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Doug almost slammed into him from behind, and the rest of the squad also had to halt abruptly.
“What is it?” Talia asked.
Doug hoped Amos wasn’t going to say he saw signs of Pixie being recaptured. That would change everything.
“The paths actually…diverge.” Amos raised his head and revealed a shit-eating grin, jabbing his forefinger into Doug’s chest, exuberantly. “Your girl used her brains and outsmarted the asshole.”
Doug felt his gut lose some of its acidity. “Explain.” He didn’t want to get his hopes up too soon.
Amos pointed to a small footprint in a patch of mud, that was clearly Pixie’s, then another imprint a few feet away. Over those were a man’s boot impressions, which clearly headedoff in a westerly direction, tromping haphazardly through the underbrush.
“All I see is that he’s still following her,” Doug growled.
“And that’s where you’re wrong.” Amos shook his head, clearly smug on Pixie’s behalf. “I would have been fooled, too, if I hadn’t seen…” With his foot, he nudged a large rock that stood adjacent to the ground disturbance. “…this.” He pointed to a patch of moss that had been scuffed and disturbed. “This is fresh. Which means your Pixie left a few visible footprints for our perp to find, then leaped onto this rock before heading in a completely different direction.”
Doug felt a thrill, not only at Amos continuing to call Pixie, Doug’s girl, but also because Pix had outsmarted her adversary.
“You’re sure,” Talia questioned, and Doug got it. The LT didn’t want to have false hope.
Amos grunted and stepped up onto the small boulder, then with intense focus, he leaped easily from rock to rock, until he jumped back to the ground at least ten feet away.
“Yup,” he finally answered with a look of certainty and satisfaction on his face. “This is where she got off the granite high-ground, and began walking into the woods again. North,” he stated with authority.
Talia immediately took control. “Lumous, Nadirm, Connaret. You three follow our perp. Quint, will you go with them?”
The officer gave an immediate assent. “Absolutely. We’ll make sure we bring in our man.”
Talia nodded and turned to her group. “The rest of us will head after Pixie.”
Doug hesitated. He wanted like hell to apprehend the prick who’d kidnapped his girl, but he also wanted to feel Pixie in his arms.
“Problem, Lumous?” Talia clipped as everyone else began walking as she had ordered.
“I…”
Doug made a snap decision. Talia would take good care of Pixie, and Doug needed to see this situation to an end. Which meant finding Peter. “No problem, LT.” His voice was curt, determined. “Wewillbring the asshole back.” Although in what shape, Doug wouldn’t say. He hoped like hell Peter put up a fight.
Before Doug followed his teammates, he sent one more thing Talia’s way. “Tell Pixie I’ll see her in a few minutes.”
In reply, Talia actually smiled. “I’ll let her know it was my order that sent you in a different direction.”Smart ass. She’d known what had stuck in Doug’s craw.
Talia spun about and headed off after Brazos and Guilfoyle.
Wow.Pixie didn’t know water could feel this good. At first when she’d plunged her damaged feet into the stream, she’d gasped in pain at the cold, but after a few seconds…bliss. Still, she needed to keep moving, and kept to the stream bed where she picked her way among the rocks, loathe to put her feet back on dry land. Unfortunately, she knew it had to be done soon. Her feet were going numb.
Another half a dozen yards, and she knew it was time.
Pixie paused, ripping a strip off the hem of her already tattered dress, and with great care, she raised one foot to wrap the material around it. Stepping onto the bank with her covered foot, she repeated the process with her second, then once she was on solid ground, took a minute to bend down and tie the loose strips more securely, knotting them at her ankles. It wasn’t the best of coverings, but it would last for a little while, and it sure felt better than continuing on her bare feet. Of course, thatrelief could still be from the anesthetizing effects of the frigid water. She’d soon find out.
Ready to begin walking again, she paused. Had her ears caught a sound in the direction from which she’d come?
Shit.Peter had found her trail, and was catching up.
Making no effort to remain quiet, because he obviously wasn’t, either, Pixie sprinted into the woods, searching for a place to hide. Since she’d followed the stream for a good distance, maybe Peter wouldn’t see where she’d come out of the water, or which direction she’d taken. Pixie prayed that was so.
She darted up a hill and found a large tree whose gnarly roots were covered in a four-foot tangle of new shoots. Thinking they’d give her great cover, she parted the plethora of limber stems and plunked herself down in the middle of the greenery.
She sat quietly, held her breath, and waited.
