I felt the first trickle of sweat inside my light bullet-proof vest. Even when we were on a night job Derik still made us wear one, and I understood why. There had been instances where I hadn't expected the unexpected, nearly costing me my life. Those were the times where procedure had saved me. Not that I probably didn't deserve to die, because by no means was I the perfect person. But it had given me the gift of tomorrow. I considered the vest good luck.

Peeking my head around the corner I checked for night guards, but as expected the bank reeked with an eerie quietness. All was still, and I could hear my heartbeat in my head. My breathing was shallow and my hands shook. The adrenaline soared through my veins. The smell of floor cleaner filled my senses, and when my eyes fell to the tiled floor I could faintly see my reflection staring up at me.

Good thing the janitors already passed. That was one less thing we had to worry about. It was enough we were stealing. The last thing I wanted to do was come face to face with someone innocent. Gliding my hands over my sides, the coldness of the .45 wedged in my gun holster kept me calm. I inhaled a deep breath, counting the seconds on the clock in front of me.

This was crunch time. All had gone well so far. No tripped alarms, no guards to mess things up, but the last few moments were the most crucial.

Then our hacker, Vic, cut through my earpiece, "Time's up. Five minutes to get out."

I answered through the mic connected to my collar, "Copy."

Derik and Willi took no longer than a few seconds to emerge from the bank vault.

"Let's go," Derik ordered.

I focused on the padding of my feet, the rubber soles gripping against the tile. I nudged Willi and whispered, "How much?"

He looked at me and smirked, "About a million, not bad eh?"

"Not bad at all." I grinned at the amount of our prize.

After Victoria and the driver got their cuts the rest would be split between us three. If my math was right, we'd each get about two-hundred thousand each.

I vividly remembered my first bank break-in, back when I was on the edge of nineteen and in a dire need of cash. Derik, whom I had known since I was a kid, had been aware of my financial situation and offered up a position on the team. I hadn't hesitated to accept. Three years had passed and I was already performing my third bank heist.

This score had been the biggest one yet, at least in personal experience. My first two jobs hadn't been nearly this much, so the money was always gone before I could enjoy it. And this would be the score that wouldn't be wasted on my mother's negligence or bills due to untimely sickness. Third times the charm, I guess.

"Guys," Vic cut through our ears, the tone of her voice startling me.

Derik grabbed his mic, "What is it?"

"Are you in the stairwell yet?"

"Opening the door now." I watched his hand hesitate, as if he knew something was wrong.

"Hurry, a guard's in the parking lot and heading for the back door."

I glanced at the clock above my head and trembled. There weren't supposed to be any guards at this time. Why was he coming back an hour after his shift ended? Was it a different worker? Had we missed something?

"If he scans his key card it'll set off the alarm," Vic hissed. "You guys need to get out. Now."

"What's our window?" Derik asked, guiding us through the stairwell with haste.

"He's about a minute from swiping."

"Shit."

There was no more talking as we made it downstairs. We had come in through the backdoor but that was no longer an option. My damp palm gripped my gun with a nervous force. We could go through the front doors but that could risk us being seen, even in the dead of night. By now we had about forty more seconds to decide what to do.

"Derik what's the plan?" I attempted to hide the tremble in my voice.

"We're going out the same way we came."

I had no choice but to follow.

Willi sprinted in front of me, rounding the corner of the hall as I squinted, attempting not to run into anything. The beam of my flashlight shook of the walls. I tried to breathe in through my nose and out of my mouth. I kept telling myself everything was going to be alright. As long as the alarm didn't go off we could make it out safe. Ambush the guard, knock him unconscious before he could see our faces and make our escape. But things never go as planned.

This was proven true when Willi's duffel bag caught the corner of one of the desks and ripped the fabric, causing stacks of money to fly in every direction.

"Son of a-"

"Leave it!" Derik ordered.

"Like hell I will, I'm carrying over half a mil." Willi knelt, but I knew Derik was right.

"Willi!"

"Turn around," Willi ordered, shoving what he could into my backpack.

Derik began helping, knowing we had maybe twenty more seconds. Time was slipping away as if we were living in fast forward. My back pack was stuffed when I felt Willi yank the zipper up.

"Guys get out now!" Vic commanded.

Then the dreaded ear-splitting alarm cut through my senses, and my entire being flinched. Grabbing my gun, I knew I had about three seconds until the guard saw us, three seconds to react and save our asses. Maybe this vest wasn't good luck after all.

Everything had been fine a minute ago, and now we were just seconds away from being seen.

I heard the guard slam the backdoor, sprinting as he emerged from the hallway. His wide eyes fell upon us, and then traveled to the barrel of my gun which was directed at him.

Don't overthink, I demanded myself, squeezing the trigger.

I whispered, "I'm sorry."

I felt the backlash of the pistol jolt my hands backwards. My eyes closing, knowing I didn't want to do it but saw it necessary for protecting my family. They were all I had, and doing everything to keep them safe was my priority.

The guard fell back against the wall. His right hand pressing against the top of his chest while blood seeped through his fingers and down his torso. I had missed. Had it been on purpose? I never missed at the shooting range.

He sank to the floor in pain while Derik and Willi pulled me towards the back hall where the guard had emerged. My heart was hitting against my ribs so hard I was afraid I wouldn't make it out due to a heart attack. Gut-wrenching, disgust rose like bile in my stomach as we passed the injured man, an alarming amount of blood accumulating next to him.

I had done that.

Derik pulled on the handle but to our dismay realized it was locked. We were trapped inside. Suddenly everything seemed to grow more serious, causing our anxiety to triple at the fact that we would have to find another way out.

Derik was fragile, "Vic, can you open the door?"

"I won't have enough time and the police are already on the way," she delivered. The bad news made me more nauseas.

The sounding alarm was relentless, and I was convinced the entire city of San Diego knew where we were. I waited for Derik to act but he didn't. He had no idea what to do.

Vic went on, "You have two minutes until police arrive. That's not a big window Derik."

He growled, punching the backdoor that was refusing to release us. We needed to get out, not waste more time standing around.

I took off back towards the front, Derik and Willi following me. My legs were aching, and I was sure my heart was about to explode, but none of that mattered. I needed to get us out of here.

The only way out were the front doors. Glass doors.

I aimed and fired. The sound of shattering glass mixed in with the piercing alarm. I sprinted towards the exit, kicking the rest of the glass out of our way. Our driver was waiting for us in the back lot, which meant we had about a minute to get there. It wasn't a lot of time but it was all we had.

Then a gunshot rang out and a bullet whizzed past my head. My jaw clenched in horror. How were the police already here?

"Stand down!" I heard one of the men shout.

I threw myself behind a pillar, knowing we were trapped in the front. If we were careful we could still make it without being shot. That was until Derik himself fired his gun, hitting the officer.

"Go!"

I didn't hesitate, and all three of us sprinted towards our driver who was probably clueless. Hopefully Vic had time to brief him before we got there.

The sound of police sirens grew louder, which meant more of them were arriving. I had never been so scared in my life but fear was just an obstacle. I couldn't think about it until everyone was safe and away from harm. I prayed I would get to see that happen.

"There he is!" Willi shouted, seeing our escape.

I heard the driver yell, "Get in the back!"

Derik wasted no time throwing the doors open. I climbed to the passenger seat while he and Willi remained in the back.

The driver took off, "What the hell happened?"

"Guard came back," Derik muttered, "Tripped the alarm and locked us inside. The police are here."

"Shit." Our driver hunched over the wheel, knowing he was about to earn his paycheck. It was his job to get us away to safety. If he didn't we were all screwed.

After everything that had happened I knew to expect the worst, so I wasn't surprised when a cruiser cut us off. This forced us down an alleyway. We were quiet, giving our driver the concentration he needed to get us out of this mess. That was until the sound of shattering glass replayed in my ears for the second time tonight.

"Keep driving!" Derik ordered, firing back at the police car tailing us.

Our driver cut down another street, swerving through the traffic in a desperate attempt not to wreck. It was late and not many cars were out, but that didn't mean life was on hold. The last thing we needed was to crash into another vehicle.

Bullets hit the van and distracted all four of us, but Derik and Willi continued to fire back. I kept my eyes peeled in the front while sending a silent prayer. Hopefully God decided to show us undeserving mercy tonight.

Making it out of a narrow alley our driver swerved onto another road. All was quiet as I released an exhausted breath. It seemed we had ditched the last of the cruisers. I could faintly hear sirens in the distance.

"That was way too close," Willi confessed, his frantic eyes searching between Derik and me.

"But we made it." I laughed nervously.

"I have no idea how."

"It's the lucky vest," I boasted, "I'm telling you."

"Guys?" We heard Vic ask through our ears.

Derik responded, "We made it. We're on our way home."

Suddenly a window shattered and warm liquid sprayed the side of my face. I didn't realize what had happened until our driver went limp. His head fell onto my shoulder. He had been shot. The blood seeped down his neck and shoulders while his heavy foot slammed down on the gas pedal.

"Alexa get the wheel!"

I grabbed it, pushing the fear from my mind. I tried to straighten our direction but overcorrected, losing control.

We slammed into a metal light post on the side of the road. I flew forward and into the windshield. Glass shattered, sparks flew, and the crushing sound of metal drowned my senses.

Shockwaves of painsurrounded me as I fell into the darkness.

* * *

I woke to a splitting pain that ran through my head and down my spine. What had happened?

I forced myself to think, faintly remembering bits and pieces of what had gone down. The bank. The alarm. The wreck... we had been in a wreck. How in the world was I alive? I should be dead.

The sound of a heart monitor indicated I was in the hospital. Where was Derik and Willi? Were they here? Were they even alive?

I tried to sit up but a voice to my left startled me, "I wouldn't do that."

My head jerked towards his voice, the pain intensifying as I fell back onto my pillow. Bringing my hands up to my head I felt a shudder of pain, causing me to cringe. This wasn't supposed to be happening. I wasn't supposed to be alive, much less in a hospital with this stranger.

I took a shaky breath, "Who are you?"

The man smiled, but not for one second did I trust the gesture. Those dark eyes and bald head reminded me of a snake, but the suit he wore indicated power. In experience, those two traits never seemed to mix well.

"Agent Chapman," he answered, "You were lucky."

I rolled my eyes at the accusation, "Right, that's why I'm here. Where are my friends?"

"My men have them detained."

I flinched at the sentence, hating the vagueness of the answer but grateful he hadn't said arrested, or worse, dead. What I didn't understand was why, and that confused me. My silence must've showed that.

"Don't you want to know why I'm here?"

"I'm sure you're about to tell me," I snapped.

His face finally showed some emotion, which I pinned as amusement.

"You work with someone I need."

This caught my attention, "And who's that?"

"Victoria Van Allen."

My breathing hitched at Vic's name, the only one they hadn't caught in our job gone wrong.

"I have no idea who that is," I lied.

"There's no need to lie, Alexa. We just need you to tell us where we can find her."

At that moment I wished Derik was here. But he wasn't, and that frightened me. I couldn't rat out Vic, she was the one who had saved us in the first place. And she was family.

"I can't do that."

He stood from the chair then. "Don't do this the hard way. Tell us where she is and I'll go away."

Go away? He must believe me to be ignorant if he expected me to fall for that. I crossed my arms upon my chest. "What was her name again?"

More emotion trickled through his exterior, his chin lifting in the air while staring down at me. A deep breath escaped through his nose while a calloused hand gripped the railing at the foot of my bed.

"You heard me the first time," he hissed.

Even with his intimidation tactics I couldn't find the will to do it. Besides, the last time I had seen Victoria had been three years ago before my first job with Derik. Who's to say she was in the same place now? No. Ratting out my friend wouldn't happen. It wasn't her fault we had been caught.

"Sorry," I denied.

Watching the muscles in his jaw flex I half-expected to be escorted out the hospital in cuffs, but more surprises came my way.

He crossed his arms. "Then you have two more choices."

I waited for him to continue.

"Either you and your friends get thrown in prison for the rest of your lives," he gave the second option. The third came with hesitation. "Or you do a job for us."

Jail for the rest of my life? Immediately my thoughts went to Anna, my younger sister who had no knowledge on what I had gotten myself into. I felt my hands tremble at my sides. My heart beginning to thump a little harder.

I couldn't make this decision. This was meant for Derik, not me. I would screw up. Turning in Victoria just wouldn't happen, but I couldn't let us go to jail when there was another option. Leaving Anna without parents was bad enough, but if I went away too? What would happen to her then?

I swallowed the fear. "Specify us."

"The NIA. I work for the Los Angeles department."

My blood ran cold, and suddenly I didn't know what the right choice was anymore. I could accept, but the NIA was serious business. Why us? Why me? It didn't make sense. This man was offering me, a federal criminal, a pardon for my crimes by doing a job for him? For our country's national investigative team? I was convinced I had fallen into an alternate universe.

There was a lot of doubt, but then again Willi always preached I should have a little faith. For all I knew this could be my test. God knows we needed something after last night.

"What happens if I do this job?"

He leaned back into his seat but his stare never wavered. "We'll determine that if you succeed."

"That's not good enough."

"Would you rather prison?"

My eye twitched, giving away my nervous anger, "Fine, but I wanna see my friends."

He stood, "I'll have you released by tonight with someone to pick you up."

Then he was gone without answering my demand. Maybe I didn't have the right to see them. Maybe they were safer where they were, awaiting my arrival. I didn't know what they were going to think when they found out, but I hoped they would understand. For all I knew the offer could've been passed to Derik and Willi as well. It was possible that the decision needed to be unanimous for us to even have a chance. I had no clue, but what I did know was that Anna was in Los Angeles waiting for me to get back home with no way to reach me.

How could I have been so stupid? First our parents disappear out of our lives and now I had allowed myself to end up here. How could I leave her with no one? She would never forgive me.

Then again, maybe I didn'tdeserve forgiveness. Or maybe this was fate's attempt at redemption. I wouldn'tknow until tonight when Agent Chapman's designated driver lead me to myfriends, and hopefully the truth.