Finding Isabella

| 1 - Alexi |

A/N: Photos and videos used in the headers will be from Google, Pinterest, etc.

THIS BOOK CONTAINS MATURE THEMES AND ASPECTS SUCH AS CURSING, VIOLENCE, DEATH, SEXUAL THEMES, AND OTHER POSSIBLE TRIGGERS. Chapters will be marked with an asterisk(*) for sexual content, so please read at your own risk.

With that said, enjoy the book, comment, like, etc :)

~~~

I stare at the photo on my desk as it provides a flurry of hope within the darkness that consumes me. I had her, the love of my life, and I was so close to making her mine forever. Then, she fell off the face of the planet.

It killed me every time she disappeared, but like a moth drawn to a flame, she always came back. It never took more than a couple of months—the longest disappearance lasted exactly two months and eleven days. Until her more permanent disappearance, at least. Now, it's been a little over five years since the last time I saw her, and all I have left is the blurry photo taken from security footage in one of my family's casino resort. We were young when we met, she was only sixteen, and I had just turned seventeen, but I knew the moment I saw her that I would love her forever. I knew that she would always be mine—and for almost three years she was, until the day she vanished. It still baffles my men and I that we can't find her; usually, we can find everyone and anyone within minutes. Yet, somehow, the one person worth finding, is a complete ghost.

"Hey, Alexi," my second-in-charge opens the door to my office without knocking. As my best friend and right-hand man, he gets a free pass most of the time.

"What do you want, Matteo?" I don't even bother looking up from my entranced gaze at the photograph of my beloved.

"I think we found something."

My head snaps up as I allow my eyes to meet his, "what are you talking about?"

"We have something, it's not much, but it's a start." Matteo places the file on my desk before standing in silence and allowing me time to read. He was right, it isn't a major lead, but it is a small piece of information, and unfortunately, the most we'd gotten in the past five years.

"It seems that Cassandra Jackson visited our old friend Leo," I look up at Matteo, whose arms are folded across his chest. "And she became Lindsey Vega, but that identity was never used for anything. In fact, that identity really only exists within Leo's inventory."

"I think it's time we talk to Leo then," I say.

"He's already here and on his way up," Matteo smirks.

"This is why you're my best friend," I chuckle and stand up, lightly slapping his shoulder to pat him on the back. A knock on the door steals our attention. "Come in, Leo."

He keeps his voice mockingly professional when he steps into the room, "Alexi Romano, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Shut up and come sit down, cretino," I laugh. "If anybody else mocked me as much as you do, they'd be dead."

"Well then it's a good thing we've been friends since we were in diapers, cause I'm not sure that I'd survive without pissing you off," he smirks. "It's just too much fun."

I roll my eyes and flip him off before sitting down behind my desk. Matteo and Leo sit in the chairs opposite me, on the other side of my desk. Leo sits his backpack down next to his feet before turning his attention back to me. "Seriously, though, what's up?"

"You helped Cassandra Jackson get a new identity. We need help tracking her down," my voice turns serious as the possibility of finding her flashes in my mind.

"Alexi," Leo runs a hand through his hair, "you know that we're tight, and I would fight like hell for you. I consider you my brother, but confidentiality is so important in my line of work. I can't just give you that kind of information."

"You know we wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important," Matteo chimes in, causing Leo to sigh in defeat.

"What did she do? I need to know before I betray a client."

"She didn't do anything, it's because she's Cassandra." My words cause Leo to perk up, his eyes meeting mine.

"Wait," his eyes widen, "she's Cassandra? Like, your Cassandra?"

I can't fight the dryness of my throat enough to speak, so I just nod.

"Dude, hell yes I'll help!" Leo reaches down to his bag and pulls his laptop out, sitting it down on the desk and turning it on immediately.

"Okay, so I'll be honest, I don't know much about your girl. She's practically a chameleon because she's impossible to find. But, I do have a number for a burner phone." Leo keeps typing for a moment before stopping, his eyebrow scrunch closer as he says, "wait."

"What?" I ask as Matteo and I lean toward him.

"My files say Lindsey Vega, but I remember giving her a different identity. It was Mary Gomez."

"I mean, that would explain why Lindsey Vega doesn't exist anywhere else," Matteo says.

I nod my head, "yeah, but how did she change your system?"

"I have no idea. Let me try to get the original data back and see if I can find the phone number again," Leo says as his eyes return to the computer screen. We sit in silence for a few minutes; the only sound in the room is the tapping of Leo's keyboard.

"Got it," he shouts. He pulls his cellphone out of his pocket and dials the number, turning it on speaker, so we can all hear it.

A soft female voice breaks the ringing sound, "hello, this is Mott's Pizzeria, how may I help you today?"

"I would like to order a large pizza, half cheese and half mushroom but with extra sauce," Leo says. Matteo shoots him a weird look, and I'm about to ask him what he's doing when he holds his hand up to stop me.

"Who is this?" she asks.

"Cass, it's Leo."

"Leo? Hey, what's going on? Is everything okay?" Her voice sounds angelic; and finally, after five years of desperately trying to find her, I'm close enough to hear her. I can still picture her soft, pink lips and hazel brown eyes and as she talks to Leo, I find myself in a trance.

"I'm fine, I was just checking in on you," Leo says. The tone of his voice sounds laid back, and luckily he isn't giving anything away to signal her that anything is suspicious.

"Uhm, why?" she asks.

Leo looks at me and then returns his attention to the phone. "Do you know someone by the name of Alexi Romano?" he questions. Silence engulfs the room for a moment before she responds.

"No." Her response shreds my heart into pieces—with one simple word, she's destroyed me. This time, the silence doesn't last long because she yells at someone in the background, "what did I say about standing on top of the counter?" She tells Leo to give her a moment, and her voice becomes quieter; she must have set the phone down and walked away. "Christian Alexander, you have five seconds to get your butt down from there."

Shuffling noises and thumping sounds can be heard before a small sound indicates she's picked the phone up again. "Sorry about that," she says. "Was there anything else you need to talk to me about?"

Leo looks at me with a raised eyebrow, silently asking what to do next, but I just reach out my hand for him to give me the phone. "You know, mio amore, it's not good to lie to people."