How do you feel?" Sore. Not too bad, all things considered." I wiped the tear off of my cheek. "It could have been much worse." Yeah." Jules rubbed my... hair as I leaned my forehead against her hip."Did the police find her yet?"Jules sighed. "Yes. She was at Kendra's apartment, if you can believe it. She had hacked off her hair with the knife. When the police found her she was trying to cut her wrists according to the news." So she's alive?" I shook my head."Yeah. They've got her in jail, but the. Still, it sucked to spend the Christmas alone. For once, I was happy that this year it was a short one.It was late on Christmas Day when Liz came back to my apartment. It was lucky that she had the evening shift on the following day, as she kept us awake far into the wee hours. The following day she insisted that she would be with me to pick up Mina from the airport. I quickly checked the schedule, and it seemed ok.I had to admit that I felt quite nervous while we were waiting for Mina at the. " Can you come at eleven and then we can have lunch?" I'll be there."I was glad that I stayed for the early pick-up. The delivery guy had twelve medium size boxes of framed photos for me. I carried them into the living room before changing into other clothes. I stopped by the tailors to order a new shirt and jacket. He was upset that it had been such a short time, but when I explained about the mugging he felt bad, and would replace it at half cost.Lola greeted me and slipped me in through the. She looked down into Erica’s eyes, which were intelligent and warm, but with a steely edge to them that Jessica felt a kinship with. When Jessica began to push inside, those eyes rolled back into Erica’s head and her mouth fell open. Impulsively, Jessica leaned down and kissed Erica on the forehead, feeling a real tenderness that surprised her under the circumstances.Supporting herself with both hands, Jessica took the chain connecting the nipple clamps in her mouth and began to tug on it as.