Time is Money (11 page)

Chapter 26

I Smell a Rat

D
ana pulled up in front of Ghost’s house and beeped the horn. Something inside of her said that she should have killed Stone, but for some reason, she just couldn’t do it. In spite of everything, she really loved him and didn’t want to harm him. She wished that she could have somehow made things work with Stone, but knew that it was a dead end. Seconds later, Ghost entered the passenger seat with a relaxed look on his face. “What up?”

“We have a lot to talk about,” Dana said pulling off. “First things first; Randy is a rat!”

Ghost laughed. “No way! We’ve been knowing him since forever.”

“He’s a rat!”

“You got proof?” Ghost asked.

“Stone told me.”

“That’s not proof,” Ghost snapped. “That fucking cop is all in your head fucking up your judgment.”

“Stone loves me and he wouldn’t lie to me,” Dana said defending Stone. “Plus why would he lie about Randy?”

“Divide and concur, that’s the oldest trick in the book,” Ghost’s voice boomed. “He loves you,” Ghost echoed with a disgusted look on his face. “You think he won’t put a bullet in your head if the opportunity presents itself, because he damn sure tried to put a bullet in my head.”

“He knows about the bank downtown,” Dana said with an attitude. She had a feeling that Ghost wouldn’t believe her when she told him the news.

“You told him about the job?” Ghost asked staring daggers into his little sister.

“Randy told him,” she replied. “He’s been acting funny lately anyway.”

Ghost sat in the passenger seat quiet. Randy had been acting kind of funny lately, but not funny enough to where one would think that he was a rat. “You trust this cop that much?”

Dana nodded her head, “Yes.”

“I can’t afford to cancel this job,” Ghost told her.

“Let’s do it a day ahead of schedule,” Dana suggested. “That way the cops won’t have a beat on us.”

“But for this job we are going to need four guys,” Ghost said in deep thought.

“We can use Randy for the job and then kill him afterwards,” Dana suggested.

“I just can’t see Randy snitching,” Ghost said sadly.

“Trust me,” Dana said seriously. “He’s a rat.”

“Then he has to go,” Ghost said. “And I’m sorry that your new boyfriend turned out to be a cop. I know you really liked him.”

Dana flashed a hurt smile. “It is what it is.”

“If Randy is working with the cops then we have to assume he told them about everything including the meet up house,” Ghost said. “So that means we are going to have to switch it up.”

“We can use my place as the meet up spot,” Dana suggested.

“That’ll work,” Ghost said, sitting back in deep thought. He had to make sure he mapped everything out perfectly because all it took was one mistake for him and his sister to end up dead or either sitting in jail for the rest of their lives.

“What you over there thinking about?”

“I think we should take the bank first thing in the morning,” Ghost said looking at Dana for a response. “That way we’ll catch everyone off guard.”

“That’s going to be risky,” Dana said looking directly at Ghost. “But, I think it can work.”

Ghost smiled. “Let’s do it!”

Chapter 27

Don’t Ask Any Questions

D
ougie sat in the back of the stolen van listening as Ghost filled him in on all that was going on. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. When Ghost was finished, Dougie went on to tell him about the visit that Randy had made to his home about a week ago.

“I’m going to kill that snake myself,” Ghost said. If it was one thing he hated, it was a snake. Over the years, Ghost had personally bailed Randy out of so many situations that it hurt him to hear that a person he called family had betrayed him.

Dougie placed a friendly hand on Ghost’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. You can’t always expect other people to think or act like you do.”

Dana pulled the van up in front of Randy’s apartment and put the gear in park.

“I’ll be back in a second,” Ghost said hopping out the back of the van and headed in the building.

* * *

Randy sat on the couch watching a porno when he heard someone banging on the door like the police. He looked over at the clock on the wall and it read 4:55 am.
“Who the fuck is knocking on my door this early in the morning?”
he said to himself as he got up and headed over to the front door. Randy looked through the peephole and saw Ghost standing on the other side.       “Hey Ghost what’s up?” he said, stepping to the side so Ghost could enter. The first thing he noticed was that Ghost wasn’t dressed in one of his expensive suits, but instead he wore all black and combat boots.

“Suit up,” Ghost said looking Randy in the eyes. “I got another job for us. This is the one last final job.”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to hit the bank until two more days from now?”

“Change of plans,” Ghost said quickly. “Go get dressed and I’ll fill you in, in the car.” He could tell by the uneasy look on Randy’s face that something wasn’t right. The plan was going according to plan. He could tell that his surprise visit had caught Randy off guard.

Fifteen minutes later Randy stepped back in the living room with a nervous look on his face. “Let’s get this over with.”

* * *

Two blocks away a white van sat over in the cut. Two cops were assigned to keep an eye on Randy to make sure he didn’t try to flee. The twenty-four hour surveillance paid off when one of the cops spotted Randy quickly coming out of the building and getting in the back of a van. The first thing the cop did was write down the license plate number. The second thing he did was dial Detective Anthony Stone’s number. He had a feeling that something big was about to go down. “Follow that van,” the cop that was in charge ordered.

Chapter 28

No Turning Back

W
hen Stone got the call, he quickly hopped out of his bed. He had prayed the night before that Dana had taken his advice and decided to leave town and enjoy life, but when he got the call, he knew that she had done the exact opposite. Stone loved Dana, but he couldn’t sit back and just let her continue to rob banks and kill people. Everyone had choices and Dana had chosen to not take Stone’s advice and follow through with the heist. Stone weaved in and out of traffic like a mad man. He didn’t want to hurt Dana, but if it came down to him and her, he planned on doing what he had to do. He pulled up behind the surveillance van; smoothly slipped out his car and hopped in the back of the van. “What did I miss?” he asked immediately.

“We followed their stolen van to that house five blocks down,” the plain clothes cop explained. “I already got S.W.A.T. on standby and from the looks of it, it looks like something major is about to go down.”

Stone pulled a bulletproof vest over his head and strapped it on as he processed what the cop had just told him. A part of him still hoped and wished that Dana would opt out of the deal before it was too late.
“Come on baby you are smarter than this,”
Stone said to himself.

Chapter 29

Time Is Money

“T
oday is business as usual,” Ghost said, looking each one of his team members in the eyes. “We all know the rules. We get in and get what we can in three minutes; time is money!”

Under the table, in between Dana’s legs, rested a book bag full of all the cash she had made on all the previous jobs. Once this job was over, she planned on leaving town immediately and never coming back. She had no clue where she was going. Her plan was to get on a plane and just go. All morning her mind had been on Stone and the last thing she wanted was for him to be disappointed in her, but at the end of the day her brother needed her and after all he had done for her over the years, there was no way she could tell him no.

“When this job is over we’re all going to go our separate ways,” Ghost coached. “We hot right now so I think it’ll be best if we all get low for a while after this.”

Members nodded their head in agreement.

Ghost looked over at Randy. “You got your strap on you?”

“Of course,” Randy patted his waist.

“Good,” Ghost smiled. “Change of plans, Randy you coming in with us this time,” he said and then turned his attention to Dougie. “Dougie I’m going to need you to drive.”

“I got you,” Dougie replied. Ghost had already given him the heads up about Randy’s foul ways and the thought of it all disgusted Dougie.

The foursome exited the house and hopped in the stolen van. The entire time, Ghost was secretly watching Randy. He kept a close eye on the snake in the grass. All morning Randy seemed nervous and jittery.

“You sure you want me to come inside the bank with ya’ll?” Randy asked in a nervous tone.

“You been asking to get your hands dirty so now is your chance,” Ghost said with a straight face. “Me and Dana will keep control of the place. All you have to do is fill these four duffle bags up with cash.”

“I can handle that,” Randy said in a shaky tone.

“You sure?” Ghost asked. “You look a little shaken up.”

“I’m good, just a little tired. I been having trouble sleeping lately,” Randy lied.

* * *

Dougie pulled up across the street from the bank. “It’s show time!” he announced.

“Everybody set your watch for three minutes,” Ghost order as he tossed Randy, Dougie’s, Ronald Reagan mask.

“Dougie, you better keep this van running!” Ghost ordered.

Dana slipped her Obama mask down over her face and grabbed her tech-9. She knew that once she put that mask on it was no turning back.

Ghost rolled his Bill Clinton mask down over his face, grabbed his M-16 rifle, and hopped out the back of the van leading his team into the bank.

* * *

Stone watched from two blocks away as the heavily armed masked trio entered the bank. “Come on, we have to move now!” he ordered. Stone knew from watching the crew’s previous bank robbery tapes that they liked to be in and out. His plan was to creep up on the bank robbers while they were still in the bank. He wanted his men to be in position, on the side of the building so that as soon as Ghost and his crew stepped foot out the bank, him and his team would be right there to apprehend them or worst case scenario his team would have to put them down.

Stone hopped out the back of the van with a machine gun in his hand. Behind him, ten heavily armed officers in riot gear followed his lead. Each member on Stone’s team had been briefed on how dangerous the bank robbers were and they were all prepared to shoot at will.

The closer Stone made it to the side of the bank, the more his adrenalin began to pump. His palms were sweaty and clammy. His biggest fear had now become his reality. In a couple of minutes, the love of his life would be exiting the bank and it was sad to say, but Stone’s mind was already made up. He would be shooting first and asking questions later.

Chapter 30

Three Minutes

“E
verybody on the fucking floor now!” Ghost yelled with his M-16 trained on the bank’s security guard.

“You don’t want to do this buddy. You’re making a big mistake,” the security guard warned.

Without warning Ghost blew the security guard’s head off in front of everybody. He then quickly hopped up on the counter gaining control of the situation. “Let’s move!”

Dana kept a close eye on all the tellers while Randy grabbed the manager and rushed her in the back room. She hoped and prayed that nobody pulled the silent alarm today because she was already in a bad mood and she wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet in someone’s head.

“Bitch you better open this vault right motherfucking now!” Randy growled. The manager pulled the keys from her pocket, but couldn’t get her hand to stop shaking. “Bitch!” Randy barked as he back slapped the manager down to the floor, scooped the keys up off the floor, and let himself into the vault. Once inside the vault, Randy began to fill up all four duffle bags.

* * *

Dougie sat behind the wheel of the stolen van with a nervous look on his face. He wasn’t used to sitting outside. He was used to being on the inside around all of the action. Every car that drove by, Dougie swore that they were the police. Ever since he found out that Randy was working with the cops, he just knew that in any second, the place was going to be surrounded by cops. Just when Randy’s nerves began to settle down he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. He looked over and saw cops dressed in riot gear creeping up on the side of the bank. “Shit!” Dougie cursed as he grabbed the A.K. 47 that rested on the floor and quickly hopped out the van and opened fire on the police.

BRAT, TAT, TAT, TAT, TAT, TAT, TAT!

* * *

Once Stone and his team got into position, a burst of gunfire sounded off loudly. Stone watched as two members from his team were gunned down in cold blood. He quickly took cover behind a parked car as bullets pinged loudly off the car. His team quickly returned fire turning the one sided gun battle into a shootout.