Chapter Twenty Nine

River



It’s been three days since Chevelle disappeared and there are absolutely zero leads.

Nothing.

How the hell is that even possible?

“If anything happens to her, I will never forgive myself, River.” Caprice says, pacing back and forth in the living room, unable to set still and chewing on her fingers. “I should have freaking gone with her! Why didn’t I go with her, River? Why?” She asks, tears building in her eyes as she voices the same questions she has asked repeatedly over the last few days.

She has been completely beside herself, guilt eating her alive at letting her go to the park on her own to speak with me, instead of insisting that she stay at the house or that she go with her.

“As I have already told you, if you had gone with her, then you both may have been taken, or worse. And then, no one would know anything. Please, you have to stop blaming yourself.” I tell her, trying to coax her into calming down.

“We don’t know anything now!” She shouts, her hands fisting into her hair as she shakes her head in frustration, “at least she wouldn’t be alone if I had been taken too.” She whispers the last part as she sinks to the floor, her tears finally falling for the first time since we discovered Chevy was missing.

“I know you feel guilty. Hell, if anyone is to blame, it’s me. She was here, in this situation, because of me and the secrets that I kept from her.” I tell her, my own guilt flooding me over the part that I’ve played in all of this.

“If I had just been honest from the beginning, maybe this would have never happened. Maybe she would still be with us.” I say, more to myself than Caprice.

“But, if you had come clean from the beginning, what if she couldn’t forgive you…what then? She could still be gone. Do you think she would have still stayed? Do you think you two would have gotten as close as you did, fallen in love with one another?” She asks, turning her tear streaked face to me, “I highly doubt it. And, she still could have been taken.”

I just shake my head, refusing to believe that had I come clean from the beginning, that I would have lost her. I have to believe that had I pulled my head out of my ass, that we would have been able to work through it. But, hindsight is 20/20, and there’s no changing the past.

“Fuck!” I shout, leaning forward and burying my head in my hands, “Fuck, I miss her so goddamn much…” I whisper.

“Please, dear God, please bring her back to me.” I pray. For the first time since I’d found myself on trial, facing manslaughter charges for the death of Sierra, do I pray.

“God, I know that I’ve failed her, so many damn times. But please, I am begging you to bring her back to me, to us.” I say, including Caprice and the rest of her family when Caprice crouches down next to me, placing her hand on my knee and begins whispering words on her own. “Please, God. I just need her back. I need to know that she’s okay. I need to know that my baby is okay. There is so much that I need to tell her, to explain and to apologize for. But, above all, I just need her.”

Unable to control it any longer, tears slip from my eyes, trailing down my cheeks and through the days worth of hair that has grown out since discovering that she was missing, and I begin to sob, letting out all of the guilt and pain that I’ve been holding on to as I say the words that I’ve not allowed myself to voice, but silently feared, “Please, dear God, if nothing else, I ask that you cast protection over her, not letting harm come to to her in any manner.”

As soon as the words are spoken, my cell begins ringing. Pulling it from my pocket, I find the screen lit up with a number that I don’t recognize.

“Hello?” I say, answering it on the third ring.

“River?” Comes a hoarse voice, but it’s one that I would recognize anywhere.

“Chevy?” I ask, standing up, “baby, where are you?”

“River, listen to me. I don’t have much time but you have to save me. Please…” she begins to cry as she speaks, making me unable to make out her words.

“Baby, you have to calm down, I can’t understand you.” I tell her gently.

“Joe…” Is all she manages to say before I hear her scream, there’s the sound of a man yelling along with some kind of commotion in the background.

“Chevy, baby!” I shout, knowing that she’s not there but needing to try, “Chevy! Fuck!”

“What happened?” Caprice asks, followed by Cam’s voice, “Where is she?”

“I don’t know…I couldn’t make out anything but the name Joe. But, she’s in trouble. I know it.” I tell them, looking back and forth between the two siblings.

“Did you say Joe?” Cam growls the name, disgust laced with the single word.

“Do you know who it is?” I ask, my heart beating fast as fear sets in for her well being.

“Mom’s ex.” Both Caprice and Cam say at the same time.

“He was a creepy son of a bitch.” Caprice says with a shiver.

“What do you mean?” I ask, turning my attention towards Caprice.

“He never did anything, exactly.” She says, glancing over at Cam, as if considering her words carefully before speaking, “but he used to look at me in a way that no adult should ever look at a little girl. And then…oh God!” she gasps, bringing her hand to her mouth, her face turning green.

“What, what is it?” Cam asks, sitting down next to his sister.

“At night, I used to hear strange sounds sometimes coming from Chevy’s room…it was around the same time that her panic attacks started. You don’t think…” she doesn’t even finish her sentence before Cam shouts.

“Son of a bitch!” he throws something across the room, the object hitting the wall and shattering before falling to the floor where I realize that it had been my glass of water. “He did something to her. That has to be what it was…”

“And he must have her now. Do you know where he lives?” I ask, looking between the two of them, both shaking their head *no*.

*Damnit.*

Scrolling through my contacts, I hit the call button and put my phone to my ear.

“Sargent Tierny,” the person says when the line picks up.

“Terry, it’s River. I think I know who may have Chevy. I need you to see if you have an address for a Joe…” Covering the receiver, I turn my attention to Cam, “do you know his last name?”

“Driskell.” Corrinne says, walking out of the kitchen, a horrified look on her face.

“Joe or Joseph Driskell.” I tell him, as I make my way to the front door, digging into my front left pocket for my keys.

“I’m coming with you.” Cam tells me, before he takes off down the hall, then returns a few moments later, tucking a black handgun into the waistband of his jeans.

“I’ve got a last known location, but River, you should let the authorities handle this.” Terry says, withholding the information that I desperately want him to tell me.

“Terry, please…” I beg, Cam and I climb into my truck.

“This could cost me my badge, you know that right?” Terry asks, sounding wholly unsure of what I hope he is about to do.

“You know that I wouldn’t ask if I weren’t desperate. Please, it’s Chevy…” I tell him, hoping that my one time foster brother will be willing to risk it. He knows all about Chevy, as well as her being missing.

“I’ll text you the address. I’m heading there now, along with the rest of my team. Please, River, don’t do anything stupid. Wait for us to get there.” He pleads, and I know it’s not because he’s afraid of losing his badge. It’s because he’s afraid of what I may do if I get my hands on the son of a bitch.

“Thank you.” I tell him, then hang up as I turn over the ignition and pull out onto the road.

“Fuck!” Cam swears after several minutes of silence, “I can’t believe I never put it together that that fucker may have been hurting her.” I can hear the regret and anger in his voice, but I can’t really fault him, he was just a kid. “I failed her.”

“No, you didn’t,” my phone pings with the address and I gun it, recognizing the address as not being far from where we’re currently at, “but I’ll let you get your turn with fucking him up.”

“I will kill him.” he says, his voice taking on a deadly tone.

“Not if I kill the fucker first.” I tell him, completely serious.

“No, River, you can’t. Chevy is going to need you.” He says, trying to talk me out of my murderous thoughts, “her and your baby, are *both* going to need you.”

“She will need her big brother, too.” I tell him.

“Then instead of killing him, we just fuck him up and knock him out until your guy gets there.” I nod in agreement as I head out of the main part of town, heading down a dead end dirt road.