One more minute.
God, she was beautiful. Dante’s eyes caressed her lovingly as she continued to play like an angel, her face almost glowing with pleasure. Truth was, he already knew he was all-in with this woman and probably had been soon after they’d met. He was looking at his future, and he was surprisingly serene about that fact. This complex, amazingly intelligent, beautiful, sexy female had turned his life and his emotions upside down, but she belonged with him. There was no way in hell he could live without her anymore, and he didn’t plan to.
Time’s up. Thank fuck!
Right on time, the concert ended so all of the silver-haired ladies could scurry off to senior bingo. There were choruses of appreciative words called to Sarah as they filed out, the room emptying quickly. Dante breathed a sigh of relief as he stood by the door, watching to make sure nobody entered. Emily and Randi went to join Sarah, while Grady and Jared stepped out the door to talk about a new project Grady was working on.
Everything changed in an instant.
One moment Dante was caught by Elsie Renfrew to say hello, and the next he turned back to Sarah to see a sight he’d only ever envisioned in his nightmares: John Thompson using Sarah as a shield, the barrel of a 9 mm pistol to her head. It had happened in a split second. Where in the hell had the bastard come from? He was guarding the door, and he’d searched every inch of the room before Sarah’s performance.
“One wrong move from anybody, and she’s dead, her brains splattered all over this room, along with the rest of her friends,” Thompson screeched hysterically.
Dante froze, taking in the situation in seconds. Emily and Randi were flanking Sarah and the gunman, neither of them moving, both afraid the asshole would kill Sarah. Dante’s Glock was within reach, so close, but he didn’t have a clear shot, and he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t hit one of the women if he shot in haste. They were all too close, and Sarah was being used as human armor. Dante was damn fast with a gun, but not so fast that a psychotic gunman with a twitchy trigger finger couldn’t kill Sarah before he could get a shot off. And even if he did kill the bastard, the gun in Thompson’s hand might still discharge.
“Get out and close the fucking door. Lock it or she dies,” Thompson demanded in a high-pitched, frantic voice.
Dante could see the fear in every one of the women’s eyes, but not one of them moved. His heart thundering against his chest wall, he stepped back as he saw the slight tightening of the man’s grip on the pistol. He met Sarah’s eyes and she subtly nodded, silently telling him to do what Thompson demanded.
There was nothing Dante wanted more than to pull his gun and shoot the bastard right between his beady, crazed eyes, but he didn’t. He took in every detail he could about the man holding Sarah hostage while he was slowly closing the door: his skinny frame, the wild-eyed look on his face, the scruffy brown beard he was growing, the shoulder-length greasy hair, and the orange T-shirt and torn jeans that were littered with stains.
Then, he trained his eyes on Sarah as long as he could until the metal door slammed closed, locked. He wasn’t worried about the lock. Someone had keys. His biggest concern was the fact that there were no windows in the door, no windows in the music room, no way to know what was happening inside.
“Fuck! Call nine-one-one and get ahold of Chief Landon. Now!” Dante bellowed, the desperate sound bringing Jared and Grady to his side.
“What are we reporting?” Elsie asked as she pulled a pink cell phone from her large purse and dialed.
“Hostage situation. Three women with a psychotic lunatic. He has a nine-millimeter Smith and Wesson seventeen-round pistol. Tell them we need a hostage negotiator and a SWAT team.” Turning to Jared, he instructed, “Evacuate the building as fast and as quietly as possible. Have the seniors use the side door to exit the building. Jared, can you handle getting everybody out?”
“Done,” Jared replied, already in motion to get people out of the building.
“I have to find Emily,” Grady said desperately.
“Grady!” Dante grabbed his brother by the arm. “She’s in there with Sarah. So is Randi.”
Grady broke away from him and charged toward the door. Dante had to put his own brother in a headlock to stop him. “You can’t go in there. It’s locked, and doing anything to agitate him could get Emily killed. Think, goddammit! And screw your head on straight. Do you want her to die?” Dante held on to Grady until he stopped fighting against him. “I know exactly how you feel, but you have to pull it together for Emily.”