For Auld Lang Syne (Navy Book 1)

Chapter 18

Single shooter?" Josh asked.

"Alone," Kellan agreed.

"Very nervous," Devon whispered.

"Dangerous." Josh nodded.

All of this took an instant, but when no one else had registered his presence it seemed to tick him off and he screamed that no one was to move or he would shoot.

Bree of course did the opposite and jumped up racing across the room to their mother which caused the man to fire randomly into them. Hal's Best Man, Kurt, was hit in the leg and fell to the ground with an oath.

"Sorry, sorry," the man said waving his gun around even more anxious than before. "I didn't want to do that!"

"It's alright," Devon softy soothed, gaining the man's attention, and giving him something to focus on instead of all of the crying coming from the women. "May I go to him and make sure he's alright?" She slowly stood up, glad that she had worn jeans and a sweater and not a dress. The fact that she even had this thought while a gun was pointed at her amazed her.

One of the groomsmen on the other side of the room decided to play hero and lunged at the gunman which caused him to fire again. Luckily he didn't hit anyone.

"Nobody move, I mean it!" He fired the gun into the ceiling then opened his shirt which revealed a bomb strapped to him. The women all screamed again.

"Please, let me check on Kurt. I promise not to try anything." Devon pleaded once more.

He nodded, his eyes darting from her to everyone. Josh and Kellan were silent where they stood behind her. She should be worried but she wasn't, not with them so close. Devon knew both of their brains were busy trying to determine the best strategy in getting them all out of the situation unharmed.

Devon moved slowly towards Kurt who had his eyes closed in pain. There wasn't a lot she could do for him other than to be a comfort and try to control the bleeding. After a brief assessment, she noted that he had been shot in the lower thigh and there was a lot of blood.

"Mother, may I have your new scarf?" she asked without looking at her.

Her mother pushed the box towards her, and she couldn't help herself as she looked up at her mother, noting her frightened glance. Devon ignored it, knowing that if she acknowledged it, it might break her. She tied the scarf as tight as she could.

"What are you doing?" the gunman demanded.

"I don't really know." Devon's eyes skimmed the room landing on Josh who seemed to want to tell her something.

"Josh is much better at first aid than I am, may he help?" Devon did her best to look frightened, which wasn't hard. The tears she generated weren't hard to come by either.

The gunman waved his gun at Josh. "No funny business!" he insisted.

Josh held up his hands as he crossed the room to Devon, kneeling next to her looking at Kurt's leg. "Bullet's still in there." He nodded, tying the scarf tighter.

"We don't think the bomb is real, but if we try to take him someone will get hurt, so we won't take the risk. Can you get him away from everyone?"

"Maybe, if I can find out why he's here." Devon nodded as Josh stood up, his hands raised as he moved back to Kellan.

"Why are you here? What do you want?" Devon asked, slowly rising. "If it's money take what you want and go, we won't stop you." She moved to the middle of the room where his gun would remain pointed away from everyone.

"I don't want money, I want her!" He waved the gun, pointing it at Annabelle Paxton, who turned very pale as the gun was directed at her.

"Why do you want Annabelle?" Devon asked in a hushed voice as her mind started to think of ways that she could use that to her advantage to separate him from everyone else.  The only way that she could come up with required Annabelle to play along, and she doubted that she would willingly be separated from the herd.