I’ll do it.
As another bolt hit him, his legs gave way and he almost dropped the box.
But she grabbed them from him and struck a match, which she touched to the shirt. When it flared up, she tossed it down onto the float with the tree. The artificial leaves went up like a torch, sending a cloud of smoke into the air.
Below them, Mickey cursed and began to cough.
Jake could hear Kira coughing, too. He could no longer see them. And mercifully, the energy bolts had stopped flying up from the level below. But more floats had caught fire, and the smoke was rising, enveloping him and Rachel.
He knew he couldn’t go on. The attack had done something to him that he didn’t understand. The only thing he knew was that his body feltlifeless, and his brain was hardly any better. But when Rachel pulled on his arm, dragging him along, he tried to help her as best he could.
She reached the upper door. When she pulled it open, blessed fresh air poured in, clearing his head a little.
Jake, you’ve got to help me.
He knew that if he didn’t get away, she wouldn’t leave him, so he made a superhuman effort, shoving himself out the door. They were at the top of a long flight of steps, and he almost tumbled down headfirst.
“Can you make it down?”
“We’ll see.” Sending his thoughts to her had become impossible.
Gritting his teeth, he leaned on her like a drunken man as she guided him down the steps to the alley and back to the car.
“Keys?”
“Pocket.”
She leaned him against the side of the vehicle while she fumbled in his pocket, then pulled out the keys and shoved the right one into the lock.
When she opened the back door, he slid inside and flopped onto the seat.
He tried to hang onto consciousness, but it was too much effort. All he wanted to do was sleep. Maybe forever.
Rachel started the engine and drove away from the warehouse. Smoke was now billowing from the roof.
Had Mickey and Kira gotten away, or were they still in there?
She gritted her teeth. Did it matter? They’d lured her and Jake to the warehouse to kill them, and they’d almost succeeded.
Her heart pounded as she looked back at Jake. He was deep into unconsciousness, his mind completely shut off from her.
Still, she tried to reach him.
“Jake?”
Jake?
She kept repeating his name, trying to break through whatever barrier now separated them, but there was absolutely no response, and the lack of connection was like a punch in the gut. She’d come to depend on it, and now she didn’t know what to do without it.
But she did know she had to get Jake somewhere safe. And she couldn’t drive him far. She had to find out what was wrong with him.
A siren sounded in the distance, and she stiffened. But it wasn’t a police car chasing her. It must be fire engines racing toward the Buccaneer Crew’s burning warehouse.
Although she hated thinking of all those floats going up in smoke, burning them had been the only way for her and Jake to get away.
She kept driving, wondering where she was going until she found herself in the alley in back of Kendall Wexler’s pawnshop.
She sat with her head against the wheel, her arms embracing it for a moment. Then she got out and turned the knob on the back door of the building. It was open, and she rushed inside, making for the shop in the front.
