uestion, Mandi said, "Now the bullets," again holding out her
hand.
Thumbing the loose round into the top of the magazine, Cade dropped the mag
in his jacket pocket as he said, "No point in wasting ammo. Carter uses a nine
millimeter. So do some of the others."
They heard sirens approaching and saw red and blue lights flashingly reflect
off the sides of buildings at the end of the alleyway as two cop cars sped past
the entrance.
Before Cade could ask, "So, do I walk home or not?" Mandi had slung an arm
around him, pulled him snugly to her, and launched upward.
She remained only barely subsonic during their flight to their hotel's roof.
At lesser speeds, Cade might have enjoyed being hugged to her like that, but
he'd had to struggle to pull his jacket up enough to cover his head against the
shrieking, blasting wind of their passage through the air.
When they landed, it became obvious that the jacket had borne the brunt of
that flight, having become considerably frayed -- almost shredded -- at edges
that had been exposed to the wind.
Quickly retrieving her purse from some hidden location near the roof door,
Mandi yanked the door open and leaped down the flight of stairs to the hotel's
top floor.
Cade quickly put a foot in front of the closing roof door and followed her
as she let herself out of the stairwell below. She was standing by the elevator
doors as he exited the stairwell.
As he approached her, Mandi said, "We'll talk later."
Stopping beside her, Cade asked, "Why? You planning to feel differently
about things later?"
Glancing sharply at him, she said flatly, "No, but I want to give us both
time to cool down a bit."
"Ah," Cade said with an understanding nod. "Right."
They waited in silence for the elevator and rode it to the fourth floor.
When the doors opened, Mandi instantly strode out and headed for their room.
Cade ambled out and headed the same direction, but he angled toward the ops
room as Mandi used her keycard. She watched him take off his jacket, drape it
over his arm, and knock on the ops room door, then saw the door open for him
before she let herself into their room.
As soon as she'd closed the door, Mandi adjusted her vision and hearing and
watched Cade head for the coffee pot in the ops room.
He asked, "Anybody here using nine millimeter ammo?" and a brunette woman
with her feet propped on the writing desk raised a ha