Still clenched over my bruised ribs, I managed to sit up. “That’s why I always use my foot. I thought I was supposed to go to you!”
Sidestepping Eloy, Trent picked his way to me, his nose wrinkled as he glanced up at the ceiling and the obvious street noise. “You were trying to bring him to me?” he said, incredulous, and I shook my head as he extended his hand to help me stand. He had a ring, twin to my own. “I was in a meeting.
“Welcome to the club,” I said, then groaned as I got to my feet, waving off his help since my hands were swollen and bruised. “No, I wasn’t trying to bring him to you. The I.S. has a net sink up,” I said as I bent over my knees and tried to stand up straight. I think I had a bruised rib—I couldn’t even breathe right. “I was going to jump us to you and land in a cell. I didn’t expect you to show up.” Still hunched over, I tilted my head and found his eyes. “Thank you.”
His lips twitched. “You’re welcome.”
I looked at Eloy, resisting the urge to kick him, but only just. “I think you saved my life again. They know about Lee. You need to warn him. Eloy was going to come back for me.”
“I will.” Trent met my eyes as I tried to straighten up, making it only halfway. His gaze held pity, and I looked away, unable to stomach it. “He beat you?” he said, his voice holding unexpected anger.
The smell of clean laundry grew stronger, and I went to shove his hands off me as he tried to help me, but he was determined and my hands hurt. My jaw clenched, and when I had to sniff back a tear, I got mad. Damn it, I was not going to cry! “I said I’m fine!” I exclaimed, and he fell back at the sound of pixy wings.
“Jenks, what took you so long!” I said, then winced when my chest ached. Yep, at the very least they were bruised.
“Oh, for sweet mother-loving Tink!” he exclaimed in disgust. “I leave for five minutes, and you ask
The grit ground under Trent’s thousand-dollar shoes as he crouched at Eloy’s head, lifted it up by his hair, and slammed it back down. Eloy groaned, his entire body becoming slack.
“Yeah, that did it.” Jenks tried to land on my shoulder until I waved him away.
“Not bad, Trent. Not bad,” I said as I began limping to the stairway. I could hear people, blessed people, coming to help me. “Hey! We’re down here!” I shouted, then almost passed out when I began to cough.
“I’m okay. I’m okay!” I said, thankful there was no blood as Trent’s arm went around me, holding my ribs so I wouldn’t fall apart.
With a clatter and a boom of sound, the twin metal doors at the top of the stairway were flung back. The late-afternoon sunlight poured in, blinding me. “It’s us! We’re good!” I tried to shout, but Trent had swung me up in his arms and the clean smell of his silk suit poured over me. I couldn’t see through my squint, but I heard men shouting and feet stomping down the stairs.
“He’s over there,” Trent said, then, “No, I’ve got her. Is there an ambulance on-site? She’s banged up pretty bad. I don’t know. Jenks?”
“How the hell should I know what happened?” the pixy said, and I shut my eyes against his sparkles; they were giving me a migraine. “I was out looking for the FIB!”
“I’m okay,” I insisted, squinting. “I just need a pain amulet. Does anyone have a pain amulet?” Ivy had a pain amulet. Ivy was somewhere else.
“I’ll get you to an ambulance,” Trent said softly, the obvious cost of his clothes granting him passage to the surface as he went up the stairs against a tide of uniformed people flowing underground.
“Rachel?” came Glenn’s voice as our heads broke the surface and the wind blew my tangled hair into Trent’s face. “Jenks said . . . My God! What did he do to you?”
“I’m fine,” I said, feeling dizzy as Trent stopped and the two tall black men peering at me coalesced into one. “We played chicken with his bullets, and I won. You mind getting that light out of my eyes? I can’t see crap.”
Glenn and Trent exchanged uneasy glances, and I realized it wasn’t a light in my face, but the sun. “Close your eyes, Rachel,” Trent said, and I did, a faint feeling of fear sliding to the back of my head and making me shut my mouth, too. Some of those blows had been to my head.
“Is she okay?” Glenn whispered. “How did you get down there, Mr. Kalamack?”
“She tried to jump out and jumped me in instead,” he said simply. “She just needs some shade. I’ve got her okay. Can you get those reporters out of here?”
“Lord have mercy, they found us already,” Glenn said, and I cracked an eye, almost smiling at the phrase and the hint of his southern background showing. “Ah, the ambulances are over there. You got her?”
“Yeah, we got her,” Jenks said, and I winced as his dust hit my face.
“No ambulance,” I whispered. “Trent, no. I want to see Eloy put in a car and leave. If you put me in an ambulance, they’ll take me to a hospital. Promise me.”
“No ambulance,” he said, and I relaxed—until I realized I was still in his arms as he marched through the stopped traffic to a bus bench and set me down. His arms slid from me, and I shivered in the heat of the afternoon.
Slowly, bleary and blinded by the sun, I started to notice things. Traffic was stopped both ways, and Trent slowly sat down beside me, propping me upright without appearing to. Jenks was between us on the back of the bench, dusting in worry. FIB guys were everywhere, their successful mood making it feel like the Festival of Honking Horns. I could see the opening into the tunnels and the official vehicles arriving on the scene. Numb, I sat and shallowly breathed the good Cincy air, the late afternoon thick with the scents of a million people. The delicate scent of cinnamon and wine laced with green sherbet seemed to grow stronger.
“Ah, Trent? I think she needs an ambulance,” Jenks said suddenly, and I sighed, my eyes closing.
“She’s fine,” Trent muttered, propping me back up. “Can you point out any of those men you saw earlier? The ones that weren’t FIB or I.S.?”
Jenks’s wings clattered, and I touched my cheek, warm where Eloy had smacked me. “Ow,” I murmured, and Jenks rose up, his dust falling on me a worried black.
“I’m going to find Ivy.” Jenks darted off.
Trent shifted uneasily, squinting even though we were in the shade. The wind moved his fair hair fitfully, and I started to reach for it, to brush it out of his eyes, but he beat me to it. My chest hurt, but I smiled, wondering if he missed his pointy little ears. They would hold his hair back better than what he had now.
“Rachel, I don’t see anyone here not FIB or I.S.,” he said, oblivious to the fact that I was slowly starting to slide into shock, the pain from my ribs making it hard to breathe. “How confident are you in your assessment?”
“That’s because the guys with the radios bugged out when Eloy got free,” I said as I flipped the useless radio earbud hanging down my front, and he reached for it, his gaze sharp on its construction. “You want it?” I said, and he nodded, reaching back for the battery pack as I dropped the bud down my shirt and he pulled it through, scraping my skin. “Alpha and beta teams are meeting up at the bird nest,” I said, almost slurring. “Beaters and receivers. Personally, I would think they were HAPA’s extraction team. If HAPA had any money, that is.” I pulled my head up. “Look, Glenn isn’t having a very good day, either.”
The unlucky man had clearly been hijacked by Dr. Cordova in his quest to dissuade the newspeople. She looked pissed as she chewed him out in front of an FIB van, her arms pointing wildly. We had recaptured Eloy, so I don’t know what her problem was. The sound of Ivy’s footsteps drew my attention, and Jenks flew in to make nervous circles around me.
“What are you doing?” she hissed at Trent as she reached for me. “Look at her. She’s going into shock. And you have her sitting on a bench? What are you doing here anyway?”
“He’s saving my ass,” I said, smiling up at her until my face hurt. “Hi, Ivy,” I added, then hissed in pain when she tried to slide her shoulder under my arm and lift me. “Ow! Ow!” I cried out, and Jenks let a burst of yellow dust slip from him.
“Watch it!” he shouted, but Ivy had jumped back, her eyes going black as she pulled her hands from me.
Trent had gotten to his feet, and as I listed sideways, he propped me back up with a single, obvious finger as I tried to breathe, my ribs hurting. “Her ankle is broken,” Trent said as he held my shoulder, and Ivy’s eyes went
