The Omega Team: Assisting Aimee (8 page)

“My apologies to Billy the Kid and Emilio Estevez for screwing up their line…but you’re gonna make me famous, Miss O’Brien.”

Chapter Nine

Jones kept talking, trying to get Bill to concentrate on him rather than on whatever asinine plan he had in mind. He knew without a doubt that the man would kill both hostages if he could. For a kid who’d been ignored his entire life, and compared to an over-performing sister, getting recognition by being a killer seemed to be a perfect solution to finally get people to pay attention to him.

Bill wasn’t a terrorist. He had no agenda, other than to get people to see him. And he’d certainly succeeded in that. He was being seen all right.

Jones had tried to let Mr. Santoro, Tony, know that he was Delta, but had no idea if his subtle clue had worked. Using “quiet” and “professionalism” was a direct reference to something Delta soldiers said many times, no matter where they were stationed or trained. It was an unofficial motto that had been passed down through the years. Jones had no idea what branch of Special Forces Tony had been, but he hoped he’d recognize the reference regardless.

Deltas were known as quiet professionals because they were top-secret and did what they had to do without anyone knowing about it. The world knew about Navy SEALs and what they did, but Deltas were the great unknown. People knew they existed, but every single mission was top secret and even knowing who was on the teams was kept quiet.

Knowing Bill was done talking to him, that nothing he was saying was getting through to the young man, Jones hoped like hell the Deltas were ready. This was about to be over in a very bloody way and he’d done all he could to make sure the elite Army team had enough time to get into place.

Looking at the video in front of him, all Jones could do was watch, and wait, for the shit to hit the fan.

* * *

Aimee had been concentrating so hard on watching Tony’s eyes, seeing the emotions play out in them, that she almost missed his signal. Bill was still whispering in her ear, but she’d tuned him out. It was if she was in a long tunnel, and the only thing she could see was Tony at the end of it. Sounds were muted, and she felt as if she was watching the scene from the rafters lining the gym ceiling instead of being in the middle of it.

Tony’s eyes shifted. He looked down, then back up at her. He did it again, this time lowering his chin at the same time he dropped his eyes. Aimee wanted to believe it was a signal, but she couldn’t be sure. Unfortunately, she had no time to wait around and try to decide if what she was seeing was really a signal to drop to the floor or not.

It’d be tricky, she was currently being held up by Bill’s arm around her throat, but she’d do it. Anything was better than her brains being splattered across the gym floor. And if she was wrong, misinterpreting Tony’s actions—it was possible it was just a tick or something—maybe her actions would force Bill, Tony, the cops outside, Jones…
someone
to do something.

Bill was mid-sentence, saying something about making history, when Aimee let herself go limp in his arms. His hold around her neck tightened painfully, completely blocking her air for a split-second.

Aimee wasn’t a big woman, but she was muscular. Her weight, and the surprise of her dropping, made Bill lose his grip on her and her knees crashed into the hard wooden floor of the gym.

What seemed like simultaneously, shots rang out and echoed across the gym. Aimee whimpered in fright, waiting for the pain of a bullet to hit her, sure Bill had pulled the trigger as he’d been threatening. Her eyes involuntarily squeezed closed, shutting out everything around her.

Sound was muted, she heard noises, but wasn’t sure exactly what she was hearing. Grunts, moans, and shouts…but she stayed huddled on the ground in a small ball, trying to make herself as inconspicuous as possible.

Aimee felt herself being embraced. She wasn’t moved, wasn’t shifted in any way. Arms and warmth surrounded her as she shook in delayed reaction to everything that had happened. She didn’t dare open her eyes, too scared of what she’d see. It was cowardly of her, but she’d reached the end of her rope. All thoughts of dying as she looked into Tony’s eyes were long gone.

Slowly, her senses returned and she heard words being murmured in her ear, over and over.

“I got you. It’s okay, I got you, Aimee. You’re okay. You’re safe. We’re all right. I got you.”

I got you.

She knew in an instant it was Tony crooning to her. She didn’t move, but opened her eyes into slits, taking that first step into dealing with the aftermath of what had happened.

She couldn’t distinguish much because of her position on the floor, but she saw several pairs of boots standing near them, and heard lots of talking all at once. The wooden planks of the gym floor surrounding her were splattered with red paint…no, not paint.

Feeling vulnerable, and finally realizing the delayed need to protect herself, she whipped her head around to look for Bill.

He was lying behind her, on his back, arms outstretched, gun still clasped in his hand. His eyes were open and staring up at the rafters. There was a small red stain slowly spreading on his shirt, and a larger puddle oozing out from under him.

Aimee didn’t even flinch. She’d never wished death on anyone, no matter how bad they were, but at that moment she was more than happy that it was Bill lying on the floor dead, rather than her or Tony or any of the children.

“I got you, Aimee.” Tony repeated the words and Aimee felt them soak into her soul. She knew she’d never forget this moment, or his words. They were just what she needed to calm her, to make her able to deal with the situation.

“The kids, we have to get them out,” she stated resolutely, trying to stand up.

Tony moved out of her way enough to let her stand, but he was right there next to her, his arms still around her, holding her tightly when she stood upright.

“They’re in the lockers, right?” a voice to their left asked.

Aimee turned her head, not willing to pull herself out of Tony’s arms yet. She saw a tall man, obviously military, even though he was in jeans and a black T-shirt. He had the kind of conceited, “I can take care of everything” look about him. His arms were covered in tattoos and he had blue eyes.

“Yeah, it was the only place we could think of to hide them,” she answered affirmatively.

“I had nothing to do with that decision,” Tony told the soldier. “It was all Aimee.”

For a second she thought Tony was throwing her under the proverbial bus with his words, but realized almost at the same time, that he was giving her credit for the decision, rather than having the man standing next to them think it was his doing.

“Good job, ma’am. How many kids?”

“Thirty-six,” Aimee answered. She knew she should probably go and help keep the students calm, but she didn’t have it in her at the moment. Realizing something, she blurted out, “Take them through one of the locker-rooms so they don’t have to see him.” She motioned toward Bill’s bleeding body. “They’ve been through enough.”

“Of course.” With that, the man jogged around the obstacle course equipment Aimee had set up what seemed like years ago.

“You okay?” Tony asked in a low voice next to her.

Aimee looked up at him for the first time since the bullets had started flying. Surprised to see such a tender, concerned look on his face, she could only nod.

“God, you were awesome. I’m probably not supposed to say that, but it’s true.” Tony looked around for a moment, then his eyes came back to hers. “We don’t have a lot of time before the cops descend, but in a nutshell, Jones is Special Forces, or former Special Forces or something. I knew by something he said that there’d be others nearby just waiting for the perfect time to act. I didn’t know if you’d understand me or not, but since you hadn’t taken your eyes off of me the entire time, I’d hoped.”

“I saw,” Aimee said simply.

Tony nodded. “It wasn’t the best plan, but it was all we had. I knew if we could give the guys a shot at Bill, they’d take it. Hell, they’d probably take it even if you hadn’t moved, but
I
didn’t want to take that chance.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being here. For helping me with the kids. For being a voice of reason.” Aimee stroked his bloody arm. “Thank you for being the man you are. I wouldn’t have been able to stay calm if you weren’t here with me.”

“Bull,” Tony countered immediately. “You’re a professional down to your bones. You would’ve done the exact same thing if I wasn’t here.”

“But I’m glad you were,” Aimee whispered.

Before Tony could respond, they were interrupted by a large man in a police uniform.

“Miss O’Brien? Mr. Santoro? I’m Captain May. I’m certainly glad to see you alive and well. EMS will be here in a moment to take a look at that arm, but I’m going to need both your statements about what happened here today.”

Aimee nodded, and Tony did the same. He held out his hand to the captain and they shook hands. “Thanks for getting here so quickly.”

They all turned upon hearing the commotion on the other side of the gym. The kids were being let out of the lockers two by two. They looked scared and shaken up, but they were alive. It was all that mattered.

One of the children, a first-grader named Bridget, saw her favorite teachers from across the gym and took off around the officers and military guys trying to herd them toward the locker rooms. She made a beeline for Aimee and Tony.

“Miss O’Brien! Mr. Santoro!” she wailed as she ran.

“Shit,” Aimee murmured under her breath, worried about Bridget seeing the bloody mess nearby.

“Get her,” Tony ordered. “I’ll cover you.”

Aimee stepped toward Bridget and opened her arms. The little girl ran right into them without looking away. Aimee folded her arms around the small child and turned so the girl’s back was facing Bill. She held on tight, not loosening her hold for a moment when she felt Bridget’s tiny body shaking and trembling with the force of her tears and fright.

“You’re okay, Bridget. Everything’s fine.”

“I was so s-s-scared,” she blubbered.

“But you did good. I didn’t hear one peep from anyone. That was amazing,” Aimee praised.

“Tommy held me the whole time,” Bridget said, finally picking her head up off of her gym teacher’s belly and looking up. “He was scared too, but we didn’t make any noise.”

“Good girl,” Tony soothed. “No wonder you get all A’s in my class. You’re super smart.”

Her teacher’s praise obviously went a long way toward making the dark-haired girl feel better.

“Go on now, you need to get outside with the others. I know your daddy will be worried about you. He’ll want to see for himself that you’re all right,” Tony told her, obviously knowing his students well. Bridget’s mom had never been in her life and her dad was a soldier raising his small daughter by himself. He’d be beside himself worrying about her, as would all the parents.

“Okay. See you tomorrow!”

Tony and Aimee watched as one of the officers sent to retrieve the runaway child escorted her to the locker room, careful to block her view of the violence nearby. Aimee felt Tony step next to her, getting into her personal space.

“You need to change,” he told Aimee in a weird voice.

“What?”

But he didn’t repeat himself, merely worked on unbuttoning his dress shirt to give to her. “It’s not exactly clean, but I’m guessing you might prefer my blood on you, over his. I’ll have to take this off anyway so the medics can get to my arm.”

Aimee watched in confusion, and with some awe, as Tony stripped off his shirt and held it out to her. It took her a moment to realize why he was giving her his shirt, and she turned her head to try to see behind her back.

Tony took her chin in his hand and kept her from seeing the blood that had splattered onto her when Bill was shot. “I’ll block the view of the others. Just take it off and drop it. You’ll be covered up in a jiffy.”

Aimee nodded, not comfortable at all in stripping off her T-shirt in front of all the men and women wandering around the gym, but she wanted Bill’s blood off of her more than she wanted privacy.

“Don’t pull it over your head,” Tony ordered suddenly. “Pull your arms out and ease it off that way, so the outside of it doesn’t touch your skin. I’ll use the inside of it to get as much blood out of your hair as I can. There isn’t much.”

Aimee shivered, thankful for his direction. She would’ve whipped the shirt off as fast as she could if he hadn’t warned her, turning it inside out and getting Bill’s blood all over her skin in the process. She shuddered, thinking about that as she did as Tony suggested. She was standing in front of him in nothing but a white sports bra before she even thought about what she was doing.

Tony’s nostrils flared and his eyes glittered, letting Aimee know he liked what he was seeing. But he didn’t act on it and in no way showed her any disrespect. He simply took his shirt and wrapped it around her back and waited until she put her arms through. He pulled it closed around her and started doing up the buttons.

“I’m sorry about not thinking about this earlier,” he told her. “I wish I had a clean one to give you.”

“It’s okay,” Aimee told him honestly, taking a deep breath and smelling his soap on the shirt. It felt as if they were still on the ground and he had his hands around her, all while he whispered, “I got you.” She clutched her hands around her belly tightly, holding onto herself.

Her eyes roamed the masculine chest in front of her. He was wearing a tight white undershirt, which molded to his pecs and biceps as if painted on. She could see his pulse beating at his throat and felt his breath on her cheeks.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You should probably get that arm looked at.”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, in a minute, after I help you with your hair.”

Aimee nodded and held still as he used her shirt, now inside out, to wipe down her hair. She tried not to think about how awesome a shower would feel, knowing it would be quite a while before that fantasy could become reality.