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You have to take the deal, DeLuca, his brain-dead lawyer had told hin or jail tiotten the foreclosure notice in the mail the day after he’d taken the deal, and that had been the final insult After the divorce, every penny he’d earned had gone into paying thehe owned, and now they were going to take it away from him? He wouldn’t have fallen behind on the payarnished his wages for the back alimony he owed her And what about all the years he’d paid on ti?
Even then, he’d tried to do the right thing and talk to them But banks didn’t lend money to people who really needed it No job, no inco
DeLuca had always played by the rules, but they kept changing them to screw him Then he’d iven him the comfort and syed by life just as badly, didn’t see hiht with his new friend, DeLuca finally understood the truth: that it was his turn--no, his God-given right--to get so perfectly By this tiht he’d ood care of hih money to retire permanently to Miami, where life for a man with serious cash was nonstop beaches, beer, and blondes
It just didn’t get any better than that
The teller’s top drawer, the safe money, held all the bills she’d started her shift with and another two thousand and change from the transactions she’d made that day DeLuca focused only on her hands when she opened the reserve botto out the neat, paper-banded bundles there
He had no intention of stealing the teller’s money The real payout for this job e But he needed the et what he’d really cooverner’s office
The radio on his hip, tuned to scan the outgoing calls from the Atlanta Police Depart a bank heist the real threat was tiuards or the security system DeLuca had worked in Atlanta; he knew the drill Once the silent alar co city like Atlanta, metro patrol units needed only two to four et to the branch The alarm hadn’t been tripped--yet--but that four- to six-minute escapedidn’t apply to DeLuca
He didn’t have to run out of the bank He’d arranged a little insurance, and when it was ti to walk out of here a free man The uniforms would even hold the front door open for him
"Wait" He saw one packet that didn’t bend as it should have when the teller tried to stuff it in the bag As he caught her wrist and pulled it toward hilove "You trying to be cute?"
She looked at the pack she held, sucking in a breath as soon as she recognized the retired bills "I’m sorry," she told his ski mask "I didn’t know They never tell us where they are I swear"
DeLuca turned and pointed his nine at the pale-faced security guard huddled on the floor with the loan officer, five tellers, and half a dozen custoer had locked the front entrance doors A palm-size flower of blood and tissue decorated the cap of the rent-a-cop’s left uniform sleeve More blood painted his arm and dripped into a pool of the same on the floor under his useless liun "Get over here"
When the security guard had trouble standing, the thirty-soer scuttled over and took his aret up, Joe" The sun froe cut yellow-orange, and faded out the pink polka-dot jacket of her casual-Friday suit "He’s hurt too bad," she said as she stood "I’ll do it"
As DeLuca adjusted his aiuard grabbed the er’s arm and yanked her down, a little too hard One pink polka-dotted shoe banana-peeled out fro over soer’s head hit the side of the lobby table She landed on top of an old lady still clutching her endorsed social security check
Joe’s face turned gray as he clapped a hand over his oound and crawled over to haul the li elderly woash on the side of her head and the pulse in her throat before he gave DeLuca a filthy look "You piece of shit"
"You did that to her, not me" DeLuca tossed the stiff pack of bills so that it landed in the guard’s lap "Pop it" When Joe didn’t pick up the pack, he targeted the horrified senior "I can ruin her makeup, too, if you want"
Joe took the pack and bent it in half As DeLuca expected, the pressure triggered the tiny canister of CO,, hidden inside the pack, which exploded with a uard, the old lady, and three of the tellers clustered around their fallen er
As new screams erupted, DeLuca checked his watch He still had a lot to do: grab the goods from the vault and make the switch He’d need a few er’s office and jam the door
"Zip it closed," he told the teller She didn’t ain "Don’t try me now, you stupid bitch"