Parkdidn’t have a lot of experience with guns, but this one was small and black and still looked menacing as hell. Tucker pointed it toward the door.
“He has a gun!” Park shouted.
Everything went quiet on the other side of the door. Tucker swung around and pointed the gun at Park, and then he lunged forward and grabbed Park’s wrist. He twisted Park’s arm until he pulled Park close enough fortheir bodies to touch. Tucker smelled sour, like he hadn’t showered in a few days. Park tried to squirm away, but Tucker twisted harder. The pain was acute, shooting up Park’s arm, and he cried out.
Gavin called out, “Mr. Tucker! We can end all this peaceably. Come out here and talk to us.”
“No!” shouted Tucker, stomping his foot and jerking Park’s wrist, which made it throb. “I finallyhave my time with Parker. I’m not going to waste it talking to you.”
“We don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Gavin yelled back. “Please come out here.”
Tucker pushed Park against the wall, where he barely missed hitting his shoulder on the hand dryer. Park’s back slammed into the wall and he lost his balance, hitting the adjacent counter with his hip. Tucker crowded Park into the wall andpressed the whole length of his body against Park’s, close enough to kiss. He twisted Park’s arm harder.
“Please!” Park cried. “Let me go! That hurts!”
“Mr. Tucker, if you don’t come out here within the next minute, we’re going to break the door down. You have sixty seconds, starting now.”
Tucker let go of Park’s wrist and took a step back. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t letyou go.”
They stared at each other, neither moving. Park’s heart beat at an erratic pace. He thought of Jackson. God, he wanted to get to Jackson.
A minute must have gone by, because a loud slam on the door broke the stalemate with Tucker. The bar holding the door closed started to warp. Another good slam and whoever beat on the door would probably dislodge the bar, if not get into theroom.
Tucker shouted, “No!”
He pointed the gun at the mirror and fired, the sound nearly deafening. The glass shattered, and Park screamed as he jumped out of the way. He felt bits of flying glass rip into his exposed skin. Tucker bled from tiny cuts on his face as he panted and looked at Park. “That’s not how this ends.” Tucker gestured toward the door with his gun hand. “You leave withme, and we conquer the world together.”
“Okay,” Park said, holding his hands up. Stabbing pain shot through his wrist and up his arm as he moved it. He hissed as he shook it out and stepped away from Tucker.
And then, like a miracle, a ceiling tile vanished. The movement was silent, and Park only noticed because he caught it in his peripheral vision. Tucker stood between Park and the mysteriousdisappearing ceiling tile, facing Park, and so he didn’t notice when a pair of legs descended through the hole.
Park began to hope he might get out of this after all.
A uniformed cop dropped through the ceiling and hit the floor with a thud. Tucker whipped around, but this cop had better reflexes. He stepped toward Tucker and quickly disarmed him. A second cop dropped through the hole.
And just like that it was over.
The first cop restrained a squirming Tucker. He handed the gun to his partner, who picked up a cell phone and said, “Target apprehended.”
“Thank god,” said Gavin through the phone. “Park, you there?”
“Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Ramirez, can you open the door?”
“On it,” said the second cop, moving toward the door. He quickly lifted the bent bar andkicked the chair away.
Jackson sat on the hallway floor, and he looked up when the door flung open. He hopped to his feet in an instant, running at Park as the first cop forcefully maneuvered Tucker out the door. And then Jackson folded Park up in his arms and the rest of the world stopped mattering. Park put his arms around Jackson and held him. Jackson was sturdy and warm against him.
“Thank god,” Jackson said softly. “Thank god you’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
“I was so scared. I heard that gunshot and I thought I’d lost you. I don’t know what I would have done if—” Jackson jerked back suddenly and looked at Park. Their eyes met. Jackson’s glittered with tears. “I love you. I sat out there thinking that over and over, that I love you and I want you in my life, and I don’tever want to be without you again.”
Park wiped at Jackson’s tears with his thumb. He was touched and relieved and so happy to see Jackson. “I love you, too. I couldn’t stop thinking about you the whole time I was trapped in here with him. That I only wanted to get out so I could see you.”
Jackson pulled Park back into his arms again, and it felt great except that Park twisted his wristwrong, and pain shot up his arm again. He hissed.
