The phone rang a little after 2 am.

Carol, still up pacing the living room, answered it on the second ring, "Hello?"

She could hear some rustling on the other end of the line and the sound of a semi passing on a highway. Goosebumps prickled at her skin and she pressed the phone tighter to her ear.

"Hello?" she repeated.

Another semi passed in the background before a familiar voice finally spoke.

"Carol?"

She sat down hard, clutching the receiver so tight her fingers went numb, "Ed?"

"Yeah," he answered.

If life was like the movies, Carol knew she'd be surrounded by a team of officers coaching her on what to say while they pinpointed his location with some kind of crazy technology. But instead it was just her, alone on her sofa in the darkness with the phone pressed tight to her ear.

"Oh God, Ed, is she okay?"

"What do you think, Carol?" he asked, his words mocking and a bit slurred. "You think I would hurt my own child?"

She shuddered, feeling as though he was right behind her, speaking into her ear instead of miles and miles away, talking into a payphone. She didn't want to tell him that she did, in fact, think he would hurt his own child. She had no doubt about the kind of man he was.

"I just need to know if she's okay," she told him, heart pounding against her ribs. "I have to know, Ed."

There was some more rustling in the background and then she heard, "Mommy?"

"Sophia," she squeezed her eyes closed, her head spinning like a top. "Sophia, baby, are you okay?"

There was a pause and she heard Ed's voice in the background before her daughter murmured, "Mmhmm."

There was so much she wanted to say to her daughter, it was all tumbling around in her brain and she couldn't slow her thoughts down enough to focus on any of them.

But before she could say another word, Ed was back on the phone, "Told you, didn't I?"

She took a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to regain control of herself, "What's she doing up at this time of the morning, Ed? She should be asleep."

"Ah, she's fine," he answered dismissively. "Been eating ice cream."

"Ice cream?" she asked, her head pounding in time with her heart. "Please, Ed, you know you can't take care of her. You – you don't know how. Just bring her home and I won't ask any questions."

"You're damn right you won't be asking any questions," he hissed, the venom in his voice catching her off guard. "That's the problem with you, Carol. You ain't never learned your goddamned place."

The slurring was more obvious now and she cringed, "Are you drunk? Please tell me you're not drunk."

"I ain't," he mumbled. "Mind your own business, bitch."

"Where are you?" she asked, knowing it was a long-shot.

"What'd I just say? Mind your own fucking business," he snapped.

"Please, Ed. I'm begging you," she told him softly. "Please, just bring her home."

"No," he answered immediately and she could hear the smile in his voice. "I sure like to hear you begging though."

She could picture it on his face, that sick, sadistic grin that had always scared the hell out of her, and suddenly she was angrier than she'd ever been in her life. Pure, blinding rage swept through her, consuming her like a wildfire, and she shivered in the wake of it.

"You bastard," she bit out through clenched teeth. "I'll find you and I'll get her back."

"I'm counting on it," he laughed, a sound that froze the blood in her veins. "See you soon, Carol."

She cursed at him but somewhere out there, he slammed the phone down, leaving the dial tone buzzing in her ear.

As the day passed, Carol stewed in her anger. It was like being stuck in quicksand – the harder she raged, the farther she was sucked into it. Because for all her fury, she knew her words had been hollow, empty threats. She didn't even know where to begin when it came to finding Sophia.

Aunt Angela seemed to find it painful to even look at her. She spent most of her time with Carol's mother in her bedroom, where she still hadn't emerged from her sedative-induced cocoon of numbness.

Carol didn't want to be numb. She wanted to feel every second of anger and fear. If she let herself go numb, she knew she'd never see her daughter again.

When the doorbell rang that afternoon, Carol couldn't say she was happy to see Daryl standing outside but she wasn't unhappy either.

She opened the door without a word, leaning against it and staring at him blankly. The sky was dark behind him, black clouds rolling in on the horizon.

"Hey," he said softly, looking at her like he expected her to shatter into a million pieces in front of his eyes. "Just wanted to check on you. You doing okay?"

"Not really."

He grimaced, "Stupid question."

She just stared at his feet, watching him scuff the toe of his boot against the edge of the step.

"Heard anything else from the cops?" he asked after a moment.

She shrugged, "They called this morning to tell me they didn't have anything to tell me yet."

Daryl shook his head. She heard the rumble of thunder in the distance and rubbed her eyes.

"Ed called," she told him after a moment. She heard his sharp intake of breath and continued, "Sophia is okay. He let me talk to her for just a second."

"Shit," Daryl cursed under his breath, his brows knitting together. "Why'd he call?"

She shrugged, her eyes straying to the clouds gathering behind him, "He's playing games, messing with my head. I don't know. I think he wants me to come find him."

"So what are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to give him what he wants," she told him firmly.

He nodded once and she saw understanding dawning in his eyes, "Anything I can do?"

"Maybe," she began, scrubbing at her gritty, swollen eyes again. "But I hate to ask any more from you."

"Ask it," he told her flatly, squinting up at her.

"Do you," she hesitated, "or maybe your brother…do either of you know anyone that could help me? I don't even know where to start."

He worried the skin around his thumbnail with his teeth.

"I'll talk to Merle."

"Merle Dixon…but you can call me Big D."

Carol studied Daryl's brother skeptically as he stood by her front door, leering at her and dripping rainwater onto her clean tiled floor.

Merle Dixon was an intimidating man. He wasn't much bigger than his brother but he looked meaner. He wore his anger on his skin, in the hard lines of his face and the tight set of his mouth.

"I think I'll stick with Merle if that's alright," she told him dryly. "Go on into the living room and I'll get you two some towels. Anything to drink?"

"We're fine," Daryl told her at the same time Merle said, "I'll take a beer."

She paused at the door to the linen closet, "I don't have any beer but I can get you a Coke?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and flopped down on her sofa with little regard for the soaking wet state of his clothing.

She sighed, fetching two towels for the brothers. It seemed they'd brought the storm with them. Lightning had flashed overhead and split the clouds, unleashing a torrential downpour on the two of them as they'd made a run to the front door from Daryl's pickup. Even now, thunder was rattling the windows.

Daryl took the towels from her with a mumbled "thanks" and offered one to Merle, who slapped it away as she sat down across from them.

Seeing that Merle was a man who didn't care to beat around the bush, Carol got right down to business and told him the whole story, unsure of how much his brother had already related to him.

"You got the police looking for the kid, right?" he asked when she'd finished and she nodded.

"They're supposed to be but I don't think they're looking too hard," she sighed. "I get the feeling they're not too concerned since she's with her father instead of some child predator. They don't seem to think much of me anyway."

Merle nodded like he understood that.

"Well, that's a real shame, lady, but I ain't sure what you want me to do about it," he told her slowly, glancing over at his brother before looking at her again. "You want the sumbitch dead or something?"

Her jaw dropped.

"What?" she stared at him in shock but she couldn't deny that she considered it, just for a moment. "No, no, that's not what I'm asking."

He stared back at her, scratching at his stubbly chin. She could hear his blunt fingernails rasping over the bristly hairs.

"So what are you asking?" he finally asked.

"Come on, bro," Daryl shook his head. "She needs help finding the asshole. She gotta spell it out for you?"

"What the fuck I look like to you, little brother? A bloodhound?"

She saw Daryl's jaw clench tight as he told his brother, "Shit, you could find this guy with your eyes closed and you know it."

Merle sat back, curling his hands into fists on his thighs. She held her breath as a look passed between the two of them and Daryl nodded his head ever-so-slightly. She didn't know what exactly made Merle the man for the job but if Daryl believed so strongly that his brother could find her daughter, she was willing to believe it too. She needed something to believe in.

Merle looked back at her, his mouth an angry slash across his face, "So what's in it for us? We ain't doing all this for nothing you know."

"Merle –" Daryl started but Carol cut him off.

"I don't have much but I'll pay you everything I've got if you'll just help me."

She saw him look over at Daryl again, tongue snaking out to wet his lips.

Finally he nodded, pushing himself up off the couch with a grunt, "Fine. Gonna need half up front and the other half when we get back."

She nodded, finally letting out the breath she'd been holding as she followed the Dixons to the door. She had a place to start now but it didn't give her any relief. If anything, she felt more nervous than ever.

"So when do we leave?" she asked, opening the front door for them.

Outside, the storm raged on. She could hear the rain lashing at Daryl's pickup out at the curb.

Both Dixons stopped in the doorway, a flash of lightning reflecting blue on their faces as they stared at her with matching expressions of surprise.

"What?" she asked, hand tightening on the doorknob. "You're not going without me."

"Well, we ain't going with you neither," Merle told her sharply. "Don't need you getting in our way."

She just glared at him.

"Carol, it ain't safe," Daryl told her, his low voice nearly drowned out by a clap of thunder.

She cut him off, "What are the two of you going to do if – when you find her? Do you know how to take care of a toddler?"

They exchanged a look and she raised her brows, "That's what I thought. So like I said, when do we leave?"

Merle heaved a long-suffering sigh, his boots squelching as he stomped off down the steps and out into the storm.

Daryl watched him go, shaking his head, "We'll be here early in the morning."

She nodded and he stepped out into the rain.

"Daryl," she called out and he turned to look up at her from the bottom of the steps.

He was already drenched, silver rivers coursing down his face and little droplets clinging to his eyelashes.

"Thank you," she told him, standing up straighter and squaring her shoulders. "I'll be ready."

He nodded, his lips twitching up in some semblance of a smile, and as he jogged through the rain she could only hope she was telling the truth.