Page 56 of Escape From Me

I nodded, but my eyes were growing heavy. I couldn’t be certain what time it was and it maybe didn’t matter. I yawned without meaning to.

“Sure. Whatever you want,” I said around the yawn. I leaned into Zeid, letting him pull me into his lap.

A wedding. I was getting married. The thought stayed on replay even as I tried to listen to everyone around me. It should all bug me. It had always bugged me before. But not now.

I felt the vibration of Zeid’s phone. He shifted me around to get to it. He answered, but I couldn’t hear much.

“Problem?” Zeid said as he answered.

I didn’t like the way his body stiffened under me, and suddenly I wasn’t so tired.

Zeid said a few more words before hanging up.

“We have a problem.”

He was looking at Cas and X, but his hold on me tightened.

“Daisy, your father had no idea who I was. Not that he let on anyway, did he?”

That woke me up, the adrenaline pumping fresh in my veins.

“I… no.” I sat straight, but he wasn’t letting me go.

“Some of us are having a bit of a run in with the police. Police that don’t seem to be turning a blind eye.”

Was he talking to me? I looked around the space. Cas, X, Rylee, Cali, all their eyes were on me, and then I looked up to see Zeiden’s were too.

“What? What am I missing?”

He stood up, holding me tight and letting my feet touch the ground, but he wasn’t letting go.

“My boys, they said the cops were holding them at gunpoint saying their car had illegal weapons and heroin and that if they wanted out of it they could call whoever was in charge to take the fall. Or that’s what was implied. Care to go for a ride?”

I looked at everyone, still confused, but nodding like a bobble head.

“Sure. Whatever you think will help.”

Zeid turned to where Cas and Rylee were already heading to the door we’d come through not that long ago.

“I think they’re on your father’s payroll and you might be of some assistance. And you’d be a helpful message to send.”

A message? What kind of help could I be? I still followed, my hand in his.

“My father’s payroll? What could my father possibly…”

I stopped talking because it occurred to me that my father being a giant asshole wasn’t an act and wasn’t just at home. I watched all those parties. I saw how they all looked at him. I saw the money that traded hands when he thought I was just a good little girl in the corner acting like some kind of object that needed a home.

My head kept trying to connect every little detail I could think of, barely noticing a jacket was being thrust at me.

“Daisy? Take this.”

I took it from Rylee but I looked to Zeid for some kind of permission or, well, no it was approval. When would I stop looking to the men in my life for something I didn’t need? Fuck it. If Rylee thought I needed it, then I would take it.

“Bulletproof.” Rylee knocked on a hard plate in the jacket.

“Why would I need it to be…” I stopped one more stupid question from leaving my lips. “Right.”

I was fine until I couldn’t seem to get the zipper to work.

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