Alexis lay stunned on the floor of the manager’s office. Her hip pressed into a sharp corner…the desk. She blinked and looked up at “Mint.” Whatever kind of name that was, he hadn’t felt the need to explain to her. Just told her he was a friend of Steve’s, and then he was scanning the vest with his intense gaze. His face had dipped to look closely at the vest, giving her a view of the thinning hair on the crown of his face. He’d shaken his head, dislodging his thick black-rimmed glasses to slip down his nose a fraction. Mint yanked one wire.
Then he’d peeled the vest off and tossed it away. From the two of them and anyone else. Toward the approaching gunmen.
Boom.
The blast had blown them both back into the office. Had he known it would blow? Mint lay on the floor now, bleeding from a gash on his temple. She crawled to him and patted his shoulder.
The men in the bank lobby were rousing. She could hear voices. Orders called out to each other.
“Mint.” She shook him harder.
Where was Bradley? Why hadn’t he come in to help her? She wanted to believe he had a good reason. But not that he’d been hurt, or possibly even killed. Still, it stung that he wasn’t here. Maybe Mint was Steve’s explosives expert, but she needed more help than that.
She was still trapped in the bank with gunmen approaching. Mint wasn’t waking up. Alexis found the gun, holstered on his hip. She slid it out.
Mint sucked in a breath and sat up. Halfway to sitting, his eyes flew open and saw her there with his gun in her hand.
“Easy.”
His gaze zeroed in on her. “Could say the same.”
“I know how to use it.” Like Bradley would ever have been okay with her living on her own without being armed and knowing how to protect herself. His instinct to make sure those he cared about were safe was part of what she loved about him. He didn’t smother her with his maleness. He trusted her to take care of herself. And he’d made sure that trust was warranted.
Mint took the gun and got to his feet. Alexis followed him to the door.
He glanced out and reached back at the same time to slide his phone from his back pocket. Unlocked it with his thumb as he brought it forward so that the screen was up. He hit two buttons and put it to his ear a second later.
“Yeah. All good. Holed up in the manager’s office, but we’ve got some serious heat coming our way.” Pause. “Got it.” He stowed the phone.
Before Alexis could ask what the plan was, he grabbed her hand and headed out into the hallway. They raced to the end, past a break room and the restrooms. At the end was an EXIT door.
Bullets pinged off the wall. The floor.
Alexis screamed, running in a crouch. He tugged her hand to the left, then went right and ran into her. His arms snaked around her and he crowded her into a storage closet.
Shut the door.
Alexis stood wide-eyed as Mint scanned the shelves, loaded with bottles. Cleaning products. Vinegar.
He twisted the lid off one bottle, shoved a rag inside and lit the end with a lighter from his front pocket.
Mint pulled the door open, swung the bottle and then slammed the door before she heard it hit the tile of the hallway. The whoosh that followed was peppered with shouts.
Mint opened another bottle and did the same, the air now filling with the smell of chemicals.
This time when he opened the door, he fired two shots from his gun and then threw the bottle. Answering shots made her duck to the back of the storage closet.
There was nowhere to go.
He could throw lit bottles and fire his gun over and over again. Until he ran out of bullets. And cleaning supplies.
The door kicked in. Four men rushed the room, black fatigues. Helmets and face masks. For a second she thought they might actually be SWAT. But no indications on their uniform told her that. No badges were on display.
Alexis tensed up as Mint faced them. He lifted his weapon, but the closest man slammed the butt of his rifle into Mint’s shoulder. He went down. The man kept hitting him over and over again until Alexis cried out, “Stop it!”
This wasn’t just putting down a man facing you, armed and intent on deadly harm. They were enjoying this. Relishing the violence of what was happening.
Two hung back at the door. The man without the bloody rifle stalked toward her, a sneer curling his mouth. His friend closed in on the other side.
“Too bad he said no survivors.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. They were going to kill the FBI agents. Bradley. Steve’s team. Everyone still in the bank—most of the half-dozen customers had fled when she walked in. The security guard and all the employees.
The minute she entered the bank, she’d handed the manager the paper while they all stared at the vest on display. Pretty sure she was about to get fired upon as well as yelled at, she’d done exactly what the gunman asked of her. But where had playing it safe gotten her?
Mint had gotten her out of that vest, only to have it blow up anyway. Now he was down, and she was about to be executed.
She opened her eyes. Lifted her chin. She didn’t want to die, but was ready if that was what was going to happen. They didn’t need to know she was scared out of her mind. God had brought her through so many things, she knew she could do this.
Still, to stand here and wait was excruciating. There was no one left to protect. Nothing to do. Rachel was safe. Bradley wasn’t here. She hadn’t said goodbye to either of them, and never would be able to now. She’d done everything she could for her family—the two of them.
Alexis faced down the gun, waiting for the crack.
The end.
There was no use fighting it, since she would only end up being shot anyway. She couldn’t take these guys down. Nothing left to do but let it happen.
A single tear tracked down her face.
A gun went off. The two men by the door went down. The third man spun. The one in front of her spun as well, and Bradley came through the door. Crack. The rap of each bullet was deafening in the tiny space. She sucked in a breath as the rifle guy dropped.
Bradley pressed a button on the chord of the earbuds he wore. “Clear. I’ve got her.”
Her back pressed into the shelves, the metal lines biting horizontal across her back.
“Alexis.” Soot and dirt covered his face. He limped two steps closer to her.
A sob worked its way up her throat. She coughed it out and nearly collapsed. Bradley caught her before she could go down. She said, “Mint.”
“What?”
She motioned to the man lying on the floor. There was so much blood. “They hurt him.”
Bradley held her elbows until she was steady. When she nodded, he crouched beside Steve’s teammate. Pressed two fingers to the man’s neck, then immediately grabbed the earbuds chord again. “Get an ambulance here. Back hall, storage room. Mint is down.” He paused. “Beaten. Pulse is weak.” Another pause. “Copy that.”
Then he was coming back toward her. His eyes intense. That hitch in his stride. His hands brushed her shoulders. His fingers felt at her throat. Like he needed to feel her pulse as well.
“I’m here.” She touched his sides. Felt the shift of muscle as each breath expanded his lungs. Then the exhale.
He nodded. “I thought you got caught in that blast.”
Alexis whispered her fingers over his forehead, into his hair. “Looks to me like you’re the one who got caught in it.”
He didn’t smile. Just stared into her eyes with so much intensity. Like he could hardly believe she was here. She was alive.
Maybe he just didn’t know what to say. Maybe he didn’t want her hanging on him.
Alexis dropped her hands and took a step back. She hit the shelves. “Ouch.”
Bradley tugged her away from them, but with the bodies on the floor there wasn’t far to go before they’d have to step over someone. The acrid smell of gunpowder and the recently deceased filled the room.
Alexis touched her roiling stomach. They couldn’t leave Mint in here. The EMT’s needed to hurry, before the worst happened.
“Lex.”
She glanced over at him, but he didn’t say anything else. Did he want her to say something? Was she supposed to thank him for killing these men for her? She didn’t know the protocol in times like these.
Thankfully Steve entered, followed by the EMT’s, who got to work on Mint. Steve shot Bradley a look, then said, “You okay, Alexis?”
She nodded, not entirely sure she could speak.
“Get her out of here, Harris.”
Bradley followed the order, tugging on her hand. She’d been dragged around over and over today. Enough that she didn’t want that to happen anymore. She pulled her hand from his. He glanced at her, but she folded her arms across her stomach and moved through the door.
She stepped over those bodies. Four men he’d killed—for her. Men intent on doing that very thing to her. After she’d been kidnapped and had a bomb strapped to her.
A bomb that had gone off.
She’d nearly been blown up.
The hall was empty, but bustling movement to her left caught her attention. The front of the building had been blown to pieces. Firefighters were spraying water on the pieces of furniture and debris that lay across the floor. The bodies.
She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the look on the bank manager’s face right before those gunmen had shot him.
Bradley said, “This way,” and waited for her to step in his direction. He led her to the back entrance and held the door for her. They stepped into the sun, so glaring she had to lift a hand and shield her eyes.
“You’ve gone quiet.”
She walked alongside him, mostly trying not to collapse on the ground. If he could walk, so could she.
There was so much destruction. So many times she’d thought he was dead. That she was dead. All those years, waiting for Rachel to call and tell her that he’d been killed in action. So sure she would never have what she’d always wanted. The future she wanted had been so close she felt as though she could touch it. Now…she didn’t know. Didn’t want to ask.
Before the end of the side street, he held an arm out in front of her and slowed to a stop. That would have been a gentle touch at any other time. Now he thought she didn’t want him to touch her.
He looked…not frustrated, but the edge of it was there. He just didn’t know what to do. “Please say something. Let me know you’re okay.”
She shivered, though the air held no chill. How she was still standing upright, Alexis didn’t know. Surely any second now she would just crumple to the pavement—and all the fear, the relief—would come rushing out in one big wave.
But if he could stand, so would she.
Bradley stowed his gun in the back of his waistband and held his arms out, palms up. “What am I supposed to—”
Alexis took two steps. Her body slammed into his and she wrapped her arms around him, squeezing. Hard. Enough to keep them both standing. Enough to hold herself together. Enough she knew he could take it. That she could do this, and he’d accept it. That he would be strong for her when she had no strength left for herself.
The way he always had. And, God willing, always would.
But she couldn’t say any of that. Not when she felt like she was going to choke every time she breathed. Not when she could hardly swallow, the lump was so big.
A second later his arms came around her, strong but not tight. He exhaled. Alexis tried to speak, but all that came out was a sob. It didn’t stop, and she cried there in his arms while he spoke nonsense in her ear and held her.
Kept her standing when she knew she would fall.