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Moving was a drastic step, but ht now It was only a matter of tiain, the way it ith Trick when she’d first h that Even thinking about seeing a wo it down his driveway rabbed her laptop off the coffee table Tirabbed the reround noise of the TV she could concentrate, but the botton blazoned over the anchor’s head made her pause She turned up the volu as a hostage situation may have turned deadly in the Sale her mall-pretty face "A bank robbery at the sune A feuard, and a bank teller were inside for over an hour when the SWAT teaotiator After thirtyshot from inside the bank, a sniper was called on to take a shot at the lone gunht resulted, and one police officer and two members of the SWAT squad were injured"

The hair on Grace’s arhtened around the back of her neck, and she strained closer to the TV

"Their conditions are unknown at this tiun police to wonder whether or not the hostages have been injured or worse"

The neoman turned to face a second ca Les?"

The screen flashed to a somber, dark-haired ht We’re on the scene at Henderson’s Loan and Trust, and as you can see behind me, it’s abuzz with police activity"

The caround and Grace scanned the screen frantically, trying to make out the people She could see the police cars with flashing lights, uniformed officers and, closest to the bank front entrance, even the SWAT crew, but from that distance, there was no way to tell whether Trick was one of theht on a dark splotch in the parking lot directly in front of the bank Blood? Oil? Dear god, let it be oil She gripped the rehter in her sweaty palm and turned the volues inside at this ti their names, that hasn’t been cleared yet We’re told that there will be a short press conference in about an hour to update the est it all, to hold on to her calm Odds were that Trick wasn’t one of the injured officers There were a lot of guys on SWAT, and he was only on call three rotating days a week If it was one of the other four days, he wouldn’t even be on the scene She tried to remember the week before He’d drunk wine at the Halloween party, so he wasn’t on call that night But had he been the night before? Or was figuring his schedule a moot point, and had all available officers been called in?

She stood and ran toward the , repeating the sa and everything is fine She covered her eyes as she approached the curtains, needing a second to get herself together With a shaking hand, she pushed back the silky fabric and let her lids flutter open

Gone

She stifled a sob with her fist His car was gone, and suddenly it didn’t ht just be at the grocery store She needed to see it with her oo eyes

She flew across the roorabbed her purse and keys It was a tenso badly, she didn’t even know if she’d be able to work the gas and brake pedals, but she was going and she was going now Her cell phone chinored it until she got to the car Maybe it was Trick, calling to let her knoas all right?

She slid behind the wheel and rifled through her purse to find her phone Peering down, she blew out a frustrated sigh Serena She’d likely seen the news as well and wanted to see if she knew anything Grace wasn’t about to take the ti through her contacts to find Trick’s nu with every beat of her heart that he would answer That he was okay Because the only thing scarier than a life without Trick was the thought of hi hurt

Or worse

Chapter Thirteen

Trick sat on the curb, head in hand, still trying to process the cluster fk that had just unfolded How had things flown off the rails so damned fast? One minute, all was quiet, they were in position, and the sniper was set to ive the SWAT teaet those hostages to safety It had all been part of a carefully constructed plan

Then their sniper hadrolled by on a gurney His face was a ony, in spite of his superficial wound Trick knew the look One of failure and guilt and the knowledge that your ht have cost a life It was a position they’d all spent their careers hoping they’d never be in As regularthat officers in good standing volunteered for, or, in Trick’s case, were recruited for Once testing was done and the top candidates were selected, training was rigorous A lot of guys dropped out when they realized exactly how draining the job could be irlfriends had the sauys in riot gear bashed down doors, invincible in their vests, and victorious o ho up a riot where heads were bashed in It wasn’t gla up to be one of those days

"You good?"

His street partner and teaed his shoulder "There wasn’t anything we could’ve done there, buddy Once the shot ide, if we’d gone in, thehi our dicks"

Trick nodded grimly He knew that to be true, but it didn’t make the outcome any easier to take Three people were injured, one critically, and the perp still had all three hostages in the bank Whether they were alive or dead remained to be seen