Knox squeezed Maya’s shoulder. “I’ll take point. Nina will have your back.”
“I’m fine,” Maya promised. “Let’s do this.”
Knox slipped out into the alley again, leading the way through the shadows toward the little brick bank with its massive vault—and its hostages.
He burst through the locked back door, splintering the wooden jamb. There were two men just inside the back entrance. Knox hit the first one at full speed, knocking him back against the wall so hard the whole building shuddered.
The second guard reached for his radio. Nina slid across the floor on her knees and swept his legs out from under him. The radio tumbled from his fingers as he hit the cracked tile with a thud. Before he could regain his breath or his footing, Nina sank a blade deep into his chest.
He was dead by the time the radio crackled to life. “Hey, we heard a crash. Everything okay over there?”
Nina stepped over the handset. “Ninety seconds, Maya.”
Maya stopped in front of the massive vault’s numeric keypad and jabbed all nine keys in sequence. Each beeped with its own barely discernible tone, the difference so minuscule that Maya’s task seemed impossible. But she tilted her head, her focus absolute, and waited for the vault to reject the code.
Then she started hitting keys.
They’d only heard the vault opened once during their surveillance, but for Maya’s memory, once was enough. Her fingers flew over the keypad, matching each tone from her memory until she’d completed the fifteen-digit sequence.
The light on the lock flashed green. The door clicked.
Next to Nina, Knox whistled softly. “That is one hell of a party trick.”
Maya twisted the handle and hauled open the door. Inside the vault, eight people huddled against the far wall—five adults and three kids, including one who looked like she was barely old enough to walk.
The fear on their faces squeezed tight around Nina’s heart. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “You’re going to be okay.”
An older woman with a makeshift bandage wrapped around her head forced her way to her feet. Her dirty, bloodstained clothes were reminiscent of a uniform, and she had an empty holster on one hip. Her gaze shot straight to Knox. “I’ve seen you before.”
“A time or two, Sheriff,” Knox agreed, pulling the gun he’d lifted from the guard out of his belt. He handed it over to the woman. “Let’s get your people to safety and we can talk all about it.”
“Problem.” Dani’s voice came over the comms, clipped and harried. “We don’t have a 20 on the leader.”
Oh shit.
Nina looked at Knox, who nodded. She shoved another pistol at Maya, along with several spare magazines. “Keep them in the vault,” she instructed. “It’s good cover, and this could get ugly.”
Maya braced herself next to the vault with line of sight on the door. “I’m on it. Go.”
Outside, night had fallen completely. The only light in the street came from the moon … and the open door to the café, which was lodged open by two corpses lying in the doorway. Nina crept along the front of the bank beside Knox, trying to remain in the shadows as she scanned the street.
A gunshot rocked the stillness, and Nina moved instinctively, shoving Knox back against the wall. Scalding pain raked across her cheek as the bullet hit the brick and sent shards of it flying.
“Shit.” Knox jerked her back into the shadows, wedging his body between her and the direction of the shots. “Stay behind me,” he hissed.
“Knox—”
“Might as well come out,” a rough voice roared. “I’ve got a gun to Eileen’s head. You’re gonna have to shoot through her to get me.”
A woman screamed in pain, and Nina stepped forward, into the moonlight. “Stop.”
The gang’s leader, Mitchell, moved into the spill of light from the café. He was a tall man with wiry muscles and a mean face, and he had one arm locked under the woman—Eileen’s—chin. It was a brutal grip, so tight she had to stay on her toes just to keep from choking, and her dark eyes shimmered with tears as she stared hopelessly at Nina.
Mitchell jabbed the gun into Eileen’s side hard enough to make her cry out. “Where’s the other one?”
“Here,” Knox said, stepping up beside Nina. He lifted both empty hands. “We can negotiate. No one else has to get hurt.”
“Let her go,” Nina urged.
“Who do you think’s giving the orders?” Mitchell roared. “You think I haven’t planned for this? Put your face in the fucking