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teenagers
hanging onto each other was more than enough to make her gag. Just
as she turned to get away from them, a loud boom resonated through
the mall.
    Without thinking, she dropped to the
floor, only half aware of the screams of panic coming from the two
shoppers in the store. She glanced over her shoulder and was
reassured when she saw that Katie and her boyfriend were fine. She
waited to make sure nothing else was going to happen before she
struggled to her feet.
    Mr. Hampton came running out of his
office, his face pale. Motioning to the door, he yelled, “Everyone,
out!”
    Not that Autumn needed to be told to
evacuate, but if Hampton was scared, then this was more serious
than she thought. If Hampton was one thing, it was able to handle
even the toughest of situations in stride. While he assisted one of
the shaking customers, Autumn ran to help another one out the
nearest exit. Kevin held onto Katie, so at least she was taken care
of.
    Once they were outside, a group of
fire trucks and policemen were hurrying to the center of the mall.
People were rushing out of the building as smoke billowed into the
sky. Some people were crying and holding onto each other. Others
were searching for loved ones. Still, others looked on in apparent
shock.
    Autumn shivered. It reminded her of
the day her sister vanished.
    “ Funny how the cops and
firemen got here as soon as they did,” Hampton muttered under his
breath.
    Surprised, she looked at her boss.
“Why do you say that?”
    He glanced at her as if he couldn’t
believe he had to explain it. “That was a bomb, and it just went
off. How could they be that quick?”
    His meaning settled into her rattled
nerves. Her eyes grew wide. “Are you saying this was
staged?”
    He rolled his eyes. “It wouldn’t be
the first time something like this happened, would it?”
    Before she could answer, he went over
to one of the shrieking women in the crowd. He patted her on the
shoulder and did his best to comfort her.
    Autumn could hardly think over the
sirens blaring, the crying people, or the police using bullhorns to
instruct people to evacuate the mall. She tried to come to grips
with what Hampton said as she walked through huddled groups of
people. The smoke continued pouring out of the main entrance,
making her cough as she neared the scene of the
devastation.
    She passed a cop who spoke into his
walkie talkie. “Yeah. Probably a terrorist attack.” And that was
all she caught of that conversation since he hurried past her to
wave an ambulance over to assist a blood-soaked man who was lying
on the ground. The man blinked, and Autumn felt a small comfort in
knowing he was alive.
    She studied the amount of medical
personnel that got out of their ambulances and frowned. The
explosion only happened a few minutes ago, hadn’t it? She checked
her watch. Maybe it had been five. There was no way all these
policemen, firefighters and medical personnel should be here yet.
She hated to agree with Hampton, but something was
wrong.
    As she scanned the chaos
ensuing around her, her gaze happened to fall upon him . Devon. He was there
at the scene, talking into a cell phone and motioning to a cop. She
narrowed her eyes at him. Ignoring the people around her, she
strode in his direction. Not once did she let her focus off of him.
There were way too many people lingering about.
    Shock gave way to anger as she got
closer to him. How dare he be a part of this? Her brows furrowed
and her stomach tightened. For all she knew, he was responsible for
this. Maybe he set off the bomb. No. He didn’t look like the type.
Most likely, he gave the orders and someone else did the dirty
work.
    By the time she reached him, he was
still on the phone. His back was to her as he walked back to the
mall. She thought he was going to go under the police tape that two
men were putting up to secure off the entrance, but he didn’t.
Instead, he veered around it and made his way to the other side of
the explosion.