Chapter Three

Kelsey

Matty walked into our tent that we set up shop in after the uniformed officers closed off the road with a grim expression on his face. As if this day could get any worse.

“FBI’s been called in,” he said. White-hot fury shot through me in an instant. I felt so helpless to this God-awful day. Usually, I felt in control of my life and my choices. But today, it felt like everything was happening to me, like decisions about how my day was meant to go were happening behind a door I couldn't quite get through.

It was a terrible feeling that weighed me down. I hated that feeling and I hated that I couldn't seem to do anything about it.

Before I could stop myself I let out a strangled groan and clenched my teeth to stop the tears that were fighting their way to the surface. I was an emotional person, and I wasn't ashamed of that, but I didn't want to cry at work in front of everyone. On top of that, rationally I knew that none of these events would make me cry on a normal day.

They would seem like a small setback that might irritate me, but then I would move on, generally unconcerned about their impact on my day. But today...today I started my morning on cloud nine. I woke up before my alarm, with a sweet, conflicted red-head named Emma wrapped around me, starved for contact.

I stayed with her like that for almost an hour, watching her sleep like a creep, yet unable to stop myself. Eventually, I slid out of bed to get up and shower, promising myself that there was time for more later. That we could exchange numbers and maybe go out on a real date and maybe try for something here.

I went into the shower hopeful...I came out confused and lonely. I came out questioning myself and my own abilities. I left home raw and exposed but trying to shrug it off.

I thought I was going a good job until this FBI news was dropped. It's not that I dislike the FBI, they have their uses. I mean, I don't know what any of those uses are, but I'm sure they have them. It's just that I really needed a win today, and having them swoop in here and taking our case--and all the credit along with it--wasn't really marking up my win column.

Matty pulled me out of my spiral when he continued, “apparently these guys," he motioned towards the bank when he said 'these guys', "haven’t just been hanging out in New York. They crossed state lines, so it’s their jurisdiction. They want to work with us though, so no need to pack up and head home.”

“Aw, how nice of them to include us." Was that immature? Probably. Did I care? No freaking way. "Do you know who they sent?” Not that I really knew anyone on the Crisis Negotiations Team, but I still felt like I needed to ask for some reason I couldn't name.

Matty checked his stupid little notepad he carries around to write stuff in like an old man. I swear you would think he trained to be a detective in the 1980s instead of the 2010s with some of the things he does. “Special Agent Emma Harrison. The whole team is working it, but she’s our liaison for the case.”

A small part of me heard that first name and started to sweat a little bit. Emma is a popular name, I told myself. There was such a low possibility of this Emma being the Emma I met last night, that I shook it off.

I had heard of Agent Harrison before, though. She was wicked smart and a damn good negotiator. But I hadn't heard much about her in the last year, which was weird.

I should really be thankful they are sending someone so experienced. Although, everyone on that team was good. The problem wasn’t their abilities. There was a reason they were well sought after.

The issue had way more to do with their lack of desire to play nice. Everyone knew they could, hell, they played best friend to people who did -- and often were in the middle of doing -- horrible things, and yet they couldn’t be bothered to be team players with the local cops. It was annoying as hell.

“When is she going to get here?” I asked, focusing on the doors of the bank, trying to get my emotions under control. Since all the cameras were covered or turned off, there was really no point looking at the black monitors we had set up.

“Looks like she’s already here,” he replied. I followed his gaze to the woman walking towards our tent, and all of the air left my lungs as if I’d just been punched in the gut. Emma.

Emma

The minute my focus crashed on Kelsey I wanted to turn around and head back home. Robbery in progress or not, this seemed like a bad situation wrapped in a burrito of terrible luck.

I mean, what are the chances that I would run into my one and only one night stand hours after I deserted her while she was in the shower. I mean...the shower! I could have joined her, but did I? Nope, I left because I'm an idiot. And now I'm going to have to work with her in some capacity I haven't quite grasped yet, which means she is completely off-limits now.

Not that she wasn't off-limits earlier today, but suddenly I was regretting not taking a bit more advantage of the time while we had it. When things were simple.

Well, too late now.

Pulling out my badge for them, I introduced myself, "Special Agent Emma Harrison. Are you the detectives on the case?" My question was met with silence until the man next to Kelsey finally spoke up and held out his hand for me to shake.

“Yep, that’s us. Nice to meet you, Agent Harrison. I’m Detective Matty Lawson. And this is Detective Kelsey Collins.” I was going to kill Drew for not saying their first names when he briefly mentioned the detectives to me on the phone. Like, thanks for the warning, buddy.

Shaking my head, I responded, “Please, call me Emma."

I shifted to shake Kelsey's hand because not shaking her hand would be too obvious. Even though shaking it as if we hadn’t met felt wrong. I allowed the frown to overtake me for a few seconds but it was left in the dust when our hands touched again. I felt the zing from it go all the way up my arm and heat up my whole body. Again, I thought to myself as my heart rate sped up. Off. Limits., I scolded myself, she's off-limits now.

“Okay, Emma. This is James Richardson. He's one of the managers of this location. James here says there are two tellers scheduled today, Jessica Wilson and Michael Price. The other manager is in the store, Samantha Johnson as well. And then one loan officer working today, Elizabeth Roberts," Matty explained to me. He seemed to be a pretty thorough detective so that was relieving.

James Richardson, apparently interested in chiming in, leaned forward and added, “call me Jim. It’s nice to meet you, Agent Harrison.”

“Thanks for coming in, Jim. We appreciate it.” I shook his hand before turning back to Kelsey and her partner. “What has happened so far? Has anyone made contact? Or attempted contact?”

“No, we were still collecting information when we got the call that you were coming, so we held off.” So far I had no idea what kind of detective Kelsey was since she hadn't even uttered a word yet, but I got good vibes off this Matty Lawson character.

“Okay, great. That makes things a little smoother.” I asked for the bank's phone number as I pulled out my work phone.

Jim rattled off the number for me so I quickly typed it in and listened to the phone ring. While I waited for someone to answer the phone I could feel my heart rate starting to spike and my vision started to tunnel a bit. If I didn't know any better I would say I was on the edges of another anxiety attack. I gripped the chair next to me tightly as I forced myself to breathe and tried to focus on the ringing phone.

“What do you want?” I heard a male voice ask. I couldn't see him, but I could tell he was in control of himself. At least one of us was.

I took a deep breath, trying to get myself under control. “This is Special Agent Emma Harrison. Can I know who I’m talking to?”

“It doesn’t matter who you're talking to. We just want a ride out of here. And no funny business or we will shoot these people.”

“I understand. I trust your word on that. Do you have a preference for mode of transportation? Any other demands?” I wanted to ensure they knew I was taking them seriously and to create the illusion that I will give them what they want. I might be short on empathy but I still knew the rules.

“We want a helicopter. No car, we don’t want to get stuck in traffic.” It was so weird to me, he was making textbook demands, but it didn't really feel like he meant them. The words were there, but the tone? The emotion? Nada. Or maybe I just couldn't read emotion through phone calls anymore. That was a terrifying thought so I pushed it away.

“It will take us some time to get a helicopter here. We have to find a place to land it as well.” It was nice when they asked for a helicopter. When they asked for a car it was a little harder to say we couldn’t come up with one of those.

“You have until 13:00. Not a minute later.” I checked my watch, 10:13. Less than three hours.

“I’ll see what I can do. It would go a long way if you released some hostages. That would show my bosses that you’re willing to negotiate.” This request was never received well in the beginning, but I needed to make our demands clear, too.

“No. No one comes in, no one goes out. And don’t call me again until you have our helicopter.” With that, he hung up the phone.

“How did they take it?” Detective Lawson asked me as I pocketed my phone.

“They want a helicopter by 13:00 and they don’t want anyone coming in or going out. And they don’t want us to call them again until we have the chopper.” I rubbed the back of my neck as I tried to ignore the prickling feeling there, telling me that something was off here. I couldn't put my finger on it but something just felt...wrong. Although, maybe that was the anxiety attack I was still white-knuckling through.

"What's wrong?" Kelsey finally spoke up to ask.

I shook my head, telling myself I'm just nervous being in the field again. "Nothing, just...thinking."

She didn't believe me, I could tell. But I mumbled something about grabbing something from my car, and walked off before she could push it.