"Hysterical strength," Jim suggested "Under great stress, people can do amazing things. Perform great feats of strength, endure great amounts of pain." I wanted to kiss him, but it would have given away the show. He had come up with a plausible explanation and I decided to get behind it.
"That must be it," I said. "I was just so damn mad that I lost control. I didn't know what I was doing."
"Bullshit," Lori said. "I was sitting right beside Jim when you primed him to open the door when you were ready. You knew what you were going to do. You planned it. You got them away from us long enough for this... this... beautiful monster to come in and scare them off. Why did you let them go? That's what doesn't make sense to me."
I sighed. Lori wasn't going to be put off with stories about mothers picking up cars to save their babies, but I could answer the question as she asked it. I said, "If we had called the cops and had them arrested here, the cops would have called our parents. What would your mother have thought? What would Mrs. Morgan think? What would mine... what would Mrs. Reynolds have thought? Put yourself in their places. Being called by the cops and told their children had been attacked by a couple of escaped convicts? Especially Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Morgan being only a couple of houses away while their children were being raped and sodomized. I could not put them through that. No mother should have to live with that."
"I didn't get raped," Neeka said. "You got free too quick. I missed being sodomized, too... damn it." Everyone burst out laughing at that. It was the first time I had heard Neeka make a joke. I hugged her really hard. She had been the brave one. She had put her faith in me to save her.
Lori wasn't going to let it go. "But he cut you. I saw him cut your throat. How did you..." Her sister whacked her with an elbow and gave her the dirtiest look I have ever seen anyone use on a relative.
"Right," Lori said, "it doesn't matter. If you don't want to talk about it, that's cool. But there is one thing that I have to say. It's just that Sara is right. Stop smirking, Sara. It had to happen eventually. She said you saved us, and she's right. We owe you our lives. If you don't want us to talk about it, I can get behind that. If my mother knew what happened, she would never let us out of her sight again. We'd be prisoners, just like those two assholes. So you saved us twice. You kept your head and you saved us. You're my Hero. Or is it Heroine?"
"Hey, I'm not a Hero," I said. "I just could not let anything happen to my friends."
Lori got up and came over to sit next to me. She put her arm around me and leaned over and kissed me. "In that case," she said, "I am very glad to be your friend. Because God help your enemies!"
I closed my eyes for a moment and put my hand over the hollow of my left shoulder. When I opened them I turned to Lori and said, "Do you like my tattoo?" I took my hand away from my shoulder and Lori looked at the small pink heart. Inside the heart, in script, it said "Lori". She smiled and looked me in the eyes.
"Thank you," she said in a whisper. "I know that wasn't there before." Her eyes went wide, but she kept her voice low. "So that's how..." She stopped. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."
"Is there any of that pizza left?" I asked. "I'm suddenly very hungry."
"I'm on it," Jim said and ran up to the kitchen to warm me up a couple of pieces.
"Also, my breasts are sore again. Could someone please kiss them some more?"
Neeka and Lori bent to the task with a will. I leaned back and luxuriated in the sensation. It looked like the Heroine business had some nice benefits.
Later, after everyone had taken a turn soothing my poor nipples, and those not so occupied had amused themselves however they chose, we turned on the TV in time to catch the news. The lead story was about two prison work farm escapees who had been recaptured after the truck they had stolen had broken down in a residential part of town. Both men had been severely injured and were being treated in the prison hospital. One had four broken ribs and a collapsed lung and the other had unspecified groin injuries. Both were expected to recover after a long convalescence.
The men told authorities that they had been attacked by a gang of 20 outlaw bikers who beat them senseless and left them for dead. Law enforcement agencies are on the lookout for the gang and bulletins have been issued, but since no such biker gang had been seen in the area, the authorities were not confident of a quick resolution of this unusual case. A large quantity of blood on the clothes of one of the men had been determined through laboratory tests to belong to a Caucasian female between the ages of 13 and 19. It was believed that the escapees had murdered a girl, but no body had yet been found.
"Uh, oh." I said. "Better get dressed. We're going to have company if Mrs. Reynolds or Mrs. Morgan heard that. And get rid of that junk on the table."
Bud grabbed the ropes, clamps and knife and threw them into the drawer with the rest of the clothesline.
We had no sooner got our clothes back on than the phone rang. I picked up the extension on the desk. It was Mrs. Henderson, calling to check on Lori and Sara. I handed her the phone and listened to Lori's side of the conversation.