The Heat is On

This one is for al the fans of the Heat series—I hope you enjoy Matt’s story as much as I do!

“Everyone down on the floor!”

Matt O’Connor always knew there was a reason he hated banks, but it wasn’t until this exact moment that he figured out why: Money made people go insane.

And a building ful of it? Wel , apparently that made people turn into idiots.

Yup, idiots. That was the only word he could use to describe the three morons who bounded into the lobby of San Diego Savings and Loans with pantyhose covering their faces. They wore il -fitting camo outfits that they’d probably picked up at a discount army surplus store, and the way two of them held their older-model handguns revealed that handling weapons wasn’t their strong suit. The third guy, whose long black hair stuck out from beneath his ridiculous pantyhose mask, held his 9mm with ease, but aside from the fact that he knew how to grip a gun, he was as inept as the others.

Several female patrons in the brightly lit lobby shrieked at the sight of the robbers, immediately face-planting themselves on the beige tiled floor. An older gentleman took his time lowering himself down, while a couple of others just stood frozen in place as if they couldn’t figure out if this was for real or if they were being punk’d.

“This is a bank robbery!” Black Hair shouted.

Matt rol ed his eyes. First of al , no shit. Secondly, didn’t robbers say something like “this is a hold-up?” Who used the words
bank
robbery
during a bank robbery?

“You! Yeah, you, shaved head!”

Huh. They were talking to him, Matt realized. He turned slowly to find the barrel of a gun pointed at his face, this one wielded by a guy with a huge hooked nose that the hose couldn’t hide. “I said down on the ground.”

With a sigh, Matt bent to his knees. Then, when the gun waved in front of his eyes, he reluctantly lay on his stomach. He could probably have taken down this trio of morons in less than ten seconds, but didn’t want to do anything rash, not until he got a better feel for these guys. Chances were, their weapons weren’t even loaded, but he stil decided to let it play out. He was tired from the grueling workout he’d just put his body through on the SEAL obstacle course back on base, and besides, he was kinda curious to see how these robbers planned to carry out their heist.

Hook Nose moved away from Matt and situated himself at the door, pointing his gun at the overweight security guard whose only attempt at stopping this robbery had been squeaking “I’m a security guard!” when the three men barreled into the bank. The robber in the bright red sneakers paced the lobby, watching the patrons lying on the floor, while Black Hair headed for the nearest tel er and said, “Where’s the manager?”

Matt heard tentative footsteps from behind the counter and then a woman with a faint Indian accent said, “I’m the manager.”

“Listen here,” Black Hair yel ed.

“Okay, we can al hear you,” an annoyed female voice mumbled to Matt’s immediate left. “No need to keep yel ing.”

He shifted his head, surprised when he noticed the blonde hottie lying on her stomach a couple of feet from him. He hadn’t noticed her when he’d come in, and since he could describe each and every last detail about each and every last person in this bank, he deduced that Blondie must have come in when he was talking to the tel er. Because he definitely would’ve remembered seeing her. He could tel she was tal , judging by the long, lithe body stretched out on the floor, and her hair was the palest shade of yel ow, fal ing into a pair of big gray eyes. The most distinct thing about her, though, was that she didn’t seem frightened, upset or panicked in the least. If anything, she looked bored by this entire situation.

Spotting him peeking over at her, Blondie rol ed her eyes and whispered, “Do you think they bought
Bank
Robbing for Dummies
to prepare for this caper?”

“Nobody is going to get hurt!” Black Hair was shouting at the bank manager. “We just want the money.”

There was the sound of paper crumpling, and when Matt tilted his head, he saw Black Hair handing the tel er a brown paper bag. Oh for Pete’s sake.

“They couldn’t even spring for a duffel bag?” he muttered under his breath.

Beside him, Blondie coughed to smother a snort.

A register dinged open, fol owed by four others, as Black Hair moved to each tel er’s wicket to col ect his hard-earned cash. When he finished, he tossed the bag over to Red Shoes, then turned back to the manager and ordered, “Now we go to the big safe.” A beat of silence. “You mean the vault?” the woman asked cautiously.

“Yes, the vault,
bitch
.”

“Oooh,

someone’s

getting

upset,”

Blondie

whispered.

Matt choked back a laugh.

“Nobody here has the combination to the safe,” the manager said. “Only the branch manager can access it.”

“You said you were the manager,” Black Hair snapped, sounding irritated.

“I’m the assistant manager,” came the meek reply.

Silence.

“Uh-oh,” Matt’s new favorite person muttered. “This sure is a conundrum.”

“How wil they ever open the big safe now?” he whispered back.

“Shut up!”

The sharp yel came from Red Shoes, whose pacing had brought him to their vicinity. Matt didn’t even flinch as the gun barrel jammed into the nape of his neck. Right, because this idiot was real y going to shoot him. These guys couldn’t be older than twenty, twenty-one tops, and they obviously had no clue what they were doing. Matt’s shoulders tensed as he debated whether to wrench the gun from this imbecile’s hands. His muscles relaxed. Naah, no point causing trouble. His interference might make these guys trigger-happy and Matt had no desire to see anyone get hurt. This heist couldn’t last much longer, and no doubt these losers would be arrested the second they exited the bank.

And anyway, this was just starting to get fun.

As Matt and the blonde fel silent, Red Shoes clucked his tongue in approval, lifted his gun, and paced off. At the counter, Black Hair was forcing the manager to dial the branch manager’s home phone number.

“Speakerphone!” he barked.

Matt real y wished he could see what was going on above him, but he had to settle for just hearing it. The assistant manager’s cel phone resonated a loud busy tone.

“I guess the branch manager is too cheap to invest in cal waiting,” Blondie murmured.

“Maybe he can’t multi-task when it comes to communication,” Matt pointed out, fighting a grin.

“Quiet!” Red Shoes barked at them.

“Cal his cel phone,” Black Hair ordered.

This time they got a dial tone, only to be replaced with a booming male voice that announced, “Lewis Templeton, San Diego Savings and Loans. Leave a message.”

More silence.

Obviously Black Hair and his crew of misfits had no idea what to do now that they’d been barred access to the big safe. Across the room, a woman whimpered.

“You’re lying,” Black Hair final y said, anger in his voice. “You do know the combination to the vault, don’t you?”

“I real y don’t,” the manager protested.

“Liar!”

“I changed my mind,” Blondie whispered. “I thought they had the IQ of first-graders, but I’ve demoted that down to kindergarten.”

Matt laughed, only to receive another harsh reprimand from Red Shoes, who was beginning to look frazzled by this entire mess. He kept glancing at the enormous window, then at the confused people standing outside the bank door wondering why they couldn’t get in.

“Someone’s using their cel phone out there!” Red Shoes said, sounding frantic. “I think they’re cal ing the cops, Bil y! We should split!”

Bil y, the robber formerly known as Black Hair, spun around in fury. “What did I tel you about using our real names, you fucking idiot? Stick to the codes.”

“I bet one of them is
eagle
,” Matt murmured.

“Sorry, Eagle.” Red Shoes sounded humbled. “But we need to split, like,
now
!” From the corner of his eye, Matt saw the red sneakers making their way to the wicket. The two robbers huddled together, mumbling to each other about their next move.

A streak of impatience shot through Matt, and a little alarm went off in his head. Al right. This had gone too far. The guys were panicking now, and idiots plus panic plus guns could only equal trouble.

Someone could actual y get hurt here.

He glanced at Blondie. “Stay down,” he said in a low voice.

Her gray eyes widened, her mouth parting to protest, but he was already on his feet and springing to action. It took two seconds to disarm Bil y and Red Shoes, and two more to land an uppercut on Bil y’s jaw that had the guy slumping unconscious onto the floor. Without even breaking a sweat, Matt wrenched Red Shoes’s arms behind his skinny back, getting him in an iron hold that had the guy gasping in pain.

Then he raised one of the guns he’d confiscated from the robbers and pointed it at Hook Nose, who looked like a deer caught in headlights over by the door.

“Drop your weapon, or this idiot dies,” Matt cal ed cheerful y.

Hook Nose hesitated for al of a second, and then his handgun clattered to the floor and landed next to the foot of the security guard. “Now get on the ground, hands on your head,” Matt ordered, and the guy dropped down like a bowling pin, just as the wail of sirens fil ed the air.

Matt glanced over at the security guard, who was staring at him with shocked and grateful eyes, and said, “You’re welcome.”

The cops didn’t keep the patrons in the bank for long. After slapping cuffs on the idiot robbers and carting them into the waiting police cruisers out front, the three officers gathered everyone’s statements and col ected contact information should they be cal ed in as witnesses for the moronic trio’s trials. The officer who questioned Matt looked about nineteen, and listened in awe as Matt described how he’d taken out the robbers. He explained he was a Navy SEAL, which got him another dose of awe and a bunch of questions about the Navy, but Matt was only half paying attention to the conversation. Ten feet away, Blondie was speaking to a female police officer who was scrawling things down in a little black notebook.

Now that he had a better view, he realized Blondie was even hotter than he’d thought. Tal , as he’d suspected, but with the figure of a centerfold. Tiny hips, big tits, and the roundest, perkiest ass he’d ever seen. His mouth watered just from looking at her, and a burst of irritation went off inside him when he noticed the officer close her notebook and gesture that Blondie could leave.

Interrupting his own officer mid-sentence, he said,

“Can I go now? I’ve kind of got somewhere to be.” The young cop looked down at the notes he’d made. “Yeah, you’re free to go. We’l contact you if there’s anything further.”

“Good. Great.” Matt was already heading toward the double doors, which his sassy blonde had just waltzed through.

He caught up to her just as she reached the smal parking lot next to the bank.

“Hey!” he cal ed.

She stopped, glanced over her shoulder, and a wide smile spread across her lips. “Oh, it’s you. The big hero.”

“Don’t bother hiding it. We both know you were impressed with what I did back there,” he said with a cocky grin.

Those gray eyes twinkled. “Yeah. I guess that was pretty impressive. What are you, a superhero?” He shrugged. “I’m a Navy SEAL.”