I look around the car for Luna and Scarlet now I’m back with them. I don’t know the new characters my mind has made up. I don’t even care why they’ve joined us in the usually blank space.
“Luna, baby girl?” I whisper as I look under the seats. “Scarlet, are you hiding again?” They don’t answer me while I continue searching. The conversation outside of the car comes to an end as the two men leave, going into the building through a steel side door. I keep looking for my babies as my eyes burn. “Please come back. I miss you.”
Sitting up on my knees, I check the front seats. Then behind me in the trunk. Empty. There’s only me. Cool air floods the car as Kane gently opens the door with a leather duffel bag in hand. His jaw pulses as he says, “Sit down.”
“Where did they go?”
He looks behind him at the door the men went through while I shake.
“Did Scarlet take her to the park?” I ask, remembering I told them I met their daddy at the park. Yeah, she took Luna to the park. Scarlet is older. She’s not like me, so they’re safe as I sit in the corner.
“When did you see your sister?” he asks, dropping the bag on the seat before getting into the car, keeping his left leg side outside.
“What are you talking about?” I look at him now, at everything. Properly look, taking in how real the air feels on my skin, how the bruises on my wrists hurt when I press my fingers to them. “This is real?”
“Yeah, pretty girl,” he whispers, taking a deep breath. “It’s real. There’s some clothes and food in there for you.”
He pulls his hood over his head then twists so both of his legs are hanging out of the open door. I watch his back as he leans forward to light a cigarette. The click of the flint igniting sizzles while I wait for him to say something about us being in the real world—the one place I don’t want to be. Crawling forward with the bag trapped between us, I wrap my arms around him and cry into his back. I can’t tell the real Kane what’s happened. He’ll hate me like I hate me. Then he’ll send me back to Helene, like she said he would.
He takes in a shaky lungful of smoke. “You’re safe now,” he whispers. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”
I press my lips to his back as my tears soak through his black hoodie. “I…”I don’t know what to say.How do I tell him he’s afather, but he doesn’t have a baby? Instead, I whisper, “I knew you didn’t die. You tricked everyone again.”
“Didn’t die,” he says coldly, tapping the ash off his cigarette. It falls between his feet where multiple stubs are littering the floor. “Get dressed. You can eat while I drive. It’ll help your nausea.”
“I don’t feel sick.”
“You will soon.” He holds the cigarette between his lips as he reaches into his pocket with his right hand to take out another. Switching them so the unlit one is between his lips, he brings the small, burning stub to the tip, lightly pressing the dying cherry to the end before flicking it onto the floor. “You’re going to hate me, beg me, try to kill me, but I’m not giving you anything, Delilah. Get dressed. Keep your mouth shut until that shit’s out of your system.”
I’m pulled forward as he stands, my arms limp but he steps forward then softly closes the door on me. It doesn’t budge as I pull on the handle. He doesn’t look at me. He flattens his back against the door while smoke swirls around his hooded head.
Without looking away from him, I open the duffel bag, taking out the hoodie. It still has creases from where it’s been folded, but I pull it over my head in the hope if I go along with what he says the conversation about the vials won’t happen. I need them now. They’re a magic potion transporting me to my true family who I haven’t hurt.
Once I’m dressed, I take the protein bar sitting at the bottom of the bag, slowly chewing as I carefully move the remaining bars and bottles of water around to see if there’s anything for me to take.
No vial.
I watch Kane. His shoulders are tense and smoke billows around him like a chimney as he lights another. His deep breath pushes him deeper against the car door as smoke floats up in athick plume like he’s trying not to breathe. When he’s finished and climbs into the driver’s seat, the car fills up with the smell of nicotine. His left sleeve flaps as he reaches across his body to pull the door closed, trapping the cuff of his left sleeve in the door, but he doesn’t react.
“Kane?” I whisper as he starts the engine. “Wher—” I clear my throat. “How…Your sleeve is caught in the door.”
He lets out a harsh breath as he roughly opens the door, pulls the material free, then slams it closed, rocking the entire car. “What?” he asks, the harshness settling into his voice while glaring at me through the mirror. “Am I a fucking freak now?”
“No?” I shake my head. “I…don’t understand.”
“I’d give my life for you.” Holding the passenger headrest with his right hand, he looks at me. “My arm is nothing.”
“You’re hurt?”
“Not anymore,” he says softly. “Do you want to sit in the front with me?”
“Where are we going?”
The tension all but drops away as he smiles. “To kill Helene.”
Grabbing the bag, I climb through the gap. “Promise?”
His smile dips, so do his eyes as he nods. “I give you my word.” Cupping my cheek, he brings his left arm up, leaving it in midair as though he’s using both hands. “You won’t be safe while they’re alive. So, my pretty girl, we’re going to kill them all, then I’m taking you for steak and chocolate. You’re going to dance with me under the stars, and…that’s it. That’s all I want.”
