“I promise to explain everything, but we really have to get out of here.”
Candy looks at Kasabian.
“You knew he was here, didn’t you? Why the fuck didn’t you say anything?”
“Because the last time he came back from Hell he cut my head off,” he says. “I didn’t know what he’d cut off this time if I said anything.”
“Can we talk about all this later?” I say. “We need to move.”
“Where?” says Alessa.
“To a Sub Rosa hideout. We can’t get out on the street, but I can take us though the Room.”
“I thought you didn’t have control of the Room anymore,” says Candy.
“That’s complicated too. Help me to that shadow and let’s get out of here.”
“What’s the Room?” says Alessa. “Why a shadow?”
“Just watch,” says Candy. “You’re going to love this.”
“WHOA,” SAYS ALESSA when we come out. And, “Whoa,” again when she gets a look at the UFO bungalow.
“You live here?” she says.
I hobble into the bathroom, trying not to get blood everywhere.
“Temporarily. Thomas Abbot loaned it to me. It’s a Sub Rosa house. Wormwood—the psycho cops—aren’t going to find you here.”
Candy follows me inside. I sit on the edge of the tub and wrap a towel around my leaking leg.
She says, “That was Wormwood outside the store?”
“Yeah.”
“What did they want?”
I point to Alessa in the living room. She sees me and comes in.
“Those guys were there for me?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Kasabian sticks his face in the door.
“What did you do to get them mad at Alessa?”
I throw the towel at him.
“I didn’t do anything. Her name is on a Wormwood kill list.”
“Why?” she says.
“Your father works in the prosecu
tor’s office, right?”
“Yeah.”