One of the wheel’s rust-speckled support posts was missing.
There was a creak. A groan. Then the enormous wheel seemed to hunker down and keel over.
Jake squeezed his eyes shut as he realized the top of the ride would land on the carousel.
Cassidy reared up in a futile attempt to push him off her, before he flung his full body weight onto her once more.
“Jake!” she yelped, indignant.
But there was no time to argue. And no chance of jumping. The best they could do was hang on and hope they were on the opposite side when it hit them. The creaks and groans gave way to distressed shrieks as gondolas wobbled wildly and rivets popped, setting spokes welded into place years, if not decades before, free.
“Wha—” Cass gasped as an unholy screech sang out.
“It’s coming down! Just stay down, Cass!”
He pressed his face into her hair and covered his helmeted head and hers with both arms. The structure hit the canopy with a tooth-jarring crash. All around them, horses sprang from their tethers. Bits of gilt and glass shattered. The metal platform tipped and tilted. Gears ground. The carnival-painted top dipped precariously as the motor worked to push through the obstacle. The hiss of hydraulic release drowned out most of the other noises. The whole contraption shook and shuddered as it strained.
And at last, the crippled carousel ground to a halt.
They lay there in stunned stupor. Unfolding his arms, Jake brushed pieces of splintered sparkly wood from her hair.
“Are you okay?” His voice was hoarse from either the smoke rising around them or strain. Maybe both.
“Yeah…” It was clear from her shaking voice she was reassuring herself as much as him.
He licked dry lips, then chanced a glance at the debris all around them.
The wreckage struck ahead of the bench where she’d been sitting. The canopy top was now tilted at a rakish angle, its edge a mere two feet higher than a seahorse’s head. If they hadn’t ducked, it would have knocked them to the floor.
A plume of dark, acrid smoke billowed in from the platform of the Ferris wheel. Another, scented with the stench of burning rubber, seeped out from the carousel’s center column. He coughed, but it was impossible to take in any good air.
“We have to go,” he said, scrambling up from his prone position.
“But I—” She pushed her hair back from her face as she rocked back onto her knees. “He said—”
“We’re done letting him call the shots,” Jake snapped. “This is coming off,” he added, looping his hand under one of the straps of the backpack.
“But, Jake—” Cassidy started to protest, but whatever words she had were translated into a yelp when he dragged the straps of the pack down her arms.
“All bets are off,” he growled. “We have to get you off this thing. It could catch fire, bomb or no bomb. We have to go.”
“But what if they see us taking it off?”
He tugged the pack off her and flung it into the tangle of Ferris wheel wreckage mere feet away from them. “Hopefully, the wreckage took out the cameras. If they can’t see you, they won’t detonate.” He pulled her to her feet and propelled her to the edge of the platform. “Now, run!”
“But we have to—”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her down off the platform. “We have to get clear.”
Cassidy stumbled against him as she landed, her legs buckling. “We can’t just take off. Look at this.” Her voice rose as she gestured wildly to the destruction. “He’s not going to let me go, Jake. He has me in his sights and he has nothing to lose.”
Jake stepped forward, cupped her elbow and gave her a gentle but insistent tug. “Then we need to get to him before he can get to you.”
“Wait, I need my phones.” She groped around on the debris-strewn bench, tears from the smoke streaming from her eyes.
Then realization hit him full in the chest. Time slowed. So did his movements. For a moment. He stared at Cass, flexing his jaw as if testing whether it would hold or not, then whirled in a circle, head swiveling from side to side.
“Whoa there,” she said, brow puckering. “We stopped spinning and you want to start all over again?”
