Adam caught it and reached into his own back pocket first. Then he carried the bag to Betsy, one of the female tellers.
“Our wallets are in our purses,” she said.
Baldy ripped the bag out of Adam’s hand. “Open the drawers and don’t touch the contents. My partner will load up the cash.” Then he looked at the remaining tellers. “Next stop, purse city, ladies.”
* * *
Misty wanted to cry. She was trying to be brave, but she really, really wanted to cry. She felt tears burn behind her eyes and tipped her face up, hoping to keep them from running down her cheeks. Gabe leaned away. Maybe he thought she was looking for a kiss.
Then she swayed and bumped against him.Was that bulge… Oh my!
“Misty, I guess we might as well sit down, since we’re going to be waiting for a while,” Gabe said.
Sitting against a solid wall before her legs gave out sounded like a great idea. The place was filled with shelving, but there was a flat surface beside the door. She felt behind her, found the smooth wall, and slid down to a sitting position. She hadn’t told anyone about her legs failing to cooperate lately, even in the best of circumstances. She hoped it was just a weird muscle spasm or something that would go away.
Gabe found her shoulder and scooted down beside her. She couldn’t see an inch in front of her face, but she pictured their legs straight out in front of them like little kids as they sat side by side. Gabe took Misty’s hand in his and gave it a squeeze.
It was comforting and familiar, yet not enough. Her thoughts traveled back to her childhood…
She’d been in love with Gabe as long as she could remember. The first fairy tales she’d heard replayed in her mind when she was little and daydreaming, with Gabe as the handsome prince. Her favorite story was “Sleeping Beauty.” Her favorite daydream was being awakened with Gabe’s kiss.
She had been sheltered. At least, compared to her suburban friends. In the city, she’d had to be watched at all times. That made sense. Cities could be tough places for kids. So many people became hardened or downright toxic. Gabe and Parker watched over her. She didn’t know if Parker had been told to do so, but Gabe certainly hadn’t. Yet when Parker had to go inside to use the bathroom or answer a phone call, she knew she was just as safe with Gabe.
Then, even though her grandparents had taken them to a small town where she was safer, they still watched her like a hawk. She’d rebelled. Breaking curfew. Not telling them where she was going…and now, looking back, she felt terrible about it. She and her brother were all they had left of their daughter. Her uncle was useless, only showing up to borrow money. Now he had all of it. Private studio lessons weren’t cheap. Whatever hope she’d had of a professional dance career couldn’t be afforded anymore, so she had to change her goal. But to what?
After a long silence, she asked, “Gabe, do you have any regrets?”
She thought she was in for another long silence when he finally said, “The past is the past. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“I wasn’t talking about the past, necessarily. I mean hypothetically, if you died today, is there anything you would wish you had done that you haven’t?”
“Hypothetically? Not really. At least I don’t think so. You?”
“Yeah. But if we get out of here, there’s still a chance.” She wasn’t about to tell him that the chance she wanted was with him.
“A chance to what? Dance professionally? I remember how you loved to dance.”
“Well, maybe. That, or I would have liked to open my own dance studio.”
“That sounds nice. There’s no reason you can’t do that, because wearegoing to get out of here. I promise.”
Feeling hopeless, she said, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Misty, let’s talk about something else. So, tell me about the suburbs.”
“Gee, do you have five seconds?”
Gabe laughed. “We might have five hours.”
Misty took a deep breath, then regretted it, knowing that air might be at a premium soon.
Gabe was speaking again. She had to bring herself back to the present when he asked, “What about school? I imagine you finished high school. Was it public or private?”
“Yes, I finished Saugus High School. It was public, but nice. Fairly new. The kids weren’t too bad, either.”
“Really? Sounds like you lucked out. Some of the kids at Boston Latin were assholes.”
“But I thought that was a good school?”
