The doors opened on the ground floor, and I stepped out into the lobby, then through the front doors and into the morning light.State Street was already awake.
Students with backpacks and a woman pushing a stroller moved past me.Two guys in button-down shirts headed toward the parking garage.
The air had that late-spring warmth to it, not hot yet but close enough you knew summer was trying to shove its way in.
I slid my sunglasses on and headed toward my bike parked at the curb.
I started to swing my leg over and every instinct I had lit up at once.
No sound first.
No clear reason.
Just my gut dropping to my feet.
Time slowed and I turned my head.Down the street, a black SUV was rolling toward the building.Slow, smooth, and too deliberate.
My pulse punched once in my throat.
The rear passenger window started to roll down.
Everything after that happened fast and not fast at all.
The dark glass lowered, then a hand holding a gun appeared.
I dropped just as the first shot cracked through the air so loud it bounced off the buildings on both sides of the street.Concrete chipped near where my head had been a half-second earlier.
The second shot came as I hit the sidewalk, shoulder slamming hard enough into the pavement to jar my teeth.
People screamed.
I rolled, boots scraping, body moving before thought could catch up, and threw myself behind the nearest parked car.
Another shot shattered glass somewhere behind me.
A car alarm wailed and screams echoed.
Someone yelled, “Oh my God!”
My hand was already on my gun, but the SUV was moving, tires spitting as it surged down the street.
Cowards.
The engine roared, and the vehicle shot through the intersection before I could get a clean line on it.I pushed up from the ground, half-crouched, trying to catch the plates.
Nothing.
Just black paint, tinted windows, and the feeling of being a step too late.
“Fuck!”The word tore out of me as I came fully to my feet.
The street had gone feral.
People scattered in every direction.Some crouched behind benches and newspaper boxes.A woman had both hands over her mouth.A guy near the corner was already on his phone barking at someone that there’d been shots fired.
Good.
Call the cops.
