Jon left the vehicle and opened the car door for her. Before she exited, he noticed a man walking toward the building, but unlike the other students, this one wore all camo and had a girl in his grasp. Something flashed, and Jon recognized the item -- a gun. Fuck. The jerk had a gun to the young woman’s head. “Get back.” He shoved Ripley back into the car and slammed the door. “Gun.”

“Fuck.” Natty threw the car into gear.

Students ducked, and a few ran screaming. The man held the gun up and shot toward the sky. The thunder of the shots split the air. Jon kept his weapon concealed, but held up his hands.

“Don’t try it, old man,” the guy with the gun shouted. He held the revolver to the young woman’s head. “I will shoot her.”

“Stop.” Jon waited for Natty to speed away, then inched up to the man.

The gunman shot at the retreating car. “Bring him back. I want to bag a Jordan.”

“Then let her go.” Jon kept his hands up. He wanted to disarm the man, but there were too many witnesses. There were also too many blind spots and tall buildings. If the man had accomplices, they could be anywhere. He growled. Who needed to have so many retaining walls and huge fucking juniper bushes? Jesus.

“I’m not doing a Goddamn thing you say.” The man pressed the revolver to the woman’s head.

Where in the hell were the police? Someone had to have called them by now. Natty should’ve, if no one else had. Even the campus cops would be better than nothing. “You don’t want to do this,” Jon said.

“Want to bet?” The man yanked on the woman, holding her tight to his chest. “I’ll fucking destroy her.”

Jon growled again. The young woman couldn’t be more than twenty-one. She had her whole life ahead of her. Panic shimmered in her green eyes. She paled and trembled.

“Help me,” the girl said. “Please?”