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.
"She belongs with me. It's Christmas, and we need to be together. She should have come home last night and she didn't. I knew she was here, and I let her stay for her son's sake, but now she needs to come home. All of the presents are opened, and its time!" He moved towards Annabelle and she screamed and moved further behind everyone.
"Maybe we can talk about this. You know she's famous right." Devon asked, attempting to draw his attention back towards her.
"I – know- that!" the man, who had started to sweat profusely from his balding head, yelled.
"So, do you really want all of these people watching the two of you work out your issues? What if one of them goes to a tabloid or something? It would be all over the papers and we don't want that especially at Christmas." Devon was using her calmest tone.
He paused, looking at everyone in the room, considering them. "I can just kill everyone then no one could talk."
Devon nodded, suppressing a shiver as she imagined their lifeless bodies scattered all over the room. That really would make it on the front page of the tabloids. She looked over her shoulder at Josh and Kellan who were watching the man intently. Their body language was relaxed even though Devon knew this was as far from the truth as possible because she saw a steely glint in Josh's eyes.
"You don't want to do that. It might upset Annabelle. The two of you would be on the run, and then you really couldn't go home." Devon licked her dry lips and stepped towards the man on shaky legs. "Why don't you, me, and Annabelle go somewhere and talk about this privately?"
"I'm not going anywhere with this psycho!" Annabelle screamed.
"I'm a psycho am I?" the man screamed back at her, firing his gun and creating a panic in the room.
"Stop!" Devon yelled covering her ears, "Everyone stop!" She looked at Josh and Kellan for help, but other than ducking they remained where they were. She knew they couldn't reveal themselves, it would destroy any advantage they had.
"What's your name?" she asked the man after things had calmed a bit.
"Eugene." He adjusted the gun in his hand as he looked warily at everyone.
"Eugene, let me have a private word, one on one, with Annabelle. I'm sure I can convince her to go somewhere quiet, O.K?"
He nodded, waving the gun in Annabelle's direction. Devon took a deep breath and turned her back on the man. It was the hardest thing she had ever done. She knew that Josh and Kellan had her back, but it was still nerve wracking as she slowly approached Annabelle who was shaking her head in adamant refusal.
"Annabelle," Devon put her hands on her shoulders, "you have to go, but I'll go with you. Josh and Kellan are here and we'll be fine."
"What do they have to do with it?" she hissed. "We're all going to die!"
"No, we're not. Not if you do as I say." Devon watched her and couldn't read any change in her attitude. "Think of your son!" she begged, trying another tactic, and she thought for a moment it was going to work as Annabelle looked over at him standing behind Bree, but Annabelle only looked away with shame.
"I can't go, I'll die," she whispered.
"No, you won't, and think of all the media attention it will get you when you don't." Something flickered in Annabelle's eyes, and it made Devon a little ill that she would choose her career over her own son, but she had to build on it if they were going to get out of there alive.
She looked over her shoulder at Eugene watching them with unease. "It's alright Eugene, we're coming."
She turned back towards Annabelle. "Every talk show will want you, every paper and magazine will want the story about how you alone saved your family from an armed intruder on Christmas Day. No one could write a better story about how one woman was ready to give everything for the sake of her family. I bet you could even write the book yourself if you wanted to." Devon had touched the right nerve and Annabelle's eyes glazed over as she thought about all of the possibilities the opportunity could afford her.
"It will be fine, I promise, just do what I say and it will all be over soon." Devon pushed a little more.
Annabelle squared her shoulders and nodded. Devon led her back to the center of the room.
"We're ready Eugene, let's go to the library, there's a lock on the door and no one will follow us," Devon said.
Eugene nodded. "What about all of them?"
"They'll stay here until you and Annabelle are ready to go." Devon looked around the room and everyone nodded their agreement. Everyone but Kellan and Josh.
"Eugene, may I say goodbye to my boyfriend, Josh?" Devon asked.
He looked at her calm smile and nodded.
Devon walked over to Josh who pulled her close for a hard kiss. "Boyfriend? This is a new development."
"Shut-up, it was the only thing I could think of, what do I do now?" Devon clenched her jaw to keep control of her panic.
"Take him to the library, make sure the curtains on the French doors are open, keep him in front of the doors, and the two of you stay as far away from him as you can." His instructions we short and to the point.
Devon nodded as he rested his head against hers. "Be careful Firefly, we still have to have our talk."
"Maybe you'll actually finish what you start for a change," Devon attempted to tease him but it fell flat.
"We'll never be finished Firefly." He kissed her again. "It's gonna be quick and messy so keep your head down."
"Let's go!" Eugene called as he grabbed Annabelle by the arm and motioned to the door with his gun. "You all better stay here!"
Devon opened the door and led the way down the hall and towards the library, watching the staff in the house duck behind doors. Eugene was entranced with Annabelle being so close to him, he only had eyes for her so he didn't notice any of them as they stayed hidden.
Devon peeked at the hall clock, they had only been held at gunpoint for fifteen or twenty minutes, and the staff had probably called the police, but they were at least half an hour away, and once they hit the library, she didn't think it would take more than five minutes for Josh and Kellan to finish the job.
*******
Josh's heart felt as if it was being squeezed out of his chest as he watched Devon leave with the gunman. He had been proud of the way she had handled the situation but was mad at the fact that she had had to handle it at all.
As soon as the door closed all hell broke loose in the room, the women were crying and Ford, the idiot, was calling for a lynch mob to go save his wife. He had started to direct the men as to what he wanted to be done, and Josh wasn't having any of it.
"Stop!" Josh commanded and everyone stopped turning to look at him as they did. He was used to commanding men and having them listen to him, and he demanded it of everyone in the room.
"Kellan and I will take care of this." Josh had to do one thing first, he reached under the tree and pocketed the gifts that were between him and Devon. He wasn't going to have them go missing, his was too important.
"How? By saving the Christmas presents!" Ford yelled. "That's my wife!"
Josh rose and moved towards him full of power and fight, and Ford took a few steps back at Josh's full-on approach with his chest barreled and his eyes hard. It was what Devon called his warrior look.
"We will handle this and no one but the gunman will be hurt, you have my word! Now, open the gun cabinet," he growled.
Ford reached into his pocket and handed him the key with a shaking hand. "You don't know anything about guns, someone who can shoot should go with you."
"Neither one of us said we didn't know anything about guns, we only said we didn't hunt innocent and wild animals, but trust me we've done plenty of hunting," Kellan said as he took the key from Josh and opened the gun cabinet.
"You know what you want?" Josh asked.
"Yes, here." He threw Josh a gun and he caught it and the ammunition that followed.
"If you want Devon and Annabelle to live you will all stay here!" Josh looked around the room, "You will all stay here!"
"Five minutes, ten max. I mean it, don't screw this up by playing hero!" Josh warned watching Ford closely. He decided he didn't trust Ford and his ego, so he walked back over to the gun cabinet and took out a revolver handing it to his father. "Dad, if anyone tries to leave shoot them in the leg." He then locked the gun cabinet, pocketed the key, and he and Kellan quickly left the room.
*******
Devon, Annabelle, and Eugene entered the library, and Eugene pushed them both further into the room, shutting the door and locking it before he put the key in his pocket.
"I need you to distract him while I open the curtains a little," Devon whispered to Annabelle as she guided them away from the sofa in front of the fireplace, which would have put Eugene out of the men's sight-line
"How?" Annabelle asked, suddenly game to do anything.
"Thank him for allowing you to spend yesterday and this morning with your son then ask him if it's alright if you attend the wedding together." Devon thought quickly.
"No whispering!" Eugene demanded as he pushed Devon away from Annabelle, she pretended to fall dramatically towards the curtains, grabbing onto them as if to catch herself. "Sorry!"
"Eugene?" Annabelle softly asked, getting his attention as he turned his back towards Devon. "I want to thank you..." Devon tuned out what exactly Annabelle was saying as she slowly worked the curtain with her fingers, she had to move slowly, but little by little she got the curtain open about two feet before Eugene noticed she was there and told her to get away from the door.
Devon nodded and moved towards Annabelle, putting her arm around her and moving them away from the French doors, putting their backs against a bookshelf.
Eugene had just opened his mouth to say something when they heard a gunshot and cracking glass then Eugene crumpled to the floor. Annabelle screamed and looked away from Eugene's lifeless body which lay on the floor in front of them; the pool of blood around his head growing rapidly.
The next instant the French doors were kicked open, and Josh was standing there surveying the scene. "Clear!" he yelled as he looked at Devon and Annabelle. "Are you two alright?"
Devon didn't run to him. At that moment he wasn't Josh he was someone else, and she was unsure of the reception she would get if she were to throw herself into his arms.
Kellan stepped into the room, looking at Eugene lying on the floor his face void of expression. "I hear the sirens."
"Devon, take Annabelle back to the living room and tell my dad to put the gun away." Josh handed her the key to the gun cabinet. "Then all of you go out front and meet the police"
She grabbed Annabelle, who was crying and dragged her from the room, through the busted French doors, not looking back at the two strangers that she left behind.