Taking a Chance

Chapter 32

Rick was shocked. He quickly looked from Daryl to Michonne who was nodding her head in agreement. "How? Why? Why would Merle do that?" Rick had never liked Daryl's brother and he knew the feeling was mutual. Merle preferred to live in the gutter and bring Daryl down with him. He knew that his friend had made many questionable choices over the years and as long as Rick didn't catch them doing anything illegal, he could turn blind eye. Now that Merle was out of Daryl's life, his friend was a different man.

Daryl had changed his life, showing his true character and that proved how much Merle had dragged him down all those years. Daryl had always been a good friend to him and in reality, he was more of a brother than a friend. Rick was prepared to do anything he had to help him find Gabrielle.

"To make a long story short, remember that night we ate at the Mexican place and I came back from having a smoke?"

"Yep, you were out of sorts when you got back," Rick told him.

"It was Merle. Don't know how he found me, but he approached me outside the restaurant while I was smokin'. He needed money, like three grand and I told him no way. He has no reason to think I'd have that type of cash. I never ever had ten bucks to spare and I know he don't know about the money I got from your folks." Daryl explained. Leave it to Merle to have to push this. Daryl had no idea why he would take Gabrielle to help him and not ask Daryl again. Was he that desperate? If he hurt a hair on her head, brother or no brother Daryl would kill him.

"What the hell does he need three thousand dollars for?" asked Michonne.

Rick caught Daryl's eyes. He knew without even asking. Michonne didn't know as much about Merle as Rick did. "Drugs?"

"Drugs. He was selling for a guy and being the asshole that he is, he used some of the dope and kept the cash. Now the dealer is supposedly after him. I can't believe he had the balls to take Gabrielle, he is so fuckin' stupid!" Daryl told them in complete frustration. "I checked the bank account. There was an ATM withdrawal of five hundred today. He musta made Gabrielle take that out."

"Why not more or don't you guys have it?" asked Michonne.

"We didn't have much more than that in the checking account, but we gotta limit on the card that we can withdraw. Damn, that's what musta happened and it pissed him off. Damn it Merle!"

Michonne looked from her husband the deputy sheriff to her distraught friend. "What do we do next?"

"Figure out where he took her?" said Rick. "Any ideas Daryl?"

"He's living outta his car he told me. Where the hell would he have taken her?" Daryl paced back and forth trying to wrack his brain on where they could be. Gabrielle must be so frightened. Merle had to have snapped for him to have both brought a gun with him and have fired a shot inside the house. There wasn't any sign of blood so hopefully, that meant that Gabrielle was okay. If anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

"His cell! He called me a few weeks back and I ignored him. Let me try calling him, so help me God if he hurts her, I'm gonna fuckin' kill him!"

Before Daryl could call Merle, Rick had him stop. "Hold on a second. We need a plan. If you go off halfcocked on him, it's gonna backfire. His state of mind has to be fucked up, so you need to come off easy going and agree to whatever he wants. We just need to find them, and then we do what we need to do, understand Daryl?"

Rick knew he should get the department involved, but time was of the essence and Daryl was their best shot at finding Gabrielle. He didn't like it, but knew for his friend...his brother; they had to try it this way. If this backfired, he could lose his job, but it was a chance he was prepared to take.