I turn and look at my friend, at her torn shirt and disheveled hair. She has a purple bruise blooming under her right eye. In any other scenario, I'd tell her it looks wicked cool. But this isn't another scenario, so I launch myself around her in an embrace and then look Poppet squarely in those red-rimmed eyeballs.
"I will never leave you," I say. "Not me. No way, no how."
Mr. Hodge groans. "This is all very touching."
"Let us see Madam Karina." I glare at Mr. Hodge, make him fidget from my silence.
He rolls his eyes upward and waves toward Cain. "Take 'em up there. Better you than me." Mr. Hodge casts a stern look in my direction. "If I hear about you giving her any trouble … "
"You won't."
Cain touches my arm. "Come on."
Chapter Thirty-Four
Boiler Room
Madam Karina isn't asleep when we reach her room. She's seated in a wingback chair, one leg slung over the arm. Velvet curtains framing a tall window are thrown aside, and she's looking out across her property, eyes glued on the guesthouses. She doesn't even turn in our direction when Cain clears his throat and announces our presence.
She waves a hand toward the door, telling him to leave. He looks at me, and I nod. The door closes behind us, and then it's just Poppet, Madam Karina, and me. She scratches the side of her neck and I notice her middle fingernail is broken. The other four are pink as newborn mice.
"Heard the scuffle," she says. "Even from up here."
I step forward. "Madam Karina, I'd like to make a request."
She finally turns toward me, and my breath catches. She's been crying.
"Are you okay?" I ask.
Her forehead furrows. "What do you mean?"
I shake my head, realizing she doesn't want to talk about it. "Nothing. It's just that you're awake so late."
"Well, yes, you woke me."
I reap some courage and open my mouth. "I'd like to ask for the same favor you paid me before. I'd like permission to move to the third floor if Poppet and I can maintain the first and second place among the Daisies for one week."
"Why?"
Poppet speaks up. "Because we want to make you happy."
Madam Karina doesn't look at her. "Is that true, Domino? You want to make me happy?" Before I can answer, she says, "Why is it that Lola favors you so?"
"What?" I say, confused.
Madam Karina stands from the chair. Her shoulders slump and she appears thinner than she did only days ago. The woman points a frail arm in my direction. "Lola speaks on your behalf every time we meet. Did you pay her some favor?"
"No, we've only talked once."
Madam Karina flinches as if struck. She holds up a finger and mouths the word once as if asking a question. It's then that I understand the madam has been drinking. A burning sweetness reaches my nose, and I locate the tumbler on her nightstand. "It may be that she wants to leave me."
"I doubt that's true." I have no idea what Lola wants, but right now I'll say whatever the madam wants to hear, because I need her to grant Poppet and me this favor. No more chances elsewhere. No more fresh starts. We leave this place with enough cash in hand to survive on our own. That's how this story ends.
Madam Karina spins away. "Could be you're trying to leave me, too."
Her voice causes the hair on the back of my neck to rise. I sense Poppet moving closer to me. Outside Madam Karina's window, I hear a girl giggling. A man's voice chases hers.
"I want only what's best for you, Domino," she says.
The lie slithers from her mouth, sucking on the two of us like plump, slippery leeches.
"I don't want to leave," I whisper, returning the courtesy she's paid me. "Poppet and I just want to make you happy. Why should Lola get all that alone time with you, when no one wants it the way Poppet and I do?"
"Is that what you told her? That you wanted her place?"
"I said what I said."
Madam Karina covers her mouth like she's overcome with relief. She closes the distance between us, lets her hand fall to her side. Poppet stands behind me like a forgotten plaything. I want to reach out for her, but Madam Karina is looking at me with such intensity that I'm hypnotized, a pocket watch swishing back and forth before my eyes.
Count backward from ten.
"My sister thought she was so successful when she opened that home in Detroit," the madam says. "Left me here in Pox like I didn't mean a thing. Said she was doing me a favor giving this place to me, though Mama and Daddy left it to her. Still, I'm getting my revenge. Girl by girl. Eric finds the best ones before she can, most of them from my sister's own city."
Madam Karina takes hold of my shoulders and lowers herself until her face is inches from mine. She smiles with her whole face. But then, slice by slice, that smile slips away. In its place blooms vulnerability and anger. "You may think you can play me for a fool, girl," she says, "but I know what it is you want."