Chapter 16 #2
“What?” Noelle didn’t know what she was talking about at first. And then... “Of course, I don’t. I just wanted to go-”
“It’s all about what you people want, isn’t it?”
Noelle wanted to knock the woman’s hands away.
She wanted to call out to her mother to get her attention.
She wanted to get far, far away from that store and call McCrae, but none of that seemed possible at the moment.
“Please,” she tried to put all of her urgency in her eyes, “there’s real danger here. We all need to go.”
For a moment she saw something in the other woman’s eyes that said she might be getting through to her.
But then it was too late.
“Andy? What are you doing?”
Noelle turned toward the direction of the manager’s voice and saw Andy... Anthony securing the lock on the doors to the garden center.
The doors were more of a gate, open during business hours and closed with a chain and lock after hours.
Now, she heard the jingle of the chain as it fell against the fence.
She hadn’t seen him close the lock, but she knew he’d done it.
“Open it right now, Andy! What are you doing?”
It was clear that he expected ‘Andy’ to do what he’d been told, yelled in his direction.
But the manager hadn’t expected the man to pull a gun out of his overalls.
“You,” ‘Andy’ shot back, “should go out that door,” he pointed the gun toward the doors that led into the main store beyond, “and lock it behind you.”
The manager puffed up, his inhaled breath and hands on his hips said he wasn’t about to follow ‘Andy’s orders. “You put that away.”
That, being the gun.
Noelle knew that her phone was useless. There was no need to reach down and pick it up. It wasn’t a fancy phone and the cover she had on it was good, but it certainly didn’t stand up to an angry women throwing it down on asphalt and concrete.
Over in the corner, she saw a flash of color that reminded her of the baby sling that Tracy used to carry around her baby when they were out of the house.
She hoped that Tracy had heard the commotion and was on her phone.
Even more, she hoped that Tracy was herding everyone toward the exit doors.
“I’m waiting, Eddie.”
The manager’s face turned a livid red. “What did you call me?”
Noelle took a step back, hoping to get around the display tables and find her family.
The woman who’d been blocking her way, now seemed to realize the danger they were in.
Her hand snaked out, surprisingly fast, and grasped Noelle’s shirt.
“Don’t you leave us!”
Her shouted denial turned heads.
‘Andy’ and the manager looked over.
“I’m not,” she told the woman, but Noelle was looking at the room in general. “I just needed some space.”
Noelle moved her eyes back and forth around the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of the others, but not trying to draw attention to a specific area.
“This is crazy,” the manager raged, his hands lifting up into the air. “What’s going on here?”
His rage turned to shock as the barrel of the gun in ‘Andy’s hand cracked him across the face.
A child cried out and Noelle’s heart squeezed tight in her chest.
She knew that voice.
The man with the gun raised his free hand to his ear. “Get out!”
He jabbed the gun into the manager’s chest.
“No wait... I’m getting out of here.”
Noelle took a step toward the other end of the room.
She wanted to get to her daughter and her mom.
Oh, God... McCrae’s mother and sister!
Tracy and her baby!
She started to run and stumbled when the crack of a gunshot reached her ears.
A crash beside her, and an answering yelp of pain told her that someone had been hit.
Noelle turned her head and saw the manager slumped sideways over a half-stack of buckets, his eyes glassy with pain.
The ground seemed to rush up at her in a panic, and her breath was pushed out of her lungs, her hands that she’d thrown out in front of her immediately started hurting.
She knew she’d scratched them up.
Behind her, the woman who’d blocked her way, was screaming, her kids sobbing.
Instinct told her she couldn’t do much for them, but…
“Mom, go!” She turned on her back and looked at the gunman. “Take everyone else!”
“No!” He shouted and turned his gun from her and pointed it over her head. “Everyone stay where you are!”
“Andy!”
He didn’t look at her, his gaze was fixed over her head, probably at her mother and Ciela. Or any of the other women she knew in the garden center.
The feeling of utter panic and fear made it almost impossible for her to move.
But she didn’t need to move, her head reminded her.
She could do something else, but that meant drawing his attention back to her.
Good.
All thoughts of self-preservation went out the window at the thought of saving her loved ones.
“Tony!”
He froze, his finger wrapped around the trigger.
“Tony Coolidge.”
He lowered his gaze to her face.
Confusion.
Shock.
Panic.
Fear.
And then... anger.
“How... How do you know?”
“You...” she swallowed and hoped that her family was making a break for the door or getting as close as they could. “You saw me in the news, right?”
She tried to sit up on the floor, but the sudden movement of her hand sent pain screaming across her palms.
“You know that we found her body.”
He started to shake his head.
It wasn’t a big movement.
It was hardly a whisper or an echo with the sunlight streaming through the front gates behind him.
The late afternoon sun made it hard for her to see his expression clearly, but that wasn’t her concern at the moment.
She wanted... needed him to focus on her.
To give other people a chance to get out.
“They talked to your cousins, Tony.”
Noelle bit the inside of her cheek.