And the maddened crowd seemed determined to take full advantage of that, pounding on them with anything they could find.
The barrage of gunfire was almost constant now, but she couldn’t tell who was doing the shooting—maybe the security guards that had been sent out for crowd control? There was so much blood it would be hard to say which side was doing worse. “Maybe they’ll calm down?” she said a little doubtfully and then brightened as another thought occurred to her. “Or the cops might be able to disperse them!”
Raathe and Korbin exchanged a look. Caleb glanced from one to the other as if waiting to be enlightened but Korbin ignored him altogether and Raathe merely glared at him.
“The roof?” Caleb suggested.
“Yes!” Tabitha exclaimed with relief. “There’s bound to be a skimmer up there! And if there isn’t we could get the cops to pick us up! I just need to stop by my father’s office for a really quick minute ….”
Raathe and Korbin exchanged another look. “The sewers may be the best bet,” Raathe said.
“We need weapons.”
“We don’t stink badly enough now?” Tabitha said testily. “You two want to traipse through the sewers?”
Raathe gave her a look she had no trouble interpreting.
“I couldn’t help it, damn it! I was queasy already!”
He didn’t say anything, just continued with the hard, to her mind, accusing, look. “Ok! I’m sorry!”
Something flickered in his eyes.
They seemed to soften—just a hair.
“Really, I am, Raathe. You just caught me off guard with the Tarzan move and I didn’t have a chance to calm the queasy in my stomach.”
He grasped her arm, turning to start back down the stairs. “We need to go.”
“But … this isn’t the way to the roof.”
“We will take the basement.”
Asifshe hadn’t said anything at all! She was on the point of demanding he explain why his idea was better than hers, but her foot distracted her. She let out a hiss of pain when she took the first step down on her injured foot.
Raathe stopped instantly, flicked a look at her foot and then her face.
“I’m not faking it! I swear!” she responded to the expression on his face.
Korbin stepped forward. “I will attend the injury.”
“Not here!” Raathe growled after surveying the mob outside. “They will break through the control line any moment and be inside shortly behind that. I will carry her.”
“You are leading. I will carry her,” Caleb volunteered.
Raathe punched him in the mouth hard enough his head rocked back on his shoulders. His lip split, blood gushing from it and running down his chin.
Tabitha gasped sharply.
“You are injured. I will carry her,” he said through gritted teeth.
Korbin stared at him. “I was about to volunteer, but I will allow you to carry her.”
Raathe glared at him but pulled Tabitha to him without responding.
She planted her palms against his chest. “I swear to god, Raathe! If you throw me over your shoulder again ….”
He hesitated and then finished the move he’d started, slipping his arm beneath hers and around her back and then scooped her up and slipped his other arm beneath her knees, cradling her against his chest.
