Nobody Like You

Chapter 19 Aiden: Coming to the Rescue

As I watched the video Mike sent me of Gabriella playing her piece in the recital, I couldn't take my eyes away from it. She played with such passion and emotion that you would never know she was going through something. I was glad that she still played after I asked her to. I was nervous that she'd ignore my request because she wasn't feeling up to it but I had never felt prouder of her than I do now. The piece she wrote was beautiful and felt like she was trying to send a message to me through it.

It was a nice distraction while I debated about the firm's latest offer to me. They can give me a job, but I would have to move across the country for it. All they told me was that the location was on the east coast, so I'd be leaving my mom and Chris again. It had been nice being close to them again, did I really want to give that up again? What about Gabriella? Could I leave her behind too?

"What are you watching?" Chris asked, walking into the room.

"Mike sent me a video of Gabriella performing in her recital. She wrote this piece for me and was sad about me missing it so he figured this would help."

He looked over my shoulder at the video. "She's good. Looks like you got yourself a girl who'll be famous one day. What's she doing with you?"

"Funny," I rolled my eyes before throwing a pillow at him. "Where are you going?"

"Dad's picking me up to take me to play some basketball. You want to come?"

"Hell no. I'm not that depressed," I told him before hearing a horn honk from outside. "But have fun. Glad you guys still have a relationship."

"Think you two will ever have one again?" he asked.

I thought before responding. "I doubt it. There may be too much damage there but that doesn't mean you can't talk to him. Just be careful."

Chris nodded before walking out. I honestly didn't ever see me having a relationship with my dad again but I guess it wasn't so bad that he was trying to have one with Chris. If I ended up taking the firm's offer, at least Chris would have someone else here to look out for him.

Right as Gabriella's performance finished, my phone started ringing and Mike's name popped up. Maybe he had found a way to give Gabriella and I some time to talk again so I quickly answered. "Hey, I just saw the video. She was amazing—"

"Aiden is Gabriella with you?" he questioned urgently.

"No, I haven't seen her in weeks. Why?"

He cursed under his breath before sighing. "We can't find her. She was supposed to be meeting us at a restaurant for dinner, but her driver said he hasn't seen her since the recital and the new bodyguard hasn't seen her either. We've looked everywhere but she's nowhere to be found."

My heart stopped as I sat up. "I'm on my way."

Without waiting for him to respond, I hung up and quickly got my grabbed my weapons from my bedroom in the garage. Gabriella was missing. The exact thing that I was afraid of finally happened and I couldn't sit around and do nothing.

When I got to the gated community, I called Mike to get him to let me in. Once I got through, I raced to the mansion and found police cars parked in front. It didn't occur to me that the Carters would've already gotten the police involved but that wasn't enough for me.

I walked inside and found Alexis sitting on the stairs, with a scared look on her face. When she noticed me, her face lit up.

"Aiden!" She ran to me and jumped in my arms. "Something's happening. No one will tell me anything, but I can't find Gabby."

I frowned at this. "Your sister's missing. We don't know where she is but don't worry, I'm going to find her."

"You promise?" she asked with wide eyes.

I had never seen her so scared, and it made want nothing more than to take all her fears away. "I promise. I'll bring her home."

She nodded and went upstairs as I walked into the living room and all eyes fell on me. Mr. Carter was the first to speak. "What are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"I let him in," Mike stepped up. "You may not agree with me, but Aiden is the best chance we have of finding Gabriella. He knows her better than we all do, and he was already onto some leads with who's been sending the threats."

Seeing that Mr. Carter was still hesitant, I cleared my throat. "I know you're still pissed that we had a relationship but I'm not going to let that stop me from trying to find Gabriella. Whether you believe me or not, I have real feelings for her and I want her back, safe and sound just like you do."

"Jeremiah, just let him help," Mrs. Carter begged with tears in her eyes. "We need all the help we can get."

Finally, Mr. Carter nodded. "Fine. We can't trace her phone since we have it so we're going through the list of suspects again."

Remembering the profiles, I ran to the office and pulled out the one photo I focused on a while back. "There was one guy from the profiles Mike gave me. I thought it was weird that he was only in this one picture."

I handed it to Mr. Carter and he frowned. "Ronald Lowry? We haven't seen him in years, not since..."

"Since what?" Mike asked.

"I partnered with him to develop new technology software but then I backed out of it when we adopted Gabriella," he explained. "I was a new father and wanted to spend my time getting used to parenthood, not working on projects for days on end. Ronald didn't appreciate that and we left things off with him saying some unpleasant words. After that I never saw him again."

"You think he's behind this?" Mrs. Carter asked.

Before anyone could respond, the phone rang and the police motioned for Mr. Carter to answer it. He answered the phone, putting it on speaker for everyone to hear. "Hello?"

"Jeremiah Carter," the voice said. "Long time, no see."

"Who am I speaking with?"

"Wow it's really been that long that you don't remember me?" he asked in a taunting tone. "I guess sixteen years will do that kind of thing."

"Ronald? I don't understand, what's going on here?"

"I'm just trying to get what I'm owed. You blew up to be this bigtime tech millionaire and left me nothing. We were supposed to share the wealth but you let it all go to be a daddy and yet still ended up on top while I got nothing. That doesn't seem fair now does it?"

"Where's my daughter?" Mr. Carter demanded.

"Get me five million dollars and you'll find out. If you don't, guess you'll only have to worry about sending one kid off to college."

"If you hurt my daughter—"

"Just get me my money. You have three hours."

With that, the line went dead, and while everyone seemed shocked and unable to process this information, my blood was boiling. Some jealous asshole decided to get revenge by taking my girl and threatening her life. Big fucking mistake.

"Were you able to trace the call?" Mrs. Carter asked the police.

"Yes, we got a location," one of the officers said. "Some abandoned warehouse in Santa Clarita."

"Send me the exact location," I said, walking towards the door.

Mike tried to stop me. "Aiden, wait. You can't go alone; you don't know what you're walking into."

"I don't care. That prick has Gabriella so I'm going to get her. You're not going to talk me out of this Mike so don't bother trying. Are you coming or what?"

He paused and looked back at Mr. and Mrs. Carter before looking at me and nodding. "Let's do this."

As we walked out to the truck, all I could think of was how scared Gabriella probably was and how it was my fault this was happening. I didn't protect her. I knew I should've looked into that Lowry guy more, but I didn't and now Gabriella's life was on the line.

I didn't bother trying to calm myself because I knew I wouldn't be calm until I was holding her again. While I drove, I could only keep repeating one thing. "Hold on baby, I'm coming."