“They’re just worried. Everything will calm down.”
Finn whirled around, not even noticing the rest of the team had trooped in. “Worried,” he spat. “She’s only worried about herself. That photo of my dad? It’s been buried in a box in the shed for ten years. It was the only one I could save from the trash. That’s what she thought of him, and her opinion of me hasn’t ever been any better.”
Fuck, he had to get out of here. Finn ignored everyone and pushed past Gael. He’d had enough. First Talon and now his mom. He was going to get his thirty dollars and get drunk. Maybe if he turned up at the bank, he would be able to get some cash. Fuck the job. He was going to lose it anyway.
TALON HELD his hand up as Vance took a step after Finn. “Let him go. We can catch up to him later.”
Gregory appeared at the door and instantly tossed the vests he was holding to Gael and Vance. “They will fit,” he said sternly and looked around. “Where’s Finn?”
“Running home to Mommy, I expect,” Eli drawled.
Talon opened his mouth to tell Eli to shut the fuck up when Gregory frowned, turned, and shut the door behind him.
“Sit down,” he barked. “I want to tell you a little about Finlay Mayer.” Everyone looked at Gregory in surprise, but they all sat on the benches in front of the lockers. “His father and my elder brother served together in ’Nam. Around three years ago, my brother got a letter from Finn’s dad. Said he was going to try out for the FBI, but that his older brother would deliberately try to mess it up for him on the interviews because he was a dick and wouldn’t want Finn bettering himself. He never asked for any favors from either of us other than to ignore the reference. He hadn’t realized that my brother no longer worked at Quantico.” Gregory sat and loosened his tie. “Finn’s dyslexic. He’s never been formally diagnosed, but his file also contains a letter from his college English teacher urging us to look past his grades. Apparently she’d done an IQ test on him without Finn knowing what it was. He scored 133.”
Gael whistled. “That’s impressive.”
Talon almost smiled, but then remembered he wasn’t supposed to care one way or the other.
“I had a ton of applications I could have chosen from.” Gregory paused. “I’ll admit the letter made me curious enough to look, and, well, why not? There are too many applicants at Quantico for them to take an outside chance. Finn knows this.”
“You mean he’s least likely to make waves because he knows this is his only chance,” Talon said flatly.
“Not just that. He’s a poster boy for small-town America. Unthreatening. Polite. Eager. The public would lap him up.”
“Think Captain America before he went badass.” Vance grinned.
“So you just want him for the press?” Sawyer asked.
“No. Absolutely not. I still firmly believe the partnership is the only way to go.” Gregory looked carefully at everyone. “At some point the world is going to find out your abilities are evolving.”
Talon looked up sharply, and Gregory smiled.
“You thought I didn’t know? You thought I just wouldn’t question the bullet not even causing a bruise on Gael? I know you have things you only share with each other, and I kind of understand that. But you have to believe me when I say this is the only way to go. Get the public on your side, and they won’t be able to lock any of you away in a lab.” Gregory grinned. “Hell, they’ll be wanting autographs.”
He paused and stood. “I’ll handle the press today. I think you need to go find Finn and go do those interviews Talon briefed me on this morning. The regular cops haven’t uncovered anything else about Oliver’s disappearance. He seems to have just vanished. Oh, and unofficially I hear the Vice President is making noises about wanting to meet you.”
Talon blinked in astonishment as the locker door swung shut behind Gregory.
“Shit,” Gael said. “I feel lousy now.”
“It’s not just on you, Gael,” Eli said. “He turned down going for a drink the other night. He can’t be that keen on being part of the team.”
Talon firmed his lips. Yeah, and then he happily drank beer with Drew.
“Actually,” Sawyer said slowly, “much as I hate to give the guy any credit, I think it’s simpler than that. I don’t think he’s got any money.”
Talon looked up, but Vance beat him to it. “What do you mean, he’s got no money?”
“I was upstairs filling in some requisition forms, and Finn started to ask Gregory about his pay. He said the flights getting here wiped him out.”
“But he would have got that back in expenses, surely.” Gael looked at Talon, and Talon squirmed. Gael sighed. “Let me guess. You’ve never told him about claiming expenses.”
“I’m not some fucking secretary,” Talon snapped. “Edwards in payroll would have seen to that.”
“When?” Gael exclaimed. “I’m willing to bet today was the first time he’s even seen the main office. How the fuck was he supposed to know?”
Talon stood and paced. “Why the fuck is it my responsibility to tell him?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Gael thundered. “How about because you’re the team leader? How about because you’re supposed to be his fucking partner?”
Talon whirled around, the words dying on his lips. He brought his fist hard into one of the locker doors, and it immediately crumpled. Shit. Gael was right. He remembered the bag Finn had brought and the old suit he was wearing. Every time he saw him, he seemed to be doing laundry. He never thought it was because he didn’t have any clothes. He blinked. What the hell was he doing for food? Guilt slammed into him. He’d been fighting that feeling since he left him that morning, and that had nothing whatsoever to do with food. It had everything to do with what else they shared.
He looked at Vance. “Vance, try to get him on the phone. Find out where he is. We’re all gonna take him out for food and then split up. We’ll meet back here later.” He looked at Gael. “You’re right.”
Gael grinned. “Of course I am.”
FINN GLANCED down at the gas gauge on his car. Shit, it was nearly empty as well. This was all kinds of messed up, and he’d noticed the gas prices in Tampa weren’t as cheap as back home.
Home. If seeing that video of his mom told him anything, it was that he was never going back there, ever. Maybe if he went in the bank with his ID, they’d give him an advance on his check without waiting for it to clear. He needed to find a job, and he needed to find somewhere cheap to live. He’d noticed a local branch of his bank when they drove down Kennedy yesterday, so at least he knew where it was. He found parking down the street from First National. It was an hour maximum stay, but he doubted he’d be anything like that long. He wasn’t going to discuss his finances today. He knew he’d need to do all that, but he just wanted to get some cash. His stomach growled, and he thought longingly of Betty’s breakfast platter. Maybe he could get a job there waiting tables. They could always pay him in food.
And it was raining. Wonderful. Finn sighed. Why was his life always so full of crap?
The question echoed around his head for a few seconds until he sighed again. It was ridiculous. He was fit, healthy, reasonably intelligent, and more than capable of holding down a decent job. There were a ton of others far worse off than him, and he needed to grow the fuck up and stop feeling sorry for himself. Something would turn up.
Finn blinked as an idea came to him. He had no intention of going back anywhere near his brother, and he was really liking the whole Florida vibe. Just because he wasn’t going to be an agent didn’t mean he couldn’t look at the local sheriff’s department. Agent Gregory had been cool with him. He bet if he asked, Gregory would give him a recommendation, and there was the sergeant from yesterday.
Finn smiled a little as he pushed open the doors to the bank and joined the line. There was a mom pushing a crying baby in a stroller in front of him. She was clutching the arm of an older child who looked about eight or nine. He had a baseball cap tugged down his f
ace.
A security guard stepped forward and pointed to a sign. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but the boy will have to remove his cap.”
Finn looked at the wall and noticed the sign. It used to request that any motorcycle helmets were removed, but now it seemed they included any sort of head gear that could hide people’s faces. Finn sighed. He knew what that was for: enhanced.
The kid ducked his head farther down into his neck, and his mom pulled him closer, almost defensively.
Every hair on Finn’s neck stood. He took a step forward, and immediately the security guard noticed and unholstered his weapon.
What the fuck? Finn froze. How was he any threat? “Whoa there.” Finn immediately put his hands up.
The guard swiped a hand across his forehead and pointed to the kid. “Cap off now.”
The mom drew the child closer. “I’m sorry, sir. He’s shy. We’ll leave.” And she tried to turn around the stroller with the crying baby.
“No.” The guard grabbed the kid’s arm and swiped the cap off.
The few people who were in the bank stopped to watch in fascination. The guard looked horrified, as if his worst fear had come to fruition. Finn glanced at the boy’s face, knowing exactly what he was going to see. Dark brown spiky hair and brown eyes brimming with tears, and a red mark under the left one. The mom tried to get the stroller past the guard, but he was blocking it.
“Sir,” Finn said again with some mad idea about showing his ID to get the guy to calm down. The guard was sweating profusely, which was ridiculous because the air was on full.
Finn realized what an insane thought that was when, twenty seconds later, he was facedown on the floor with a shotgun pressed into his cheek, listening to the screams around him and the gunfire that preceded it.
He also had the insane thought that they were pretty dumb bank robbers, because the guard had fired at the ceiling as soon as three other guys walked in instead of quietly locking the doors. The guard was obviously in on it and panicked. Finn wanted to shake his head at their stupidity. Waving the guns around would have gotten them as much cooperation, but a lot less police attention. He knew someone would have heard the gunshots and called 911.
Finn breathed through his nose, trying to keep calm while the bank staff were dragged out with the customers. The boy was crying along with the baby, and Finn wanted to get closer to him to help.
A lanky guy wearing a ski mask dragged Finn to his feet, immediately patted him down, and took out his wallet.
Finn suddenly realized it was going to get a whole lot worse.
The guy opened his wallet. “Who the fuck are you?” he screamed at Finn. He looked at his friends. “He’s a cop. He’s got ID.”
A bigger guy marched over and snatched Finn’s wallet out of the first guy’s hand. “Fuck, he’s not a cop. He’s a fed.” He threw Finn’s wallet across the floor in disgust, turned around, and pushed the guard into Finn.
Finn tried to stay on his feet. “I—” Pain exploded in his jaw and his legs buckled. Fuck, the guy had hit him.
“I ask the fucking questions!” the bigger guy screamed, and Finn saw the first one wince at the second one’s shouting. Through his pain haze, he registered guy number two was definitely in charge.
“Then we need to get out of here,” the first guy shouted, panicked. “They’ll have heard the gunfire.”
“Are you kidding me? After all it’s taken to get our man down here?”
Finn dropped in a heap.
“Dave, the cops will be here soon,” the first guy whined, and the second one marched over.
“No fucking names,” he growled, turning his own gun on the cowering customers.
Finn wanted to help, but it was all he could do to stay conscious.
The one called Dave motioned with his gun. “Everyone get on the floor, hands behind your heads.” Finn started to comply but was hoisted up again. “Not you. You come with me.” He nodded to the other gunman to follow, the one Finn noted was just standing silently. He carried a gun but wasn’t waving it around like the other two.
“You two watch them,” Dave said, and the security guard and the first guy held guns over the customers and staff.
Finn stumbled but kept his head down while he was pushed toward where he assumed the safe was. The guy gripping his arm nodded to the smaller one. Finn gazed at the third guy in the mask. He was quiet, and he seemed to be staring at Finn.
“Go do your shit,” Dave shouted. “You know what will happen if you don’t.”
That caught Finn’s attention. The quieter guy was being forced?
He walked up to the safe and shakily put out a hand. Finn couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The bank was open, so that meant the huge safe door was unlocked and open wide. There was an internally locked gate with black metal railings. The gate groaned as if it were under some unseen pressure, and with a loud click, the gate swung inward. Finn stared in shock at the guy. He was enhanced. He must be. He was willing to bet the mask wasn’t just hiding his identity—it was also hiding a mark.
“Dave, Dave!” The other guy rushed into the room, but Finn didn’t have to be told what was wrong. They could all hear the sirens.
Crap. Now what was going to happen?
Chapter Fourteen
“JUST GOES to voice mail,” Vance said in frustration. “Maybe he’s turned it off?”
“He knows better than that,” Talon countered.
“I don’t know, boss,” Sawyer said. “He was pretty pissed when he left.”
Talon pulled down his T-shirt. “Let’s head over to his place. It’s likely he’s just gone straight there anyway.” Talon was running out of ideas as to what to do with Finn. He was an absolute joy last night. He mulled the word over in his mind. Joy? He didn’t think he’d ever used that word in his life, and he had no idea where he had come up with it to use for Finn. He paused as he fastened his pants. Yeah, he did. It was that jubilant, bubbly feeling he’d gotten last night. Unwrapping Finn was like unwrapping a birthday present as a kid.
Except better—way better. Talon grabbed his keys and wallet and took a step just as the locker door opened.
It was Drew. “Gregory needs you in the command center ASAP.”
They all glanced at each other, but it was the urgency in Drew’s voice that kept them silent. Talon jogged out of the room, sickness swirling in his gut. He had no idea why, but he knew something was very wrong.
Talon and the others ignored the stares for the second time that day as they rushed through the main offices. The front office had about ten telephone and computer terminals—everything to run any joint operation from. He looked at the large TV feed as they walked in. There was a police lieutenant on a video feed talking to Gregory. Gregory paused the monitor as they all trooped in.
“We’ve got a hostage situation at the downtown First National Bank. We have no reason to think there are any enhanced down there, but I’ve been asked for your input.” Gregory nearly rubbed his hands in glee. “This is outstanding. What happened yesterday has caused the lieutenant to reach out. I can get regular SWAT, but they’ve asked for you.” Gregory paused, realizing what he had said. He had the grace to look embarrassed.
Talon paused and glanced at Vance. “We’ll go get into uniform.”
“What about Finn?” Gael asked.
“Vance, keep trying to get him on the phone. If he hears about this, he may come back anyway.”
They rushed back through the office, heading for the locker room once more.
“What do you think they’ll need us to do, boss?” Eli asked.
“I’m not sure,” Talon admitted, and then he paused when they got into the locker room. “But this is our chance, guys. We’ve trained for this. Let’s go see what the lieutenant has to say first.”
TALON PARKED his truck in the same place as yesterday with an ominous feeling of déjà vu. He blocked off the street, but was pleased to see around four times as many cops as there were the day before.
He got out and saw two cops walking toward him. He stood respectfully, recognizing the lieutenant as he neared him. The guy put his hand out. “Agent Valdez? My sergeant had good things to say about you yesterday, and I saw the video myself. Name’s Dobbs.”
Talon shook hands. “Do we have any indication that there are enhanced involved?”
“No.” Dobbs paused. “But we have reason to believe this is the same gang that struck in Miami and in Atlanta last month. I wasn’t told you were exclusive to enhanced activities only.”
Talon shook his head. “No, that’s right. Our A-SAC was especially keen to help.”
The lieutenant nodded, visibly relieved. “Our negotiator is on his way, although as yet, there has been no communication.”
Talon nodded. “Cameras?”
“Disabled nearly immediately. It shows them entering and a security guard firing at the ceiling, people panicking. There seemed to be a little altercation between the bank’s security guard and a child, and we’re a little worried about one of the hostages. He got involved in whatever was going on with the kid and the security guard just before three men in masks ran in. They examined wallets and took cell phones straight away, but they didn’t like what was in the guy’s who was talking to the guard. They brought the guy to the floor and shoved a shotgun in his face.”
Talon’s ears pricked up. “Was he in uniform?”
The lieutenant shook his head. “To be honest he looked like a college kid. He was wearing a Superman T-shirt.”
Talon heard the gasp from his team as he froze. No, surely not. Talon’s heart sped up.
“What is it?” the lieutenant asked.
“One of my team fits that description,” Talon said carefully, refusing to respond to the fear churning his gut.
“Come with me to see the feed,” the lieutenant said immediately.
“Boss,” Sawyer whispered.
Talon shook his head. He knew what Sawyer was offering, but he had no intention of letting Sawyer go in there unarmed, and any metal Sawyer was carrying would be destroyed immediately with his body’s change. He’d never simultaneously gone through a wall and gotten rid of more than one gun in practice. Sawyer would need a few seconds to recover before he could attempt to take out all the weapons the gunmen had. Talon wanted to see the vid first.
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