I knew Peanut was protective of me, but Max had been with me since the moment we got him. As soon as Peanut was outside the room, I tried to go around him to go back into the room and close the door behind me. The dog lunged at the door, pushing all of his weight against it and nearly knocking me over before I could get it shut. He positioned himself between the two of us again, still focusing his aggression on Max.
My mind flashed back to that afternoon at the picnic table with Max and Rewsna where she told us to get a dog, dogs couldn’t be fooled. Apprehensively I asked, “Max, did anything strange happen while you were fishing today?”
He shook his head that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I looked in Max’s eyes for the first time – they weren’t right. They were still the green with brown flecks, but he looked – dead.
“Max, any idea why Peanut’s angry with you?”
Again, he shook his head.
There was no good reason for Peanut to act this way, other than he was protecting me from Max. Max hadn’t done or said anything that would elicit this response. I heard Joe and Benny walking in the front door. I had the feeling that I was somehow trapped. Whatever was going on with Max, I couldn’t count on them not to be affected the same way.
Knowing I was going to have to bluff my way out of it, I said in an exasperated voice to Max, “Let me go put him in his kennel. He must be freaked out with Benny in the house. I’ll be right back.” Neither Joe nor Benny said a word when I smiled warmly at both of them, “Come on, Peanut, let’s go outside.” I pretended to be oblivious to the fact that none of the three said a word. As I casually made my way to the front door, Peanut followed but never let his guard down for a second.
We didn’t even have a kennel for Peanut. If all were well, this should have registered with Max or Joe. I was off the porch and down the steps making my way to the garage with Peanut right beside me. I grabbed the spare set of keys off of the wall and breathed for the first time since I had been in the house. I ran from the garage door to Max’s truck, held the door long enough for Peanut to get in and jumped in behind him. I cranked the engine, jammed the gearshift in drive and stomped on the gas. Rocks were flying everywhere as we screamed out of the driveway. I reached under the seat and found the Glock in its case, still loaded.
I drove straight for Columbia. The needle in a haystack was my best defense until I could figure out what in the world was going on. Then reality set in. I had no wallet, no identification, no cell phone – my purse was still in the bedroom. I didn’t know where to go, or how to pay for anything when I got there.
I looked at the fuel gauge: a quarter tank wouldn’t get me anywhere near Columbia. I escaped with my life, but my plan wasn’t without flaw. Tears were streaming down my face – what happened to them? Whatever had happened, Peanut was back to his happy-go-lucky self. He laid across the front seat, tongue hanging to the side as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. He didn’t seem the least bit concerned that we barely got away – or the fact that the people we got away from were two of the people I was closest to.
Chapter 14
Peanut and I pulled into a rest stop. I couldn’t do much for him, but I could get him a drink of water and an opportunity to relieve himself. No leash. I looked at him and said, “Peanut, I owe you big time, but you’re going to have to do something more for me. I’m going to open the door to the truck. I need you to stay right beside me. Don’t run off, understand?”
I know that of all the skills I possess, communicating with animals isn’t one of them. I opened the door and Peanut jumped over me making a beeline for the interstate. I screamed for him to come back. He was no longer my body guard. He was like nearly any dog with no leash and hundreds of people to go check out. The faster I ran after him, the longer his strides became.
Peanut was easily fifty yards in front of me, swerving in and out of cars in the parking lot when a booming voice from in front of me yelled, “Halt, Setzen.” To my amazement Peanut stopped and sat down right in the middle of the road staring at the man. The man walked over to him and reached down to pet him, and said in a similar booming voice, “Gut hund.” Peanut’s ears were perked up and his tongue was hanging to the side.
I walked up to the stranger, and he asked, “Is this your dog?”
I nodded that it was.
The stranger asked, “Where was he trained?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, I rescued him from a pet adoption place a week or so ago.”
“Where’s his lead?”
“We left the house without it. He kind of got away from me when I pulled in.”
The stranger had a very disapproving look for me, and his tone wasn’t any nicer when he said, “If you are going to own a dog of this intellect, you need to follow the rules. He is obedient. Chasing him like a child does nothing but confuse him. It was irresponsible of you to remove his lead. This is how he’s able to please you. He’s confused without it. He wants to please you, but you make it impossible, do you understand?”
Having this stranger talk to me like I was a big bag of donuts didn’t do anything for my emotional state, and the tears that I had under control began streaming again. I turned to walk away, knowing that I couldn’t defend myself as a proper owner. I patted my leg and said, “C’mon Peanut.” To my shock, Peanut didn’t move. I turned around and slapped my leg harder, and said more sternly, “Peanut, let’s go.” The dog looked at me, then looked back to the stranger but didn’t move a muscle.
The stranger only ten feet away said a little less sternly, “You may want to try, Peanut Fus.”
No pride left in my entire body, I did as instructed, “Peanut Fus.” Peanut sprinted over to me and walked in stride with me on my right side. When we were out of the stranger’s ear shot, I quietly said to the dog, “What the heck was that? Are you showing off now? I thought we were a team?”
I opened the door to the truck and Peanut leapt in and sat on the passenger seat like this had been a grand adventure. I closed the door and rested my head on the steering wheel. I’m the eternal optimist, but with a quarter tank of gas, I couldn’t go any further than a hundred miles. Wherever I ended up, it needed to be safe, have food and shelter, and be no where Max would ever know to look.
I heard a tap at the window. I looked up to see the stranger standing there. I knew I couldn’t take another lecture on proper pet ownership, so I put my head back down on the steering wheel. He tapped again. If nothing else, he was persistent.
I rolled down the window half way and managed to get out, “Ah, thanks for your help back there.”
“Miss, are you okay?” He was a little older than I was, tall with dark hair, dark eyes, and this time a warming smile.
I shook my head but managed to choke out, “I’ll be fine.”
He had a leash in his hand, “This is a spare I keep in my car in case of an emergency. I can’t guess at your circumstances but thought your situation might be some sort of an emergency.” He handed me the leash through the window.
“Thanks,” was all I could manage.
“I know this is a little unconventional, but do you need help or anything?”
I shook my head that I didn’t and began to roll up the window, when he said, “Sometimes it helps to talk about it, even with someone you don’t know.” What kind of do-gooder was this?
I shook my head again, and he threw out, “All right, I’m sure it’ll work itself out. You’ve got a great looking dog there. Someone spent some real money on his training.”
The stranger turned to walk away, when I asked, “What did you say to him anyway?”
He turned back toward me and said, “Owners of German Shepards, Rotweilers and Dobermans usually train them using German words instead of English. The dogs are extremely intelligent and very obedient. So obedient, that if an intruder broke into a house and told the dog to sit and stay, it most likely would. I guess enough guard dogs sat still and watched thieves walk away with stuff the
y were supposed to be guarding that owners started training using German words instead of English. I guess Peanut’s previous owners must have thought that a good idea. Halt means stop, Setzen means sit down and Fus means come to me. You should still keep a lead on him. Even the most obedient dogs will be curious and do things you don’t want them to do.”
“Well, thanks, I appreciate the help and the advice.”
The stranger reached his hand through the window and said, “My name’s Mike.”
I shook his hand. When I touched him, I could tell he was as genuine as he could be - no wariness or dangerous vibes, “Well, thanks a lot, Mike.”
“Look, I don’t want you to think I’ve got any ulterior motives, because I don’t, but it looks like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. I might be able to help if I knew what was wrong.” He motioned to a picnic table, and I reluctantly agreed. What did I have to lose, right?
We sat down, Peanut crouched at my feet. Mike began with, “Okay, what’s the biggest problem you have right now at this minute?”
I took a deep breath. There were hundreds of people at this rest stop, none of them listening in, my danger sense wasn’t going haywire, and he was right – talking through the situation without any detail might help me figure out what to do. I started with, “I left my wallet at my boyfriend’s house, he isn’t there right now, and the people there are folks I don’t want to be around without him.” So far so good - I was able to skirt the truth and still talk through the root of my problem. “I also don’t have my phone, so I can’t call him or one of my friends to get help, and I only have enough gas to go about a hundred miles.”
“Do you want to use my cell phone?” He held it out to me, and without hesitating a second, I took it.
I didn’t dial Max. I phoned Seth – I got his voice mail. I felt a little self-conscious leaving a voice mail like this in front of a complete stranger, but at this point I may not have a better lifeline available. “Seth, it’s Lauren. I need you to bring me a couple hundred dollars to the rest stop near exit 203 right away. Don’t call my mom or Max or anyone. I’ll explain when you get here. Please, don’t tell anyone. I don’t have a phone, so just know that I am going to be sitting here until you get this. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important. Thanks.” I hung up and handed the phone back to Mike.
He was confused. I was hoping he would pretend he didn’t just hear the voice mail I left, but he didn’t. “Don’t call your parents or anyone? Are you in trouble with the law or what?”
I laughed out loud, wishing that were the extent of my problems. I shook my head, “No, I’m not. I just can’t go back to my boyfriend’s place, and I know if Seth called my mom she would just freak out about the whole situation.”
Mike dug into his pocket and found a business card, then pulled out thirty dollars. “This is all I have on me. You seem like a good person. When you get all this worked out, you can pay me back.” I knew it wasn’t right accepting cash from a stranger, but I did anyway.
“Mike, thanks. I’ll pay you back, I promise.”
Mike stood up and headed back toward his car. I sat at the table with Peanut and waited. The weather was hot and muggy, but there was a breeze, and the sun would be going down in another hour and a half.
Peanut and I waited at the picnic table. We watched cars come and go, as families stopped from long road trips. I carefully eyed every car that arrived, partly concerned that Max or Joe might find us here – but my senses never went haywire. Under any other circumstances this would have been a relaxing evening.
Two hours went by before I saw Seth’s car. He pulled up next to Max’s truck. I waved to him from the picnic table. He walked over to me a little hesitant, “Lauren?”
I had been running through all the possible scenarios of what was going on with Max and Joe. If they were looking for me, where would they have gone? “Boy, am I glad to see you!” I stood up and threw my arms around him.
“Lauren, what the heck is going on? I got a cryptic voice mail from you asking me to meet you here, begging me not to tell Max where you are - while I was on the phone with Max. He’s in a panic right now. He laid out this really unbelievable story and said he has to find you.”
“You didn’t tell him where I was, right?”
“No. I don’t want you to take this the wrong way or anything, but I think he might be a little unbalanced, and definitely delusional. Is that why you ran away?”
I shook my head, “Seth, I can’t talk about it right now. I just really need a place to go that Max doesn’t know about. I left my wallet at his Grandfather’s house and I can’t go back there.”
“Just come back home with me. Amanda won’t mind. We can get this all sorted out.”
Fighting back the emotion that I was sure was showing on my face, I said, “No, I can’t. I just need to borrow some money and disappear for a little while.”
“If you won’t come back with me, at least go to your mom’s house. She’d love to see you.”
I didn’t have the strength to say another word. I just shook my head.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with you and Max, frankly I probably don’t want to know. He’s caught up in some crazy delusion about demons and evil, and I get why you took off, but you don’t need to run away from me or your family. We were here before Max came along; we’ll all be around long after he’s out of the picture. I was as taken in by him as you were. There’s no shame in caring about him, but he really needs help.”
Fire welled up in my body. Did he think Max was crazy? That’s why Seth thought I took off? Frickin great. That was exactly why I never once told Seth anything. Not about my dreams of Max all those years ago, not about Rewsna, and definitely not about that thing that attacked me and left me for dead on the mountain. Losing my temper here would do nothing but draw attention to me, so in as collected a voice as I could muster, “Seth, I just really need to borrow some money until I can get things worked out.”
He nodded, “Follow me up to the next exit. I’m going to buy you a cell phone so I can call you when I need to talk to you. We’ll get a bite to eat and figure out your next move together. Deal?”
I breathed a sigh of relief, and my stomach responded favorably to the suggestion. I nodded and we both went to our cars.
Chapter 15
It was eleven p.m. when my stomach was full, I had a phone and $200 in my pocket. I thanked Seth profusely and promised I’d call him tomorrow. As I got into the truck, I opened my to-go bag from the restaurant and gave Peanut his dinner. We made our way to one of the county parks. The park ranger was gone for the night, but I filled in an envelope and put the $12 dollars in the drop box. As I tried to settle in for the night in the cab of the truck, my thoughts went to Max. My eyes were closed and the familiar tunnel appeared in front of me, so I stepped through and was transported to Joe’s house. Max was pacing the floor of the bedroom looking as distraught as I’d ever seen him. I stepped out of the bedroom to find Joe and Benny asleep in their rooms, nothing awry. I went back to Max’s room, and he was still pacing; he picked up his cell phone, looked at it, and set it back down.
The worry was evident on his face. I couldn’t stand to see him like this. I reached out to touch his hand as he walked by; just like the last time, he couldn’t feel me there. He didn’t see me watching, and for all I knew he thought something terrible had happened to me, again. I pulled myself back to my reality and looked at the cell phone staring back at me from the seat.
What would be the harm in calling? If whatever was in him was still there, it would know my number but that was it. If it was gone, I could at least tell Max that I was okay. I took a deep breath and dialed his number.
Max picked up on the first ring, with a very apprehensive voice, “Hello, this is Max.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. His voice was normal, and I could feel the relief washing over me as I responded, “It’s me.”
“Lauren! Are you okay? Wha
t happened to you? Where are you?”
“Max, I’m fine, I know you’re worried. I just wanted you to know I’m okay.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m safe.”
There was a long pause until he finally said, “I woke up face down in the grass and you were gone. I’ve been going out of my mind. Are you coming back tonight?”
A single tear escaped my eye when I told him, “No. I just didn’t want you to worry. Stop pacing; you’ll wear out Joe’s floor.”
Max exhaled deeply, “You were here? You were watching me?”
“Of course, I was. I wanted to make sure it was safe to call you. You seem to be back to your old self.”
“Lauren…I don’t know…I mean…what happened?”
“It doesn’t matter, but it isn’t safe for you when I’m there.”
“Lauren, what happened?”
“Max, I don’t want to talk about it. I knew you were worried about me, so I wanted to call and let you know I’m fine. Nothing happened.”
“If nothing happened, then come back.” I could hear the urgency in his voice.
“Max, if I come back that thing will know. I can’t risk anything happening to you or Joe.”
“Lauren, where are you? I’ll come to you. Just tell me where you are, I’ll leave now. We can go wherever you want. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. We can run away - just you and me, we never have to see anyone or anything again. You pick the place: the beach, the Midwest, Disneyland, wherever you want.”
Destiny's Revenge (Destiny Series - Book 2) Page 9
