More Than Meets The Eye

More Than Meets The Eye -21-

“Why are they even here in the first place?” Autumn whispered, ducking behind a long row of thick flowers that created one small display of plants by the Food Court.

“This is Celebrity Central,” Tristan replied simply. “They’re worth a lot of money if you kidnap one and demand to return them. Pretty cheap but that’s how a lot of these lower class guys work.”

She eyed the men all dressed in casual jeans and dark clothing as well as amateur balaclavas. She snorted. “How original.”

“Shh,” Will whispered, hovering behind her protectively. “You stay here – Tristan and I will handle it.”

“I’m not a kid – I could do better than the two of you,” she sniffed yet sat down moodily, glaring at her knees.

“We’ll get back,” Tristan promised, sounding genuinely kind. “Everybody will be safe.”

“Call the police,” Will added. “When the guns go off, you call as fast as you can.”

She snorted once more and clenched her teeth. “Whatever.” At least the innocent people in the mall would be saved . . . minus those who had been shot. She prayed that they were all right.

Will and Tristan dove behind the next row of plants and listened for several seconds to make sure that they hadn’t been caught.

Several of the shooters were chatting animatedly across the Food Court, stealing fries, burgers and sushi from tables all around them.

“I doubt you have a silencer gun on you right now,” Tristan hissed in annoyance when he realised the gunshots would only bring attention and possibly painful wounds. “You borrow mine, I’ll take that one.”

“How am I sure you won’t shoot me?” Will shot back, clenching it tightly and angled it slightly so that it pointed at Tristan sneakily.

“Because I want Autumn safe and sound just as much as you do,” Tristan snapped, his patience growing thin with this celebrity. “All right these guns will make a little sound so shoot anybody in the masks if they spot you.”

“I don’t think –”

Tristan smacked his hand into Will’s face, forcing him to lean around the corner with gun in hand. “Go.” He pulled on the trigger and watched it with sharp green eyes as it hit his target squarely from behind from the other side of the court.

When the man fell to the ground, dead, chaos broke out and soon gunshots were being fired in every direction in pathetic hopes that the culprit would be caught. Tristan watched, impressed, as bullets from Will’s spot shot out and caught a guy in the neck, blood dribbling out from the wound at a rapid rate.

The loud gunshots rang out at an even faster rate and Tristan couldn’t help but let out a groan of pain when something hard and sharp whistled past his arm and clipped his shoulder. He felt the leather jacket rip as well as the tissues of his skin. Out of all the gun wounds he could have possibly gotten it just had to be in his shoulder didn’t it?

“There!” someone yelled from nearby, snagging Tristan’s leather collar and snatched his gun out of his hand.

“No!” Autumn shrieked in horror and before she could register what she was doing, her entire weight had flung itself onto the masked man that held Tristan at gunpoint and had been seconds away from pulling the trigger. Why she had risked her life for his, she still didn’t know.

“EVERYBODY FREEZE RIGHT NOW!”

Numerous voices had shouted out the line and clearly everybody couldn’t help but freeze in shock.