Despite a few hotel guests pushing their way down the stairwell in sheer panic, the majority of guests calmly arrived in the lobby, which had been cleared by hotel staff by that point. Sarge looked for an open area to let Julia sit and rest. Her feet were raw from walking down the thirteen flights of concrete stairs without shoes. She’d wisely abandoned her Versace high heels on the fourteenth floor, or they might be dealing with a sprained ankle. Her feet didn’t require medical attention, but she needed to stay off them for now. He pulled off his jacket and wrapped her in it. High desert temperatures dipped significantly in the evening, especially in the winter. A comfortable seventy-degree day could rapidly turn into a cold, low-forties evening. They hobbled toward a display nestled between two boxed planters of flowers. No one had found this area, except for a few elderly people huddled on a bench next to the flowers.“Here’s a bench, darling,” said Sarge.She looked up at him and smiled.“Much better,”
