Page 20 of Alice & Meg

Lennox shook her head. “The whole prison thing. I’m sure they want to know what happened, but they’re too nice to ask.”

Ding, ding. Lennox was right.

“Bad dude who had it coming,” Meg explained. “He ran down the woman Jonas was dating and killed her. Jonas repaid the favor.” Meg held up two disposable tin loaf pans. “I got the pans. I figure two should be enough.”

“So what about his parents?” Nikki asked.

I was still trying to digest what Meg had said about Snapper being in prison.

“They died in an accident when Jonas was six. Lo and I adopted him. Well, Turtle actually wanted us to adopt him, so we did. We’ve been his parents ever since.” Meg set the pans on the conveyor belt. “I’m sure you guys have some crazy things that happened with your club.”

“Uh, well,” I drawled. “Some stuff has happened.”

“Crazy stalkers, rival gangs, you know, the usual,” Nikki shrugged. “Kidnappings.”

The cashier gasped, and we all realized that we were in public where our lives weren’t very normal.

“It was a really good book,” I called loudly. “I never saw the kidnapping coming, but it did.”

“Uh, yeah,” Meg agreed. “Reading is my favorite.”

Nikki busted out laughing, and even Lennox couldn’t hide her smile.

We quickly checked out and beelined to the SUV.

“Reading is my favorite,” Lennox mimicked. “It’s a miracle you haven’t been arrested more.”

“I’m not good at lying on the spot, okay?” Meg laughed. “I’m much better when I have somewhat of a plan. Shooting from the hip doesn’t always work for me.”

“Obviously,” Nikki laughed.

We finished loading the car and piled in.

“Now, where to?” I asked.

“Uh, well, I’ve got about two hours until I need to get back to the hotel.” Meg fastened her seat belt.

I glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “We’re seriously going to be back to the convention by two?” I asked.

Meg glanced at Lennox, who was sitting next to her in the backseat. “Just tell her,” Lennox sighed. “They probably already know.”

“You guys going to drop some other bomb on us?” I asked. I was still reeling from the whole involuntary manslaughter thing.

“I just need to be back for Lo,” Meg replied simply.

“Tell them,” Lennox prodded.

Nikki turned in her seat. “Girl, you know you can tell us anything.”

Meg sighed. “Uh, fine. Lo had a stroke a couple of years back, and the whole pinstriping seminar is something he hasn’t done before. Being in front of a room full of people while trying to do something he’s been struggling with is a little nerve-wracking. I promised him I would be back to help him is he needed it.”

Lennox held up her hand. “I’m going to give you the bullet points since I know what questions you guys are going to have since I had them, too.” She held up one finger. “King should be dead. The percentage of people that survive the type of stroke he had is in the single digits.” She added a finger. “He’s ninety-five percent back to normal.” She added one more finger. “He has some deficits, but they are minimal. Fine motor skills are sometimes hard for him, but honestly, if you wouldn’t know that he had a stroke, you wouldn’t know anything was wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong,” Meg insisted.

“There isn’t anything wrong.” Lennox patted Meg’s leg. “He’s going to be fine today.”

“Every person Wrecker and Pipe talked to this weekend has mentioned King. They’re all excited that he’s here and willing to share some of his tips and tricks when it comes to pinstriping,” Nikki replied.

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