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to your shirt?”
    “My shirt?” He seemed to remember it again, glancing down in horror at the muddy lavender. “Oh, good heavens!”
    “Come on out of there and you can go get the spare in your office while I sit with Mr. Johnson,” she suggested.
    No, no, we couldn’t have any delays. I’d make do with what I had. “That’s not necessary,” I said, still holding onto Larry’s wrist and feeding as much Zen as I could into him. Calm, relaxed, easygoing . . . “My business is finished. Mr. Bries was about to show me out.”
    “Was he?” Wendy took another step in, and what happened next—I couldn’t help myself. Wendy was a hugger and I’d never liked being the recipient of her octopus arms. I instinctively stood up straight and leaned away from her, and her eyes opened wide as she got a better look at my face. “It’s . . . Oh my god, it’s you, isn’t it? Edward!”
    Oh, no. “Wendy, wait—”
    “Oh my god, are you robbing our bank, what the hell?” I made a grab for her but missed, and she jumped back out of reach and, with panic on her face, slammed the vault door shut on me and Larry. “I’m calling the cops!” I barely heard her shout. “And don’t you dare hurt Mr. Bries!”
    Oh, for the love of . . . What kind of Villain did she think I was? “I wouldn’t do that!” I shouted back, but she either didn’t bother to reply or hadn’t heard me. “I wouldn’t do that,” I said to Larry, who was rather pale.
    “Well, that’s a relief,” he said weakly. Apparently all sharing my emotions could do at this point was keep him from collapsing into a heap. Inside Me was having a freaking fit, and that made it a lot harder for Outside Me to maintain my calm.
    I already knew I wouldn’t make it through this by myself. It was a bitter pill, but I wasn’t going to get caught because I was too proud to acknowledge when I was out of my element. I tapped my free hand against my earpiece. “I need help.”
    “Where are you?”
    “Trapped in the vault.”
    “Is it sealed from the inside or the outside?”
    “From the outside.” For now, that was.
    “You need to ensure that no one else get in. Burn the lock closed, and I’ll be there in five minutes,” Raul promised.
    Oh, God. “Burn it closed?”
    “With the Chap stick.” When I didn’t say anything, I heard Raul sigh. “I made it with you in mind, remember? It’s perfectly safe. Just touch some to the locking mechanism and use your taser on it.”
    “I can do that.”
    “Do it now.”
    His voice was implacable. I knew he was right, I just . . . I bit my lip, then took out the tube and gingerly smeared it over the digital keypad. I tucked it away again, then pulled Larry and I back from the door, aimed the taser at it, and gave it a jolt.
    The compound caught fire and glowed with liquid heat, burning so hot that the mechanism slagged in seconds beneath it. It was out just as quickly, and my shoulders slowly descended from beside my ears. “It worked.”
    “Naturally. I’m on my way, Edward.”
    “Don’t use the front door.”
    He chuckled. “I wasn’t planning to. Five minutes.”
    Five minutes. Okay. I could do that. Larry gaped at me disapprovingly, despite the calm feelings I passed to him, but at least he didn’t actually make a fuss. That was good. I didn’t feel up to another scolding at the moment.
    The fuss came when a Hero showed up to come to the aid of the bank. Firebolt, to be precise. I could tell by the way a patch of molten metal slowly appeared in the middle of the vault door, bursting through in the shape of a thin, triangular blade of fire. Liquid metal and brutally hot fire burst forth from the door, and Larry and I both had to jump back. It wasn’t very safety conscious of the Hero, considering I had what amounted to a hostage in with me.
    Firebolt had been a circus performer, a juggler and fire breather who, thanks to an experimental lighter fluid mix and some quick medical attention, had ended up