“He wasn’t yanking anything,” Haden says.
This time I raise my eyebrows.
“Oh. I mean, he was quite earnest when he gave it to me.”
“Okay, sparky. We better get on it, then. I’ll start making phone calls to every S. Smith in the Las Vegas phone directory while you drive.”
“Just one last thing,” Haden says. He opens his duffel bag and riffles around in the contents, then zips it back up without taking anything out.
“What was that for?”
“Just making sure we didn’t have a stowaway. Brim wasn’t too happy when I told her she couldn’t come.”
“That’s too bad.” Even taking a cat along would feel a little less awkward than the two of us on the road together. Alone. To Las Vegas.
“Believe me, sharing close quarters, like a car, with a hellcat is not a good idea. I should know; I’ve had to keep her hidden from Simon in my room for the last three months.”
“Poor baby,” I say, meaning the cat, not him.
“I just hope she doesn’t get out of my room. She might follow us all the way to Vegas.”
“She could do that?”
“She and I are bonded in a way. She can find me anywhere.”
“Who’s Simon?” I ask. “The person you’re hiding her from?”
“My guardian, I guess you could say, and my father’s emissary. As in, the person I’m going to be in deep kopros with if he gets wind of this trip before we get out of here.”
“Let’s get this over with, then,” I say, gathering that kopros is the Underlord slang for stuff that starts with an sh and ends with an it.
I’m in the process of buckling my seat belt, and Haden is pulling out of the garage, when he suddenly slams on the brakes. I look up and see that Haden’s younger cousin—Garrick, I think—is standing in the driveway, blocking our exit.
Haden honks the horn and waves at him to get out of the way. Garrick doesn’t move.
Haden puts the car in park and gets out. “What are you doing, Lesser? Get out of my way.”
“I can’t let you do this,” Garrick says.
“And how do you intend to stop me?”
“I’ll tell Simon. I’ll call him right now. You’re not allowed to leave town. I heard Simon tell you so.”
“Simon doesn’t need to know. He’s gone to LA on business. He won’t even be back until Monday.”
“So what, you’re just going to run away the first chance you get? What about the rest of us? What about me? What happens when Simon finds out you’re gone? What happens when I go back through the gate without you?”
“I’m not running away, Lesser. You think I’m a coward?”
“I don’t believe you. I’m going inside to call Simon! I’m telling him you’re going to this Vegas place.”
Haden grabs his cousin. Garrick tries to pull away. I get out of the car, thinking I can intervene. Talk some sense into Garrick. But I don’t get the chance. Haden places his thumbs behind the boy’s ears and his index fingers on his temples and presses until Garrick’s eyes roll into the back of his head and he crumples like a rag doll. Haden catches him up in his arms before he hits the ground. I cover my mouth, holding in a shriek.
“Open the door,” Haden says, dragging his cousin’s limp body toward the car.
“What did you do?”
“I put him in a black sleep. It’s an old Underlord negotiation technique.”
“Negotiation?”
“If a man refuses to negotiate, you render him unconscious.”
“That’s crazy.”
“He would have told Simon. There was no other way to stop him without resorting to violence. Now open the door.”
I pull open the back door, and Haden shoves Garrick into the backseat. The boy lies motionless on his side.
“Will he be okay?”
“He’ll have a raging headache when he wakes up in a couple of hours, but by then we’ll be halfway there.” Haden slams the door. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and tosses it into a bucket of rags in the garage. “Simon is eventually going to figure out I’m gone, especially if I’m not back by Monday, but I want to make sure he can’t track us. Give me yours.” He gestures for me to give him my phone.
“Mine, too?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“How would he …?”
“Trust me. He has his ways.”
I surrender my phone and watch Haden drop it into the bucket. He gets back in the car. “You coming?”
I sit in the passenger seat again.
As we sail out of the driveway, I glance back at his unconscious cousin in the third row, and I wonder if I’ve made a grave mistake.
chapter forty-seven
HADEN
Daphne is silent the whole first hour of our trip. She keeps glancing at Garrick, who still lies unconscious in the back row. Sometimes, I catch her gaze darting to me. Her eyes linger on my upper arm. The sleeve of my T-shirt covers my scars, but I know that’s what she’s thinking about. No wonder so much tension fills the space between us.
“I didn’t do that,” I say, breaking the silence.