this point means dick,” I
snapped. I looked out around the club and it had emptied while I was out. My
eyes roamed and landed on Danni, who was inconsolably crying. Sadie had a stone
hard look on her face…the same one she always got when she was flaming mad. She
never cried, she always got pissed and right now I’d never seen her more pissed
in my life. Jessie was crying too but she was holding onto Danni and trying her
best to comfort her. I looked back to Beau, Kris, and Jude, and they all looked
exactly like the girls did…they were devastated that Everleigh had been taken.
We weren’t a family without her and I was better off dead if I didn’t find her.
The
cops said more things to me but I just tuned them out. I didn’t care about
anything but finding my girl. He could have her anywhere in this city. He could
be doing anything to her right now…and I was helpless. Short of calling every
single hotel and motel in the city I was at a loss of what to do. I felt a warm
hand on my shoulder and I heard Jude say, “Come on, man, let’s go to the
station.”
“I’m
not going anywhere but out to find her,” I said.
“Ryder-”
he said but I stopped him.
“No!
I have to find her, Jude! I have to stop him from touching her in any way. I
can’t let him defile her…I…can’t…” I said, and I broke down again. God, where
could she be?
Three
hours later, we were no closer to finding Everleigh than we were when I woke
up. We were all sitting at the police station, waiting for any news to come in
on Scott and Everleigh’s whereabouts. I felt like time had completely stopped
while I watched the clock on the wall slowly tick the time away. I had gone
from devastated to desperate to desolate to just plain numb. I couldn’t believe
I let this happen. If I hadn’t taken Everleigh into the hallway to have ten
minutes of sex with her this wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have been alone
for Scott to attack me, and Everleigh wouldn’t have slipped away long enough
for him to grab her.
I
had completely zoned out and I didn’t register anything around me until I felt
a tiny hand on my shoulder. “Hey, brother,” I heard Sadie say. “I got you some
coffee.”
I
took her hand and squeezed it. “Thanks, Squirt, but no thanks. I don’t want
anything right now.”
“Come
on, the paramedics said you might have a concussion. You need to stay awake and
you look like you are on the verge of passing out. Drink this,” she said,
forcing the cup of coffee into my hand. “It tastes like shit but it will get
the job done.”
I
lifted the cup to my lips and drank a little bit of it to satisfy her. “Thanks,
Squirt.”
“You’re
welcome,” she said, taking a seat next to me. “How are you holding up?”
I
shook my head and rubbed my hand over my face. “Not good, Sadie. I am feeling
about as low as anyone possibly can feel right now.”
“Oh
Ryder,” she said, hugging onto my arm. “She’s going to come home, bro, I can
feel it. In fact, I have a feeling that she will find us in the end. She’s
going to surprise us all.”
“I
hope you’re right, Sadie. She’s been so scared that this would happen and I promised
to protect her and I failed her. Not only her but I also failed her father. I
promised him on his death bed that I would take care of her and I haven’t. I
promised I wouldn’t let him down and now she’s out there all alone with a crazy
fucking psycho and there isn’t anything I can do to protect her.” I could feel
burning my eyes.
“Well,
in the short time I have known her I don’t think she’s a shrinking violet like
she seems to think she is. She’s got balls under all of her insecurity and
she’s going to fight to get back to you. Have faith in her,” she said.
I
prayed to God Sadie was right but after seeing how fragile Everleigh truly was
I didn’t know if she was strong enough to survive this. “I hope so, Squirt,” I
said and I pulled her into a hug.
Paul Auster, J. M. Coetzee