“Wait, ‘take them’?” Rake asked, startled. The thought of it made his nausea, which had been in reluctant remission, surge back. And why did the room feel fifteen degrees warmer? “Maybe they’re tourists with the same itinerary. Maybe they’re deeply determined census takers. Maybe we’ve won a contest and they’re waiting for the right moment to hand us that giant cardboard check. Maybe you’re paranoid?” He stifled a burp. “And how many cameras do you have around here? Or are you tapping into the hotel’s feed, you sneak?”
Meanwhile, the kid had been decorating each of her arms with about half a dozen baskets. “I’m going to take these down to Teresa’s van,” Lillith announced.
“Hmm? Yeah, okay, hon—give me a minute, I’ll come with.” It was almost certainly warmer, and he had a sudden longing for fresh air. Even if it meant stuffing more Peeps into more baskets and handling those same baskets. Or steering Lillith down the hall, to the elevator, and outside to breathe the sweet air of the loading dock. He turned back to the women. “What about walking up to them and asking them what they want?”
Sofia snorted something, and he would bet his nonexistent fortune that it was “amateur.”
“We’ve found it works better if they don’t realize we’ve tumbled to their surveillance,” Delaney said, like this was a regular Tuesday morning for her. Which it clearly was.
“So then,” Sofia prompted, “watch them watching us?”
“Tell me again why we can’t call the—damn, Lillith didn’t wait. I’ll go with her. Don’t confront anybody before I get back!” He was through the door in a couple of strides and hung a left toward the elevators just in time to see a strange man clamp Lillith’s elbow and haul her up so high that she was on her toes.
Oh hell no. “Hey!” he said sharply, and they both looked. The man’s irritated expression was not lost on him. Neither was Lillith’s look of relief. “Hands off the kiddo.”
The short, heavyset man with thick curly hair and a dark beard—Rake recognized him from the surveillance vids—loosened his grip but didn’t let go. Instead, he pasted on an ingratiating grin. “Excuse me. I think this young lady might have stolen something.”
“That’s nice. Leggo my Lillith.” Was it just him, or was the hallway receding? And who was shutting the lights off? “Right now.”
“Ich bin kein dieb,†” Lillith muttered in— Wait, was that German? She tried to plant her feet but was still on tiptoe. And was the bearded goon—he was! He was dragging her to the elevator.
Maybe Delaney & Co. aren’t so paranoid. Damn, I hate apologizing. Rake decided it was past time to stop fucking around, and he broke into a clumsy run. “Last chance,” he warned, then grabbed the man’s shirt, yanked him close, and threw up all over him.
“Jesus Christ!”
“Warned you,” he managed before passing out.
Nineteen
Delaney was talking, but she was at the far end of a cavernous ballroom, God knew why, with her volume set to Murmur. But as she came closer, he was happy to see the room shrink and brighten as the volume came up.
“‘Don’t confront anybody until I get back.’” She was standing over him with a wry expression. “That’s what you said.”
“Should’ve taken my own advice,” he managed, then saw she was holding a cold can
(condensation has never looked wetter or sexier)
of ginger ale. “I’ll marry you if you give that to me right now.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna pass on the proposal, but you can have a drink anyway.” She cracked it open and held it for him while he lurched up on his elbows and took greedy, slurping sips. “Easy! You’re just going to throw it up again if you don’t take it easy.”
“If this is Hell—and I’m almost positive it is—does that make you Satan?”
“Nope. I’m just a low-level demonic functionary,” she deadpanned.
“Lillith! Is she okay? Ohhhhhhh,” he moaned, slumping back and slamming his eyes shut. “I sat up too fast.”
“See? She’s fine. Sofia’s helping her make you a tray.”
“No trays. No traaaaays. Unless there’s something on it I can use to kill myself, like a thirty-eight. Or enough dental floss to fashion a noose.”
“No, just crackers and broth. But I have to admit, I’m impressed.”
He cracked one eye open to look at her. This sounded promising. “Yeah?”
“I had no idea your superpower was the ability to vomit at will on anyone you confront.”
“Only in Venice. Where’d the asshole scamper off to?”
“Are you kidding?” Delaney sounded equal parts amused and admiring. “He was horrified and dripping and got the hell out of there. We were too busy with you to go catch him.”
“And can I assume calling the cops isn’t an option because of all the secret weirdness and the weird secrets?”
Delaney stopped smiling and (wonders!) looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, pretty much. We can’t have them looking at us, just like you don’t want the local government to know you’re in town.”
“Or the Parks and Rec guys.” He had no idea if Italian civil servants held grudges, and no wish to find out.
“But I don’t like it. And I’m starting to think there’s gotta be a way around it.”
“Okay, so … figure something out, and is it just me, or do you have tunnel vision, too?” he managed before sleep grabbed him and hauled him under again.
* * *
Some amount of time later, he swam back to soupy semiconsciousness, reached out, groped, and accidentally
“Ow!”
poked someone in the eye.
So he opened his. “Oh, Lillith, thank God. If you love me, you’ll kill me. Kill Daddy, please. Right now.”
“Oh, now you acknowledge me?” She was looking down at him and nibbling her lower lip. “I’m sorry you’re sick. I googled and I think it’s gastroenteritis. That’s why you’re throwing up and have a fever, from jumping—”
“Falling.”
“—into sewage and vomit and merda and other yucky stuff.”
“There’s no need to specify,” he groaned. “You could have stuck with yucky stuff.”
“Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“No. I want to die in this bed. Preferably within the next ten seconds.”
“Because I’ll take you, if you want to go. I know I’m supposed to listen to Delaney, but I don’t care what she says on this one. Not everyone in authority is out to get her family.”
“Her what?”
“Shall I take you to a doctor?”
He blinked at her. Lillith looked as earnest as she sounded as she stared down at him. “How?” He didn’t actually want to go; he was just curious about the process. “You’re little. How would you even get me to an ER?” Borrow a cell phone? Berate one of the others into obeying her command? Steal an ambulance? He felt confident she was capable of all that and more.