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Probably not unusual but this was Annapolis in June, which meant eighty degrees and sunny. Not exactly coat weather. And the body language: stiff, turned away from direct eye contact, backed against the far wall—it all suggested trouble. The combination not only raised a flag, but whipped it around in a frantic wave.
But only Ben seemed to notice. People walked by the jacket guys and said nothing. Didn’t even glance in their direction.
Ben’s gaze shot to the front door of the bank, then to the space inside the door where the security guy stood a second ago. He was gone and a quick scan of the area didn’t turn him up.
An older woman walked into his line of vision and stumbled over something but kept going. Ben took a step, thinking to investigate, but a hand on his arm pulled him back.
“What’s wrong?” Jocelyn turned around and wrapped her fingers around his elbow as she whispered the question.
He gave the response without thinking, with the ease that some people said hello. “Nothing.”
Her nails dug into the skin of his forearm. “Nice try. Tell me.”
Joel picked that moment to break in. “What’s up?”
“Do you have eyes in here?” Ben kept his voice low and barely moved his lips. Anyone looking would think he was talking to Jocelyn, especially since she stared at him in frantic panic right now.
“Tapped into the security cameras.” Keys clicked on Joel’s end. “Scanning the floor.”
A nerve at the back of Ben’s neck twitched. The old instincts roared to life, letting him know something bad was coming. That feeling was rarely wrong.
Joel’s voice whispered over the line again. “Get out of there.”
Ben didn’t know what Joel saw, but the warning was good enough to get him moving. Now on edge and ready for battle, he shifted his weight. Forget the worry about upsetting the other bank patrons. He wanted Jocelyn out of there and it had to be quick. The line kept shuffling forward and people mingled, looking at cell phones and filling out deposit slips.
It all seemed so normal, but he knew. A guy didn’t devote every minute of his adult life, almost eighteen years, to service and rescue without picking up a few cues.
“Get behind me.” This time he looked at her.
She had the same earpiece and heard the order, but whatever she saw in his expression had her shoulders stiffening as the color leached out of her face. “How bad is it?”
“I’m thinking pretty bad,” he said as he dropped eye contact. The pale skin and wide eyes made him want to comfort her. But she needed his protection right now, not a reassuring hug. “Hold on to the back of my shirt and stay close. We’ll walk to the door.”
“Right.”
“Do not stop.”
“Robbery?” The word was little more than a puff of air on her lips.
In her stupor, she stumbled back and bumped into the woman in front of her. Ben mumbled an apology as he wrapped an arm around her and started to turn. In the whir of activity, with people coming in and out and walking around them, he saw the teller on the far end look up and go into a sort of trance. Ben followed his gaze to the jacket crew.
Now or never.
A sharp bang rang out, echoing off every surface and mixing with the screams of the bank patrons.
Too late.
On instinct, Ben dropped down, spinning as he went and dragging Jocelyn with him. His knees hit the hard floor as he took the brunt of their joint weight. Ignoring her yelp of surprise and the thud of her body rolling into his, he tucked her underneath him with his chest against her back and his weight balanced on one elbow.
“This can’t be happening again.” She whispered the words low enough for only him to hear.
The despair in her voice pulled at him. “We’ll get through this, too.”
“Promise me.”
He couldn’t say the words. Planted a quick kiss on the back of her head instead.
If this was the newest in a line of escalating attacks, this one blew the others away. Well planned and performed in tandem. They had doubled the number of attackers and dressed them up for show.
The risks skyrocketed with a move like this. Cars on the street and people with cells and alarms. It would be hard to get out now that they were in, especially since they weren’t running up to the tellers and demanding cash.
But the fact that had Ben’s gut twisting was it would be too easy to take Jocelyn out in this situation. Just make it look like part of a bank robbery gone bad, and quiet her before they figured out what it was she supposedly knew.
He vowed right then not to let himself get separated from Jocelyn. If that meant going out in a suicidal hail of gunfire, he’d do it. He just wished he’d spent a few minutes of their time together teaching her to shoot and how to defend herself.
