Page 24 of Theirs to Have

“How could she say that? She doesn’t even know us, little one.” Cash tried to soothe her, but Mercy wasn’t having it.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Cash. She does know you.” Mercy looked back over to Jackson as if it was easier to talk directly to him instead of Cash. “She is Jasmine’s younger sister,” she whispered.

“Fuck,” Cash cursed, running his hands through his long hair. Callan could see Mercy’s despair at having to tell Cash Lisa’s identity.

Callan sat next to Mercy pulling her into his lap. She buried her face in his shirt and cried.

“Who the hell is Jasmine?” Jackson barked.

“It’s a long story but a few years back I was involved in a poly relationship, and it ended badly. Jasmine didn’t take the news that I wasn’t in love with her well and she overdosed at my apartment. I found her dead in my bed.” Cash paced the floor taking up most of the room with his big body.

“Lisa said that you killed her sister and that she wouldn’t let our baby grow up with a monster for a father.” Mercy hid her face in Callan’s chest, and he didn’t miss the hurt on Cash’s face.

“She is right,” Cash whispered. “I killed Jasmine. I should have seen the signs, but I was too busy to notice that she was hurting. If I had just paid attention to her pleas for help she’d be alive today.” Mercy pulled free from Callan’s arms and tried tostand from her hospital bed. Once she put weight on her injured leg, it buckled. Cash caught her in his arms lifting her against his body.

“You need to stay in bed, little one.” Mercy wrapped her arms around his neck refusing to let him lay her back down.

“No Cash, I won’t let you blame yourself for Jasmine’s death, it wasn’t your fault. She made that decision, not you. You followed your heart and I’m so glad that you did otherwise, we wouldn’t have you.” Mercy reached over to Callan, and he took her hand.

“We need to know if you have any idea where Lisa might have gone with Katie. Did she tell you anything that might give us a lead, Mercy?” Jackson asked. Callan listened as Mercy went over her encounter again with Jack and another officer. They were going to call into the FBI since the case involved child abduction and the thought of having extra hands helping to find his daughter brought him some relief.

Mercy finished retelling her account of the morning and leaned her head against his chest. He knew that every second that ticked by their daughter was getting further away from them. Callan just wanted the whole nightmare to be over.

“How about you, Cash? Can you give us any insight as to where Lisa might have gone? You knew her family, I assume?” Jackson waited Cash out for an answer and Callan could tell that Cash felt bad for this whole messy ordeal.

“I didn’t know Jasmine even had a sister, Jack.” Cash ran his fingers through his unruly hair. “Jasmine told me that she was all alone out here. Her mother died when she was just a kid, and she didn’t know her father.” Cash’s voice cracked on his last thought and Callan knew that he was thinking of their daughter growing up without a father. Callan had the same tormented thoughts. Their daughter needed them, and he was itching to getout there and look for her. They lived in a small town, someone had to know where Lisa took Katie.

“Lisa said that Jasmine was all she had left,” Mercy almost whispered.

“I have officers questioning the rest of the staff to see if anyone knows where she lived or if Lisa has any friends or family in the area,” Jackson said on his way out of the room.

“Wait, what the fuck are we supposed to do?” Callan called after him.

“You are supposed to stay put and make sure that Mercy is taken care of,” Jack barked. Callan didn’t like the idea of sitting around to wait for something to happen. Katie was his daughter and that gave him every right to be out looking for her.

Cash stood and crossed to the door to face Jackson, “I think I have an idea where we should look.” Jackson seemed to be all ears at Cash’s new information. “Lisa said that Jasmine was all she had left, well maybe she went to visit her sister.”

Callan was lost, “I thought you said that Jasmine is dead.”

Cash nodded, “Yeah, but if Lisa is planning on leaving town with Katie, wouldn’t she visit Jasmine’s grave on her way out? If she is doing this all for her sister, doesn’t it stand to reason that she’d want to pay her respects before she heads off-grid?” Jackson nodded and pulled out his radio. He fed the information to every cop and detective on duty, conveying the directions that Cash gave him to the graveyard where Jasmine lay at rest.

“You’re with me Cash,” Jackson barked. Cash looked back to where Mercy sat on her hospital bed, worry etched in her beautiful face and Callan knew his friend was torn about leaving her.

“I’ve got our girl, Cash. You go and bring Katie back to us.” Callan nodded towards the door and Cash smiled back at him.

“Will do,” he promised and followed Jackson out the door. Callan just hoped like hell Cash was right because if Lisa wasable to get out of town, they might never see their daughter again.

Cash

Cash sat silently in Jackson’s police SUV and watched Jasmine’s grave as if expecting her ghost to pop up from the ground and laugh at him. He knew that he carried a lot of guilt for what happened to Jasmine, but he thought that he was putting those dark days behind him. He hoped like hell his hunch was right and that he’d be able to keep his promise to Callan and Mercy and bring their daughter back. He couldn’t imagine the alternative of going back to them empty-handed.

“We’ll find her Cash. We put out an Amber Alert and Lisa won’t get far with Katie,” Jackson offered. He knew that his friend was trying to help but he physically ached from the pain of losing his daughter. It was a feeling that he had never experienced before, and he hoped to God he’d never have to again. Once they got Katie back, he’d never let her or Mercy out of his sight.

The thought of Lisa holding a gun at Mercy nearly gutted him. He was so thankful that the bullet only grazed Mercy’s thigh, otherwise, he and Jackson might be having a very different conversation.

“Thanks, man but I won’t feel better about any of this until I hand Katie back to her mama.” Jack nodded and they sat in silence waiting and praying for Lisa to show her face. Jackson seemed fixated on a pregnant woman who was weaving her way through the headstones, crying. He pulled out his cell phone and checked the picture that the hospital had given him of Lisa’s work ID. He nudged Cash’s arm to show him that the pregnant woman and Lisa looked an awful lot alike.

“I’m calling it in,” Jack said, pulling his radio from his shoulder holster. Cash undid his seatbelt and went to open the door, Jackson’s big arm slamming against his chest effectively stopping him.

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