Enjoying the Chase (32 page)

I shook my head, chuckling to myself. “Okay
fine, bungee jumping?” I bartered, as I pushed myself off her, taking her hands
and helping her to her feet too.

She didn
’
t answer just stuck her tongue out at me and bent down to grab my
T-shirt from the floor. I used her distraction to quickly rearrange myself in
my jeans – not that she wouldn
’
t
already know I had a raging boner, but I could at least try not to make it so
damn obvious. She handed me back my T-shirt, so I slipped it on, kissing the
side of her head softly, letting my mouth linger for a few seconds too long
while I just savoured the feel of her against my lips. I really didn
’
t want to go.

“I
’
ll see you tomorrow night, Stripes,” I whispered, forcing myself to
move away from her and slip on my sneakers, before walking as quick as I could
to the front door. I was about three seconds from begging her to let me stay
here for the night. I didn
’
t even
need to do anything with her; I just wanted to hold her for longer.

“Bye, Nate.”

I didn
’
t look back as I walked to my car. It was definitely getting harder
and harder to walk away from this girl.

Just as I stepped through the front door of
my apartment, my phone beeped with a new message. I opened it instantly,
knowing it would be a goodnight text from Rosie. When I opened it, I gasped. It
was a picture message. My hands were trembling as I looked at it. She
’
d taken a picture of herself, literally just
of her chest, no shirt, just a black lacy bra. I stared at the photo, taking in
every detail of it. Her breasts were incredible, and I was rock hard again at
the sight of it. She
’
d written a
message underneath.

‘Wish you were here?’

I burst out laughing as I read what she
’
d written. Wish I was there was the
understatement of the century. I wanted to live right there in that photo!

Flicking the lock on my front door, I pulled
off my shirt and snapped a picture of my body art, sending it to her in return.
A deal was a deal, after all.

Chapter
Eighteen

As I suspected, my workmates found my
newly acquired body art extremely hilarious. Even now, four days on, they were
still ribbing me about it.

On Thursday we were called out for a job.
We were briefed on the way there. Eight men had gone into a bank intending to
rob it, but the robbery had gone wrong when one of the clerks managed to press
the silent alarm. Now, seventeen hostages were inside, and they were currently
in negotiations to get them out of there. The on-site Captain had called for
backup and I had a gut feeling that things weren
’
t going to go our way with this one.

I sat on the edge of the van, across the
street from the bank, listening to the officers all talking about how best to
approach the situation and get the hostages out unharmed. A couple of things
that the lead perpetrator had said, led them to believe that they had no
intention of letting all the hostages live. They had already shot one hostage
to prove they were serious, and were threatening to kill another if the
helicopter wasn
’
t here within the
next thirty minutes.

Captain Richardson, the officer in charge
of the operation, shook his head. “I think we need to send in a strike team. We
can
’
t get the helicopter here
within the time frame. I
’
ve
already tried to buy more time, but he
’
s not having any of it. If we don
’
t give him what he wants within the next,” he looked at his watch,
“twenty-three minutes, then he
’
s
going to take out another hostage.”

Captain Elder nodded, frowning and looking
over the schematics of the bank again. “There just doesn
’
t seem to be any way in there without them seeing us. Surveillance
shows that they
’
re covering all
entrances into the building. We can
’
t get in there undetected.”

I looked over at the building again. There
had to be some way in there. “What about the roof?”
I
suggested.
“Don
’
t they have roof access in case of fire?”

The two captains turned to look at me before
they both looked back at the schematics again, thumbing through pages until
they found the top floor ones.

“You
’
re right, Peters. There
’
s a security hatch up there! If we could get in there, we could work
our way down the building. There
’
s
a good chance they would have overlooked the roof entrance
.
”

I nodded. Even if they just sent in some
tech guys to set up some cameras it would be an advantage. At the moment, we
were blind. They
’
d boarded up the
windows so we couldn
’
t see in. My
sniper team w
as
useless because they had no visuals. I
had positioned three guys on the two buildings opposite, covering the two exits
in case they tried to break free. Other than that though, we could do nothing
to help, it would all be down to a ground team and negotiator.

I listened as they started planning the
best approach. They were sending in a ground team through the roof access;
cameras would be set up to feed
i
ntel while they played
out the remainder of the time they
’
d been given. Hopefully they
’
d be able to do something before the deadline was up and they killed
another hostage.

When everything was arranged, I walked up
to Captain Elder. I wanted to help; I hated being stuck on the sidelines. “Sir,
can I go in too? I could just cover the team, be backup in case the ground team
need it,” I suggested. It wasn
’
t
my usual job, but I had done this occasionally, if there was a better vantage
point inside then I would take it.

“You want to go in?” he asked. I nodded,
and he patted me on the shoulder. “I
’
m not gonna lie, Nate, you
’
d be helping out a lot doing that. You could lead the team in there,
they
’
d benefit from your
experience. We could split the strike team and have you lead half and Jacob
lead the other half.”

“Absolutely, sir.” I headed over to Jacob
Granger, who was planning with his team and ordering the tech guys around. I
joined in the plans, excited to be seeing some action for the first time in
three days.

Ten minutes later, we slipped through
the roof hatch undetected. I raised my gun, holding my hand up for my mini
strike team, signalling for them to stop behind me. When I was satisfied that
the coast was clear, I pointed and ordered them to fan out so we could cover
more ground. I had four people with me, and the other mini team had the same
amount. There was another team that was going to blast the front door and come
in once we were settled in positions. We’d all move at the same time and have
the element of surprise on our sides.

We worked our way silently through the
building, stopping on the floor above them. Using the ventilation schematic
drawing, we found the crawlspace we were looking for. The main tech guy and I
eased off the metal grate that covered it, before crawling inside. If we went
in about thirty yards, we would be directly above the vault on the floor below,
which was where the la
st intel
put the hostages.

After crawling in and estimating we were in
the right position, we stopped. “Get the camera in,” I whispered.

He nodded and pulled out a little hand
drill, boring a hole into the tiles where we were, then pushed a small camera
wire in, holding the handset out to me so I could view it. After a couple of
seconds, the picture came into focus. I took hold of the wire, twisting the
camera around so I could view the room below us.

The hostages were sitting over to the north
section, huddled together. A guy with a semi-automatic weapon walked in front
of them. He looked nervous and jittery, shooting little glances off to the
side. Forcing the camera in a little further, I angled it in the direction that
the guy kept looking. Sitting there, behind the manager
’
s desk, was a man that I instantly knew was the leader. His feet
rested up on the desk, crossed over at the ankles. He was far too relaxed.

Moving the camera back and forth, I scanned
the room. There were seven hostiles that I could see, including the leader,
which meant that there was one more somewhere. Our Intel confirmed there were
eight of them in total.

I pressed my button on my comms unit,
calling through to the other team leader. “I see seven hostiles in total; three
on the east side, two on the west. There
’
s one patrolling the hostages on the north side, and the boss is
sitting at the manager
’
s desk at
the back. Number eight is not in sight. I repeat, hostile number eight cannot
be located. All hostages look fine, no injuries that I can see. Be aware, I saw
two children in the group.” 

“Okay. I
’
m moving down to the east to take out the three. The outside team
can take out the west side targets. Are you happy to take the leader and manage
the hostages?” Jacob asked through the little earpiece I was wearing.

“Affirmative. Moving to positions now,” I
confirmed. I turned back to the tech guy. “Stay here, keep watch, any changes
you notify Jacob and I immediately
.
” 

“Yes, sir,” he whispered.

I wriggled my way out of the crawlspace and
back to my team, telling them the plan. After everyone was clear, we silently
made our way downstairs, splitting up into pairs as we got into good positions.
Using my mirror to look around the corner, I checked that nothing had changed.
Thankfully, they all seemed to be exactly where they were through the camera. I
could hear the hostages crying and whimpering. The two kids I had seen were
clinging to their mother who looked like she was trying to cover them with her
own body.  

Easing back against the wall, I pressed the
button for my comms unit on channel 2, the officers
’
channel outside. “Team one. We
’
re in position, ready to strike. Are we a go?” I whispered.

There was a couple of seconds of silence, and
then Jacob came on. “Team two, ready to go.”

More silence then the team from outside
answered. “Team three, prepped. On your command, we
’
ll blow the doors. Ready to go.”

I nodded to my team, doing a hand gesture,
signalling for them to get ready. I checked my handgun; it felt strange to only
have a light, small gun. Normally I would be lying on my stomach with a thirty
pound piece of metal in my hands.

“Call it, Jacob,” I instructed, bending my
knees, readying to step out of the hiding place I had behind the wall. My first
target was the one in front of the hostages; he needed to be disabled first.

“On three. One. Two…” Jacob commanded.

On three, the doors on the front of the
building blew off their hinges. As dust and debris sprayed everywhere, the
screaming started. Hostiles were shouting commands to each other, panicked. I
stepped around the corner and aimed at the guy holding a hand gun in front of the
hostages. I didn
’
t bother giving
him a warning; he
’
d lost his right
to surrender when he took a position near the group of innocents in the bank.

I shot him in the thigh, making him scream
in pain and drop to his knees. His eyes scanned the room, unsure what was going
on. Another agent ran into the room, immediately tackling him to the ground and
kicking his gun away from him. I turned to my second target – the leader of the
group. He was shouting to his men, trying to duck behind the desk that he
’
d tipped over, his gun pointing over the top,
shooting blindly into the room.

I stepped back against the wall; I needed
to take him out before he hit someone. I sighted my gun, immediately searching
for a good shot. Squeezing the trigger, I fired a round directly into the back
of his hand making him scream in pain and drop the gun.

I scanned the room
again
; other agents were taking care of it all now. Most of the targets
were being dealt with. I stepped forward to secure the leader, gun raised
readily. As I stepped closer, he made a grab for his gun, raising it at me. My
heart sank as I realised that I had to kill him
;
I
hated to kill people, but I was exposed in a room full of innocents and, by all
accounts, in this situation it was always ‘shoot first and ask questions later
’
.
As
I shot him in the
chest
h
e fell to the floor with a gurgling noise coming
from his mouth that I could still somehow hear even over all of the screaming
and sounds of fighting.

I frowned and turned back to my team. One
of them signalled that the targets were all down, so I walked over to the
hostages to check for injuries. As I approached the group, I did a quick
headcount. There were seventeen in total. I stopped. Hadn
’
t the reports said that there were initially seventeen hostages, but
one was shot? I could see a dead body off to the side, a woman in a bank
uniform. So shouldn
’
t there just
be sixteen hostages sitting here?

I counted them again. I had definitely
counted right. I turned to the side and pressed my walkie, calling through to
Captain Richardson outside.

“How many hostages are there in total?” I
asked, eyeing the group again.

“Reports are of seventeen, minus one,” he
answered.

I quickly raised my gun, scanning the crowd
for anyone that didn
’
t look as if
they belonged. My eyes skimmed the group and came to rest on a guy who was
shifting nervously and looking away from me. He definitely looked
uncomfortable. He looked like he was trying to blend in, but he was wearing
combat pants with overly large, bulky pockets, certainly big enough to hide a
gun in. Was he the missing eighth man?

I decided to try and flush the crowd and
see any of them didn
’
t belong.
“All of you will be taken into custody for finger printing and background
checks. If you could just remain seated here until we call you forward. One by
one we will put handcuffs on you and take you to the station,” I lied, watching
him closely.

His head jerked up, and his eyes flicked to
the exit door. That was definitely not a normal reaction. I pointed my gun at
him and stepped closer. “
Stand!
” I
ordered.

“Nate, what are you doing?” Jacob hissed in
my ear. I couldn
’
t explain now
though, there was a fucking hostile sitting amongst the hostages trying to pass
himself off as an innocent.