“Yeah.” I glanced around, but there was no sign of Tate.
He was probably dealing with a million and one fires of his own.
I tried a genial smile. “Hi. I’m just shopping today.”
“Just one picture, please?”
The faces started blurring as people pushed forward. A child’s startled cry had me backing up.
“I’m sorry.” A woman in her forties sidled up toward me and held her phone up. “My daughter is going to just die. Hi sweetie, look who I ran into.”
The phone was on Facetime.
The scream through the phone created a chain reaction as phones came out and a wall of voices all started at once. Live streams, Facetimes to friends, Snapchats—all of it was getting twisted up until the voices didn’t make sense anymore.
The excitement turned to anger, as I didn’t react right in their minds.
“I knew she was stuck up.”
“Too good for her fans.”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
James was not of the flight category. She pushed back, her voice a snarl. “Back off. There’s a kid down here.”
It was too late; the crowd was already getting out of hand. Worse than the orchard by tenfold. The distant voices from the entrance of the village were now raised as the bus load of people realized I was in the crowd.
Our bags were torn out of our hands as the pushing got more dangerous.
“Rudolph,” I said aloud.
James shouldered back a pair of teens who were pushing forward in tears.
“Ambrose, please.”
I took her hand and between the two of us, we were able to push through a hole in the crowd. The only problem was the hoard was following us in a chase.
I had one plan. Get to Rudolph.
Rudolph was safety.
26
tate
“Tate!”
I was in the back of the sugar plum fairy light fixture replacing one of the light ropes. “Yeah?”
“We’ve got a situation.”
My walkie went off with Bill’s voice as Molly ran my way.
Dylan, one of my team members, was running down the hill. I quickly plugged in the light and shimmied out from behind the fixture.
“What’s going on?”
Molly was out of breath when she got to the top of the hill. “It’s Amber.”
