Megan Franchino knows her chance for escape is now or never. With school finally out for her son Antonio, and her abusive husband going out of town she just might get far enough away before he starts looking for them. If they fail to get away, Megan knows she will not live to regret trying. There is no choice though, their recent injuries prove that if they stay one or both of them will eventually die from the beatings.

There is only one place she might feel safe to go, but will she be welcome there? Can she even get there? How long can she stay? What then? And if her husband's family does catch up to them, is there any way to keep Tony safe?

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The Legal Stuff: Dollar Runaways © 2014 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface

Like the first four books I posted here on BigCloset, I will be posting a full copy here on BigCloset. I was planning to post it a chapter at a time, but due to some real life events that took place in the last week I am doing two per week instead so it’ll be completely posted before I get too busy with other things! The book has a total of 26 chapters and a short epilogue. The full version should be completely posted by early March. For those that cannot wait however, I have an e-book version of the full book available from Lulu.com as of today. You may find it at My Store. My assumption is that the majority of my readers would be more interested in this edition of the book rather than a hardback or paperback. There are two types of eBooks available depending on how you wish to read it. One is the ePub format that you should be able to load on any e-reader (you may need an additional app, but I believe all will read it), and the other is a standard PDF formatted file. I believe the PDF is the best way to read it on a computer screen personally. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it ($5.95 for the eBook formatted files).

Several readers have commented on the similarities of the story to Wanda Cunningham’s ‘Incognito Parallel.’ I would reference you all to the ‘Dedication’ in the first chapter where I recognize that her tale most definitely sparked my imagination, and this book! I believe you will find that in the end though this work is its own story.

One caution before continuing through this book; it is darker than my past novels have been. If it were a movie it would probably be rated R for Language and Violence. Much of this novel is just as light as you are used to seeing from me though!

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy reading Dollar Runaways!!

 
Due to my evening tomorrow including a late evening at work I'm posting a day earlier than normal, I'll post again Sunday as I regularly do for the next installment!

 
Chapter 19: Aha!
 
AGENT KLINE WOKE up at six in the morning out of habit on Saturday morning. As he aged he found himself facing the fact he could rarely sleep in anymore... Even with the kids no longer kids, he just couldn’t do it. His wife rolled over and noticed him awake, “Go ahead and go do whatever it is,” she told him, kissed him, and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

‘Gee thanks honey,’ he thought with a smile. She knew him, and though she never pried much, she had some of the details out of him on the case. He had long ago learned that she was a confidant to whom he could vent as needed. Life was too short to keep secrets from his wonderful wife... she knew not to ask too much though.

That decided, he rolled out of bed, shaved, and then threw on a pair of slacks and a polo shirt since he was technically off-duty on the weekends. He drove into work and found his parking space before heading upstairs to the office.

‘Okay, she most definitely disguised Tony as a girl... But even with that I haven’t seen any sets of ladies with daughters that look right...’ he thought to himself. ‘She’s not buying things for an eleven-year old,’ he thought a moment later. He looked at the details from the file and on a whim looked at the height and weight information again. A few minutes later he thought, ‘Okay, Tony is exceptionally small for his age... Not surprising with the short mother and the midget asshole he has for a father...’ He stared at the list of things that he had been able to see her buy from the screen and thought, ‘Okay how young could he be by his size...’ Their own children had been a little bit off the beaten path with their growth spurts and he remembered growth charts being something the doctors discussed with them.

He pulled up Google and soon found the CDC had a handy set of growth charts. He clicked on the ‘Boys 2-20’ and immediately backed out and found the girls one. ‘Okay... He’s four feet and an inch according to his medical records...’ he looked at the chart and thought, ‘Okay, so at forty-nine inches he’s anywhere from being a six year old to a really tiny ten year old... But the average size of a seven and a half year old…’

He looked at the chart again and checked the boys chart just on a whim, ‘Worse for the poor kid,’ he thought, ‘six to being less than ten...’ You had to really feel for the kid being so short, but with his parents as short as they were it wasn’t much of a surprise. He’d definitely drawn the genetic short straw. ‘Okay, so the kid would absolutely be embarrassed and hate it... But they could pretend he was around seven or eight and no one would probably be the wiser...’

He went back and looked at the latest picture of Megan that they had. She looked haggard and tired in the picture. While she was smiling he could see the signs of abuse in her face even in the photo. ‘Okay... Besides that, what is there in her face...?’ he asked himself. ‘Maybe she would look younger too?’

It was like a jigsaw puzzle of pieces coming into play and he suddenly moved back to the airport footage. He practically jumped up and down in his seat as he saw it. A lady he had dismissed as being too young, with a daughter too young, and the right car seat, it had to be her!!!

‘Okay, now where did you go?’ he asked. Now that he knew which one she was, he followed her out to a taxi where they piled their suitcases in and climbed in. ‘Nothing about them would have given them away...’ he thought to himself. ‘They’re probably pretty safe from recognition,’ he admitted. The footage didn’t give him any high-resolution stills of their faces, but he got something halfway decent on their new hair color. The dye must have been red as Megan’s was full blown beautiful red and Tony’s looked almost like a strawberry blonde. He made a pretty cute looking girl and his hair was more than long enough to be convincing. His mother looked like she was ten or more years younger as well.

“Okay, now I know what you look like,” he said and printed off a copy on his color LaserJet in his office, “now where did you go next...?”

I WOKE UP the next morning as groggy as when I had gone to sleep the first time last night. Despite sleeping while clutching Kari in a death grip, and having Madison next to me, I had woken up at least twice that I remembered in the middle of the night. My brain seemed to only get more creative with each dream and I realized even now that I was drenched in sweat. I also realized Madison wasn’t in bed with me at that point and wondered where she was. A quick look at the clock in the room and I realized it was lighter outside than it should be.

“Oh no, I didn’t do my chores!!!” I exclaimed.

“It’s okay, I did them for you,” I heard from the bathroom. I didn’t think Madison was in there because the door was open. She came out with a towel around her.

“I’m sorry...” I said sadly.

She gave me a hug, “Save the ‘sorrys’ for things you can control Ash, this is just because your dad did way too many bad things to you guys...”

I felt some tears in my eyes, but I was bound and determined not to cry all day long. I just nodded, hugged her, and said, “Whenever you’re done I guess I’ll take a shower... I feel like I ran or something...”

She smiled at me and said, “Just give me two minutes and I’ll be out. Why don’t you go grab a pair of jeans and a t-shirt? I think Aunt Gloria mentioned going for a ride today.”

I smiled a little with that, hugged her, and then walked into my room to look for something appropriate. Before too long I had found a pink tank top with some ruffling on the bottom and silver butterflies printed all over it. I wasn’t sure what it was made of, but it was a really lightweight fabric. I’d yet to wear it, but it seemed perfect for today.

“I’m out Ashley,” Madison told me.

I took a quick shower, skipping my hair, and put on my clothes and brushed my teeth. I decided to try my own hand at braiding my hair then without saying anything to Madison. I kept trying for probably twenty minutes until Mom walked into the door. I heard her try and hold back a giggle and sighed, “Why can’t I do this?!?!?” I felt a few tears trying to leak out of my face.

“Because you haven’t had years of practice,” Mom told me with a hug.

“But I’m almost eleven! Don’t most eleven year old girls do their own hair...?”

Mom turned my face towards her, “Some do, but I know a lot of girls who still have their mom’s do their hair at that age even. At least with braiding... That’s the reason you see a lot of short hair on little girls, it’s a lot easier to manage.”

I sighed and looked in the mirror. ‘It’s lopsided, uneven, and looks terrible.’

“How do I do this?” I asked.

“Well, here, hand me the brush,” Mom said. She proceeded to help me do it right.

As I tied off the bottom of the braid I felt much better and pounced on her for a hug. “Thank you Mommy!”

She squeezed me back and said, “I let you do it today, but I still have first dibs on it!” She pushed me away a bit, “I just got this pretty little girl, and I do not want her to grow up yet!”

I giggled and said, “Well... As long as I’m eight I guess you can do it... But I want to learn how so when I get to middle school finally I won’t look like I’m stupid.”

I heard a knock on the partially open door, “Knock, knock,” Kaitlyn said at the same time.

“Come in,” Mom told her.

“So did you ask Ashley yet?”

“No not yet, she decided she wanted to learn how to braid her hair today... It was a bit of a mess when I walked in,” she teased me.

Kaitlyn giggled, “I remember when Madison started wanting me to let her do her hair...” she giggled some more, “some mornings she would be in tears, others she would have this terribly done hair and be soo proud of it!”

Madison chose that embarrassing moment about herself to walk in, “Mom don’t be making fun of me! It’s not nice!” She winked at me though so I knew she wasn’t too mad.

“So what were you supposed to ask me?” I asked Mom.

“If you wanted to go on a ride and a picnic like we did a few weeks ago.”

“Sure...” I said and added, “does it have to be the hot springs though?”

“Nope! In fact there’s another place I want you to see,” she told me with a smile.

“Okay,” I said, finally feeling a little better. “When do we leave?”

“When you get your boots on downstairs?” She suggested.

I just stuck my tongue out at her and ran downstairs with the others laughing and following. It wasn’t actually that simple, Mom insisted on putting sunscreen on me too! Consetta also insisted I eat something for breakfast too. Before long though I had my helmet on and sat astride Beauty. She seemed happy to see me... That may have just been because of the apple I had in my hand, but she seemed to like me either way.

Gloria wasn’t joining us that day as she had other ranch business to take care of. She had helped us pack the saddlebags with everything we might need though before we left. Soon I was following Mom down the trail with Madison, Mark, and then Kaitlyn behind him. For some reason I think the adults didn’t trust us to keep up or something... It was about nine when we left and we rode for several hours up different trails that Mom seemed to know like the streets back home. A couple hours into the ride we came across a meadow and a ton of cows. This was apparently where most of Gloria’s herd was grazing. We kept going past there and my stomach was beginning to rumble a bit. I took occasional drinks from the water bottle Mom had given me, but we didn’t really take any breaks. Finally we were riding through the mass of trees and I could see a break ahead. We came out into a beautiful meadow, complete with wildflowers and a stream running down the middle of it. The mountain rose around it into high rock formations that seemed to frame it like a picture.

“This is beautiful!” I exclaimed.

“Yes it is, isn’t it?” Madison said next to me where she was riding now.

“Is this part of her ranch?” I asked, astounded.

“Yes, though it’s also technically National Forest land too,” Mom said, “It’s kind of complicated.”

We rode through the meadow and came up to one lone pine tree that was about twenty yards from the small stream. Its trunk was massive and it created a large circle of shade around it. Mom pulled to a stop there and climbed down like it was nothing. She wasn’t that much taller than me and she made it seem so easy. I was tempted to do the same, but was patient and waited for someone to help me... Breaking a leg up here seemed like a bad idea! Mark beat anyone else to me and he picked me up even easier than Madison or Gloria did. I blushed a bit at that, but gave him a hug to say thanks.

The five of us picketed our horses after giving them a drink in the stream and they seemed grateful for the meadow grass. The supplies of cold-cut sandwiches and lemonade disappeared quickly, and I found myself walking through the field towards the stream. I watched some tadpoles swim around and a water strider soon followed too. Butterflies and moths were landing on various wildflowers all around me. Mark appeared by my side then and pointed downstream a couple hundred yards away.

“See them?” he asked me quietly.

“Cool!” I said! There were several deer that were drinking from the stream! As I kept watching it looked like a few others might have been lying down nearby too. “Can we get closer?” I asked him.

He smiled, “Maybe, but we’d probably just scare them off. Better to just to let them enjoy the scenery too, don’t you think?”

I thought about it and nodded and settled for watching from afar. I grew bored of it after awhile though and started walking back to the tree. Along the way I picked some really pretty purple wildflowers, some yellow flowers, and then finally some of these weird tall stalks with little red flowers all up and down it. I got back to Mom and showed her the flowers, suggesting we give them to Gloria, something she smiled about. “She’ll love the Indian Paintbrush especially,” she told me.

“What?”

“The red one,” she said, “She’s always liked those and uses them for other things sometimes.”

“Like what?”

“Well, sometimes she gets really motivated and dyes her own wool for weaving,” Kaitlyn said.

“Really?”

“Really, does the whole spinning process first too. It’s really cool.” Madison said.

“Wow,” I simply stated.

“Well Princess, ready to head back?” Mom asked.

I looked around and nodded, “I’d love to come back here sometime though.”

“We could come up here and go camping in a couple weeks if you want Ashley,” Mom told me.

“But they’ll be gone...?” I said, pointing towards Madison, Kaitlyn, and Mark.

“Well, about that...” Madison said with a smile.

I looked at her expectantly, “What?”

“I’m going to stay two more weeks past when I was supposed to. You guys are going to drive me back home then.”

“You live where our moms grew up, right?” I said looking at everyone.

“Uh-huh,” Mom said, “We’re going to have to be careful not to run into your grandparents or anyone else I know... But I figured you’d want to have Madison with you a little longer?”

I smiled and hugged Mom, “Of course!” I then walked over and gave Madison a hug, which turned somehow into her picking me up and putting my leg in Beauty’s stirrup and pulling myself on her. Before long we were heading back down the trail to go home to the ranch.

IT WAS THREE in the afternoon and Agent Kline felt his elation from earlier in the day fading away. He knew what Megan and Tony looked like now, but he couldn’t figure out where they went to after the airport. He was pretty sure they had left Dallas, but ‘how’ was the million-dollar question he was trying to solve. ‘Could they have decided someone could have picked out the car they were driving...?’

The truth was he had figured out their vehicle pretty easily. Finding that out had been trivial at the time, and following them around via the plate scanner databases had been child’s play. He had watched the film and seen them leave the airport in a taxi, but a call to the taxi company hadn’t led him anywhere. He decided to call some hotels in a ten-mile radius of the airport and see if they had footage from their lobbies from that day. The ultimate problem was that if there was a leak, he couldn’t trust anyone else to look for them.

He thought about it for a second and then reached for his cell phone, “Hey boss, this is Bob...”

“What’s going on? Any new leads on your cases?”

“Naw... Well maybe. What, the Trenaldo family bust wasn’t enough for you?”

“Hey, just cause you bust one family doesn’t mean you get to sit on your ass Bob.”

The two of them had been friends for a long time, so things worked well with them. He laughed, “Don’t I know it.”

“So what’s up?”

“Can you clear me for a trip to Dallas?”

“Why?”

He proceeded to tell him about the leak concerns and the fact he wanted to keep anything he found to himself. It was a long conversation and his boss was not happy about the implications. Eventually he said, “Okay Bob, go for it. Try to be back by Thursday if you can though. And touch base with the office there so they know you’re in town.”

“Sounds great!”

“I’m sure your wife is going to love you leaving on this one?”

“She understands,” he said with a chuckle, “I’ll see you Thursday then, I’m going to fly out Monday morning.”

And with that Agent Kline looked around his desk, put his notes up, made a reservation for a flight, and left the office. He would have to spend Sunday with his wife to make up for not taking her with him!

I COULDN’T BELIEVE how sore I was as I walked around after getting off of Beauty. I’d been riding every day since we had arrived at the ranch, but six hours was apparently a little much. Madison and I took turns in the bathtub when we got back around four. She let me have my long soak first before she got in. I kept my hair dry and figured I would wash it in the morning. Mom found me brushing it out in my room, “Feel better after the soak?” She asked knowingly.

I nodded, “Will you do something with my hair?” I asked with a smile.

I might have made her day from the smile she gave back to me! She began pulling at my hair and I was certain it was probably going to end up being a cute set of braided pigtails. When she let me look that was confirmed. After her well-earned hug, I grabbed my Kaitlyn doll and asked, “What now?”

“Gloria suggested we go out for supper?”

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t ask if I needed to change since I was already in a pretty purple sundress.

“I take it you’re happy with that dress then?” she said with a smile.

I nodded, “Let me get some sandals though...” I told her and began digging through what had become a massive shoe collection, “Hey, did our boxes arrive yesterday?” I asked.

“They got held up in Albuquerque yesterday with another delivery,” Mom answered, “They’ll be here Monday.”

“Oh, okay,” I told her. I was looking forward to the new things we bought on our trip, and also I was curious to see our ‘old’ things that would be arriving.

“We’re not unpacking all of that stuff... Most of it is going into an empty horse stall for now,” she told me with a smile.

“Won’t it smell after awhile?” I asked a bit nervously. Not that I cared, none of it was really ours.

“Some, but that’ll mostly be books and furniture. The stuff from your old room will be brought up here. Gloria figures the hands can help out with that. I think there are about eight boxes on the truck you need to go through.” She looked at me seriously for a moment, “Make sure you occasionally pick something out that you missed and love dearly, ‘kay?” She asked.

“Umm... Okay,” I said.

“And don’t hate me for some of the outfits that are in there...” She told me with a smile.

I raised my eyebrow, “Well, you were crying too much so I just packed all of your closet up. Given your size there are still some things in there that are Size 6 and 6X that you can still fit into.”

I glared at her, “I am not pretending to be less than eight anymore!”

She smiled and said, “No, you wouldn’t be caught dead in most of them back home either, but Mom picked them out for you, so you are somewhat attached still.”

“Oh,” I said. I gave her a big hug and said, “I’m really glad I haven’t really lost my mom. I don’t know what I’d do...”

She hugged me back and said, “Nope, no crying, not tonight. Let’s go get dinner!” she said.

I felt a little cheated, but agreed. The sandals I put on were white and had a back strap and some pretty fake jewels on them. “Ready?” Gloria asked as we met her downstairs. The others were already there.

“I think so,” Mom told her.

“We’ll take two cars I think,” Gloria said.

“That’s fine, I’ll drive,” Mom told her.

“Okay, we’ll take our two cars then,” Gloria agreed.

“Can I go with Ashley?” Madison asked.

“Sure,” Kaitlyn said, “I’ll go with Amber too, Mark, do you want to ride with your Aunt Gloria?”

“Sure Mom,” he said and the six of us split into the two cars.

We drove to a local brewery restaurant that was about a half-hour from the ranch. “Hank loves this place,” Gloria said as we waited for a seat. “They have some really good food here,” she said as her own additional endorsement.

“Your doll is really pretty,” a pretty teenaged girl, about Marks age, said to me while we waited.

I looked up at her and smiled, “Thanks!”

“What’s her name?” She asked.

“Kaitlyn!” I smiled back.

“I used to play with those dolls all of the time,” she said with a smile. She spoke to me a few more minutes before asking, “Who is he?” She motioned towards Mark.

I giggled, “That’s my cousin Mark.”

Upon hearing his name he turned towards us and I had to control my laughter as the two of them started flirting. “Gloria party of six!” We heard a moment later though and he had to end his attempts.

The hostess pulled my chair out for me and pushed it in, but I was alone in that help. She passed out some large menus to everyone and gave me a coloring mat in addition to the menu. “Can I have one of those too?” Madison asked with a smile.

“Sure!” She said and brought her one and an extra set of crayons.

I looked through the menu for something good but couldn’t seem to find anything that wasn’t Mexican or a burger. Finally I settled on the fish and chips that they made with their own beer. Gloria explained to us that the bread was made with the remnants of their brewing process. It was really amazing, so I guessed the fish and chips would be great too!

“What would you like, young lady?” An older waiter asked a little bit later.

“The fish and chips please?”

“You got it little lady,” he said with a smile and kept moving. The meal passed by quickly and I laughed at some of the jokes that came up. Kaitlyn and Mom had an easy rapport going now and it was just nice to smile at their stories. Of course they were still in character for Mom, but that didn’t seem to change things too much. None of the adults had ordered beer, so it was just a nice meal out. The food was really good though!

As we were finishing I heard, “Well, look who they let in?” from a familiar voice. Hank was walking by with a lady who I figured must be his wife. I was surprised that he wasn’t married to Annie with their friendship, but his wife seemed nice too. He talked to Mom quietly for a few moments and she nodded. “Well, we’ll see you all around,” he said with a smile and gave me a hug.

With that we began the exit to the car.

“BOB YOU’RE GOING where?” Sheila asked.

He sighed, “Dallas until Thursday.”

“Why not just send someone else to do the investigating?”

He bit his tongue and said, “I can’t discuss that one honey.”

The look in his eyes answered the question more than anything else. “This isn’t a dangerous assignment, is it?”

He shook his head, “No, this one is about as safe as it gets. I just need to be the one doing the investigating.”

“Well, I guess I’m a single lady the next week,” she told him with a wry smile.

“And what would that mean...?” He asked playfully...

I WALKED UP to the house and went upstairs to my room. I didn’t really tell anyone where I was going and just went. I gathered my dolls together and started playing with them on the floor of my room. “Can I play too?” Madison asked.

“Sure,” I told her with a smile. It really was more fun with two people, but I had been enjoying the opportunity to think. I was pretty sure I was slowly going out of my mind! The simple fact was that I felt like I was losing who I really was in a lot of ways... And the thing that bothered me was that it didn’t bother me. Playing with dolls on the floor felt like the most natural thing to do in the world. I didn’t miss playing on my iPad or computer all of the time at all.

“Penny for them?” Madison said.

“Huh?”

“It’s an old saying, what are you thinking?” She asked.

I sighed, “I just don’t know who I am anymore Madison...”

She nodded, “Well, I guess I can see that being a problem for you.”

“No... The bigger problem is that I’m not bothered by it,” I told her honestly.

She smiled, “Well, I think that’s because you really are a girl Ashley.”

I nodded.

“Seriously Ashley, I know you are acting in a way, but there is no way I could ever imagine Tony acted much differently.”

My old name sort of stung with that, “What do you mean?”

“Well, tell me about what you used to do? What kind of games did you play? Sports?”

“Well... I’ve never really liked sports.” I told her, “You know, being short means that I can’t run as fast as the other kids my age. My dad tried to teach me baseball... Even had this expensive fancy glove made for me last Christmas,” I giggled a bit at that.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh my dad tried to teach me to catch and throw. He used to yell at me all of the time then that I threw like a girl. I can’t throw to save my life!” I told her with a smile.

She smiled, “So, what did you do?”

“Well... I read a lot.”

“Like what?”

“Well... It used to be things like Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and such, but then I started getting bored because I finished those books in less than two hours every time... The librarian at school started recommending more books to me then. I had all of the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Twilight books at home.” I blushed a bit at the last one, “And those were all too easy too... So I read the Game of Thrones book series last year and actually found something I couldn’t just breeze through. My teacher mentioned that they reminded her of a modern War and Peace so I read that next...”

“You read War and Peace?!?!” She asked incredulously.

“Uh-huh, and it was... Well... Not boring, but really hard to keep track of. There are waaaay too many characters. I think that’s what my teacher meant.”

“So you’re like some kind of genius then?” She asked.

I blushed and felt embarrassed, “I guess I’m kind of smart.”

“You are going to be so bored in third grade...” she told me.

I shook my head, “I figure at least I get to learn how to be friends with girls and not be in middle school sorting it out.”

She nodded, “Maybe that is a good thing, the girls I go to school with can be really mean.” I sensed something there, but she went back to me, “So what else did you do?”

“Well, I used to play on my iPad quite a bit. Of course I had two sets of games on there...”

“Huh?”

“Games that I wanted to play, and games that Dad would be okay with.”

“So violent ones on your own and unicorns for your dad?” She asked seriously.

I laughed, “Something like that... Or rather the opposite of it.”

“You know you’re not saying anything that didn’t sound like something I would have done growing up.” She told me, “Like I said, I think you really are a girl.”

I sighed and said, “I hope so...” Then grinned, “Because if not I really am losing my mind!”

“Girls,” I heard behind us and jumped, “it’s time for bed Ashley.”

I thought about putting up a fight, but I was tired and knew it. “Okay,” said, adding a sigh because I knew I should!

“Do you want to stay with me again tonight?” Madison asked.

I shook my head, “I want to try on my own...”

“I’ll keep the door open?” She suggested.

I nodded, “Okay, thanks,” I told her and gave her a hug. I changed into the nightgown I’d worn the night before and climbed into bed and Mom tucked me in. She found another children’s book on the bookshelf and told me the tale of Strega Nona and I felt much calmer before going to sleep that night.

MEGAN WATCHED HER daughter’s breathing even out and knew she was asleep. She closed up the book and turned off the light. She decided to leave the door cracked open so that maybe she could hear her across the hallway. ‘I almost wish I had a baby monitor or something’ she admitted to herself. ‘Don’t let Ashley hear that thought!’ she told herself.

Megan knew that the whole situation was really beginning to wear her daughter down. Today at least seemed to have helped her like she’d hoped. There was something about riding a horse up in the mountains that she thought was just good for the soul. The fact that her daughter was a total natural at riding made her enjoy it even more. She had many friends growing up who wouldn’t ever have been able to go with them today!

She went downstairs to go have a cup of tea before going to bed. Megan found Gloria sitting at the table talking with Kaitlyn.

“Princess in bed?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Yep, and didn’t even put up a fight tonight...”

“Well, you did more than enough to wear her out today,” Gloria said.

“I hope so...”

“Did she want to sleep with Madison tonight?” Kaitlyn asked.

She shook her head, “No, I think she’s getting stubborn and doesn’t want to feel as weak as unfortunately I think she is right now.”

“It’s not like she doesn’t have reason to,” Gloria said with an uncontrollable shudder.

Kaitlyn looked at Gloria for a moment and then looked at her, “How are you holding up Megan. We know that Ashley is having these nightmares, but what about you?”

“Well... I have them too,” she admitted and fought to keep the tears from escaping, “but there’s nothing I can do about them. It’s PTSD I have no doubt. That and battered woman’s issues... It’s going to be a long road for both of us,” she admitted.

“So what are you doing about it?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Seeing Dr. Reynolds, just like Ashley is and trying to move on with life here. Maybe in a couple years I’ll be well enough that I can find someone else to fall in love with that isn’t a total jerk.”

Gloria smiled, “I’m pretty sure there will be no end to the numbers of boys lined up for you.”

Megan laughed nervously, “Yeah, but I don’t really want to get married under the false pretenses that I’m fifteen years younger than I really am. Ashley’s got it bad enough with the three years, which means more at her age... But still...”

“Yeah, the cover is going to be tough to deal with on a long term basis,” Gloria acknowledged.

The three of them talked for a long time that night and Megan felt herself feeling a little better after the third cup of chamomile tea. She decided it was bedtime and started heading upstairs to her room. Megan had just turned the handle when she heard a scream from behind her in her daughter’s room and turned around into there. She beat Madison by a moment and had her daughter wrapped into her arms to calm her down. Megan used her eyes to let Madison know she had this one.

At some point she fell asleep holding her daughter.

SUNDAY MORNING WAS normally a great day for sleeping in as far as Ray was concerned. Instead he was on his way to an uncle’s for a family get together. His second cousin Addison was having her tenth birthday party and it was expected for him to be there. He was not in the mood for it though.

“Where’s Tony?” Addison asked almost as soon as she saw him.

“Umm... He went away for the summer,” he lied.

“Oh, that’s too bad, I was hoping to play with him.”

Ray fumed a little, his son would most definitely not be allowed to only play with his girl cousins in the future. For years he’d overlooked the fact that his son was playing more with the girls than the boys, but that would most definitely stop when he got him back. Well, once he got him back from his father then. Truthfully Tony didn’t matter much to Ray, he just didn’t want his bitch of a wife to win.

“Hey Ray!” he heard from the other side of the yard.

“Hey Pops,” he said and walked over to where his dad was sitting.

“How are you holding up?” His cousin Greg asked.

He shrugged, “House isn’t as clean as it used to be,” was as much as he was going to say.

Greg just nodded at him, but there was something in his body language that lacked sympathy. “Any luck on tracking Megan down?” He asked quietly.

“No, she’s disappeared off the face of the earth.” He said.

“Well, we’re keeping an eye on the agent in charge of the case, maybe we’ll get lucky and catch the information from him,” Giovanni said.

“Aren’t we going to lose our source then?” Ray asked.

“Maybe, maybe not... I’ve been seeing less and less from him the last two weeks anyways, I’m not entirely certain they don’t suspect him already.”

“Yeah,” Greg added. “Well, at least the feds took out the Trenaldos. They’ve been a major pain in the ass the last couple of years.”

“Just remember that if you do anything else stupid we could be next,” his father added while looking at his son.

“Why the fuck do you keep blaming me?!? She’s the one that left!!!” He said a little too loudly and he knew some others had heard. He got a glare from Greg’s wife then... He knew she wouldn’t appreciate having Addison hear that language.

“Keep your fucking voice down,” Greg said quietly.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“It’s okay, I understand Ray. At the same time don’t swear around my daughter please.”

“Okay,” he said.

“So what are you doing about Megan?” his father asked.

“Same thing we’re doing now, looking for her. I have this gut feeling that maybe she’s in New Mexico, but no one seems to know where.”

“Why New Mexico?” Greg asked.

“We have the least number of stores there, and it’s on the same path as she would have gone to get to Dallas.”

“I would have thought California myself...” he said.

“Too obvious... I know Megan, and she’s too damned smart for her own good. Her parents are like that too.”

“You still don’t think they know where she is?” his father asked him.

He shook his head, “They were pissed at me that day they called and there’s been no communication to them since then. We’ve had people watching them since day one.”

“How do you know there’s been no communication?” Greg asked.

“What do you think? I’m stupid?” Ray asked, before continuing, “We’ve got them bugged, we’re keeping an eye on their mail and house, and there’s no way.”

“Have they called again?” his father asked.

“Well no, why the Hell would they?”

“Because if they haven’t heard from her they should be absolutely sick with worry by now.” Giovanni said.

“You think they do know?” He asked.

“Most definitely if they haven’t hounded you every day.”

“See, I’m not so sure about that...” He said.

“Why not?” his father pried.

“Her parents aren’t ordinary Pops, you know that, you’ve met them a couple of times…” He paused, “I mean you’ve mentioned her grandfather being a mystery before, but I still don’t know what the hell her parents did while she was growing up either. She’s given me a line about traveling Europe with a company he worked for, but it’s always smelled a little funny...”

“Like cop funny?” Greg asked, alarmed.

He shook his head, “Like spy novel funny.”

“You think they are?”

“Were,” Ray said, “they have been doing legitimate business work since Megan was in high school. Before that though... Who knows?”

“If you haven’t found Megan by the time you finish with the New Mexico distributers you definitely need to go find them.” His cousin said.

He nodded, “Already in my plans, remember Pops?”

“Yeah, I just want this mess taken care of. Be careful when you go to New Mexico. When are you leaving?”

“Thursday,” he answered.

I LOOKED THROUGH my wardrobe to find something to wear and settled on a pink t-shirt and some yoga pants that looked comfortable before hurrying downstairs for lunch. We had been to church again that morning and I had hung out with Emma and Sarah again. Madison had obviously gone to the Sunday School class for the teenagers, while I remained with the five through eight year olds. All in all it had been fun in a way, but I was still tired from having woken up in the middle of the night again.

I’d woken up for chores when Mom stirred beside me in my bed. She looked like she’d slept wrong and I felt really bad about that. The part of me that had broken… still wasn’t better. I had woken up twice more after that and cried myself to sleep both times. In the end I felt like a zombie and almost took up Gloria’s offer to skip church that morning!

We didn’t stick around long after the service though, just getting home in time to have some soup that Gloria had left in a crock-pot to cook that morning. I was just finishing my bowl when Hank walked in. “Hi Hank,” I said with a smile.

“Hi,” he said to us. He seemed to examine how far we were into our meal and then asked, “Megan, Ashley, would you come here for a few minutes?”

I looked at Mom and she nodded and we followed him to the library. “Have you asked her yet?” He asked Mom.

“It wasn’t a good time to ask last night,” she told him.

“You’re okay with it though?”

“Definitely.”

“What are you two talking about?” I asked, more than slightly annoyed.

“Ashley, would you like to learn how to shoot?” he asked me.

I looked at him a little oddly, “Girls don’t shoot... Do they?”

Mom laughed and Hank was right there too. “Yes they do sweetheart... and it might make you feel better to be able to protect yourself.”

I looked at her for a moment, “You can shoot?”

“I’m a little rusty, but yes, my father and grandfather taught me how to shoot when I was five.”

I looked incredulously at her, there were all sorts of things I was learning about Mom it seemed. “Okay, I guess, sure.”

“Great,” Hank said. “Umm... Why don’t you go put on a pair of tennis shoes, otherwise what you’re wearing will work fine,” he told me.

“Okay...” I said. I ran down the hallway to the mudroom where I knew I had my Barbie shoes.

“Umm... Amber?” I asked as we went out the door.

“Yes?”

“Can we go buy me some other tennis shoes before school starts?”

Mom laughed, “I think we can do that. You don’t want to wear baby shoes?” She asked with a wink.

I stuck my tongue out at her. I’d always had to go to smaller sizes of shoes, even as a boy, but the logos on these were going to probably be a bit much for a third grader. Hank led Mom and I to his large Dodge Ram truck and gave me both a boost up into the backseat of.

“How far are we going?” I asked.

“Not far, the ranch has a shooting range,” he told me.

“Really?”

He laughed, “Gloria’s husband Ken made sure that it had everything, just like her grandparents did.”

“Oh,” I said simply.

I watched as he drove down some roads I hadn’t been on before and eventually came to a hill side and a little roofed patio thing with several counters to set guns on. I looked down from there and saw a number of places that targets could be attached and even some sort of weird metal target downrange that had the shape of an elk.

“Here Ashley, help me carry this,” he said and handed me a plastic case that obviously held a rifle. Mom carried a bag too and he brought a couple of other things too.

“Okay Ashley, before we even begin handling guns we’re going to talk about safety, okay?”

I nodded.

“You never ever handle a gun without your Mom’s, Aunt’s, or my permission. Someday if it’s an emergency that might be different, but right now I just care about teaching you the basics.”

I nodded, “yes sir.”

He smiled at me, “Now, the first thing I want you to know is that you never ever ever ever treat a gun like it’s unloaded. There is no such thing as an unloaded gun! More people die from mishandling of guns than any other way. Never point a gun at anything living unless you mean to kill it. For today you always point the gun down towards the ground when you’re not using it, and always use the safety.”

He proceeded to pull out a rifle without a scope from the case I had carried. Hank explained the sights to me, taught me how to put the safety on an off, and finally how to load it. We made sure it had the safety on, set it down, and then we walked down to the nearest target stand with a target. It was made of cardboard and he stapled it down to the stand.

We returned to the building thing and he had me sit down on a tall stool he’d brought. “This is only a .22 caliber rifle, so it’s really not loud, but I want you to get into good habits. Here are a pair of safety glasses and a pair of ear protectors I want you to put on,” he said and handed me a pair of pink earmuffs and a small set of glasses. I put both of them on and giggled, I was sure I looked silly!

“Okay Ashley, point it down towards the target,” he said. “Now, take it off of safety once you have the target in sight.”

“Okay,” I said, using my thumb to push the safety.

“Aim carefully and line up the sights on the center ring,” he told me.

“Okay...?” I said.

“Now I want you to breathe out...” I did, “Now breathe in and squeeze the trigger.”

It took less effort than I would have believed and I heard a noise even as the gun seemed to move a little. I watched the target though and was certain I had missed it by several feet because of a cloud of dust. “How come I missed?” I asked.

“You jumped when the noise happened. Try it again, concentrate.”

I did try again, and was rewarded that time by a hole I could barely see landing on the paper. Unfortunately it was still a long ways off of the bull’s-eye!!!!! I finished the remaining six rounds in the rifle and safed the rifle as instructed.

“Let’s go see how you did?” He suggested. He brought another target with him though and placed it at fifteen feet away from another of the windows before following me the next twenty feet to the target.

“I hit it!!!!” I said with a squeal. I’d managed to hit the ring outside of the bull’s-eye twice! Of course I’d missed the target all together four times... But I was impressed.

“Yes you did young lady.” He said and used a highlighter to mark the holes.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“This is how we can tell when you make new holes,” he answered simply.

We went back to the little stand and he had Mom begin to shoot the pistol he handed her at the same time as he worked with me on the rifle. We reloaded the rifle this time fully with the ten rounds it could handle. He chambered one for me and then set it back down on the counter. I was a little surprised that he didn’t seem concerned with helping Mom until we had both gone through that round of bullets. With both guns safed we walked up to mom’s target first.

“How did you do that!?!?” I asked her. Her eleven rounds from her pistol were almost all in the middle of the bull’s-eye.

“My dad made me practice a lot,” she said. “He wouldn’t have liked that one!” She said pointing towards her first shot that was just outside of the bull’s-eye by two inches.

I was stunned and we walked to my target. I had done much better that time, all but two of the bullets had landed on the target, and six of them were close to the bull’s-eye. I’d yet to actually hit the actual bull’s-eye though! We repeated the shooting for an hour on that rifle before I was doing decently and he had me try a .22 caliber pistol he had. “What’s the difference between mine and mom’s?” I had asked.

“Look,” he said and simply showed me two bullets. “Hers is a .45 caliber, bigger bullet and a bigger punch.”

“Will I be able to shoot that sometime?” I asked nervously.

“By the weekend I’m sure,” he said with a smile. “Pistols kick more, and I want you to learn how to handle the easier gun first.”

I trusted him and soon I’d shot a hundred rounds out of the handgun. I found it was a lot harder at first to hit the target, even with it being closer! Eventually though by about the seventh clip I was hitting the target with all of the bullets. By the tenth I was inside the second ring out from the bull’s-eye most of the time.

“You’re a really good teacher,” I told him with a hug as we finished up.

“You’re a really quick learner!” He told me with a smile.

“Why are you teaching me this?” I asked eventually as he showed me how to clean the gun.

“Well, I don’t want to clean your gun all the time,” he jested.

“No, not this specifically, but shooting in general?”

“Well... With everything going on with you I thought maybe you would feel better if you didn’t feel so helpless.”

“Oh,” I said.

As we drove back I wondered if I would ever be able to really shoot anyone... Let alone my own dad.

STELLA LOOKED AT the aisles of toys and thought about things for a moment before deciding, ‘Why not?!?’ inside her head. She went down the aisle and looked for something that would make a good gift based on what Gary had told them the other night. She was glad that Megan and Tony... ‘Ashley!’ She corrected in her head again, had been able to get away for some fun. As far as they could tell her cover was as solid as it could ever get.

The visit to the banks had also let her know that her daughter was probably set financially... And probably had a very angry husband about that one! Ex-husband, she reminded herself. She wasn’t sure how that divorce would work out though, talk about a tough thing to do legally. She was actually a little nervous that at some point Ray would get smart enough to go to the authorities. If he asked for the divorce and custody of Tony in the event they were found it could be a problem. Stella didn’t think that would be very likely to happen though!

She looked through the aisles and pretending that she was for a friend’s daughter. She was eight like Ashley supposedly was... “Well, he did mention Ashley is a princess fanatic,” she thought for a moment... Gary’s contacts had flown with Megan and Ashley without them knowing. They had followed them carefully through the park and had taken some pictures for her and sent them back. She had long since decided her granddaughter was adorable!

On the shelf were some dolls that probably wouldn’t get played with much by Ashley, but that didn’t matter. This was more of a package about sending a message to Megan and Ashley. She added a couple of My Little Pony toys too and found the wrapping paper aisle. She caught sight of the man that was following her then and smiled to herself. There were five of them that she knew were with her right then. Three from Raimondo’s family and two from the FBI she believed. All of them were hoping to find some clue, but they wouldn’t get it her buying a present for Gary’s granddaughter. She would have him send it through his contacts to make the connection go away. Stella found a card and a few other things she wanted and headed up to the checkouts.

On the way home she watched the drivers of the chase cars try and be casual about following her... Quite frankly neither of the groups had much of a chance of being unnoticed though. They were all amateurs as far as she could tell. Obviously no one on the FBI’s varsity team was here! At home she carefully wrote her message,

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I know you’ve had a long trip and a lot of things happen to you, but know that we love you a lot!!!! Your parents are looking down on you both from Heaven, keeping you safe. Hopefully we’ll get to see you soon Princess!

Love,

Aunt Stella

She found Tom and had him sign too and though he raised his eyebrows, he trusted her. She wrapped them up and knew that Gary would be able to get them into a box to ship. “I’m going to run Gary’s granddaughters presents over to his house since we’re going to miss the party.”

“Okay honey,” he said with a smile.

It was just a quick trip and Gary made all of the appropriate remarks at the door before she went back to the car.

“DAMNIT,” LUKE THOUGHT for the second time. ‘I really was hoping she was getting something to send to Tony... But she’d never buy that girlie stuff for her grandson, and then drop it off at that friends of theirs house.’ He shook his head. Ray had told him to keep watching them, sure that a mistake would happen. They were all pretty certain contact had been made somehow, but no one knew when or how!!!

It was frustrating beyond all hell and he really just wanted to barge into the house and stick a gun in the wife’s face until the husband talked. He sighed and began carefully following her behind again. ‘Thank Jesus she’s so freaking easy to follow! And clueless!’ he mused to himself.

STELLA LOOKED BACK at her mirror and just shook her head. ‘These guys are stupid...’ she thought to herself. She was half-tempted to lose them just for the practice, but it made more sense to keep them stupid. Not that it was hard to do so!

Chapter 20: Motion

MONDAY MORNING CAME early for Agent Kline. He had to get to the airport by seven and fought traffic all the way there. Passing four wrecks on the way there had left him at his wits end by the time he arrived. There he got to the zoo that was security, and realized he’d forgotten to fill out one form for his firearm, and hoped they didn’t give him too much grief about it. He stepped into the line that was designated for people such as himself and thankfully got waved through with just a check of his badge.

He sighed in relief as he boarded the airplane to Dallas. The whole trip there he spent time going over what he thought were possibilities to track Megan Franchino down. He was certain his best hope was figuring out which hotel she stayed in. With the best photo he had printed out and in his briefcase to show around, he hoped he would have some luck. He’d already picked out twelve hotels he thought were likely candidates. One of them felt more right than the others so he decided to stay there himself when he set up the reservation.

Once in Dallas he rented a car and headed to the hotel, hoping that all of the ones he wished to check would still have their videos from the day in question...

MONDAY AFTERNOON AFTER lunch the truck arrived with the contents of our supposed house. The hands all pitched in to unload it and I found six large boxes and two wardrobe boxes sitting in my room. “Where am I going to put all of this?!?” I asked myself when the hands were gone. I just sighed and began working on getting through the boxes. One of the first boxes I got to had more stuffed animals than I had ever seen. I immediately picked two that I would say were my favorites. Well, who wouldn’t love the cute white tiger and the purple bunny!?!

Both toys earned a spot on my pillow after Mom whispered to me that they had been washed already. She and I were a bit on the germaphobic side of things on stuff like that. The last thing I wanted was some other kids slobber on the toy that was on my pillow... That’s just nasty!

Dolls, a dollhouse, Polly Pocket toys, and just about anything that might have been bought for a girl as a toy from her fourth birthday to her eighth birthday were there. “Need some help?” Madison asked close to dinner.

“Please!” I asked.

She smiled and whispered, “Whoever your mom knows sure was thorough...”

I nodded. She opened the top of the box for me and giggled, “Ooh, you’re going to look so cute in this!!!!” She exclaimed and held up a pink leotard and a tutu.

I turned bright red... “Umm... I’m guessing I did when I was FOUR!”

She smiled and said, “Well... We’ll see later...”

We started hanging up my clothes in the closet and the wardrobe before also using part of her closet, “I don’t live here,” she reminded me with a smile. There were a number of outfits in there that I’m embarrassed to say would fit...

There were a couple of knit dresses that had heart embroidery on them that I saw were by a clothing company I knew only made pre-school and younger clothes. Madison had held one up to me and smiled, saying, “It still fits!”

I just stuck my tongue out at her and kept unloading boxes. In the end we managed to find places for almost everything, except a few things that we decided to get rid of. Why the person had included a few toys that were waaay too young for me I didn’t understand!

Mom had similarly unloaded some of her stuff in her room, but as she was supposedly a college kid there wasn’t as much. The stall of the barn that we’d unloaded furniture into included a canopied bed frame set for me, but since we had nowhere to put it, and I liked my current bed it had been put away. There were also a number of ‘family’ photographs that had appeared out of nowhere with Mom and I with our fictional parents. Whoever created them did an amazing job of finding two people that looked like they could be our parents and putting us in them. My baby picture book was particularly embarrassing.

When I eventually got around to asking how that one had been done she said she’d given him my real baby picture book. “Oh,” had been my response.

The rest of the week began to get into a rhythm after that. The morning was chores, followed by playing with Madison whether with dolls, sewing, or both! After lunch I had a shooting lesson with Hank, riding lessons with Gloria, and finally more playtime. Wednesday after my riding lesson I came back in and was surprised to find a package addressed to me in the foyer.

“What’s this?!?” I asked.

Consetta walked by on her way out to go home, “Oh, UPS dropped that off for you an hour ago.”

Mom was called on the walkie-talkie and they carefully opened it. At the top of the package when it was opened there was a card addressed to me.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

I know you’ve had a long trip and a lot of things happen to you, but know that we love you a lot!!!! Your parents are looking down on you both from Heaven, keeping you safe. Hopefully we’ll get to see you soon Princess!

Love,

Aunt Stella and Uncle Tom

“Ashley, let’s open the rest in your room,” Mom told me quietly.

“Okay...” I said and she carried the box upstairs with her.

We both broke down once the door was shut. “How did they find us?” I asked Mom.

“Well, I did give them enough information.”

“How?” I asked.

She told me about the code her parents and grandfather had taught her long ago. “So they should have known where I was quickly.”

“Why send this now?” I asked.

“Well, it is Tony’s birthday today,” she mentioned to me.

I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

“It is, isn’t it...” I nodded. I hugged her and she quietly sang Happy Birthday to me. It seemed unreal that today was really my eleventh birthday and I had forgotten. I guess my ‘eighth’ birthday had been so cool I didn’t even think about it.

Mom watched as I opened the presents and we both smiled. I loved the Disney Princess doll grandma had sent, and I didn’t even have that one! The My Little Ponies weren’t really my thing, but I still appreciated the addition to my gigantic toy collection. Mom and I were going to have a heck of a time moving out!

Eventually she took the stuff quietly downstairs and went back to work while I held the doll tightly. ‘Grandma and Grandpa must be okay with me being like this!’ I thought as my eyes filled with tears of happiness. I couldn’t help but hope that we might be able to see them again someday.

AGENT KLINE HAD gone through the videos at eleven hotels before finally finding the right one. He watched Megan check into the hotel with the car seat and their luggage on the luggage cart and then they went upstairs. The hotel only had cameras in stairwells, hallways, and out directly in front, so he couldn’t tell anything once they were in their room. They didn’t stick around long before taking a second taxi away from there. He couldn’t see anything else in that time at all, except they seemed to be in a hurry.

‘I bet she figured out the car was a weak link in her escape...’ he thought to himself. ‘Smart lady!’ he had to admit. He carefully forwarded the video farther on until he saw her enter the hotel later that night. At least he thought it was Megan, the hair had been changed again for both of them! The video angle still wasn’t great, but he made out the American Girl bags that his granddaughter went nuts over.

‘Okay,’ he said and looked through everything else. He eventually said to the manager, “I’m going to take these, would you like me to get a warrant for them?”

“No sir, go ahead and take them. That’s a set I would have been throwing away this weekend anyway.” He said. Agent Kline took the DVDs and looked at his watch...

He carefully put the discs in his briefcase, then sighed and used his phone to search for the local American Girl shop. In addition to asking them to see the tapes he knew he would have to buy something for Allison’s daughter Kelly, or he would never hear the end of it! He drove into the parking lot structure nearby and got out of his car to follow the gazillion young girls and their moms into the store. He went to one of the store workers and asked, “May I please speak to a manager?”

“Sure,” she said nervously.

He followed her to the back and a manager came out of an office. “Can I help you sir?” She asked.

He flashed his badge discreetly and asked, “May we speak privately?”

“Absolutely,” she said.

“What can I do for you...?” She asked when the door was shut and they were in a back office area.

“First of all I’m Agent Kline, I’m with the FBI. I’m working on a case right now to find a missing mother and her child... I believe they visited here on June 17th.”

“You said child?” she asked, “Boy?”

“Complicated,” he said, a little nervous that he had messed up so bad.

She just nodded, “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. It’s company policy not to say anything anyway, but is everything okay with this family?”

“The family...” he chuckled, “Sorry, inside joke, yes with them. I just am hoping that maybe you have a better camera angle than I have and I can also figure out when they were here.” He told her.

She smiled, “We still have that video on the computer back here, if you’d like you can take a look? I’ll get my assistant Shannon to get it set up.”

“Thank you so much ma’am.”

“You’re welcome sir, I hope they’re safe and sound after all is said and done.”

“Me too,” he answered her.

He went through the recordings and found them pretty easily a couple hours after they left the hotel. The store was attached to a mall and he was hoping now that he knew when they arrived he might be able to get a look at the car through the malls cameras next. Their visit was before the hair changes though, so while the close-up he got was better than what he had before, it still wasn’t current. He sighed just as the manager entered the office, “Is that her?” She asked.

He nodded, “Please don’t answer any questions about this to anyone else without talking to me first. They’re in a really dangerous situation.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Thanks... Is there any way you can help me figure out which dolls they purchased from this video?”

“Sure!” she said and he played back their visit for her. “Looks like a number thirty-eight doll, a bitty baby doll, can’t tell which but I’d guess one of the red-headed ones given her hair color, and then Saige.”

He thought for a moment and remembered something niggling in his brain. “She’s the one that’s from New Mexico, right?”

She looked at him in a bit of shock.

He laughed, “I have a granddaughter that is obsessed with every doll you make.”

She laughed too, “I’m sure you’ll have to get something for her while you’re here too?”

He nodded.

“Yes, she is the one from New Mexico, is that important?”

He shook his head, “Don’t know, just getting every fact I can right now.”

She helped him pick out a couple of high priced new outfits for Kelly’s doll that had just been released and she shouldn’t have yet. Once those were bagged up he placed them in his trunk and walked into the mall. Finding the security office wasn’t difficult and he managed to get access pretty easily. Here he made an effort to look for them without looking for them. He spotted another lady that looked Megan like and followed her around the mall while the security guard looked on. It was hard to do this discreetly with the attention of the guard. Finally he asked for disc versions of all of the tapes and moved on.

Back at his hotel he used the time codes from the doll store to narrow the search of the mall footage, then looked to see he could now tell what kind of car she had. Unfortunately the license plate was completely obscured though. “Damn,” he had said. At least the current pictures off the mall video were much better! He would just have to have one of his analysts he trusted work directly on zooming in and enhancing the photo for him. He’d have to get some sleep before he got on the plane in the morning to fly back home. He called Sheila before he went to bed though to let her know they needed to get together with Allison’s family so she could give Kelly the outfits. He had duly impressed Sheila with that!

Of course then she wanted to know what he bought her... ‘I can’t win!’ was his thought as he went to bed that night.

MEGAN LOOKED IN on Ashley hugging her new stuffed animals and sleeping. Actually it was more like the stuffed animals surrounded her! If she needed to join her to sleep tonight she didn’t know where she would sleep. Ashley had woken up screaming her head off each of the last few nights and she worried it was going to continue for a while. Dr. Reynolds was supposed to see her on Friday and she hoped that over time things would improve.

She was glad her parents had sent her that message, but also a little nervous about it too. Megan knew that her parents were smart enough though that it wouldn’t have been figured out by anyone else looking for her. One thing she was pretty certain of, her gut told her that the longer they stayed there, the more likely they would be found. The idea of moving again was tempting. The problem was that she believed this would be the safest place if they did come for them. The security system at night, the hands by day, and everything else meant this was definitely the safest place she knew of. Going somewhere no one knew her might work... But it might just as well get them killed. She took out the baby monitor she had hidden in her room and placed it discreetly on a shelf where Ashley wouldn’t easily see it.

‘I’ll get it in the morning,’ she thought to herself. ‘Or when I have to come and help her again...’

The one thing she knew was that these nightmares were something she couldn’t protect her baby from, and all she wanted to do was comfort her when she woke up from them. She quietly closed the door and walked down the staircase with the monitor in hand. “Is that a baby monitor?” she was startled to hear Madison ask.

She sighed, “Yes, please don’t tell Ashley...”

“Makes sense,” she said, “I feel so bad for her.”

“Me too.”

Madison continued up the stairs presumably to bed and Megan sat down in the library to quietly read on her iPad. Funnily enough Ashley had never really challenged her for it or asked for one of her own. Tony had been literally addicted to his, he never went anywhere without it! She was currently researching the various things that her daughter was going to eventually deal with and it sent her anywhere from laughing, to crying, to twisting in discomfort. ‘Maybe we shouldn’t have disguised her this way...’ she thought to herself.

Dr. Reynolds was pretty certain it would have come out someday though... Before she had time to think much more she heard Ashley’s breathing shift and she knew she was beginning to have another nightmare. She grabbed her iPad, and everything else and scrambled upstairs, arriving at the door just as the sobbing began.

“It’s okay,” she said, “it’s okay...” as she hugged her daughter and tried to let her know how very much she was loved.

I WOKE UP Thursday morning and found Mom had joined me again in bed. She’d had to knock most of my stuffed animals off of it and I felt really bad. “Come on baby, chore time,” she said.

I reddened, “I’m sorry I’m such a baby...” I said and felt the tears start again.

She just hugged me and said, “Sweetie, you’re not a baby... That’s just my way of thinking of you... When you have your own children some day and feed them, change their diapers, soothe them when they cry... Well, you’ll understand that you’ll never be anything else but my baby. You’re a lovely big girl though,” she told me and smiled at me.

I sighed, “Sorry.”

“Stop using that word,” she said and mimed shaking me and hugged me. “I love you Ashley more than anything else on earth, don’t ever be sorry.”

After a good cry for the both of us we finally got in gear and I went out for my daily battle with George. I say daily, but it was more like two or three times a week he would forget that coming after me was painful to him. ‘I swear, one of these days I’m going to accidentally kill him and not feel bad about it...’ A while later with my chores done I went back upstairs and took a shower. I washed my hair carefully trying to make sure that I got all of the soap out before drying off and going into my room.

I found a purple t-shirt we had bought at Disney World that had Merida on it, along with a pair of bright blue capris that matched part of the background of the shirt. It was a cute look I thought, but then I had to sort out what I was doing with my hair. I started by brushing it out and drying it, like I knew Mom would do for me and then was at a loss. She came in and I handed her the hairbrush.

“What?” She said.

“Would you please do my hair for me?”

“Okay,” she said with a smile. “What do you want?”

“I don’t care... Something that will get me through today?”

“Pigtails it is then!” She said with a smile.

I giggled and said, “I feel like that’s all I ever wear it in...”

“That’s because you look cute in them and I figure after this summer it’s going to be a fight to get you to let me put your hair in pigtails again until you’re in high school.”

“Huh?”

She just smiled at me, “You’ll understand later.”

I sighed, “How old do I have to be to understand?”

“Ooh... About sixteen.”

“Until then?” I asked.

“Until then I have a cute daughter at my mercy for her hair,” she said with a cackle that made me giggle.

Mom actually did a little bit more than just regular pigtails, using some purple ribbon in my hair that matched my shirt that added to the braid. It was cute and I hugged her when I was done and we went downstairs. Breakfast was always fairly subdued compared to lunch with the hands.

After everyone finished eating, Madison and I lent a hand to Consetta with the dishes before going out to the barn. She was going to help me make my own dress that day and I was really excited!!!

We began by cutting out the pattern together on the counter, something I was finding easier with more practice! Madison continued to watch me like a hawk though as I did the cutting and several times reminded me to keep my fingers out of the way. The two of us had found a bolt of knit fabric that looked shiny and had some large glitter and bead chunks glued onto it somehow. It was a light, bright blue and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it! Madison helped me pin the fabric down to the pattern and supervised me cutting it out. This pattern was about as simple as it could get and only had six pieces to cut out.

By lunchtime I had finished cutting and was ready to sew. The two of us headed back into the house and ate lunch before Hank took both of us to the shooting range with my mom. I was getting better and better with both .22 caliber guns and that day he told me he’d let me try my new skills on the .45 caliber pistol mom was shooting the next time we were out. As we were cleaning up he asked Mom, “When are you going to fill out the concealed handgun permit?”

“Well... We’re going in tomorrow,” she said.

“Take this then,” he said and handed Mom a paper.

“What’s this?”

“It’s your certification that you completed the class with me.”

She looked at him and said, “Are you sure? I can go take the classes…”

“I’m quite sure. There’s an online course that Ashley needs to do and then she’ll have her hunters safety permit done. I figure we’ll see if she can’t get herself something in the fall if she wants.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“See if you draw a deer or an elk license?”

“What do I do with that?” I asked stupidly.

“That allows you to go hunt one.”

“Oh... Eew.” I added.

“Tell you what, you go hunting with Annie and I and we’ll take care of cleaning the animal for you this time.”

I made another face but didn’t say anything. I knew that if we stayed here I was eventually going to have to deal with animals being slaughtered and such... I just didn’t really want to think about it. I was most definitely a city girl at heart!

We drove back to the ranch and Mom and Hank headed off somewhere to do actual work. In the meantime I found Gloria and Madison and I had my daily horse lesson. When we were done I made it a point to try the hop down that Mom used. I managed to drop down and not hurt myself!

“I did it!!!!” I said a little too noisily for Beauty. She glared at me and told me to behave myself. “Sorry,” I said and gave her a scratch on her head that she offered me. I swore she said to just not do it again. Maybe being around all of the horses was slowly rotting my brain?

“Nice job today,” Gloria said as she came up and gave me a hug. “Be careful getting off though if you did by yourself. That is still a long jump for you. We probably could have you on a pony instead if you want to be able to get on easier...?”

I shook my head, “Beauty is just fine!”

“I think she definitely likes you too,” she told me as she nudged my hand looking for a treat. I walked her back to the stall and Madison helped me get her brushed down and ready for a nice night. They let them out in the pasture every morning while they were mucking stalls, and then the hands usually brought them back in before lunch. I was sure Beauty would probably like to have a bit more freedom than that, but she seemed happy enough.

I went upstairs and changed out of my capris, since they were kind of dirty, and switched into a skirt that was the same color. Afterwards I joined Madison back in the sewing room. It was almost four when we finally made it in there, but I was able to get the two yoke pieces at the top sewn together and the front and back sides of the dress sewn together before we were called to eat.

Dinner went by quickly and we enjoyed a roast that Consetta had placed in the crock-pot that morning and let cook all day. It was literally falling apart and tasted great. We didn’t even make a dent in it though, and I learned that the rest of it was for lunch the next day.

“Mom may we go finish my dress?”

She looked at me and smiled, “Sure, but at seven-thirty you have to come in and take your bath.”

I gave her a hug then grabbed Madison’s hand and tugged her over to the barn. It took me another hour to put the yoke onto the long skirt of the dress, and then do the sleeves. I had just finished putting a band of material around the edge of the last sleeve when Mom came in. “So what are you making?”

I turned it right side out again and showed her, “See?!?” I said proudly.

She looked at Madison, “She did this?”

“Every cut, stitch, and mistake is hers,” she smiled at me. I poked her for the mistake comment. It was true though. I had a few times where I didn’t grab the fabric quite right with the machine... It was annoying.

“Cool,” Mom said, “It looks like it’s almost finished too!”

“Almost, but not quite!” I said. I remembered the stuff that was possible with Gloria’s embroidery machine and I had some ideas to do to it even after I was done. I showed her the ruffle I had to add at the bottom of the skirt still, and said, “I have some other things I want to do with it too, but I’ll have to have Gloria help me with them.”

“Well, it’ll have to wait till tomorrow,” Mom said, “Bath time,” she insisted.

I sighed and hung my dress on the dress form that was still set for my size. It seemed to fit pretty well, just maybe a bit too big. ‘I’ll grow though,’ I thought with a smile, then frowned, ‘maybe...’

Mom insisted on washing my hair for me in the bath that night, dried it, and brushed it for me after I had put on my princess nightgown. It had easily become my most favorite thing to wear at night!

By the time she brushed it I was feeling drowsy, and she finished off my drowsiness with a story.

RAY LOOKED AT his suitcases for a third time, making sure he had everything he needed for the trip the next day. He was going to be leaving for New Mexico on an early flight and didn’t want to deal with the hassle of forgetting stuff. His laptop would go on the plane with him and he would check everything else. When he was sure he had everything he would need he went downstairs for one more drink.

As he poured the scotch into his glass he looked again at the photo of his wife and son. “I don’t know where you are, but I’m going to find you soon!” He said with a toast of his glass.

When he finished the glass he looked around the kitchen one more time to see the piles of dishes and the moldy fruit that was on the table. He’d never really had to learn how to take care of himself and it showed badly. Raimondo was also so pissed off still that he refused to think about doing it.

‘Maybe I’ll just force Megan to come back here and clean the house one last time before I kill her,’ he thought with a smile.

He poured one more glass and realized he’d have to buy another bottle when he got back. There was just a little bit left in the bottle so he drank it straight out of the bottle. Ray climbed the stairs to their room and went to sleep dreaming of Megan’s torture.

MEGAN WENT TO sleep that night wondering when Ashley was going to have a nightmare. As she was washing her hair she had come clean to Ashley about the baby monitor and had been willing to say forget it if she had a fit about it. To her surprise though Ashley had said it was okay… and apologized endlessly for interrupting her sleep.

Well, nothing she could do about that! As it was Megan was beginning to feel the effects of not sleeping for the last six nights and really hoped maybe her daughter would make it through this night. Until she heard something happen though, she knew she needed to try and get some sleep. She turned the monitor on fairly loud until her breathing was like she was sitting next to her and crawled into bed.

Three hours later she heard Ashley scream and ran over to her room to find the shivering little girl crying her eyes out. She sighed and continued to do what she’d been doing the last week - hugging her and promising it would be all right.

‘Will it ever really be?’ she asked herself.

AGENT KLINE WOKE up and headed into the office to try and put this case to bed. He was tired of thinking about this one all of the time and hoped that somehow he could figure out where Megan was soon.

“Hey Boss, you have a moment?” Jake asked as he walked by.

“Sure, come on in.”

They closed the door and he asked, “What’s up?”

“Well I just wanted to pass along that Raimondo is heading to New Mexico today.”

“Do we know why?”

“Some of my guys think it has to do with firming up their supply lines after the Vermont raid.”

Bob sighed, “You know they could have at least had the decency to make us think that raid did some good, but they seem to have just shifted their line somewhere else.”

“We’re thinking Minnesota maybe...”

“But maybe a switch to New Mexico is coming?” Kline suggested.

“Makes sense, Arizona and Texas are getting pretty secure at the border now. New Mexico is the weakest link of the whole thing. It doesn’t help that they have a very limited desire to enforce immigration law there either.”

“Well, do remember that the title of our southern neighbor is in the name of their state! It would make sense they would be sympathetic.”

“Yeah...”

“Anyway, so he’s probably just going down there to get their backup line going?” he asked.

“Maybe... I’m thinking they want this to be the main line though, especially if Raimondo is going.”

Kline nodded, “You don’t think this has anything to do with Megan?”

“You think she’s in New Mexico?”

Kline bit his tongue but he was pretty sure Jake wasn’t the mole. “That’s what my gut is telling me.”

“Any idea where?”

“Not a clue. She’s good, she’s completely changed her appearance and her sons appearance,” he said, but held back how much.

“Well, we kind of figured that had to happen.”

“Yeah... Anyway, I have a few new leads I’m going to run down this week. I’m hoping that in a couple weeks at the latest we’ll find her... Or at least where she’s been hiding at since she left Dallas.”

“You don’t think she’ll stay put?”

“Depends...”

“On...?”

“How safe she feels where she’s at. If she feels it’s secure enough she may risk sticking around, if she feels she’s in danger she may very well move on. She might have done so several times by now.”

“I take it you’re hoping she stayed around?”

“Hoping...”

“Well good luck boss, I’ll see you later.”

“Thanks for the information about Raimondo, have our office in Albuquerque tail him if they can.”

“It’s not that big of an office, but I’ll see if they can get someone on it.”

As Jake left Bob had to think back and about his conversations with him. While he hoped he wasn’t the mole, he definitely didn’t want any information getting to him for now anyway. With that he opened up his bag and made sure he had the discs he needed and called out on his phone, “Hey Agent Serna, do you have some time to go over some things with me on your fancy computer...?”

RAIMONDO LOOKED AT the display of departure times and swore. The flight he was leaving on was delayed by a half-hour and he would be cutting his next flight awfully close.

I WOKE UP the next morning and realized I was once again being prodded up by Mom who was in my bed too. “I’m sorry,” I told her.

She held up her finger, “No sorries... I’m the one who should be apologizing to you, it’s my fault we stuck around long enough for you to be traumatized this badly.” She gave me a hug and helped me get moving after that.

The morning chores felt routine and George was still apparently smarting from his last beating and just glared at me from across the pen. I glared right back though and threatened him with the broom handle. I nearly wanted to do the same thing with the stupid peacock that started screaming next to me on the way back to the barn too.

“I hate birds,” I said aloud after putting everything away.

I heard a laugh from behind me and Gloria put her arm around my shoulder, “You’d be amazed at how many people have said that over the years.”

I shook my head. “Actually it’s more just the peacocks… they’re just disturbing when they cry out...”

I felt a few tears in my eyes but held them at bay. She gave me a hug and said, “They’re harmless though,” she reassured me.

I sighed, “I know.”

“Come on, go upstairs, take a shower, and then Madison said you wanted help with some embroidery?”

“Would you help me with that this morning? I think I have an appointment with Dr. Reynolds this afternoon...”

“You do, and I’d be glad to help you out until then,” she told me with a smile.

I hugged her and went upstairs to take care of myself. Since I was going to see Dr. Reynolds that day I decided I wanted to wear a dress for some reason... Not that I really ever had to be coerced into a dress anytime other than that very first time. I smiled at that – I really did love wearing dresses - boys missed out by not being able to wear them!

I showered and then looked through the wardrobe where Madison had put all of my dresses and organized them by occasion and color. There was one that had been ‘mine,’ from the boxes, that I thought was kind of funky and cute. Most of the dress from the top down was pink with a small turquoise ruffle around the neckline. The bottom of the dress flared out into three tiers of ruffles, with zebra print tier and then a lime green with blue polka dots for the last one. All three tiers had that same turquoise ruffle along the edges. I later learned the term was scalloped... It was cute and adorable, and I decided I wanted to wear it!

From somewhere in the massive box of shoes that had come from Dallas, I found a pair of flats that had a similar color to the lime green on the lowest tier, and the polka dots were identical too. Whether or not it was meant as a set I didn’t know, but I was pretty sure it worked!

I pulled my robe off and tugged the dress over my hair, which was still dry thanks to a shower cap. I struggled for a few moments to get the clasp that shut it in the back closed, but managed and looked at myself in the mirror. Barring the messed up hair I looked cute!

“Cute!!!” Mom said echoing my thoughts as she came in.

“Isn’t it?” I asked her.

“You look adorable!” she confirmed. “The shoes too!”

I smiled and gave her a hug, “So... Hair?”

She tickled my side briefly and motioned for me to sit down. Mom considered everything for a moment and smiled. I felt as she brushed my hair out quickly and then she began working a small braid on both sides of my head towards the back. When she was done with that she started pulling a bit on my hair in the back and then the two braids a bit more. She added a bow somewhere and then said, “Okay!”

I looked at my hair and saw she had done two small braids to the back to make it look like it was holding my hair back. She’d added a bow that matched the turquoise on my dress. It looked pretty and I gave her a hug, “Thank you Mommy,” I said quietly.

“You’re welcome Ashley.”

I looked at my ears and asked, “Mommy when can I start wearing other earrings?”

“If we go by what Claire’s said it’ll be a couple more weeks sweetie,” she told me. “Your earrings go well with your dress though.”

I fingered them and nodded, “I know, but I want to start wearing cuter earrings too!”

She smiled, hugged me and said, “You are such a girl!”

I giggled and the two of us went downstairs for breakfast. The hands were already digging in and smiled at me. Annie said, “That dress is adorable Ashley!”

I blushed but said, “Thank you.”

Mom reminded me about my appointment after lunch and as soon as Madison and I had helped Consetta out with dishes we headed out to the barn. I still had to sew on a ruffle, but that was the last thing I needed to actually sew. We used a sheer organza fabric instead of the main fabric on the ruffle. It involved sewing three bands of fabric together and then adding a gather stitch that Madison showed me how to do. She also helped me out a lot with getting it to sew onto the dress evenly after I pulled the thread tight to ruffle it. It was slow and frustrating because I messed up twice on catching part of the skirt instead of just the edge, but eventually after an hour we were done. I shook out the dress and smiled, “It looks like a dress!!!”

“Well duh,” Madison said to me with a smile.

Gloria walked in right then and asked, “How’s it going girls?”

“Great!” Madison said, “Ashley just finished the dress!”

“Well let me see it then,” Gloria said and I held it up.

“See?!?” I said excitedly.

“That’s not how I can see it, go put it on you silly girl,” she smiled at me.

“Oh, I’ll be right back!” I said and went into the restroom and changed out of my dress and into my new one. It was a little big for me, but not enough to make it wrong to wear.

I walked out and Gloria walked around me back and forth giving me her appraisal, “For a first dress I’m really impressed!”

“I had a good teacher!” I said and gave Madison a hug.

“Are you ready to do some embroidery?”

“Yeah...” I explained what I wanted and changed back into my dress. We spent the rest of the morning adding the scroll along the bottom edge of the skirt above the ruffle that I had imagined, and a design that looked pretty and sort of Victorian like at the top in the middle of the yoke. After all was said and done I had to leave her with the promise we’d finish that night when I got back from my appointment with Dr. Reynolds.

As soon as lunch was done I ran upstairs and grabbed Kaitlyn before meeting Mom at the car. I climbed into my seat and she buckled me in.

AGENT KLINE LOOKED at the screen and said “Serna, you are a fucking magician.”

The young agent blew on his fingers and said, “I know,” with a smile. “Who are they?”

“Two ladies you are to forget,” he told him seriously. “Print off three copies of this for me, along with the car, burn it to a CD, and then erase it from your computer. I don’t want anyone to be able to get to it.”

The young agent looked at him, “You serious boss?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Fair enough,” he said and got to work. A few minutes later Agent Kline watched him erase the images in front of him and walked back to his office. Thanks to Agent Serna’s magician like abilities they now had a very good set of pictures of Megan and Tony. ‘I wonder what they’re calling her...?’ he wondered to himself.

He got back to his office and looked at the pictures of the car. It was definitely a different car. Unfortunately there just wasn’t a good view of the license plate. All he could tell was that it was a 2008 Blue Honda Civic. He could tell that she had a different booster seat in there for Ashley and realized it must have come with the car. ‘She still has the other one though... I remember her hauling it back out the next day...’

He sighed and tried to think of his next move. When he looked at the clock though he realized his next move had to be to get his rear home before his wife killed him. Allison was coming over, with Kelly, for dinner tonight so he could give her the presents.

With that he sighed and locked everything back away. ‘I’m taking this weekend off from this...’ he thought to himself. He’d long ago learned when he was young and stupid that sometimes you had to take a break from work for a weekend... If you didn’t, it would eat you alive.

MY APPOINTMENT WITH Dr. Reynolds was scheduled for three that afternoon and we arrived with a few minutes to spare, even after Mom had dropped by a place to submit her concealed handgun permit request. I was a little worried when they wanted her fingerprints but she just smiled and let them do it. When we left they told her that her license should get to her in about four weeks or so.

At Dr. Reynolds office I quietly played with Kaitlyn in my lap while Mom checked me in. It wasn’t long after that she came to get us, “Amber, Ashley?”

“Hi,” I said.

“Good to see you,” she said to me, “I love that dress!”

“Thank you!” I said to her and we followed her back to her office.

“So how are you two doing this week?” She asked openly.

“Tired,” Mom responded and I nodded.

“Any reason?” She asked.

“I keep waking her up with nightmares,” I said while cuddling Kaitlyn closer to me.

“More of the same ones?” She asked me.

I nodded, “Almost exactly the same...”

“Almost?” She asked.

“Well... In the ones last night I shot him,” I confessed.

“Do you know how to shoot?” She asked without skipping a beat.

“Hank is teaching me,” I told her.

“Does it make you feel safer?” She asked.

I shrugged, “I don’t know... Maybe?”

“Why only maybe, wouldn’t you be safer being able to shoot an attacker?” She asked.

“If I could actually shoot them... I don’t know that I could actually use a gun like that.” I told her.

“I hope you never have to Ashley,” she told me.

“Does she have easy access to the guns?” Dr. Reynolds asked Mom.

She shook her head, “No, everything is locked up and all of the guns have trigger locks installed just in case someone gets into the cases.”

I hadn’t even realized that... I knew Gloria had a large gun safe in her office and I had heard Madison talk about another one in her room too.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she told her.

I felt a little embarrassed as I think she was mainly concerned with keeping me from getting hold of a gun and shooting myself. Talk about a depressing thought...

“So tell me about these nightmares other than that Ashley...”

The session seemed to go on forever and I cried most of the hour. I felt like my throat was totally dry and the snot coming out of my nose by the end was just gross! Dr. Reynolds sent me to go wash my face off and then come back. I was quick about it though and returned.

“Ashley, I really don’t want to put you on medication, but I think we may need to start thinking about it. I’d like to go one more week before doing it though...”

I sighed, “Is there anything I can do so I don’t keep waking Mom up?”

“Well, yes there is – at least something to try. Amber, what time is her bedtime right now?”

“Eight unless something odd comes up.”

“That’s very good normally... I want to see if Ashley is more tired if it will help her sleep better though. Don’t let her go to bed until ten this week.”

My eyes lit up, ‘I’ll be able to stay up as late as Madison!’

“Don’t get too excited yet Ashley,” she told me with a smile. “The last hour before bed I want her to read something... Keep it sweet and innocent, nothing violent. Maybe something such as The Babysitters club or some of those American Girl books.”

“I’ll finish one of those in that time...” I complained slightly.

“Well... I don’t want you to read anything more violent so it’ll be tougher to find longer books. It may mean you read through them quicker but I want you thinking of fairy tales when you go to bed, not of your father.”

“Oh...” I said, “but I usually have been getting a bedtime story like that anyway the last couple weeks.”

Dr. Reynolds raised her eyebrow at Mom who shrugged, “As long as we’re saying she’s eight it seemed appropriate, especially since it was seven until a few weeks ago.”

She nodded, “Okay, try it anyway... You never know, it might help. Also I’d like for you to see if you can’t get Ashley doing something very physical like jogging, swimming, dancing, riding a bike... Anything. The goal for this week is for her to climb into bed and be completely tired out.”

“And if this doesn’t work?” I asked quietly.

“Then I have a couple of sleep medications we may try... Ultimately if we have to, I’ll consider something else... But I really hate using medication if it can be avoided.”

I nodded, “me too!”

I went out to her playroom and played with Kaitlyn while I waited for Mom. Kaitlyn and I had a quiet conversation about her idea to help me sleep. I just hoped that maybe it would work...

Mom came for me not long after and said, “Okay, I guess it’s time to go shopping for some books!”

I looked at her and smiled before walking with her outside. She found a local Barnes and Noble and pulled into the parking lot just as some jerk honked at her for taking too long to turn. He sped by us before either one of us could get a look at him.

RAIMONDO WAS IN a bad mood and screamed several obscenities at the blue Honda that he’d almost rear-ended. “Stupid bitch mother driving carefully with her baby daughter...” he shook his head. She hadn’t been a baby, but still in a car seat, and that was close enough for most women. Ray had checked into the hotel and been directed down that road to go to the restaurant he was meeting his cousin Carp there. The name was short for Carpathia and was a mouthful for anyone to say!

He pulled into the parking lot and walked into the restaurant. Carp waved at him from a corner table in the bar and he went to join him. Raimondo hugged and kissed him the traditional Italian way and felt the looks around them. He didn’t care, Carp was family and this was how you greeted them.

“How are you doing man?” He asked Ray.

“I’ve been better,” he answered honestly.

“I heard... Sorry about it,” Carp told him.

“Not your fault, just the bitches fault,” he told him.

“Well if you need anything on that front let me know.”

“Thanks,” he said and began looking at the menu, “what is all of this stuff?”

“Mexican food Ray, the Italian food of New Mexico!” he said with a smile. “Best get used to it, our partners love it!”

MOM AND I got out of the car in the parking lot and I carried Kaitlyn in with me. ‘I wonder if I’ll be labeled weird for doing this?’ Mom grabbed my other hand and walked with me back to the children’s section. She purposefully steered me to the younger books and I sighed.

“What looks good?” She asked me.

I glanced down the titles quickly and found a bunch of titles by American Girl that I pulled out with my free hand. “How many do you want me to pick out?” I asked her.

She sighed, “Knowing you?”

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Make it fifteen?”

“Okay,” I said with a smile. I picked out ten American Girl books since I figured I’d like them with my dolls... Then I looked through the stacks and came across some Disney books about the different princesses and picked out five of those. “Do these work?” I asked her.

“Looks good to me,” she told me with a smile and we walked up front to the checkouts.

“Well, you have to have the prettiest dress on, and, the prettiest doll I’ve seen in a while!” The lady at the register said to me. I blushed and said, “Thank you,” to her shyly.

“What’s your doll’s name?” She asked while multi-tasking and scanning books.

“Kaitlyn,” I told her and waved Kaitlyn’s hand at her.

“That’s a pretty name for her,” she told me and winked at Mom. I wondered if I had ever been really clueless enough as a kid to miss these things that adults did. “Looks like you’re certainly getting a lot of reading done on your summer break!” She told me.

“Uh-huh,” I told her.

“Are you guys part of the reading program yet?” She asked Mom.

“No, my sister and I haven’t been near a store in a while,” she told her.

“Here, take this information then,” she said, “you can register online and keep track of her books there too!”

“Neat,” Mom said.

She finished paying and we walked back outside to the car. Mom buckled me into my seat and upon my begging handed me one of the new books. By the time we reached home though, we both knew that had been a mistake, I’d already read it! It was 125 pages long and I’d breezed through it like most girls would if it was ten...

“No more reading until bedtime,” Mom told me when we got home.

“You’re the one who gave me the book...” I tried to reason with her as we walked into the house with her carrying the bag of books.

“Amber?” Gloria called out.

“Yes it’s us,” she answered.

“Dinner’s almost ready if you two will go wash up.”

“Okay,” I said and headed upstairs. Mom followed and took the books into her room. I felt a little hurt that she didn’t trust me... But it was more that she knew me too well. When I was nine my parents had grounded me after I got in trouble at school. I was sentenced to a week of staying in my room after school with no iPad or any other electronics. Since no one had said anything about books it really didn’t bother me!

‘It wasn’t like I had friends back home to make me miss out on something...’ I thought sadly.

Downstairs a few minutes later I had Kaitlyn in my lap and ate the fried chicken that Consetta had made for dinner. She had to make it since it was Mark’s favorite. He was going home with Kaitlyn on Sunday, but Madison was still supposed to be staying though! The chicken was really good I thought.

After dinner Gloria took me out to the sewing room to help me finish the last bit of embroidery. “This turned out really pretty Ashley,” she told me.

“I know!” I said.

“You should wear it to dinner tomorrow!” She told me.

“Are we doing something special?” I asked.

“Yes, since Kaitlyn and Mark are going home Sunday morning we’re going to go out to a nice restaurant.” She told me.

“Cool,” I said.

She handed me the dress on a hanger and used a cheap, clear plastic garment bag she had handy to wrap it. “Careful not to drag it in the dirt sweetie,” she told me. We walked back to the house and I saw it wasn’t quite eight yet. “Shouldn’t you be going to bed?” She asked me as I walked back downstairs from hanging it in my closet. I didn’t show Mom or Madison yet what it looked like finished. Madison of course had a good idea, but Mom hadn’t seen the embroidery yet.

I shook my head, “No, Dr. Reynolds wants me to stay up later this next week and see if it helps my nightmares,” I told her.

She looked at me quizzically but Mom was right there, “I thought it was weird too... But she also has to read a book in bed for an hour before bed too,” she added.

“That makes more sense,” Gloria said.

I spent a half-hour downstairs playing in the playroom before Mom showed up and shooed me to the bath. I played in the bath for thirty minutes and then put on a pair of pajamas that had a thin halter-top and a pair of matching shorts. It came from the boxes that had been shipped there and were pretty comfortable. I had noticed the 6X on the tag but ignored it. The scary thing that I had realized over the last few weeks was that my boy clothes were always the same size seven, but they were always baggy and never really fit right. Mom came in with the pile of books and said, “Pick one...”

“Actually, I have that one about Saige that I never read?” I suggested.

“Okay, that one will work,” she said. We both looked on the bookcase to find it and couldn’t. She finally remembered the princess backpack that she’d gotten me for the trip and we found it still inside. I climbed into bed and began reading the book. The only problem with it was that I was done with several minutes to spare. Mom came in and found me not reading.

“Why aren’t you reading?”

“Umm... I finished it already?” I said guiltily.

For some reason the glare she gave me made me giggle for a long while. When I calmed down she tucked me in, turned out the light, and we both hoped for the best.

What did you think? Comments and/or Kudos are always appreciated! Thanks for reading!