Play Along

My eyes widen.

Who?

A text bounces back.

They are walking up the street, two men. I recognizse one of them from Vikinos’s team. Stay where you are.

I put my head into my hands., Ooh no. This is a disaster. I text back.

What if the cab leaves?

A text bounces back.

Then we are screwed.

Tell them to hurry the fuck up!!!

I peer around the door jamb like a mouse and smile sweetly at the bank teller. “Excuse me, I have a plane to catch and I am in a really big hurry. How much longer will it be?”

“Of course, my apologies. Another teller is just cross checking it now. You are so lucky that we just had a delivery of cash this morning or we wouldn’t have had that amount here for withdrawal.”

Oh hell, that would have been a disaster. “Okay.” I gesture back to the office. “I will just wait in here.”

She fakes a smile.

I sit back down and text Stace.

Where are they now?

I watch my phone as I wait for him to answer. I wait and wait.

What’s he doing? Why is he not answering if he’s sitting in a damn car? My mind goes to last night and how they broke his cheekbone. Cowardly bastards. Who kicks a man in the face at full force when he is fighting another man and has his hands full? I text again.

What’s going on?

Answer me!

No reply. Oh God, this is fucking stressful., I start to perspire. I put my face into my hands. What if they have him? The windows are so black that you can’t see inside the car…. unless, they know what car we have hired. It is a possibility, a strong possibility. Shit.

The bank teller comes into the office with a large box and starts to unload the money onto the table and her assistant follows her with a note counting machine. They start to count the money out in front of me. I sit still pretending to watch, but my mind is far from money.

Where is he?

Why isn’t he answering? I dial his number and it rings a few times.

“Hi,” he answers, and my heart flips.

I fake a smile. “Why aren’t you answering your phone, sweetie?” I act nice in front of the bank tellers when all I really want to do is scream at him for worrying me sick.

“Sorry, I took a call.”

“Ha, what a time to take a call.” I pretend to laugh.

“It was my mother,.” hHe snaps. “She was getting worried and I thought I may not be able to talk to her again for a while.”

My heart drops. “Oh, fair point.” I stand and walk away from the table. “What are we up to?” I speak in code.

“All good, the cab is still there. Walk out and get straight into it. Continue with the plan.”