Page 54 of Escape From Me

“Shut up! Little girl is just trying to get a ring out of it? Fuck me, Zeid. Get the little flower a fucking ring and then let’s go bury daddy dearest.”

Daisy sat forward and turned her attention to X.

“Excuse me, X. I am not just trying to get a ring out of it. He asked me to marry him, and I’m sorry if I think the best form ofrevenge is showing my dad just how badly he failed. Marriage is all I was ever worth to him. But anyway, are we going to bury him?”

Cali spoke up this time.

“Probably not. Bodies that are buried have a way of getting found. Maybe I can help the guys out a bit with the autopsy report. I still have a few friends at the morgue.”

I wrapped Daisy back into my arms and went to speak, but she started shaking her head like she was ready to let it fly off.

“No. I don’t really care. It’s just, if he does get buried, or heck, even if my mom still pretends like he’ll be buried in the family plot, I want to plant daisies over his dead body. Sort of like my last little goodbye to a man that ruined my life.”

Silence followed.

“Someone say something. I think I just heard a spider fart,” she said, deadpan.

That was all any of us needed. Who knows who started laughing first or who finished it, but at the end of the day, our dark work hadn’t felt light like this ever.

“Yeah, we’re keeping you,” Rylee said and jumped off Cas’s lap to come hug Daisy.

“Great, now that it’s settled that?—”

“Wait,” I cut Cas off because if I didn’t get this out now I just wouldn’t. “Anyone up for a quick little wedding?”

“Wedding?” Daisy’s voice squeaked, drawing my attention away from my brothers to her.

“Yes. How else will I be able to ensure that you are protected on every front? All of the power of the Spectors is behind you, but other than just the threat of murder, I will take away all his chances to have you.”

Her eyes were wide and her face slightly less pink than a moment ago.

“And is that not what you wanted?” The thought was last minute, because now that I saw her reaction it occurred to me maybe a wedding was never in the cards. “I was thinking of just us and an officiate? Nothing large.”

And when her posture dropped a bit and she blew out a breath, I realized that had been pretty close to spot on. Look at me learning her already.

“Oh, okay. Yeah… I… well, I guess I hadn't quite realized just what that word would bring back for me. The idea of a huge wedding with thousands of people watching you despite not even knowing your birthday let alone your name, well it just is too much.”

And now it was my turn to panic.

“I don’t like people.”

My damn palms were sweating at this point. Fuck me. I couldn’t explain it. Years of taking out my anger, fears, and demons with my fists and with guns suddenly seemed to amount to nothing.

“I should have known, that’s…”

I heard her pause or maybe I just couldn’t hear her at all as I went right back to the chaos of my life. People. Too many fucking people. Always. The Spectors thought it would be funny to fuck with the quiet kid. Once mom died, I was alone and without a soul to give two shits about me.

My dad was a worthless shit and that was the day I decided he was going to die. My normal hiding spot, inside one of our empty fucking cupboards had always been my safety. I could get away from Dad and whoever came over to trash an already trashed dump of a home. So many people. So many Spectors. Too many volatile tempers. I’d have died that night had it not been for Xander and Caspian. They’d always quietly watched out for me, but we’d never been real close because I’d neverunderstood what a friendship was. No one was ever my friend. But that day? That day changed my life forever.

“Hey, there big guy. Do not go there.” X’s hand landed on my shoulder just hard enough to bring me back.

“Yeah, this guy doesn’t do crowds. Shit, we didn’t think he’d do a wedding. But if he wants one, we do it. To be fair, sparky here’s been dragging her feet on a wedding too. We were thinking something small. Maybe we just do it all up together? Just the six of us.”

The idea of marrying Daisy never, not even once, seemed scary.

Her warm tiny hand slid into mine. Her touch was magic when I’d spent an entire lifetime avoiding it all. I was still working on coming down from my spiral of hell. I still wasn’t focusing on much as I tried to shake away those memories. The blood had been my therapy that night, but without Cas and Xander? That night would have had a very different ending, one that I wouldn’t have walked away from whole or alive.

The warm breath against my neck added heat back into my body as she got closer to me.

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