Page 36 of Deception and New Direction (Ranger Shield Security #3)

JACK

I had been standing outside the bank when Wade had messaged that he had seen and made contact with Ruthie .

She was in a small office turning over her money to her brother.

I didn’t have all the details, but this was clearly set up by her family.

Wade had confirmed that the men in the room were Ronald and her brother Jason .

Ellie said Ruthie had relayed some info about Hank . Diego , Axel , and Dane had arrived at Hank’s house, parking down the street from his house so as to not be noticed and were working their way up to the house.

Ellie is at the front desk letting them know an armed man is forcing Ruthie to sign those papers in the private room , Wade texted us. Hopefully they alert the police, but Archer you should probably call and let them know too.

My brain was stuck on the armed part. Did you say armed?

Wade responded to my text by confirming he had seen the bump on the guy’s chest, meaning he was clearly wearing a holster.

That was it for me. I could be patient, but not if that man was armed. I was not waiting outside anymore. I went into the bank, but I was smart enough to know I needed to stay out of sight. I subtly made my way to an empty chair outside of the office next to the one Ruthie was in.

My thought was that if they left, they would walk right by me to exit, and I could grab Ruthie and protect her if I needed to.

When I walked in, I noticed Wade’s eyes finding mine and shaking his head, as though he thought I was impatient. I was. But I also knew he would do the exact same thing if the situation was reversed and that was Ellie in that room.

As I walked over to the chair, I noticed Ronald looked over at me and made eye contact.

His eyes went from confusion to recognition to anger then panic.

He realized the jig was up, but that wasn’t a great thing because people who panicked made bad decisions.

I turned to look at Wade , who saw the look on my face, and I noticed he moved closer to Ellie , gearing up for something bad to happen.

Wade and I had served together long enough to know how to communicate silently. You needed that while overseas for moments like these when you couldn’t verbally communicate.

Ronald walked out of the room and looked around as though he was searching for someone. Seeing another bank employee, Ronald yelled out to him. “ I’m looking for the gentleman who was helping us. We’re on a time crunch and need to speak with him right now.”

“Okay sir. I’ll see if I can find him,” the man said and walked away.

Ronald walked back into the room and began pacing. A different bank employee walked back over to the room, along with who I assumed was a manager. I was close enough that I could make out most of what he was saying.

“I do apologize, but it appears we are having technical difficulties and won’t be able to transfer the money until tomorrow,” the associate said.

I heard mumbled curses and irritated questions regarding why.

“We have all your paperwork on file, so it should be simple to take care of tomorrow if you’d like to come back first thing in the morning,” the bank associate explained.

“The bank doesn’t close for another hour. We’d like to wait,” Ronald said, clearly not wanting to come back tomorrow.

“My name is Gerald , and I’m the bank manager here. I’m afraid that won’t be possible. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“This is bullshit,” I heard from a male voice, followed by gasps.

“Sir, please put down the weapon,” I heard the bank manager say, which got my full attention and had me shifting my body toward the office.

The two bank employees moved backward away from the office with their hands in front of them. Ruthie also began to walk out of the office with a gun to her head, held in place by Jason .

“The money needs to be transferred today, no exceptions,” Jason argued. “ So do what you need to do to make that happen. If you can’t transfer it, then cash it out and put all the money in a bag and give it to Ronald , but we are leaving with that money.”

Ronald stood behind Jason , clearly unsure of what to do.

He wanted that money, but I think he realized the jig was up.

Once you pulled a gun at a bank, your sentence escalated exponentially.

Even if you didn’t fire the weapon, simply brandishing a gun inside a bank came with a mandatory jail sentence.

Ronald may have turned out to be an asshole, but he wasn’t an idiot, and judging by the look on his face, he realized this was escalating too quickly for him to remain in control.

“Jason, put the gun down,” Ronald hissed at him. “ We can get the money in cash, but there’s no need to pull the gun.”

“Bullshit,” Jason responded, pushing the gun tighter into the side of Ruthie’s head, causing her to flinch.

Her eyes went to me and I tried with everything I had to calm her. A man who was on the edge like her brother was did not think rationally, so she needed to stay calm so she didn’t push him over.

Irrational people also made mistakes. I just needed to wait for my opportunity.

“There’s no printer issue,” Jason continued. “ These assholes knew something was up and aren’t going to transfer the money.”

“We can get the money based off of what was in her account,” Gerald the bank manager placated Jason . “ Give us a few minutes to gather it up and bring it out.”

“You take him with you,” Jason said, pointing to Ronald . “ And you have three minutes. I know you all have those fancy buttons to call the police, so we have limited time. Take him with you, and make them do it fast,” he said to Ronald .

Ronald nodded and walked with the bank manager.

Jason turned to me and grinned. We were at a standoff and he knew it, so why he was grinning was beyond me.

“If you’re in it for the money, there isn’t gonna be any left,” he said to me. “ Sorry to rip out your cash cow from you.”

He wasn’t sorry though. Knowing the cops were on their way, I kept him talking.

“I’m not dating her for the money, so that doesn’t matter,” I told him, maintaining my easy, non-threatening stance, even though I was now standing.

That was the thing about me. The military had trained me to be calm, cool, and collected even in the most intense moments.

So even in moments like this, where someone I loved was in danger, the inside of me may be raging, but on the outside, I was controlled and relaxed as I calculated and executed my plan.

“Bullshit,” he barked out a short laugh. “ Even if you started out just with the intention of fucking her, Ronald said you found out about the money and took a keen interest in it.”

Jason’s interpretation of my keen interest was fascinating. My interest had been in protecting her, not in how to acquire the money, as he and Ronald apparently interpreted.

“I guess it’s a moot point now that you’re going to take it all,” I responded.

“Damn right. That bitch of a mom we had left us with nothing to pay for the debt we had, only to find out she left everything to my cunt of a sister. Once we found out she would get it later, we came up with a plan. She had to go and fuck everything up when she moved here.”

“Got it. Let’s go,” Ronald said, carrying three small bags which I assumed were full of money.

“That doesn’t look like a lot,” Jason pointed out.

“This asshole was taking too long,” Ronald grumbled, pointing at the bank manager. “ Look , the bags may be small, but there’s more than a million in cash in here. It’s enough. We need to go before the cops get here.”

My watch buzzed, alerting me to a text. I quickly glanced down to see it was from Archer saying Hank was safe and her father was detained.

Knowing her grandfather was safe and not at risk if Ronald or Jason were to somehow escape, I moved my attention to Ruthie . I needed to get Jason’s attention off Ruthie and on me instead.

I took a look around me and assessed the room.

Wade had Ellie behind a small desk near the tellers, covering her but fully alert.

The bank manager and associate from earlier had edged their way back, removing themselves from the scene.

The main lobby space now only held Ronald , Jason , Ruthie , and me.

“Now that you have the money, let her go and get going out the front door before the cops get here,” I told him.

“Nice try, but I’m not an idiot,” Jason said to me.

“We need to go now,” Ronald said with panic in his voice. “ The cops are probably already out there. If we walk out there with a gun to her head, they will never let us leave. If we walk out, just the two of us like it’s no big deal, we’ll be fine.”

Clearly not appreciating taking orders from someone else, Jason turned the gun to Ronald and shot him.

This was my opportunity, so I dove. I lunged at Jason , tackling him to the ground and trying to wrangle the gun from his hand. He fired another shot in our tussle, this one going into the glass window behind us.

“You motherfucker,” Jason grumbled underneath me as I wrestled him, trying to pin him down.

“No, you’re the motherfucker, you stupid piece of shit for a brother,” I heard Ruthie’s voice beside me as she ripped the gun from his hand then kicked him.

I rolled him and pinned him down on his stomach just as the cops entered the bank, fully armed.

“Put the gun down and don’t move,” the first of four cops yelled.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, we were all sitting in the bank manager’s office, having been interviewed by the cops no fewer than three times about what had happened. More cops had been sent to Hank’s house to take his statement and arrest Ruthie’s dad.

The police finally cleared us to leave after they had gotten our statements, Jason had been arrested, and Ronald’s body had been removed.

As we walked out of the bank, it was to see Archer talking with several of the dozen cops guarding the door.

“Your grandfather refused to go to the hospital, but the EMTs treated him at his house, and he’s doing just fine,” Archer told Ruthie .

She sighed next to me as I pulled her into my side. “ Stubborn as a mule, but I’m happy he’s okay.”

Just then, the police around us started to move and spoke to a woman rushing up to us. “ Ma’am , the media line is back there. You need to stay behind the tape, please.”

“I just want to ask them some questions,” she said to the police before turning to us. “ My name is Anna O’Hara . I’m a reporter with WKAY TV station in Atlanta . I’d like to ask you some questions about what just happened.”

“Ace, she’s not giving you anything,” Archer said, staring at the reporter he clearly knew.

The reporter turned to face Archer as though she was just seeing him for the first time and blanched.

“Oh shit,” Ruthie mumbled under her breath.

“Ruthie, meet my ex-wife Ace ,” Archer said then turned to the reporter. “ Ace , meet the people I work with, who you will not be interviewing.”

He turned back to us and spoke again. “ Everyone meet at Hank’s place in twenty. We’ll debrief there.”

Knowing when to take a hint, we all walked away and got into our vehicles to head out to Hank’s house. If I knew Ruthie and my sister at all, though, I knew neither of them were going to let that new development go for long.