Chapter 16
The King of Hearts
Rabbit
I watched from the bed as Dolly applied her makeup. Needing to feel her again, I walked over to where she sat. She smiled at me in the mirror as she applied blue shadow to her eyes. I picked her up and sat down on the stool. Dolly yelped as I placed her back down on my lap.
It was all part of her game. I’d done this every day since the night at the field. Since the night I couldn’t keep my hands off her.
Dolly picked up her blusher and started to brush pink onto her cheeks. I rested my chin on her shoulder and simply watched her. Moving her hair out of the way, baring her neck, I kissed at her skin. I flicked my eyes up to her reflection. Her hand had paused midair and her eyelids had become hooded.
We were in Laredo now. The final place on my map, home to the King of Hearts—Dolly’s papa. The mastermind behind the ring of rapists. The man who bet his daughter’s pussy. Gave it away to whoever won a round of poker.
I closed my eyes, inhaling the rose scent from Dolly’s skin. When I opened them again, she was finishing off her lipstick. She lowered the lipstick to the table and, sighing, lay back against my chest. My arms wrapped around her waist. I held her close. I ran my nose down her cheek.
“Mmm,” she murmured and closed her eyes. Her hands covered mine at her waist. Her fingers ran over my skin. When I pulled back, I met her open eyes in the mirror. I played with the ribbon around her neck, the one that held the vial which read “Drink Me.” It had been filled since the night at the Jabberwock’s home.
My blood once again hung around her neck.
“We have to go,” I said. Dolly nodded. We had been in a cabin Chapel had organized for us. It was another one of his homes. Now that the police were after us, now that our faces were splashed all over the news, we couldn’t risk motels.
We couldn’t risk traveling during daylight.
“The Sick Fux,” the news claimed, “are highly dangerous.” The Texas Rangers had declared a manhunt. A reward had been offered for our arrest.
It was never gonna happen.
I wouldn’t live without Dolly.
She wouldn’t survive without me.
Dolly placed all of her makeup in her bag on the vanity. “Ready,” she sang. I lifted her up and placed her feet on the ground. I righted my cravat in the mirror and took my jacket from the bed. I buttoned it up and picked up my cane from where it leaned against the dresser.
When I turned around, Dolly was holding her crown. She was stroking the “jewels,” as she called them. In reality, they were inexpensive colored stones.
Seeing how happy she was, just looking at that damn crown, made my black heart melt. I walked to her and stopped a few inches away. Dolly looked up and cast me a huge smile. I took the crown from her hands and placed it on her head.
Dolly stilled as I did so. She touched the crown, and her searching eyes tried to read my face. “A queen is never seen in public without her crown,” I said. Tonight was the first time we had been out in the world since we defeated the Jabberwock.
“Queens are not seen without their crowns.” She nodded. She turned to look at herself in the mirror. “So beautiful . . .” she murmured, never taking her attention off the sparkling crown.
I thought exactly the same thing, though I wasn’t looking at the crown, only her.
Always her.
I held out my hand. “Let’s go.”
Dolly placed her hand in mine and I led her outside. We walked past the Mustang that had seen us through the slaughter of the “bad men.” Dolly’s hand came out and stroked along the door. “Bye-bye, Mustang,” she sang as we left it behind.
I unlocked the garage at the end of the property. When the wooden doors opened, Dolly gasped and stared at the large black truck that awaited us.
“It’s huge!” She rushed forward to brush her hand over its hood. “And so shiny!”
I passed by her and opened the door. I bowed in her direction. “Your carriage awaits, Your Majesty.”
A loud giggle burst from her throat. Slipping her hand in mine, she nodded her head regally and said, “Why thank you, kind sir.”
I lifted Dolly up to the seat and shut the door. I put her makeup bag in the back of the truck with the rest of our things. I grabbed the boombox and jumped into the driver’s seat; the truck was too new to have a cassette port. Dolly took the boombox from me and pressed play. She danced as I pulled out of the garage and onto the dirt road that led us out of the property.