We are Fine

"We're fine, mom. No, we haven't seen any bikers. No, we're all quite safe here, really. The Reynolds' have a huge watchdog that is quite capable of scaring off anyone who might try to break in. He's right here in the room with us. Yes, all the doors are locked. Mom? Believe me, we are safer here than we would be at home. Thank you for worrying. Yes, we'll call you tomorrow when we're on the way home. I love you, too. Bye."

"How is she taking it?" I asked Lori.

"She's concerned. She's not freaked. I don't think she's buying the biker gang angle. It's the 'murdered girl' thing that has her rattled. We should have stripped them before we threw them out. The blood could be traced."

"Not unless they get something to match it to. I don't think they will go through the neighborhood collecting blood samples. 'Murdered girl' means a body somewhere. When one doesn't turn up and no one is reported missing, I think the whole thing will blow over in a day or two. As for stripping them, we would be stuck with two prison uniforms and no good explanation as to how we got them. It wasn't worth the risk."

Mrs. Reynolds and an attractive red-haired woman I took to be Mrs. Morgan practically ran down the stairs into the family room. Lori retreated back to the couch where she and her sister sat snuggled between Jim and Bud. Something did not look right for a second. I looked again. It wasn't Lori and Sara between Jim and Bud, it was Lori and Sara between Bud and Jim. I wondered when the swap had come about.

Mrs. Morgan ran straight to Neeka and almost knocked her off her feet in a big hug.

"Oh darling, thank goodness you're safe! I was so worried when we saw the news."

Neeka managed to get enough space to breathe. "Mom! I'm fine. We're all fine. Those bikers never came near here. We never even heard a motorcycle. Did you?"

"No. We didn't hear a thing. When we heard that those men were captured only a block from here, we got... we came right over to check on you all."

After hearing her misspeak, I looked Mrs. Morgan over carefully. Her skirt was bunched in the back over her hastily-tucked-in blouse and she had missed a button on the side. I wanted to smile, but I didn't dare.

"Mom, I want to introduce you to Samantha. Sam, this is my mother." Mrs. Morgan was a few inches shorter than her daughter and only a little taller than me. She looked at me with keen interest. If I was right about her open relationship with her daughter, she had already heard enough to make her curious about her daughter's new friend. Now I could let out the smile I had been suppressing. Mrs. Morgan reached out a hand, but I ignored it and walked right into a hug. I held her tight for a while and kissed her cheek.

"I'm very happy to meet you." I said. "Neeka and I have become best friends in record time. I feel that I already know you through her." I lowered my voice so only the three of us could hear and said, "I'm sorry you had to get out of bed to come over this time of night."

"Oh that's all right. We were..." She trailed off and looked at me with a half-smile on her lips. The look on her face, said 'busted'.

I smiled devilishly at her and went to kiss her cheek again, but instead I stuck my nose behind her jaw and kissed her neck. I was rewarded by feeling her shiver in my arms. I let go of her and a second later she let go of me, too. I had the feeling that she really wanted to kiss me, but there were too many people around. I could see where Neeka got her shyness as well as her uninhibited sexual appetites. It was an odd combination.

"We're all fine, really." I assured her. "You have nothing to worry about. I won't let anything happen to Neeka."

While Mrs. Morgan was wondering how I could guarantee her daughter's safety, I noticed that Mrs. Reynolds had finished making sure that her boys were undamaged and was looking around the room. I saw her smile when she saw that the stacks of towels she had left us had been used. I made a mental not to thank her for that bit of thoughtfulness. I saw her bend over and pick something up from under the table at the far end of the couch. I hoped it wasn't a stray slice of pizza or empty drink cup. We had tried to be neat about taking food into the plushly carpeted room. My heart jumped into my throat when I saw that it was the garden shears with a piece of the cotton clothesline still stuck in the jaws.

Mrs. Reynolds looked at the shears for a second. Then she opened them and pulled the bit of rope out. She carried them over to the drawer where they had been for the last couple of weeks since she had brought them into the room. She pulled out the drawer and saw Bud's hurried concealment of the cut rope, the clamps, and the little homemade knife. She dropped the shears into the drawer and pushed it shut. When she turned around her face was a mask of wonder and terror. She looked again at Bud and Jim, who were sitting on the couch with the Henderson's, then she turned toward me and walked stiffly over to stand next to me and the Morgan's. Mrs. Morgan was telling Neeka how glad she was that she was OK for the third time.

Mrs. Reynolds fixed me with a steely look and said, "Sam, can I speak with you a moment?" Without waiting for an answer, she took my arm and led me down to the other end of the room, next to the drawer where she found the evidence.