No More Games

Chapter Five

"You," the gunman swiveled around, his weapon held steadily in his right hand as he aimed it at the trembling brunette huddled against the teller's counter. A squeak of fright escaped her lips as she looked—for the very first time—down the barrel of a gun. "On your feet."

His eyes were cold as he glared down at her. Compassion was the last thing on his mind. After all, when was the last time he was ever shown some compassion? He couldn't remember and, frankly, he didn't want to. That wasn't the reason why he was there. He was doing this to make a point. He was just as memorable as anyone else in that very room. And he was going to prove it even if he had to kill every single one of his hostages.

The girl—Shannon—shrank as far away from the hooded man as she possibly could. The bank's two guards sat on either side of her and they stared up at him as if they were willing to protect them with their lives. That is, they would if they were armed.

He rolled his eyes. Two guards' lives meant very little to him and while Shannon had been the focus of his attention for months, he would have very little use for her once this was over. In fact, she was already disposable.

He removed the safety from the gun with a very audible click. His hand tightened on the butt of the weapon and his finger twitched against the trigger. All it would take was one little squeeze.

"Don't make me ask twice," he growled.

The entire room watched intently as the girl climbed shakily to her feet. Tears were visible in her eyes as she clutched at the silver chain around her neck and wrapped her free arm around her stomach. She looked so fragile; as if she would break at any moment.

"Jack," Sue whispered in his ear, her sympathy for frightened girl clear in her voice. He squeezed her hand still clenched in his to offer her some sort of comfort as he turned to look her in the eye. "We have to do something."

He swallowed thickly at the compassion he saw in her eyes. Tears rimmed her lower lashes as thoughts of what could happen today if nothing was done. The same thoughts were running through his own mind, along with a few others that mostly consisted of the woman sitting beside him.

He swallowed the curse that threatened to erupt from his lips and squeezed Sue's hand again before he turned his eyes back to the hooded man and the teller as he reached for his gun.

Their captor removed a folded up piece of cloth from inside the front pouch of his sweatshirt and tossed it on the counter. "Fill up the bag with as much money as you can."

Shannon merely nodded as she tried to hold herself together. Opening a drawer full of bills, she silently began to regret moving to DC in the first place. What in the world had possessed her to move someplace so dangerous?

Swallowing thickly past her tears, she began to fill the bag with one hand. The other continued to clutch the chain around her neck as she remembered why she'd decided to move so far away from home, her parents, and the only life she'd ever known.

Bobby.

She sniffled loudly as she felt herself begin to completely crumble. The fear that she would never see him or her parents again was eating her up inside. She just wanted this nightmare to be over.

Pausing to wipe away her tears, she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye. The gunman was facing her, making sure she did as she was told so he never saw the man carefully get to his feet or when he reached inside his jacket.

"Hey, Tara," she heard the familiar tenor of Donato's voice as she wove passed him in the hallway as she searched for Bobby.

"Hey, Jim," she tossed back at him with a sigh. Usually the man's roving eye would set her off-balance when they came into any sort of contact with one another, but she was too worried about Bobby to notice the man ogling her tush.

The bank's security video had been up on the screen for barely five minutes before he decided to rush off, mumbling something under his breath as he hurried from the Bullpen. And she'd been the one elected to find him.

"Everything okay?" Donato asked as he paused right beside her and invaded her personal space.

She stared up at him, wide-eyed for only a second before his expression registered in her mind. The drongo was leering at her like she was a porterhouse steak! "Er… yeah. Have you seen Bobby? We have a meeting with SOG in ten minutes and I can't find him anywhere." As she spoke, she carefully inched away to put some distance between them. The man just didn't know how to take no for an answer.

Thankfully, he didn't follow her. In fact, just mentioning the Aussie's name seemed to sober him up. "I saw him head into the conference room down the hall about five minutes ago."

She was already walking away from him before her finished talking, heading into the direction he pointed to. She shot back a quick "thanks" over her shoulder but never looked back at him. Still, as she moved, she felt his eyes on her the entire way.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected to see when she finally found Bobby. Ever since they'd heard about the bank robbery, he'd been on edge and for some reason that frightened her. Still, he was calm as he leaned over a few papers he'd tossed onto the table. He looked worried, but calm.

"Bobby?" she called softly to him.

It wasn't her intention to startle him, but her attempt at easing him to awareness was unsuccessful. His head shot up from where he was studying the documents in front of him and turned to look at her. A curse rumbled passed his lips. "You scared me, Tara Luv."

Tara thought she'd caught a glimpse of tears in his eyes, but he blinked once and they were suddenly gone; replaced with the calm emotional barrier she was used to. "Sorry," she blushed, though she wasn't sure whether it was because she'd scared him or it was because of the way he called her 'Luv'. She really liked it when he called her that. "Uh, I knocked, but I guess you didn't hear me."

A mirthless laugh shook his shoulders as he tried to offer her a sincere smile. She noticed how it didn't completely reach his eyes.

"Sorry. I was… just thinking," was his only excuse as his gaze drifted back to the tabletop.

Curious, Tara stepped further into the room to see what had him so enthralled, but before she was able to catch a good glimpse, he'd gathered them up and stuck them back inside the inner pocket of his jacket. From what she had seen though, they were a series of letters of some sort and they really seemed to disturb him.

"Bobby-" she tried, but he didn't let her continue.

"Did you need something, Luv?"

She didn't like the way he was trying to change the subject, but she nodded anyway. "We're meeting with SOG in"—she checked her watch—"five minutes. A few members of SWAT are going to be there too."

He merely nodded with that familiar, infuriatingly calm mask still held in place as he headed for the door.

Reaching out, she grasped onto his arm and pulled him to a stop. "Bobby, is everything okay?"

For a second, his mask slipped free from his hold, allowing her to see his true emotions. He swallowed thickly and before she knew it, it was back in place as he cleared his throat and merely nodded as he pulled himself from her grasp.