Drake Sisters 06 - Turbulent Sea

quits.
    Denny disappeared immediately with Lisa, and Logan hurried to call the hospital to check on his baby, so Joley visited with Brian, Leo and Rick while the crowd thinned. They were pumped up after the performance like always, stumbling over one another to talk. No one noticed that she said very little. She couldn't think of anything but Ilya, but pride wouldn't let her reach out to him. The longer he was silent, the angrier she became at him.
    In the darkened van, she sat in the passenger-side front seat and rolled down the window as Steve took her out the back way. Die-hard fans that followed her from concert to concert knew she never traveled in the limousine or the decoy car, but stayed late and came out in the nondescript van. She always signed autographs for the ones who waited so long.
    Steve knew the routine and he slowed the van as he turned onto the street. The rest of the band had come outside and stood behind the gates, watching as security milled with the crowd. These fans were polite, not rushing the car, but forming a loose line as they handed over programs and pictures for Joley to sign. She knew quite a few by name and greeted them with smiles, not for a moment letting how tired she was show.
    A woman shuffled up to the car and handed her a picture. Joley didn't recognize her, but smiled and said hello.
    When she glanced down to sign, she saw that it wasn't her picture, but that of a young teenage girl.
    'My daughter,' the woman said. 'She's missing.'
    Joley looked from the woman's grief-stricken face back to the picture. 'I'm so sorry,' she murmured.
    'She was at your concert in New York, and afterward she was invited by your band to go to a party. She left me a message saying she was there and would be home late, but she didn't come home. I was working. I clean office buildings. She knew I wouldn't pick up the message until it was too late to stop her. Please. Have you seen her? She's only thirteen.' Tears swam in the woman's eyes.
    Joley took another look at the young girl. I know that face . For a moment she could barely breathe. 'Steve? Does she look familiar to you?' She leaned close to him, whispering to keep the woman from hearing her. 'Isn't she the girl who made the cell phone call and seemed to know Dean?'
    Steve frowned, shrugged and shook his head, but said nothing.
    'Please.' The woman clutched at Joley's arm, digging her fingernails deep.
    At once grief and fear overwhelmed Joley. Her stomach lurched.
    Jerry St. Ives materialized from the crowd. 'Is something wrong?'
    The woman was hysterical now, trying to pull Joley out of the van, clutching her arm with one hand and yanking on the door handle with the other.
    'You're bleeding. What did she do to you?' Jerry demanded.
    The door began to swing open, and Jerry kicked it shut while calling for backup. Security swarmed around the woman and pulled her back, yelling at Steve to drive.
    'No!' Joley protested, but Steve saw the blood on her arm and stomped on the gas, driving away from the crowd. She looked back and saw the woman struggling with the security detail. 'Stop, Steve. It's not like she was trying to hurt me; don't let them turn her over to the police.'
    'Jerry says no, to keep driving. He'll fire me if I don't get you out of here. Your safety has to come first.'
    'You work for me.'
    'My job is to protect you.'

    'From a woman whose daughter is missing?' Joley turned around in her seat. 'Get on the phone and tell Jerry we saw that girl with Dean. What if she's hiding out with him? Traveling with the band from concert to concert? We'd be liable. That should shake him up. She's thirteen .'
    Steve shot her a quick glance.
    'Do it!' Joley stared down at the picture, suddenly afraid. Had anyone in her band issued an invitation to the girl? It would be horrible if she'd run off with a crew member. Or worse, what if something had really happened to the girl?
    'And tell him I want him to find that roadie tonight and deal with this. Dean whatever. Brian knows him. I want Jerry to talk to him tonight.'
    'Okay, okay,' Steve said soothingly. 'I'll tell Jerry. He'll handle it, that's his job.'
    Joley breathed a sigh of relief. Jerry was very good at handling things, that's why he managed the band. She rested her head against the seat and closed her eyes.
    Chapter Four
    Joley paced back and forth along the narrow aisle in her tour bus. 'They should have Dean here by now, Brian,' she snapped. 'Where is he? It's been two weeks since that