Page 17 of Hush, Little Baby

“I just—” I choke on the words. “I just came to color…”

Nikolaus presses a chaste kiss into my hair. “I know,” he murmurs. “And I’m so glad you did, baby. Now, do you need to take anything with us? Is this little friend yours?” He gestures toward the stuffie I’ve been holding.

“No, it’s not mine,” I answer quietly, staring down at the fuzzy thing, wishing it were so I wouldn’t have to be alone right now.

Nikolaus notices the longing in my gaze and tells me, “I don’t have any friends for you at our hotel, but I promise that soon enough you’ll have all the friends you could ever want. Okay, baby?”

My heart sinks. “H-hotel? I thought…”

“Yeah, baby,” he soothes. “We don’t fly out until early tomorrow morning, but then we’ll get you home.”

“Fly out?” I feel sick. “Like… on a plane?”

He nods and stands up, still holding me in his arms. I gasp as the room tilts and shifts around us, and clutch at his chest.

He doesn’t seem to be talking to me when he mutters, “Fuck, he’s absolutely perfect. Look how well he fits in my arms.”

Constantine smirks and says, “Just don’t start carrying him everywhere. Actually… scratch that. I think I need to see Giuseppe or Franco’s face when you show up to a meeting with him clinging to you like that.”

Nikolaus snorts, rolling his eyes. “They’d be secretly jealous, and you know it.” He then looks down at me, smiling. “Let’s get you in the car, sweetheart.”

Constantine opens the door ahead of us. The hallway outside is quieter than before, and I start thinking about yelling for help, or maybe signaling to Lana somehow that I’m in trouble when we walk past her.

But we don’t walk back through the rest of the club. I’m carried in the other direction, further down the hall to where there’s an emergency exit door.

The door opens with a click that churns my stomach.

Cold night air hits my face as we step out into a dark parking lot.

The small lot is empty except for one black sedan waiting with its engine already running. A man in a dark coat stands beside it like he’s been expecting us.

The moment he sees us, he opens the back door.

My heart stops.

I can’t get in that car. I can’t. If I do, I’ll disappear, and no one will look for me and—and—

“No,” I gasp, panic flooding through me so fast my fingers go numb. “No, no, no—”

“Charlie—” Nikolaus warns.

“I don’t wanna go!” I cry, twisting hard in his arms, pushing at his chest properly this time. “Please don’t make me go!”

He lowers me just enough that my feet brush the pavement, and that’s when I bolt.

I don’t think about it.

I just run.

Or try to…

My legs feel weak and shaky from crying and panicking and being carried, but I still make it three steps before a hand catches the hood of my hoodie and yanks me back.

“No, you don’t,” Constantine hisses.

I fight against his hold, but Nikolaus is already there again. His arm wraps around my waist from the other side, lifting me clean off my feet before I can even try again.

“No, no, no, no—please!” I wail, kicking weakly into the air. “I wanna go home! Please!”