The B Girls

The B Girls.
 
Three desperate suburbanites hunt for a
missing national treasure.

A beloved aunt is being held by
kidnappers and a missing copy of the Declaration of Independence is the ransom.
Lucy Deen, Mae Taylor and Jane Pepper embark on a treasure hunt with Aunt
Belle’s life in the balance. Along they way they learn they’re a lot stronger
than they ever dreamed. From Pine Bluff Estates to Spikes Tattoos to an
unexplored cave, The B Girls hunt for the Declaration while declaring their own
independence.

The B Girls

Table of Contents

Description
2

The B Girls
3

by Cari Cole
3

Table of Contents
4

Lucy Deen Acts Fishy
6

Jane Pepper Blows a Deal
10

Mae Taylor Cleans Up
13

Woe Is Us
18

Boot Scoot Boogie
22

The Truth As We Know It
24

The B Girls
31

Actions And Reactions
38

And They're Off
43

Have Your Cake
47

Flirting Empty Handed
57

Theories
62

Break A Leg
75

Mothers and Lovers
83

There There Little Lady
95

The Sound of Other Voices
105

Copy Machine
111

Flashback
120

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
129

Rappel
135

The Crack Of Doom
144

Skinny Dipping In The Dark
149

Are We Dead Yet?
155

No, Really, The Crack Of Doom
164

Wonderland
172

Final Exam
179

Water Water Everywhere
189

This Time I Know I'm Dead
194

I'll Take That
197

No Way In Hell
204

The Cavalry
210

The Why Of It
215

Aftermath
218

Independence Day
224

Also By Cari Cole
227

Lucy Deen steadied the ugly black automatic pistol
in a two-handed grip and lined up the sights on the shiny iridescent bass body.
She blinked away angry tears that threatened to ruin her aim and squeezed the
trigger.

The fish exploded in a shower of ruined scales and
fins that floated down like some sort of bizarre confetti.

The recoil knocked her arms up, staggering her. She
struggled to brace her legs but the hardwood under her Topsiders wasn't as
steady and solid as it had been fifteen minutes ago. Her knees buckled and she
sat down hard, threadbare denim and Victoria Secret panties did nothing to
cushion the blow to her tailbone. Adrenalin fueled anger blunted the pain
instead.

"What the fuck was that?" Gary Deen
shouted from the other side of the door.

Lucy took aim on Gary's most prized trophy--a
freakishly large marlin, frozen in a permanent writhing leap from the ocean
with a hook and a length of heavy fishing line dripping from its mouth.

Gary appeared in the doorway of his study just as
Lucy pulled the trigger a second time shattering the lacquered body of the
marlin like an eggshell. Bits of marlin confetti rained down to join the bass
confetti on the study floor.

"You crazy bitch!" Gary screamed.
"What do you think you're doing?"

Sitting on the floor amid glittering fish parts,
Lucy looked up at her husband. "I thought this was
'do the most damaging and destructive thing you can think of'
day.
Did I get it wrong?"

"You're insane. Those trophies are
irreplaceable."

"Oh, come on Gary, didn't you just get
finished telling me there are other fish in your sea?" She sighted again
and another bass exploded.

Gary took two aggressive steps toward Lucy.

She swung the gun in his direction, pointing it in
the general area of his dick. "If you want to maintain your ability to
spawn you'd better back off."

Gary froze in his tracks and Lucy breathed a secret
sigh of relief. If she'd been forced to shoot him she'd probably have gotten
arrested and a body cavity search would have taken all the fun out of
castrating him.

"Don't think I'm letting you get away with
this," Gary said. "I was prepared to make a reasonable offer for
support in the divorce settlement. Now, I'll be happy to see you broke. And
don't think I'm going to let you keep the house either."

Lucy shifted her aim up toward his chest and
studied him, fascinated by the vein throbbing at his temple and the way his
mouth opened and closed without sound. He looked just like one of the fish.
"Get out before I decide it's worth it."

He did the smart thing and left the room. Lucy
heard him pause at the foot of the stairs to pick up his suitcase and a few
seconds later the sound of the garage door going up and the BMW's engine coming
to life.

Thirty seconds after he left the room, the last
sounds of Gary's leaving faded.

Lucy put the pistol on the floor between her
outstretched legs and held her breath, listening to the pounding of her heart,
waiting for a feeling to replace her spent rage. For several long second there
was nothing, just emptiness.

Last week her home had been filled with the sounds
of hope and joy. Ryan and his friends spending their last days of summer
talking about the anticipated wonders of college life.

Ryan left for the University of Georgia yesterday
leaving quiet in his wake.

Two minutes ago Gary walked out after announcing he
was filing for divorce.

Her home was now an utterly silent, oversized
mausoleum.

Lucy's stomach rolled.

She ran for the closest bathroom and threw up,
repeatedly and violently.

Face to face with the toilet bowl, it suddenly
occurred to her that she'd be able to go into any bathroom in the house in the
dark and sit on the toilet without fear of falling in. No more pee drips on the
outside of the toilet bowls or the bathroom rugs.

She considered the possibility she was going a
little nuts. Thinking about toilet seats and piss couldn't be normal when you'd
just been told your twenty-one year old marriage was over.

When the dry heaves subsided, she rinsed out her
mouth with minty-fresh mouthwash and splashed water on her face.

She recognized the cold, hard ball in the pit of
her stomach--it was fear. Looking into the mirror above the sink, she was
surprised to find the woman looking back at her didn't look twenty.

She looked like a terrified forty-five year old.
Her freckles had faded over time to be replaced by "fine lines and
wrinkles".

How could she look so old when she still felt
exactly like she had at twenty?

And what the hell was she supposed to do now with
no one to take care of except herself?

Twenty-one years ago she'd given up her youthful
dreams of becoming an archaeologist and living a glamorous life on digs in
exotic places. She'd been blinded by love.

Apparently Gary's vision had always been
twenty/twenty.

How was she supposed to start over? She couldn't wrap
her mind around the fact that instead of looking forward to retiring with Gary
to a high rise condo on the beach in Panama City she was going to have to find
a way to make up for losing twenty years of career time.

Doing what? She sure as hell couldn't jump back
into academia and she didn't have any experience in the real world of business.
Maybe she could become a greeter at Walmart. They were always advertising their
great career opportunities.

This time she didn't let the wave of nausea get the
better of her but the chill of fear in her stomach wouldn't go away.

Heartbroken would have been okay.

Fear was unacceptable.

And what did the fact that she wasn't heartbroken
say about her? And her marriage?

Maybe heartbreak was lurking on the other side of the
fear.

Overwhelmed at the loss of her entire identity in
less than twenty-four hours, Lucy went to the kitchen to call the one person
who'd know just what to do. Aunt Belle always had the answer to life's tough
questions because, unlike Lucy's mother, Belle had spent her adult life living
in the real world instead of studying it. Over the years, Belle shared her life
lessons with Lucy.

She hit the speed-dial button for Aunt Belle's number
and waited through six rings before being switched to voice mail. She punched
the off button without leaving a message.

What was she supposed to say?

Gary left me, but it's okay because I'll have clean
bathrooms?

She glanced at the kitchen clock, shocked to
realize it was barely noon. How could she have gone from contentedly married to
separated and soon to be divorced in less than an hour?

Her mind tried to dance back to the "what's
going to happen to me now" question but she couldn't form a picture of her
new reality.

Hell she couldn't figure out what she was supposed
to do for the next ten minutes let alone the next ten years.

Jane Pepper smiled until her jaw ached. If she
pulled off this deal they should name her realtor of the century.

"I know it needs a little work," she said
to the twenty-something bimbette. "But the location more than makes up for
the need to put in new appliances." And new plumbing, electrical, heating,
floors, ceilings . . . In reality whoever bought the place would be better off
burning the damn house down and starting over. "I mean, who could pass up
a chance to live a block away from the Governor's mansion?"

The bimbette rubbed her surgically enhanced tits
against her husband's arm. "I
really
want to live by the Governor, Timmy. Can't we please have the house?"
She leaned in and whispered something in his ear.