Free Red Velvet Revenge by Jenn McKinlay Page A

balloon vendor whose cart had tipped and was blocking the street.
    The young rodeo queen caught up to the convertible and jumped in through the front window, hauling her big ball gown behind her, not even waiting for the car to stop.
    “What the hell just happened?” Marty asked, looking dumbfounded.
    “Someone shot Slim,” Mel said. She was trying to process it as she said it, but it seemed so unreal. Even having just witnessed it, it was unbelievable.
    A wail of sirens broke through the sound of the panicked crowd. Two squad cars worked their way into the chaos. One stopped and began to manage the flow of people while the other went after the convertible. Mel hoped it was to give it an escort to the hospital.
    She glanced at her friends and noted that they all wore the same slack-jawed expression of shock. Then it occurred to her that although they hadn’t heard any more gunshots, that didn’t mean the shooter wasn’t still out there—and didn’t they make some tasty targets sitting up here on the side of a building.
    “Everyone inside,” she ordered. “Now!”
    Her shout knocked them out of their stupor, and they clambered back into their rooms. Mel latched the door behind them and drew the drapes shut while Angie hurried across the room and opened their door. The men met them in the hall.
    “I can’t believe someone shot Mr. Hazard,” Oz said. He sounded wheezy, as if he wasn’t getting enough air into his lungs. “I’ve never seen anyone get shot before.”
    His bangs were hanging over his eyes in their usual thick curtain, and Mel was worried that he might be going into shock.
    “Don’t freak out, Oz,” she said. “But I need to get a look at you and make sure you’re okay.”
    “I’m okay,” he said. He sounded anything but.
    “Be that as it may,” she said. She reached up and gently brushed the hair out of his eyes with her fingers.
    Oz blinked. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the sudden light or because he had someone’s fingers near his eyes. She stared at his pupils until she was sure they weren’t dilated or rolling back into his head.
    “You have pretty eyes, Oz,” Angie said from behind Mel. “You should show them off more often. I mean, look at the length of your eyelashes. It’s a crime for a dude to have lashes like that.”
    “And they curl on the ends,” Mel said. “Totally unfair.”
    Oz stepped back from Mel and began to frantically smooth his fringe back over his face.
    “Now that we’ve established that Oz is not going to faint, maybe we should think about what we saw right before the shooting,” Tate said. “I’m sure the police will want to know if any of us noticed anything suspicious.”
    “I was looking at Slim,” Mel said.
    “Me, too,” Angie agreed.
    “I was eating,” Oz said. “The last thing I remember was looking at my burger before I took a bite.”
    Marty cleared his throat. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
    “About right?” Mel asked. “What were you looking at, Marty?”
    “The parade,” he said, but he didn’t make eye contact.
    Angie planted herself right in front of him with her hands on her hips. “What part of the parade?”
    “Oh, fine. If you must know, I was looking at the rodeo queen float,” he said. “Those girls have a nice way about them.”
    Angie snorted and turned to Tate, looking as if she was going to say, “Can you believe this,” but he was actively studying the pattern in the carpet beneath his feet. It was too bad for him, because he didn’t see the shot to his upper arm coming.
    “Ouch!” He jerked his head up and rubbed his arm where Angie had slugged him. “What’d you do that for?”
    “For not having your eyes where they belong,” she snapped.
    Mel suspected it had more to do with him ogling other women, but she wisely said nothing.
    “How was I supposed to know that Slim was going to get shot?” he asked.
    “Listen, other than Oz, we were all watching the parade,” Mel said. “It