Page 49 of Summer with a SEAL

Blowing out a shaky breath, she set her phone on her lap, her hands trembling. Of course he’d do everything in his power to protect her—that’s the kind of man that Jacob was. That’s how all the guys were. But he wasn’t here with her. And just like the police were waiting outside, soon he would be as well.

If the robber came into the vault to kill them or blew the bank up with whatever explosives he had, they wouldn’t be able to stop him.

The first teller glanced over at them. “We were on the phone with the bank manager. She’s on her way over, too. Hopefully she can help the police figure out the best way inside.”

“Does she know anything about what’s happening out there?” Jessica asked.

The second woman answered. “They’re trying to establish communication with the robber. Apparently he’s not picking up the phone. He was pacing around inside but now is out of sight of any windows.”

“Too bad,” the businessman said dryly. “They could’ve taken him out.”

“Yeah. The police were just getting into position.”

“Maybe he’ll mess up and stand by the windows again,” Jessica hedged. “I mean, he led us all into that office with a window. Maybe he’ll start looking around for a way to escape and get too close.”

“We can only hope,” the first woman said. “They’re trying to make contact to negotiate with him. It looked like he had some explosives in that bag he had with him. I don’t know anything about that type of thing, but I hope he doesn’t blow us all up doing something stupid.”

“What’d he need explosives for?” Jessica asked. “You let him in the vault—did he even take anything?”

“Nope,” the man said, shaking his head. “Just the money from the tellers.”

Jessica frowned. “You’d think anyone robbing a bank would want to take as much money as they could.”

“Was he trying to get into the safe deposit boxes?” the man asked.

One of the tellers shrugged. “Maybe. They require two keys though—so even if we attempted to open one for him, if he didn’t have the other key, he’d never be able to get into it.”

“Unless he blew it up,” the man said.

“Yeah, but then wouldn’t he blow up whatever was inside?” Jessica asked. “That seems like a risky move.” She glanced down at her phone again, willing Jacob to text her. It was silly. He was busy driving here, trying to help her. But seeing his text earlier had stopped the frantic beating of her heart.

Would she ever get to tell him how much he meant to her?

Suddenly, Jessica jumped as she heard a gunshot outside of the vault. Fear sent chills racing down her spine. “Was someone else in the bank?” she asked frantically. “Or is that the robber just randomly shooting at stuff?”

“Maybe the police shot him,” one of the women said hopefully, turning toward the door of the vault. “The police could’ve gotten a good angle.”

“It sounded close though,” the man said. “They would’ve had to shoot him from inside the bank. Wouldn’t we know if they were in here?”

“What if he comes back inside the vault?” Jessica asked. “Do you have the only key? We should all get to the side to try and stop him in case he’s trying to shoot his way in.”

“Yeah,” the businessman said, standing up. “If he’s going to shoot us anyway, we might as well go down fighting.”

One of the women burst into sobs, and the other tried to comfort her. Jessica stood up and moved toward the door. “We don’t even know what’s happening,” she said. “He could’ve just fired at random.”

Taking a deep breath, she marveled at how Jacob and his SEAL team did this sort of thing for a living. How did they fight enemies they couldn’t see? Or risk their lives charging into unknown territory? They did lockdown drills at the high school she taught at, but it was nothing compared to a situation like this. Here she was locked in a bank vault, and she’d never been more terrified in her life.

Her phone buzzed, and she fumbled with it a moment, finally glancing down at the screen.

We’re here, angel.

The robber has rigged the front door to the bank with explosives.

No one can enter from there.

“Jesus Christ,” she said.

“What happened?” the man asked, glancing over at her. “What’s going on out there?”

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