Reckless With Their Hearts
Read Reckless With Their Hearts Online
Authors: Terri Anne Browning,Anna Howard
Reckless With
Their Hearts
Anna Howard
&
Terri Anne Browning
Copy Write
Reckless With Their
Hearts
Anna Howard
&
Terri Anne Browning
All Rights Reserved © Anna Henson 2013
This is a work of fiction. Any characters, names, places or incidents are used solely as a fictitious nature based on the authors
’ imagination. Any resemblance to or mention of persons, place, organizations, or other incidents are completely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any other means without permission from the Publisher.
Table of Contents
Snow covered the ground like a huge white blanket. Christmas
lights reflect off it making beautiful multi-color patterns. Normally this was Eve Patel’s favorite time of year. But after the day that she had just lived through, she was seriously rethinking it.
The day had started out so well. She had woken early to do the last of her Christmas shopping. The day before she had called around to countless places looking for the right gift for a special someone and finally
found exactly what she was looking for. So she had gone there first and then walked the rest of the day in an attempt to cross the last of her shopping off her list.
After a small lunch of an apple and bottled water
at a little deli she had stopped by the bank to make a withdrawal. She had been patiently waiting in line, smiling at the woman in front of her and the chubby little baby in her arms. It was the last Friday before the big holiday and the place was pretty crowded. What happened next was enough to make anyone and everyone wish that they had not even gotten out of bed that day.
Eve had been at the front of the line when three large men with masks over their faces and scary looking guns had stormed into the bank. She knew zero about automatic weapons but even she was aware that the ones being waved around at h
er and thirty or more other people were not toys. The masked men started screaming for everyone to get on the ground and to keep quiet.
Just as Eve started to l
ie face down on the cold, dirty tiled floor she saw the only male teller pull out a hand gun and wave it at his co-workers. He started yelling at them to load up the large gym bags that the masked men had brought with them.
Eve had never been so terrified in her life, but she tried to stay calm. After all they only wanted the money…Didn’t they?
Eve watched in slow motion as a man in the line directly across from her jumped up from his position on the floor and identified himself as NYPD. He was dressed in street clothes and Eve could only guess that he was off duty. Before she could even suck in a deep breath, hope and relief that this ordeal would soon be over now, the masked man behind Eve fired twice. Both shots hit the cop in the chest and he went down.
Before the cop fell to his knees he fired two shots of his own. The masked man behind her gasped in pain before there was as sickening sound, as if the man was drowning. He fell beside of her, blood soaking the floor around him. She had to bite her bottom lip to keep from screaming as his eyes seemed to fade with the light of life.
The lady that had been in front of Eve in line was trying to hush her crying baby. Someone, a woman close to Eve began screaming hysterically. The cop was still making gasping noises and she prayed that help would arrive soon. The scent of blood and gun powder along with the fear pumping through her veins was enough to cause her stomach to roll and she was glad that she had had such a small lunch. But she swallowed her nausea; frightened to give these mad men a reason to shoot at her next should she suddenly vomit.
Outside sirens blared, causing the two remaining masked men to curse violently. Obviously they had planned to be long gone before the cops arrived. The male teller was still busy bagging up the cash, ignoring his partners.
“Gotta find a way out of here man!” The masked man who was the furthermost away from her, closer to the door called out.
“Relax, Frank.” The teller called back, sounding perfectly calm. Even with the fear coursing through her and her heart beat pounding in her ears Eve wondered if this was his first time of doing something like this.
“Relax?” Frank’s gaze was on the activity going on outside. “There are ten cop cars out there, Zach. Swat is pulling up as I speak!”
Eve recognized Zach’s name and gritted her teeth. She prayed that he didn’t look too closely should they need a hostage to take with them. If he should happen to spot her…well that meant huge trouble.
She was the stepdaughter of one of the most powerful man in NYC. This bank was only one of many that housed his money. That fact, which she was positive Zach was aware of; on top of her own sizeable bank account left to her by her mother when she had died eighteen months earlier made her an ideal candidate for additional ransom money later. A ransom that could keep him set for six life times.
But even as those thoughts floated through her mind a sniper had taken aim and dispatched Frank. No one screamed this time, but there were several whimpers. Eve bit harder into her lip, tasting the metallic flavor of blood on her tongue. She was trembling in fear and the bile was rising in the back of her throat.
“Fuck!” The last masked man yelled. “Zach, hurry the hell up man. I want to live to enjoy that money man.”
“Grab a hostage.” Zack told him, still as calm as before despite the new situation. He slung the gym bags over his shoulders. “Female. We might need some company.”
A whimper nearly escaped Eve. She was the closest female to the last masked man. He bent and grabbed a handful of her long hair, forcing her to her feet. But before she could completely straighten the masked man gasped. She raised her head to glance at him.
He coughed and blood splattered across her face. E
ve blinked, both surprised and disgusted. People around her started screaming again. Most of them jumped up and started running toward the exits now that the biggest threat of being shot was eliminated. Cops quickly entered the bank and took Zach down, an easy feat as he was weighed down by the heavy, money filled gym bags.
Meanwhile Eve just stood there with blood covering her face and shirt. She gazed in horror down at the dead man at her feet. She had never seen anyone die before, had never
personally experienced violence of any kind in her life. But now she was in a room with three dead men who had died in such a violent way right before her.
Someone placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to jump. A police man stood beside of her, a concerned expression on his weathered face.
“Miss? Are you hurt?”
She swallowed down the bile once more and mutely shook her head. Shock, she guessed, was setting in. She felt cold and numb. She was shaking, but she could only look down at the dead man again in an odd
ly detached sort of way.
“Do you think you can walk?” He asked in a gentler tone than before. She met his eyes and thought that they were kind. Funny how that was the one thing she noticed out of everything else going on around her. Not the paramedics rushing to treat the fallen off duty cop. Not the SWAT team rushing through the bank or the other officers assisting others outside.
Just this man’s kind eyes. “Miss?”
With effort she cleared her throat. “I…I’m okay.” She whispered. “I…I may need your help though. I
seem to be a little shaky.”
The cop gave her a small smile in understanding.
“Of course.”
He
led her from the bank with a steading hand on her arm. She gratefully leaned on his strength for the next several hours during which he took her statement and called her stepfather.
“Eve?”
She blinked, coming back to the here and now. She was home, standing in the family room, gazing out at the Christmas lights reflecting on the snow. Her stepfather was now standing behind her. She hadn’t even heard him enter the room.
She turned her head, wondering if he knew how much she loved him. When she had
moved here with her mother five years ago she had been an angry, biter young teenager. She had been content to continue on at the boarding school in Paris where she had been most of her childhood. Then her mother, Giselle, had married Garth Savage and brought her back to the States to live in a monster sized mansion with a stepfather and three older stepsiblings.
Despite her coldness toward them, Garth and his children had quickly won her over. He had treated her like his own daughter, Quinn, from day one. Eve had never known her father, because he had died when she was just a few weeks old. So Garth’s love and affection had been welcome—reluctantly. When her mother had been killed by a drunken driver eighteen months ago Garth had become her legal guardian, even if she had been just a few weeks shy of turning eighteen.
“Are you alright, sweetheart?” He asked, concerned that she hadn’t responded to him yet.
Eve blew out a long, shaky sigh. “Yes, I’m fine.” She murmured, letting him pull her into his arms to comfort her. Although she thought it was to comfort him just as much as her.
“Quinn’s plane landed a while ago. She should be here soon.” He informed her.
As Christmas was so close her stepsister and stepbrothers had planned on coming home this weekend. As they were scattered around the globe for work at the moment, their flights had already been in the air before the news of the day’s events had gotten to them. Eve would much rather not burden them with the story of her brush with death. But Garth had already spoken to Qu
inn and also Cameron. The eldest of the Savage siblings Sebastian was still in the air. His flight wouldn’t even land until the early hours of the morning.
Cameron
had already arrived having been the closest—Mexico on a photo shoot. He was an exceptionally talented photographer. He had heard the news on the radio in the cab on his way from the airport. Because of who she was and the severity of the robbery, her name had been all over the news. When he had opened the front door he had started shouting.
“Eve?
Dad? Are you here?”
She had been hugged to within an inch of her life by the big man for nearly an hour. Then, true to Cameron form,
he had gone in search of something to eat. That had been half an hour ago.
Quinn was on her way home from London. She was an advertising executive at the England branch for the Savage Corporation. She had been upset about what had happened when she had talked to her father on the plane. Quinn thought of Eve as a little sister as well as her closest friend despite the six years age difference.