Chapter 5

"All of them?"

Asked Connie as she took the receipts from me and looked through them. I nodded my head because I was feeling excited to be having a very large sum of money being transferred into my account.

"I can pay the rent now"

I gloated, and buy food and maybe some new clothes and oh yeah, some shoes.

"Don't spend it all at once"

Was the advice from Connie.

"Lula not in?"

"She came in this morning and then took off. I swear she has another job somewhere"

I thought that through before shaking my head. I knew that Lula would never go back to her previous occupation, but Connie was onto something, because I'd not seen or heard from Lula since that fateful night at the cock fighting place.

"I'm beat. It's taken days to pin down Rourke, so I need some descent food a shower and sleep"

"Make the most of it because I have nothing new for you"

With that information tucked away to think about later I made my way home.

Having ate and showered I was feeling a bit wired and not really wanting to sleep. I'd had a busy week and I suppose that I was still running on the adrenaline. That had me sat on the couch debating what film I wanted to watch but it also had my brain going into overdrive. I had a lot of money in my bank account and the first thing that I thought of doing was spending it. I needed to take a step back on that line of thinking and consider what the sensible thing to do would be.

If Connie was right that there were no files, then it could mean the start of a lean month. I might not have many skips to bring in so wouldn't have any money coming in. The sensible thing to do would be to transfer some money into a savings account that would tie me over until when I needed it. I felt quite grown up coming up with that idea all on my own. If I had savings, then maybe I could even think of taking a vacation somewhere. I liked that idea so reached for my bag to go into my banking app with the intention of doing just that. The problem was that I couldn't find my phone. Then I remembered how Rourke had destroyed it. Damn, tomorrow I'd buy a new phone and then pay a visit to the bank.

I never did get to buy a new phone because I ended up sleeping for most of the day. A look at the time had me realizing that I wanted to go to the bank and transfer that money. I quickly showered and dressed in some jeans and a sweater before finding some ankle boots that looked cute. A look in closet had me wondering which jacket to wear because it felt colder today, so I pulled out the jacket that I only really wore during the winter. I had to remove the plastic bag from around it because I'd had it cleaned at the end of the season. I knew that I wouldn't be needing my bounty hunter equipment so tucked my gun and stun gun under my pillow and the cuffs in the drawer. Ready to go, I ensured that I had my wallet and bank details and with a very empty bag walked down the stairs to my car.

After I parked my car in front of the bank, I put my car keys in my jacket pocket, so they'd be easier to find when I'd finished and my bag over my shoulder that held my wallet and apartment keys. I didn't expect to be there that long, after all the parking lot was almost empty, but I should have known better. There was only Mandy working the tills, the other girl was cashing up and I was third in line. I waited patiently as the first customer was soon dealt with, and then Mandy was dealing with this middle aged woman who for some reason was taking an age. She was constantly asking Mandy to do things to the point that at one stage Mandy looked over to me and rolled her eyes.

When the door opened behind me, I didn't take much notice of it, I just assumed that it was another customer coming in. It slamming hard and then the sound of bolts being drawn did have me turning around to see what the fuss was about. I'd been inside the bank close to closing time once before and was aware of the main door being locked to stop any more customers coming in. This was very different though and even at the sound, I knew that there was something wrong.

There were two men walking into the bank, both with shotguns in their hands and balaclavas covering their faces and heads. Large men who were wearing black coveralls with no identifying logos on their chest. That was when I said shit to myself because I had an awful feeling that they were here to rob the bank and I wasn't sure how this was going to go. I stayed where I was, rooted to the spot as one man went to the counter and pointed the gun at Mandy. He told her not to touch the alarm or someone would get shot which really freaked poor Mandy. She looked at me, her eyes wide and her face pale as she shakily began to open the till. My heart was hammering at this point, and I could only hope that someone outside knew what was happening. He slammed a rucksack on the counter and told Mandy to pass the money through, then began to push the notes inside. The other man confronted the other customer and then turned to me, telling us to sit down against the wall. I did as he told us frightened now of saying or doing anything to upset him. All that I wanted them to do was to grab the money and leave, that way no one would get hurt. But no, as usual it turned out far more complicated than that.

I turned at the sound of another door opening and watched as the bank manager and an older man walked in. Both looked pale but they did as they were asked as they were told to sit with us. The old man ended up next to me against the wall while the manager sat next to Mandy. We were all watching each other as though one of us would come up with some miraculous way of getting ourselves out of here, but that never happened. I was so busy watching the two men that I had no idea where a third man appeared from, maybe he'd come in after the manager, maybe he'd been making sure that the bank was empty?

The older man sat next to me started to droop over which immediately had me concerned because even I could tell that he wasn't well. His breathing was fast, and he looked gray to me, as though he was going to have a heart attack. His long straggly grey hair fell over his face that had a grey beard and small rimmed glasses. I'd tried so hard to comfort him, holding my arm around his shoulders and whispering to him, trying to get him to calm down so I wasn't really taking much notice of what was happening with the gunmen.

"Hey, just breathe normally. Lean against me, this will soon be over"

"Everyone stand up"

I jumped at the sound of shouting and looked up to see two of the men pointing their guns at us so knew that we had to do as they asked.

"Jackets off"

I had no idea why they wanted us to do that, but it was the manager who protested.

"Why, we don't have any weapons. Just take the money and go"

I flinched when one of the men rammed the butt of his gun into the manager's stomach. Hell, all of that training that I'd done, and I had no way of using it now. That was when I started to feel really frightened. Then as one of the men started to pull out vests from a black bag, I was sure that I was going to have a panic attack. I tried to move away as he approached me, but the end of the gun pointed at me had me stay still. Having a vest with wires and what looked like explosives fastened around me took things to whole new level of panic. They did the same to Mandy who looked ready to pass out, so I tamped down the fear to try and console her.

"It'll be okay Mandy. Just do as they tell you"

Was all that I could think to say.

Why would they do that? Surely having guns pointed at us was enough of a deterrent to stop us from doing anything. All I could think was that they were going to blow us up while they made their escape.

Then they cuffed the old man to me and the manager to Mandy before they started to push us through the side door and along corridors. It was dark and so quiet as we were pushed from behind, only the sound of feet on the floor. We came out into the alley at the back of the bank, the light so bright that it was blinding but I heard and then saw when two cars pulled up in front of us. I had no idea what make or color they were because when the rear door opened, I was being pushed from behind and following the old man into the back seat. That was when I realized that they were taking us with them and using us as shields.

I hadn't looked around me when we came out of that door so had no idea if there was anyone aware of what was happening or watching us from a distance. Everything had happened so fast and before I knew it the car was driving quickly down the lane and then out onto the street. The side windows were tinted so dark I couldn't see where we were going but every so often, I caught the view through the front windscreen between the two men who were with us. We'd seemed to drive for ages, our car tailing the other one until we had been driving through the tunnel.

I'd almost been afraid that the front car was going to plough into the back of a big artic lorry, that was until the tailgate of the lorry had seemed to lower causing sparks to fly as it had hit the ground. It had acted as a ramp and the two cars had driven up and inside, breaking hard to come to a stop. It was dark, and I was aware of the front doors opening, maybe the driver and passenger getting out. I was at the point where I had no idea what would happen to us or what the intentions of the robbers were. Okay, I knew they were using us as hostages but in my mind nothing good ever happened to hostages. It was at that point that an eerie calmness came through me, as though I was preparing myself for the worst to happen because I knew that there was no possible way to escape. Then there was nothing.