good. Then you’re aware of the problem.”

“Dais, of course I’m aware.” He needed to handle Daisy withsome delicacy. Could he still handle people with delicacy? He’d spent so muchfreaking time pretending to be someone else, he forgot the charming man he usedto be. Could still be. He hoped. “I know how much I’ve screwed things up withAidan and Carys. I can only tell you I’m trying to make it better.”

“Are you?” Daisy asked, staring at him as though this was asession and she was his judgmental therapist.

He could probably use some therapy. “Yes, but there arethings I need to do to ensure their safety before I can even think about beingin their lives the way I want to be.”

“Things like leaving them for two and a half years? Exceptyou truly only left Carys because you talked to Aidan behind her back.”

He winced. Well, it was good to know everyone had heard thestory. He should have expected it. This was one of the reasons he’d kept tohimself. “It wasn’t like that.”

Daisy pinned him with her stare. “It feels like it was. Iwould bet Carys feels like it was.”

He knew how Carys felt, but she wasn’t thinking about thesituation logically. He had a few days to work on her before he had to make theultimate decision on how he was going to handle the Huisman situation. He’dalready sent a text to Tara about finding someone who could take Carys’s place.His tech had promised to do the job. “I know she does, but she shouldn’t. Ithought you were here to talk about your brother.”

He glanced around the office again, trying to decide whatwas making all of his instincts fire off. He was getting paranoid. This was asafe house. His cousins had made sure of it. He was actually a little afraid ofwalking around too much. He’d thought about making a survey of the place buthad found a trip wire outside, and he hadn’t wanted to figure out what it wasattached to.

“I am, but Carys is such a part of him. It’s like theirsouls are combined.” She said it with a sigh as though they were goals as acouple.

They weren’t a couple.

“Uhm, you know I’m a part of that. They’re my soul mates,too. I’ve been there since the beginning.” Then why the fuck had he let thisvast chasm open? They were his soul mates, and he’d been empty without them.He’d become more and more the asshole he played out online.

“I mean, you were, but then you weren’t,” Daisy said, wavinga hand like all those years meant nothing.

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