by: MacSas
How could everything have gone so wrong? He was better than this. He should have had it his way. Instead he was running through a county backdrop that was alien to him. He needed somewhere to hide, somewhere to rest and collect his thoughts. He’d been foolish at the farmhouse. He’d allowed himself to fall prey to the belief that these were just hick people. They’d proved him wrong. He’d had the game under his control, but had taken his eye off the ball. Now he was paying for it.
Damn her! This was all her fault. Even though rational thinking told him to get out of town while things were fairly quiet, he could not let her think she had won. Nothing had gone right for him since he’d met her. She was like a poison he had to rid himself of. Yeah, that was it. Get rid of the poison and all would be well again. He could do that. It was second nature for him to remove those that were in his way.
Resting against a tree Lex looked around the vast landscape before him. God, he hated the country. He lived for the concrete of the city. Out here, there was little cover for him to take if someone wanted to start shooting. Back home he knew every alleyway, every condemned building, places that allowed him to ‘disappear.’ He doubted if hugging a tree would be any use to him. Maybe if he kept wandering around he’d come across one of those abandoned shack things? They still had that kind of thing in the country didn’t they? As he scanned the area, a glint of light caught his eye. Watching for any sign of someone following him, he quickly made his way to the object.
* * * *
In the farmhouse all was silent.
Daisy looked up from her hiding place behind the couch. As soon as she was free of Lex’s grasp she had rushed to the lounge, where Bo had pushed her behind the couch. The last thing she saw was Luke hitting the floor as the second shot rang out. She had no idea where Lex was; at least he didn’t appear to be in the house anymore.
Bo was at Luke’s side, checking on his condition.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said, getting to his feet. “Where’d he go?”
Satisfied Luke wasn’t shot, or even hurt, Bo told him “He ran out the door.”
“Great” Luke sighed. “He could be anywhere by now.”
The three were quiet for a moment.
“I’m going to call Marty.” Daisy announced. “He needs to know that Lex is no longer here. Maybe he and Roscoe can plan some kind of search?”
Bo and Luke looked at each other, looked at Daisy, and then erupted into laughter.
“Your kidding right?” Bo asked.
“Roscoe couldn’t find a glow in the dark sticker at midnight.” Luke added.
“Well, that may be so,” Daisy sighed. “But you know what Jesse says. He may be the only law we’ve got, but he’s still the law.”
She retrieved her mobile phone from her handbag and punched in the Mountie’s number.
“Know it by heart do you?” Bo teased, enjoying Daisy’s blush.
* * * *
On the highway between Atlanta and the Tri County turn off, Martin and Clark occupied the lead car of the QRT convoy. Clark consulted the map, while Martin focused on their plan. It was the typical “surround the house then tell ‘em to come out.’ Martin was sure it wouldn’t work. Few people knew Lex like he and Daisy did. The man was cunning and slippery. He was also most dangerous when he was cornered. The QRT knew their stuff though, so he and Clark had left the planning to them.
“Take this turn off coming up,” Clark instructed. “That will take us through Tri County. From there we should enter a place called…” he turned the map slightly and attempted to pronounce the name “…Hatchabee County?” He looked at Martin, who just shrugged at the name. “Well” Clark continued, folding the map, “from there it’s just a little country drive to Hazzard County.”
“A little country drive, huh?” Martin smiled.
“Well,” Clark decided “when in Rome…or in this case, Hazzard.”
Martin’s reply was interrupted by the beat of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-go” coming from his mobile phone.
“Maybe you should change that tune to “Good Ol Boys,” Clark quipped. With a roll of his eyes, Martin flipped open the phone.
“Kent”
“Marty? It’s Daisy”
“What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“ Yeah,” she sighed. “Lex got into a scuffle with Bo and Luke. He took a couple of shots at Luke…”
“What!”
“Luke’s okay. Lex missed. But Marty, Lex is gone. He took off somewhere. He could be in the barn for all we know…”
“Okay, okay. Take it easy.”
Martin lowered the phone to address Clark. “Lex has disappeared. Let the guys behind us know.”
“Sure,” Clark answered, picking up his walkie-talkie.
“Daisy” Martin resumed his call. “Can you contact your local sheriff and have him meet us at your farm?”
The giggle at the other end took him by surprise.
“Um, Marty, you may find the sheriff a little … shall we say, exasperating, to deal with.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll leave the explanation as a surprise for you. Kind of a welcome to Hazzard thing”
He could actually hear the smile in her voice. The fact that she was able to banter with him filled him with relief. As long as Lex wasn’t around she was fine. He’d seen that in Calgary. There she had felt secure enough to let her guard down and allowed him to see the warm, very funny person inside.
“Marty?”
“I’m almost there, Doll. Stay safe”
* * * *
Daisy smiled at the pet name he’d crowned her with just a couple of days after their first meeting. He’d had to think of something other than the annoying “Hazzard” He had only called her that because she had started calling him “Harvard” When she had been told that a Mountie would be keeping watch over her, she was put out, to say the least. She was also annoyed that she had to uproot her life and hide in a strange town, because of Lex. Like the guy hadn’t caused enough disrupt in her life! So she had decided to look up some information on the Mountie. After all, he knew all about her, why shouldn’t the playing field be level? It was during her research that she discovered that the Lt had been educated at Harvard. He was, in fact, a highly intelligent man. She was no slouch, yet it was hard for her to get past other people’s perceptions of country life. She allowed her male contemporises to believe she was a typical dumb country girl playing at the big city game. It gave her the edge. And, secretly, she loved the looks they got when she sprouted of forensic information like she was reading a brochure. Intelligent men tended to intimidate her. She knew she could hold her own, she just couldn’t shake the bumpkin tag. So, after learning how intelligent this Mountie was, she had gone on the offensive and labelled him “Harvard” from their first meeting. He retaliated by calling her “Hazzard” Oh how she hated it! And she felt bad when she got to know the real Martin too. He was an endearingly sweet man. When she talked, he actually listened … and managed to keep his eyes above her chest. So she called a truce and opted for “Red” because Mounties wear bright red jackets. And he, in turn, had started calling her Doll. Yeah, she knew it was corny. But it was the simple things, like silly nicknames, that had kept a sense of sanity during her Calgary stay. It amazed her that she could know this man for such a short time and yet had connected with him almost immediately. She would’ve preferred to keep their budding romance a secret for just a little while longer, but circumstances had changed that. And that bought her back to Lex. Where was he? How would they find him?