Chapter Fifty-Eight
See Domino Run
Cain and I bolt from the Lilies’ home and race toward the main house. I have only two objectives now.
Get Poppet.
Run.
A voice rings out in the night, stopping me. “You’re running, aren’t you? Morons!”
I turn to see Lola staring back at me, the red lipstick on her mouth smeared. Swallowing my apprehension, I call out the first thing I think of. “Come with us.”
She blinks in the dim light. “You’re crazy.”
Cain pushed my lower back. “We’ve got to go.”
“Will you tell?” I ask.
Lola looks up at Madam Karina’s window. “Yeah, I will. But I’ll throw them off. It’ll give me time to run while they’re looking for you.”
“We’re headed that way.” I point down the road, to the right.
“Well, I saw you go that way.” She points to the left.
I tip my head at her, and then race toward the main house. Mr. Hodge isn’t at the front like I expect him to be, so I fly up the stairs. Cain is one step behind me. When we get to the third floor, I sweep into the Tulips’ entertainment room. Poppet is sitting in a white high-back chair, speaking with an older gentleman. When I see that he’s holding her hand, drawing circles in her palm, I have to once again fight Wilson for control.
She sees me, sees the sweat on my forehead and the expression on my face, and she’s on her feet. She zigzags through the customers and bolts past me toward her bedroom. I take off after her and then watch as she fills a bag from her closet. Each thing has its place, and it’s as if she went over this a hundred times in her head.
“I’ve got it,” Cain says when she’s done. “Can you run in those?”
She kicks off her high heels. “I grew up barefoot. Why change now?”
Cain hurries down the hall, and Poppet and I rush after him, adrenaline firing through me. The three us storm down the stairs, turning corners and hearing girls yell in our direction. We sound like a herd of water buffalo moving through the house. Between stealth and speed, we choose the latter.
I think we’re in the clear until I see Mr. Hodge standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Cain sees him and drops Poppet’s bag. Mr. Hodge readies his short, massive torso in front of us like there’s no way we’re getting past him.
Jack appears from the side door, holding his jaw. Behind him are a half dozen of Madam Karina’s girls, doting on the injured customer.
“You’re going to pay for this.” Mr. Hodge narrows his beady eyes. “I’m going to make sure—”
He never gets the rest of the sentence out, because suddenly Cain is moving. He rushes down the stairs like Usain Bolt and skips the last three steps, opting to lunge through the air instead. His fist connects with Mr. Hodge’s face and, déjà vu, Mr. Hodge goes down.
Unlike Jack, though, he’s not out.
“Come on!” Cain urges.
“Oh my God,” Poppet laughs as she grabs her bag and leaps over Mr. Hodge. “You punched The Neck!”
The three of us sail through the front door, and Cain digs keys out of his pocket. We dive inside the black demon car, and Cain starts the ignition and steps on the gas. On our way down the drive, we pass Eric’s gold sedan.
“Where to?” Cain asks.
“You don’t have a plan?” Poppet shrieks.
He shakes his head. “Not past keeping the car keys and hitting that prick, Jack.” Cain glances at me. “I watched you through the kitchen window. I won’t apologize.”
“Turn here!” I yell.
Cain jerks the car to the right and pushes the car as fast as it’ll go.
“Where’d you learn to hit like that?” Poppet asks Cain, bouncing in her seat.
“Keep driving until I say.” I stare forward, trying to gauge how far we are from my intended destination. My body itches for movement, to run ahead of the car and expend some nerves. I’m a ball of tension, glancing in the rearview mirror every ten seconds. If we see Eric’s headlights, it’s over. As it stands, my plan may not work for a slew of reasons.
My hope rests on Lola and her convincing Madam Karina and the others that she saw us going left down the road. She’ll help, because the longer they search for us, the more time she’ll have to slip away unnoticed. But Pox isn’t a large town, and it won’t take long for Eric to decide we went in the other direction.
How can I help? Wilson asks. I know I tried to take over back there, but I’m better now.
Just let me think.
Right-o. Thinking is your territory. I’m the doer. Let me know if you need any doing.
We’re two hundred yards away when I tell Cain to pull into a field on the left. The property looks deserted, an old ramshackle house and a front yard filled with busted tires and a scarecrow that’s missing an arm. I tell Cain to park wherever, and we get out.
Cain grabs Poppet’s bag from the backseat of the car, and Poppet props her elephant on her hip like an infant. The two give me a questioning look.
“We’ll walk from here,” I explain. “If they’re looking for the car, or have a tracking device on it, we don’t want them to find us in it.”
“But where are we going?” Poppet asks, her bare feet disappearing into the tall, dry grass.
I point forward. “We’ll skirt along the side of the road, but not on it. It should only take us a few minutes to get there.”
It’s Cain who finally figures it out. “You want to jump the train.”
“I’ve done it before. It’s how I left home.” It’s something I’ve never told anyone, not even Dizzy. He knew I loved them, the trains, but he didn’t know why. Not the whole truth, anyway. Not the fact that a train often has empty cars perfect for desperate travelers. Not that the horn sounds, to me, like a beacon of hope and renewal. He only knew I loved them as a child. Not that they served as my salvation.