Page 48 of Last Resort

“Yeah, Weston, why do you have to be so damned right all the time?” Brax backed away from the couch. “How about next time your intuition tells you I’m going to win a million dollars rather than someone shooting at us.”

Chance was staring at the chair Maci normally would’ve been sitting in. It was covered in glass. Rage was bubbling in his gut. “If Maci had been here...”

“There aren’t too many places that someone could have made that shot from,” Weston said. “It had to have been from the building across the street.”

Chance nodded. “The roof. Let’s go. If we move now, maybe we can catch him.”

It was an office building with three stories. The shooter would’ve had a clear range.

Luke was already running toward the weapons room. He yanked out bulletproof vests, throwing them to each of his brothers. They all grabbed their weapons from their desks.

In under a minute they were running out the back door. They all knew this could be a trap, but they weren’t going to let that stop them. Not when they had a chance to get the upper hand.

As they rounded the corner from the back alley and had the building across from their office in sight, Chance barked out the plan. “Weston and Brax will clear the top two floors, while Luke and I do the roof. Good?”

His brothers called out their affirmations. They kept their weapons holstered as they ran for the building. It was already pandemonium on the street.

“You think they heard the shot and are panicking?” Luke asked.

As they got closer, the problem became evident. Someone had set off the fire alarm.

He and his brothers looked at each other. “He’s giving himself an easy way to escape.”

“Split up and look around. Let’s see if we can catch anyone acting strange.” Weston pulled out his phone and started recording as he walked inside. “I’ll try to get as much footage as I can, see if we can match someone to one of Stella’s events.”

Brax grabbed Chance’s arm as someone rushed by, sobbing and yelling about smoke. Maybe the stalker had started an actual fire to make sure there was real panic. “We need to get up on that roof.”

Chance shook his head. “There’s no way, not with so many people pouring downstairs. Plus, he’s already gone. You know he’s around here somewhere. Let’s record like Weston said.”

They spread out, Chance checking every face he passed. He didn’t bother looking for a gun bag. The shooter wasn’t stupid. He’d either stored the weapon to come back for it later or got out of Dodge immediately after taking the shot.

Chance tried to ignore the most panicked people and the ones who didn’t fit the profile. He looked for those who were more calm despite the chaos, and concentrated on recording those.

When the fire engine parked in front of the building and the firefighters began crowd control, Chance knew there was nothing else they could do. They’d talk to local police about the shooting and hopefully get the footage from any security cameras around, but they were limited in what they could do until then. He walked outside as the firefighters demanded it.

Annoyed at the situation, Chance yanked out his cell with a growl when it rang. Weston. “Please tell me you have good news.”

“Unfortunately, nobody walking around with a shirt saying I Just Shot Out a Window. I didn’t see anything or anyone who seemed too suspicious,” Weston said. “You?”

“A few people who were too relaxed, but nothing concrete.”

“Let’s get back to the office. We can compare footage and start calling in favors to get the local security feeds. Maybe we caught something.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

A flash of something in his peripheral had him turning, eyes locked with the back of a plain black hoodie. Besides standing slightly taller than the crowd, the man blended in with everyone around him.

Except he was walking away rather than watching what was going on around them.

Chance knew from experience it was human nature to stay at the scene of an emergency. Curiosity and the desire for drama had people sticking around.

Using one hand, he called his brother back.

“I may have something. Man in a black hoodie leaving the scene just to the west of the front door. I’m following.”

“We’re right behind you.”

Chance sped through the crowd, having to jostle to the side as he tried to keep his eyes on the man in the hoodie. At the end of the block the crowd cleared out, and Chance could finally put on some speed. When he was close enough to touch, he reached out and clamped his hand down on the man’s shoulder, whirling him around.

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