Chapter 6 #4
“Don't you have somewhere to be?” Sebastian said as he stood. “If you don't have anywhere in mind,” he said to Will, “there’s a great little place around the corner that does steak sandwiches.” He opened a drawer and pulled out his wallet and a set of keys. “Their chip batter is homemade, and they won’t share the recipe, so I’m forced to spend my hard-earned money there. ”
“I—” Will glanced at Jay, expecting irritation but only getting a smile from the man. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine,” Jay said dismissively. “Seb is correct that I have somewhere to be. Some wedding clients are coming in for a meeting, and the last time Eli was left alone with them, he set someone on fire.”
“He said it was spontaneous combustion,” Sebastian said. He moved in beside Will and placed a hand on the small of his back, giving him an encouraging smile.
“That is what he said,” Jay said. At Will’s look—which Will figured was a mix of horror and concern—he said, “There was no actual fire, Will. Just a very irate father of the bride.”
“That’s practically a given, isn’t it?” Will joked. He had no idea. He’d never been to a wedding before.
“When my brother is involved, it is,” Sebastian said cheerfully. He pushed gently at Will’s back. “I have an hour before I have to be back—ready to go?”
“Do you need to get your glasses?” Will asked, noting that he wasn’t wearing them. He vaguely recalled Sebastian saying something about needing them to see things far away.
“I’m wearing contacts,” Sebastian said reassuringly.
“Oh. Okay. It was nice to meet you, Jay,” Will said as Sebastian herded him out the door. Jay’s response was lost as Sebastian closed the door behind them.
“Your noodles are going to get cold,” was not what Will had meant to say, but it was what came out of his mouth.
“That’s what microwaves were invented for.”
“Probably wasn’t the reason behind the invention,” Will said.
“What were they invented for, then?” Sebastian asked as he pressed the elevator’s close button and then the ground floor.
“I have no idea,” Will said, his breath hitching as Sebastian crowded him against the elevator wall. Will didn’t know why he needed to—there was plenty of room in the small space. And now, even if Will had that random knowledge in his brain, he had no hope of retrieving it.
“Then I guess we’re going to go with my theory.”
Sebastian’s fingers lightly brushed Will’s side, and Will’s ability to breathe left him. He could smell the faint woodsy aftershave Sebastian was wearing, and it was making his knees weak.
Will licked his lips and glanced down at where Sebastian had started playing with the buttons on Will’s shirt. “That they were made purely to heat leftover noodles?”
“Precisely.”
“Okay.”
“How did you even find me?” Sebastian asked. The tips of his fingers slid between the buttons, caressing the skin underneath.
“You weren’t hard to find,” Will said, trying to concentrate on the words and not the way that Sebastian was trying to undo him.
“Once I knew you were a defence lawyer and your last name, Google mostly did the job for me.” The extra information he’d found out had been a bit more of an in-depth search than Google and was using resources he had available in a maybe-not-so-ethical way, but he wasn’t about to admit to any of that.
The elevator doors opened, and Sebastian’s hand slipped away. Will was tempted to close the doors again and flick the emergency switch. But Sebastian had already stepped out, and Will was at risk of the doors closing him in by himself, and he’d embarrassed himself enough already that day.
THEY WERE ALMOST AT the intersection when the bullets began to fly.
Will reacted instantly, shoving Sebastian down forcefully against a nearby parked car and following him.
Bullets pinged the side of the metal as people screamed and fled the area.
There were no sounds of anyone getting hit except the car they were hiding behind. The shots were deliberate and aimed.
At them.
The fuck?
Not even a drive-by. They were still shooting. They'd set up shop somewhere nearby.
“Are we getting shot at?” Sebastian asked incredulously, his mouth dropping open.
“Sounds like it.” It meant that running was definitely not an option—it would just make them easier targets to hit in the back.
Will turned and rose on one knee to peer over the hood. He jerked back down when another bullet hit too close for comfort. He hadn’t even been able to get a good look. He could tell there were at least two shooters based on where the bullets were spraying, and that was about it.
Damn.
Will pulled out his phone and quickly dialled Roy’s number.
“What are you doing?” Sebastian asked. He leaned his head back against the hood and closed his eyes.
“Calling for backup.” Will reached over and gently tugged Sebastian’s head forward. “Don’t put your head against the car.”
“I’m not sure I want to know why.”
“You don’t,” Will agreed. “You do criminal law, and you’ve dealt with gnarly cases—you’ve never been shot at before?” he asked curiously.
“Lawyers are found in courtrooms, not on a firing range. Being shot at is not part of the job description.”
Made sense. Will glanced at Sebastian as his phone continued to ring. “But you’ve seriously never been—”
“Will!”
Will gave him a “what?” look. It was a totally valid thought. It was the second time in a week the guy had been shot at.
“Knives, yes. Fists, yes. A car, once—okay, three times—yes. But never a gun… well, except earlier this week, I guess.”
Will paused. “Guns are not the worst on that list.” Though he wished right now that he had a gun so he could at least return fire, and they weren’t sitting ducks.
“Should I be ranking them?” Sebastian asked, borderline hysterical.
“Well, I mean—”
He was interrupted by Roy finally answering with, “Hello?”
“Hey, so I’m getting shot at and could use some backup.”
“The fuck? Where are you?”
“Visiting Seb.”
“You act like that means something to me!”
Will gave him the address. “I think there are at least two shooters, using semi-automatic weapons. Based on the trajectory of the shots, we’re the target, but I can’t tell where exactly they’re coming from.
” He winced when more bullets flew past, others hitting the car.
At some point, the assholes were going to get lucky and hit one of them.
“We’re coming. Hold the fort,” Roy barked.
Will hung up and shoved the phone back in his pocket. He tried to listen to the gunfire, but he couldn’t determine where it was coming from. It was a stop-start burst effect rather than constant rapid. And it kept moving. They were moving. Closer, maybe? Were they being surrounded?
There wasn't a single thing about this that Will liked.
“What now?” Sebastian asked.
“Now we wait.” Not much of a plan, but they didn’t have much of a choice.
“We wait? That's your master plan?”
“Yeah,” Will said with a shrug. It wasn't only the master plan; it was their only plan.
Will paused, his ears ringing a little as the gunfire stopped completely. That wasn’t a good sign. He doubted the gunmen had just decided they were done and left. No one opened fire in public like this and then just gave up.
Will tilted his head, trying to listen carefully and pick up any movement.
Sebastian opened his mouth, and Will pressed a finger to his own lips, signalling to be silent.
He pointed a finger behind him, hoping that Sebastian understood that meant to keep an eye on his six in case the other shooter came around the other side of the car.
He shifted a little closer to his side of the car, almost crawling to stay out of sight.
The second a foot came into sight, he didn’t wait.
He reached out to grab the ankle and yanked hard.
The guy went down with a heavy thud and a string of bullets shot into the air. Will kicked the rifle away, and it slid under the car.
He punched the man in the face, twice. Blood gushed from his nose, but it wasn’t broken. Yet. The man got an elbow in Will’s gut and then reached for a gun strapped to his thigh. Will punched him again and then pulled it out first, pushing himself backwards as he aimed it.
“Stay right fucking there,” he ordered.
The man put his hands up in surrender. He looked too fucking twitchy for Will to trust it. And the second man hadn’t shown himself yet.
Will shuffled backwards so he was closer to Sebastian.
The second he glanced at Sebastian to check if he was okay, the man moved, tackling Will.
Pain burst across Will's cheek. He twisted his head out of the way. The hand he was holding the gun in was grabbed, and Will twisted, trying to stop it from being recovered. He wasn’t really in the mood to get shot.
A stray shot went off as they wrestled for the gun, and Will’s heart jerked in fear when Sebastian grunted in pain.
He headbutted the guy he was tangling with and flipped him, shoving him face-first into the ground.
He pressed his knee into the centre of his back and pressed the butt of the gun against the back of his head. “Don’t fucking move,” he growled.
His fingers tightened around the grip as he took in Sebastian’s predicament.
He was scuffling with another man. The rifle hanging at the man’s side was ultimately useless at this close range, at least. Sebastian was holding his own and got a good punch into the man’s temple before a meaty fist wrapped around his neck and slammed his head into the edge of the car’s hood.
There was a smear of blood on the metal when Sebastian’s head was pulled back for another go.
Will reacted in a split second, lifting the gun from his own man’s head and firing one precise shot.
The man with his hands on Sebastian was dead before he hit the ground.
Will could have tried to wound him, but he wasn’t willing to risk any more hits to the head for Sebastian. Head injuries were notoriously tricky.
“Seb?”