Other than the file, which is nothing more than a collection of vague, impersonal information about her, she has no proof. If she came here with the police, I’d still be fucked when they tried to investigate me, but there’s no way they’d believe that I was keeping her here as a prisoner.
That being said, it’s clear she’s run off. To where, I’m not exactly sure. But I figure a visit to the underground car garage is in order, just to find out which car she stole so I can track it.
I call Erik down with me, just to have another set of eyes. I have quite a few luxury vehicles, and if one of them had gone missing under different circumstances, I probably would have never even noticed.
We search the car garage until Erik calls out to me, shouting that he’s found the place of the missing vehicle.
Fortunately, I have high-tech trackers on all of my cars in the event that Ididnotice one of them missing. River can’t be too far away given the fact that she’s effectively forgotten all of her driving skills along with her memory.
Just as he’d said, the keys are missing from their place on the key ring near the door.
I pull up the tracking app on my phone, entering the number listed on the key. Immediately, her location pops up, and it looks like she’s heading for the south side of the city where her old apartment is.
Shit.
If nothing has brought back her memory of who she really is, this will. She’s figuring things out so much more quickly than I would have given her credit for.
The only silver lining here is that she’s also speeding toward the location of the new warehouse where we had just moved all of our product. There are still a few men down there today, so I can send out a signal for them to intercept her. She’ll have no idea who’s after her if it isn’t me, and I highly doubt she’ll be able to outrun them no matter what car she’s in.
Even if she can walk a little, she’s not nearly coordinated enough to race anybody I’ve trained if she intends on winning.
I send out the signal, awaiting the capture of my dearly devoted wife.
Until then, I light up a cigarette as I step out onto the patio, the overhang just wide enough to keep the torrential downpour off me as I wait.
28
RIVER
This car is so goddamn complicated that I’ve been struggling just to understand basic commands. Before I was able to merge onto the highway, I accidentally ran quite a few red lights as I hit the accelerator instead of the brakes multiple times. It’s a goddamn miracle that I didn’t get into a crash or kill someone.
How ironic would that be, getting into a crash and re-paralyzing myself?
I try to put the thought out of my head, but now that I’m realizing how poorly-planned this whole escape has been, anything seems possible.
The rain has caused me to hydroplane multiple times, gliding over the surface of the pavement at eighty miles an hour as I squint to see more than ten feet in front of my face to no avail.
My heart rate has skyrocketed to the point that I fear I could give myself a heart attack if I don’t force myself to calm down.
But how?
I’m in one of the most cartoonishly terrifying scenarios anybody could dream of. There’s a huge chance that I was literally kidnapped from a hospital and manipulated into a stranger’s Stepford wife without functioning legs.
Now, I’m speeding into the grey depths of an unpredictable storm as I flee my captor, on my way to my former address to discover who I really am. There is absolutely no angle I can work to make this seem okay. I have nothing and nobody.
As the sun goes down behind the storm clouds, my visibility worsens.
“This is insane!” I shout at nobody in particular.
Maybe I’m shouting at the universe. Maybe it’s god.
I find an exit after what seems like an hour of slowly maneuvering my way through the flooding roads. I jump at the opportunity, feeling the traction pick up on the tires as the water slides off the on ramp.
There isn’t much out here, just a carpooling lot and a gas station a little further up the road.
I decide to stop for a moment to collect myself, at least to keep from having an aneurysm.
Breath in, breathe out.