“It’s not just a gadget, I can do so many things with it, Susie has one she can access the internet on and ….”
“So since Susie has one, you should have one?” Kathy asked and Kit began to squirm.
She remembered how little they had had living in Portland. She knew how blessed they were now. Heck, they lived on a tropical island that her mom owned! She was just so bored. Kit shook her head, her mom just didn’t understand.
Alice decided to intervene; she could see that a rebellious teen tantrum was coming on. “Is your homework all done for today?” she asked quietly. She knew it was but was just confirming it.
“Yeah,” Kit said resentfully.
“How about I teach you how to drive?” Alice asked.
Kit’s face lit up in delighted surprise at the idea. “You will? Oh that’s awesome!” She got up excitedly, “Let’s go!”
Kathy though asked Alice touching her arm to get her attention, “Do you think that’s a wise idea, she hasn’t had any of the classes.”
Kit immediately thought her mother was throwing a wrench into the works, Kathy could talk Alice into or out of anything. “Oh come on Mom, I’ll be careful, I promise!”
Alice smiled at Kathy. “What is she going to hit? A palm tree? The beach?”
Kathy laughed as she was supposed to; relaxing a bit and knowing Alice had Kit’s best interests at heart. “Okay, okay, go change your clothes,” she told her exuberant daughter and Kit ran off towards the house.
Alice grinned as she got up, teaching Kit to drive in a bikini was not a good idea and she needed to change as well. She saw out of the corner of her eye as Kathy eyed her tanned and toned body. Despite living on an island she still found ways to work out and stay in shape but long walks before and now with her wife as they got to know one another again as well as long swims helped keep her there.
“No, it’s like a balance thing, you don’t shift until you get up to that speed and push down on the clutch to put it in second,” Alice was trying to patiently explain to the enthusiastic teen but it wasn’t working well. Her head was bobbling around as the Jeep conked out time and again and jerked as Kit tried to master shifting.
“Why do I need to know how to drive manual, all the best cars are automatic?” Kit asked in exasperation.
Alice grinned, “Actually, race cars and some of the nicer sports cars only come in stick.”
Kit looked at her in surprise, totally unaware of these facts, dreaming dreams of driving a hot car like her mom’s Porsche she tried harder and finally they were moving forward without the jerky movements they had been. Shifting though wasn’t easy and Alice tried to explain it. They couldn’t go above 30mph though on the island roads which were really just tracks and Kit got bored with going over the same things.
“Look, you have to get this so it’s automatic in your head, so you know exactly what you are going to do and when. You can hear the engine racing slightly so you know it’s time to shift or when you are slowing to downshift.” Over and over Alice taught her and imparted her own knowledge. She made her parallel park between imaginary cards using two trees as markers, she taught her Y turns, explained the difference in different states about U turns, they had a good time laughing over the mistakes.
Over the coming weeks it was a pleasant distraction and the younger kids wanted to go along as well but Alice would not allow them despite the slow speeds. Kit found driving with Kathy a lot different than with Alice. Alice let her make mistakes and then explained how not to make them. Kathy just tensed up and didn’t say anything. Kathy did however find a text book on line so she could get her temps when they got back. You couldn’t get them until you were 15 and a half so they had time.
“When are we going back?” Kit asked Alice one day as they drove around the island.
Alice shrugged; she didn’t want to rock the boat. Kathy had finally opened up to her on many levels; they were working hard at making their marriage work. She didn’t want to jeopardize that. “When your mom is feeling up to it. We can’t push her,” she told the teen gently. “If she goes back before she is ready she will lose what progress she has made.”
Kit was annoyed, she wanted to show off to her friends that she was driving, few if any of them had been behind the wheel, and she missed going to school with them. She began a campaign to discuss it with Kathy but Alice blew up at her when she found out she was exerting pressure on her mom.
“I told you when the time was right we would let you know! Don’t you DARE make your mother feel guilty for what YOU are missing out on!” she barked at the teen. She was furious. Kathy had been making noises that they should go back home for the ‘sake of the children’ and Alice had gotten it out of her that Kit wanted to go back home.
“But I want to go home,” the teen whined and realized her mistake.
“You are being selfish!” Alice nearly roared and Kit realized how angry she had made this parent of hers. Her cat-like eyes narrowed and were that odd shade of orange.
“I just want…” she began in self-defense.
“Do you realize how many of your statements begin with ‘I want?’” she railed at her further and caught herself from getting angrier. It wouldn’t help things. “Maybe you should think of others besides yourself. You are living in paradise and that isn’t good enough for you?” Alice walked away furious for getting angry at the teen but at the same time she was so exasperating.
Kit apologized to both her parents later and promised to try harder. Alice wasn’t exactly appeased but in punishment to the selfish teen she didn’t go out driving with her for a few days. She too wanted off the island but felt it was a critical time with Kathy opening up so much to her these days.
Kathy felt a little trapped. She wanted Kit to have a ‘normal’ childhood but being home schooled for months on end and living on an island this certainly wasn’t happening here. Alice was entirely supportive of whatever Kathy wanted but at the same time wanted her to be ‘sure’ that going back was the right thing for her. The overwhelming feeling of suffocation she had felt with the endless questions by doctor’s and the FBI had scared her. Alice had taken her away from all of that and protected her from it, she saw that now. She felt at peace here as she scribbled her tale in her journal. As time went by she found less and less to write in it though and she realized she had written or rewritten her thoughts and feelings many times. Somehow she had exorcised it from her mind, not completely, but she didn’t feel the compulsion to constantly go over it time and time again. Now she began to think that perhaps she should share it with Alice. She didn’t want to end what they had though; it was so new and fragile. Although very far from perfect, they at least had an intimacy that had been lacking for the past two years, between her abduction and healing, they were together. Something though was still missing and she couldn’t figure out what. She still felt massive amounts of anger and didn’t know how to rid herself of it.
“It’s like I’d like to take Alex and do those things to him!” she told Alice vehemently one night as they walked hand and hand along the beach, the dog running out in the waves ahead of them as the sun set over the beautiful waters.
Alice didn’t answer, a lot of the time she found she learned more if she just listened, let Kathy vent.
“Whoever killed him I want to thank but he wasn’t the only one and the others deserve what they got!” she said angrily, her hand tightening unconsciously.
Alice was very well aware of Kathy’s anger; she could feel it radiating from her, her frustration at justice was palpable.
“I don’t know what they are doing and that kills me!” she sobbed.
Alice gathered her in her arms. “What would you do if you could find the others?” she asked quietly. Her own thoughts were disturbing her, she almost felt compelled to confess something to make Kathy feel better. She knew that would be a mistake though.
“I don’t know, maybe tie them up and make them feel helpless and used!” she answered angrily. S
he wanted to lash out; she wanted them all to pay. They had used her; they had treated her as a nothing and objectified her. She hadn’t even been a person for so long. To find Alice waiting for her at the end of that nightmare was more than she could ever have hoped for. Her Alice, she looked at her through her tears, she had waited so patiently for her. Leaning down she kissed her feeling the soft lips under her own she sobbed slightly into the open mouth.
Alice held her and comforted her the best she could. She thought perhaps it was all part of the process. Kathy obviously needed more help than Alice was qualified to give her but the doctor’s hadn’t done as much for her as she had for herself since the last one had left. Kathy had come a helluva long way on her own since their violent lovemaking on the beach. She was stronger for it but still there were enough moments that Alice knew she needed more. She needed revenge of some sort.
“It’s so unfair, they have escaped punishment…” she sobbed as she stopped kissing her wife to cuddle into her neck and be held, just held, nothing expected of her but her presence. She sensed Alice’s love for her and yet she wondered if she would really truly love her if she knew the whole story. What she didn’t know is how much more that Alice knew than she did.
Alice still had access to the computer files and knew who each and every man was who had known her wife. Four were dead besides the ones at the compound. There were a couple of others and recently she had found a lead on Bonnie and Dr. Dan. She was anxious to follow up on those particular leads not only for their involvement in Kathy’s disappearance but their attempt to get Kit. She pulled Kathy into a sitting position on the beach so they could watch the last rays of the beautiful sunset together. “Did I tell you that while you were gone I had to send Kit to therapy?” she asked carefully.
Kathy shook her head, “Kit told me she saw Dr. Dan, he was a friend of Bonnie’s?” she asked innocently.
Alice looked at her wondering that she knew nothing of Bonnie’s involvement in her disappearance. She wasn’t sure she should tell her but at the same time if they ever did get back to Palos Verdes she wanted her prepared, not that Alice would ever let them get near her wife and family again but there would be times she would be out of town on business and she didn’t want Kathy unprepared. Thinking carefully she began, “Yes, he was recommended by the school counselor and he helped a little. I sat on Kit and we got her grades up together.” She was proud of that; she had felt she had done what Kathy would have wanted had she been there. “That kid did a helluva lot though on her own too, she’s a good kid.”
Kathy preened. No wonder the two of them had gotten so close. She was happy about it but the rebellion in Kit upset her from time to time as she learned coping mechanisms.
“I found out something while you were gone. I know Bonnie was your best friend and all but she was somehow involved in your disappearance.” She didn’t want to blurt it out but felt Kathy should know.
Kathy was incredulous and wanted to defend her ‘friend’ but at the same time she remembered that Bonnie had been the one who asked her about Alice working so much and started the doubts that led her to finding out about that house in the Valley. She had had a lot of time to reflect on things as she lay in her cell waiting on who knew what and how she had come to be there. “How do you know?” she asked.
Alice shook her head. “How I know isn’t important, the fact is that Dr. Dan started a seduction of Kit and Bonnie was in on it.”
“That’s disgusting!” Kathy pulled back in revulsion.
Alice had to agree as she nodded.
“That can’t be true…,” Kathy began but Alice held up her hand.
“Portia saw them, I didn’t,” she said quietly.
“Portia? But how, why?” Kathy was confused. Bonnie had been her best friend next to Alice, Portia and Andie had been friends since college, in fact it was Portia, Andie, and Alice’s sister Connie who had been the four Amigos and occasionally included Alice; it was how she had originally met Alice.
“I got a flat tire,” she began; she had actually gotten four flat and slashed tires that night but didn’t think Kathy needed to know that. “Portia was in town and staying with us, I asked her to swing by Dr. Dan’s place to pick up Kit. She saw the three of them in a questionable embrace. She told me and I had to investigate.” She omitted the details of that investigation, the breaking into both Bonnie’s house and the good doctor’s. The bugs, the information that proved that Kathy had been set up by her ‘best’ friend and that they were after her daughter as well. That they were part of a white slavery operation. That these girls were brain washed for their masters.
Kathy was horrified. If Portia had seen it, it had to be true! She wouldn’t lie…then she realized she hadn’t really believed Alice until she mentioned Portia. She immediately felt ashamed. She hadn’t been there to save her own daughter! Alice had. She was instantly grateful that Alice had saved her daughter from who knew what. If Alex had gotten a hold of her daughter, she shuddered to think.
Alice watched her but as it was getting dark it was harder to see. Coco ran up, wet, full of sand and shook. They both cowered to keep it from getting in their faces. “Coco! Go to the house!” Alice ordered but she was laughing too. The dog heard the laughter and panted her own laughter, she was happy with her humans. Her tail wagged gaily as she totally ignored the command.
“Come on, let’s finish this inside.” Alice rose up and held out her hand to help Kathy up.
“I don’t want the children to overhear,” Kathy said wisely.
Alice nodded as she answered, “We can wait until they’ve gone to bed.”
The two youngest were ready for bed already and each of their mothers took one and read a story to them as they tucked them in. They demanded kisses from each of their mothers though and then another story from the other parent. Both got their two stories and fell asleep during the second. Alice and Kathy exchanged looks as they checked on the other’s sleeping baby. Kathy was regretting the time she had missed away from them, both physically and mentally as they had both grown so much. Alice could sense her anguish over this and held her as she looked on first one and then the other.
“They grow so fast,” Kathy commented and Alice nodded in agreement.
They waited until they were certain that Kit was in bed as well as their servants. They really didn’t need two housekeepers but Mrs. Fernandez and Mrs. Montego had worked out an uneasy truce long ago and they did a lot of pantomime which was hilarious. Mrs. Montego wasn’t about to give up her job to this ‘foreigner’ and she would be here long after they left. Alice had hired her and her husband and son as caretakers on the island for when she wasn’t here. This time though they had been here many months, the longest time in all the time she had owned the island. Nan too wasn’t necessary to run after Emily and Sean with Kathy there but Kathy had been a long time in healing mentally so her presence was welcome, she also enjoyed the extended vacation on the island and her charges weren’t too strenuous.
“So how did you investigate them?” Kathy demanded to know when they were alone.
Alice really didn’t want to tell her and at the same time she didn’t wish to lie. They were still trying to work out their relationship and this sort of thing could seriously damage it. “You know I have resources,” she began reminding Kathy.
Kathy nodded, she had seen what she had done a few years ago when Kathy called her for help, how quickly she had gotten them out of that situation and rescued them. She accepted that, Alice had a lot of money and knew people who could help, she didn’t question that. “How far did they get,” here she paused to gulp thinking of what could have happened to Kit.
“Not far, I think Portia saw them just as they were getting serious. I heard Kit panicking on the phone to Dan when I said she could only go once a week to see him.”
“You heard, were you eaves-dropping?” Kathy looked at her in consternation.
Alice shook her head, “No, I bugged her phone.” She felt no guilt
over that.
Kathy stared at her, she was relieved that nothing had happened to Kit but bugging their daughter’s phone was bit extreme. She was torn over that revelation versus the fact that Alice may have prevented worse from happening by her actions. “But even once a week…”
Alice shrugged, “I couldn’t just cut her off, they would have been suspicious, who knows what they would have done, how desperate they might have become or if they would have acted suddenly.” Not that she would have let them.
Kathy had to admit that was right, if they had been involved in her own abduction… “How did you get her away from them?”
“I let Kit talk me into getting Coco.” She smiled at the simplicity of it.
Kathy returned the smile. “That’s it? You let them talk you into getting a dog and she was out of their clutches?”
Alice smiled but something about that smile changed and she didn’t realize it as Kathy started get uneasy. She remembered other things she had done, like going through Dr. Dan’s house and finding other victims and finally the first sign that Kathy was alive and had been taken from them. “It proved a distraction,” she understated. “I also brought them here to show them the island, I didn’t want anyone suspicious, and certainly not the good doctor who proved not be one after all.” She had also brought them here to hide them and keep them safe while she went on the hunt for Kathy.
“He wasn’t a therapist?” Kathy was trying to take all this in, so much could have happened to her baby. Her baby who was nearly a woman and while nearly as tall as Kathy was still naive and a child in her eyes.
Alice shook her head, “I don’t think Dan was his real name either.” She knew it wasn’t. “He and Bonnie disappeared I heard.” She knew that the police and the FBI had never found them despite her turning them in. So much for going through legal channels. It was up to her and she knew where they might be now and really wanted to follow up on that.
“Isn’t there anything that can be done about them?” Kathy’s maternal instincts were aroused now, her desire for vengeance as well. These two people had nearly corrupted her baby!
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