Page 42 of If Looks Could Kill

New York City is never truly dark, and certainly never quiet.

The dull roar of Broadway was only a block away from Lafayette Place, but here, on this one-block street, late on a Sunday night, the city’s commotion felt muted.

Buffered. The occasional door opened and shut, and the occasional dog barked, but otherwise, we seemed entirely alone.

I thrust Mike’s coat at him before he could even say a word. “I can’t believe you waited,” I told him. “You must be frozen stiff.”

“I went and had a coffee,” he said. “Are you safe?” He looked me up and down. “What happened here?” He pointed toward the side of my forehead, where a painful goose-egg had sprung up.

I touched it gingerly. “I was, er, thrown against a wall.”

Mike glanced up at the house angrily.

“Not here,” I added quickly. “Above the Lion’s Den.”

He muttered something about scoundrels who’ve no right to be called men, and buttoned his coat up to the chin. “Are your friends all right?”

Would they ever be all right again, was the question. “Sleeping now.” Close enough.

I chafed my hands together while Mike blew into his cupped fingers.

“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted.

He watched me thoughtfully. “How do you mean?”

“I need to go warn Emma and Carrie about Mother Rosie’s men,” I told him, “but I don’t know if they’re still at base camp or back at our flat by now.

It wouldn’t be safe to be seen on the Bowery.

” Before Mike could volunteer, I added, “You shouldn’t go either.

Everyone knows you. They’ll have noticed you running away with me. ” I caught myself. “With us.”

Everywhere I looked, it got worse and worse. No place to hide. The terror and grief I’d been holding at bay finally found me. My legs began to tremble. I clamped my knees together.

“Miss Tabitha,” he said softly, “I’m so sorry.” His face wavered through a film of tears.

“Why did you come with us, Mike?” I asked him.

He only watched me. I blinked away tears, but they kept coming.

“You’re in so much danger,” I said. “Mother Rosie. Those men.”

“It’s an ugly business,” he agreed. “They’re a bad lot.”

I scrubbed my face with my sleeve. “What if something were to happen to you?”

“I’ll manage,” he said, “though I thank you for your concern.”

I wouldn’t be reassured. “This is all my fault.”

His brow furrowed. “I fail to see how,” he said. “You didn’t force me to come along.”

“Just your sense of decency,” I insisted.

“Fine,” he said. “I was forced to come. By my sense of decency .”

“Don’t make fun of me,” I protested.

He grinned. “Then stop arguing with everything I say.”

Footsteps rounded the corner, and we both tensed. It was just a couple, walking by arm in arm, but I don’t think I breathed until they’d passed.

“Miss Tabitha,” Mike said, “if you please, I came with you because I wanted to.”

“Yes,” I said, “and look what it’s done to you.”

“I am.”

I couldn’t read his expression, much less his cryptic meaning.

“All right,” I said. “I must warn Emma and Carrie. And I’d like to get Pearl’s and my things. I guess this is goodbye to the Salvation Army for both of us.” The sadness of it caught me off guard. I looked up and down the street. “Have you seen any sign of people looking for us?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

My head was starting to ache in earnest, thrumming in pain at the spot where I’d hit the wall. “That can’t mean they’re just letting us go.”

“Most likely not,” Mike agreed.

“If I were Mother Rosie,” I said, “what would I be thinking right now? Planning?”

“Plotting revenge?” Mike said. “She may save that for later. Right now she might be trying to figure out how to find a new crib, since this one’s been exposed.”

Save the revenge for later. “But if she doesn’t know where we are…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Mike said simply. “The city is both big and small. She’s got eyes everywhere. Sooner or later, you’re bound to pop up.”

I seized his coat sleeves. “What if we didn’t?” I said. “What if we never popped up ?”

His eyes grew wide. “How do you mean? Go underground?”

Hope glimmered on the horizon. “Catch the first morning train,” I said. “Leave the city.”

He seemed lost in thought.

“It’s the simplest solution,” I said. “By the time she gets to revenge, we’ll be gone.”

He seemed to be debating inwardly. “Go away for a while,” he mused.

“Not for a while,” I said. “Forever.”

“Forever?”

I threw up my hands. “What choice do we have? Freyda’s the only one who lives here.”

He stewed in thought. “So, er, you four young ladies would catch the early train out of town,” he said. “Where would you go?”

“If we can make it to morning in one piece,” I said, “I’ll take them all to my home, some hours north of here. We can figure out the rest from there.”

He nodded.

“Well,” I said, “before I can take anyone anywhere, I’ve got to go back to our apartment. I need my things and my money.”

“Where is your apartment?”

I told him.

“We could go the long way round,” he said. “Head uptown, then cross over the Bowery well above here and come down. That’s probably safer.”

“That’s probably what you should do,” I told him, “but I don’t think I have time for that. I have to head straight back.”

He stared at me. “Miss Tabitha,” he said with some exasperation, “if you think, after coming this far and standing out here in the cold for so long, that I’m going to let you go back alone, then I…” He couldn’t find words to finish his thought.

“I understand,” I said, “and it’s awfully good of you. I feel the same way about my friends upstairs. Responsible.”

He eyed me strangely, then sighed and offered me his arm.

“Well, come on, then, old responsibility o’mine,” he said. “We got ourselves out of the frying pan. Shall we jump back into the fire?”