Alone on the balcony, in the cool darkness, she found herself jumping through time. She looked down at a mysterious pendant in Susan’s bloody hands, called to a boy trapped in a muddy pit, slipped a key off a wall of keys, and fought her way forward as people collapsed on a crowded street. Her legs buckled beneath her and she sank to the balcony floor, resting her forehead against cool metal.
“It deceives you, doesn’t it?” Nick asked.
Lareina’s eyes snapped open. She hadn’t heard him come in, but there he was standing in the doorway behind her. Using the railing for support, she pulled herself to her feet.
“What do you mean?” she asked, disregarding her pounding heart.
He stepped forward, leaned into the rail, and looked out at the city. “At first all you see are the pretty lights. They draw you in before you know what you’re getting yourself into, then you notice the darkness a little bit at a time. A part of you always knew it was there, but it’s so much easier to believe the lies.”
Brightly lit windows illuminated the buildings in some neighborhoods while others were invisible, cloaked in darkness. A minute ago the cool breeze felt good on her face, but suddenly it sent a shiver through her body. She looked over at Nick, but he wouldn’t make eye contact with her.
“I know you don’t trust me and I don’t blame you, but I do regret lying to you.” She leaned heavily against the railing, and awaited his response.
He let out a long breath and shook his head. “Am I talking to Lareina the orphan, Rochelle the con artist, or someone else entirely?”
Swallowing hard, she considered Nick’s question while his icy stare drilled into her soul for answers.
“I suppose I’m both of those people and some I don’t know yet. I’ve been trying to figure that out my entire life.” A chilly gust of wind slapped at her face and she gripped the railing tighter. “Do you know what I’ve decided?”
The memories of cruelty and misery ran laps at the edge of her mind and the air seemed to thin once again. Nick’s expression softened and he took a step forward, but held back.
Lareina forced a quick smile that faded immediately. “I’m nobody. I don’t even have a last name. My existence means nothing to anyone and when I’m gone, the world won’t miss me because it never even knew I was here.”
Tears burned in the corners of her eyes and she turned away from Nick. The city loomed beautiful, mysterious, and deadly below. She felt the rail sway slightly, indicating his presence beside her, but she didn’t turn her head to acknowledge him. For minutes they stood there together, silent, alone in their own thoughts.
“You should go inside and get cleaned up.” Nick’s voice wasn’t comforting, but it wasn’t icy either. “We can talk later.”
She nodded, too exhausted to argue or search for some kind of hidden meaning in his tone. Vision blurred by stubborn tears, she walked straight into the bathroom, locked the door, and peeled off her clothes without examining them. Sobbing, she stepped into the shower and remained still as the steaming water mingled with her lukewarm tears. Eventually she calmed down enough to dry herself with a soft white towel and dress in the last clean outfit left in her bag.
For a long while she stood in front of the mirror staring at her own reflection. Any weight she had gained at Oak Creek seemed to be melting away, leaving her face drawn and tired. When her puffy eyes returned nearly to normal, she combed through her short, uneven hair and pushed the annoying bangs out of her eyes. She pressed a cold washcloth against the lump on her forehead and examined her pupils to assure herself she didn’t have a concussion. Five minutes ticked by, and she contemplated sleeping in the bathtub—anything to avoid conversation with Nick—but she had to check on Aaron and hunger urged her to leave the room. With one last look in the mirror, she watched her reflection take two slow breaths, then opened the door.
“The weather changes every five minutes. People are really nice though and help each other after blizzards and floods,” Nick was saying. The bathroom door groaned. Both Nick and Aaron turned toward her.
She put a smile on her face for Aaron’s sake. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Nick was telling me about Nebraska,” Aaron explained. He seemed tense, disappointed, maybe a little worried, and definitely paler. Lareina hoped he wasn’t in too much pain. Sitting down on the other bed, she rested her elbows on her knees.
“There are no words to give you a realistic impression. You’ll like it when you get there,” she reassured him.
Aaron forced a weak smile. His eyelids hovered half open as if he struggled to stay awake. She looked over at Nick and the worried expression on his face mirrored what she felt.
He sighed. “I can’t get him to eat anything and I think he’s running a fever.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Aaron protested. “I’m fine, and I did eat a little.” His head lolled to the left.
She glanced over at the full bowl of soup and nibbled sandwich on the nightstand by Aaron’s bed. “Come on, you can do better than that.” She picked up the soup and sat down next to him. “You haven’t eaten for days. You have to be hungry.”
Aaron struggled to lift his arm, gave up halfway, waved his hand toward her, then let his arm drop back to his side. “Maybe later.”
“That’s exactly what he told me.” Nick kept his voice even, but the panic showed in his wide eyes.
Lareina looked from one of her friends to the other. The air around them felt still, dense, suffocating, but she had to breathe, had to remain calm.
“Nick, it’s okay,” she reassured, keeping her voice smooth, speaking slowly to prevent it from rising in pitch. “I need you to find all of the first aid stuff in my bag.” At first he only looked at her, as if debating whether he wanted to obey. So she added a “please” and he finally gave in.
Turning to Aaron, she held a spoonful of soup near his mouth. “Just a few more bites. You have to keep your strength up for the train ride,” she coaxed.
It worked and he swallowed the contents of the spoon. Despite her own hunger, she spent the next hour persuading Aaron to finish his supper, then held his hand while Nick changed the bandages. Watching Aaron squirm and feeling how tightly he squeezed her hand disheartened her so completely that she couldn’t even imagine how Aaron must have felt.
After Nick finished with the bandages, he left to take a shower. Lareina sat with Aaron, giving him her best sales pitch for Christmas blizzards, spring lilacs, blazing summer days, and football games on crisp fall nights. He listened, nodding occasionally, while his eyelids hovered halfway between lethargy and sleep.
“All right, it’s time for you to get some sleep.” She brushed her hand lightly across his forehead. It felt warmer than normal, or maybe her hands were just cold.
Aaron didn’t protest as she rearranged his pillows and helped him lie down. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Lareina, I think it’s infected and without antibiotics . . .”
Huddled beneath the comforter, he looked so small, like a frightened child. She took his hand in both of hers, not sure how to comfort him but compelled to try. She wanted to run back to the hospital and shout, threaten, throw things until the corrupt guards let them in. She wanted to haul Aaron across the street and load him on a train to anywhere. But she couldn’t do either of those things.
“Shhh. Just rest.” She spoke in the most reassuring voice she could muster. “You’re going to be just fine. I promise.”
“Lareina,” Aaron mumbled as his eyes began to close. “I started a letter to my family. The address is on it, in the front pocket of the backpack. Can you send it for me?” His blue eyes were pools of pleading fear.
“I’ll find you a stamp. You can send it yourself.”
Aaron slipped into sleep. Despite his peaceful appearance, she couldn’t bring herself to leave his side. She felt an obligation to protect him, to comfort him if he found himself trapped in a nightmare. After pulling a blanket up to his chin, she leaned back in her chair, c
losed her eyes, and listened to water rushing through pipes in the wall.
Her eyes barely opened at the feeling of a light warmth against her shoulder. Nick pulled his hand back the second she moved. Droplets of water dripped from his hair to the shoulders of his t-shirt. Aaron breathed silently. Lareina rubbed her stinging eyes.
Nick handed her a white paper bag. “Here, you didn’t eat anything yet.”
She thanked him and took the bag. It contained a bowl of soup and a sandwich, just like Aaron’s. Removing a plastic lid from the Styrofoam bowl, she took a bite of soup. It was cold, but she was too hungry to care.
“He’s going to be okay, right?” Nick whispered, looking over at Aaron.
“We have to get him to a hospital as soon as we can,” she mused more to herself than Nick. “Thank you,” she said when she noticed him watching her, “for helping with the bandages and everything.”
He nodded then sank down onto the second bed. “Lareina, can you tell me about Ava again, the whole story? I have to know everything, even the worst details.” Color drained from his face, he slouched forward a little, and for a moment he seemed familiar again.
It wasn’t the conversation she wanted to have, but it was better than not talking to him at all. As she ate, she recounted every detail she could remember, beginning with meeting Ava who introduced herself as Susan, to the search for Dr. Iverson, to hiding in alleys, to Ava’s death. “She told me to protect you, although I didn’t understand her words until I thought about them later.” Her eyes met his for the first time since she’d started the story. “She told me she loved you.”
Nick remained frozen in place the entire time she spoke. Sometimes he closed his eyes as if he couldn’t handle the images she described, but the rest of the time he watched every movement of her lips and scrutinized every facial expression and gesture. He seemed . . . quiet? Lost in thought? Distracted and conflicted, perhaps, were the closest words could come to describing his behavior.
“And that’s the entire truth? You didn’t change any details for my benefit?” he probed after a minute of silence.
She leaned back into the cushion of her chair. Fatigue prevented her from telling anything but the absolute truth. Actually, it seemed to sharpen her memory to the impressions she’d spent months trying to forget. “That’s exactly how it happened. I’m done lying to you about anything ever again.”
Nick nodded and locked his eyes on hers. “And you only took the pendant when Ava offered it to you? You only have it because you’re trying to keep your word?”
Sliding her empty soup bowl onto a stand nearby, she shifted in her seat, feeling like she was under interrogation. “Yes, Nick. I didn’t want it in the first place and I don’t want it now, but because of what Susan . . . I mean Ava, told me, I’m afraid to give it up.”
He sighed and nodded. A long silence passed between them, but she no longer felt tired.
“Okay,” he finally said. “I have some work lined up for us tomorrow. Together, I think we can make enough money for tickets out of the city.”
“Great.” Lareina yawned. “What kind of work?”
“We should really get some sleep. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”
He flipped the light off and her mind hurtled toward sleep. What had they been discussing?
“You’re right. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” She picked up an extra blanket and curled up in the chair next to Aaron’s bed. From outside, a muffled train whistle danced through her ears.
Chapter 39
The fog only thickened as Lareina followed Nick across gray sidewalks, between gray buildings, and through gray mist. He told her they were going to help unload trains for a different railroad not far from the hotel. He told her they would receive free tickets in exchange for their work. She didn’t question him. She was out of ideas, and without his help there was no hope for Aaron.
A motionless calm enveloped the streets. She questioned whether the previous day’s mayhem really occurred. Perhaps it had all been a nightmare created by her restless mind. She touched her hand to the lump on her forehead and shivered. Wispy fog drifted by, wrapping around buildings and floating over cars, making any other pedestrians inconspicuous. She zipped her jacket and slid her hands into her pockets. All she could think about was Aaron’s deteriorating condition. Until that morning she hadn’t been sure he was running a fever, but the minute her hand made contact with his burning forehead she knew. Every instinct screamed against leaving him alone all day, but she couldn’t save him unless she could get him out of Dallas, and she couldn’t get the tickets without leaving him behind. Gently, she had tucked blankets around him, not wanting to wake him up, and left a note of explanation on the nightstand.
She clutched her pendant, hidden inside her jacket pocket. That morning she had watched her reflection struggle with the clasp to remove the pendant from its usual place. For the first time since she’d received the unwanted gift, she slipped it into her pocket instead of wearing it. A new worry that she might lose it while unloading train cars harassed her thoughts. We’re almost home, she thought. We’re almost home and everything will be okay.
“Here we are,” Nick announced.
She hadn’t been paying attention, but it only took a second for a startling realization to creep through her. She had followed Nick into a dead-end alley. There wasn’t a train or the hustle and bustle of people that she had anticipated. Nothing but red brick walls surrounding her on three sides.
Taking a step back, she fought the urge to run. Did Nick know how to spin a believable lie? What could he possibly know of deception? “Where are we? I don’t understand.”
He stepped around to face her. “This is it.” His voice held a chill deeper than any winter she had ever known, but his eyes studied her with uncertainty.
Her only escape beckoned behind him, but instinctively she took another step back. He leaped forward and clasped her arm tight in his hand, pulling her toward the side of a building. Cold metal swallowed her wrist and secured her to the bars covering a window. Nick backed away and she tried to follow, but the handcuff dug into her wrist and held her in place.
“What are you doing?” she choked. Fear, anger, and disbelief mixed until she felt nothing at all.
“This is justice for what you did to Ava. The detective will be here any minute to collect you.” His voice quivered, and she glimpsed his doubt. Enough doubt to change his mind if she had enough time.
“No, Nick. I only lied about my name and the pendant. You know who I am—I wasn’t pretending.” She shouted the words, speaking quickly as time sped away.
“Stop lying to me, Lareina. Galloway told me the truth,” Nick growled. “You shot Ava because you wanted her pendant. He’d been following you for months on suspicion of robbery and murder and that was when he caught up with you. But after you stole Ava’s pendant, he rushed her to the hospital, and she made it. She’s alive, and in exchange for you, he’s giving me two train tickets back to San Antonio so I can find her.”
Blinking back tears, she lunged forward, but her wrist jerked her back. Galloway had given Nick the lie he wanted to believe. She couldn’t construct any truth to compete with that.
“You didn’t tell him about your pendant?” she whispered, worried Galloway could be lurking around any corner.
Nick’s frown deepened. “That’s none of your business.”
She bit her lip to fight back a rising hostility toward Nick. “Don’t tell him,” she pleaded. “We can’t let him have both.”
Rolling his eyes, he shook his head slowly back and forth. “I don’t know what kind of scheme you’re trying, but I’m not letting you go.”
She tried again to move toward Nick, but he backed away and the handcuffs prevented her from getting any closer.
“Well, well, well . . . It looks like you came through for me after all.” Galloway’s gruff voice boomed through the alley. The detective’s words had been directed at Nick, but he couldn’t take
his eyes off Lareina.
“You’re absolutely sure that she did it?” His voice held the hesitation of deepening uncertainty, but it was too late for that.
Galloway held out two yellow, rectangular pieces of paper to Nick. “I wouldn’t have spent so much time chasing her if I wasn’t sure, now would I?” Galloway spoke with a confident arrogance.
Nick nodded and took the tickets, stepping away from her. Galloway walked up to her and clutched the front of her jacket in his fist.
“Where’s the pendant?” he demanded.
She pulled away from him. She wanted to run, but the handcuffs prevented her from getting more than two steps away. “Take three guesses.” She spat the words at him, but he reached out, grabbed her arm, and pulled her closer to him.
“Where is it?” He emphasized every syllable of every word. His hot breath on her face smelled like cigars. Nick hovered at the opening of the alley.
She needed to buy some time if she were to have any hope of escaping, but she also had to protect the pendant. “I sold it. I needed the money and that poor naive man believed it was a valuable family heirloom.” She shrugged as if it didn’t matter and wondered how long she could prevent Galloway from checking her pockets.
“Excellent.” Galloway rolled his eyes. “You’re going to tell me where.” He took out a key and moved toward the handcuffs.
“Wait,” Nick shouted. Galloway and Lareina both turned toward him. Nick’s feet cemented him in place. Get out of here, Nick, she thought. What are you still doing here? He didn’t understand how dangerous Galloway could be, and she wouldn’t be able to protect him. In less than ten minutes, she’d failed to keep both of her promises to Susan.
“What do you want?” Galloway grumbled.
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