Hi people! So sorry I wasn't able to post this chapter last night, my internet connection was all messed up, lol. I bought the things I needed to give my laptop a wireless connection to the internet via my cable modem, (woo hoo!) but after I finished, it didn't work! LOL! Turned out it wasn't something I'd done wrong, my cable provider's service was out, LOL! Okay, enough of my babbling, read on! Thanks for the reviews!

As soon as they were out of Artie's view and earshot, Jake opened his mouth to ask Jay about Frank, but before Jake had the chance, Jay grabbed him by the arm and started running to the vault.

"Your friend is in bad shape, I dunno if he's gonna make it."

Jake felt like someone punched him in the stomach when he heard those words. He'd been hoping that Artie had only been trying to scare them when he said that Frank was dying, but apparently, it was true. When he stepped into the vault, he actually stopped dead, at the sight.

Frank was laying completely still, his face more grayish then white, a pile of bloody shirts nearby, and blood all over his clothes. He didn't even look alive.

Jake ran over and dropped to his knees beside him. "Frank?" he said, hoping he was conscious. He got no reply, as he uncovered the wound, and winced at what he saw. Internal damage for sure! Checking his pulse, he found it to be sluggish and irregular. He took off his coat and covered Frank's very cold body with it, thankful that he'd worn it.

Jake looked up at Jay, who stood there watching, a sympathetic look on his face. He stood. "We have to get him out of here, you have to help me."

Jay's eyebrows went up. "How? I have no weapon, Artie has two."

Jake sighed. "We gotta get Frank out of here now, or he is gonna die!"

********************

Chief Morgan and the rest of the UC team stood together, watching the door.

"What's taking so long?" the Chief asked.

Alex sighed, and looked at Monica.

"I don't think he's coming out," Monica said.

The chief sighed. "He's keeping Frank and Jake!"

Alex shook her head. "I knew it!"

"Jake'll be able to take Artie down," Cody said. "This might be a good thing. He can take him out and get Frank out of there."

"Yeah, at least Frank is being taken care of, now that Jake's with him," said Monica.

"If that jerk's letting him, you mean," Alex said, angrily.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a helicopter. The looked up to see it flying towards the bank's roof.

The phone rang a minute later, and Morgan picked it up.

"That my chopper?" he heard.

The chief sighed. "Yes, it will be landing on the roof. You don't need Frank and Jake anymore, let them go now."

"Fat chance of that, chief. Donovan isn't gonna live much longer anyway!"

Chief Morgan felt his blood start to boil. "Look you scum, when we find you, you will be put away for so long you'll regret having been born! Armed robbery is bad enough, you want to add murder to your prison sentence too?"

In answer, Artie laughed. "You aren't gonna find me, Chief."

Morgan opened his mouth to reply, but was met with a dial tone instead. He dialed back, and waited for Artie to answer.

"What?"

"If you don't let them go, we won't give you the chopper."

Alex and Monica stood by nervously, afraid that the Chief's methods were going to get Frank and Jake killed.

"You told me that if I let the hostages go, you'd give me the chopper!"

"You told us that you would let Jake take Frank out of there!" Morgan yelled back.

Artie started to laugh. He didn't know what to say to that, however, so he hung up.

Morgan slammed the phone down, in disgust. Before Alex and Monica could say anything, Cody jumped out of the van and ran over.

"I know his name! Artie Capone!"

"Capone?" Monica repeated. "Why am I not surprised?"

"What has he done, what's his connection to Frank?" Alex asked.

Cody sighed. "I found no connection at all. He's a bank robber, and car thief, amongst other things. I found no reference to a 'Tommy', or anything that Frank could've had anything to do with."

"He said he wanted revenge," Morgan reminded them.

Cody shook his head, not understanding why there was no information. "I'll go read the file again."

*******************

"You mean he's still alive?"

Jake and Jay turned to see Artie standing in the doorway of the vault, a look of annoyance on his face.

"What is it you have against Frank? Who is this Tommy you mentioned?" Jake asked.

"Why don't you ask him, he'll tell you," Artie said, gesturing to Frank. "Oh, I guess he doesn't feel like talking right now, does he?" He turned and walked away, laughing.

Jake jumped to his feet, but Jay grabbed him by the arm. "You go after him and he'll shoot you and then neither of you will make it out of here!"

Jake sighed, and knelt next to Frank again, belatedly seeing a bruise on his cheekbone. It made him angry to see that Artie had obviously taken advantage of Frank's inability to fight back. "There must be some way to get out! I'm not just gonna sit here and let Frank die!"

"Jake…"

Jake jumped at the voice that came out of nowhere, realizing it was his boss. "Frank!"

 Not bothering to ask how Jake came to be in the bank, Frank merely said, "Escape…without me. Save yourself…"

Jake shook his head vehemently. "No! I won't leave you to die!"

Frank shivered, feeling positively freezing. "Too late…" he said, meaning he was close to death already. Closing his eyes, he didn't see the look of anguish that passed over Jake's face at his words.

"Frank!" Jake said, shaking him slightly, realizing too late that that wasn't a very nice thing to do to poor Frank at the moment. Frank winced and opened his eyes slightly; glad he'd done it, in a way. He was afraid that if he lost consciousness again, he'd never wake up.

"Frank, listen to me," Jake said, urgently. "I am getting out of here, but so are you. I'm not leaving you, even if I have to die with you!"

Frank was too out-of-it to react to that statement, closing his eyes again with a weak gasp as pain laced through him.

"Frank!" Jake checked his pulse when Frank didn't open his eyes again, and found it still there. He sighed in frustration, not knowing what to do.

Jay stood there the whole time, watching. In his mind, he was sure Frank was going to die, and he felt horrible, blaming himself for the situation. "Jake?" he said.

Jake turned to look at him.

"I'll help you in whatever way I can, to get you both out of here."

********************

"The chopper has landed. Are you going to let Frank and Jake go now, or what?" Chief Morgan asked Artie.

"Yeah, I'll let them go. Meet me on the roof in 5 minutes." With that, Artie hung up.

Morgan's eyebrows went up, and he put the phone down. "He said he'll let them go, on the roof." He ran off to give his men orders.

Monica frowned, and looked at Alex, who wore a similar expression. "That doesn't make sense, after all this."

"A change of heart?" Alex asked. "He thinks he got his money and an escape route, so he might as well give them up, to save his life?"

Monica shook her head. "That doesn't fit his personality. He's more likely to do something terrible, like…" she couldn't even say it.

Alex caught her breath as she realized what Monica meant, remembering Artie's earlier threat of killing Frank in front of them.

********************

"Okay, people! Time to get outta here!" Artie yelled, running into the vault.

Jay and Jake both looked at him. "What?" Jay said.

"We are about to make our escape," said Artie, slinging the stuffed-full-of-money duffle bag onto his shoulder. "Get him up," he said, gesturing his gun to Frank.

"'Get him up'?" Jake echoed, incredulous.

"Yeah! As in 'on his feet'." He pointed the gun at Frank's head. "Do it! Now! Any wrong moves and he gets it."

Having no choice, Jake and Jay carefully pulled Frank up, who they found was semi-conscious. Frank gasped with pain, unable to stand. His head spun as they held onto him tightly.

Artie pointed the gun at Jake. "You, move away."

Jake didn't budge, so Artie pointed the gun at Frank's head again. With a glance at Jay, Jake backed away slowly, and Artie moved forward and roughly grabbed Frank out of Jay's grasp, and into a headlock, his arm around Frank's throat.

Frank weakly tried to grab Artie's arm, to push it away, but hardly managed to get his arms up halfway before they dropped again.

Artie pointed his gun at Jake again. "Walk."

Jake obeyed, and looked behind himself to see that Jay was behind him, and Artie behind Jay. Artie was having a hard time pulling Frank along, who was too weak and not quite conscious enough to walk. Artie still had the gun to Frank's head.

They all left the vault and waited for Artie's next order.

"Jay, take him to the car," Artie said, walking well behind Jake and Jay as they started to walk to the back door of the bank. When they reached it, Jay opened it and they walked into an alley behind the bank where a late model black 4 dr Honda Accord was parked.

"Stop there," Artie said, pulling Frank along.

Jake obeyed, wishing Artie would come closer, so he could jump him and end the situation now, before they got into the car, and into more danger.

"Over there," Artie said, motioning for Jake to move away from the car, Jay following. Artie reached the car and opened the back door, practically throwing Frank inside, who tried unsuccessfully to stifle a cry of pain. Artie fished keys out of his pocket, and threw them at Jay, who caught them, nervously.

"Get in," Artie said to Jake, pointing the gun at him.

Seeing no way out, especially now that Frank was in the thief's car, he got in, helping Frank—who was limply laying across the seat—into a more comfortable position.

Jay got in quickly, and whispered to Jake, "Put your seatbelts on!" before Artie got in.

Jake complied, putting Frank's on too—as loosely as he could safely make it, with the horrible stab wound in the way. He held onto his barely-conscious boss tightly as Jay started to drive, wondering what Jay had in mind.

********************

"Where are they? It's been more then five minutes," Chief Morgan said.

Monica shook her head. "Something's not right."

"I agree," Alex said, taking out a walkie-talkie. "Cody?"

"Yeah?"

"Have an officer try to take a peek into a bank window."

"Will do."

They stood there on the roof, waiting for Cody's reply.

"Uh," they heard.

"What?" Alex asked.

"There doesn't appear to be anyone in there, they said."

Morgan muttered something under his breath, and yelled to the SWAT team. "Go in, now!"

By the time Morgan, Alex, and Monica got back to the ground, some of the SWAT team was coming out.

"The bank is empty sir."

"HOW did they get away?!" Morgan roared, taking off his hat and throwing it to the ground.

"Probably by car!" said Alex. "It was a trick, so they could escape while we were on the roof!"

Morgan grabbed a bullhorn, and yelled to all the officers to make chase, hoping somehow to find the car and rescue Frank and Jake before it was too late.