Page 32 of Protected By West (San Antonio S.W.A.T. #1)

Tracy tried to absorb the information as it came to her.

Weston had mentioned that his family was a legacy in the Rangers, serving for several generations.

It was hard to reconcile how two families both had husbands/dads in the Rangers and while one family was still together and with four kids and her family with just her mother and herself had lost their husband/father.

"I'm not saying that our family had it any easier than yours." Estes' soft voice was full of warmth. "Really, we can't compare the Cooper family with yours like we're talking about apples and oranges. There are just too many variables."

Tracy agreed. "But it doesn't make it any easier to look back and see that we failed so spectacularly. I just want to figure out how to have a relationship- A long term relationship with a lawman, because my only model for this is flawed to say the least."

"Well," Estes shrugged a little, "no one is perfect.

No family. No lawman. No one person. Mom and dad had their share of fights while we were growing up.

" Estes took a sip of her water, and an impish smile touched her lips.

"They still have their moments now, but they've made it through raising us, so I guess they're bound to stick together.

Goodness knows the four of us were enough to turn my dad's hair white. "

Tracy relaxed more. Hearing Estes talk about her family was reassuring.

Tracy's only experience dealt with an utter failure, but Estes and Weston's family were making it work.

Did it mean that her relationship with Weston would pass the test of time and the pressures of his job?

There was no way to tell, but at some point her mother and her father had decided to give up on the idea of remaining a family.

Maybe...

And this was a big MAYBE.

Maybe if the two of them kept deciding that a life with each other was worth making the effort then it just might work.

Tracy took a long sip of water from the can and as she lowered the can at the end of her sip she saw something on the small TV that they had in the break room.

There was a car chase happening on the screen.

brEAKING NEWS was splashed across the screen and the newscaster said something quickly before disappearing from the screen.

"Is that a car chase?"

Tracy nodded and then turned her head to see that Estes wasn't looking at her.

"Looks like."

The helicopter providing the aerial shots zoomed in on the cars chasing the beat-up neon green Impala cruising along the highway nearest to the credit union.

Estes leaned closer. "Looks like Highway Patrol."

Tracy understood the relief in Estes' voice. She felt a measure of it, too.

Her first instinct was to look for any of the vehicles that the Texas Rangers used on the street.

She turned and looked at Estes who let out a soft sigh of relief. "Well, I should head out."

She finished her water and dropped the can into the recycling.

"I'd love to stay, but you're at work and if my mom hears that I got to spend soooo much time with you before she did, she'll withhold her pecan bars from me on Saturday and you might be Weston's future wife, but I have a serious love of my mom's pecan bars. So, I'm off."

"I'll walk you out." Tracy turned and walked with her as Estes headed for the door. As they passed by the customer service counter, Tracy looked over at Estes, her own brow furrowing over her nose. "Estes? Is that because it sounds like East?"

Estes slowed her steps and smiled at her. "It's 'from the East' in Spanish, at least that's what mom and dad have always told us."

Tracy grinned back at her. "So your parents were planning on four?"

Estes' smile became a smirk. "That's what one of them was hoping for. They keep pointing fingers at the other."

A sigh passed Tracy's lips. "Better than a baseball team."

Estes groaned. "No kidding."

Tracy reached for the front door. "I'm really going to enjoy lunch with your family this weekend."

Estes reached out and hugged her, and Tracy was surprised how easy it was to hug her back.

It was one thing to hug her friends and her co-workers at the credit union, but this was new.

And it felt good.

It was almost like having a sister.

That truth hit home deeper than Tracy expected.

A sister.

She smiled.

Three, really.

Estes released her and grinned. "Get ready for a whole bunch of hugs on Saturday."

"I'll practice breathing shallow."

They both smiled at each other and Estes reached for the door.

That's when Tracy frowned.

Sirens.

She turned to look at Estes who had a similar frown on her face. "Is that?"

The street in front of the credit union erupted in noise. The normal traffic for that time of day went from placid to chaotic in what felt like a heartbeat.

One car was launched up in the air while the audible crunch of several more was heard and another car hopped the curb and rocketed through the parking lot straight at the front door.

Tracy grabbed a hold of Estes' arm and pulled her away from the double doors at the front.

It wasn't a moment too soon as the doors exploded inward, the shimmering sound of glass behind them and the loud screech of the metal frames twisting out of form.

"Holy sh-"

Tracy turned on her side ignoring the pinch of something under her leg.

The green impala they'd seen on TV a few moments before was now wedged in the doorway, pinned in the door frame.

"Hit the alarm!"

Tracy pushed herself up off of the ground and saw Jaime and Becca lurching toward the customer service counter.

There were a number of panic buttons throughout the credit union. Some hidden in places where people wouldn't think to look, but the ones under each teller station were the fastest to reach.

It was a noiseless alarm so there wasn't a loud blaring sound, but Tracy knew that the alarm had been pressed.

The other employees were doing what they'd been taught to do in a case like this.

The break room door was reinforced metal and the back office reserved for the teller supervisor was the same with bullet resistant glass.

Two doors closed out of her sight as the windshield of the Impala splintered from what sounded like an explosion.

Gunfire.

Tracy knew the sound.

She'd been to shooting ranges before, even before she'd met Weston.

She'd considered getting a concealed carry permit but hadn't gone through the whole process.

Something she was regretting at that very moment.

"Estes?"

Tracy reached out her hand and found Estes' leg. She gripped it and shook.

"Estes? Get up!"

A groan reached her ears first and Tracy back pedaled, putting herself between Estes and the man climbing out of the car through the busted windshield.

There wasn't anyone else in sight from her staff. That made her feel a measure of relief.

Their practices for an event like this had come in handy.

Skills that you hoped you'd never use but couldn't ignore the importance of.

"Fuckin' glass!"

Tracy felt blood dripping down her arm, but she didn't dare look down to see how bad it was.

She kept her gaze on the man sliding down the hood until his feet touched the floor.

"Where the fuck is this?"

Tracy saw the way he squinted his eyes and turned his head away from the lights.

He'd likely hit his head in the crash.

He looked around the room and when his gaze fell on her he smiled. "Looks like I landed our asses in the same kind of place we started our day just an hour ago. In a fucking bank."

She wanted to bite back at him, telling him this wasn't a bank, but that was just her own irritation.

She wasn't about to argue with a man holding a gun in his hand.

Especially when he moved closer to her and she saw the red in the whites of the eyes and the dark pupils that were almost to the edge of his irises. The man didn't seem to be feeling much of anything as he walked around the front of his car waving the business end of his gun in her direction.

"You talk? Or are you one of those dumb bitches that speaks with your hands?"

She tamped down on all the irritation she was feeling, hoping that she could use it as a kind of shield between them.

"I can speak." She tried desperately to keep the 'bitch' out of her voice, but it was hard.

She bit into the inside of her cheek.

"Where's everyone else?"

She watched him look around the room happy that everyone else was safe behind heavy, reinforced doors and bullet resistant glass. "They're safe and we can all walk out of this safe if-"

She froze as he pointed his gun right in her face and pulled back the hammer with a soft click.

"Don't worry about the others," he smiled at her, and she felt the chill in his gaze, "looks like I have two bargaining chips to play with.

We're going to sit here and wait for someone out there with a badge pinned to his chest to decide if they're going to do what it takes to get you two out alive.

Either way, I'm planning on having some fun. "