Chapter 15
Tobin and Alex were at Tobin’s apartment. Tobin was sitting on the toilet with the lid down. Alex was dabbing the scratches and bruises on her face that Tobin had acquired when she fell down the drainage ditch.
“So, you didn’t see the car?” Alex asked.
“No”, Tobin said. “He hit me and then just took off.”
“Jesus”, Alex said, as she dabbed a raspberry on Tobin’s forehead. “People are such jerks sometimes.”
“Yeah…” Tobin drifted off. Alex kept dabbing Tobin’s wounds with a damp cloth for another minute, and then she leaned down and planted a kiss onto Tobin’s lips. Tobin returned the kiss, thinking about what she was going to say next. She had decided she was going to come clean. She couldn’t stand withholding who she really was from Alex anymore. She broke the kiss and took the cloth from Alex’s hand and set it on the bathroom sink, and then took Alex’s hands in her own and looked into her eyes. “Listen, Alex”, Tobin said. “I know we need to talk. Or, more like, I know I have things to tell you.” She exhaled deeply and then said, “There’s something I need to say to you. It’s really important, and it could seriously affect things between us-“
“Shhhh…”, Alex said. She put her finger to Tobin’s lips. She wanted to hear, but right now she felt bad for Tobin, and she just wanted to comfort her, and for her to get better. Whatever Tobin had to tell her, she could wait to hear it until Tobin got better. “Some other time”, she whispered, and then planted a lingering kiss on Tobin’s lips.
Dammit, Tobin thought, as her resolve melted away. Oh well, she thought as she melted into the kiss. I’ll tell Alex tomorrow…
********
Ashlyn, Whitney, Morgan, Amy and Christen were standing on the beach behind their house. It was just past sundown. There was a chill in the air, and it wasn’t just the dropping temperature.
“You’re acting like nothing happened today!” Amy/Cleopatra yelled at Ashlyn/Elizabeth.
“Relax, A-Rod”, Ashlyn said in an even tone.
“Don’t fucking tell me to relax, Ashlyn. That woman is a fucking federal agent.”
“I should have blown her fucking head off today”, Whitney/Mary said.
It was silent for a moment. Ashlyn looked around and then started in. “Do you realize we have hit thirty banks in three years? And no one has been able to touch us. This only ups the stakes of the game.”
“Fuck the stakes, Ashlyn!” Morgan/Daenerys said in a panicked voice. “The only person this is a game to is you, dude! This is serious shit, and I am scared. I say we take the money and leave right now.”
“Money?” Ashlyn scoffed. “You think this is about money?” she snarled. She glared at Morgan, who tried to hold Ashlyn’s stare but couldn’t and dropped her eyes down to the ground. Ashlyn stared at her for another moment and then addressed the group. “This has never been about the money. This is about us against the system – the system that enslaves the human spirit.” She motioned to the group, and like all great speakers, her voice grew in conviction while at the same time she was able to connect with each person individually. “We stand for something, and that something is the human spirit. We stand to show those poor souls inching along the highway in their metal coffins that the human spirit is still alive.” She ended her speech definitively and looked at her compatriots. All of them were nodding back. Then she looked at each member and asked her in turn, “So – do you trust me?” And every one of them, even Morgan, nodded back and smiled, confident in their leader. “Then don’t worry about Tobin Heath. I know exactly how to take care of her”, Ashlyn said, an edge in her voice.
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The figure crept through the dark apartment, gun in hand. The FBI agent was sleeping in her bedroom. The figure crept into the bedroom, raised her arm, and pointed the gun at the sleeping FBI agent laying on the bed.