“Damn right I am! I knew you weren’t ready to be out gallivanting all over town!”
“You can’t do that,” I whispered. “You can’t make me stay in the house. I am a grown woman.” If I could have stomped my foot for emphasis I would have.
“Oh? Watch me.”
“Why are you doing this to me, Andy? The doctor says it has nothing to do with the accident. I will be fine soon. Look, I can already move again.” I lifted my right leg to show him that my muscles were beginning to regain their function.
“I’m sorry, Susie. I almost lost you once. I can’t let the boys grow up without a mom and if that means putting you on lockdown until you are one hundred percent then so be it.” Andy’s tone was somber, his eyes firm.
“It’s not fair. You are treating me like a child and I don’t have to take it.” I turned my face away from him so that he couldn’t see the tears filling my eyes.
“Well, maybe if you would stop acting like one…”
I decided in that moment that no matter what Andy did to ensure it, I would not be held prisoner in my own home. We had one last meeting tomorrow before our big day and come hell or high water I had no intention of missing it.
“Whatever. Leave me alone.” I kept my head turned away and waved him off with my left hand. The medications had definitely begun to work. I could sit up and probably walk by now but I did not want Andy to know that just yet.
I expected him to leave the curtained area but instead I heard him settle in the straight backed visitor chair next to my bed. He still had his whole uniform on so it took some manipulating to squeeze his duty belt in between the arm rests. A series of grunts followed by slightly labored breathing let me know he had finally settled in. When I heard the quiet snore coming from the chair, I let myself finally shed the tears I had been holding back. I wasn’t sure just how much of all of this I could take.
A good half an hour passed before the nurse came back to check on me. By then my nose was running and my eyes were rimmed in red but I sat and attempted a smile when she pulled back the curtain and stepped into the small space.
“Well, there! You must be feeling better if you are sitting up!” She eyed my red, swollen eyes but didn’t say anything. I silently thanked her for that.
“When can I go home?” I asked.
“Direct and to the point! I like that.” She chuckled as she bustled through the tiny space, taking my blood pressure and pulse and checking for edema at my ankles. She patted my ankle with her long, ice cold fingers. “No swelling! Pretty soon you will be as good as new!”
“So, this has nothing to do with my previous injuries, right?” I wanted a second opinion. I needed someone to justify my anger at my husband.
“Most likely you were dehydrated. Your body accepted two pints of saline without any edema. That tells me your little cells were pretty dried out!” She chuckled again. My nurse had to be the happiest person I ever met.
“So, just to clarify, it was not from the head injury?”
“Oh, no, dear. That was too long ago to have caused this. Just keep up on your bananas and apple juice and you will be fine. The doctor will be in soon to see you.” And then she was gone.
So, Andy was wrong. The seizures were not connected to the potassium issue so he had no justifiable reason to hold me hostage.
“I hear we are feeling much better.” The young doctor that met me when I first arrived stepped through the curtain, a huge grin on his face. This emergency room had to have the happiest staff in Virginia Beach.
“I do, thank you. When can I go home?” Andy still slept in the chair. I probably should have woken him up when the nurse came in but I had no patience to deal with him so I let him sleep. A trail of saliva worked its way from the corner of his mouth down to the black polyester uniform covering his chest. He looked so tired, even while he slept.
“Well, I am just going to take a quick look and if everything checks out, I will be sending you home in a jiffy.”
“Good. Thank you.” I sat still while the doctor checked all the same vital signs the nurse had just checked.
When he finished, he stepped back and wrote a few notes on his clipboard. “Looks like you are ready to get out of here. I am writing you a script for a potassium supplement to keep your levels up but you really need to make sure you eat plenty of potassium rich foods. This pamphlet contains a list of some good choices for you. You need to take better care of yourself, Mrs. Timmons.” He even managed to deliver his admonishment with a smile.
“I know, Doctor. I will. I promise.”
He handed me the clipboard and indicated where I needed to sign on all three pages. “OK, then. Consider yourself checked out and released! Have a great day, Mrs. Timmons.” He nodded in the direction of Andy wiping the drool from his chin and stretching. “Good to see you again, Officer Timmons.”
“You too, doc,” Andy mumbled, sleep still in his eyes.
The doctor turned and left the small room. I twisted my body and hung my legs over the side. Reaching down tentatively with one foot, my toes settled on the ground and I slid to the edge of the narrow stretcher. Easing carefully to a standing position, I kept my hands on the bed until I knew for certain my muscles were working normally again.
“I’m ready to get out of here now, Andy. Let’s go.” I strode out of the room and was totally unprepared when my knees buckled.
“Careful there, Mrs. Timmons!” The young doctor that had taken care of me, grabbed me under both arms and hoisted me back up to a prone position.
“Thank you. I don’t know what happened.”
“You just have to take it easy for a day or two, OK?” Andy came up behind us and the doctor handed me over to him. Andy put a hand around my waist and just started walking toward the door. I waited for the inevitable “I told you so” but it never came.
Andy stayed uncharacteristically quiet during the ride home in his patrol car. As the minutes ticked by, I found myself wishing Andy had put me in the back seat like a criminal. At least then the plastic wall between us would give him a reason to give me the silent treatment.
19
I Don’t Wanna… and You Can't Make Me! (Insert Foot Stomp Here)
By the time Andy pulled the cruiser into the driveway, I had worked myself up into such a rage against my husband.
Stopping only to peek in on the boys, I went straight to our bedroom and closed the door, pushing the lock. Andy could sleep on the damned couch for all I cared.
Dropping onto the bed, I kicked off my shoes and rolled the comforter over me. I didn’t even bother to change clothes. Instead, I laid there in the dark and cried. My body turned on me, my brain hurt and my husband wanted to lock me up and throw away the key.
He wanted to keep me safe. What exactly did that mean? Keep me safe?
Sleeping beauty’s father wanted to keep her safe and she ended up stretched out on a cold slab with a spindle in her finger.
So much for safe. Screw safe. Short of living in a giant plastic bubble, nothing could be done for me now. The accident had happened, my brain was bruised, and I had become a walking time bomb.
I punched the pillow with one weak fist and then pulled it over my face and screamed into it. I heard Andy try the doorknob once and then hesitate. He tried it again and then walked away down the hall toward the living room. I had married one smart man. He knew better than to press his luck.
I had finally taken my life back and I'd soon have the opportunity to tell Lawrence at the Back of U.S. to go screw. I refused to miss our last planning session the next day. I would be there. I needed to be there. We were a team. Like the Four Musketeers.
Andy couldn’t keep me locked away forever, no matter how much he wanted to. I was a grown woman with resources of my own. Hell, I made a living out of sneaking out of the house as a teenager and that was no easy task with a Navy Seal father and an insurance investigator for a mother.
Nope. I wasn't going to miss a single thing. We had a plan and
I would do my part no matter what.
20
Willie’s Angels
“Hello, Angels!” Music filled the room, familiar strains reminiscent of an old childhood memory.
“Hello, Willie!” We cooed as one voice in response.
I glanced around the space and realized we were situated in Claire’s sitting room. Only we weren’t. This room was larger, more elegant. Claire stood next to me, impeccably dressed as always. Her brown hair had been feathered back from her face and fell to about the middle of her back. She wore a crisp blue and white striped oxford shirt and navy blue bell bottomed pants that skimmed the bottom of her spiked heels.
When did bell bottoms slip back into fashion?
Becca stood across from me. Her hair had grown, almost overnight, and fell in a cascade of loose blonde waves settling around the shoulder of her shiny black cat suit. Bright red nails tapped the desk in rhythm with the music and her hips, far more voluptuous than I remembered swayed slightly to the melody.
Laura lounged on the edge of the expansive mahogany desk, polishing her .9mm handgun with a white handkerchief. She smiled at her reflection in the barrel as she tucked her pin straight, waist length sandy blonde hair behind her ears and adjusted the sleeves of the hunter green sweater she hung over the shoulders of her crisp white blouse. Also clad in bell bottomed pants, Laura wore black spiked heels as well.
I caught my reflection in a large picture window at the back of the room. Sporting a form fitting black leotard with a deep v-neck and hip hugging wide legged jeans I thought I looked damn good for someone that had barely survived a horrific crash just a few weeks before. The two-inch heels on my black leather boots made my legs go on forever and the sexy mop of curls falling all over my shoulders and down my back were unbelievably hot! The crash of the ocean at the base of the cliff that Claire’s house perched on reached my ears as the strains of the old television theme song began to fade away.
Turning my attention back to the small speaker in the center of the desk, I heard begin to Claire speak.
“Willie! How are you this morning?”
“Just fine, Angels. Just fine! I trust I find you all beautiful and brilliant as always!”
A chorus of giggles filled the room. When did we, well everyone except Becca anyway, start giggling?
“Do you have a job for us, Willie?” Laura asked, no nonsense as always.
“I do, indeed, Angels! The Bank of Virginia.”
Becca bounced in her pointy heels and clapped her hands together. The gun slung low on her hip tapped lightly against the lycra of her cat suit. “Oh yeah! Tell us, Willie! I do love a good bank heist on such a gorgeous day!”
Despite the longer hair and sexier figure, Becca was still Becca.
“Well, Becca, I must say I agree with you!” The voice from the speaker chuckled. “Today’s job will be close to home. The Bank of Virginia not far from where you are will receive a delivery today—cash and jewels worth over one million dollars!”
“One million dollars!” we exclaimed dramatically. My hand fluttered to my chest.
“Yes, Angels! One million dollars! Can you do it?”
“Of course, we can, Willie!” we called out in unison. “Willie’s Angels can handle anything!”
“Wonderful, Angels! Now tell me, why do we rob the banks?”
“Because that is where the money is!” Four voices in complete harmony filled the room as we struck a pose, our backs together, weapons poised in various positions. I wasn’t exactly sure when I had gotten a gun but it was there, on my waist so I raised it along with the others.
“That’s my Angels! I will check back with you this evening. Rob well!”
“Oh, we will! ’Bye, Willie!” We sang into the speaker as the call disconnected.
“Well, you heard Willie, girls!” Claire spoke up. “We have a job to do!”
“Let’s do it!” We cheered, again in unison, reaching into the air to tap the barrels of our guns together.
In a blink of an eye we were standing on the sidewalk outside the Bank of Virginia.
“Ready, Angels?” Claire asked.
“Ready!” We moved as one, stopping periodically to pose dramatically, weapons extended, perfect hair and clothing accentuating every movement.
As we entered the bank, dramatic music cued up around us and customers exclaimed in fear as they dropped to the floor. Continuing to move as one, pose after pose erected, we made it to the front counter where Claire again took the lead. Tossing a duffle bag onto the teller’s desk she tossed her perfectly coiffed hair over her shoulders.
“We know you just got a shipment of jewels and cash! Fill the bag, sweetheart, and no one gets hurt!”
Becca, Laura, and I spread amongst the customers, our movements distinct and almost acrobatic. A security guard suddenly stepped in front of me and pointed a gun. Expertly, as though I had participated in martial arts my whole life, I swung a leg up in a perfect round kick, knocking the weapon to the ground. A knife hand to the chest and its owner crumpled on the floor next to it.
An alarm began to sound. Not like any robbery alarm the Angels had ever heard before.
I groaned as I rolled over and slammed a fist on the snooze button of my alarm clock. Why did the damned thing always wake me up at the high point of my best dreams?
Throwing an arm over my eyes to block out the already too bright Virginia Beach sun, I groaned and then smiled, recalling my dream.
Charlie’s Angels had been one of my favorite shows as a teenager. As I lay in bed, I heard the sound of Sammy calling me and pounding on my bedroom door.
“Mommy! Mommy! Are you in there! Moooommmmmyyyy!”
I could hear the fear and panic in his voice. He must have been terrified the night before when I seized in the kitchen. Poor little guy. The past few months had to have been rough on him and A.J. Sammy, the baby of the family needed his mommy to be mommy, not some useless lump in her bed.
Dragging myself from my bed, I stumbled a little on my way to the door. My legs were still a bit weak but they worked and that was all I needed.
“I’m coming, Sammy. I’m here. Don’t worry!”
Unlocking the door, I pulled it open and my blond haired, blue eyed little boy nearly knocked me to the ground. Tears poured down his cheeks. He held onto my legs so tightly, my knees nearly buckled.
“Whoa there! Honey! What’s wrong? Mommy’s okay. Really! Look at me, Sam!”
He just held onto me tighter and cried harder.
Praying that I wouldn’t drop him, I leaned down and picked my baby up like I used to do when he was younger. He buried his face in my neck. I stumbled back to the bed where I sat down on the edge and rocked him and patted his back for what seemed like hours before the crying finally began to recede.
When he was finally calm, I eased him back so that I could look at him. My sweet little angel, horns holding up his halo from time to time, stared at me through red, swollen eyes. His fair skin was splotchy from the tears and his lip still trembled slightly.
“I was so afraid you wouldn’t wake up, Mommy. You went away and last time you went…”
“Shh… It’s all right, Sammy.” I kissed his damp little forehead softly as he hugged me tight. “I’m here and I am okay. Mommy just needs to work at taking a little better care of herself, is all. Do you understand, Sam? There is no need for you to worry about me, I promise.”
He stayed quiet as he clung to me. We sat there in the dim light of early morning and rocked gently on the edge of the bed. Eventually, his tears dried up, but he held me with an iron death grip. My weakened muscles complained, but I didn’t make him let go. He needed his mommy and I hadn’t been there for him for so very long.
A good half hour passed before I heard Andy’s mom calling for Sammy to get his jacket on. “Sam? Honey? It’s time for you to go to school.”
He looked up at me, crystal blue eyes searching my own green ones. “Will you be here when I get home?”
&nb
sp; “Yes.” I kissed the top of his head. “I absolutely will.”
He jumped down off my lap, all smiles as he ran from the room. “Love you, Mom! Take care of yourself, okay?” he called from somewhere down the hall.
I listened to the sounds of the kids leaving for school, my heart aching for the days when I had been the one to get them off in the mornings. I had no idea if Andy were home or not but I only had a couple of hours before the rendezvous time with the girls. I padded quietly out of my room and down the hall toward the living room. Andy lay stretched out on the couch, his feet hanging off the end, a small afghan covering his broad shoulders and back and snoring loudly.
I turned and walked back to my room where I took a shower and dressed. I still had two hours before I had to be at Claire’s house but I didn’t want to wait too long to leave. If Andy woke up I would never get out of the house.
There was absolutely no way he could make me stay locked up in this place. I had things to do and places to be.
The sound of Andy’s snores travelled down the hallway to my room so I knew he wouldn't wake up anytime soon. The window next to my bed opened out to the front of the house. Beneath it lay a mulch bed—a soft landing for someone making their prison break.
Easing the sash up to its highest point, I pushed on the screen until it popped out and fell to the ground. Tossing my purse and sweatshirt through the opening, I climbed up on the night stand and swung one leg over the window sill and eased my way through the window.
The warmth of the shower had worked a little magic on my aching muscles. Coupled with the adrenaline of my jail break, I felt pretty darned good as I jogged to the end of the driveway and made my way toward the bus stop. I couldn't wait to get to Claire’s. Now that I knew we had a professional on the team, I had begun to feel pretty good about our plan.
The Heist Page 11