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“What have you done, Kai?” I asked the empty space in front of me.
Theo and I couldn’t be here to figure that out. I had to get him up and out of here before the emergency crusade found and cuffed us.
I glanced down at his face, perfect despite the mar of a difficult life criss-crossing in fresh cuts and cold scars. My fallen angel.
My fallen,sleepingangel.
Hopefully, he collapsed from fatigue and not a flying piece of debris that hit the back of his skull as he fled with me.
The wails ricocheted closer, firing up my synapses again, giving that spurt of adrenaline that was oh so familiar these past weeks.
The world spun in front of me from the effect. If I wasn’t careful, I’d end up like Theo, too.
“I’m sorry,” I said to his slack expression.
Then slapped him.
“I’msorry,” I said, cringing, when his brows pushed together in pain.
I clutched his shoulders, my legs on either side of his torso. “Wake up. Sax, I mean it this time! I can’t carry you. I can’t … well, I can try to drag you, but I won’t be able to hide in time for the—”
“…Scarlet?”
“Yes.Yes, it’s me. Open your eyes all the way. We gotta move.”
“Are you … hurt?”
“No. No, I’m not.”
It could have been the effects of the adrenaline, the sheer nature of avoiding death for a third time, or, the limited chance of feeling true happiness. But I laughed, grabbed his cheeks, and kissed him.
“I’m alive. We’re both breathing,” I said as I came up for air, then spun left at the approaching blue-and-red lights. “And we need to keep it that way. Can you sit up? Quickly. We have togo.”
He complied, his lopsided expression not registering much. He was my puppet to conduct as I forced him to an unbalanced stand, gasping and grunting at the full force of his weight on my spindly legs.
We didn’t have a chance at outrunning the police, but possibly we could hide until Theo gathered enough energy to escape this neighborhood. There were plenty of hiding spots … that the police would search as soon as it was deduced that a man-made explosion caused this fire.
“Okay, we can…” I mumbled as I thought, but a gentle clang of metal-against-metal cut through my thoughts. “Are those keys in your pocket?”
“What? Yes?” Theo shook his head sharply, dislodging as much dizziness as he could. “I’m back. I’m coming back. Just gimme a sec.”
“I can’t.” I dug into the inside of his blazer with my free hand. “Which car?”
“The…”
I pressed down on the unlock button and an answeringbeep-beepsounded. My eyes flashed over to the abrupt blinking of red brake lights.
“Porsche. Shoulda known,” I said, then dragged both Theo and I over to the midnight blue vehicle.
“This should be your lesson,” I grunted as I pulled the passenger door open, then bent Theo down. “Low-riding vehicles are stupid for women in high heels and dresses,andwounded mafia men.”
After one last growl of effort on both our parts, Theo was in.
“Something tells me this isn’t your first rodeo with this bullshit escape car,” I said, then slammed the door shot.
I ran around to the other side, glancing over the hood to see the flashing lights coming. Manhattan tended to create sound tunnels, making horns and sirens sound much closer than they appeared, but spotting actual spinning lights wasn’t a good sign.
“Shit,” I said, and slid in with only a few minor winces.
