AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She smiled at me. “It’s tough to take you seriously while your dick is still flopped out of your jeans.”
I cursed and quickly pushed my junk back into my pants. She giggled as I did so, and I laughed too. That’s one of the things I loved about Heather, after all: she could make me laugh.
“I think I feel the same way,” she said after I had zipped up. “This is more than just physical. I feel that way aboutallof you—Asher and Rogan, too. But that word… I don’t know if I’m ready to say the L-word yet.”
I hadn’t really expected her to say it back. It had only been five weeks, and she had two other men dividing her physical and emotional attention. But what shehadsaid was good enough. I slid a hand behind her neck and pulled her into a long, tender kiss.
“My breath probably smells like come,” she said when the kiss ended. She pulled a tin of breath mints from her pocket.
I smiled widely at her. “Your breath smells wonderful. And even if it didn’t, I’d still want to kiss you.”
“Glad one of us does.” She grinned wickedly and held out the tin of mints. “Becauseyourbreath reeks of too-sweet coffee.”
See what I said about her humor? This girl was perfect for me.
CRACK-POW.
A muted bang sounded outside.
I knew that sound. It was as familiar to me as my own son’s voice.
“Gunshot.” I held the binoculars up to my eyes and scanned. The actors at the party across the courtyard looked around in confusion. Nobody appeared to be hurt.
“Was that a gunshot?”Cooper asked on the radio.
“Affirmative,” I replied, still scanning. “Where’s Apple Pie?”
“In the ballroom. Ten feet from the door to the outside area.”
“Safe from balconies above,” I muttered, scanning up the hotel. “See anything?”
“Nothing,” Heather replied. “The smoker is still on the fifth floor, but he looks confused. He’s pointing… Toward us?”
I whipped my binoculars up to the target. Sure enough, he was pointing across the courtyard to our hotel. But not directly at us.
At a flooraboveus.
Before I could call it out, a second gunshot echoed through the courtyard. Screams drifted up from the ballroom party—a vase of flowers had been shattered by the bullet. A third gunshot sounded, but it hit the glass a good thirty feet away from the balcony of actors. By then the party was chaos—everyone was pushing and shoving to get back inside.
“The earthquake glass,” I said, jumping up from my chair. “It’s making the bullets tumble. Like Rogan said.”
“Ninth floor!”Cooper crackled into my earpiece. “I can see the bullet holes. They’re coming from a room on the ninth floor. Maybe eighth.”
I checked the pistol on my hip and went to the door. “In pursuit.”
“What should I do?” Heather demanded.
“Call the police! Tell them a gunman is on the eighth or ninth floor!”
I exited the hotel room at a jog and counted my steps. Guests were opening their doors and peering out into the hall. It was close to midnight, and many of them had been asleep.
“Stay inside,” I told them. “Keep your doors closed.”
I reached the alcove with the two elevators. It took me twenty seconds to reach them, at a jog. According to the lights above the doors, one elevator car was on the tenth floor, and the other was in the lobby. I called the one from the lobby. When it opened (empty, thankfully) I smashed the glass of a fire safety box, removed the ax from inside, and jammed it into the doorwell. Now the elevator wouldn’t close.
I called the second elevator. I made its descent from the tenth floor. That was close to where the gunshots had been spotted, so I drew my gun and clicked the safety off. The car slowed to a stop, and the doors opened.
Empty. I breathed a sigh of relief, then used the extinguisher from the fire safety box to jam this door too. Now both elevators were out of commission.
