Chapter 19
19
Lorelei wanted to kick herself for mentioning Mark. She should have kept her mouth shut. It just came out.
Of all her exes to remember, he was the one she thought of? It made her wonder if the others were worse. She had horrible taste in men if that was the case.
She looked over at Vinnie. She used to.
With the memory of Mark came all the things he said when he dumped her. He thought it would take longer for her cast to come off, and more time for her to want to go back to work. But that was the first thing she wanted to do when she got the cast off her arm.
And Mark was pissed. So pissed he broke up with her because of it.
It took Lorelei a few weeks, and a lot of drinks, to see that he couldn’t handle her strength and independence. He wanted her to need him, to rely on him, and as soon as she didn’t, he was done.
Adam helped her to see that, and told her one day she’d find a man who wasn’t threatened by the things that made her who she was.
Lorelei looked over at Vinnie and wondered if he was that man.
She wanted him to be.
“What are you doing today?” Lorelei asked, hoping to smooth over the awkwardness that settled between them since she mentioned Mark.
“I have to go to work,” Vinnie said.
“You do? I didn’t realize that. I could have asked someone else to take me this morning if I knew you had to work.”
“Mark?” Vinnie spat.
Lorelei exhaled. “Mark isn’t important. Not anymore.”
“But he was.”
She nodded. Her cheeks warmed. Mark hurt her. A lot. More than she wanted to admit to anyone, but especially to Vinnie.
Mark was a jerk, but she was the reason things ended. She didn’t see him for who he was. She never made space for him in her life until she needed his help. And when he got mad and walked, she didn’t fight him on it. Just let him leave and went on with her life. She proved him right. She didn’t need him, or anyone, and that truth almost got Lorelei killed.
If she’d listened to Mark a year ago, if she’d been less independent, she might not have been alone the night she was kidnapped. She might have trusted someone else.
Mark was just the first person to call her on it. He was angry at her for it. Lorelei told herself being independent was a good thing. That it was a sign of strength. It wasn’t a weakness like Mark threw in her face. It wasn’t something she should change.
But one year, a broken ankle, amnesia, and five broken ribs later, Lorelei knew Mark was right. Not that she needed him, but she needed someone. She wasn’t an island. And pretending she was didn’t do her any favors.
“Are you okay if I drop you off?” Vinnie asked, interrupting Lorelei’s thoughts.
She nodded, feeling guilty for keeping him from work. Again. He’d taken weeks off to be there for her, and even after he was back to work, she was keeping him from doing his job.
She was no better than Mark, demanding Vinnie was there for her but not anyone else.
Vinnie slowed down in front of the building and pulled over behind a row of parked vehicles.
Lorelei put her hand on the door handle. “Do you know when you’ll be home?”
Vinnie didn’t look at her when he shook his head.
“Okay,” Lorelei said. She climbed out of his SUV and moved to the sidewalk to watch him drive away.
Once he was out of sight, she looked up Adam’s number on her phone and called him. “Can you come get me? I need some advice.”
“On my way.”
Vinnie slammed his fist into the body bag in the training room. It swung back, and he hit it again. And again. And again.
Beating the shit out of the bag was better than letting out the emotions racing through him and threatening to destroy his sanity.
“Whoa. What’s going on with you?” Arthur asked. Arthur was a SWAT member, but not on Vinnie’s team. They did not get along. They went through training together, and Arthur was on Vinnie’s heels for every exercise. Vinnie was his competition, the one he had to beat.
He never did, and the fighting never stopped.
“Move along, Arthur,” Vinnie growled.
Arthur laughed, drawing the attention of the others in the training room. “Is the hero having a bad day?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Vinnie asked.
Arthur smirked. “Even since you went and chased down that FBI Agent, everyone’s saying you’re a hero. You saved her life. And you’re fucking her into submission.”
Vinnie saw red and wanted nothing more than to watch it come out of Arthur’s body. He pinned the other man to the body bag, his forearm on Arthur’s throat.
Arthur’s eyes went wide. He tapped Vinnie’s forearm. He threw his hands wide, his gaze going past Vinnie to the others in the room.
“What the hell, Vin?” Hannah blurted. She and Molly pulled him off Arthur.
Arthur gasped for breath and held his throat like he was injured. “He could have killed me.”
“Why the fuck did you go after him?” Molly asked, slapping Vinnie’s shoulder.
“He’s talking shit,” Vinnie growled.
Arthur pushed the body bag, showing how easily he could have moved it if he wanted, then winked at Vinnie. It was all for fucking show, the asshole.
Vinnie started to go after Arthur, but Hannah and Molly held him back.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Hannah hissed. “He’s trying to get you kicked out.”
“He’s trying to get his ass kicked, is what he’s doing,” Vinnie snapped.
“And what’s that going to do?” Molly asked. “You kick his ass, and you lose your job. Do you really think that’s going to win you any favors with anyone?”
“I’m not trying to win favors,” Vinnie growled.
“Sure, but maybe you’re also trying to not lose your job,” Hannah said. “Stay away from Arthur. Let him be a dick to someone else.”
“Ready to roll?” Paul asked, walking by them and pointing to the situation room.
“We got a call?” Hannah asked.
“Yeah, Damien needs everyone in there in five,” Paul said. “Let’s go.”
Molly, Hannah, and Vinnie made their way to the locker room for a quick cleanup before they went to the situation room.
Damien was in front of the screen and nodded when the three of them joined the rest of the team. “We have a hostage situation. Local library. Domestic turned deadly. Before the cops got there and found the wife, the husband took off. Fired some shots when they came up on him, then ran inside the library. In the middle of story time.”
“How many hostages?” Molly asked.
“Thirty-two,” Damien said.
“Ages?”
“Toddler through seventies, from what we can tell.”
“What does he want?” Paul asked.
“A way out,” Damien said.
“What’s our plan?” Vinnie asked.
“Get as many hostages out as possible while the negotiators handle the shooter,” Damien said. “Anything else we figure out on the fly.”
The team nodded and followed Damien to the truck. Hannah drove with Damien up front. The rest of them were in the back, checking weapons and getting ready for anything.
Vinnie tried to get his head in the game, but Arthur fucked with it. Vinnie knew that was the entire point, but it pissed him off that he fell for it.
They pulled up to the library and filed out, waiting for their orders. It didn’t take long.
“Teams of two, make your way around the library. Recon only. Need to get eyes on the hostages and make sure everyone is okay. If you find a way to get them out, report back. Don’t be seen,” Damien said.
They paired off, and Vinnie and Joshua started to the right of the building. The solid brick exterior made it possible for them to get next to the building without being seen. Joshua went first, leading the way around their side of the building low, staying below the windows that let sunlight into the building on the other three sides.
Rows of shelves blocked their view of anyone inside the library. Chairs were close to the windows, but they were all empty. No one was visible between the shelves.
They kept moving along the side of the building, but had nothing valuable to report back. No hostages were visible, and neither was the shooter.
Vinnie and Joshua went back to their position at the front of the building to wait for instructions from Damien. When the other teams returned, they all reported.
“Nothing on our side,” Joshua said.
“Ours was quiet,” Hannah said.
“He’s in the back,” Paul said. He nodded to Molly. “We saw him with all the hostages in a sitting area. One gun. Can’t have much left in it.”
“Do you think we can breach?” Joshua asked.
Damien shook his head. “Too many unknowns. The library has alarms that will tell him if we open the front door.”
“Seriously?” Hannah asked.
Damien nodded. “It’s supposed to be so employees know when someone comes in. It’s a big library and if they’re helping someone or in the office, they can’t see the door, so they added a chime of sorts to let them know when someone walks in.”
“There has to be a way we can get in there,” Molly said. “What about the sides where no one saw anything?”
“That’s possible,” Damien said. “But if the windows are locked or sealed, we’d have to break one, and he’d hear that.”
“But it’s worth trying,” Molly said.
“Everything is worth trying. We need a team to watch him, or create a distraction. Something to make sure he doesn’t sneak up on whoever is trying to get inside.”
“I’ll go in,” Vinnie volunteered. He looked at Joshua, who nodded.
“We’ll watch the shooter,” Molly said.
“Be ready to take him out if you need to,” Damien said.
Molly and Paul both nodded and checked their weapons.
“Want us to create a distraction?” Hannah asked, slapping Eric, her partner, on the vest.
“Probably not a bad idea. But what kind of distraction will draw him away and not spook him?” Damien asked.
They all tossed out ideas until they agreed Hannah and Eric would be tasked with staging an accident on the road behind the library. It had to be loud, and they had to get into it if it was going to draw the shooter’s attention.
Damien got approval for the plan, then they all got into position. Hannah and Eric were going first, staging the accident to get the shooter’s attention. As soon as Molly and Paul confirmed the shooter was distracted, Vinnie and Joshua were going in through windows on the side.
Vinnie crouched below the windows next to Joshua. They had to test the windows to find one they could enter through. Molly and Paul were the lookouts, and with their word, it was go time. Whether they found an open window or not, the plan was set.
“Shooter is on our side. Screaming at someone. Looks like he’s losing it. We need to move, boss,” Molly said through their comms.
“Team one, are you ready?” Damien asked.
Vinnie shook his head. “We don’t have a window to go through.”
“He’s swinging the gun around,” Paul said. “He’s gonna start shooting, boss.”
“Team two, go,” Damien said, giving the order for Hannah and Paul to create the diversion.
Vinnie and Joshua moved along the wall, testing windows to find one they could use to breach.
“Got a window,” Joshua said. “Let us know when we can go in.”
Vinnie moved to where Joshua was as soon as the crash happened on the road. Joshua pried the window open, a loud squeak making him pause.
“Stop,” Paul said. “Shooter heard the window.”
“Team two, get louder,” Damien commanded.
Vinnie waited, his breath held, for the word that they could go. It felt like an hour before Paul’s word came through.
“Go. He’s at the back. This is your chance to get inside.”
Joshua yanked the window, one loud squeak the only sound. Vinnie kneeled on the grass to give Joshua a boost inside, then he was gone. Vinnie hoisted himself up and rolled silently into the library.
Vinnie and Joshua positioned themselves behind shelves, knowing it would be easy for someone to see them. They couldn’t see the shooter or hostages yet, but they could hear him.
“What the hell is wrong with those people?” the guy shouted.
“Diversion is working but not calming him down,” Paul said.
“Team one, you need to move,” Damien said.
Vinnie and Joshua exchanged a glance and moved together toward the aisle. Joshua went first, his gun pointed and his steps silent.
Vinnie watched their backs, even though the shooter was believed to be alone.
When they made it to the end of the aisle, they had no cover between them and the shooter. Half shelves filled the center of the library, and from the distance the shooter was, the shelves did nothing to block his view of Vinnie and Joshua.
Joshua signaled to Vinnie he was going to move to the next shelf. Vinnie checked the shooter, who was still watching the diversion, and nodded.
Joshua made it over, and Vinnie followed him. If they were going to get closer, they would be taking a risk with every move they made. But they had to.
Each shelf brought them closer until they had a clean shot. Joshua signaled he was going to talk to the shooter. Vinnie shook his head, but Joshua didn’t back down. Vinnie was the one with more negotiation training, but Joshua had been through a class recently and wanted to test his skills.
Vinnie finally nodded. He positioned himself on the floor, checking he had plenty of range to take a shot if he needed to put the shooter down.
Joshua stood and drew the shooter’s attention to him.
Vinnie watched as the shooter realized Joshua was there. The panic in his eyes. The way he jumped. The recognition of the uniform and the acknowledgment of weapons.
He raised his gun.
Vinnie squeezed the trigger, and the shooter dropped.
“Shooter down,” Paul reported.
Joshua and Vinnie moved forward, guns trained on the shooter.
The man gasped, his fingers twitching.
Vinnie kicked the gun away from the shooter while Joshua kneeled over him and put pressure on the gunshot wound that was going to kill him.
“Is everyone okay?” Vinnie asked, looking at the hostages.
They cowered in fear, hiding the children from the man bleeding to death right in front of them.
The front door opened, and medics and officers raced inside. Two medics went to the shooter, loading him on a stretcher and wheeling him out before the hostages were allowed to leave.
“Is he dead?” one woman asked Vinnie.
Vinnie shook his head. “I don’t know, ma’am, but I’m sorry for what you went through.”
“He said he was going to kill all of us. And if any of us survived, he was going to find us so we couldn’t tell the cops what he did. He killed his wife, her parents, and her sister’s entire family.”
“What?” Vinnie asked.
The woman nodded. She wrung her hands and tears leaked down her cheeks. “That’s what he said. He said he already killed everyone he was supposed to love, and we were nothing to him.”
“Will you share that with the officers over here?”
The woman nodded again.
Vinnie led her to the detectives, who met his gaze before whisking her away to speak to her alone after they heard her report.
Vinnie looked at the space around him. It was a place that should have been happy. Peaceful. Fun. And it became a place for death. A place where a man decided no life mattered.
“Why did you shoot him?” Joshua hissed, coming up behind Vinnie.
Vinnie turned on his partner. “He was going to shoot you.”
“I’m wearing a vest. There’s no way he would have been that good of a shot.”
“You really wanted to take that chance?”
“I wanted to talk him down. I wanted these kids to not see someone shot in front of them. Do you have any idea how this is going to affect these children? They’re never going to recover from this.”
Vinnie opened his mouth to defend his actions, but Joshua stalked away. He ignored everyone who tried to talk to him and slammed his way out of the library.
“What was that?” Molly asked.
“He didn’t want me to shoot the guy.”
“He was going to shoot him.”
Vinnie nodded. He looked at the kids. The horrified looks on their faces, the tears and sobs and fear in their eyes. One recoiled when an officer tried to speak to her. A boy buried his face in his mom’s shoulder and refused to turn around.
“He said he would have rather that happen than these kids see what they saw.”
Molly looked at the kids. Her gaze skipped around the room, breath lifting her chest before she released it slowly. “They’re never going to be the same.”
“Do you think I made the wrong decision?” Vinnie asked.
Molly shook her head slowly. “You know I can’t answer that. You were the one inside. I was watching, but my vantage point was different. All I could see was him raising his weapon.”
Vinnie ran a hand over his face. His throat tightened. He was one of the good guys. He saved those kids.
But when they looked at him, they all hid. Buried their faces or screamed or moved behind their parents.
They were afraid of him.