Good Husband Material. Susan Mallery
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talking. She wasn’t even smiling. Her small eyes widened with something that looked like panic, and she made an odd gesture with her hand.
Before Kari could figure out what it meant, something hard and cold pressed against her cheek.
“Well, lookee here. We got us another customer, boys. At least this one’s young and pretty. What my mama used to call a tall drink of water. That’s something.”
Kari’s heart stopped. It might be nearly ninety in the shade outside, but here in the bank it felt closer to absolute zero.
Slowly, very slowly, she turned toward the man, who was holding a gun. He was short, stocky and wearing a ski mask. What on earth was going on?
“We’re robbin’ the bank,” the man said, as if he could read her mind.
His astuteness startled her, until she realized his deduction wasn’t much of a stretch.
She quickly glanced around. There were four of them, counting the man holding a gun on her. Two kept all the customers and most of the employees together at the far end of the bank, while the last one was behind the counter, putting money that Ida Mae handed him into a bag.
“You go ahead and set your purse on the floor,” the man in front of her said. “Then start walking toward the other ladies. Do what you’re told and no one will get hurt.”
Kari flexed her hands slightly. Her chest tightened, and it was nearly impossible to speak. “I, uh, I don’t have a purse.”
She didn’t. She’d come into the bank with a check and her driver’s license. Both were in the back pocket of her shorts.
The robber stared at her for a couple of seconds, then nodded. “Seems you don’t. Now head on over there.”
This couldn’t be happening, Kari thought, even as she headed for the cluster of other customers huddled by the far end of the counter.
She was halfway to the safety of that crowd when the rear door of the bank opened.
“Well, hell,” a low voice drawled. “One of us has bad timing, boys. You think it’s you or me?”
Several women screamed. One of the masked men by the crowd grabbed an older woman and held the gun to her head. “Stay back,” he yelled. “Stay back or the old lady dies.”
Kari didn’t have time to react. The man who had first held a gun to her jerked her arm to drag her back to him. She felt the pressure of the pistol against her cheek again. He wrapped one wiry arm around her neck, keeping her securely in place.
“Seems to me we’ve got a problem,” the man holding her said. “So, Sheriff, why don’t you just back out real slow and no one will get hurt.”
The sheriff in question gave a sigh of the long-suffering. “I wish I could do that. But I can’t. Want to know why?”
Kari felt as if she’d slipped into an alternative universe. This couldn’t be happening to her. One second she’d been too scared to breathe, and the next, Gage Reynolds had walked back into her life. Right in the middle of a holdup.
Eight years ago he’d been a young deputy, tall and handsome in his khaki uniform. He was still good-looking enough to make an angel want to sin. He was also the sheriff, if the gleaming badge on his shirt pocket was to be believed. But for a man of the law, he didn’t seem all that interested in the robbery going on right in front of him.
He took off his dust-colored cowboy hat and slapped it against his thigh. His dark hair gleamed, as did the interest in his eyes.
“Don’t make me kill her,” the gunman said, his tone low and controlled.
“You know who you’ve got there, son?” Gage asked casually, almost as if he hadn’t figured out what was going on in the bank. “That’s Kari Asbury.”
“Back off, Sheriff.”
The robber pressed the gun in a little deeper. Kari winced. Gage didn’t seem to notice.
“She’s the one who got away.”
Kari could smell the criminal’s sweat. She was willing to bet he hadn’t planned on a hostage situation, and the fact he might be in over his head didn’t make her breathe any easier. What on earth was Gage going on about?
“That’s right,” Gage continued, setting his hat on a table and stretching. “Eight years ago, that pretty lady there left me standing at the altar.”
Despite the gun jammed into her cheek, Kari spluttered with indignation. “I did not leave you standing at the altar. We weren’t even engaged.”
“Maybe. But you knew I was gonna ask, and you took off. That’s practically the same thing. Don’t you think?”
He asked the last question of the robber, who actually considered before replying.
“If you hadn’t really proposed, then she didn’t leave you at the altar.”
“Fair enough, but she did stand me up for the prom.”
Kari couldn’t believe it. Except for her grandmother’s funeral seven years ago, she hadn’t seen Gage since the afternoon of her high school prom. While she’d known that Possum Landing was small enough that they would eventually run into each other again, this wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind.
“It was complicated,” she said, unable to believe she was being forced to defend herself in front of bank robbers.
“Did you or did you not skip town without warning? You left nothing but a note, Kari. You played with my heart like it was a football.”
The bank robber glared at her. “That wasn’t very nice.”
She glared right back. “I was eighteen years old, okay? I apologized in the note.”
“I’ve never gotten over it,” Gage said, emotional pain oozing from every pore. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a package of gum. “You see before you a broken man.”
Kari resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She didn’t know what Gage’s game was, but she wished he would play it with someone else.
Her confusion turned to outrage when Gage took a stick of gum for himself, then offered the pack to the bank robber. Next they would be going out for a beer together.
Gage watched the anger flash in Kari’s eyes. If she could have spit fire, he would be a scorched stick figure right about now. In different circumstances, Gage might have worried the issue, but not now.
The gunman shook off the gum, but that wasn’t important. The gesture had been made and well received. Gage had established rapport.
“She went on up to New York City,” Gage continued, tucking the gum package back into his breast pocket. “Wanted to be a fashion model.”
The robber studied Kari, then shrugged. “She’s pretty enough, but if she’s back, then she didn’t make it.”
Gage sighed heavily again. “I guess not. All that pain and suffering for nothing.”
Kari stiffened at his words, but didn’t try to break away. Gage willed her to cooperate for just a few more seconds. While every instinct in his body screamed at him to jerk her free of the gunman, he forced himself to stay relaxed and focused. There were more people to protect than just Kari. Between the bank employees and the customers there were fifteen innocent citizens within the old walls. Fifteen unprepared folk and four men with guns. Gage didn’t like the odds.
Using his peripheral vision, he checked on the progress of the tactical team circling around the building. Just another minute or two and they would be in place.
“You want me to shoot her?” the gunman asked.
Kari gasped. Her big blue eyes widened even more, and the color drained from her face.
Gage