there was no way the police could contact the men to see what they wanted, Laura didn’t know how the police could help.
She reached over and squeezed Brooke’s hand.
“Laura, wait, don’t—”
Laura was standing up when a knock on the bank’s front door suddenly drew everyone’s attention. She didn’t have a good angle to take in the whole scene but could see the upheld arms of a man standing there. She quickly sat back down.
The robbers went ballistic.
“Who are you? What do you want?” one screamed at the person at the door, voice shrill.
“We’ll kill everyone in here. Every last one of them. Get away!”
The man outside didn’t move except to gesture to them to unlock the door.
The two men began frantically talking between themselves. Laura couldn’t hear all of it, but knew one of the men at least understood that the man at the door was a hostage negotiator.
Hopefully the guy was a good one.
Finally the two men broke apart from their huddle. The negotiator was still standing arms upstretched by the entrance. Laura still couldn’t see his face.
“You.” One of the hostage-takers pointed over to the bank manager. “Get over here and open the door.”
The manager got shakily to his feet and walked to the door gathering a large ring of keys from his pocket. The robber got behind him, using the man as a human shield, and put the gun directly to the manager’s temple.
The baby started fussing and Laura reached over to hold her so Brooke could get out another bottle. Plus, if bullets started flying Brooke could grab Samantha and Laura could try to protect the baby.
“You better pray that this guy doesn’t try anything. Because you’ll be dead before you hit the floor if he does. Open it just a crack,” the man holding the manager said.
The manager nodded as he put the key in the door. Rivers of sweat rolled down his face. The room remained silent.
“P-please don’t do anything,” the manager said to the man outside. “He’ll kill me if you do anything.”
“Nah, no plans to do anything to make anybody nervous.” The negotiator’s voice was clear and friendly. And oddly familiar to Laura. “I swear to you all, I am unarmed and just here to talk. To see what we can work out. To find a solution where all of us get out of here without getting hurt.”
“How do I know you’re not armed?” the robber yelled from behind the manager, keeping his head down.
“I’m going to reach down now and lift up my shirt and turn around. You’ll see. No weapon at all. No earpiece. Nothing.”
She still couldn’t see his face, but Laura and the rest of the bank were treated to the sight of rock-solid abs as the man lifted his shirt and turned around slowly. Under any other circumstances Laura would’ve just enjoyed the view.
“You could have a gun in your pants,” the other man said. “An ankle holster or something. We’re not stupid.”
“No, you’re right. You’re smart to think of that. Most people wouldn’t.”
The negotiator was good. He’d already tuned in to what the robbers needed to hear: that they were smart, in control. The man ripped off his shirt and dropped it to the ground.
“I’m going to take off my jeans, okay? Not trying to give anyone a show, but you’re smart to check and make sure I really don’t have any weapons.”
Strong muscular legs came into view as the man kicked off his boots and socks and then took off his jeans. Black boxer briefs were all that was left on the negotiator. Laura sort of hoped the robbers would let him in, not only so he could negotiate them out of this mess, but so she could see his face. Would it be as impressive as the rest of him?
“Miss Laura—” Samantha giggled “—that man only has his underwear on.”
Laura smiled. “I know, sweetie. He’s silly.” She bounced the baby on her legs, thankful she wasn’t crying anymore.
“So as you can see,” the negotiator continued, “no weapons. Well, one, if you know what I mean. But I generally only bring that one out for the ladies.” Laura could hear the smile in his voice. “Do you mind if I come in and talk? It’s a nice day but still a little chilly out here in just my drawers.”
“Fine,” the guy behind the bank manager finally said. “Get in here. But if you do anything suspicious at all, I’ll start killing people.”
The guy grabbed his pile of clothes and quickly squeezed through the door. The manager relocked it and the bad guy got away from the danger of the door and pointed his gun at the negotiator.
Laura could feel her jaw literally drop when she got her first full look at him.
Standing there in his boxer briefs was Joe Matarazzo.
She never thought she would see him again. Had hoped she would never see him again. And now it looked like her life was in his hands.
Just went to prove that behind every worst-case scenario, there was a worse worst-case scenario.
* * *
JOE KNEW HE would never hear the end of this little striptease from his Omega colleagues. But he’d been certain he couldn’t get into the bank any other way. These two guys were paranoid, frantic. Joe knew immediately he needed to put himself in a position of seeming to be the beta. Let them feel like they were alpha.
Joe’s pride, his true feelings, his personality, didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting everyone out of the bank safely.
If they had asked him to take off his boxers, he would’ve done that, too. But he was glad they hadn’t.
Joe quickly assessed one half of the bank as he put his jeans back on. The bank manager seemed scared to death and had some bruising on the side of his face—probably took a punch—but otherwise appeared fine. An injured man, also a bank employee, sat propped up against the wall. Looked like he also had received a blow to the side of the face. Bloody, but not life-threatening.
All the bank employees being alive was a good sign. It meant these two guys probably didn’t want to hurt anyone. Probably had planned to rob the bank and things had escalated.
No one was dead yet, so that meant there was a very good chance that Joe could get everyone out unharmed.
“I’m Joe, by the way,” he told the two men as he pulled his shirt back over his head.
“You expect us to tell you our names so you can get a bunch of information on us? No way, man.” Both men had their weapons aimed directly at Joe.
Joe wanted to point out the flaws in their logic: how was he supposed to get any information? He’d just gotten almost naked in front of them so they knew he didn’t have any communication devices. And even if he did, what would a bunch of information do versus two very real guns?
