Page 17 of Toxic Apple Turnovers
“I said get down!”
Both Noah and I cautiously crouch to our knees.
I count out six of them—six masked men parading around as adorably frightening piglets. Two of them jump over the counter and hustle the tellers into the safe, while two others come around to the woman quivering next to me and—well,me.
“Take off the jewelry,” one of them shouts, shoving a bag my way.
A breath hitches in my throat as I do my best to invert that giant rock on my finger with my thumb. There is no way I’m going to give this lunatic Everett’s mother’s ring. Both Everett and his mother might be moved to kill me.
“I saidnow!” He tips his head to the side, and his mask dislodges just enough for me to see something tattooed along the side of his neck, a diamond pattern of some sort. His skin looks pink around the edges. He jabs the butt of his gun to my shoulder.
“Lottie!” Noah barks and I glance over to find a gunman trained right over him—and wisely so. Noah is packing heat himself, but they don’t know that. They just figure he’s the strongest person in the room.
A spray of starlight bursts into the vicinity as a magnificent tiger I’ve grown to love jumps in through the glass window. Beastie.
Beastie is an enormous white and gray striped exotic Bengal tiger with menacing blue eyes. Okay, so he’s menacing in general, but he is equally majestic.
“Lottie, don’t move,” Beastie growls it out as he steps around the goon with a gun bent on butting it against my shoulder. “He’s a killer. I can smell it on him.”
A tiny squeal of terror comes from me.
Two masked men hop back over the counter with a couple of canvas totes, and my stomach churns. The masked man in front of me bolts toward the door, and I breathe a sigh of relief.
The ghost of Nell appears, then the ghost of Maximillian Finmore. Max was here a few months back. He’s a handsome college man who was murdered by way of manure. That’s about as tragic and stinky as it gets.
“I’ll do my best to stop them!” Nell shouts as she chases them to the door.
I want to screamno. For heaven’s sake, I want them out of my face with their hostile weaponry and terrifying commands.
Maximillian crouches down low.
“Incoming,” he pants just as another masked man descends upon me.
“Dang!” the masked man grunts.
This little piggy yanks my left hand forward and slips off my ring so easily you’d think that it voluntarily fled my finger.
Max does his best to snatch it back, but the masked man catches it midair.
He runs to the door with the rest of his crew. “You missed some serious ice, dude.” He smacks the first piglet that held me at gunpoint on the back of the head.
And then just as quickly as they came, they’re gone.
Nell shouts a salty tirade as she glides right through the door as if she was on their tail.
Noah bounces to his feet and takes off after them.
“Noah!” I cry out, but it’s too late. He’s out the door and on the chase.
I help the woman next to me up as the tellers come around and make sure everyone is safe.
Maximillian places a hand over my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lottie. I’m sorry there wasn’t anything we could do to stop them.”
“Max.” I pull him in, quickly trying to play it off as if I were straightening my clothes. “Why are you all here if you can’t be of any help? No offense, but I’m guessing paradise is—well, paradise.”
“You got that right.” Max has a boyish innocence about him, something about that rounded jaw and those full cheeks that give him an affable appeal. “But you’re wrong about us not being able to help you. We might not have been able to interfere with the homicide investigations, but that’s not what we’re here for.”
“What are you here for?”