AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d like that, Doug, but you’ll need to be patient, she told her imaginary companion.I’m almost there, then you have to come get me.
When the rope fell away, Pixie wasn’t sure it was real. Had she just untied herself? Blinking, her eyes hurt, but she attempted to focus, no longer seeing the knot.
Yes, Pixie. It’s all you. You’ve done it. Now you need to run and hide until I get there.
Pooh.Pixie yawned. Her efforts had left her wrung out. Invisible Doug needed to butt out. What she could use right now was a good nap. She’d just close her eyes for a few minutes…
Don’t sleep, Pixie.
Doug was being quite insistent, and Pixie grumbled.
Leave me alone. I’m tired, she rebutted.
When you get home, I’ll fold you up in my arms and we’ll sleep together for a full day.But you must leave right now.
You’d do that? Sleep with me?she asked, skeptically.But… Hey. Is this really Doug?
It’s me, and I will. I promise.
I’m holding you to that,she huffed.
Getting up was easier said than done, but Pixie finally managed to push herself to a sitting position. The room swam. She breathed deeply until things almost stopped spinning, then swung her legs off the mattress. She eyed the door, and sighed. Peter had locked it.Damn.She looked around and saw two windows, but they appeared to be nailed shut if the large spikes sticking out of the frame were any indication. It was going to take a lot of effort to get one of those suckers open. But if she wanted to see Doug again, she had to make it happen.
Doug and Ciscohad gotten quite the narrative from Harlan as they waited impatiently for the team to arrive, and to say they were both dumbstruck was putting it mildly. It seemed that Harlan, since he’d moved back to town, had taken to visiting his brother in prison. Sometimes he talked to him on the phone through the glass—just like on TV Harlan had chortled—while other times he was able to walk with his brother when he was amongst the general prison population. It appeared that Skeeter had become a model inmate, and had earned privilege’s that allowed him to take classes and socialize with people during things like pick-up basketball games.
Doug, of course, already knew some of this. He’d investigated Skeeter the minute he’d found out about the man, and it seemed like the older Skeeter had made a sincere turn-around once he’d gotten off the drugs that had plagued him since he was an adolescent. Skeeter, of course, would never see the light of day outside the prison’s walls, but he was making the best of his incarceration, or at least the warden believed so.
Harlan agreed, in his simple way. He said his brother apologized all the time for shooting him, but Harlon also whispered that Skeet wasn’t sorry he’d killed their father. Apparently, the old man had been an asshole, constantly berating and beating on both his sons, which is why Skeeter had turned to drugs to begin with.
Doug told Harlan it was okay that Skeeter felt like that; the man was spending his life in jail because of his actions. And it didn’t makeHarlanguilty, just because he secretly agreed.
During one of the first visits Harlan had made to the prison, he’d overheard Peter questioning Skeeter about Pixie. Peter was a teacher for the inmates, and had apparently latched on to Skeeter once he’d made the connection between Skeeter and Pixie. On subsequent trips, his suspicions regarding the man, increased.
Even in Harlan’s uncomplicated mind, he knew it was wrong; the myriad of questions the supposed reading teacher asked Skeeter about Pixie. And apparently Skeeter felt the same way. He’d asked Harlan to keep an eye on the man outside the prison walls, to make sure Peter didn’t bother the woman who’d already faced so many challenges in her life.
Harlan had taken Skeeter’s advice, and reported back to his brother whenever he could. The brothers had both become more alarmed when Harlan discovered Peter watching Pixie a lot; following her to the grocery store, or to her sister’s place. Harlan had then become the man’s monitor, and soon after had takenit upon himself to also shadow Pixie’s footsteps whenever he could. Harlan admitted it was more fun watching her than the nasty reading teacher.
But because of Harlan’s doggedness, he’d gotten lucky enough to stumble upon the scene that had unfolded at the wedding. He was watching over Pixie—he thought she looked like a fairy princess in her dress, and Doug didn’t disagree—and when she’d gone to the porta-potties, he’d spotted Peter lurking in the shadows. It had taken all Harlan’s concentration, but after Pixie had been incapacitated, Harlan had managed to run fast to wait in his car he’d hidden in the trees, at the end of the dirt road where Peter had parked. He’d then followed the man to a remote cabin in the woods, an hour north into the mountains. At a loss for what to do next, he’d called Skeeter. He’d told the operator it was an emergency, so his brother had been connected right away.
When Harlan had told Skeeter everything that was happening, Skeet told him to go back to the wedding right away, find the cop Pixie had been seeing, and enlist his help.
“But I saw you in your truck,” Harlan told Doug proudly. “I didn’t have to go all the way back to the wedding.”
All units had finally arrived along with Quint, and Doug had praised Harlan, as had the rest of the team. Doug even promised the man he could come to his wedding with Pixie, whenever that eventually happened.
Maybe Doug had spoken out of turn, but the desire for Pixie to become a permanent fixture in his life, was fervent in his heart.
Harlan had been overjoyed at the thought, wondering if he could be the one who carried the ring on a pillow; another TV-ism that had made an impression on him.
“You can carry the ringandspread the flowers,” Doug had told him.
If Pixie ever agreed to marry Doug, he was certain she’d love the gesture.
The teams were finally ready after drawing up a plan. The bus was on the move into the mountains, and each of the eight available squads, spread amongst their various vehicles, had their orders. This was an all-out effort; not one of their team members, nor their visitor from Texas, wanted to be left behind. This op was personal. It was Talia’s sister who was in danger. And as Doug had known would happen—just maybe not so quickly—word had gotten around that Pixie was also special inDoug’slife. Amidst reassuring back-slaps, fist-pumps, and hugs, he found himself wearing that honor, proudly. Doug felt so blessed. He hadn’t exactly played nice with all his teammates, and here they were rooting for him wholeheartedly. When he looked uncertain about all the attention, Mike, misunderstanding that part of Doug’s trepidation, assured Doug that Pixie would back in his arms before nightfall, and Doug didn’t correct him.
Yes.His world was certainly changing.
The plan was simple. Something they’d practiced again and again; breaching a structure to effect a rescue. But this time Doug’s nerves were honed to a sharper degree because the mission was damned personal, and he couldn’t help but think that things were going to go belly-up. He hoped it was just his jitters talking.
