Page 91 of Fracture

Vinnie waited, his breath held, for the word that they could go. It felt like an hour before Paul’s word came through.

“Go. He’s at the back. This is your chance to get inside.”

Joshua yanked the window, one loud squeak the only sound. Vinnie kneeled on the grass to give Joshua a boost inside, then he was gone. Vinnie hoisted himself up and rolled silently into the library.

Vinnie and Joshua positioned themselves behind shelves, knowing it would be easy for someone to see them. They couldn’t see the shooter or hostages yet, but they could hear him.

“What the hell is wrong with those people?” the guy shouted.

“Diversion is working but not calming him down,” Paul said.

“Team one, you need to move,” Damien said.

Vinnie and Joshua exchanged a glance and moved together toward the aisle. Joshua went first, his gun pointed and his steps silent.

Vinnie watched their backs, even though the shooter was believed to be alone.

When they made it to the end of the aisle, they had no cover between them and the shooter. Half shelves filled the center of the library, and from the distance the shooter was, the shelves did nothing to block his view of Vinnie and Joshua.

Joshua signaled to Vinnie he was going to move to the next shelf. Vinnie checked the shooter, who was still watching the diversion, and nodded.

Joshua made it over, and Vinnie followed him. If they were going to get closer, they would be taking a risk with every move they made. But they had to.

Each shelf brought them closer until they had a clean shot. Joshua signaled he was going to talk to the shooter. Vinnie shook his head, but Joshua didn’t back down. Vinnie was the one with more negotiation training, but Joshua had been through a class recently and wanted to test his skills.

Vinnie finally nodded. He positioned himself on the floor, checking he had plenty of range to take a shot if he needed to put the shooter down.

Joshua stood and drew the shooter’s attention to him.

Vinnie watched as the shooter realized Joshua was there. The panic in his eyes. The way he jumped. The recognition of the uniform and the acknowledgment of weapons.

He raised his gun.

Vinnie squeezed the trigger, and the shooter dropped.

“Shooter down,” Paul reported.

Joshua and Vinnie moved forward, guns trained on the shooter.

The man gasped, his fingers twitching.

Vinnie kicked the gun away from the shooter while Joshua kneeled over him and put pressure on the gunshot wound that was going to kill him.

“Is everyone okay?” Vinnie asked, looking at the hostages.

They cowered in fear, hiding the children from the man bleeding to death right in front of them.

The front door opened, and medics and officers raced inside. Two medics went to the shooter, loading him on a stretcher and wheeling him out before the hostages were allowed to leave.

“Is he dead?” one woman asked Vinnie.

Vinnie shook his head. “I don’t know, ma’am, but I’m sorry for what you went through.”

“He said he was going to kill all of us. And if any of us survived, he was going to find us so we couldn’t tell the cops what he did. He killed his wife, her parents, and her sister’s entire family.”

“What?” Vinnie asked.

The woman nodded. She wrung her hands and tears leaked down her cheeks. “That’s what he said. He said he already killed everyone he was supposed to love, and we were nothing to him.”

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