My heart is beating fast again. I think he means him and me, but I have to ask. “Us?”
The side of his mouth quirks up. Not a full smile like the bunny, but a half one. I’ll take it. “Yeah, both of us. We’re a team now.” He holds out his hand, palm up.
I lay my own hand on his and he closes his big fingers around me. It’s like a hug for my hand. I love it. I love him. I throw myself at him, remembering how safe and good and warm it felt when he held me last night. He catches me, this time not even rocking backward an inch—like he expects me to hug him, like he wants me to.
He drags his chin over the top of my head. I love that pressure. I close my eyes and inhale. This is where I want to be forever. I let myself sit for a minute before wriggling off his lap. He needs to go and get us shit, err, stuff. I don’t want to be a hassle.
My mommy called me a clingy brat. I think that’s why she left me alone with the strangers. I won’t be clingy with Leka. Or a noosance.
“We need to decide on names for the ID. You got a favorite name?”
He doesn’t like noosance. It must be bad. I thought it might be. Mommy’s boyfriends made a funny face whenever she called me that. But a new name? I don’t know what.
“How about Bitsy? Because you’re a little thing?”
I nod because I don’t care what Leka calls me. He could call me a brat and I’d be happy.
“No. That’s not a good name if you get a job.” He taps his fingers against his knee and then snaps. “Elizabeth. How do you like that?”
I nod again, but this time I really do like it. It sounds important. Powerful. I saw an old lady with the same name on television once with a crown and big robes and everyone was kneeling in front of her. It’s a perfect name.
He straightens and then digs around in his backpack. I didn’t look in it once when he was gone even though I wanted to. He hands me a rectangle, the plastic wrapping making a crinkling sound. “Here’s a candy bar. It’s a crappy meal, but I’m going to get you a better one. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but it might be a while. Do you know how to use this?” He waves a black oblong-shaped thing with buttons.
“It’s the remote.” I know how to use this.
“Weemote, huh?” This brings a bigger smile. “You’re cute.”
His words warm me like a beam of sunshine. No bunny slipper ever made me feel this good. I show him that I know how to use it. The red button is off and the green button is on. He gives me another half-smile and then walks to the window.
“Don’t watch anything bad,” he says.
I’m not sure what he thinks is bad, but I nod eagerly.
He shoves the window open and straddles the opening. I watch wide-eyed as he swings his legs out of the room and into the air. I jump off the bed and race to the window in time to see him slide down a metal pole all the way to the ground.
Leka is a magician. He can lift a cop’s radio, run up walls, and slide down poles. Most of all, he can save little girls.
There won’t be anyone I meet in my entire life that is better than him. Not even the old lady with the crown.
6
Leka
It takes me three days and half my stash to get a credit card and fake ID that says I’m nineteen. I was advised not to use the credit card as it was stolen and it’d only be good for using a couple of times before the credit card company would shut it down, which means I’m going to need a legit one at some point. I’ll deal with that issue later.
The guy who made my ID up said I could get a real one from the state if I could get my hands on a birth certificate. I don’t know where in the hell I’d get my hands on that.
I guess at some point, I’ll need to break into a hospital or wherever they store those things and get one for Bitsy—she’s too small now to be an Elizabeth—and myself. Maybe I’ll snatch a couple, just to be on the safe side. For now, though, I’ve got what I need. Except I’m rapidly running out of cash what with the way that the New Inn and Motel is robbing me. Every night, the bitch adds another hundred to my bill. I know she’s pocketing the money, but since I’ve got no alternatives, she has me over a barrel.