Alexander

Missing

I have the best team I know out there looking for Dakota. Lori hasn't found out that Dakota is missing yet, and quite frankly, I don't think she would care if she did know.

I spend the rest of the day running around on foot looking for Dakota. Everywhere I turn, every place I look, she's no where to be found.

I hear a car pull up behind me. If this is Blane, I really don't have time for his shenanigans. Turning around, I realize it's not Blane.

"What are you doing here?" The world around me seems to freeze and my heart stops beating momentarily.

Maria smiles at me warmly. "I'm here visiting my uncle and in the cab, I thought that I saw you and I wanted to talk to you."

"Well, it's nice seeing you, but I'm actually late for something." I walk past her.

"Why'd you leave, in New York?" I stop walking and look at her.

"You figured out who I was." With that I leave her. I refuse to waste anymore of my time knowing that Dakota is out there somewhere.

I go to the restaurant that I took Dakota to when the goons found us. I search the whole place, but she's no where in sight.

It's starting to get late and Dakota still hasn't turned up. I walk the streets tired and hopeless. "Sir!" Turning I see Phillip. He runs towards me.

"No sight of her?" I shake my head, looking down. "Maybe she's somewhere that means the most to her."

"Where would that be? She doesn't even know this state." Just as I say that I remember. "I know where she is!"

"I'll drive. Let's go!" Phillip pats my back and we run towards the car. Hope begins to rekindle in my body. If I'm wrong. If Dakota isn't here than I think I'll lose my mind.

As Phillip drives, anticipation rises in my body. I stare out the window and not even the sounds of the waves can calm me. "What makes you so sure she'll be here?"

I think about Phillip's words. "Her voice, her actions. When I brought her here, she seemed as if it was the only place where she could just let go. Dakota practically melted when I brought her there."

Phillip pulls up to the Fair and I hop out the car before he can even put the car in park good. I search the venue and make my way through crowds.

Just as I'm about to give up hope, I notice a blonde girl sitting on the bench by the cotton candy stand. She's looking up at all the lights, with tears running down her face. I sigh of relief and my nerves start to calm.

Silently, I slide onto the bench. A million thoughts run through my head and I try to find the best words to say. "Wow, I wonder how many people take the time to look at those lights and notice how beautiful they are."

"Probably only a few." Her voice is weak and raspy. Dakota tries to wipe her tears, but the more she brushes them away, the more they fall.

We stay there silent and I wrap my arm around Dakota. She lays her head on my chest and I just hold her. We don't say anything else, we just stay there close to each other. I rub her shoulders, and for the first time in my life I feel normal, like I know what it's like to feel love.

I bring Dakota back home, our home, where she belongs. She sits on the couch with her legs across it, watching tv. Honestly, I can't even be mad at her for leaving. This lifestyle isn't a walk through the park, and especially if you find out your sister drugged you, it's a lot to take in.

I sit at the kitchen table and finish up some papers from work, but every now and then I glance at Dakota and she looks zoned out. She hasn't really talked much since we got back and I wish I could rid her of her pain.

"What happened to my father?" Shock runs through my veins at the sound of her voice. It takes me a minute to respond to her because the silence that existed was now cut by Dakotas words like a machete.

Making my way over to the couch, she looks at my face and moves her feet. Slowly, I sit down next to her and look into her eyes. She searches my face with complete innocence, like nothing ever happened and her question was something so simple like a kid asking why is the sky blue.

Wrapping my arm around her, she places her head on my shoulder. I run my fingers through her hair and kiss her forehead, gently. "You want to go for a walk?"

Dakota and I walk hand in hand through the park. The fresh air should do her some good and it's nothing, but good vibes out here. "So, what happened?"

"When I was a little boy in the building that we're staying in now, there use to be this drunk that no one really paid too much attention to. He would mumble crazy things all the time and no one really understood him. There was one thing he would say all the time that we could never figure out what he was talking about, we thought it was nothing."

"What was it?" I looked in her eyes, they were so hopeless, so lost.

"Dalota." She stopped walking. "In New York I did a lot of research of my childhood and the name that the drunk kept saying was a combination of two people."

"Dakota and Lori." I nod. "What happened to him? How'd he end up here?" She shakes her head in confusion like the pieces are forming a picture, but it's unclear.

"You father worked for the man that's been hunting my family down for years, Blane Crater. Turns out your father was so tired of all the horrible things Blane was doing, but he knew quitting would cost him his life, so he would drink all the time because everything was so hard to bare for him. Your dad didn't want you and Lori to end up having to work for Blane because in his death one of you would of had to step up to the plate."

"Lori." I nod. "Lori works for Blane." She looks into space because the picture is becoming clearer to her. "She hurt me to get to you, she never wanted to see me. Where is my father now? I need to talk to him." She storms off and I chase after her.

"Dakota, wait!" I run after her and take a hold of her hand. "There's more."

Being raised in this business, me and my siblings learned to adapt to many things. At night, in our building we would always hear gunshots, the sounds of people's cries, screams. We became numb to what would normally make any man shudder.

It was late, my mother had gone to tie up my father's loose ends and had left me in charge. My brother and sister were asleep in their rooms, but I had heard loud shouting, it was louder than any of the shouting I would normally hear.

Opening the door a little, I make sure to stay unseen. The drunk was being pushed against the wall by a muscular man, the man was Blane."

"Wait! Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell anyone ! Wait !

BANG!

Blane walked away and the drunk slid to the floor with a billet wound through his head and blood covered the wall.

Dakota has tears running down her face and all she could do was shake her head. "Why? Why would Blane kill my dad if he worked for him.

"He found out about you and your sister. Blane thought your father wasn't loyal because you father came to my family for help, my father didn't want anything to do with your father to keep the peace, but my mother convinced him that we couldn't leave your dad like that. We let him stay in our building to get his life together, so he could go home and protect you two, but it wasn't easy for him and Blane got to him first. Then, Blane found Lori."

"And Lori still choose to work for him? How could she?" Dakota felt betrayed.

"Lori doesn't know. Blane promised her if she worked for him, he'd tell her what happened to your father, but she never found out. She thought that if she kept her loyalty to Blane, he'd tell her, but he won't."

Dakota became too silent. I know she was beginning to hate Blane as much as I did. He took everything from her and she didn't even know him. He took her father and now he was taking her sister. Blane was going to pick Dakota's family off one by one like he had done to me, but as long as she was under my protection, I wasn't going to let that happen.