Page 101 of Light Up The Night
"Ma'am? Can you hear me?" A Black male face hovers in my line of sight. "Is there anyone we can call?"
I blink, once. "Call?" My voice hurts to use—it is rusty, hoarse.
"Do you have any family expecting you?"
"Family.”
"Ma'am? Ma’am?" His hands shake me gently. "Ma'am, please. We wanna help you get home."
"Home?" My head a maelstrom of images. Emotions are a boiling cauldron. Thoughts are like leaves in a tornado.
"You got a boyfriend, maybe?"
"Riley." It emerges from my mouth unbidden. "Riley Crowe. Three Rivers." It's all I can manage. "Riley Crowe. Three Rivers…Riley Crowe, Three Rivers.” I feel myself rocking, arms wrapped around my middle. "Riley Crowe, Three Rivers. Riley Crowe, Three Rivers. Riley Crowe, Three Rivers."
“…See what comes up on Google…oh, yeah, here we go." A woman's voice, quiet and Jamaican-accented. "Riley Crowe, Crowe Demolitions in Three Rivers, which is…way the hell up north. I got a phone number. I’ll see if he answers…"
Chapter 16
RILEY
My phone rings at four in the morning.
I answer it. “Hello?"
It's not an international number, but a 313 area code: Detroit. Not Cadence, then.
"Riley Crowe?" A woman's voice, unfamiliar, with the lilt of a Jamaican accent.
"Yeah, who's this?"
"My name is Candace. I’m a security guard at the Detroit Metro Airport. I have a woman here who seems to be having some kind of trouble. She won't say anything but your name and Three Rivers. Her luggage tag says Cadence Creswell, MD."
I blank for a second. "Cade—Cadence? She's there?Now?"
"Yes, sir. She has been here for a few hours. At first, we thought she was waiting for a transfer, but she’s…she's just staring at nothing. Has been for hours. We barely got her to give us your name. Do you know her?"
"Yeah, yes, yes. She's my…yes, I know her. I'm several hours away, but I'll get there as soon as I can. Just…keep an eye on her. Leave her be, just keep an eye on her."
"Okay, I understand."
I throw on yesterday's clothes, cram a hat on my head, nuke leftover coffee and put it in a to-go tumbler, and head south as fast as I can, pushing the envelope of safety and legality. I send Felix and Bear a voice note detailing the situation, and then focus on driving.
I make it to DTW in record time—don't tell Cole, though, or he'll yell at me for speeding. I park like an asshole in the pickup line at Arrivals behind a few idling taxis and run inside, dodging and ducking, weaving through the crowd. I make it as far as the luggage carousel, but I'm stopped by a security guard at the door that would take me up to the concourse where Cadence must be.
"A guard named Candace called me," I say, panting. "My…ah, girlfriend is up there—”
“Yeah," the guard says. "You're Riley Crowe from Three Rivers, huh?”
I blink at the interruption. “Oh, uh, yeah, that's me."
"Cmon, man. This way." He does a chin-lift at another guard, who comes to take his place at the door. "Your girl must've been through some kinda shit, bro. She's fuckedup."
Fuck.
He senses my urgency—possibly assisted by the fact that I'm clearly about to shove past him and start sprinting. We reach the concourse, and he points to the left. "Down at the end. Gate A3."
“Thanks," I mumble, and take off running.
