Page 32 of Wed By the Lumberjack

“Dixie...” I say lowly. “Get in the car baby.”

We have to go. I can’t allow her to stick around and hear this shit any longer. I toss Douglas like a rag doll onto his ass and start backing up. Keeping my eyes on him, I reach for the truck’s handle, before hauling Dixie inside.

I barely get the door shut before my head’s rammed straight into the glass so hard it cracks. Behind it, Dixie’s muted screams ring in my ear as I stumble and catch my balance against the truck’s door that she’s trying to open to get to me.

Like hell I’ll allow that.

Another blow from Douglas, this time a closed fist, blurs my visions as I fiddle with the truck’s remote in my pocket. Once I hear the child locks engage, I zoom in on the target I’ve been waiting to take down for years.

The uppercut I deliver to Douglas’s chin, has him spitting blood and a piece of a tooth onto the dirt driveway. The roundhouse to his jaw, has him spinning around and falling like the coward he is onto his hands and knees. And the kick to his back sends him straight onto his belly where I pin him.

To his benefit, he doesn’t scream or beg when I replace my boot with my knee so that I can sink down to his level and look him dead in the eye.

“All you’ve ever done is fuck up. The one good thing you ever did on this earth was making that woman right there and you tried to ruin her too. Key word– tried, because she’s too strong to break, and I won’t fucking let you attempt it again. This is the last time you’ll ever lay eyes on her. Because if you go anywhere near her, I’ll make sure to scoop them out of your skull myself.”

Douglas spits out more blood before blinking up at me. I can tell he has some smartass retort, but it dies on his tongue as he stares into my eyes.

He snorts, then laughs, a horrible wheezy sound that makes me dig my knee harder into his back.“You want someone to blame for her disappearing? Blame your damn father who called the cops on me. If that nosey son of a gun had minded his business–”

“My father called the police on you for abusing Dixie?”

Why hadn’t he ever told me that?

Thoughts of me begging my father not to get Dixie into trouble for my big mouth when I went crying to him one night surface at the forefront of my brain. At that age, I couldn’t understand that Dixie would be safer if they took her away. But I was worried Douglass would get to her before the police did.

Had Dad decided not to tell me because he knew how much guilt I’d have over it if something happened to Dixie?

As I’m distracted by trying to make sense of what I’ve just learned, something stabs at my thigh so fast and hard that I fall forward.

Another scream from the truck lets me know Dixie’s seen what Douglas has done before I even feel it. Keeping my weight on top of him, I gaze at my thigh that he impaled with a broken bottleneck. Blood’s already oozing through my jeans and onto the dirt below.

Before I can react, the sound of police sirens blares through the air as two police cruisers and an ambulance enter the property.

Dixie must’ve called them. Through the truck’s window, she bangs on the glass pleadingly. I’d rather she stay in the truck until Douglas is hauled away, but the police want statements from all of us.

After Dixie shows them the video she captured on her phone, however– conveniently from the point when Douglas rammed my head into the window– the police believe that he’s the real instigator. Considering that he just got out of jail and the cabin was full of substances, I don’t think there was any doubt anyway.

I can’t explain the relief I feel when Douglas is handcuffed by force and hauled away into the back of the cruiser. Despite the horrible words that he continues to scream at Dixie, I’m so damn proud that she stands firmly at my side.

She isn’t paying attention to Douglas at all. She’s focused on my wound that the paramedics are treating.

“You’re so brave, Dixie. You know that, right?” I say when the medic applies the last bandage. They’d insisted I get checked out at the clinic, but I told them I’d drive myself, or rather Dixie would. It was just up the road.

“When Douglas stabbed you, all my fear disappeared. Somehow I could take it if I was the one enduring the abuse. But the moment he turned that bottle on you...”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter Dixie. Don’t you see? Douglass is the only one responsible for his actions. It’s not your fault.”

She nods, and for once I think she truly believes it.

“I heard what he said. That your dad is the one who called that school. He’s the reason the child abuse investigation was about to begin.”

I nod.

“Thank you,” she says, wrapping her arms around my neck and I bury my face in her shoulder. “I hated to leave you. All of you. But if your dad hadn’t tipped off the cops and the principal, Douglas wouldn’t have whisked me away, and I never would’ve met Gran, who really was my safe haven. So thank you for speaking up for me when I couldn’t. Thank you for being brave when I couldn’t be. For always protecting me.”

I still feel like I could’ve done more, but the past is over and I can only change the future.

“If you let me. I’ll protect you forever,” I whisper in her ear, and to my dismay, she pulls away from me.

---