“And what do you see when you look in the mirror? If you weren’t such a psycho bitch, you’d throw up every time you caught your reflection.”
Tatiana spotted the knife’s blade under Sammy’s leg. “Going to stab me in the back, little bird?”
What chance did she have now?
Tatiana stroked Cindy’s head. “I’ll protect you. When this is all over, we’ll have some wine. Remember how you liked the wine?”
Cindy nodded; her face was blank and drawn.
“Think about the wine, my little puppy dog, and the good times we had together.”
Sammy gripped the handle. Were the twins free of their restraints?
Tatiana leaned back with a grin. “Do you really think you have a chance? The little girl with a little knife thinks she has a chance.”
Sammy rose to one knee, holding the knife up. Should she charge?
“If you put the knife down and crawl to me, I may let you live. It all depends on how good you are at begging. I haven’t had a good begging in some time now.”
Sammy leaped up.
Tatiana kicked her foot out. Her shoe sailed, hitting Sammy in the chest like a brick. Sammy fell back, banging her head against the dresser drawers. The knife bounced away.
Tatiana stood over her. “Life’s not worth living, little bird?”
Justin sprang from behind and drove Gladys’s polished scissors into Tatiana’s thigh. “Nasty lady!”
Tatiana howled. The leg gave way. She dropped to one knee and swung back. Justin clipped her arm on another go, but she hit him with enough force to knock him down.
Tatiana slumped into a sitting position, holding her arm. “When I’m done with you, you’ll know the true meaning of nasty.”
“Leave him be,” Gladys said. “He was doing what you showed him.”
Tatiana groaned, shifting off the injured leg. “I think we’ll work on your screaming next, Gladys.”
Jenna had her knees pulled in close as if she was trying to make herself disappear. Justin lay on his side, looking like the time he took a bad spill off the swing. Cindy stood just outside the door, seemingly lost.
Tatiana was sideways to Sammy and the knife behind her. If Sammy was quick, she had a chance.
Tatiana shifted slightly, almost facing Sammy. “Look at her,” she said, nodding at Cindy. “With a little more marinating, I’ll have her eating out of a doggie bowl in no time.”
Sammy snapped up the knife and lunged at Tatiana from behind. She looped her arm around Tatiana’s neck and drove the knife down at her chest.
Tatiana grabbed Sammy’s hand.
“Justin, Jenna, run!”
Tatiana reared up and fell back, slamming Sammy onto the floor and knocking the knife free. Tatiana struggled to her knees and grabbed Jenna by the ankle. Sammy leaped up and tackled Tatiana, freeing Jenna, who rolled to her feet and followed Justin down the hallway.
Tatiana twisted under Sammy’s grip and drove her elbow into her head. Sammy tumbled back, dazed. Tatiana kicked off her other shoe and raced after them. Cindy lunged at Tatiana but was elbowed in the head, stumbling back against the doorjamb.
Sammy rose to her knees and hurled the big shoe. It hit Tatiana square in the back. She careened off a doorjamb and stumbled to the floor, moaning. Sammy crawled down the hallway and grabbed the shoe, then lifted it up to crack her over the head.
Tatiana spun, knocking Sammy back into the bedroom. She landed hard. The shoe bounced away. Tatiana gripped the banister and pulled up, holding steady. Her other arm was bleeding—must’ve gotten her with the knife.
Sammy smiled at the minor triumph.
Tatiana stared at her, blood streaked along the side of her face. “You think you won something?”
Sammy sat up and reached back for the shoe.
Tatiana whipped out the silver knife. “Hand it to me, or I’ll slice up Puppy Dog.”
Sammy stood, wishing she had something to hold onto. “You okay, Cindy?”
Cindy groaned. “I think so.”
“Here.” Sammy tossed the shoe high so that Tatiana had to reach for it.
Sammy charged just as Tatiana caught the shoe, knocking them both over the banister. They crashed into the middle of the stairs. Sammy held on, riding her down. Tatiana’s head banged on each step, then crashed into the wall by the landing. Sammy rolled off her and down the two steps, lying face up on the dining room floor. Her side burned like fire. She felt Tatiana’s blade sticking into her. The light from the front bedroom cast a dim glow on the stairs, and behind her was grey darkness.
Chapter Fifty-Three
______________________________
Sammy opened her eyes to the call of her name. Tatiana lay still on the landing, legs bunched up on the step above. Was she dead?
“Sam, you okay?” The voice drifted down like morning dew.
Cindy?
“Sam?” Cindy’s voice cracked.
Sammy raised her head. Her body felt heavy. “Cindy?”
Cindy padded to the middle of the stairway. “Are you hurt?”
Sammy felt for the knife. Her side wasn’t burning like before. “Can you help me up?”
Cindy trod down and stopped by Tatiana.
“I think she’s dead.”
Cindy hopped over her, then caught herself from falling. She turned on the overhead light.
Sammy turned away. The light seemed blinding. “Can you dim it?”
Cindy stared down at her, brows creased. “Sam?”
Sammy cupped her eyes from the light. “Help me up.”
“You have a knife stuck into you.”
“It doesn’t hurt like before.”
Cindy knelt beside her. “It might be better if you lie still. I’ll call an ambulance.”
“They’ll put a Band-Aid on it and send me to juvenile,” Sammy said, lifting her hand for Cindy to take. “It looks worse than it is.”
“Are you sure, Sam?”
Sammy nodded.
Cindy pulled her into a sitting position. The silver switchblade was angled down just below her rib cage. It felt more like a splinter.
“Does it hurt?”
Sammy grabbed the handle and pulled it up slowly. “It’s like I’m sitting on a lump in the chair.”
“It looked like it was in deep.”
The blade was longer than she’d thought; the sheen of blood gave it an almost copper appearance. She fingered the wound. It felt raw like a blister from hard work.
Cindy stared at the wound, biting her lower lip. “I don’t see any blood.”
Sammy held her hand out, and Cindy pulled her up. Sammy held the knife, expecting Tatiana to get up and charge. She could cut her throat. The blade was sharp enough. If she was dead, then it wouldn’t make any difference. If she was still alive, then Sammy would be done with her and her games. She pressed the spine of the knife into her hand. Just a quick flick of the knife would be all it’d take. She’d been willing to stab Tatiana before.
“Sam?” Cindy looked at her as though she had trouble recognizing her.
Sammy gazed down at the knife in her hand. It appeared ancient with its coppery hues.
“Samantha, are you down there?”
“We forgot about Gladys.”
Cindy grabbed her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
Sammy folded the blade and searched for a pocket. The dress didn’t have one. “Can’t leave Gladys tied to a chair.”
“Once we’re out, I’ll call the cops.”
“It won’t take long.”
“You don’t hate me, do you?”
“Hate you?” Sammy said, running her fingers along the side of Cindy’s face. “We’re best friends.”
Cindy hugged her. “Oh, Sam.”
Sammy moaned.
“Sorry.”
“Just got tossed by the human cement mixer.”
Cindy cast her eyes down. “I wish I could’ve helped.”
“I won’t be long.” Sammy climbed over Tatian
a and up the stairs. Cindy was right behind her.
“Cut me loose,” Mark shouted out to them.
“I’ll let Mom do the honors,” Sammy said.
“Don’t let her see me like this.”
“You think I want to see you like that?”
Gladys raised her head slowly. She looked old. The tough cookie had crumbled. “Are the twins safe?”
Sammy nodded. “They made it out.”
Gladys closed her eyes and exhaled. “I’ll have to bring Dolores something.”
Dolores’s house was three down and the place to go if there was trouble. Sammy picked up the mirror-finished scissors. Blood tipped the blades. “Mind if I use these to cut you free?”
“Don’t be a smartass, Samantha.”
Sammy bent down. “Can’t help myself sometimes.” She cut free each leg. “I’m sorry about all this if it means anything to you.”
Cindy leaned into the room. “It was all my fault, Sam. If I wasn’t so…”
Gladys bent over and rubbed her ankles. “You should think hard about changing your ways if you have to keep the company of people like that, and I’m being generous when I say people.”
Sammy offered Gladys the scissors.
Gladys cradled them in her hands.
Cindy rushed over and knelt beside Gladys. “Let me help you get circulation back into your feet.”
“I’ll change out of this dress,” Sammy said.
Cindy nodded, working Gladys’s feet and ankles.
Sammy trudged back to the room. The clothes were in a pile by the door.
Mark looked up at her. “You going to cut me loose?”
“I’m putting my clothes back on without the show this time.” She dropped the knife and slipped on the stretched panties and the ripped trousers.
“Come on, don’t be like that.”
Sammy slipped out of the dress and checked the knife wound. It was a red oval mark with the skin slightly puckered around the edges. There were some advantages to being a freak.
“She did that to you?”
“I’ll leave the dress for your girlfriend.”
“You’re hilarious.”
Sammy put on the shirt, picked up the knife, and flicked it open. “Here, cut yourself free.”
He sawed into the bindings.
“Wait until I at least get out of the room.”
Cindy held Gladys’s arm as she circled the room.
Sammy grabbed her jacket off the floor behind the chair. “Ready?”
“Can you get me my phone, dear?” Gladys asked, pointing behind her.
Cindy grabbed the phone by the sharpened screwdrivers, smiling as though she was glad to help, a departure from the usual exchange.
Sammy slipped on the jacket and nodded for Cindy to go. Cindy lingered as if expecting a thank you. Gladys was talking to the cops.
Mark stood by the bed, pulling up his trousers. He looked back as they passed.
“It was the two runaways who ransacked my house,” Gladys said. “If you come right away, you can catch them.”
“You can always depend on Gladys,” Sammy said, hurrying toward the steps.
“Thought we made a connection.”
“The only connection she’d make is between her and her purse.” Sammy froze at the top of the stairway.
“What is it?”
“She’s gone. The psycho bitch is gone.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
______________________________
Sammy leaned on Cindy a block and a half from Gladys’s house, feeling as if all her strength had been flushed down a sink. At first, she’d thought it was the shock from the psycho being alive; now she didn’t know what to think. She stopped to rest as the sounds of the sirens circled them like a pack of wolves.
Cindy held onto her, looking back. “This isn’t a good place to stop, Sam.”
“Feels like my legs are going to drop out from under me.”
“There’s an alley next to that apartment building.” Cindy pointed to the four-story building at the end of the block where she and the twins set off the fireworks.
“Is there something closer?”
“It’s the only alley in the neighborhood,” Cindy said. “We’ll go slow and steady, all right?”
Sammy nodded, looking into backyards as they went. It’d be too risky to hide in one of those. Tatiana was injured too. Would she know about the alley? It was next to a busy avenue where it’d be easier to disappear.
“See, we’re almost there.”
It seemed like a mile away. “You go. No reason for the both of us to get caught.”
“You wouldn’t leave me, would you?”
“I would.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“I would, then I’d find a way to break you out.”
Cindy let out a low, breathy chuckle. “I don’t know how to do that, so let’s keep going.”
Sammy trudged along, holding heavily onto Cindy. “You think the psycho poisoned me?”
“Don’t see how,” Cindy said. “You’re not bleeding, are you?”
Sammy shook her head, almost stumbling.
Cindy held her up and felt the side by the wound. “It’s dry. You just need time to recuperate.”
“I guess.”
“A few more steps and you can rest. I’ll call for a transporter and ask Mama to look at you. You might have an infection.”
“Maybe that’s it.”
“She has those pills you got her. They cured me the next day.”
The alley still seemed far off. Were they moving, or did she just think they were?
“I better call Johnny. Wonder what Leo told him.”
“Leo?”
“I was on my way to the club with him and had to stop over here to see if you were all right. You didn’t have your phone with you.”
“Yeah, left it for the stupid dress and wig.”
“You were right about her, Sam,” Cindy said it with an uneasy smile. “You’re right about most things. I should’ve known better.”
The thought of Tatiana weighed on her. “She had me going too.”
“You think she’ll bother us again?”
Sammy closed her eyes, tripped, and stumbled to the ground.
“Sam!”
Sammy banged her shoulder on the fall. She lay on her back, rolling her shoulder.
Cindy knelt beside her. “You okay, Sam?”
“I had the knife. She was just lying there, and I had the knife.”
“You’re not a killer.”
“I wish I was.”
“The cops will get her. Gladys will tell them about her, and they’ll get her.”
Sammy sat up, rubbing her shoulder. “They won’t get her. She got away with it before, and she’ll get away with it again.”
A light went on in the house. Cindy pulled her up. “Let’s go.”
The apartment stood about twenty feet away, and after another twenty, a ramp sloped down to the basement. She’d taken the ramp once, avoiding a guy chasing her for stealing from a store on Cooper. The ramp ran through the back into a playground.
“You’re walking better,” Cindy said. “We’re almost there.”
She was getting tired again. If she closed her eyes, she’d fall asleep. Sammy lunged for the fence and dropped to the ground.
“We should go on to the other side of the fence. Cops can still see us from the street.”
“You go,” Sammy said, turning back. Tatiana sat against the building maybe ten feet back by the lip of the ramp.
Tatiana tightened a wrap around her leg. “I know I buried my knife into your side, little bird.”
Cindy jumped back. “Is that…”
Sammy nodded. “The psycho bitch.”
Tatiana pulled herself up and hobbled to the fence. “Hope you don’t mind me taking it back.”
“Gave it to Lover Boy,” Sammy said, shifting sideways. “Feel free to go back and get it.”
Tatiana clu
tched the fence, breathing heavily as if the short stroll had taken something out of her. “You’re not bleeding?”
“From that little knife?”
A big smile brightened Tatiana’s face. “I knew you were a special little bird, felt it in my gut.”
“Yeah, I felt you in my gut too.”
“Sam,” Cindy said, standing a few feet back. “Let’s go.”
“Puppy Dog!”
Cindy looked away. “Don’t call me that.”
Tatiana rattled the fence. Cindy jumped back. Tatiana laughed. “Once a puppy dog, always a puppy dog.”
“Leave her alone.”
“You should’ve let me work with her, little bird. I could’ve had her paper-trained in no time.”
Sammy closed her eyes. If she could rest for a little while, she might have a chance.
“Sam.” Cindy was a couple of steps closer. “Come on.”
“You go, Cindy. I’ll see you at home later.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Tatiana slid down on the other side of the fence. They were almost back to back. “What are you going to do, Puppy Dog? Whimper in the corner?”
Cindy glared at Tatiana. “To think I once thought you were nice.”
Tatiana sighed. “I don’t know how you can listen to that drab. I would’ve snuffed her out a long time ago.”
“You’re a horrible person.”
Sammy shifted. “I’ll be okay, Cindy.”
“Whatever you think you have to do, Sam, you don’t. There are other options. There’re always other options.”
Tatiana chuckled. “Are you going to supply the options, Puppy Dog?”
“I’m not talking to you.”
“You have to comprehend the situation to offer options.”
Sammy pulled up on the fence. She’d have to leave Cindy.
“I’ll help you, Sam,” Cindy said, taking a step.
Sammy shook her head. “Go home. I’ll be by later.”
“Sam, you don’t have to do this yourself.”
Tatiana laughed. “Are you going to help, Puppy Dog?”
Cindy reached into her pocket. “I’ll call the cops and tell them where she is.”
The Girl Thief Page 27