The Bank

* * * * * *

Angela

The Sheriff had transported me in handcuffs. Originally, he was just going to put me in the car but I guess when I got upset and started screaming he had no choice. I have to remember that these people don't like me very much. I honestly didn't see any reason for them to hold me. I wasn't the person who robbed the bank. I was the person who got shot.

They put me in an interview room and started asking me questions. I told them that I was pregnant and I needed water and to lie down. Every time they asked me something I asked for something back. After a couple of hours the Sheriff came in and he wasn't happy.

"Why didn't you answer my people's questions?" he asked me. I knew he wasn't bullshitting and would probably throw me in jail for real.

"They weren't taking my condition into consideration," I said.

"You're not far along enough in your pregnancy to have a condition," he said. "I also spoke to your doctor. He said that hypothetically, except for your shoulder which should be nearly healed too, there's nothing wrong with you. Do we have to go through this again?"

"Mrs. Blue, let me remind you one more time that you're not doing yourself any good by acting like an asshole. You have a perfect right to fight your divorce and I actually think that it's funny watching my niece squirm while you pull all of your little tricks. It's good for her and your husband too. It's given them time to get to know each other before they rush into something. On the other hand, my investigation has no room for your bullshit. Do you get me?"

I nodded my head.

"The problem we have here is that we have two people with a history of lying. Neither of you is telling us anywhere near the same story. You won't tell us a story at all in fact. Most of the evidence makes it seem like he got to know you and seduced you to get information to facilitate a successful robbery of the bank. But he of course tells us a different story."

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He claims that you were in on it from the beginning and that you told him to shoot Ted. He claimed that there was a pitched battle between him and Ted and you got shot in the crossfire. When he shot Ted, it was in self-defense and he was trying to shoot Ted when he shot you. He said that the only reason he left you there was so you could get medical treatment. He also said that as soon as he got word that you were fine, he intended to come back for you."

"That's pure bullshit," I said. "You can't believe him."

"Why wouldn't I?" asked the Sheriff. "Every time we've questioned you it has been the same story. You lie like a fucking rug until we put pressure on you and even then we can't believe in what you tell us. The only reason you're not in jail now was because with your husband watching you we felt pretty sure that you wouldn't leave town."

"But it really isn't true," I said.

"Convince me," he said back. "Tell you what, let me go and get a tape recorder so I can record the conversation." He left the room and came back about 15 minutes later. I wondered what had taken him so long to get a recorder.

I told him the entire story of my life over the past two months. I told him how much I loved Lucas and also how much I hated my job at the bank and why. I told him how things started with Jerry and how I had never really enjoyed sex with him, I'd just done it because it made me feel good to have a young man from a big company who traveled all over the country desperate to have me. It validated my sex appeal and proved that those whores in the bank weren't the only ones who could have someone other than the man they were married to want them.

I told him how I hadn't realized it at first but we started talking about me and my problems but eventually we always ended up talking about the bank and security procedures. Jerry had made it seem like he was worried about his company's money being safe in a small town bank, but I could see now that he was just pumping me for information. The Sheriff started laughing about that.

"How do you think your husband would feel about this?" he asked me.

"He'd probably be really hurt badly," I said. "Especially since Jerry made me do some things that I've never done with him. Lucas has always been very gentle and very loving with me. Maybe that was part of the reason that I went so far with Jerry. I even let him..."The Sheriff held his hand up for me to stop.

"You probably don't want to say anymore," he said. "Okay, you can come in now."

"I'm already in," I said.

"Not you," he said. "I needed someone who knows you to help me figure out whether or not you're lying."

The door opened up and Lucas walked in. He wouldn't even look at me. It looked like he was about to cry. "As far as I can tell, she was telling the truth," he said to the Sheriff.

"Lucas..." I said. He looked away from me.

"I'm sorry Lucas," said the Sheriff. "If it wasn't important I wouldn't have made you listen to that. But I had to know. Shorter doesn't have anything to gain by lying. He's already looking at life in prison and since bank robberies are federal, he may even be looking at the death penalty. This wasn't his crew's first rodeo either. We're trying to get him to roll over on his cronies too."

Lucas, my Lucas; just when I thought I couldn't hurt him anymore I'd gone and done it again. And then she was there holding his hand and kissing him softly on his cheek. She was doing what I should have. I got so angry I couldn't control myself. Without thinking about my shoulder or anything else, I launched myself at that bitch. I intended to kill her.

"It's okay, Honey," she told him. "I'll make it all better."

"Not while I'm alive, bitch," I screamed, just in time for the Sheriff to grab me and wrestle me back into the chair.

"If you don't control yourself, I'm going to have you restrained," he said.

"I need to talk to my husband," I said.

"That's up to him," he said. "I was thinking about putting you in a holding cell and letting you avail yourself of the hospitality of the Sheriff's department until I sort all of this shit out. But if Lucas is willing to let you stay with him for a while longer, that would be okay too. It would save the county a few bucks."

Lucas looked at me seriously. I had never even considered that he might not let me come home. Maybe I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. Even when Lucas caught me in the motel, I never really considered that my marriage was over. For the majority of my adult life, I'd taken Lucas loving me unconditionally as an irrefutable fact. I began to see that I'd fucked up far more seriously than I ever considered.

Then there was also the fact that the women in town seemed very eager to pick Lucas up and help get him back on his feet again. I wouldn't have to worry about those skanks at the bank though because this deputy looked at my husband like a starving woman looks at a steak. And he seemed to be a little hungry too.

There she was with her arms all over him, flaunting her obvious affection for him in front of me. God damn it didn't she have any tact? At least she should wait until we were divorced before going after him. Then it hit me, I was the one who'd caused this. I went after Jerry or at least responded to his advances while I was still married. And when I'd done it there hadn't been any problems in our marriage. My infidelity was what weakened our union.

Lucas, on the other hand, looked at our marriage as if it was already over. From the day that he'd caught me in that motel, he'd said it over and over again, we were done. So in his mind there was nothing wrong with him finding someone else to love. The fact that she was younger than me, prettier than me and obviously built better than me pissed me off. It pissed me off more than the fact that she obviously loved him a lot. I had to figure a way to get Lucas to let me come home. I also had to come up with a way to get him to give me another chance. Thus far, I'd simply assumed that our shared history and time together would trump anyone else from being able to take him away from me.

I could see now that I'd been wrong. My strategy of just telling him that I love him, when all of my actions had proven otherwise was a dismal failure. That bitch was winning all of the battles because I hadn't even tried to fight.

"Lucas, if you let me come home, I'll stop trying to fight or postpone the divorce. You and I can talk about the settlement and everything else every day until we sign the final papers. And if we can't work something out, I'll arrange to move in with my mom as soon as the Sheriff's department okays me to leave town," I said.

"And you'll agree to stop bullshitting us in our investigation," added the Sheriff.

"That too," I said. Lucas nodded and said something to the Sheriff.

"Okay, Mrs. Blue," said the Sheriff. "I'll have someone run you back out to your home."

"There's no need to go to all of that trouble," I said. "I'll just ride back home with my husband."

"We were in the middle of a date," said Tanya. "We came in to be helpful to the investigation. We're going back to finish where we left off."

"Yes Ma'am, Officer Ma'am," said Lucas smiling. Tanya took his hand and led him back out of the room.

"Holy shit, I hope you get him back," said the Sheriff. "She won't be much good to me if the two of them end up together and she's my best man. I guess as her uncle, I should be happy for her, because she hasn't been this happy in a very long time. But as the Sheriff, I'm kind of worried."

Through an extreme effort, I held back the "Fuck You," that I was getting ready to throw at him, but just barely.

The next few weeks brought changes that I'd never have foreseen only a few months ago. Lucas and I had started out that first day after he let me come home by having morning sessions where we discussed things. It was almost like the way we used to get out of bed together and talk about our lives and our goals and our dreams while we had breakfast.

The difference was that we weren't sleeping together. Lucas was still the same considerate man that I love. He even got up and made me breakfast before all of the discussions. There were several times when he even came to wake me before breakfast. I was getting weaker but I still hadn't begun to show more than just a bulge on my tummy. When Lucas knocked one morning, I told him to come in. On days when I just didn't feel like getting up, he'd bring me my breakfast in bed and sit on the chair beside the bed while we worked out a compromise on whatever we were arguing about.

That morning was the straw for me. That was the morning that I decided that Tanya had to die. As Lucas walked in the room that morning, I'd purposefully left the covers off and made sure I'd be exposed when he came in the room. Lucas took one look at my nearly naked body and said, "Sorry," and backed out.

That was the first time that Lucas had ever done that. Since we'd been together, even when we argued, my body had never failed to get Lucas excited. Usually, I could wrap him around my little finger just by opening my legs a hint. I watched his reaction very carefully that morning and there was none. If Lucas had been aroused or if he'd even just come in and taken me, it would have ended all of this stupid divorce talk. But he hadn't. I'd only tried it because the previous day while talking about the divorce which we'd finally pretty much finished except for two major sticking points, we'd started talking about the old days before all of this shit started. I'd seen a wishful look in his eyes. I was sure then that I had a chance. And a chance was all I needed to break them up.

I'd forgotten though how honest Lucas is. What I'd done had obviously affected him because he didn't come back to work on the divorce. I was happy about it and considered it my first real attack in the battle for my husband. Little did I know, my attack was ill timed and it cost me the war.

When Tanya came over later that day, she came over every night after work by then, Lucas must have said something to her. She came up to the house and knocked on the door. It was the first time she'd ever done that.

"Lucas isn't up here," I began, before she launched in on me.

"You fucking bitch," she snapped at me. "You need to keep your God damned clothes on around Lucas. Isn't that what caused you to lose him in the first place?"

"No," I said, smiling. "First off, please remember that I haven't lost him yet. Second, it wasn't taking my clothes off around Lucas that lost him, missy. It was taking my clothes off around other men. And I don't do that anymore." She was so mad she blew her hair out of her eyes and glared at me and then just stalked away. I was sure she'd try to do something to get back at me.

I smiled because she was so pissed. I knew that I'd finally done something to score some points. I was in the game. Or so I thought. From talking to Lucas and just knowing the way he is, but also from listening to the things he said about her, I knew that they weren't having sex yet. They were just messing around like teenagers, while they got to know each other. You don't spend years with a man and not know him. I guess it's the same way that Lucas was able to tell the Sheriff whether or not I was telling the truth.

I knew that Lucas wanted to get the divorce taken care of so quickly so that he and little Miss Deputy could be together. They were both honorable enough to wait for our divorce to be final to sleep together.

When Tanya walked away from me that night she was mad enough to chew nails. I laughed as she walked away without realizing the damage I'd done.

The next morning Lucas returned to our makeshift bargaining table and I knew right away that things were different. He was my Lucas all over again. He was cheerful and smiling for the first time since he caught me in the motel. It was like my actions had deflated his soul and something had breathed life back into him.

I noticed that he knocked and this time he didn't bother to wait for me to invite him in. He just knocked and came on in. I mistakenly thought that he was trying to catch another glimpse of me naked. My mind can leap to the wrong conclusion at the speed of light. Figuring out when I've fucked up takes significantly longer though.

I quickly decided that yesterday's peek at my naked form had excited Lucas so much that he wanted more. Unfortunately, I had a night gown on. If I'd had the chance I'd have taken it off. But at least the neckline was cut very low. My nipples were hardening even as Lucas set my breakfast down. As he looked away to get my coffee cup from the tray I pulled one of my breasts out of the neckline and leaned forward as if I was reaching for something. The reaction was instantaneous.

"Uhm, Angela, you might want to cover up," he smiled. There was no other reaction. There was no tent in his pants and no frenzied need to get away. He wasn't flustered or embarrassed and he was still cheerful.

As we ate, my mind worked overtime. We were starting to discuss one of our two sticking points when I figured it out. "Angela, we both know that your baby isn't mine," he said. "So I don't see any reason to delay the divorce until the baby is born. I have an idea. They now have an early DNA test they can perform. It's very accurate and very safe. Let's get that done. That way if the baby isn't mine we could have this wrapped up by as early as next week. And if it is, we can discuss custody and child support in real world terms."

"What do you mean custody and child support?" I snapped. "Lucas, this IS your baby. We don't have to discuss custody because when he's born or she's born, we're BOTH going to raise our baby together. We'll put all of this Jerry and Tanya bullshit behind us and go on with our plans to have a family. So if that's what it takes to put this shit behind us, I'll make an appointment today."

He just smiled and said, "Great Angela. Do that. Isn't it a wonderful day?"

My eyes widened in shock. It all came clear then. The first time that Lucas and I had sex and any time we'd tried something new, he always walked around on air afterwards. It was as if his heart was just filled with love and it made everything seem perfect to him."

"Lucas, what the hell are you talking about?" I asked. "It's ninety five degrees out and the skies are gray. It's going to rain and make it even muggier. There's a flash flood warning for the low lying areas."

"I know," he said smiling. "But for a hot muggy day when it's probably going to rain, it's a good one."

"Lucas," I said. "Rain means you can't drive your precious car, Honey." Lucas not only put the Mustang up in the winter, he didn't drive it on days when it rained or there was water left over from a storm. He worried about rust and corrosion on his undercarriage.

"I can always drive it tomorrow," he said smiling. In the past I'd known Lucas to sulk like a little kid on summer days that he couldn't drive those fucking cars. I knew than that he'd fucked that little whore.

"I'm kind of tired, Lucas," I said. "We got a lot done today. I'll make the appointment for tomorrow. I just want to take a nap okay?"

"Okay," he said, way too damned cheerfully. As soon as he left the room, I started crying quietly. All of my mistakes were coming home and bringing the realization of my foolishness with them.

This was far worse than anything I'd ever imagined. Lucas had looked at my naked breast and basically told me to stick it back in my fucking shirt. Before this he didn't even have to see them to go after them. I remember once when it was cold out and I hadn't worn a bra, Lucas had seen my nipples when I opened up my jacket to let the heat of the Jeep's interior warm me up.

He had pulled the Jeep off the road in foot deep snow and started sucking my nipples through my blouse. He had ended up pulling the blouse up and feasting on my breasts until neither of us could stand it anymore. We'd ended up in the backseat fucking like bunnies. Only a snow plow pulling up near us had made us stop. Even then we just decided to go into town the next day. We went home and continued what we'd started in the Jeep.

Remembering that incident and so many others only caused me to compare it to the sex I'd had with Jerry and God damn it, there was no way it was a fair trade. All sex with Jerry had given me had been the excitement of doing it and the risk of getting caught. The sex itself wasn't even very good. Lucas prided himself on fairness. How the fuck was this fair?

The worst thing about it was that it made me realize how vulnerable I was. Tanya had obviously stepped outside of what I'd perceived her boundaries were. True, I had goaded her into it, but she had responded and had taken our battle to a higher level.

My only chance now, was the fetal DNA test. I was sure that Lucas was my baby's father. I also knew that Lucas wanted to have kids very badly. The sooner I could let him know that he was going to be a father, the sooner we could get Tanya out of his life. Lucas might be willing to move on without me, but he'd never abandon his child. And as soon as the first one was out, I'd start pressuring him to make another one. Neither of us wanted to raise an only child. Kids need brother and sisters.

Two weeks later my life went to hell. Actually, I was already in hell, I just went to a deeper level. I'd adjusted to my nausea and weakness in the morning and had started trying to reciprocate the compassion Lucas had shown me. I woke up and made breakfast for him some days now. We were scheduled to go in that morning to hear the results of the DNA test. Both of us were going. We'd both insisted on it. I wanted Lucas to be there so we could get things back to normal as soon as possible. And Lucas wanted to be there because he didn't trust me. He wanted to hear the results from the doctor in person.