by Susan Stoker
“Holy shit,” Rayne exclaimed softly as Mary pulled her inside. “Is this really happening?”
Without answering, Mary gestured for Emily and Casey to hurry and the second they cleared the door, she shut it as quietly as she could, even though she didn’t think the robbers could hear the door shutting over the sounds of the screams and crying now coming from the packed lobby.
Mary did what she’d been trained to do in a situation like this. She secured the door, trying not to shiver when it felt like the lid to a coffin shutting, and went straight to the phone on the wall. It was a separate line from the rest of the bank, for safety reasons. No one would see the red light on the desk phones indicating someone was using it. She dialed 9-1-1 and quickly explained the situation to the operator.
She didn’t have a lot of details, but told the lady where she was, who she was with, approximately how many customers there were in the lobby as far as she knew, how many robbers she saw, and how many bank employees there were. The operator wanted her to stay on the line, but Mary hung up and immediately dialed another number.
Rayne, Emily, and Casey were murmuring behind her, but Mary ignored them for the time being. “Come on, come on,” she chanted as the phone rang in her ear.
“Hello?”
The sound of Truck’s voice immediately calmed her. “Truck, it’s Mary. I need you.”
“What’s wrong?” His voice was hard, but composed. It kept her from losing her shit.
“I’m at the bank and there’s a robbery in progress. Rayne, Emily, and Casey are with me, and I locked us in the safety-deposit vault. We can’t hear what’s going on out there, but the guys had guns.”
“Are you all right?”
At his question, Mary’s eyes filled with tears. How like Truck to worry about her first. “Yeah.”
“And the others?”
Mary turned to look at her friends. They were huddled together and looked completely terrified. “They’re good. We’re all good,” she told Truck, lying. She didn’t think he needed to know they were on the verge of freaking out.
“Okay. I’m on the way. The guys are all here…and I’m gonna bring another Delta team with me. We’ve got this. Hear me?”
“Yeah. I called 9-1-1.”
“Good. Mary…we got this,” Truck said again, more urgently. “All you gotta do is stay safe. Can they get in?”
“Maybe. I’ve hit the panic button from inside the vault, which locks it down, but my boss has the override code. I’m hoping if they want money, they won’t bother with this vault, they’ll want the one with the money. My boss should steer them toward that one.”
“Stay away from the door,” Truck ordered. She could hear him moving in the background and hoped like hell he really was on his way right that second. “Can you barricade it in any way?”
“No. There’s a table in here, but it’s bolted to the floor, and it would be too heavy for us to move even if it wasn’t.”
“Fuck. Okay, that’s okay. I bet those guys are already gone. They’ll take what money they can and get the fuck out. We’re comin’ for you, Mare. You tell the others their men are comin’ too. Okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t do anything rash,” Truck warned. “I love you.”
Mary’s stomach tightened at his words. He’d never come out and said it before. Oh, she knew he loved her, but she hadn’t heard the words. Hearing them now was almost painful. “Be careful,” she whispered, wanting to return his words, but not able to make herself say them.
“Always. You call me back if you need to.”
“I will.”
“You did good, Mare. I gotta go. Ten minutes and we’ll be there.”
“Okay.”
“Bye.”
Mary hung up the phone and took a deep breath and looked her friends in the eyes. “We need to get away from the door.”
“They’re coming, right?” Emily asked, her voice shaking.
Suddenly more than aware of how pregnant the woman was, and everything that could go wrong, Mary said, “Of course they are. They’re also bringing that other Delta team they’ve been training with. Those asshole robbers won’t know what hit them if they’re stupid enough to still be here when the guys arrive. Come on, over here away from the door. Sit. You’re not going to have that baby in here, are you? Because if you do, you’re gonna have to name him Hank.”
“Hank?” Emily asked as she waddled over to where Mary indicated, Rayne and Casey on either side of her.
“Yeah. You know, like bank, but with an H,” Mary quipped.
Emily shook her head and rolled her eyes, but she was grinning while she did it. Rayne and Casey got Emily seated and looked up at her.
“Now what?” Casey asked.
Mary looked around the room and shook her head. “The table is bolted down, so we can’t move it. There aren’t any other chairs or anything else in here. All we can do is wait.”
“Are those guys gonna want to come in here?” Emily asked.
Mary met her eyes. “As I told Truck, I don’t think they will. I mean, the boxes are locked up tight and there are two keys needed for each one. The customer has one and the bank has the other. Yeah, there’s probably hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of jewels in here, but it would be tough to get at them easily. If I was a bank robber, I’d rather get into the money vault, where I could grab stacks of cash and go.”
“You aren’t just saying that to make us feel better, are you?” Rayne asked suspiciously.
Mary sighed and sat down about three feet away from the other women, making sure to put herself between them and the door. She met Rayne’s eyes and said, “I’d say anything to make you feel safe, Rayne. I’d do anything in my power to protect you. When you were missing in Egypt, I almost lost my mind. So yeah, I’d totally fucking lie if it meant you were happy, safe, and secure. But I’m not lying to you right now.”
The two women stared at each other without saying a word.
“You’re talking about more than stashing us in here to get away from the robbers, aren’t you?” Casey asked.
Not taking her eyes from Rayne’s, Mary said simply, “Yes.” This wasn’t the time or the place that she’d planned on having a heart to heart with her best friend, but it was what it was.
“I never asked you to do that,” Rayne whispered.
“I know. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” Mary told her. “My childhood was shit. I had so many ‘uncles’ coming in and out of our house, I stopped bothering to learn their names after a while. They, and my mama, taught me to never rely on anyone for anything because they’ll always let you down. And it wasn’t just that she told me that every fucking day…I saw it. Every one of those uncles promised my mama a better life. They promised they’d take care of her, and me. And every single one left. I can’t really blame them because Mama was a bitch, but still.
“Teachers let me down by not noticing how hungry I was and how I hadn’t showered in days. Social workers let me down too. They’d come around every now and then after one of the uncles reported Mama, but they were overworked and busy and didn’t bother to really see me. Even the principal let me down after he found out Mama had kicked me out my senior year, by not giving a shit and threatening to have me expelled if I missed any more days of class. I told him it was because I was trying to find a place to live, but he didn’t care.
“Then I met you, Raynie. I wasn’t going to let you in, but you stormed the shields I had around my heart. I didn’t know what love was until I met you.” Mary knew she had tears in her eyes, but she didn’t stop. “You got me. You didn’t care that I used sarcasm to protect myself. You didn’t care that I was snarky and a bitch. You loved me all the same. Then when I got cancer, you were there every step of the way. You came to my appointments with me. You were there when I was too sick to get out of bed. You forced me to eat, to stay positive, and to live. And the weirdest thing for me was that you didn’t want anything in retur
n.”
“You tried to offer me money,” Rayne remembered, her own face wet with tears. “As if I’d take your fucking money.”
“I didn’t know how to deal with that. No one in my life ever gave me anything without strings attached. Until you. You dropped your hours down at your job so you could be with me. You didn’t date for months when I was sick. You went grocery shopping for both of us and you did all my laundry, cleaned my apartment, and practically moved in. It was overwhelming for me, but no matter how much I protested or how mean I was to you, you didn’t leave.”
“Nothing could’ve made me leave you when you were sick, Mare,” Rayne said.
“I know. Then I got better, and you met Ghost. I was so happy for you, even though I was a dick to him after he got hurt. I couldn’t stand to see you unhappy, Raynie. I didn’t trust him, and I didn’t want you to go through the pain that I’d been through. I hoped he was the man he seemed to be, but I also thought there was a chance he’d dump you once the honeymoon period was over.”
“So why didn’t you tell me the cancer was back? Did you not think I’d help you again?” Rayne asked.
“No. I knew you would. I couldn’t go through it again,” Mary said softly. “I couldn’t do that to you again. It was hell on both of us, and it wasn’t fair of me to put you through that twice. Not when you were living the dream. You had a man who doted on you and would give you the world if you asked.”
“What wasn’t fair was that you didn’t even give me a choice,” Rayne said with heat.
“You don’t understand,” Mary protested.
“So explain it to me,” Rayne practically yelled. “I would’ve been there for you, Mare, just like I was the first time. I would’ve done anything for you, and you didn’t give me that choice.”
Mary clenched her hands into fists and squeezed her eyes closed as Rayne continued her harangue.
“You always go on and on about how people are selfish and users and only do things because they want something in return. But you knew I wasn’t like that. I’d proven it already. So why, Mary? Why did you push me away? At least have the balls to tell me to my face. Open your eyes and face me!”
Mary’s eyes popped open and she stared in Rayne’s direction. She couldn’t see her because of the tears obscuring her vision, could only see her blurry outline. All the pain she’d felt when she got the diagnosis that her cancer was back bubbled to the surface.
“I didn’t want you to have to watch me die!” she yelled.
The words echoed in the room before she continued.
“The last thing I wanted to do was have my best friend, a woman I love more than anything in this world, have to see me waste away and know there was nothing she could do about it. I wanted your memories of me to be good ones.” Mary closed her eyes once more and sniffed. “I didn’t want you to have to experience that, Raynie. I couldn’t take it. I knew you’d be there for me. You’d never let me push you away if you knew the cancer was back. You would’ve stayed by my side to the bitter end—and it would’ve killed me to see you so sad and upset.”
There was silence in the vault after Mary’s pronouncement. The soundproof room gave no hint as to what was happening out in the lobby. Mary had no idea if the robbers were still there, if there was a huge shootout, or if the robbery was still in progress. All she could hear was her own heartbeat and her occasional sniffle. But she didn’t dare open her eyes again.
She’d just laid herself bare to her best friend, and she was terrified Rayne would reject her for good. That this was the end of their friendship forever. She didn’t know what she’d do without Rayne in her life. The last couple months had been hell. Absolute hell.
Mary jerked when she felt a hand on her arm and her eyes opened. She turned and saw Rayne crouched at her side.
“Thank you,” Rayne said.
“What?”
“All this time, I thought I’d done something wrong. That you were mad at me for moving in with Ghost and loving him. I knew how you felt about men. But I had it all wrong. You were protecting me.”
Mary nodded.
At that, Rayne shifted until she was sitting next to Mary and put her arms around her friend. Mary tucked her head into Rayne’s shoulder and held on for dear life. The familiar smell of Rayne’s favorite soap penetrated her senses and it felt like coming home.
“I’m sorry,” Mary said into her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Rayne said. “I understand. I forgive you.”
Mary pulled back. “Just like that?”
“Just like that. I love you, Mare.”
She didn’t take her eyes from Rayne as she continued.
“But don’t do that shit again. If you get a fucking sniffle, I want to know about it. I love that you wanted to protect me, but don’t do it again. Hear me?”
“Yeah, Raynie. I hear ya. Please marry Ghost. You guys are perfect for each other, and I know without a doubt that he’d never leave you. Ever.”
“I know.”
“So you’ll get married?”
“Yes—on one condition.”
Mary rolled her eyes and wiped her face. “What?”
“You and Truck renew your vows with us.”
Mary froze, and the yearning that struck was almost painful. “I’m not sure—”
“That pact we made was bullshit. We both know it. I mean, there’s no way I would’ve put off marrying Ghost if you didn’t have a man in your life. But you do…Truck. I see the way you look at him when he isn’t watching, and how he looks at you. I thought if I held off long enough, you’d see what was right in front of your face and we could have our double wedding ceremony.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my marriage.”
Rayne waved her hand in the air in dismissal. “I don’t care about that. I’m glad you did it. It saved your life, so I can’t be pissed about it. But…now that you are married, you can renew your vows with me and Ghost. You’ve got nothing to argue against. It’ll be just like we planned all those years ago.”
“Things between me and Truck aren’t exactly husband and wifey.”
“Husband and wifey?” Casey asked.
Mary nodded. “Yeah. I mean…we aren’t…”
“Oh, shit, you haven’t slept with him?” Rayne asked in shock.
“Well, we’ve slept, but that’s it.”
“Holy shit,” Emily breathed. “I can’t believe it. Truck looks at you with such lust, we all thought for sure you were doing the nasty.”
Mary winced. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t as if we could get it on when I was sick. And now things are just…weird.”
“Do you want him?” Rayne asked. Then added, “And don’t lie.”
Mary nodded.
“Do you love him?” she pressed.
“I don’t know, Raynie. I don’t know that I know what love is.”
“Bullshit. You love me.”
“That’s different.”
“It’s not. Look. I get it. From the first time we met, we agreed that men suck. But even back then I knew that for you, it wasn’t just something you were saying because you’d just had a breakup. You truly believed it. Your bitch of a mom planted that seed when you were nothing but a kid. But Truck is not those guys from your past. He’s not one of your childhood uncles. I think he’s more than proved he’s with you because he loves you and not because he wants something from you.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s holding you back?”
Mary bit her lip then looked at her best friend. “I’m scared to let him see me. You know…without…” She gestured to her chest. “But it’s not just that. I mean, I know he has his own scars and if anyone would understand, it’d be him. The last time I told a guy that I loved him, he dumped me the next day. I’m scared to death that if I say it again, the same thing will happen.”
“You’re selling Truck short, and that’s not fair to him,” Rayne said with conviction. “I get it. It’s s
cary to open yourself up, both physically and emotionally. But Truck is not that guy. If you told him you loved him, I have a feeling it would change both your lives. For the good. Give him a chance, Mare.”
“I’ll try.”
“Ooh…” Emily moaned from nearby, and both Mary’s and Rayne’s heads turned to stare at the pregnant woman.
“What? What is it?” Rayne asked urgently.
“I’m not sure,” Emily said, the concern easy to hear in her voice.
“Lie down,” Casey ordered, already helping the other woman to the floor.
Rayne and Mary moved to her side. Mary grabbed one of her hands and Rayne grasped Emily’s leg. “Deep breaths,” Rayne ordered. “Try to relax.”
“I think I’m okay,” Emily said. “It was just a twinge. I’ve still got two months to go. I’m not in labor.”
“Damn straight you’re not,” Mary said. “I am not delivering Annie’s brother in the middle of a bank robbery in this cave of a room.”
“You don’t know it’s a boy,” Emily said.
“It is. Annie wants a brother, so it’s a boy.”
Emily rolled her eyes, but quickly looked up at Mary. “Thank you for not distancing yourself from Annie. She loves you so much, and she wouldn’t have understood.”
Mary nodded. “Annie is my soul sister. She’s precious and can be snarky, just like me. Do you…will you forgive me?” Mary hadn’t ever been so unsure in all her life. Usually she didn’t give a damn what people thought about her, but this was too important to be flippant.
“Of course I do,” Emily said immediately. “I was upset because Rayne was upset. But I never hated you.”
“Thank you,” Mary told her softly.
“And I’m too new to even know what all the hub-bub was about,” Casey piped in. “So I forgive you too.”
Rayne laughed. “Girl, you never even took sides. In fact, you constantly bugged me to talk to Mary and mend our rift.”
“True,” Casey said cheerfully. “And now you have. I can’t wait to call Wendy, Kassie, and Harley, and tell them all is well.”
Mary grimaced. “I need to talk to them too. To explain.”
Rayne put her hand on Mary’s arm. “I’ll do it.”