She spun again and fired at the man she was supposed to marry. Lief Holmberg fell to the floor, half on Ramon. The weight on his back lifted off.
Agents over to the right pulled their guns, but this was the president. No one fired at her.
She turned and shot three people in the front row, then pointed her gun at the bridesmaid who’d been happy to take her spot.
Ramon shoved Lief off his leg and scrambled up. “Ma’am?—”
She fired, a glassy kind of fury on her face.
“Madam President!” Bear raced down the aisle. “We will shoot if you don’t put that gun?—”
She pointed the weapon at Maizie. At Stairns, in front of Maizie.
Ramon raced at her, slamming into her shoulder and taking her down to the floor. But the gun had fired. He wrestled the weapon from her and rolled her to her front, pulling her arms behind her back while she screamed.
“I’ve got her.” Bear looped plastic ties over the president’s wrists.
Ramon shoved off her and scrambled across the slumped bodies to where Maizie was on her knees with Stairns across her lap.
“Ramon!” Her features twisted, and tears rolled down her face.
Stairns had blood on his chest, soaking into the material, expanding outward while he struggled for breath. He lifted his hand and touched Maizie’s arm.
Ramon squeezed her shoulder, kneeling on the other side of Stairns.
Bruce and Amara raced over with Preston, who said, “I can get an air ambulance, have them land on the roof. We’ll get him to the hospital.”
Ramon watched the life start to flicker from Craig Stairns’s eyes. He leaned down to the older man and whispered in his ear. “You saved her. No one is ever going to forget that.”
When he moved back, Craig’s features had slackened, and his head lolled to the side. Ramon touched two fingers to his neck and felt for a pulse.
Maizie whimpered. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t leave me.”
Amara crouched beside her and put her arm around the young woman. Maizie shoved her off. “No! He isn’t gone!” She clutched Craig’s body, pulling him up to her and bending overhim. Holding on tight. Trying to hang on to him. “Don’t leave!” She shook with the force of the sobs.
The room had descended into chaos around them.
Someone fired a gun across the room, and the bullet slammed into the glass behind the stage. Preston and Bruce ducked down. Ramon looked at Bear, who handed the president off to people that Ramon figured were Secret Service agents.
He pulled his gun and said, “Copy that,” to whoever had spoken to him. Bear jumped a dead body and raced for men who were fleeing the room. His rogue teammates. “You’re dead, Cullers! This is your doing!”
“What a mess,” Preston said.
“The police will probably be here soon.” Bruce looked around, scanning for danger. “They won’t have a clue what to make of this.”
Ramon looked over at the agents standing around the president. She sat at the far end of the front row, her back straight. Chin high. Not looking at any of them. He looked back at his friends. “I don’t want Maizie here when the police arrive.”
He touched her shoulder. “We need to go.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
Ramon’s heart squeezed in his chest at the look on her face. Her world had been torn apart. But he would do what he’d promised Kenna he would do.
Bring her home.
“Come on.” He gathered her into his arms and stood, forcing her to go with him. She didn’t need to be here with a dead body any longer, and he didn’t want her to have to give the police a statement.
Bruce said quietly, “We’ll make sure Craig isn’t alone. We’ll take care of everything and bring him home.”
