ON EDGE (Decorah Security) Read Online Free Page A

but this one was worse than usual.
    “Do you want to schedule an extra appointment?”
    “No.” He pushed himself to his feet and left the office, hating that he’d gotten himself into a stupid confrontation. Had it come from within himself? Or was some outside force pushing him?
    An outside force? Did he think some paranormal being could manipulate his mind while he was awake? He hoped to hell not. And he hoped to hell the paranoid thought wasn’t a sign that he really was cracking up.
    He snorted. Maybe he should make himself a tinfoil hat to keep out the bad vibrations.
    But seriously, were his thought rational? Was he actually paranoid, or did he have something real to fear? He’d put money on Lilith being dangerous—and tricky. He didn’t know what to think about Ariel, but he found himself hoping she was a woman—and not someone unreachable.
    He needed to find out, and he was determined that he wasn’t going to simply sleep through another night. But was there any way to force himself into the other plane? There damn well better be.
    In a corner of the lounge, he pretended to watch the evening news. But he was really thinking about himself—about Frank Decorah, about his future and his past. Why had he stepped into a place the other night that wasn’t this earth? At least if he believed Ariel’s explanation for where they’d been. And why did he think he could get back there?
    Was he different from the other men and women here? Had his injury triggered something inside himself that he hadn’t known he possessed?
    Or had something come back to him that he’d had a long time ago and lost?
    His mind ranged back to his early childhood—to when his memories came only in snatches. He’d lived with Mom and Dad on a farm in Iowa. Before Cooper was old enough to be his playmate, he’d spent long hours on his own. Big Bird and Oscar had been his friends. And Mister Rogers had given him a neighborhood, but he hadn’t been happy to sit in front of the television set all day. He’d spent as much time outside in the orchard behind the house playing pioneer or soldiers. And sometimes out there, weird things had happened. He remembered flickers of movement at the edges of his vision, like something . . . unexpected was just at the edge of the world he knew. He’d turn his head quickly, and nothing would be there; but he’d be sure that something had leaped away before he could see it clearly.
    Had he seen glimpses of creatures from the other plane of existence? They’d never turned real and solid for him, and he’d been glad of that—because he sensed that they were dangerous.
    Now that he was pulling up long-forgotten memories, he remembered something else that sent a shiver up his spine. He’d gone over to where he’d seen the creatures. The things themselves had vanished. But he saw tracks in the dirt, tracks of animals that even a little boy knew should not have been roaming around an Iowa farm. Maybe some of them were big cats. And maybe others were huge lizards. He couldn’t be exactly sure.
    He clenched his teeth. At any rate, he’d outgrown the flickering images at the edge of his vision. They’d been replaced by the prints of Cooper’s little shoes when his brother had toddled outside to join him playing boys’ games.
    He deliberately turned his mind to the good memories. Like the tree house Dad had helped them build in one of the apple trees. The puppy his parents let them adopt. The swimming lessons in the pond at the edge of the field. And was there anything that smelled better than the scent of gunpowder set off under the hammer of a cap gun?
    oOo
    He made himself stay up until after midnight that night, the last guy in the rec room when everybody knew they had a rough day at PT the next morning. Then he methodically made his preparations for bed, dressing in the tee shirt and shorts he liked to wear at night.
    A few years ago he’d gotten some self-hypnosis tapes when he’d needed to quit