I know we are all DYING for Ash right now...but there's something important you all should know...I'll let Mac explain....
Mac
I'm hardly ever afraid of anything anymore. I used to be terrified of showing Adam my feelings, but since he broke down that wall, I've pretty much felt invincible.
Tonight, I'm afraid.
Not so much of Slade. The other girls don't know, but I have a 9mm Luger in the pocket of my dress and I know how to use it. My dad taught me to shoot when we moved into the trailer park and if that weren't enough, now I'm married to a Heartley man. They like their women to know how to shoot almost as much as they like their Jack Daniels and Jesus.
Every third Sunday of the month Peter sets up a shooting range in the lower hay field and we have target practice and a tapas picnic after church. The women mainly shoot for fun, the men shoot for money. Every Heartley over the age of twelve is a dead-eye, including me.
So yeah, if that psychomotherfuckingpath fronting as our record label president gets out of hand with Ashlynn or Kat, I will shoot him like I wish I could shoot Cain Gannon, and then I will get Dev over here to slap me around a little bit so there's no question that it was self-defense.
No, I'm not really afraid of "Slade" Schlater or whatever-the-fuck-his name is.
I'm afraid that even if things go as planned, Trace is going to freak out and never, ever forgive us for this.
Adam, Bodes, Leedâthey'll all get over their anger, but I'm not sure about Trace.
He may hate us forever, for involving Kat so deeply in this.
Or at least hate me. Really it was my doing. Ashlynn asked me to help...but Kat looks like Ashlynn and Ashlynn looks like Megan. I figured if we are doing this...do it right.
I let out a slow breath, lean back against the limo seat, and glance over at Kat. Marianne is blending her makeup around her curly shoulder length blonde wig, and staring critically between her and the photograph of Megan. "Unbelievable. You're a doppleganger."
Kat grabs a small mirror and compares herself to the photograph. "Wow, you can't even tell it's a wig."
Tamara gives her a quick glance, then looks at the picture, "try to soften up your eyebrows a little." She passes over a blonde brow mascara. Marianne holds a mirror for Kat.
We all examine her after effect. "Perfect," Tam declares, turning back to me. "Now if I could just get your face to look a little more heart-shaped," Tam tells me as she rifles through the cosmetics on the limo seat and pounds more contouring shadow into my jawline. She's studying the picture of Slade's mother, that Ashlynn found online. It's hazy and a full body shot, and Tamara would much prefer a close-up in order to shade and shape my features closer to that of his mother, but after a few more minutes, she nods. "That's as close as I can approximate. But with your hair and the clothes, you're a pretty close match." I'm also wearing a bobbed blonde wig, and German housewife clothes from circa 1970.
I'm only a fall-back plan. We are hoping Ashlynn and Marley can get what she needs from Slade when he's confronted with "Megan."
I glance at Marley. She's not used to audio equipment and she's pressing her earpiece, but it's totally unnecessary. I'm sure she can hear perfectly...its a state of the art ear monitor. "What's going on?"
"Not much. He's being extremely polite to her, complimenting her appearance, asking about her health and headaches. Now he's asking Ashlynn to make him a drink."
Marianne smiles wide. "Well that makes it easy."
"Too easy, " Marley says softly, narrowing her eyes. "He's being too polite. He may be suspicious of you. He may test your resolve to commit by commanding you drink the alcohol, because he knows you don't like to. Don't put it in his drink." Marley nods as she listens.
It is Devil's Breath, a date rape drug Ashlynn bought on the street. It makes victims extremely cooperative. We're hoping it has the same effect on psychopaths, if Ash can find a way to administer it.
Kat is fiddling with her wooden butterfly necklace that is actually a microphone, just like my necklace. And Ashlynn's. "Remember the plan," Marley says soothingly to Kat. "Don't speak unless I tell you to. Megan's presence may be enough. Let Ash handle him."
Kat nods. She and I put our put our earpieces in, and all five of us wait quietly. Occasionally Marley cues us as to what is going on. Slade is still making small talk with Ashlynn. They review her contract of submission. Marley says she's very composed, even as they negotiate how to avoid another "regrettable mishap."
Mishap.
That's what that motherfucker actually called holding her down and carving with a knife.
You know what? Fuck this mind game shit. Maybe I'll just shoot him straight away.
My phone buzzes with a text. It's Adam.
Where are you, Shorty? Can't find you in this madhouse...
I swallow down my guilty feelings. Ditching Adam at the del Marco party is bad, but if something should go wrong...I'm honestly more worried about Adam than I am myself.
I know how I would feel if something bad happened to Adam. I would go crazy and only the fact that my daughter would need me could keep me on my feet. If I get hurt, the worst part will be how bad Adam feels.
So I hope I come out of this okay. I'm sure Preacher and I will have a fight to end all fights about me risking myself like this, but I think about Cain Gannon, and I think about that dead girl Megan and her mother, and I think about Ashlynn under Slade's knife, and I think about my brother who is dying by degrees without Ashlynn, and...I'm willing to take the risk. For Megan and Laurie Davis, for Ashlynn, for my brother.
Ashlynn is determined to do this, and I can't let her do it alone. Adam and I will just have to throw down until he sees that.
My phone is not the only one that's buzzing. Somebody is blowing up Tam's phone. Pain flits across her face as she reads her text.
"It's Ben. He's furious that I went to the afterparty with SCIC, when he asked me to meet him to talk. I have to call him..." She picks up her phone, but I grab her wrist.
"He's been furious for weeks. He can be furious for another hour. When this is all done, you'll make it right with him."
Tears well up in her eyes. "I miss him," she whispers to me, "I don't even know why I'm doing this. I kind of hate Leed right now. I'm ruining my marriage, making sure his stupid ass doesn't lapse into a diabetic coma and die and keeping Leed's condition a secret from Ben. And now this? Ben is going to be even angrier..."
"You'll fix it. Look how many times I fucked up with Preacher. You can fix it."
"When this is over, Leed and I need better boundaries," she says firmly. "We need a custody arrangement. I love LeedâI will always love Leedâbut living with him these last few weeks has shown me I'm not in love with him. If I don't do something to get some distance from him, I'm going to lose the best thing that's ever happened to me."
"Sounds like a plan." Fuck, I'm so glad to hear her say that. I guess she's gotten her fill of mothering Leed and she finally realizes what she wants is Ben.
Marley sits up straight. "Now. It's time. Go!"
Kat leaps toward the door of the limo but Marianne grabs her wrist, slipping on the panic ring Marianne insists we wear. One press of the button on the bottom of the band and Marianne's two bodyguards sitting up front will be into Slade's house in a flash.
"Thanks," I murmur as I slide past her and slip on my own panic ring.
She looks her age for once, because her expression is drawn with worry. "I'm just hoping the only pieces I have to pick up are your shattered relationships. You and Kat are making a mess with your men, you know that right? They aren't the kind that will swallow this too easily..."
"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," I say with a grin that covers my nervousness.
"Word," Kat fist bumps me, but as we slink toward the door that Ashlynn has somehow been able to unlock and disarm, we are both breathing hard, fighting down fear.
I think about Ashlynn, already in there alone with a deranged man who could easily end her on the spotâsnap her neck, slit her throat, jab her with a needle full of overdose on her, whateverâand my fear turns to resolve. I palm my gun in one hand and grab Kat's hand with the other.
"Let's go scare the frickin' bejesus out of that murdering son of a bitch," I tell her.
"Are you scared?" she asks me, her voice low and serious.
"Not really." She looks pale and young, and I want to comfort her more than that. I pull the gun from my skirt pocket and show her. "Don't worry. We won't need it, but if we do, I know how to use it."
"How good of a shot are you?"
"Pretty damn good."
"Good. If you have to shoot him, aim for the head. He might survive a chest wound."
"Of fucking course," I squeeze her hand in acknowledgment.
In our ear pieces, Marley murmurs softly, "Break a leg, ladies."
Kat nods at me, and slips inside. I follow.
It's show time.
So now we begin to see Ash's plan. She's hoping to drug Slade and get him to talk about Megan. Wow, is it going to go like she plans? Stay tuned...we'll find out soon!