Chapter 14 – Thiago #2
I can’t see enough of the person to tell, and with Zara sitting beside them, covered in blood, my mind jumps to the worst possible conclusion. Everything in me demands that I cross the room to reach her, but an armed suspect is still somewhere between us.
“Zara!” I call. “Stay down!”
Her head jerks up at the sound of her name.
A shot rips through the room before I can say anything else, slamming into the pillar beside me. I pull back behind cover and raise my weapon.
“Contact,” Grey shouts.
“Back right,” Ryan calls.
I search the area until I catch the suspect shifting behind the counter, his weapon raised as he searches for another shot.
“Drop the weapon!” our lead commands.
He answers by firing again. The man is desperate and running out of options. He knows he isn’t leaving this bank unless it’s in cuffs or a body bag. With his back against the wall, every shot he fires grows more reckless than the last.
We need to end this before someone else gets hurt.
I track him, the angle, and every shift of his weapon, but Zara remains at the edge of my awareness, so I lean out just enough to return fire, forcing him back behind the counter.
“Still up,” I say, repositioning.
Grey covers me as I move, cutting off another angle while the suspect fires again, his shots growing wilder.
“Next time you move, you call it,” Grey grits out over the comms.
I ignore him. We can hash it out later.
The suspect shifts, giving me the opening I’ve been waiting for. I steady my aim and take the shot. He collapses behind the counter. The gunfire stops, but I keep my weapon raised as the seconds stretch out.
“Suspect down,” I confirm, scanning the room for another threat.
Surveillance showed three suspects entering the bank, and all three are accounted for, but none of us lowers our guard until we clear the rest of the room.
“Clear,” Ryan confirms.
My eyes immediately lock onto Zara.
I cross the room and drop to my knees in front of her, lowering my weapon as I search her for injuries. There’s so much blood on her that I can’t tell what’s hers and what isn’t.
Then I look at the woman beside her.
It isn’t Remi.
Relief hits me first, immediate and instinctive, then guilt follows when I get a better look at the woman.
She’s older, with blood soaking the front of her clothes from a wound at her neck. One look tells me there’s nothing I can do for her.
“Zara,” I say, keeping my voice steady as I lower my mask.
Her head lifts slowly, eyes wide and glassy as they search my face, as if she’s struggling to make sense of what she sees.
“Officer…Thiago?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” I ease closer to her. “You’re safe now, Zara.”
She shakes her head and looks back at the woman. “She won’t wake up. I-I tried. She told me to stay down, and I did. I did exactly what she said.”
“You did good,” I tell her. “You listened, and you did everything right.”
I reach for her, and Zara grabs my vest. Her little body shudders against mine as I lift her from the floor, her sobs muffled against my chest.
I don’t know who the woman is, but Zara refuses to let go of her hand until the distance between them forces their fingers apart. That tells me enough. Whoever she was, she loved her.
“Do we have an all clear?” I ask as I rise with Zara in my arms.
Confirmations come through my comms as the team secures the bank.
“All clear.”
“Front secure.”
“No additional contacts.”
Ryan falls into step beside me as I carry Zara toward the exit. A female officer approaches and reaches for her, but her arms lock around my neck. Protocol tells me to hand her over and let the officers outside get her to EMS. But I find myself holding her a little closer.
Maybe it’s because she recognized me, and I’m the only familiar face in a room full of armed strangers, or maybe seeing her like this made the whole thing personal in a way I wasn’t prepared for. Whatever the reason, I can’t bring myself to pass her off yet.
“Come with me, sweetie,” the officer says, resting a gentle hand on her back.
Zara recoils and buries her face deeper against me.
“No,” she whispers, clinging tighter. “No, don’t leave me, Officer Thiago. Please, don’t leave me.”
“I’ve got her,” I tell the woman. “I’ll take her to EMS.”
The officer nods and steps aside.
“You know her?” Ryan asks, clearing a path as we move.
Before I can answer, a familiar pair of blue eyes meets mine across the street.
Remi.
She has a phone pressed to her ear, but her hand slowly falls to her side as she stares at the little girl in my arms. Then she runs, ducks beneath the barricade before the officer beside her can stop her, and races across the street toward us.
Several cops move to intercept, blocking her path as one reaches for her arm.
“Let her through,” I call out.
“She can’t be in here,” one of them shouts back.
“She’s family.”
Ryan steps forward. “Let her through.”
The officers hesitate before stepping aside.
Zara lifts her head at the sound of the commotion, and the second she sees Remi, her fingers twist even harder into my vest.
“She’s not hurt,” I say quickly, reading the panic in Remi’s eyes. “The blood isn’t hers.”
Remi looks at Zara from head to toe, taking in every inch of her, then her gaze shifts past us toward the bank. She doesn’t ask. Her lips tremble, and I know she understands.
“Zara! Oh, God, you’re okay.”
Matteo reaches us and pulls her against his chest, his hands moving over her hair and face as he checks her himself.
“She still needs to be medically assessed,” I tell him. “I’ll walk you over.”
He looks at me, emotion breaking through the hard expression I remember from the range, and places a hand on my shoulder.
“Thank you.”
I nod, but my attention returns to Remi. She hasn’t moved or spoken a word.
Her eyes meet mine. A week ago, she looked at my badge and saw everything she hated. She told me that what I do for a living told her everything she needed to know about me. Now she’s looking at me like she doesn’t know what to see. And maybe I don’t either.
“Remi,” Zara says, her voice breaking.
Remi turns to her.
“I did what you said.” Zara reaches for her, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I didn’t let go, Remi. I held her tight…I didn’t let go.”
The last of Remi’s composure disappears.
She takes Zara from Matteo and pulls her into her arms as a sob escapes, burying her face against those caramel-colored curls as tears stream down her cheeks.
I stand there watching them, unable to look away.