Which was a deeply scary thought. She clenched both hands. They worked fine. “Turn right at the light.”
“GPS says to go straight.”
“And I say to turn right.”
“Okay. You want me to park a couple blocks away or out back or something?”
“No time.” Her toes were tingling now, too. Was she hyperventilating? Lily tried holding her breath. “I’ll deliver the news and we’ll clear out.” She should have time. Sjorensen had called Lily when Drummond left to talk to the federal attorney. There was a possibility the attorney wouldn’t want to go to a judge—but that was slim.
“Okay. Pretty nice acreage along here. Lots of room between the houses.”
She let her breath out so she could talk. It hadn’t helped, anyway. “Yeah. The Brookses’ place will be on the right about a mile, just past a scrap of woods. Old brick, two stories, circular drive.” Would Ruben run? Was that what he should do—what she wanted him to do?
She didn’t know. He might choose to sit tight, let them arrest him, let the system work. A couple weeks ago, she would have known that was the right thing to do. But he had this whole Shadow Unit thing going. In his visions, the country fell apart, riven into bloody chunks, part of it falling into anarchy, part into dictatorship. Lupi dead, Gifted dead . . . maybe Ruben had foreseen his own arrest and was expecting her. Maybe he was already gone. Maybe he knew exactly what he must do to keep his visions from becoming reality.
One thing was crystal clear. Ruben’s arrest was part of her plan.
“You trust this woman who called,” Scott said. “You believe her about Brooks getting arrested.”
Of course he’d heard both sides of that phone call. “Ninety-five percent trust, I guess.” Not that Lily knew Anna Sjorensen all that well, but what reason would she have to lie? Other than getting Lily to expose herself by racing to Ruben’s house to give him a chance to evade arrest. “Maybe eighty-five percent,” she corrected herself as Scott turned where she’d told him to. She clenched both hands again. They worked, but they didn’t feel right. Her head didn’t feel right. “But we’ll play the odds.”
THREE to one was not bad odds, not with only one gun aimed directly at him—and that by a man only ten feet away.
Ten feet increased the chance that Rule would catch a bullet if he leaped, but a head shot was highly unlikely—and it would take a head shot to stop him. There was a good chance he wouldn’t be injured at all. Most people couldn’t hit a moving target even at this range. There are humans here, he reminded himself. Bullets that missed him could hit the more fragile humans around him. Or Cullen. Best not to give idiots with guns a reason to start shooting.
He fought to appear calm and gripped Cullen’s shoulder. “Hold,” he said soothingly, feeling the wire-tight readiness in his friend. “Hold.”
“Get your hands back up!” the guard barked.
“I’m not going to do that. Do you have a dog, Officer?”
A fine tremor went down the guard’s arms. He reeked of fear. “Don’t talk shit. You people don’t turn into dogs. I worked MCD back when they rounded y’all up. I know what you’re capable of.”
Rule doubted that. Not when the man thought ten feet was a safe distance.
One of the other guards kept his gun trained on Cullen, while the third had holstered his and was reaching for the cuffs clipped to his duty belt.
Rule’s voice roughened. “Handcuffs are a very bad idea. My friend is seriously injured. He might panic if someone attempts to restrain him.”
“Cuff him,” the gray-haired guard said hoarsely. “Do it.”
Rule looked at the EMT standing closest to him. He reminded Rule a bit of LeBron—tall, muscular, with dark skin and a shaved head. LeBron, who’d been killed last month. “I don’t want anyone hurt,” he said quietly. “I can keep Cullen calm, but I’ve failed miserably to calm your gun-wielding associate. You and your friend should move away from the gurney.”
“Like hell they will,” said a raspy female voice from within the ER. “Their contract says they deliver ’em inside the doors. They’ll wheel him in here like good boys. That your man?”
“They both are,” said a second woman in a thick, warm drawl. The Rhej, Rule realized with a rush of relief as two women stepped out through the ER doors. “But I’ll share the one on the gurney with you