“Let’s go see what’s going on,” I said, and Jay nodded silently, sliding his hand into mine so he could keep me close as we crossed the street to see what my mother was so excited about.
The cafe was packed. It was as if the whole town had shown up to get coffee all at once, and I felt Jay’s hand squeeze mine almost to the point of pain as we waded into the crowd.
“Stay close to me,” he growled in my ear, and I frowned up at him to find that he was scanning the crowd of rosy-cheeked locals as if looking for some kind of threat.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here,” I replied gently, and his fingers spasmed slightly in mine.
“Jay! Milo! Over here!” I heard my mom call us, and the crowd parted to reveal her standing before what looked like a little photo backdrop in the back of the store. It had a giant print of a peppermint latte on it, and my mother was bouncing on her heels in excitement. Her scarf was no longer covering her face, and I could nearly count her teeth as she beamed at us.
“Look! They’re launching their new Candy Cane Kiss Latte! Isn’t that a cute name! They’re taking pictures for their N-book page!”
The blood drained from my face as she turned—almost in slow motion—and smiled as one of the baristas snapped a picture of her in front of the backdrop.
“Wow! What a great picture!” The young man grinned at my mother, and I watched in horror as he uploaded the photo to an N-book post and hitsend.
Crap.
I felt like I was moving underwater as I turned to find that Jay was no longer standing beside me.
Faster than I’d thought it was even possible for a human being to move, Jay had the kid slammed against the front window of the cafe.
I’d barely seen him cross the room, but the evidence of his rampage was clear from the several toppled tables and chairs that now littered the ground between us.
People were screaming, and my eyes widened in horror as I realizedwhy.
Somehow, Jay had produced ahandgun,and he had it pressed to the young kid’s jaw as he snarled in his face, crushing him back against the window.
“Delete it!” Jay growled, but the kid was shaking and clearly so shocked at the fact that he had a gun pressed against his chin that he could barely react.
“Jay!” I cried, rushing forward and doing my best to yank him back away from the terrified kid. It was no use, he was much stronger than me and impossible to move when he was like this.
“What the frick! You brought agun?”I hissed, and he barely glanced at me,
“Of course I brought a fucking gun. And I’m going to fucking use it too if this bitch ass doesn’tdelete that fucking photo.”
“Jay… he’s just a kid. Please, just… calm down.”
But Jay only had eyes for the poor sobbing barista who was so pale I was worried he was about to pass out.
He was still clutching his phone in his hand, though he seemed to be so overcome with shock that he hadn’t registered he was holding it.
Gently, I pried the device out of the kid’s hand and held it up to his face to unlock it. I flipped open N-book and scrolled through the cafe’spage, quickly deleting the photo he’d just posted of my mom… and to my horror, two or three others she’d taken with other random locals before we’d even gotten there.
Shit.
“They’re deleted,” I said to Jay, handing the phone back to the kid. “Let him go. We need to get out of here. Now.”
Jay growled, leaning in closer to the kid as if shooting him would somehow undo the damage that had already been done.
“Jay. We have to go.Now.We need to make a plan,” I hissed, and finally, he managed to tear his eyes away from the poor teenager. He dropped him unceremoniously on the ground, and the kid bolted away from us the second his feet touched the floor.
“In the car.Now!”Jay barked, snarling at my mother, who was looking upset and confused.
“Let’s go, Mom…” I sighed, trying to stamp down the quickly rising onslaught of anxiety that was threatening to overwhelm me at any minute.
“Honey… What did I do wrong?” my mom whispered to me as we followed a terrifyingly silent Jay out of the now almost deserted cafe.
Locals scattered away from us, and I felt my stomach flip with horror as I realized some were on their phones, calling what I could only assume was the sheriff, and others werefilmingus.
