Chapter 14
BUTCH
Butch looked over at Raelynn, who was sleeping peacefully in her little cot.
He had moved it from the room closet to the living room, where he was working on several things.
He needed to make different meals so that he could spend as much time with her as he needed.
Meals that were going to be easy on her stomach, but also allow her to have a variety of things.
His goal was to make her gain some weight.
Weight she desperately needed to regain.
He didn’t like how small she had gotten since he last saw her eight years ago.
He didn’t like a lot of things that had changed with her since he last saw her, but it was out of his control.
But he had wished that he had searched harder for her, so she didn’t have to go through those things alone.
He shouldn’t be dwelling on the past, though. He couldn’t go back in time to change anything, and there was no point in playing it through his head and asking what-if questions.
Butch pulled out his phone and called Reaper.
“How’s Little Miss Rae doing?” Reaper asked.
“I see how it is. You only care about her now, but she’s my woman,” Butch said. “So, don’t you be getting any ideas about taking her away from me.”
“And as I’ve said before, Butch, I see her as a sister and nothing else.
I know she is yours. I would never dream of taking her away from you,” Reaper replied, chuckling.
“Now, how is she doing? Don’t make me come over there to see for myself if you don’t answer my questions.
And trust me, I will come over even though you told us that no one was allowed to visit for over a week.
If you don’t give us updates, then one of us will visit to make sure that she is alive. ”
Butch rolled his eyes, and he looked over at Raelynn, who was suckling on a pacifier while she slept so soundly.
“She’s doing fine, and no one needs to come and visit.
She’s already having a hard time being overwhelmed with all the sounds, and having another person here will only make things worse.
So no one should be coming to visit, no matter what.
Not until I give the okay,” Butch said, giving no room for arguments.
“None of us will come as long as you give us updates about her and how she’s doing.
Even though none of us talked to her much while she was here before, she has already made her way into everybody’s hearts.
She’s part of this family, and everybody’s already worried about her.
We all want to know how she’s doing and to see her for themselves.
But Deccan has kept everyone in line,” Reaper explained.
“Now, why did you call? I know you didn’t call just for me to ask how Rae is. ”
“Have you and Ace found anything else?” Butch asked. “Anything about the people on the first and last pages?”
Reaper sighed. “We’ve been digging into everything, looking into everyone on those pages, but we haven’t been able to find anything. Everyone is squeaky clean.”
Butch growled and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy to figure everything out.
He wanted to pay his father and stepmother a visit, but he didn’t want to leave Raelynn alone.
He knew she would worry, and he didn’t want to leave her in a vulnerable state without him.
He had just found her. There was no way she was going to be out of his sight.
“On those pages, where is there no one you suspect? Even just a little inkling of suspicion, and we’ll dig further into them, but everything so far, everyone is clean,” Reaper continued. “We’ve even looked into other people who have changed their name. But there have been no hits or any luck.”
“None of them could possibly do it. They are either too old, or they didn’t have a mean bone in their body,” Butch explained. “But if one of them gives you a bad vibe, then you look into them as much as you want.”
“Have you ever thought that maybe the person who had her could have just told her that his name was Ed?” Reaper asked.
Butch shook his head. “I haven’t, but she said that I wouldn’t believe her if she told me. I don’t think she would have believed him if he’d told her his name was something else. We knew everyone in town, and the fact that I know him just means that whatever she said was his name.”
But Butch didn’t know many people called Ed. Maybe it was a nickname for someone, and he just needed to think harder about it.
“You continue to think on who that could possibly be, and we’ll look into these people,” Reaper replied.
“We’re going to find him, and we’re going to make him pay for everything he’s done.
I know you get first dibs on the man, but after you, I want to have a go at him. I want him to suffer even more.”
“If he survives, you can have a go at him.” Butch’s anger was increasing the more he thought about everything that had happened to Raelynn. He didn’t even know the full extent of it, and he was already wanting to pulverize the man.
“Tell Little Miss Rae that everyone here misses her and can’t wait for her to come back and grace us with her smiles,” Reaper said before he hung up.
Butch ran his hands through his hair as he stared at his phone. Everyone was getting a little too comfortable with Raelynn. She was his; nobody else’s. If he had it his way, he would lock her up in a room and never let her out. Butch wanted Rae, his Little Fairy, to be his alone.
Raelynn started whimpering, and his head snapped up. Butch rushed toward her, looking over every inch of her body before his eyes settled on her mouth and the missing pacifier. A smile split on his face as he looked around before spotting the pacifier near her neck.
“Such a silly Little Fairy,” he whispered as he gave her the nipple. “My silly Little Fairy.”
She immediately settled down as she started to suckle on the nipple again, and Butch just watched her.
“Precious,” he mumbled as his hand settled on her stomach.