The Bank

But I kept my cool and simply told her that if she thought that it could be fixed that easily then she had never loved me the way I loved her and I really did need to move on with my life.

She called back almost immediately.

"Who is she?" she screamed. "The only reason that you'd just give up on us so quickly after all of this time would be if you've already got someone else or maybe you've got someone else in mind."

"There isn't anyone else, Angela," I told her calmly.

"Then why won't you give US one more chance?" she asked. "It'll never happen again. I swear it." Then her voice got very quiet and very low. "I miss you Lucas. I love you. I never meant to hurt you. I just needed something."

"What you mean is that you never meant to get caught," I said. "And now you're free to go and find whatever you need. If you did love me you never would have betrayed me this way. And you're absolutely God damned right it'll never happen again because you'll never have the chance."

That conversation had happened the day before and was still stinging me. I loaded another pallet of blanks into the machine. The program was written so that it would mill four parts on one pallet. I was just about to push the cycle start button to begin running the parts when I heard the tapping on the door.

I honestly thought that it was Angela then I realized that I'd seen her drive off to work that morning so there was no way she'd be back at only one o' clock in the afternoon. Maybe she was sick. Or maybe she was coming to tell me that she was leaving. That would be great news, except for the fact that she'd told me less than twenty four hours ago that I'd have to get the army to make her leave.

I unlatched the door and pulled it open. Standing there in front of me was the cop from the race. Again, I was struck by how gorgeous she was. This time she actually had on official Sheriff's department clothing. Her pale eyes were hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses, but nothing could hide those boobs.

"Mr. Blue, I'm going to need you to come with me," she said. Her voice was emotionless and official. Her eyes raked over the inside of the barn in that way that cops have of checking out everything, even when you haven't done anything.

"Officer...uhm," I began.

"Gorgeous," she said. And then her face got flushed and I could tell she was embarrassed. "Err that's what you said about me the other day."

"That was almost a week ago," I said. "I apologized for it then and it was before I realized that you were a public official."

"So does that mean that you didn't mean it?" she asked. "Or just that you wished you hadn't said it about a cop?"

"Which one will make it so I don't have to go with you?" I asked. "Is the town really so hard up for cash that you're arresting me because I accidentally gave you a compliment?"

"You're not under arrest," she said. "There's been an incident in town. I need you to remain calm okay." I nodded.

"The bank was robbed a short time ago. The security guard, Ted Granger, was killed and your wife was shot. She's in surgery right now. They think she's going to pull through, but we need you to come to the hospital."

"No," I said. She'd already turned towards her car expecting me to follow her. I paused admiring the way her ass made even those formless police uniform pants look incredible. She turned and caught me looking.

"Excuse me?" she said. "Your wife is in the hospital." She looked at me like I was some kind of a bug. "Maybe I WILL arrest you," she said.

For the first time since this thing happened, I couldn't put up my front anymore. At what was the worst possible time, I just let my emotions go.

"I don't have a fucking wife anymore," I snapped, angrily. "So whoever you have in the hospital is on her own. If you want to fucking arrest me just go ahead. I already have a lawyer, the same one who's handling the divorce."

I saw her hand hovering near her holster. She looked into my eyes and hers softened. She pushed me back inside my barn, looking around again as she came in. She made me sit down on the couch I had in the corner.

"You still had a wife Sunday at the race," she said. "Remember how you threw that in my face." I nodded. "So what happened?"

"I found out Monday that she'd been fucking some guy in a motel for about a month," I said. "I filed for divorce the same day."

"Maybe you two will work things out," she said.

"Excuse me officer," I said. "But there's not a fucking chance of that."

"You're a lot smarter than I am then," she said. "My ex cheated on me for over five years. I didn't get the strength to walk away until the third or fourth time that I caught him."

My eyebrows went up in surprise and she looked at me. "What?" she said.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just can't imagine anyone cheating on you. He must've been stupid you're so..."

She looked at me funny then. "Oh no!" I said. "I'm not making that mistake again."

"I know you don't want to do this," she said. "And legally I can't make you. I'd have to go back to the Sheriff's station and get a warrant as a material witness sworn out or something. But I'd really appreciate it if you'd come with me."

I locked the barn and went with her. We drove in near silence to the hospital that was only eight miles away from my house. "Who knows," she said as we got out of the car. "Maybe this will get the two of you back together."

"No chance of that," I said.

She took me over to the nurse's station. I already knew both of the nurses there. She gave me one of her business cards. "I'll be back when the doctors call us to tell us that she's out of surgery," she said. "I'm going back to help interview the other witnesses. If she wakes up before I get here and says anything, write it down for me." I nodded. "And Mr. Blue," she said. I looked at her. "It wasn't a mistake. It made my day."

* * * * * *

Angela

I woke up to an unimaginable level of pain in my shoulder and in the side of my head. I tried to reach up and touch my head but my arm wouldn't move. The other arm had tubes attached to it. My throat felt as if it was as dry as the Sahara. "Lucas," I croaked out.

A nurse came into the room. She walked over and gave me some water to drink. It lubricated my throat to the point that I could talk. She smiled at me. "Welcome back," she said.

"Lucas," I repeated.

"I'll get him," she said.

I closed my eyes and when I opened them, Lucas was in the room. He was standing at the foot of my bed looking at me. "Lucas, it was Jerry," I said. "Honey, I'm so sorry. I should have..." I stopped talking immediately as a Sheriff's deputy came into the room. He looked at Lucas who was standing at the foot of the bed.

"Is she alright?" he asked.

Lucas just shrugged his shoulders. "Can I go now?" he asked. The deputy looked at him strangely.

"Sir, isn't this your wife?" he asked. "Aren't you concerned?"

"Look," said Lucas. "We're getting a divorce..."

"We are not," I said. The deputy looked at both of us.

"She cheated on me," said Lucas. "I've..."

"It was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life and I was seduced into it," I said. "I've already told him it'll never happen again, but he won't forgive me."

"Would you?" Lucas asked the deputy. "If the woman you'd married and been with for over ten years was fucking some guy in a sleazy motel and it went on for over a month, what would you do?"

"Maybe and I do mean MAY-Fucking-BE, you could get over it if it had only happened once. But when it went on for a month and she lied to you multiple times about it...What would you do?"

The deputy couldn't think of anything to say.

"And as far as my concern goes, you have witness' statements, I wasn't there and I didn't shoot her so I have no concern in this at all. My only concern is that this will delay my divorce even further," spat Lucas.

"Another thing," he said. "The other deputy brought me here so I could possibly help if she said anything. From speaking to the nurses she's going to be fine. They said there was a problem but it wasn't life threatening. She got shot in the head and in the shoulder. The bullet was removed from her shoulder. The shot to the head glanced off of her skull. Neither of those injuries prevents her from talking. So anything you need to ask her, you can ask her yourself." The deputy nodded and Lucas asked him if he could get someone to drive him back out to the farm.

For some reason, that deputy decided to drive Lucas home himself. Another deputy arrived and was going to do it but the two of them were arguing until finally she stepped into the room. She had black hair arranged in one of those styles that not everyone can wear. I'd look ridiculous with my hair like that but she pulled it off. It was way longer on one side than it was on the other and she kept shaking it out of her eyes. Men love that kind of shit. They think it's sexy as all get out. I hated that bitch on sight and decided not to talk to her.

"Mrs. Bl...What do you want me to call you?" she asked.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked. "My name is Angela Blue. Everyone knows that."

"Uhm... your husband gave me the impression that a divorce was a foregone conclusion," she said.

"Well, it's not," I snapped harshly. "Lucas is still upset. Not that it's any of your business. What do you want anyway?"

"Well, I need to ask you some questions about what happened at the bank," she said.

"Some men came in and took the money," I said. She looked at me like I was a fucking idiot. So I gave her the same look right back. "I got shot in the head. My memory is spotty," I told her.

"When do you think it might get better?" she asked.

Then I did the absolute dumbest thing I've ever done. "It might not get better at all," I said. "The doctors said that some things I may never remember. They said it had to do with traumatic experiences. Then again, I always seem to remember things better when Lucas is around. Even before this happened, just having my husband near me or holding my hand makes my memory better."

She looked at me and her eyes narrowed. She put down her pad and nodded her head. "Your husband or your ex-husband is neither a suspect nor a person of interest in this case. If I drag him out here again and you don't come up with something I may charge you with something."

"Oh God, my head hurts," I screamed. Instantly, three nurses ran into the room.

"I think it's the stress of trying to remember so much so fast," I whined. She just laughed and shook her head.

"Tomorrow morning," she said.

"Yes," I smiled. "Under the right circumstances, I might be ready by then."

* * * * * *

Lucas

As soon as the deputy left, I went into the house and looked in the freezer. I grabbed myself a steak and started to marinade it. I beat the crap out of it to tenderize it and poured the flavoring agents over it. I went out behind the house and started my grill. Then I went into the barn and started a pallet of parts. If it hadn't been for all of that bullshit at the hospital I have done four or five pallets by now.

I left the barn and went back to check the grill. I'd almost made it when the car drove up. I tried to pretend I didn't see her. "Oh come on. I'm not that bad," she yelled, catching up to me.

"Mr. Blue, I really need your help," she said.

"How now?" I began. She held up her hand and spoke into her radio.

"This is Tanya. I'm off. I'll be back at the hospital first thing in the morning to try again." Then she went back to her car. I saw her fiddling around in there and I thought I saw flashes of skin but I couldn't be sure.

When she got back out of the car she had on cut-off shorts that showed those incredible, thick sculpted legs. They were long enough that they covered her ass completely, but tight enough to tease the hell out of you. She had a very thick sweater on up top. Too thick for the time of year but I realized that she probably needed it.

"Mr. Blue, would you like to have dinner with me? I need to ask you a really big favor," She smiled as she said it and flipped her hair out of her face. It was over before it began.

"Unh huh," I said. "Wait I can't. I've already got a steak marinating."

"That sounds great for me," she said. "Do you have one for yourself too?" We both laughed and she followed me to the kitchen. Naturally, being a woman, she told me that I was doing the steaks wrong. I let her do it her way and we headed out to the grill.

After putting the steaks on the grill we sat back on the deck as the sun began to settle in the evening sky.

"It's really pretty here," she said. I nodded.

"Okay officer," I began.

"Tanya," she interrupted.

"Tanya," I started again. "Why are you here?"

"You mean other than eating your steak, drinking your beer and watching the sun set on your deck?" she smiled.

"I spent some time with your wife..." she said.

"Very fucking soon to be ex-wife you mean," I spat.

"Wow," she said, smiling as she got up to turn the steaks. "It's good to see that you're already over the bitterness."

I just looked at her.

"Anyway your ex is a real piece of work," she said. "You'd think that she'd be willing to do anything it takes to help us catch the guys who robbed the bank and killed Ted Granger, especially since they shot her too. But nope, she's trying to use whatever she knows as some kind of bargaining chip to get you to talk to her. I can't understand her."

"That makes two of us," I said. "We moved here right after we got married because it seems like a great place for us to raise kids. It's away from all of the bullshit and the rat race of the bigger cities. I thought we had it all worked out and we were happy. I found out that she'd been fucking that jerk for a month behind my back. So roughly the last five or six weeks of my life have pretty much been a lie."

"She tells me, of course, that it had nothing to do with us. She was bored and she hates her job. I just don't get why that made her cheat on me if it IS true."

"Did she start telling you that she loves you and the sex meant nothing yet?" asked Tanya. "That was the one that hurt me the most. I mean if it didn't mean anything, but it hurt me...I mean you so badly why would they do it?"

"Oh it meant something," I said. "It meant that there is no way I can stay married to her."

"Well...I really hate to ask you this," she said, brushing that hair out of her face again and getting up to take the steaks off of the grill.

"But I need a favor," she continued, as she dropped the bigger of the two steaks in front of me.

"Could you go and see her tomorrow morning with me?" she asked, staring at me. Those pale gray eyes bore into mine like twin spotlights. They said so much without the need for words. They told me that she really had been through what I had and it had scarred her far worse than my experience had. Perhaps that was why she just couldn't see how amazing she was. The fact that some asshole had cheated on her repeatedly destroyed her self-esteem.

At that moment there was no way I'd refuse her anything. It came as a complete shock to both of us when I said, "No."

"Lucas, would you do it for me?" she asked. She turned up the intensity of her eyes a notch and I audibly gulped, which cause her to smile. "Oh my god, I have to get you to an eye doctor," she gushed. "You really do have a thing for me don't you?"

She tried to avoid embarrassing me by changing the subject. "So what time should I pick you up in the morning?" she asked.

"We don't have to go," I said.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because she told me something when she first woke up. She said that Jerry had done it. And Jerry was the one who shot her," I said.

"Who the hell is Jerry?" she asked seriously.

"Jerry is the asshole she's been fucking," I spat.

"Maybe you don't have to go," she smiled. "I can force your wife to give us a description of him now. If she refuses I can charge her with withholding information or obstruction of justice."

"And then she'll just pretend that her memory comes and goes," I said. "But you still don't need her."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because you can have a copy of this," I said. I pulled out my iPhone and showed her the video I'd taken. "It's high definition video and it's very clear. I'm sure you'll want the original so just return the phone to me when your people make a copy for themselves. I've already given my lawyer a copy. I'm going to use it for leverage in the divorce."

Before I could say a word, Tanya reached out and kissed me. I think she meant to kiss me on the cheek but one of us must have moved the wrong way because she ended up kissing me right smack in the mouth. We both must have been shocked because neither of us moved away.

"Sorry," she said. "That wasn't supposed to happen. You aren't even divorced yet. Oh well, it's not like you didn't like it," she smiled.

"I hated it," I said. "I should bring you up on charges for abusing your authority."

"If you hated it so much why didn't you push me away?" she asked. "But don't worry since you hated it so much you won't be getting any more of them."

"I take it back," I said so quickly that it made her laugh. She picked up my phone and said, "I have to go and drop this off at the office so they can start extracting pictures from the video and get an APB out for this guy. Thanks Lucas."

"No prob..." I started to say before she interrupted me by kissing me again. This one was even longer than the first one.

"I meant that one," she said.

* * * * * *

Angela

"What the fuck?" I screamed, as I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time in days. Those asshole doctors had shaved my head near where the bullet hit me. I suppose it had been necessary and in time it would grow back, but Lucas loves my hair. Some times at night he brushes it for me. He gives it long slow loving strokes. He doesn't hurry or rush through it. He simply brushes it for the enjoyment of doing it.

Of course, on a good night, he'll follow that up by warming up some lotion and giving me a very gentle, very complete massage that sets my whole body tingling. We usually end up making slow, passionate love until...

"It'll grow back Ma'am," said the nurse holding the mirror for me. My left arm was completely immobilized. If I moved it they were worried that the stitches in it might leave a more unsightly scar or give me an infection. They had taken the tubes out of my right arm last night but it was still hard to make yourself look presentable with only one hand.

"What time are the police coming?" I asked her.

"They're in and out all day," she said. "It could be any time. But I'm sure they realize that you've been shot, so you don't have to try to make yourself look pretty for them." Her smile as she said that made me wonder how she'd gotten through medical school.

"That evil bitch who was here last night is supposed to be bringing my husband to see me," I said.

Her eyes lit up. "That's different," she said. "Aren't you married to that guy who won the race last Sunday? He's a dreamboat. You're braver than I would be."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Shit, my husband doesn't look anything yours, Honey, but there's no way I'd want him around that woman. It's like opening the bird cage and telling the cat to watch your parakeet," she said. Then realizing that she'd probably said too much, she changed the subject.

"Not that you have to worry about anything like that. Your marriage is very solid isn't it? So he'd have no reason to look for anyone else. But if it wasn't THEN I'd be worried."