It wasn’t rocket science. SWAT, a pissed-off husband, and guys with guns. Someone was going to get hurt. I wanted to make sure those who needed not to get hurt didn’t. Those who needed a serious time-out were on their own.
“Stop!” The head gunman shot into the ceiling.
Again.
“Would you knock that off,” I griped when one of the female hostages cried out. “You’re scaring people.”
The guy waved his hands wide. “This is a fucking hostage situation. What part of that don’t you understand? I am the one with the gun. I give the orders. You follow them. That’s how hostage situations work.”
I rolled my eyes dramatically.
“Why are you not listening to me?” The guy stomped his foot like a two-year-old. “I have a gun. You’re supposed to be scared.”
He seemed totally confused as to why Lyn, Eddie, and I weren’t trembling in the corner along with the other hostages.
Idiot.
I pointed to the rather large SWAT commander who stepped into the restaurant behind the gunman. “He’s scarier than you are.”
Chapter Two
Salvador
I wanted to go to Lany the moment I stepped into the Thai Rose and saw him kneeling on the floor next to Eddie, but dealing with the people threatening him with guns came first.
“You okay there,caro?”
Lany’s long light brown bangs flopped over his forehead as he nodded vigorously. When he started to get up, I shook my head. I didn’t want him in the line of fire if trouble started. Of course, knowing Lany’s luck, just being on the same city block put him in the line of fire.
“Eddie’s been shot,” Lany said.
Lany had already told me this.
“The paramedics are just waiting on my word to come in.”
Lany glanced at Eddie’s wound. “They need to hurry.”
As calm as he sounded, I could see that Lany was starting to unravel. I needed to get him out of here before that happened. Lany hated it when he came apart in public.
“Eddie, you going to be okay there?” I asked when I saw the blood pooling on the floor beneath his leg.
Eddie nodded. His face was ashen white, so I wasn’t sure how much of his admission was truth and how much was bravado. “If you want these guys to live long enough to stand trial, you need to get them out of here before the family finds out about this.”
Good point.
“Okay.” I glanced at the three gunmen staring at me like I had grown a second head. “I need your guns, and then I need you to lie face down on the floor, your fingers interlaced over your head.”
Seemed simple enough.
Apparently, the chief idiot didn’t think so.
He swung his gun in my direction and pulled the trigger.
Idiot.
Kevlar was a wonderful thing. When used correctly, it could keep a person from suffering from a bullet wound to the vital organs of the torso. It did not, however, stop said person from feeling the pain of impact.
It hurt like a motherfucker.
