Read Online Bear's Kiss (Bear Heat Book 2) by Natalie Kristen - Free Book Online Page B

toddlers.
    Caleb swung his gaze up and
saw the glint of a sniper scope from the top of a tall building.
    Baxter followed his gaze and
immediately crouched and took aim.
    A little girl was making her
way purposefully towards the hotdog stand with her younger brother.
Caleb moved quickly to intercept them.
    “Excuse me, sir, but
you're blocking my way.” The girl frowned up at Caleb. “I'd
like to get a hotdog for my brother.”
    “Sorry, sweetheart, but
the hotdog man is busy right now. He won't be selling any hotdogs,”
Caleb said tersely, crouching so that he could look them in the eye.
    “How do you know?
You're just a construction guy, not the hotdog man,” the girl
answered indignantly, staring at his construction worker vest and
hard hat.
    “Go back to your Mom.
There are no hotdogs. Listen to me. You have to move away now.”
    “But...”
    There was a loud bang and
Caleb pushed the children away as the hotdog cart overturned behind
him. Twisting round, Caleb cursed under his breath when he saw that
the sniper had hit the side of the cart and was now taking aim at the
hotdog vendor. But the hotdog man was no sitting duck. He was armed
and ready.
    Baxter's hotdog vendor
costume might be bright and cheery, but his face was a mask of grim
determination and concentration.
    People started to shout and
scream at the sight of the hotdog man aiming his rifle at the top of
a nearby building.
    Baxter didn't lose his cool
and his concentration through all the noise and commotion around him.
    He had to hit his target, or
the sniper would take him out with his next shot.
    Baxter squeezed the trigger
just as another bullet whizzed past his cheek.
    The sniper toppled from his
perch on top of the ten-story building and fell to the street below.
    Screams, panic and chaos
erupted.
    Caleb was already sprinting
towards the stage, his gun out.
    “Get down,” he
yelled to the Mayor, who was being hurried across the stage by the
Police Commissioner and a bevy of bodyguards and police officers.
“Stop moving! Just get down!”
    A shot rang out just as the
Mayor dropped to the floor.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

    Prisha gasped as the hotdog
cart rolled over and clattered noisily. The hotdog man was crouched
behind the overturned cart, but he wasn't holding a ketchup bottle.
In his hands was a deadly rifle.
    The hotdog man fired. People
screamed and stampeded, pushing and colliding and falling.
    Prisha couldn't see past the
crush of bodies.
    Everything was just happening
so fast.
    Prisha looked up and saw
Caleb rushing up the stage, his gun trained on his target.
“Don't...” he yelled, just as a shot exploded.
    A young police officer who
appeared to have been ushering the Mayor and the Police Commissioner
to safety had suddenly pulled out his gun and turned his weapon
towards the Mayor.
    The police officer fired
once, then took aim again.
    A second shot rang out.
    The police officer staggered
back. But even with a bullet in his shoulder, he tried to complete
his suicide mission.
    The man lifted his gun and
tried to shoot the Mayor again.
    But Caleb tackled him and
knocked the gun out of his hand.
    Against the crush of shoving,
squirming bodies, Prisha felt herself being yanked back.
    Tom stepped forward, putting
himself between her and Ray Shapez. His gun was out, and it was
pressed to the back of Ray's head.
    Prisha's eyes bugged. What
was happening? What was Tom doing? Why was he holding a gun to his
boss's head—if Ray was indeed his boss? Just...who was Tom
working for?
    Prisha felt hands on her
elbows and she jerked round to see herself flanked by two men in
colorful Hawaiian shirts.
    “This way, please,
Ma'am,” one of the men muttered as he showed her his police
badge. “You okay?”
    Prisha nodded shakily and
followed the two plainclothes policemen towards a waiting ambulance.
    She turned to see a group of
uniformed officers surround Ray Shapez and Tom. But only Ray was
handcuffed and taken into custody. Tom, it appeared, was