How?
She had no clue how she knew, but she did.
"Selene!"
Her heart all but leapt out of her chest. "Will!"
She started to get up, but something smashed down on her ankle, making her cry out in pain.
Instantly, she wished that she'd managed to keep quiet. She didn't want to scare William more than he was already.
She turned on her side as Mandy moved for the desk.
"Get off me, Cooper!"
Selene turned in time to see Mandy pull a pistol out of Cooper's desk. Cooper was wrestling with her for it, but she threw an elbow and Cooper's head snapped back.
Gritting her teeth, Selene got to one knee as Mandy spun around with the pistol clutched in her hands.
That's when she saw it.
It wasn't her life leading up to that moment flooding her head.
No, it was her life ahead of her.
Life with William. Her career. Children. Living until she was old and gray with her family all around her.
She saw it.
And she wasn't about to lose it.
"Selene-" William was running, but a moment later he was there, taking in the scene in a heartbeat.Diving to cover her as Mandy leveled the gun in her direction.
Panic.
Sheer panic.
There was nothing else that she could feel.
The world around her slowed to a crawl, creeping along in something akin to a movie scene going frame by frame.
As William covered her body with his own.
She knew that Mandy would and could do something horrible.
And Selene knew as much as William wanted to save her life, she wanted his saved just as much, so she rolled as he covered her, and they rolled over again.
She heard the explosion of the gun, but only after it happened and not while it happened.
She waited for the jerk of impact from a bullet. Waiting for the pain and the loss that might come with it.
But it didn't come.
She ended up on her back, looking up at William.
Seeing the worry in his eyes and the anguish that she knew were in her own.
"Subdued."