Relentless

Most of Ben’s weight lifted off her. She tried to move but his legs kept her pinned. They were targets right there in the center of the floor. The room had split and no else sat with them. A man off to the side begged Ben to move.

He took his time. He reached behind him and got to his knees, all while the lead attacker watched.

When the seconds ticked on, the other attacker stepped closer. “What’s happening over here?”

The room spun. Something slammed into her back, knocking the air out of her and pushing her tight against the floor. She covered her head as the chaos exploded around her. She heard screaming and saw a blur as Ben threw something with one hand and a single shot rang out above her.

The noise cut off her hearing as it burned through her. She smelled smoke and saw people running. Time flew yet moved in slow motion. She saw every tiny movement even as she knew it unfolded in rapid time.

“Ben!” She screamed his name but he was up and running.

The front doors burst open and Connor and Joel raced in with the police sirens wailing in the street behind them. Ben jumped over the lead attacker’s still body. Then she saw the blood and the attacker’s open hand. His gun lay a few feet away but his body didn’t move.

Blood covered Ben’s arm and stained his shirt. She tried to yell and rush for him, but strong hands held her back. She threw her elbows and kicked her feet but nothing happened. The hold didn’t ease.

Joel’s voice finally penetrated the frantic screaming in her head. This time in person, not through the mic. “Stay still. He’s okay.”

“Blood.”

“Not his.”

Then she went down again. Joel pressed her against him, shielding her with his body as people filed around the room and ran for the doors in a wild frenzy.

Flat against the floor, she could see Ben and Connor reach the lone attacker leaning against the table in the middle of the bank. Something stuck out of his shoulder and his gun dangled from his hand.

Connor took that guy’s mask off, and his face was a mask of pain as his head fell back. She wondered why he didn’t slide to the floor.

Sounds were muffled and she didn’t understand what she was seeing. A blur moved into her peripheral vision. She looked up in time to see one of the attackers come out of the door upstairs. He held a gun.

She didn’t know where he aimed, so she screamed the warning. “Ben, move!”

He dropped to the floor in what looked like a slide into home plate. Her heart stopped when his momentum had him skidding into the knifed man. Shots echoed around the room and pinged off the stone walls. Ben slammed into the attacker’s legs and the guy went down as shots slammed into his chest.

Through the fog and the ringing pain in her ears, she heard a yell followed by a sickening thud. No one stood on the balcony above. A deadly silence fell over the room.

Her panicked gaze flew from one corner to the other. First to Ben where he sat on his butt still holding his gun. She followed his stare to the pile of black folded on the hard floor not that far from where she sat. Then she swung back to Ed. He stood near the front door with his gun still aimed at the balcony.

The doors slammed open again and police officers poured in, fanning out and covering the entire floor. The direction they pointed their guns shifted between all the men still standing. The innocent ones.

“Get down!” Different voices all said the same thing.

The command rang all around her and the room headed into a spinning nosedive. She refused to pass out, but when Detective Willoughby stepped into the middle of the fray, she did lower her forehead to the floor and let the cool stone ease the hammering inside.

He looked around at the blood and the bodies. “Arrest everybody.”

* * *

IT TOOK CONNOR all of ten minutes to talk the detective down. No wonder Connor was the leader. He could stay calm and reasonable and get people moving his way before they knew they were agreeing with him.

Ben would have yelled his way through the situation. With his patience expired, he’d reached the end of being social and professional. The detective had proved to be nothing but trouble. He was no help and more of an actual hindrance. Always a step behind and full of accusations. Ben was done with all of it.

Every part of his body ached and the realization of how close he’d come to seeing Jocelyn captured or killed had adrenaline rushing to his brain. With the police moving in and out and investigators roping off the area, Ben didn’t move. He leaned against the middle table with the deposit slips now strewn all over it and on the floor.

When he finally shifted, his foot slid on the paper and his gaze shot across the room to see who’d witnessed his near fall. Jocelyn stood there. He could watch her all day.