Perfect. She was fucking perfect and I'd always made sure she knew it. My Ahdia (my love), she was the only one I could trust. I'd been running game for years and somehow fallen for her. It was like one day, she'd swooped in and held my heart for ransom and like a fool I'd paid handsomely. Still never got my heart back, though honestly this was probably more of a hostage situation than I wanted to admit. Aria Nell. God I loved that name. I loved her name.
And they'd taken her from me. How? God forbid if I knew. But when I found out, when I found her, they would fucking pay.
I grabbed my gear and stalked toward the control room, headed for the monitors. The staff had said that they'd seen nothing, that the servers were wiped clean of suspicious activity, allegedly. I doubted it. The systems guarding them were more encrypted than documents for the CIA, and considering how much I paid for this job, they'd better be. Inside job or not, the cameras saw everything, and the reports say the cameras saw nothing. It was impossible, or at the very least highly unlikely. Regardless, I'd figure this out.
The last time anyone had seen her was last night at 11:15pm. That person was a barback in the Tipsy named Lance Storrey. 28, male, single, moved here two months ago to get "experience". Just another dumbass who thought they could bartend? Maybe, but like the cameras, I'd have to see if there was more to it than that.
I glanced down at the string of unanswered messages from Fiore.
"Eyes on Storrey. This is about to be the end of his.."
"Sorry, bad joke. What are my orders?"
"Observing. He's getting into a car. Black, 2022 Lincoln, no tag. Want me to follow?"
"Following. They're headed for the airport. If I'm going to get him, it needs to be now."
"Bro."
"Fine. I got this. But don't bitch at me later. I tried to text."
Dammit, if I knew my sister as well as I thought I did, then Mr. Storrey was likely tied and talking. Whether it was to her or the fish, I really didn't know. Nor did I care, so long as she had the information I needed.
I leaned into the screens, typing in my personal entry code and surveying the whole system. No hacks, no cracks, not even a login from my own team. I replayed the footages from yesterday morning, watching her walk down the hall towards the library. I never understood her love of books, being more of a computer man myself. However I'd been more than happy to convert that wing of the house for her, going all out with each of her requests. The look on her face after the renovations had been more than worth the million I'd spent.
I looked at the next screen, watching as she grabbed one of the thousands of books from a shelf and plop right down on the floor. I smiled a bit at that. Aria had never cared where she read, so long as she was reading she was content as a cat in the sun. Suddenly, she began flipping pages rapidly, a crease forming in her brow, desperately looking for something and nearly ripping out the pages in her panic. Her eyes looked dark as a shadow passed over her form. I quickly rewound the recording and paused, zooming in on the windows behind her.
What. The. Fuck.
I knew that shadow. I knew that figure. I knew that face. And it wasn't Mr. Storrey.
I quickly shot Fiore a text to drop what she was doing and get over here. I had a lead.
