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22
UPPERCLASS TO UNDERGROUND
Twenty HoursLater
Kai met me at the gate.
I deplaned from the public aircraft, having been curled up in a middle seat in economy class for the better part of seven and a half hours. My joints were stiff, my scar tissue even more so, and I winced at every step forward. I still wore the sweats I stole while Bo was lying dead on the hallway floor. The thought of him prone, the all-black of his outfit hiding the blood that had to be seeping underneath his body…
I swallowed.
“Hey,” Kai said. He lifted my duffel from my shoulder and threw it on his, put his arm around my shoulders, and kissed my temple as we walked. “You look like shit.”
“I feel…”
“I know, honey.” He pulled me tighter into his side. “Once we get in the car, tell me everything.”
“Is Chenko…?”
“No,” he said. Too abruptly.
“Does he know I’m back?”
“Not yet.”
“I couldn’t press the button on the necklace.”
“I know.”
“I had both brothers, and I couldn’t do it.”
“Don’t fret about that right now. Be glad the new ID worked, got you back here.”
“Thank you.” A lot of breath encased my words, but it was billowed with relief. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it out of London, if as soon as I flashed my passport, Chenko’s agents would be waiting, shiny metal handcuffs dangling.
When I called Kai, it was with nervous desperation. There wasn’t much I could say over the pay phone without further incriminating myself, other than, “I need your help to get out of here. I’m in big trouble.”
Any other time, I would have been over the moon to step into a traditional English phone booth, bright red and quaint as hell. If Verily would have been with me, we would’ve taken selfies in front of it, laughing as we tripped over each other’s feet in order to both get in the shot. At least—the Scarlet in my memories was like that.
Kai used his connections, built through his time as an undercover agent for the Saxon mafia, to have a fake passport made. He directed me to a storefront advertising delicious Indian food, and when I gave my name with a voice seeming more autotuned than real, I was led to the back, behind the kitchen, where a nondescript tripod and an elderly lady with long, almost knee-length grey hair and a bright orange kurti took my picture.
Ten hours later, the passport was ready. I’d fallen asleep in the corner, adrenaline crashing like a kitten who’d gluttoned on too much milk, and was shaken awake by the same young man who’d met me at the host’s table however many hours previously. He had a dish of succulent foot in his hand, tipping his head in the direction of the old woman as explanation.
After I finished eating and promptly paid from my pilfer of Henry the Duke’s son’s lockbox, the passport was shoved in my hands and I was ushered out the back door. When the blustery outdoor weather hit the bags under my eyes, I was reminded to check the booklet. The small square of my face looked back at me, and a few slow blinks later, I categorized it as me and not a war-torn, pale version of Cassie, brown hair askew, lower lip drooping in a tired, traumatized way.Samantha Davis, likely one of the most American names I’d ever seen.
I curled the booklet against my stomach and hailed the next taxi that crossed my path.
What could Theo be doing during the hours of my wait to get out of the UK, the time I spent in the air, the minutes I now spent with Kai? Almost a day separated us now, the last I saw of him in the interior of his car, the dark tint of him blinding in my memory.
Would he get another scar as punishment? How much mutilation could one son endure?
I’ll find you, I thought.I have to. You won’t suffer alone.
Kai fished into his pocket then sent out abeep-beepas he pressed the keyless fob to his car in the covered parking lot adjacent to the arrivals section of JFK. Somehow, we’d made it outside and across an airport road without me cataloguing it.
“In you go,” he said, opening the passenger door. I slipped in without a peep, my exposed legs suddenly cold. I wished Kai had a blanket in here. I hoped I wasn’t getting sick.
He got in on the other side and started the engine.
