by Jove Belle
“Five guys,” Bart whispered.
Tor stood on the other side of the door, unable to see, but close enough for Sera to draw comfort from her presence. She slipped her hand into Tor’s and held it. She was past being distracted by her and just wanted the physical reminder of her safety.
Sera nodded, but mentally questioned where Craig landed on the scale of friend or foe.
“Could be worse, I suppose,” Bart mused.
“What do you mean?”
“Seven masked robbers walked into the bank. One of you changed sides and another is dead. So, it could be seven instead of five.”
Sera glanced over at Reg. Her gag reflex flared up again, but she was able to control it this time. “True.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“Do you think you could lead the group toward the elevator? I’ll cover you from the rear.”
He evaluated their path. “What do I do when I get to the last workstation?”
“Wait there for the distraction.”
“A distraction?”
“They’re going to bring in a helicopter.”
Bart looked skeptical. “You really think they’ll leave the elevator unguarded for that?”
“No, but it will get their attention. I’ll help with the rest.” She glanced down at her gun. She didn’t want to vocalize her plan because it would alarm Tor. Also, she still wasn’t completely sure what her plan was, but waiting here wasn’t an option. They’d all end up dead if they didn’t move. And, frankly, nothing got people moving like random bursts of gunfire.
Bart held out the MAC-11. “This is better for suppressive fire.”
She took it and gave him Reg’s handgun. She’d rather have two .40s, but Bart was right. And the grip on Reg’s gun really was too big for her to use it with any accuracy. Bart gave her a tight nod and went to check on the rest of the group.
“You think this will really work?” Tor asked.
Sera answered without meeting her gaze. “It has to.”
Bart returned. “We’re ready.”
“Good luck.”
Bart set out, crawling from desk to desk with the employees trailing behind him one by one.
Tor stayed with Sera, offering encouragement to each person as they set out. She gave a brisk hug to a young girl who shook so badly Sera worried she might vibrate something loose. When only the two of them remained, Sera squeezed Tor’s hand and then let it go.
“You’re up.”
“No. I’ll go when you do.”
“Don’t be stubborn, Tor. I need you safely on that elevator.”
“Yes, and I need the same thing for you, but we both know that’s not what you’re going to do.”
“Please.” Sera stared into Tor’s eyes, giving herself one more moment to appreciate the beauty before her. She wanted to forget all about the armed terrorists and focus only on Tor, on the connection they shared that was still strong after eleven years of separation. But she couldn’t do that. If she wanted even the slightest chance to create a future together, she needed to get Tor on that elevator and safely out of the building along with the others.
Tor kissed her gently, and a tear slid down her face. “I can’t.”
Sera shook her head. God, she wanted to give in, to keep Tor with her where she would be able to personally protect her, to make sure she was safe. As much as she wanted that, however, she knew it was an impossible scenario. The only way she could really make sure Tor would be all right was to get her out of the building completely.
“You have to. There’s no other way.”
“I can help you. I know the bank.”
“No. Tor, I’m not arguing with you about this. You have to go.” The longer she talked, the more urgent her words became until the whisper she’d been using came out strained and far louder than she wanted.
Tor finally relented. “Okay.”
Sera squeezed Tor’s hand tight, reluctant to release her hold. If she let go now, when was the next time she’d be able to feel Tor’s fingers entwined with hers? The logic of sending Tor out without her was flawless. Getting her heart to listen was proving more elusive. Finally, she let go, letting her hand slip out of Tor’s grip to hang at her side.
“Keep your head down.”
Tor nodded, then crawled away to join the group.
Sera focused on the men at the main entrance. She’d be happier if she had a suppressor for the gun. That way the sound of gunfire wouldn’t give away her position too quickly. As it was, she still had surprise and a high marksman rating on her side. She waited for Tor to reach the group, then for Bart to signal he was ready.
She moved to the opposite side, as close as she could get to the entrance to the maintenance hall while still remaining shielded from view. The farther she moved toward her goal, the maintenance hall, the more of the lobby came into view. A few moments later, she heard the distinct sound of a rotary blade. The helicopter was closing in on their location.
“Wow. They actually delivered the helicopter,” one man said. She was close enough now that she could hear him clearly.
Without waiting for anyone to respond, Sera took careful aim at the gunman standing closest to the front entrance. He was positioned farthest from her and would be the hardest to hit once they all started moving, but was a pretty simple target standing still. She pulled off two quick rounds, hitting the man twice squarely in the chest. As he fell, she dropped down behind the desk.
First there was shouting, then cursing, then the sounds of running and general chaos. She stayed low and waited.
She poked her head around the side of the counter. The men were clustered around the fallen body. This time she used the MAC-11 and aimed for the group in general, not focusing on anyone person. She pulled the trigger one time and released a short burst.
“Goddamn it, shoot her.” Marcus stood in the same spot, the phone dangling in one hand, the detonator in the other, glaring at her. His eyes held a terrifying demonic sheen.
Sera pulled her head back just as bullets ripped through the wooden sides of the workstation. She pressed herself to the floor. Gunfire came in short, fast bursts, too sporadic for her to time the rhythm. She stuck the MAC-11 out the side of the workstation and fired blindly, all the while watching as Bart guided the others onto the elevator. At this point, she didn’t need accuracy. Her only priority was to keep the men focused on her.
She kept track of her rounds as much as possible. She fired two rounds from the .40, leaving nine more until she needed to reload. There was no way to track the MAC-11, but with the way it sped through bullets, she expected to hear the telltale click of an empty magazine at any moment. One by one, the hostages entered the elevator until the only person left was Tor.
Sera held her breath as she peered around the desk to make sure the gunmen hadn’t noticed.
“What the hell?” Marcus cursed and pointed at the elevator. “Stop them.”
Sera shot off another burst, catching one of the guys in the shoulder. The MAC-11, as predicted, ran out of ammo. She dropped it and switched back to her Glock. She heard the rapid fire of an automatic weapon, followed by three single-round shots that was probably Bart. It wouldn’t make sense for the others to use the smaller weapon when they all had much larger-caliber guns in their hands. When she looked again, the doors to the elevator were just sliding shut.
Sera said “thank you” under her breath to no one in particular, then fired three rounds toward Marcus. She was so very grateful that Tor, and the other hostages, were out of the line of fire, but had to make sure Marcus didn’t have time to detonate the bomb on the elevator. If she kept him distracted, hopefully he wouldn’t think of it. She heard the splintering of wood as her bullets hit the desk in front of Marcus, followed by him swearing loudly. She fired two more rounds and started toward the maintenance corridor. She still needed to get through that door and find the explosive devices.
She heard someone cry out in pain. A woman. And bone-jarring p
anic replaced all the relief she’d felt. Another cry from the woman confirmed Sera’s worst fear. She peeked up over the top of the desk and had to swallow the urge to vomit.
They had Tor.
*
Tor shook all over, partially out of fear, but mostly out of anger. Anger at these men for invading her bank, for killing people she loved. Anger at Sera for disappearing for over a decade only to reappear in the middle of all this. Anger at herself for being half a step too slow, for being in reach when the man grabbed blindly.
She was lucky she hadn’t been shot during the melee, but nothing about this made her feel lucky. Everything had happened so fast. As she reached the elevator, she felt a hand on her arm yanking her backward. Then Bart was pointing his gun straight at her—something that had happened too many times today. He motioned down and yelled something she didn’t understand. She dropped to the floor. The shots he fired had gone over the top of her and into the man holding on to her arm. He’d collapsed on top of her, pinning her to the ground in an expanding pool of blood as the elevator doors slid shut in front of her.
Another set of hands pulled her up into a standing position, and she felt the cold press of a gun barrel at her temple. She’d been neutral on the issue of gun control prior to today, but at this point, she was really beginning to hate the things.
The smell of copper permeated the air, and she realized the man holding her was bleeding from his shoulder. His grip was far too strong for someone with a bullet wound. She squirmed to get away and he tightened his hold. He hissed in her ear and pressed the gun harder against her head. “Stop! Or I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Sera?” Marcus called out in a singsong voice as if he was enjoying this.
Tor struggled to understand a belief set that dictated other people had to die in order to prove a point, but there was a difference between committing a necessary evil and enjoying it. The realization that Marcus was taking pleasure in the suffering of those around him made Tor want to kick him in the nuts. At some point, she really hoped she’d get the chance to do that.
Not surprisingly, Sera didn’t answer. Marcus called her name again.
“Does your silence mean you don’t care if I kill her? Funny, I got the impression you cared about her more than that. Pity.” Marcus was taunting Sera, and Tor hoped she wouldn’t fall for it. Regardless of Tor being taken captive—which wasn’t all that different from her situation all morning—Sera had a more important job than rescuing her.
“Have it your way.” Marcus nodded toward the man standing next to her.
Everything slowed down. Instead of the crazy hyped rush of the rest of the day, this moment stretched out impossibly. She felt his exhale of breath, an answering nod as his cheek bumped into her head with the motion, but then his shoulders and arms tensed. Before he could pull the trigger, a burst of gunshots ripped through the bank. The sound was too loud and echoed off the walls, bouncing off the marble and making it impossible to tell where it came from. The plate holding Minnie’s cookies shattered, and bits of snickerdoodle hazed the air.
The man holding her dropped to his knees, dragging her down with him. His mouth and eyes were open wide in surprise as he crumpled to the floor. Through the flurry of gunfire, she heard Sera yelling, “Run!”
Tor staggered forward and flailed through the first few steps as bullets flew around her. She covered her head and sped toward the door to the service hall.
“Stop her!” Marcus no longer sounded like he was having fun. His voice was strained with hysteria, the volume pitched too loud, too screechy for a man in control of himself.
Through it all, she heard Sera calling her forward, urging her to run faster, to come to her. She pushed herself, her body, ignoring her instinct to hide until it was all over. She needed to get to Sera.
*
Sera watched in horror as Tor ran full-out through the fray of bullets. She laid down cover fire, pinning Marcus low to the ground so he couldn’t actually take aim, but there was so much. She couldn’t find Craig and had no idea who had shot Keith. She’d frozen, watching as he curled his finger tighter on the trigger, then before she could get a clear shot, he’d fallen to the ground with the loud report of gunfire echoing in the air.
She called out to Tor, encouraging her, begging her to run faster, to make it to her safely. She didn’t care that her position was compromised the second she opened her mouth. If Tor died here today, Marcus was welcome to shoot her at the same time.
Tor charged forward and Sera broke from her cover at the desk for the side door. She jerked it open and held her breath as she waited for Tor to make her way to her. Tor cleared the door and Sera slammed it shut behind her. She engaged the lock and ran down the hall, pulling Tor behind her and knocking over filing cabinets as she went. Her side blazed with pain with each step.
She wanted to stop, to pull Tor into her arms and check every inch of her to make sure she was safe. All she could think about was getting Tor to safety.
The first door they passed was labeled HVAC. Just as Sera pulled the door open, she heard a loud explosion and the building rumbled. Debris fell from the ceiling and dust rose around them. Tor coughed and clung to her. Sera waited. If one of the major charges had detonated, the building would have come down on top of them. She braced herself, but the building stayed up. She’d never been inside an exploding building before, but the noise seemed too quiet, too contained.
“What was that?” Tor clung to her side, her body tense and breathing hard.
“It sounded like an explosion.”
“I expected it to be bigger.”
“Me, too.” Sera held Tor and listened. If it wasn’t one of the main charges, it had to have been the one on the elevator, but she didn’t want to tell Tor. There was no reason to alarm her when it was entirely possible the others had made it out of the building. “Maybe it was something else?”
“Maybe.” Tor sounded skeptical. “What do we do now?”
“Find the bombs.”
Sera guided Tor deeper into the room, but she couldn’t shake the question in her mind. What had Marcus done?
Chapter Fifteen
Twelve Years Earlier
Sera trudged up the stairs to the apartment she shared with Tor. Her book bag was drenched with rain, making it weigh about a thousand times more than it normally did, and it took far too much effort to keep her feet moving forward. The only thing that prevented her from waiting out the rain after her abnormal-psych lecture was the thought of Tor at home without her. That drove her out into the weather and kept her moving toward home through every miserable, rain-soaked step.
She hated this time of year, when the weather couldn’t decide between summer and winter. One day she was comfortable wearing shorts and a tank top, and the next she’d freeze without a turtleneck and a winter parka. For fun, the sky alternated between sunshine, angry, cold rain, and snow. Some people loved fall, but she thought the weather was a page straight out of Armageddon.
Finally, she made it to her apartment. The door was unlocked, which was unusual for Tor. She dropped her bag just inside the door with a heavy sigh.
“Tor? Are you here? You won’t believe the day I had.” She stripped off her jacket and draped it over a kitchen chair to dry. Next she pulled off her shirt, scrubbing her face dry with the fabric and continuing her journey into the house wearing only her sports bra. “First, Rincon gave us a pop quiz, the bastard. Then some douche swiped my lunch when I looked away for three seconds—”
Sera entered the living room to find Tor standing there with an older man that she’d never met before. Tor’s eyes were wide with panic and her body was tense. None of it, however, made Sera think Tor was in danger. Sera tilted her head to the side, watching Tor carefully and trying to understand why she was so upset. She tossed her shirt toward their bedroom but didn’t look to see if it made it.
“Tor?”
“Sera, you’re home early.” Tor’s voice was rigid and frayed.
“Roommate.” Tor literally yelled the word, then repeated it again after she swallowed heavily. “Sera is my roommate.”
The man had a nice solid handshake, balanced by the critical evaluation in his eyes. “Nice to meet you, Sera. I’m Thomas Jewel. Tor’s father.”
Sera’s smile froze in place. She shook his hand and said “Nice to meet you” reflexively. Why was Tor’s father here? And why hadn’t Tor told her he was coming? And what was the roommate thing about?
After a moment of awkward silence as she waited for Tor to take up the conversation, to make small talk like she always did to ease people through tense social settings, she realized no intervention was coming. She’d obviously interrupted their conversation, and Tor didn’t want her here any more than her father did.
She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Well, I’ll let you two get back to your visit. Sorry to interrupt.”
Thomas said the right things, telling her not to be silly and that he was glad to have met her. Tor remained silent as Sera backed out of the room to escape to the bedroom.
Sera took a quick shower. It warmed her up after her walk from class to their apartment in the rain. Also, she figured that would give Tor time to wrap things up. If Tor didn’t want her to join them, she wouldn’t make it worse by eavesdropping like a stalker. The noise of the shower made sure that was impossible.