*Author's Note: Any and all persons engaging in any sexual activity are at least eighteen years of age.
Also, this is not a 'stroke' story. The sex is minimal. If you are looking for a 'stroke' story, hit the backspace key on your keyboard.
*
Amber glumly looked up when her cell door clanged open.
"Come on, Sweetheart, let's go," Elise smiled, pushing Amber's ridiculously high heeled pumps toward her.
"I'm being arraigned?" Amber asked as she slipped her feet into her pumps.
"No, Sweetie; we're taking a little ride," Elise said.
She put Amber into the rear of her cruiser and pulled out.
"Ann?" Elise said into her cell phone. "On our way."
"My um, my apartment's that way," Amber said as Elise crossed over Highway 27.
"Uh huh," Elise said, pulling up to the drive-through window of Meche's Doughnuts.
"Damn, I just love these things when they're hot," Elise said.
Amber started getting nervous as they drove through a maze of side streets.
"And we're here," Elise said, pulling up in front of a modest home.
"Where? Where are we?" Amber asked, becoming shrill. "Bitch, you do anything to me..."
"Now, that's not very nice," Elise said. "Calling me 'bitch' when I've got a gun."
She opened the back door and took a firm hold of Amber's arm. Elise lugged both Amber and the box of doughnuts to the door.
"Hey," Ann Greene said, opening the door.
"Hope you got coffee; we've got doughnuts," Elise smiled.
"Cops?" Ann smiled. "We've ALWAYS got coffee on; you know that."
Amber looked at the woman, a blonde roughly the same age as herself, with tired eyes and tired smile.
"Police!" Evie exclaimed as Elise entered the house.
"That's right!" Elise laughed. "Police! You are so smart!"
Elise pulled the very nervous Amber into the kitchen and pushed her into a chair at the small table.
"Amber, this is Ann Greene. Her husband is Sergeant Eric Greene," Elise said. "I brought you here; I think you need to hear it, straight from the horse's mouth, what it's like being a cop's wife."
Ann sat down and let out a loud sigh. She looked up at the nervous Amber.
"He puts on his uniform; my God! He is the handsomest man I've ever seen. He has that look of pride, of self-confidence; damn, gets my pussy wet just thinking about it," Ann said, almost in a monotone. "Then he goes out and when you hear the door close, for a split second, your heart stops. Suppose that's the last time you'll ever see him? Then the baby needs changing, the boys are hungry, the boys need their lunch, where's my shoes? Life goes on, but you just can't quit hearing the door click shut."
Ann wiped at her eyes.
"I really...when he pulled me over for speeding; see, Sammy was whining about needing something and I just wanted to get home so I didn't wind up killing him or Robbie; Robbie was encouraging it and he hits his lights and siren and I'm just so damned mad I could scream and this cop's got the most beautiful smile and I just melted looking up at him," Ann smiled sadly at the memory of that speeding ticket.
She looked up at Amber.
"I didn't know," Ann said. "I didn't know about hearing the door closing. If I had known about the door, I would have just paid the ticket and told Officer Eric Greene to go fuck himself."
"Tell her what happened," Elise quietly encouraged, sipping her coffee.
"The door closed," Ann said. "But I've got to help Jacy; that's my sister, see this is her house; mine got burned down and she took me and our three kids in and the door closed; Eric goes off to work and Jacy needs help getting dinner together and Robbie needs construction paper for some school project; of course he waits until the night before right?"
"Eat a couple of doughnuts; sugar helps with alcohol withdrawal," Elise ordered.
Amber took a doughnut out of the box. Her hand shook horribly.
"Want coffee? Or, I got juice, um, let's see, we got orange, apple, that God-awful white grape stuff; Sammy loves that, or milk?" Ann said, getting to her feet.
"Coffee please," Amber said.
"I'll get it; you finish telling her," Elise ordered. "What you take in it?"
"Cream and sugar, please," Amber said.
"And I just about got them down," Ann said and I'm getting ready to fix myself a good old drink and I get the call."
"Thank you," Amber said as Elise put a mug in front of her.
"Some God damned fucking piece of shit mother fuckers decided to hold up Jitters; that little coffee shop?" Ann spat; her rage bursting out. "Two kids; that's all they had working there and these two fucking scum bag losers decide they're going to put guns to their heads and Eric walked in."
Ann burst into wailing sobs at the memory.
"And I got the call," Ann wailed.
Amber looked on, stricken. She looked at Elise and her wide eyes opened even wider as Elise calmly finished chewing her doughnut.
"My husband, my husband the cop is fighting for his life in the back of an ambulance," Ann sobbed. "Them two piece of shit ass holes? They're in Hell, right where they fucking belong but my sweet, loving, brave husband might not make it."
Elise finished her cup of coffee.
Ann wiped at her eyes.
"What happened?" Amber barely whispered.
"Got shot in the neck. Paralyzed from the chest down," Ann croaked out. "Stuck in a wheelchair; he'll never walk again."
"Saved those two boys' lives, though," Elise said.
"And still gets up every fucking morning, and still puts on the fucking uniform," Ann spat bitterly. "Fuck! Put it on this morning just to go to physical therapy! Can you believe that? Physical therapy! But, got to have the uniform on! And it's got to be clean and pressed; got to be perfect!"
Ann sneered for a moment.
"He's a cop, you know?" Ann spat out.
She looked into Amber's eyes.
"So, even though he's in a wheelchair, even though he can't drive himself; my dad drives him everywhere, I STILL have to hear that door close behind him," Ann said. "And I still got to wonder, 'this the last time I'll see him?'"
"Thanks, Ann," Elise said and nudged Amber with her shoe. "Come on, Sweetheart; let's get you home."
Elise again put Amber in the rear of the cruiser.
"So, think you got what it takes to be a cop's wife?" Elise asked.
"No ma'am," Amber whispered.
"So, I need to worry about you around my boyfriend?" Elise asked as she turned onto Highway 27.
"No ma'am," Amber whispered.
Elise pulled in front of Amber's apartment.
"Might want to cut back a little on the drinking," Elise said as she held the back door of the cruiser open for Amber.
"My drinking's got nothing to do with..." Amber weakly denied.
"Good bye," Elise said and closed the door of the cruiser.
"Good bye," Amber quietly said and dug around in her purse for her keys.
Chapter 10
Elise's cell phone buzzed. She looked at Eric Miller, her partner and frowned. The display showed it was coming from the station.
"Silent alarm at First Union Bank," Orville said. "Didn't want to use the radio in case they're using scanners."
"First Union," Elise ordered her partner.
"We're two blocks away," she said to Orville.
"No siren; go by real slow," she ordered Eric.
She saw the van and saw a nervous looking man sitting at the wheel. The man stared at them. Elise smiled and waved in friendly greeting.
The man, caught off guard, returned the wave.
'NAIS' was emblazoned on the sides of the van and 'National Alarm Installation Systems' was in smaller letters on the rear doors of the van.
"Smart," Elise said. "If anyone had called it in, they would claim they're testing the equipment."
"What a time for Dick to be out of town," Eric said nervously.
"Orville's on it," Elise assured her partner.
"Orville?" Elise said into her cell phone.
"Damn it, that's 'Deputy' and you know it," Orville tried to joke.
"One white male, look-out slash get away driver sitting out front in a gray cargo van, Ford, license number nine two A five three one," Elise reported as Eric turned onto a side street.
"Could you see inside?" Orville asked.
"I'm looking through the Drive Through window right now; sees two white males, armed, wearing vests," Elise reported.
"And they're on the move!" Eric exclaimed.
"Hit the siren," Elise ordered as Eric put the cruiser in reverse and floored the accelerator.
The two bank robbers saw the police car as Eric drove in reverse, blocking the van against the building. The pair ducked back into the building.
"Get out of the van! Get out of the van!" Elise screamed at the terrified driver. "Now! Get out of the van!"
Two shots rang out, striking the cruiser very close to where Elise stood. She whirled around and fired two quick shots toward the glass doors of the bank.
"Fuck!" she yelled. "Forgot they put in bullet-; proof doors!"
Eric made the driver lay on the asphalt of the parking lot while Elise carefully watched the glass doors of the building.
"Hey! Barbie!" she heard someone call out as the door opened slightly.
"Yeah?" she called back.
"Let our friend there go, let him bring our van up to the door, or this stupid bitch is dead; you hear?" the man yelled out.
Elise saw the tear streaked face of Mandy Hebert, a former class mate of hers. She saw the man holding a gun to Mandy's head.
"Please," Mandy begged silently, clutching protectively at her pregnant belly.
Elise nodded slowly.
"Eric," she said. Loudly "Let him go."
"What?" Eric asked, shocked.
"Put him in the van, let's just get in the car, and drive away," Elise ordered.
"Elise, no!" Orville ordered. "Darren and Jack are on their way right now; don't you dare..."
Elise hung up on him. A second later, her cell phone buzzed again, but Elise ignored it.
Inside the bank, the two armed men smiled in triumph as they saw the police cruiser slowly pull away.
"Bert, you the man!" one of them said. "You are the man!"
