Overwhelming Force Read online

  Joe took a deep breath, looking out at the small bank. He couldn’t see anything happening inside. The Denver County police didn’t have a sizable SWAT team, but it did appear like they had a couple of marksmen. He knew Derek and Lillian were both expert sharpshooters also.

  He hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  Why were the hostage-takers here at this particular bank? Had they tried to rob it then got stuck so took hostages? Robbing a bank wasn’t a very smart move and didn’t have a high success rate, but people did desperate things sometimes.

  There were kids inside. That upped the ante a lot. Joe’s natural inclination was to march up to the door right now, even without backup. But he knew to set wheels in motion before Derek and the team were ready could spell disaster for everyone.

  “Derek, there are kids, man,” Joe said softly. He knew he didn’t have to remind his friend of that—with his pregnant wife, it would be in the forefront of Derek’s mind, too—but couldn’t help himself. “They’ve already been in there a long time. Let me know which direction you’ll be coming from if it goes south and I’ll get started. At least get the kids out.”

  “There’s not a lot of good options with a bank this old that was built in the fifties,” Derek muttered, studying the plans more intently. “It looks like the roof will be our best bet. Probably a ventilation shaft. We might have to send Lillian through alone if it’s too small.”

  Lillian alone would be plenty enough to put down two tangos. Joe nodded at her; she winked at him. Despite her beauty, he had never tried to make a move on her. He knew better than to hit on a woman who made a living shooting people.

  “Okay,” Joe said. “What’s today’s go-signal?”

  The team always had a phrase and action, both meant only to be used as a last resort, that Joe could use to signal SWAT that the situation inside was out of hand and they needed to use deadly force.

  “Word is sunglasses.” Derek glanced up from the plans. “Action is putting your sunglasses on your head.”

  Joe’s shades were in the pocket of his shirt. Unlike the other Omega members, all wearing full combat gear and bulletproof vests, Joe was wearing a black T-shirt, jeans and casual brown boots. It was important that he seem as normal and nonthreatening as possible when he approached the hostage-takers.

  “Be careful in there, Joe.” It was Jon who looked up from the building plans this time. “We’ve got a lot of blinds here. I know you’re good on the fly, but watch your six.”

  Joe nodded, already beginning to walk toward the building. “Those kids and their mother will be coming out first. Be ready for them.”

  He blew out a breath through gritted teeth, forcing his shoulders then jaw to relax. Coming in tense—or at least looking overly tense—never helped. There were two guys in there who needed to be heard. Joe wanted to do that. But even more he wanted to get the hostages out safely. Every one of them.

  Joe walked up to the glass door of the bank and knocked, then held his hands up in a position of surrender so they could see he wasn’t armed. And he waited.

  He was about to become best buddies with two potentially dangerous guys.

  Just another day at the office for Joe Matarazzo.

  Chapter Two

  Laura Birchwood should’ve sent her assistant to the bank to get these stupid papers signed.

  But no, Laura had wanted to get out of the office, get some nice fresh air on this relatively warm, sunny April day in Colorado. It had been a long, cold winter and it had snowed even as late as a week and a half ago.

  So when it had been in the upper 60s on a late Friday afternoon and her Colorado Springs law office—Coach, Birchwood and Winchley, LLP—had needed the signature of a bank manger here on the outskirts of Denver, Laura had offered to make the trip herself. Her assistant had Friday night plans; Laura didn’t. Laura decided she would have dinner in Denver while she was here. She’d be by herself, but that wasn’t anything unusual.

  The two guys pacing frantically with big guns, stopping every once in a while to wave them around and scare the people sitting on the bank floor, were going to ruin her dinner plans.

  As pathetic as the plans were.

  Laura refused to let herself panic, even when the guys glanced over in her direction. Hysteria wasn’t going to help anything in this situation; as a matter of fact, she was pretty sure the hostage-takers would just feed off it and become more aggravated.

  “I have to get them out of here,” Brooke, the young mother sitting next to Laura, whispered. “They’re going to get hungry soon. Get upset.”

  She referred to the two girls the mom had with her, a baby maybe eight or nine months, not old enough yet to be crawling, thank goodness, and a five-year-old. Both had done remarkably well so far. Brooke herself had done great. She’d fed the baby a bottle and given the older girl, Samantha, a box of crayons and a coloring book she’d had in her diaper bag.

  Most of all she’d stayed calm. Her daughters had picked up on their mother’s cues and had also stayed calm. Laura wasn’t even sure Samantha really understood what was happening.

  “Police will be coming, Brooke,” Laura whispered to her. “I have a packet of peanut butter crackers in my purse for Samantha. That will buy us some time.”

  “I need to make another bottle.” Brooke gestured to the baby currently sitting in her lap, playing with some teething toys. “And I know her diaper is wet. I’m going to have to talk to them.”

  “No, I’ll talk to them—”

  Laura flinched as one of the two men, the loud one, let out a loud string of obscenities. “Shut up over there!” he yelled, pacing more wildly.

  Samantha looked up from her coloring. “He said a bad word,” she whispered to Laura.

  He’d said a bunch of them. Laura wasn’t sure which one the girl meant.

  “You’re not supposed to say shut up,” Samantha stated primly, then went back to her coloring.

  Laura couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to meet a kid whose definition of foul language revolved around the words shut up.

  She had to get Brooke and her two beautiful daughters out of here. She knew drawing the men’s attention to her by asking them to release Brooke and the girls could be dangerous. Laura had no idea what the men wanted. To be honest she wasn’t even sure these men knew exactly what they wanted.

  The local police had tried calling the bank. The men had made the employees unplug all the phones and then had hit the assistant manager on the head with their gun. The man was conscious but still had blood oozing down the side of his face. They’d forced everyone to put their cell phones in a trash can and placed it in the middle of the room.

  If the robbers decided to start killing hostages, Laura didn’t want to put herself at the front of the line. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to let Brooke do it. And now that 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.
br />   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?

  But pointing out the logic flaws would only put them more on the defensive.

  “No, nothing like that. I was just wondering what to call you.”

  “You can call me Ricky and him Bobby,” the older of the two men said, sneering.

  Joe recognized Ricky Bobby. “Yeah, I saw that movie.” Joe smiled. “The kids, Walker and Texas Ranger. Hilarious. Anchorman was my favorite though.”

  The men’s weapons lowered just the slightest bit. Good. Just keep them thinking about Will Ferrell and movies. Based on their coloring and size, Joe guessed Ricky and Bobby to be brothers.

  He turned casually in the opposite direction so he could see the other half of the bank as he crouched down to put his shoes back on.

  There were the kids. Good. A little girl alternating between coloring and watching what was going on and a baby in her mom’s lap. Joe glanced at the mom’s face to see how she was holding up.

  And found the angry eyes of Laura Birchwood.

  Joe felt the air leave his lungs.

  Man, she hadn’t changed at all in the six years since he’d seen her, well, except for the two kids part. She still had wavy brown hair and a face more interesting than it was traditionally pretty. But it was still the face he’d never been able to ever get out of his mind.

  The pain that assaulted him at the knowledge that Laura had moved on so completely from him took him by surprise. She obviously had found herself a husband and had a couple of kids, given the cute little baby who bounced on her knees.

  After what he’d said to her when their relationship ended, Joe couldn’t blame her for moving on. It still hurt like hell though.

  Joe stood from putting on his boots and looked at the two men. He needed to focus.

  “Ricky, Bobby, I want to help you guys. They sent me in here to figure out what we can do to work this out peaceful-like.” He carefully didn’t use the word cops in case that was some sort of trigger word for the two men “There’s nothing that has been done here yet that makes the situation terrible. You guys and I can walk out of here right now and everything can be made right.”

  That wasn’t
totally accurate. Ricky and Bobby would be doing some jail time for this little stunt. But it would be much worse if they killed someone. Joe didn’t really think they were just going to walk out with him, but it was worth a shot.

  “No,” Ricky said. “They’ll shoot us as soon as we come out. Or at least arrest us.”

  “Nobody wants to shoot you. I promise you that,” Joe quickly interjected. He needed to keep the level of paranoia as low as possible.

  “Well, we’re not going out there. Not until we have what we need.” Bobby looked over at the bank manager.

  Okay, so they did want something. Probably money. That was good, something Joe could work with, something he could talk to them about.

  Something that provided him leverage.

  “That sounds reasonable. Is what you need going to hurt anybody?”

  If what they needed was to blow up a bank full of people while the press was watching to make some sort of political or religious statement, then it was going to be time for Joe to pull out the sunglasses to signal SWAT awfully quick. But Ricky and Bobby didn’t seem to be the political statement types.

  “No,” Bobby said. “What we want is ours. We just want it back.”

  To the side, Joe heard Laura’s baby start to cry. He needed to get her and the children out of here. Right now. He couldn’t stand the thought of Laura being hurt again. Or especially her innocent children.

  Joe had hurt her enough once. Maybe he could begin to make that right by getting her and her family out of danger.

  “Alright, I can do that. That’s why I was sent in here. To see what it is you need and help find a way to get it for you. That’s my only job here, figuring out a way this can end okay for everyone.”

  Again, that wasn’t actually true, but the baby’s cries were getting louder. Ricky and Bobby both turned to glare at the child and Joe briefly thought of trying to take both of them down physically himself, but he decided not to risk it. Somebody might get hurt. Plus, it was too early in the negotiation process. If Joe broke their trust now, he would not get it back.

  “She’s got to shut that kid up,” Bobby told Ricky.