Rocco's Atonement

“Something has George spooked,” Linc says as he moves toward us. “Did you look in that?” He points to her purse under my arm. I shake my head and hand off the journals to him.

I open the purse and see only a small wallet. No lipstick, Chapstick, nothing that says it’s a girl’s purse. I pull open the wallet and see the state issued ID that I knew she had. There’s no money, nothing else.

“Fuck.” I throw my head back and roar to the ceiling. She has nothing but is the richest person in this home. “We need to find her.”

“Let’s get to the precinct and question them. We are taking in the daughter for questioning too,” Linc says, and I move with him toward the stairs and out of the small little cave my girl would hole herself up in for protection and rest. It’s awful what these people have done to her. They’ve tried to erase her from the world.

When we get back to the precinct, I set the journals and purse down at my desk. I want to question them but can’t. George’s attorney has arrived, and everyone is in different rooms to be questioned. The attorney brought several associates with him to help with Carmen and Prudence. I move to the glass and watch as George is questioned. He’s refusing to answer Damian’s questions. I stare him down through the glass. Slowly his eyes move to mine, and he knows I’m there. He lifts his chin; a slight smirk crosses his lips.

He knows something.

The urge to push my way into the room and slam him up against the wall is too much.

“Stay calm. You can do this.” Linc’s gruff voice comes from behind me. I don’t break the stare with George.

“You don’t understand—”

“You think I don’t get it?” he interrupts me. “I had to play a game with Tracy to find out where my wife was. My unborn son and her were in the hands of a psychopath.”

“But Guinevere isn’t equipped to be running around out there if what they said is the truth. She doesn’t have a coat and it’s late at night. We haven’t heard anything.”

The only thing we got out of George was that Guinevere left this morning and he hasn’t seen her since. He won’t tell us where Milton is. We have officers canvasing the building to see if we can find out where Guinevere went.

What direction she headed in.

Something.

Anything.

I just need to know she is safe.

Geoffrey is having Linc’s computer people search cameras around the city. But she could be anywhere.

Linc’s phone rings and he pulls it from his pocket.

“Yeah?”

I tune him out as I continue to stare down George, who isn’t paying attention to the questioning now. He’s letting his attorney answer for him. My mind spins with all the places she could be. All the things that could happen to her.

“I’ll check it out. Come on, Rocco, we have a place to look.” I turn back to Linc, dazed. “Come on, man, snap out of it. Bekah found a woman who could be her heading into the library several hours ago.”

“Let’s go.” I move with him, and we take off out to his car. In the late evening traffic it takes us an hour to get to the library she was spotted entering. She could be gone by now.

I slam the door and move up the stairs, pausing at the top to wait for Linc. I can’t leave him behind. I won’t revert back to that uncaring individual I was before. I call in our location to dispatch and tell them to stand by if we need backup.

Without knowing where Milton is, he could be here too. When Linc is at my side, we step inside together and walk up to the information desk. The library closes in about fifteen minutes. It’s almost seven in the evening.

“Hello, ma’am, I’m Detective Distonoli with NYPD.” I flash my badge at her. “This is Lincoln Warren. We are looking for this woman.” I pull up my cell phone and flash her a picture of Ever I took while she was sleeping.

“Is she dead?” the woman asks, and I grit my teeth. But when I look at her, she is avoiding my eyes and the picture.

“No, sleeping. She’s in danger. We heard she might have been here earlier.”

“Maybe,” the woman says softly but won’t look at me still.

“Ma’am, she’s not in trouble. Like I said, she is in danger, and we need to find her. She is quiet and sweet.” The woman’s eyes flash up to mine and I see the indecision in her eyes.

“Guin is sweet.” She confirms she knows her. I didn’t give her Guinevere’s name. She realizes she gave up too much and covers her mouth. “Please don’t take her back to them. This is the worst I’ve ever seen her. She won’t let me help her. I wanted to call the police earlier.”

“I swear we won’t let her go back to them unless she wants to.” I can’t say I’ll do anything to keep her from going back to them, but she needs to learn to make her own choices, and this is the first one.

The woman nods and lifts her chin, indicating behind me to the floor above. I move to the stairs and up toward her. Linc is right behind me. My body is a riot of nerves. It’s as if it knows my soul mate is close by. That’s what she has become in the short time since I met her. I can’t explain how fast it’s happening or how it has even happened.

We move down the rows of shelves to a quiet area in the back. There curled up in a chair with her arms wrapped around her to keep warm and a book on her lap is my girl sound asleep. My heart settles and I take a big breath. When I exhale, it’s enough noise that she jumps and her eyes flare wide. She takes me in and tears start rolling down her face.

“Shh, Ever, I’m not taking you back unless you want me to. They can’t make you go back anymore.” I kneel in front of her, taking the book and moving it away as I take her hands in mine. “I told you I want to protect you. I know you’ve had people in the past try to help and George has made them disappear. He can’t do that with me.” I gently take her soft face in my hands. “You scared the crap out of me. Don’t ever run without telling me where you’re going.” She nods and I pull her gently toward me. Our foreheads touch and I breathe her into my lungs. She does the same and I know that we have both locked into our memories this moment.

“I didn’t know how to reach you, and I knew they would come for you first.” She’s right. My card was in her wallet. But the second part of her sentence sinks in.

Fuck. “Linc, we might have company,” I tell him.

“Give me a second. I’ll get Noah to meet us at the back entrance and we’ll go out that way.” Before he can lift his phone, we hear the woman at the front desk raise her voice.

“We are closing, you need to leave.”

Linc moves back down the row to the balcony and looks over the edge. I get Ever up and have her slip on her shoes again. She’s in her maid uniform, so I know she ran right after she started working this morning.

“Come on, sweetheart.” I move us around the outside of the stacks away from the staircase and around to the other side. I see Linc moving with us. He stops and I move us into a row of shelves knowing he must see someone. He gives me a slight signal, and we remain still. Me holding Ever to my body, shielding her. I’ll take whatever is coming before she does.