Tomorrow Isn't Promised

Washburn opened the door and stepped aside as the woman came into the house, dropping her purse on the couch and heading for the prepared lines of ground OC that waited on the marble cheese board. She inhaled two lines and grinned at him.

"Is she dead?"

Washburn avoided her eyes as he moved to the board and sucked a line back. "No."

"What? She's not dead yet? You sit there and bitch

me

out for her not being dead and you can't get the job done?"

"The little bitch put someone else in her bed."

"How could she have done that?"

"I don't know but she did."

"Where is she now?"

"Don't know. We've scoured every inch of the hospital and she isn't there."

"You know where she is." Her voice bored a hole into his angry psyche. "She's with that lesbian."

"How do you know?"

"The little cunt's been working at the hospital. You didn't see her?"

"No, I've never met her."

"Her name's Alex. She's the new ward orderly."

"You knew that cunt was near her all this time?"

"Yeah, so? It didn't make a difference at the time since she can't remember anything."

"What if she starts remembering? What if that little cunt tells her?"

The woman paused in thought, then shrugged her shoulders. "Then we kill them both." She snorted another line. "Now, if you're finished staring at my tits, why don't we get the job done so we can get the fuck out of Dodge?"

*****

"Someone has been stealing drugs from the hospital and selling them on the street." Alex crossed the living room and handed Toni a mug and watched her take a long drink of the ice-cold Foster's, smiling when she licked her lips. "You always liked your Foster's in my favorite mug."

"This is your favorite mug? Oh, Allie, take it and give me another."

"Why?"

"Because it's your favorite."

Alex nodded, still smiling. "Naw. I like the idea of your lips being on my mug." She was glad to see Toni's answering smile. "Anyway, the administration brought me and my partner in to find out what was going on. Your husband … "

"Please don't call him that. That's something I intend to rectify as soon as this is over."

"Okay. Dr. Washburn is our main suspect, except that we've had a hard time catching him in the act."

"What about cameras?"

"Always circumvented. Anything that we've tried hasn't worked."

"Then he has an accomplice."

Alex nodded. "Same thing we thought, but we've had no luck with that, either." She paused to refill their mugs. "But there's something that's much worse."

"What's that?"

"All the evidence that we've been able to find leads directly to you."

"Me? Why me?"

"The convenient scapegoat."

Toni nodded in understanding. "Wow. What a great man I married."

"Toni, I don't think you ever really knew him." Alex set her mug down and knelt next to her. "He's been squirreling the money away. We know that because we've been watching the bank accounts and no large deposits have been made. He hasn't opened any other accounts that we can find, either. I think he planned to kill you and leave you with the blame. That's why he tried to finish the job the other night." She touched her cheek, letting her fingers softly trace her lips. "And he'll try again. That's why I want you here with me."

Toni set her mug aside with a smirk. "Is that the only reason?"

Alex smiled briefly. "Toni, I'm so crazy in love with you. The night that he beat you, you had moved your stuff in here with me. We had all these plans to become partners when the investigation was over. And then I came home and found you. I thought you were dead." She paused, realizing that she'd never talked to anyone about that horrific scene. Her lover in a pool of blood, her face an almost unrecognizable pulp. "I've never been so scared in my life. I've taken three bullets in the line of duty and nothing touched the fear of losing you."

"Allie … "

"All I want to do is spend the rest of my life making love to you."

"How touching!" Alex reached for her service revolver only to find the business end of it now facing her. Washburn stepped forward, his face wearing a look of deep disgust. "But you won't be able to make love to anyone … dead."

"Come on, Brett. Let's just get it done with." Nurse Barb Pelinsky whined, slipping the safety off with an audible click and casting her glassy eyes back and forth between the two women.

"We can't kill her yet. She's moved the money! I need to know where it is!"

"You didn't tell me about that! When did you find that out?"

"When I went looking for it last night."

She had seen Brett's car in the driveway but didn't think much of it. He sometimes came home to eat or catch a quick nap between surgeries. She used her keys to enter the side door and dropped them on the side table, hefting the bottle of vodka as she strode towards the kitchen. He would be happy to be awakened with a cold pitcher of martinis. But then … she paused. She heard a sound, a muffled shout that had come from upstairs.

"Brett?"

The word slipped almost quietly from her mouth as she crept up the stairs. She was no longer worried that it might be a robbery in progress. The slapping sound of the headboard against the wall clued her in to what was really going on. The sliver of open door gave her the rest of the answers. A pretty woman in a nurse's uniform was on her knees, moaning as Brett pulled his dripping wet dick from her pussy and lined up with her pink pucker.

She had slipped back down the stairs, keeping her sobs from reaching the lovers' ears and nearly tripped over a bag lying near the bottom step. A sheaf of neatly wrapped bills slid out and she yanked the bag open, gasping in surprise at the amount of money that now lay at her feet. Well, she could do something. She could deprive her piece of shit husband and his whore of their money.

She grabbed the bag and headed for the garden shed.

"You shit! I could have killed her!"

"She told me that she had hidden it in the shed but when I went looking for it, it was gone." Washburn turned to his wife, striding over and grabbing her by the throat. "Now where's my money, cunt?"

"Did you think I would really tell you where the money was? I knew what you had planned. You were going to leave me high and dry."

"Shut the fuck up and tell me where my goddamned money is!"

Toni gasped and squeaked out, "Why don't you ask your precious whore?"

Silence followed her words and Washburn dropped her, turning toward Pelinsky. She backed up a few steps, alarmed by the look on his face. "I don't have the money, Brett."

"That's a Rolex on her wrist, Washburn." Alex slowly crawled over to where Toni lay gasping, her eyes on the couple. "How could do you think she could suddenly afford that?"

Pelinsky turned the weapon on the advancing doctor. "Brett, I got this as a gift."

"From whom?"

"A patient."

"A patient?" Toni laughed, still rubbing her throat. "Probably her new fuck toy."

That fateful day, she had met Alex and had accepted her offer of friendship over caramel pecan flan. Comfort soon blossomed into love. Whenever Brett was at work, Alex stole into the house and made Toni cum so hard, she saw stars. They would make love, then lie together, talking about their pasts, sharing their problems. She couldn't bear it when Alex left and when she let Brett fuck her, she closed her eyes and imagined that it was her lover.

Tomorrow isn't promised to us, Alex had said. And she was right. She had decided to leave Brett and went to Alex's home. After a long session of lovemaking, she had watched Alex leave, promising to do nothing more than rest and cook. Brett had found her a few hours later and had left her for dead, after beating the location of his money out of her.

Alex saw the glint of anger light in Washburn's eyes and leaned back, her hand searching under folded blankets. If she could only reach it …

"So, is that the truth? Is that from your new fuck toy?"

Pelinsky laughed shakily. "He just gave it to me because I helped him, Brett. Nothing more."

"So where's the money?"

"I told you, I don't have it."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"I don't know but I'll shoot you if you come any closer."

"Where's the money, Barb?"

"Back off, Brett! I mean it!"

It all happened so fast. Pelinsky blinked and pulled the trigger. There was a flash and a small plume of smoke and the projectile firmly lodged itself in Washburn's chest. Bright blood bloomed from the gaping hole and he looked down at it with a look of astonishment. In that same second, Pelinsky turned the gun toward Toni. Alex was quicker, bringing up her hidden weapon and shooting twice before the shot that Pelinsky got off went wide. Pelinsky dropped to the floor, next to her lover, her drug-glazed eyes fading into sightlessness.

Alex leapt up, crouching over both bodies and making sure that they were dead. When she was certain, she returned to Toni's side, helping her stand and sit back on the couch. "Are you okay?"

Toni couldn't stop trembling and she launched herself into Alex's arms, her face wet with tears.

"You were so right." She whispered. "Tomorrow isn't promised to us."