“See you all tomorrow!” Elise called out, waving to the other tellers. It was 6:30, closing time at the Temple Branch Bank. The employees were finishing up the last bits of work for the day, putting their stations in order and heading home for the evening.

Carrie hung by her desk, slowly organizing a large stack of paperwork. Along with everyone else, she said goodbye to the other employees as each left in turn, though she seemed distracted. After a few minutes, the last person left, leaving Carrie alone. Well, not entirely alone…

Silently, the young woman got up from her desk. The heels of her shoes clicked against the tile floor as she slowly walked down the hallway. Carrie was a tall, young woman, a few months shy of 26 years of age. Her short, midnight black hair was swept to one side. That evening, she was wearing a very professional black business suit. As she left the room, she took a light grey overcoat from the coat rack by the door and put it on over that.

Carrie had been working at this branch of the bank for about six months now, long enough to get to know most of the people working there, the other tellers, the branch manager, Mr. Charles, as well as most of the security guards. It was one of them she was going to talk to now.  

“Hello Frank.” She said in a sultry voice, walking into the security office. A middle-aged, slightly balding man was sitting at the desk. He was wearing a black uniform, an older one, she guessed. It was a little too small for him large frame.  

Frank, the night security guard looked up from the computer screen, showing feed from all of the security cameras in the building. “Hello, Miss Francis.” He said, smiling. Watching her walk across the room towards him, long legs crisscrossing, hips swaying, was way better than keeping an eye on boring video feed of empty rooms. “What can I do for you?”

Carrie sighed. “It seems I was working a little late and now everyone else has left. Do you think you could walk me to my car?” It was late enough in the year, the sun had already set, leaving the employee parking lot shrouded in darkness. “I’d feel ever so much safer if I had someone with me.”

“of…of course ma’am.” Frank stammered, jumping to his feet. He ran to hold the door for Carrie as she stepped out into the cold, dark night. “I’ve been telling management for a long time now, they need to install some lights out here…” he said, walking alongside Carrie, who was nodding along, disinterestedly. “Like as not, someone is gonna get mugged out here before long, but until then, they’re not going to do anything. ‘Just don’t have the money in the budget.’ They say…”

Carrie’s small sports car was parked at the edge of the parking lot. She dug her keys out of her purse and leaned over to slide them into the lock. “Oh my!” she said, accidentally dropping them. The young woman bent over, fumbling for her keys. Frank stood nearby, watching her intently…

All his attention focused on the show in front of him, the older man didn’t notice a figure, looming out of the darkness behind him. Frank gave a soft grunt of pain as the figure brought the leather sap down hard on the back of his skull. Knocked out cold, the security guard slumped to the ground.

Carrie straightened up and turned around, smiling. “That’ll teach you to peep, Frank.” She said, stepping over the unconscious body. “.” She turned her attention to the man standing behind him. He was dressed in black fatigues. A canvas bag was slung over one of his shoulders.

“We’d better do something about him.” The man said. “Someone might spot him.” Nodding, Carrie reached down and grabbed Frank’s wrists. Her partner grabbed his ankles. Together, they lugged the limp body to the side of the parking lot and rolled him under the bushes planted around the edge of the lot.

“Our arrangement is still the same, John?” Carrie asked, as they walked back to the bank. That wasn’t his name, she knew, but it was the name he’d approached her under, when he’d recruited her for this scheme. “An even split, fifty-fifty?”

“Assuming you came through with the correct codes, yes.” John replied. He waited while Carrie swiped her employee ID through the reader. The door beeped and unlocked.

“Of course it’s right. I must have seen him enter it a hundred times by now.” She replied. The two of them headed to the security room. Working quickly, John shut off the security cameras. He found where the footage was stored, as well as the backups, and quickly erased the tapes for the last 24 hours. Carrie watched as he typed into the computer for ten minutes or so. Finally he nodded.

“That’s all of the silent alarms disabled.” He said, getting up from the computer. The two left the security room and walked down the hallway. At the far end was the manager’s office. Through it, on the other side was a large, metal door. Beside it was a small, numeric keypad with a red light glowing.

Carrie walked to the keypad. Remembering all the times she had watched her, now former, boss unlock the bank’s safe, she entered the same code. It beeped and the light turned green. Beside it, there was a loud click from the metal door as it unlocked. Carrie exhaled. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath.

Tense, the young woman grabbed the handle of the door and pushed. The heavy door swung ponderously in on balanced hinges. The light in the room turned on, automatically. It revealed a small room, maybe ten feet square, with walls, floor and ceiling all of thick, reinforced concrete. Lining two of the walls were shelves filled with stacks of money.

Grinning, the two crooks entered the room. The next half hour was spent hauling all of the money from the vault out of the bank to Carrie’s car. The young woman’s grin grew larger and larger as the pile of bricks of currency in her trunk rose and rose. There must have easily been at least a million dollars in that haul. Probably more. “Is that the last of it?” She asked as John dropped one last armful onto the pile. “Are we done?”

“Not yet.” John said, as he closed the trunk lid. “There’s one last matter to discuss about our deal...” he turned around. Carrie gasped when she saw he had pulled out a gun. It was pointed at her.

“What are you doing?” She cried out.

“Let’s just say our partnership is ending a bit prematurely…” John told her. “Hands up…”

***

“MMPPPHHH!!!” Carrie groaned miserably. The young woman stood in the center of the, now empty, bank vault. Her arms were lashed behind her back in a strict box tie with black cord, from John’s bag. He’d tied a tight rope harness around her chest, pinning her arms to her back. Another length of cord ran from the harness up, where it was tied off to one of the vault’s light fixtures, keeping Carrie standing on her toes in the center of the room.

Oh, and Carrie was completely naked, save for her heels. After he’d marched her into the vault at gunpoint, John had forced his erstwhile partner in crime to strip down until she was naked. “ooohhh assssstttrrrrdd!!! Carrie screamed. Her furious curses were muffled by the rubber plug of the ballgag John had stuffed between her teeth, though not before stuffing the skimpy panties she’d been wearing in first…  

“Sorry about this…” John said, playfully slapping the young woman on her butt. “But I was never really planning on splitting a haul like this with anyone.” He turned and walked towards the vault door. “Have a nice night…”

“ooommm aaacccckk eeerrre!!! Eeetttt eeeh ooooh oooh asssstttrrrdd!!!” Carrie screamed in frustration as the door closed. With a loud click, the vault door locked shut. With a whimper, the young woman slumped down in her bonds. There was no way out, now. Not until tomorrow morning, when the manager unlocked the vault to discover all of the money stolen…as well as Carrie in her rather…’delicate’ situation.

“ugh…” there was a groan from the corner of the room. After tying Carrie up and gagging her, John had gone back out and dragged Frank from where they’d left him into the vault, tossing him in a corner. The security guard slowly rolled over. As his eyelids fluttered, Frank’s first thought was that he must have been hallucinating. His second thought was that he must have died and gone to heaven. Standing in the center of the room was the hottest woman he knew, standing in front of him in her high heels and nothing else, bound and gagged.

“what…the…” he said, sitting up. As he did, he heard a soft crinkle. He realized there was a piece of paper taped to his chest. He grabbed it and looked down. Someone had written a note on it:

“Sorry about having to conk you on the head and lock you in here. To make it up to you, I’ve left you a little gift: the bitch who lured you outside so I could knock you out and rob the bank. Feel free to do whatever you want with her. You should have plenty of time before anyone comes by and I’ve turned off all the security cameras. Have Fun!”

Frank grinned, rising onto shaky feet. Nearby, Carrie groaned into her gag…