I exchange a glance with Cain before approaching the other side of her bed. It couldn't be later than eight o'clock, not even twenty-four hours since we left Pox, but I'm exhausted enough to sleep for three days.
Poppet snatches away the covers when she sees I'm climbing in. "No way. Get your own bed." She lowers her voice so Cain can't hear, and winks. "I'm doing you a favor."
Then she smashes her face into the pillow and tries to hide her grin.
I turn to Cain, heat creeping into my cheeks.
"I'll sleep on the floor." Cain grabs a pillow from the opposite bed.
"Don't be ridiculous," Poppet complains. "You're both adults, sort of. Besides, I know you've slept in the same bed before."
Cain shoots a look at me and, even after everything, I smile.
He smiles, too.
I roll my eyes and climb in, and Cain climbs in after me. The sheets against my skin, Cain's body heat warm under the covers, Poppet giggling from her bed-it's almost too much happiness for one room. The terror that last night brought feels distant when the three of us are here, safe. In a room we paid for with Angie's money.
"It was a nice thing Angie did," I whisper to Cain.
He scoots a fraction closer and finds my hand beneath the comforter. "She's a good person. But I'm worried Madam Karina's going to find out she helped us."
"She won't." I say this, but anxiety still twists my belly. It would destroy me if something bad happened to Angie. Angie isn't perfect, by any means, but she's true. When you look at her, you know what you're getting. And that's no small thing. Not when you've lived with a mother with two faces, or a madam with three.
Poppet flips off the lamp, and before long her breathing deepens.
Cain holds my hand until I can't keep my eyes open a second longer.
Chapter Sixty-One
Happiness Within Reach
When I wake the next morning, Cain is watching me. He realizes I've caught him in the act and slams his lids closed.
"Creeper," I say, my voice raspy from sleep.
He grins with one corner of his mouth but keeps his eyes closed.
"Oh, yeah," I whisper. "You're totally asleep."
When he doesn't move, I spider my fingers across the space between us and over his rib cage, feeling courageous. Sometime during the night, he must have shed the plaid shirt he wore, because when I touch him, my fingers feel bare skin. Cain's eyes snap open.
"You wouldn't," he says quietly.
"Dare me not to."
"I won't."
I tickle him, digging my fingers into the sensitive spaces between his ribs. His face turns red from holding in the laughter. He doesn't want to wake Poppet, and I know that. I hold the tickle power. And I am merciless!
Once we've showered and dressed, we'll have to walk into town and find the local police station. Then we'll most likely spend hours telling them what we've seen, and where they can find the imprisoned girls, and the other girls who may be staying with Madam Karina out of fear.
But for now there is only this bed.
And Cain's painfully gorgeous smile.
And my friend asleep in the bed a few feet over.
"You guys think I'm not hearing this?" Poppet groans. "Geez, get a room."
Cain bursts into laughter and bounds on top of me, pins my wrist above my head. "The girl's awake. Your power over me is broken. Do you have any final words before I inflict punishment?"
"It wasn't me."
Cain laughs, and the sound stretches my insides, pours sunshine through my veins. "I believe it was."
My head cranes backward as Cain tickles me, running his fingers up my sides and over my serpent tattoo.
"Say mercy!" he bellows.
"You guys are one moment away from doing it," Poppet declares. "And lucky for you, I want breakfast."
Despite my tickle agony, I see Poppet striding toward the door, throwing a wink my way.
"I'll just be downstairs checking if they have any coffee." She grabs the key card from the dresser. "Might be gone for about twenty minutes. Enough for anything to happen, really."
"Poppet, no!" I yell through my torture. "I'll go with you."
Cain stops tickling me and glances over his shoulder at her. "Yeah, we should stick in pairs when we can."
"No way. I didn't run barefoot alongside a freaking train to live in fear."
She salutes us, giggling, and disappears through the door.
"Should we go after her?" Cain asks, still sitting on top of me.
"Yeah," I answer. But as soon as he swings off me, I leap on his back and wrap my legs around his waist. Then I am tickle champion once again. Cain groans and falls backward, smashing me between his body and the bed. I think I've won this battle, but in one sharp, smart movement, Cain grabs onto my thigh, pulls me from his back and hurdles over my frame until he's on top.