Rising carefully, Cole scanned the area beyond the truck. “Come on,” he whispered to Lily, seeing no one. Pushing back the tarp, he swung his legs over the tailgate and then dropped to the ground. Turning, he reached for Lily.
“What in the world are you doing?”
The cry made him freeze. One hand suspended in startlement over her quilted purse, an elderly woman gaped at them from behind her plastic-rimmed glasses. “Don’t you know that’s dangerous? What are you thinking, putting a child back there?”
Drawn by the shouting, the truck’s owner emerged from the station while others turned toward the commotion.
Quickly, Cole grabbed Lily under her arms and hefted her to the ground.
“What the hell?” the man yelled, racing toward them. “Get away from my stuff!”
Lily’s hand crushed in his fist, Cole ran.
The old woman shrieked for someone to call the police. For a hundred yards, the driver’s footsteps pounded after them, and then the man seemed to realize he was leaving the truck with his stuff. Cars flew past as the two of them tore down the sidewalk and then dashed into a strip mall parking lot. Mothers with strollers stared as he and Lily raced by, while a group of frat boys shouted encouragement for them to keep going.
Dodging around a gaggle of teenage girls outside a shoe store, Cole glanced over his shoulder. They’d run a few blocks, and no one had bothered to follow. Contrary to the old woman’s demands, the cops apparently hadn’t been called either.
Running a hand over his hair, he slowed and scanned their surroundings as he tried to catch his breath. Across the street, a bank clock briefly flashed the time before switching to a vague approximation of the temperature. Though the clock confirmed his suspicion that it was before noon, not a single sign on the road gave the name of the city, or even the state.
He needed to think. More than that, he needed to figure out where they were. In his gratitude at escaping the forest, he hadn’t paid attention to the direction the truck traveled, and as a result, they could be anywhere.
Cole grimaced, needs and necessities running around in his mind. His head was pounding from a lack of real sleep, and his stomach was grouchily reminding him of the absence of meals since lunch yesterday. A newspaper could probably help identify where they were, but until they found one, he really had to do something about the food situation.
Rubbing his neck, he gave Lily a tired smile and started walking. The shoe store backed up against yet another strip mall, and as he circled around the edge of the building, a restaurant came into view. A local dining spot with a shingled roof and faded siding, the place didn’t seem popular. The parking lot was nearly empty.
“You hungry?” he asked Lily.
She nodded, still watching the street behind them.
Echoing the motion, he checked around again and then headed for the restaurant.
A greasy smell hung in the air outside the door, and when they entered, the odor increased. Gray sunlight filtered through the blinds and sapped the color from the country décor crowding every spare inch of the walls. A television hung behind the breakfast bar near the entrance, and farther inside, empty booths and tables filled the remaining space.
From her post by the cash register, a waitress looked up as they entered, examining and dismissing them with a single glance before returning to her gossip magazine. Following the directions to find his own seat, printed on the handwritten sign taped to the door, Cole ignored her and headed for a spot with a decent view of the roads.
At a faintly sticky table, Cole pulled out his wallet and flipped it open, quickly counting the cash inside. Though still damp from the river, the bills would be sufficient to at least grant them a meal.
He looked up to see Lily eyeing him nervously. “It’s okay,” he told her, and then jerked his chin at the menus pinned between the ketchup and mustard bottles. “What do you want?”
Lily was still examining the menu when the waitress sauntered up with two glasses of water and set them down without a word. Wondering briefly how she kept her job, Cole skimmed the menu and then ordered a cheeseburger.
“You?” the waitress asked Lily.
“Blueberry pancakes, please.”
The woman walked away.
“She hates this place,” Lily murmured.
“Probably,” Cole agreed. He hesitated and then continued, feeling vaguely crazy for asking. “She look okay though? Not… weird or anything?”
Lily shrugged. “Like nothing, I guess.” She paused. “Like that one guy.”
He could hear the wary question in her tone. “She doesn’t look like him to me,” he said.
Cole glanced back at the waitress, his brow furrowing. It didn’t make sense, but he hoped the fact she didn’t look like the glowing men or whatever Lily saw was a good thing. “You want to stay?”
“I’m pretty hungry,” Lily admitted, seeming torn.
He nodded. “Me too.”
Lifting his glass, he took a sip and then steadily began draining the water, thirst hitting him in full force. In moments, the liquid was gone. He set the glass back on the table, and saw Lily finishing her drink as well.
She gave him a small smile, looking slightly less pale as she put the cup down. Her gaze drifted to the condiments, and when she spotted the crayons tucked beside the menus, her eyes went wide.
He looked back to the street, working to form anything resembling a plan. Obviously, they needed somewhere to hide. Somewhere away from the cops until he could figure out the glowing men, his adoptive parents, and the little girl doodling flowers on her paper placemat. He had some cash, though it wouldn’t get them far, and he knew using the family credit card wouldn’t be a good idea. Not if he wanted to stay off Robert and Melissa’s radar.
Travis.
His thoughts slowed, examining the idea from every angle while trying to determine if the epiphany was brilliance or suicide. Travis was an amateur anarchist in paradise, merrily damning the man from the comfort of his trust fund. His disregard for anything smacking of authority or propriety was a large part of why Cole liked him, and he’d jump at the chance to be involved in something that looked like a conspiracy of ludicrous proportions. Glowing kids? People with superpowers? Cole shook his head. Even with all that stripped away, the other details were more than juicy enough to interest the guy. Knowing Travis, he’d probably just ask for blogging rights when this was finally over, relishing the chance to broadcast the conspiracy to the world.
But Robert, Melissa, and Vaughn had all been ridiculously convincing imposters and, again with the movies, he knew how that plot line usually ran. Everyone would be in on it, and after he trusted Travis, the aliens or the secret government agency or whatever would arrive to brainwash Cole too.
He grimaced. Life wasn’t a movie, and Hollywood was a poor guide to reality. He couldn’t keep running with a little kid, hoping he was the only one who could see her glow and that the men who killed Vaughn didn’t have any friends. They needed help, and Travis was the best – and only – option.
Exhaling, he watched the traffic, trying to think of the next move. Once he knew where they were, he could call Travis and have him come pick them up. Or a bus might be an option. And as for the risk of involving the guy, Lily apparently saw all the bad people who didn’t glow and thought Cole looked weird besides. If they were careful, maybe she could tell if Travis was one of the conspirators too.
Cole struggled not to roll his eyes at himself. Crazy or not, he was certainly starting to sound that way.
He glanced to Lily, and then froze at the sight of tears sliding down her cheeks.
“Lily?”
She set down the crayon, though her other hand lingered over the flowers she had drawn. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes, fighting the tears.
Uncertainly, he reached across the table and rested a hand on top of hers.
A moment passed, and then the waitress arrived. Eyeing them both as he pulled his hand from the girl�
�s, the woman deposited the plates and then walked away.
Watching the woman, Cole’s mouth tightened and then he turned back, nodding to the food. Giving Lily a smile, he picked up the cheeseburger and took a bite.
Bad service or not, the food was delicious, though he realized hunger probably skewed his judgment. Forcing himself not to inhale the burger, he mentally ran through the contents of his wallet while evaluating the possibility of ordering at least two more.
Lily made a choked noise and her fork landed among her pancakes with a splat. Alarmed, he looked up, and then followed her gaze.
Surrounded by blinking headlines, a news update played across the television. The sound was muted, but the closed captioning compensated with machine-gun rapidity.
Multiple murders. Arson. Kidnapping. The words flashed beneath the images on the screen, all of which he recognized.
After all, he’d just been there.
The camera crew hovered over the farmland from the omnipotent view of their helicopter. On the ash-covered yard, emergency crews surrounded the farmhouse rubble, and near the drive, he could see coroners offloading body bags from gurneys into their vehicles.
Ashley’s picture appeared in the corner of the screen, her smiling face incongruous with the horrors displayed below. Staring at it, he missed the first words of the closed captioning, glancing down only in time to catch the phrase ‘police suspect’. More text followed, telling of information found at the scene, all pointing to a girl with a heavy drug habit and an increasingly paranoid mind bent on murder for the sake of saving her sister from the plot she perceived.
He stared, dumbstruck as Lily’s picture replaced Ashley’s. The authorities didn’t seem to know either girl’s name, but at the sight of her photograph, he heard Lily whimper.
The closed captioning scrolled on, becoming more damning with every inconceivable line. Police believed the older girl may have been in a relationship with her drug dealer, a young white male between the age of eighteen and twenty-five with a medium build and brown hair, who authorities considered armed and dangerous. Suspicion now pointed to the two splitting up and going into hiding, with the younger girl left in the possession of the dealer. Evidence indicated that although the elder sister suspected sexual abuse and exploitation of the little girl was the motivation for the dealer’s insistence upon being the one to retain the child, she was too dependent on the drugs he provided to do more than comply.
Shaking, Cole tried and failed to tear his eyes from the screen. The newscasters listed hotlines to call if anyone sighted the suspects, and then blithely segued into a discussion of the increasing crime rate. He couldn’t breathe, and he didn’t know whether to throw up or break something. His hands ached and distantly, he realized his fingers were clenched on the chair back so hard his knuckles had gone white.
“Why are they saying those things?” Lily whispered.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, not with the rage he felt on his face. If he’d had any doubt the police and the men who did this were siding together, it had just been summarily destroyed. The story was too sensational, too grotesque. In hours, if not sooner, it’d be all over the country, and then every soccer mom in America would be keeping an eye out for the little girl, all to save her from the bastard they’d seen on TV.
His gaze slid to the waitress, but the woman was still engrossed in her gossip magazine. No one else occupied the restaurant, and for the moment, the television was plastered with commercials for the latest miracle cure from the pharmaceutical industry.
They had to get out of here.
Fumbling his wallet from his pocket, he tossed a twenty on the table. “Come on,” he said to Lily.
Not waiting, he headed for the exit with the girl on his heels.
“Thanks,” he called to the waitress as he pushed open the door. “I left the money on the table. Keep the change.”
As she glanced over to check if the cash was actually there, he hurried out into the sunlight. Circling around the restaurant, he scanned the area and then strode toward the back of another strip mall a few hundred yards away. The burger was a lump of lead in his stomach, and the news report kept looping in his mind.
Somehow, the glowing bastards must suspect Lily was alive. And since they needed one of the girls for reasons he couldn’t begin to comprehend, they were doing everything they could to locate her. They hadn’t found any bodies, of course. That must’ve been what they were looking for in the ravine. So now they doubted if Lily was dead.
And as a result, he and the kid were screwed.
Busses were out. Trains. Taxis. Everything. They had to get underground fast, and he couldn’t think of another way to do it, besides calling Travis and then hiding till the guy could arrive. But that presented a problem, because everywhere was now filled with people who’d want his head on a platter, and who’d happily deliver Lily to the bastards who’d just murdered her sister.
Partway down the alley between two stores, he stopped.
They’d killed Ashley. They’d blown her up, and lost over half a dozen people in the process.
So why have the public chase someone who was dead?
The lump in his stomach wanted to rise as the realization hit him. They didn’t know who’d saved the girls, but they wanted to make sure that when the soccer moms turned him in, the authorities could claim he was as deeply implicated as anyone. And even if somehow he was cleared of the drug charges, even if someone proved he hadn’t wanted to hurt the little girl, the cops could hold him forever as a material witness to everything Ashley’d allegedly done. The glowing bastards could retrieve him at their leisure, and Lily would be so long gone by then, it’d be laughable.
At which point they’d realize he was the same guy they’d killed Vaughn to find.
And then things would really get interesting.
Running a hand over his hair, he glanced toward the end of the alley. From the logo painted on the cinder-block walls, he could tell they were next to a grocery store. Cars and minivans lined the parking lot, and people with carts were everywhere. The store faced a busy street, across which lay another shopping center.
He sighed. They should’ve kept hiding in the truck.
“Okay,” he said to Lily. “Do me a favor? Pull your hood up.”
Lily complied, tucking her dark hair inside and then eyeing him from the oversized concealment of the sweatshirt.
He nodded. It wasn’t exactly cold out, though the spring weather still had a bite. People might look at them strange because she was so bundled, but at least they wouldn’t see her face and then run screaming for the cops.
“Hey kid?”
Cole nearly jumped out of his skin. Trying to hide his startlement, he turned to the man paused at the rear entrance of the alley. A businessman by his apparel, the guy lowered his cell phone, regarding them with concern.
Lily’s grip on Cole’s hand tightened. “Bad man,” she whispered, her voice breaking in fear. “Bad, bad, bad…”
The man’s gaze snapped between them with lightning speed, and though innocent bewilderment showed on his face, something almost predatory flashed through his eyes.
“You okay there, son?” the man asked, walking toward them.
Letting out a squeak, Lily retreated.
Heart pounding, Cole waved dismissively. “Yep, just fine, thanks,” he called, starting toward the opposite end of the alley as his spiking blood pressure made his head start to ache.
“You don’t look fine,” the man said, moving a bit faster to catch up. “Just hang on a second. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Cole took off running, Lily in tow.
Fleeing the alley, he pulled her with him as he raced into the busy parking lot. Cars skidded to a stop as the two of them darted across the lanes and horns blared in their wake. At the noise, people turned and stared, but no one moved to intervene. The sidewalk came into sight, with the road beyond, and hurriedly, Cole risked a glance over his should
er.
The man was right behind them.
Clenching Lily’s hand, Cole charged into traffic. Tires squealing, a truck swerved madly to avoid them, only to sideswipe the man coming behind. Slamming into the truck, the businessman rebounded and crashed to the ground.
Across the congested street and into a service drive, Cole ran. Garbage bins lined the wall to their right, and briefly, he considered knocking them down to block the guy’s way. But there wasn’t time. As he looked back, he saw the man staggering to his feet, rage twisting his face. Ignoring the baffled truck driver, the guy barreled after them.
Cole blanched and fought for extra speed as he and Lily bolted into a shopping center parking lot. Cars were everywhere, surrounded by an impenetrable wall of shops on three sides, and more stores speckled the lot like islands in the vehicular sea. Lily was panting for air behind him, her feet stumbling as she tried to keep up, and his stomach churned with nauseated adrenaline. Endless city stretched out before them, filled with nothing helpful.
Dodging through the lanes, he glanced over his shoulder again.
The man had left the service drive.
A red sports car flew between two parked minivans directly ahead and Cole skidded to a panicked stop, yanking Lily back before she could rush past him. The wind of the vehicle’s passage buffeted him, the side mirror flying past only inches from his leg, and the driver didn’t so much as tap the brakes as he sped by. The car whipped through the lanes and then screeched to a halt outside a café at the edge of the parking lot. Throwing the door open and leaving the engine running, the driver clambered out and then stormed into the coffee shop with a drink in hand.
Incredulously, Cole’s eyes went from the driver to the car and back.
Shoving open the café door, the man marched up to the barista and then slammed the drink down, splattering coffee all over the counter. Pointing to the drink as if its existence was an affront, the man began yelling thunderously.
Cole rushed for the car.
“What’re you doing?” Lily cried, her hood falling back and her sleeves flapping as he dragged her after him.
The Children and the Blood Page 10