Weekend Warriors (Sisterhood #1)(46)

Five minutes later, Alexis looked across at Kathryn as she absentmindedly scratched Murphy’s head. The big dog did everything but purr. “Nikki answered and she said to stick to the plan and to call the D.A. when you get back from Bermuda. I think Isabelle’s flight gets in around eleven Monday morning. I’d say call him around twelve-thirty. Time for you to pick up the truck and your load of produce.”

“Is this glitch four or is it five?”

“Four with a hangnail. It’s okay, Kathryn. I like this dog of yours. The truth is, I like everyone involved in this little venture. Yoko is growing on me. I saw Julia smile and once she actually laughed out loud. That has to be hard with a death sentence hanging over your head. Nikki is the one I feel sorry for. Isabelle is so sweet and so very tired. Myra and Charles are just loves. You’re okay, too, Kathryn. Being in prison had to be a piece of cake compared to what you lived through.”

“What was it like, Alexis?”

“It was bad. The worst thing of all was when the doors clanged shut. The word clang is so perfect. Every damn time they shut, I wanted to jump out of my skin. I never close doors where I live now. Even the bathroom door stays open. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that feeling. Everything smelled like Clorox. The food was inedible. The bed was hard as a rock. Roaches were everywhere. Everything was on a schedule. I made a lot of friends after I learned how to play the game. The whole time I was in there I didn’t have one visitor, nor did I get one piece of mail. Most days I didn’t know what day it was unless someone told me.

“The worst thing, though, was the nightmares. I lived with the trial and the outcome every day since I was convicted. I spent a year in prison so those slimeballs could cheat old people and fatten up their bank accounts. One of them even has a yacht now. I swear it’s as big as an ocean liner.

“My real name is Ann Marie Wilkinson, not Alexis Thorne, and I damn well want it back. I was born with it and it belongs to me.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. Murphy reared up and licked them away.

“We’ll get your name back. Don’t you worry about that,” Kathryn said, with such vehemence Alexis bolted upright. “And I’m going to see to it that you get the ocean liner, providing you take me and Murphy on a cruise.”

“You sound like my champion, Kathryn. Thank you for that.”

“We’re all in this together.”

“You know what I think, Kathryn. I think we make one kick-ass team. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go up against us. Would you? Are you anxious about tonight?”

“A little. I was pretty calm when Julia did her number back there in the motel. He should be waking up just about the time we get to Lone Pine.”

“What’d you do with his nuts?”

“They’re swishing around back there in Alan’s old lunchbox. It’s in the back by his wheel-chair.”

Alexis burst out laughing. “How did you feel, Kathryn?”

“Angry. Bitter. Numb. It was all so surreal. I knew it was happening and I knew I was watching and being a part of it but only half of me was there. The other half of me was back there in the parking lot of the Starlite Cafe where it happened. He was the one that sodomized me. If his nuts hadn’t been in that Snapple bottle, I would have jammed that bottle up his butt.”

“Spoken like a true woman. One down, two to go. By midnight or thereabouts, you will be vindicated. Don’t for one minute think you’re going to magically find closure, Kathryn, because it ain’t gonna happen. People always say they’re looking for closure for this or that. It doesn’t happen. You can’t erase the memory. It will always be with you. The best you can hope for is some kind of vindication,” Alexis said as she settled herself more comfortably in the seat. “Just knowing there are three men out there walking around without their balls is going to please me no end.”

“Yeah, me, too. Do you suppose they’ll walk differently, kind of duck-like?”

Alexis went off into a peal of laughter. “They won’t have to worry about which side to put them on anymore. I heard Tom Jones the singer used to pad his pants onstage so people would think he had a big set. I wonder if that was true.”

Kathryn laughed until her sides hurt.





An hour later, Alexis said, “Kathryn, do you see what I see?”

“It’s the bikers. Oh, God, there’s Charles in the lead. What should I do? Pass them or stay behind?” Kathryn dithered. “Shit, they’re straightening out, that means they want me to pass them. Don’t look at them, Alexis.”

“Hey chickee baby,” one of the bikers shouted as Kathryn pressed down on the gas pedal.

Alexis hung her head out the window and looked at Charles as Kathryn roared past the trail of motorcycles. “Yo dude!” she shouted. Charles waved, a wicked grin on his face.

“You had to do that, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Alexis laughed. I’ve been called a lot of things in my time but no one ever called me chickee baby before. They must have stopped for food or something. They had at least a fifty-minute head start on us. Before you can ask, I think there’s thirty-seven of them. That’s counting Charles.”

“How far from ground zero?”

“Three hours, maybe a little less.”