Chapter 4

Stephanie's POV

The sound of the alarm going off woke me. I stretched, arching my back, before I leaned over and hit the alarm button. It was earlier than usual because Lula and I were scheduled to start work at nine, and it was important that we get to the bank early so we could make a good impression. After the fiasco at JoAnne's Chocolates, Lula and I had hit the pavement looking for another job. Yesterday, we'd scored a hit when we were both hired as tellers at the First Miami Bank.

After taking care of Mother Nature's call, I showered and dressed in one of my office outfits: a seashell-blue blouse and dark-navy skirt that ended a couple of inches above my knees. I paired the ensemble with a pair of tan strappy sandals and then twisted my hair into a French knot. After putting on my makeup, I finished the look with my favorite pearl-drop earrings. I took one final look in the mirror before grabbing my little black clutch purse and going to find Lula.

I didn't have to look around to know that Ranger and Tank were gone, just like every other morning since they'd arrived here three days ago. As I made my way into the kitchen where Lula was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, I had the fleeting thought that they must wake up at the first sign of daylight.

Lula looked up as I entered and wrinkled her nose. "Don't bother looking for real food. All we gots is this coffee and some lame-ass fruit and yogurt."

My eyes rolled before I could stop the reaction. The coffee would be welcomed, but like Lula, when I got up in the morning, I needed real food. Like doughnuts. Or pancakes. Or eggs, bacon, and toast. Of course, since Ranger had called in the grocery order that was delivered, we were shit out of luck with any of that. Well, that wasn't entirely fair. We could have the pancakes if we wanted to make them from scratch, or toast and eggs if we wanted to use the egg substitute and whole-grain bread that were on hand. As far as bacon and doughnuts, though, there wasn't even a hint of anything like that in the house.

I let out a deep sigh as I opened the fridge and grabbed the container of yogurt. Using a spoon from the silverware drawer, I stirred it up before putting a tablespoonful in a bowl, and then I took out a few strawberries and grabbed a banana from the counter before going to my seat at the table. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was food and beggars couldn't be picky.

We sat in silence as we ate. Neither one of us was fully functional at this time of the morning. I took my last sip of coffee and glanced at the clock on the wall. "We need to get going if we're going to get there on time."

In answer, Lula grunted.

We headed out to the car, and in no time, I was pulling into the parking lot to the First Miami Bank. I made sure the car was locked once we'd climbed out, although I really doubted anyone in their right mind would want the piece-of-shit car.

As we walked inside, I took a good look at the outfit that Lula had donned for the day. She had strappy heels similar to the ones I was wearing, but that's the only thing we had in common. Lula was a good two inches shorter than my five feet seven inches, and she outweighed me by nearly a hundred pounds. She referred to herself as a big beautiful black woman, and I had yet to meet the person who was willing to tell her different. Of course, that didn't stop her from trying to squeeze her plus-sized frame into a size-two spandex, defying the laws of nature. The leopard-print blouse that displayed an abundance of cleavage clashed with the zebra-striped mini skirt that came inches below her ass. As long as she didn't bend over, she'd be safe from an indecent exposure charge. To round out the outfit, her hair was dyed orange today.

When we entered the bank, every eye zeroed in on Lula, but she didn't let the attention faze her in the least. She walked with her head up toward the elevator that we'd take up to the third floor, where we would meet the woman who would tell us about the job we would be doing today. The minute the doors closed and we started to move upward, Lula let out a pent-up breath and whispered, "I don't like the feel of this place. There's something off about it."

I stepped closer, and careful so as not to give anyone the impression we were talking, I asked her, "Do you want to scrap this job?"

There was a long pause before she lifted her head and gave me a fake smile. "Let's go see what they have for us to do."

I was torn. While a part of me was relieved that she'd agreed to go forward with this job since we needed the money, another part of me was just as leery of what this day was going to hold. My stomach felt like it was tied in knots, and I too had the feeling that something was dangerously off about this place.

Once we'd filled out the paperwork, we were sent back down to the main floor of the bank to see the head teller, Carla Stanton. She was less than thrilled with having new employees, if the scowl on her face was anything to go by. She set us up at adjoining windows, and although she treated me with indifference, Lula could do nothing right in the woman's eyes.

We'd only been working for a couple of hours when Lula looked over and caught my gaze. From the look on her face, I knew that she was at the end of her rope with this woman, and if Carla Stanton didn't get out of her face soon, the woman was going to be planted six feet under.

By some supreme effort, Lula managed to make it through until our lunch break at one-thirty.

Carla forced out a breath and studied us as if we were bugs under a microscope. "I suppose you two will want to go to lunch together. Just make sure you are back here in forty-five minutes."

Lula smiled at her and then rushed over to where I was, grabbed my hand, and hurried me out of the building. "Oh, sweet hell! I didn't think I was going to make it till lunch. Now we got forty-five minutes of sweet freedom before we have to be back under the watchful eye of Cruella de Vil."

Shaking my head, I said, "I don't know what her problem is. It's like you can't do anything right. Maisie in personnel was so sweet compared to that pit viper."

"Yeah, and Maisie wasn't no picnic either."

I spotted a little dinner across the street and pointed it out to Lula. "Why don't we eat there? At least it's within walking distance and we won't have to worry about finding a parking place when we get back."

"Okay, but they better have real food there."

We walked across the street, and when we stepped inside the dive, I regretted my suggestion of eating there. Unfortunately, there weren't any other places close by and Lula and I were both starving. We found a table not too far from the door and looked at the menu sitting on the table. By the time the waitress came over, we both knew what we wanted to eat.

A voluptuous blonde stopped at our table and popped the bubble she'd just made. The name tag on her uniform said Brenda. She looked us over like we weren't worthy of being customers in such a fine place as this. Her tone was condescending as she asked, "What can I get for you?"

Lula ordered first. "I want the never-ending chicken plate and a Coke."

Brenda's eyes ran over Lula, and the look in her eyes wasn't friendly. She turned to me and asked, "And for you?"

"I'd like the meatloaf dinner and a Coke."

"All right." She sashayed over to the window and hollered out the order before grabbing the drinks and setting them on the table so that they sloshed over. "You two aren't from around here, are you?"

Lula frowned. "No. Why?"

Brenda leaned over and lowered her voice to a whisper. "There are certain parts of the city that have higher standards than other parts of the city." She looked at me and went on. "You fit." She turned to Lula. "But there is no way that you fit in to this part of town. Over the past year, this part of town has lightened considerably." She turned to look at Lula. "It's not safe around here for certain people."

With that, she left our table.

Lula looked at me. "Is she telling us what I think she's telling us?"

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down gently. "I think so."

She sighed. "I don't think we'll be at that bank job for long, then."

I smiled wryly. "I think that's a given."

Our food arrived a few minutes later, and it was better than I'd thought it would be. Once we finished, we paid the ticket and headed back over to the bank. Both of us were distracted on the way back. It wasn't until we stepped inside and a masked man turned, pointing the gun in his hand directly at us, that we became aware there was even anything going on inside the bank.

"Down on the floor," came from behind the mask.

My mind went blank.

The gun waved in the air in front of me, and once again the masked robber said, "Get down on the floor, now!"

My gaze went to Lula. Her eyes were wide, and she was looking at the gun like she was in a daze. Suddenly, without warning, her hands went up in the air and she started running. The guy with the gun pointed his weapon in her direction. I threw myself against him to throw off his aim, and we both went down. He scrambled up and aimed the gun at me as Lula continued screaming and running around the lobby.

I tried to make myself as small as I could, and when the robber snarled at me, I said, "You told me to get down. I was just doing what you told me."

"I didn't tell you to land on me, bitch! I should shoot you right now and teach you a lesson."

I forced myself not to look at him. I'd already categorized everything about him anyway. There was yelling, and then someone was pounding on something metallic. I turned to see two masked robbers beating on the vault. The man close to me yelled to his friends, "What are you two doing?"

"She ran into the vault and locked herself in."

A low snarl sounded close to me, and I knew the man in the mask wasn't happy. He seemed to forget that I was there as he mumbled, "This wasn't supposed to happen. Easy in, get the money, and we'd be out before that security company or the police could get here. Guaranteed. No one said anything about a crazy black bitch. We were just supposed to show everyone that the colored security people can't protect nothing."

Carla moved over close to the masked guy near me and whispered, "Is this a joke? He told me you guys were professionals! I'm risking everything helping him out, and he gives me the three stooges?"

"Hey, it was that black woman who ruined everything. Once that vault's opened, she's dead."

"That's just it, Einstein! There is no opening that vault. It's time-locked now because the alarm was tripped so the security company would respond. We need them here so it looks like they're incompetent."

"So where are they?!"

"I don't know!"

I looked around, taking mental photographs of everyone in the bank. Suddenly, I felt a zap of electricity on the back of my neck and looked up to see Ranger on one of the upper floors taking stock of what was going on. I knew that from his vantage point, he wouldn't be able to see that there were three men. My hand moved, and I put up three fingers and then slowly raised a fourth. Although he was too far away for me to be certain, I thought he gave a slight nod of his head.

He ducked back out of sight, but it wasn't long—maybe two or three minutes max—when I saw a door open in my peripheral vision. Ranger and Tank quickly moved into position to take out the two guys together, and when the masked man closest to me aimed his gun at them, I kicked out with my foot and brought the man down. By the time he was up and had his weapon drawn, Ranger was there to take him down. Once all three of them were handcuffed, the front door was opened and the police swarmed into the building.

Ranger stepped over beside me. "You said four. Who's the fourth?"

"Carla Stanton. She helped them by giving them information. There's more I need to tell you about this, but not here."

He nodded. "Where's Lula?"

My eyes widened. "She locked herself in the vault. It's time locked. We can't wait till it opens tomorrow morning… She'll run out of oxygen."

Ranger frowned. "I'll see if there's something that can be done to get it open."

I fidgeted. "I can get it open."

Ranger looked at me like I had three heads. One eyebrow went up as he asked, "Just how are you going to do that?"

I let out a sigh. "It's easy, really. All I have to do is convince the clock that it's nine a.m., and it will open. Can you okay it with the bank? The locking mechanism won't be hurt in any way."

He shook his head and moved over near a man in a suit. The man looked at the vault with horror, and I could hear him say, "Of course. We must do whatever we can to get her out of there."

Ranger turned and motioned me over to him. "What do you need?"

I gave him a list of supplies, and he had them for me inside of twenty minutes. It took me another fifteen minutes to put the device together, and then I attached it to the vault timer and turned it on. The clock on the vault sped up, and within ten minutes, the sound of the locks tumbling could be heard.

The door opened, and Lula came running out. "Air! I need air!" She fell into Tank's arms and fainted.

Tank lifted her in his arms and looked around.

The bank president stepped over and said, "I can't thank you enough. Unfortunately, considering your skills at getting into the vault, I'm afraid we aren't going to be able to allow you to work here. I'll give both of you a hefty bonus for your help in thwarting the robbery, but…" He raised his hands in a helpless motion and then turned away.

I let out a sigh.

Ranger placed a hand on the back of my neck. "You ready to go, Babe?"

I looked up at him. "I guess. It's not like we have a job to get back to or anything."

He grinned and wrapped his arm around me as he walked me to my car.

Tank placed Lula in the front passenger seat and belted her in.

Ranger opened my door for me, and once I was inside, he shut it and leaned down. "We'll meet you back at the house in case Lula's still out. And then you can tell me more about what you know of what went on here."

I nodded, started the car, and pulled out into traffic.