Thieves at Heart

        “Don’t move. If you so much as look at me funny, I’m putting a bullet through your head,” he said. “How are things coming over there, honey?”

“Fine. I just cut the security cameras. Phone lines are down, too. Moving on to the vault now,” she replied.

“Need any help?” he asked.

“No, I should be fine. Keep your eye on those hostages,” she said.

“Okay, just make it quick. Cops have to be on their way by now,” he said.

“Alright, I got it,” she said. “Holy shit. Lock that door and help me grab all this.”

“Oh my god, it’s more than I thought,” he said. “This is perfect. We’re gonna be living real good!”

“Dammit, hear that? Cops are here,” she said.

“I’ll zip the bags up, you keep an eye on the door,” he said.

“Hurry up, babe, I can hear them getting close. They’re banging on the door. Shit, they’re inside- we gotta go,” she said.

“Here, take some of these bags. Up the stairs, quick,” he said.

“Hear them downstairs?” she said panting. “We gotta get to the roof, now.”

“Yeah. You texted Mike, right?” he asked.

“Yep. Should be in the alley like we discussed,” she replied.

“Good. Just a couple more flights and we should be on the roof,” he said.

“Okay-finally-oh my god,” she said between breaths.

“Let’s throw this money over first. This shit’s heavy, but we should be able to get it all across. Just remember, we gotta be fast,” he said.

“Dammit babe, this bag has a hole in it!” she cried.

“Who gives a shit! Just cover it up as best you can. We’ll worry about that later,” he said, grunting.

“Okay, you want to jump first?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said. “Honey, I’m nervous.”

“We don’t have time to be nervous!” he yelled. “Just fucking jump!”

“Oh my god. Alright, I’ll cover the door behind you. Go ahead and jump over here,” she said shakily.

“You alright?  Get down the fire escape. Right over there, hurry,” he said.

“You got those bags?”

“Yeah, now let’s go.”

“Make sure, when you get down there, there aren’t any cops. Try to be quiet on this damn thing. It’s rickety as hell,” she said quietly.

“Nope, no one back here. Coast is clear,” he said. “Where did he park the car?”

“Over there,” she said, “under that pile of garbage.”

“Quickly, quickly!” Mike exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting for you guys for forever.”

“Why don’t you give us a hand, asshole,” he said out of breath.

“Why don’t you give us a hand, asshole,” Mike mimicked under his breath.

“There, that should do it,” he said. “Now everyone get in the car!”

“We still going to drop this off at the place we talked about?” Mike asked.

“Yep. Just like we planned,” he replied.

“I wasn’t able to understand everything on the radio. How’d it go?” Mike asked.

“It was perfect,” she said, “we were able to get a good number of hostages rounded up and I was able to take down the security cameras pretty easily. Getting into the vault wasn’t too difficult, either.”

“Great,” he said, “so when are you gonna give me my cut?”

“Give it time,” he replied, “no one gets any of it for a little while. We need to lay low after we leave the bags at the spot.”

“Fine,” he said with a sigh, “it just would’ve been nice to go get a drink or something.”

“You’ll be able to get all the drinks you want if you just wait a little longer,” he said.

“So, are you guys happy to be this close to living the rest of your life in peace?” Mike asked. “On some private island with nothing to do except spend money and enjoy each other?”

“Yeah, right,” he replied chuckling.

“What’s so funny?” she asked. “That’s what this is all for!”

“I just find it hilarious,” he said, “that you two are still keeping up the facades this late in the process. You always were a good actress, babe.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked.

“You can keep denying it,” he said, “but you know just as well as I do, what is going on here. Both of you, actually.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mike said, confused.

“All those late nights. You were working. You said you’d be home late. Well now I know why,” he said.

“I was at work. What the hell are you trying to say?” she asked, furious.

“Yeah just say it,” said Mike.

“Fine. I’ll say it. I’ll say the whole thing. Every.  Last.  Detail,” he said.

“It all started with the late nights. She began to come home late. At first it was only a few times a month. Then that turned into a few times a week. Soon, it became normal for her not to get home until after I was in bed,” he said.

“I kept trying to ask her about what was going on at work, but she never wanted to talk about it. She always drove me out. I didn’t know what to do, everything seemed so odd. So, I did what any normal person would do and I turned to my brother for advice.”

“I called him and asked him on one of those nights that she wasn’t coming home until late, long after I would be asleep. He answered, but seemed a bit out of breath. You said you had been ‘running’, to which I asked ‘in this freezing weather?’. He quickly said he was trying to get in shape. Working in those new running shoes that I got you for Christmas. I was shocked, to say the least. He never went running. He ultimately told me that I should ‘give her some room’, that maybe her work would clear up eventually so that she wouldn’t have to come home late anymore like she used to do.”

“So, you can imagine my surprise when I stopped by his house to drop off a book I had borrowed when I noticed the shoes I had gotten him for Christmas, still in their box. I remember being a little disappointed. After all, you did convince me that you had actually used my gift to you. That was not the case. I thought ‘Oh well, maybe he’ll use them at some point soon, considering I just busted him for not using the shoes. Maybe he’ll feel bad.’ That was far from the case.”

“Not too long after this, a couple weeks I’d say, you can imagine my surprise when my wife got home at a normal time. I was so excited! Things were finally starting to look up, like my brother had told me on the phone. We had dinner, were talking, laughing, watching TV. Then the phone rang, and she quickly got up to go back to work. Sounded like this one would be another late night. Although I was disappointed, I was glad to have spent that little time with her. I cherished it more than anything.”

“Being a little lonely like I was then, I decided to bring a six-pack over to my brother’s house to hang out. It was Friday night, after all, and I figured he wasn’t doing anything anyways. He never was at this time of the day, on Fridays. So, you can imagine my surprise when I rolled into the driveway and noticed my wife’s car parked there. Sounds strange, huh?”

“After knocking on the door, no one answered, so I used the key you gave me. I was a little confused and concerned as to why my brother wasn’t answering his door, so I made my way inside. Things were quiet. Except for a noise coming from his bedroom. It was the exhaustion and panting he had when I had called him only a couple weeks before that moment. The exhaustion he had claimed was ‘due to running’.”

“Now, this time, it wasn’t just him who was panting. I could hear my dear wife in that bedroom as well. It sounded like you two were having a very interesting pow-wow in there. That’s when I knew. That’s when I knew what I was going to do. That’s why I thought this might be a good place to take the bags.”

“Look man, I can expla-“

“YOU CAN EXPLAIN NOTHING!” he shouted.

“Honey, it was a mist-“

“That was NO mistake,” he said. “And don’t call me fucking ‘honey’. You fucked my own brother, without me knowing. And for how long? Did you know how much I loved you? How much I missed you? There were so many lonely nights. And to think, this whole time it was because you were with him.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said trying to suppress the sobs.

“See that’s the thing,” he chuckled, “you’re not fucking sorry. In fact, neither is this sorry excuse for a brother.”

“Hey man, she came onto me,” he stammered.

“But you couldn’t deny it, could you?” he questioned. “Doesn’t matter that it was my wife. Doesn’t matter that I was lied to on multiple occasions. But I guess it’s just her fault, though, right?”

“I-I-uh,” he stuttered.

“No. You don’t have anything to say now. And you won’t have anything to say. Ever,” he said.

“Oh my god!” she shrieked. “Look at yourself! You just shot your own brother! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“What’s wrong with ME?!” he bellowed. “What’s wrong with YOU? You went behind my back all this time. Not with some random guy, either. With my damn brother. You make me sick.”

“Please,” she said quietly, “just let me go and you’ll never see me again. All I ask for is my share of the money.”

“Oh no,” he said, “you’re not getting a single penny of what’s in those bags. You didn’t think I’d just let you go, did you? That I’d cause all this commotion just to let you go rat me out to the cops? Yeah, no chance. I’m heading for that island. To the future that you and I wanted together. Except now I’ll just have to take that journey on my own. Which is fine by me.”

“No. Please. I promise I won’t tell anyone,” she said teary-eyed.

“Sorry, honey. I think things are done here,” he said sneering.