Casey screamed as she was roughly shoved through the doorway with Jackal falling on top of her. Fade slammed the door closed. The sound of bullets hitting the door had Casey placing her hands over her head.
“This door isn’t going to hold them for long.”
“If we can get to the vault room, we’ll be safe in there as long as Lonnie doesn’t wake up,” Casey said shakily.
“Lead the way, then. Another minute and we’re all dead if they get inside.” Fade flinched as another round of bullets hit the door.
“Go now!” Jackal yelled when the gunshots stopped.
The three of them crawled along the floor toward the vault room where Casey rose to her knees to key in the code to open the metal door. Once inside, they slammed it closed. The vault light was blinking green, so Casey hastily placed her hand on the lit screen, and the metal door slowly started to open.
“Thank God!” Casey said, jumping up to run inside as they heard kicks on the wooden door from the room they had just crawled from.
“Don’t thank him yet! How do you close this motherfucker?” Jackal snapped.
Casey ran to the vault door, reaching for the handle then slamming the door closed, enclosing them inside. They were safe for now. Even if Lonnie regained consciousness, it would take thirty minutes to reset the timer.
Casey fell to her knees, trying to slow her frantic breathing. “It can’t be opened for thirty minutes. By then, the police should be here.” Casey saw the two men stare at each other.
“What?”
“You think Max has time for the cops to get here?”
Casey swallowed in fear. Max was still out there, and he didn’t have a metal door protecting him from the bank robbers. She stood up, going for the display board by the metal door, beginning to key in the override sequence.
“What are you doing?”
“We have to help Max!” she screamed at the two men.
Jackal’s arm went around her waist, pulling her away.
“Stop! We have to help him!” Casey fought against him like a crazy woman. Her nails cut into his arm around her waist. When that didn’t work, she managed to lift his arm enough that she could bite down on one of his hands.
“Dammit!”
Casey felt a hand go to her neck as she continued to struggle frantically, and her vision quickly began to dim. Whimpering, she tried to keep fighting.
“I have to help him…” she pled to the merciless face that was staring down at her.
“Max would kill us if you were hurt. Sorry, but you’re not going to open that door.” Jackal’s face tightened into a merciless mask.
Casey tried one last time to escape his hold, but her legs gave out as the darkness spread through her consciousness…
* * *
Max fired his gun, trying his damnedest to hit X. The son of a bitch managed to avoid being struck by the flying bullets. When he saw KC run toward the cop lying on the floor, Max stood, giving him cover as he dragged him into Casey’s office behind the desk.
“You crazy fucker, what in the hell are we going to do now?” KC scooted next to him.
“Beats the fuck out of me. Just try to get out of here without getting your head blown off!”
“That’s what I was trying to do.”
“KC, I’m going to kill your ass, traitor!”
“Guess they figured out I’m not with them anymore.” A bullet hit the phone on Casey’s desk, shattering it into bits of plastic.
“You think?” Max stated sarcastically.
“Shit.” KC aimed and fired at one of the Bandits who had gotten brave and was attempting to get closer. He fell to the floor, a bullet hole through his gut. “Never could stand that son of a bitch!”
And everyone thinks I’m the crazy one, Max thought.
Two more tried to get closer, but he and KC both fired, making them retreat.
“I have to get out of here before the cops get here.”
KC had been the only one smart enough to put a bandana across the lower portion of his face.
Max used his foot to slide Casey’s chair closer. “Cover me.”
Max waited a second for KC to begin firing a spray of bullets before standing and picking the chair up, smashing it through the bullet-ridden window to the outside.
“Get your ass out of here!” Max shouted, dropping back down behind the desk.
“I’m not going to leave you!”
“Go! I’m going to be right behind you,” Max lied.
KC didn’t argue, taking a flying leap out of the window. Max saw him hightail it across the parking lot.
The cop lying on the floor next to him groaned in pain, regaining consciousness.
“Lay still.” Max pulled him closer to his side, seeing X trying to crawl through the bank to get closer. Two others were coming at him from different directions.
“Motherfucker!” Max fired at the one who was almost on him then shot again to make sure he wouldn’t be getting up. Nothing happened; he was out of bullets. Reaching down, he slid the knife he had in his boot out. If he was going to die, he was going to take at least one more with him.