Dry Your Tears

Seventeen

"Adam, James anything?" Elias asked desperately into his earpiece, gun raised as he stealthily walked through the abandoned warehouse. The place was barren, not a soul or even object in sight, nothing that could lead them closer to finding that bastard Luca or Olivia and Alexia. 

"No, nothing sorry." The men responded and Elias sighed in defeat. 

"It's another dead end, head back to the car." He took out his earpiece, angrily punching the nearest concrete wall, hissing as his hand immediately began to bleed and throb heavily. How many of this useless leads would they have to follow before they got remotely close to finding his love, avenging his sister's death. How many more? Because Elias felt like he couldn't go anymore, the hope he once had diminishing day by day. 

The journey back home was silent, Jonathon at the wheel, Elias sitting shot gun, James and Adam sitting in the back. They had scouted a possible location Sander had found in France, one of the many they had scouted in the last month, all of them yielding no results.

The silence and misery followed them on to the jet, the four men resigning to their private compartments, defeated and getting closer and closer to giving up. Elias was in his seat, hands gripping the arm rest tightly as he felt the jet begin to move and prepare for take-off. He remembered how Olivia would hold his hand, put his fear to ease, but now he was alone, no one to calm him down and tell him everything would be alright. Crying was something Elias hardly ever did, even when his Uncle died, he could hardly find it within himself to cry but recently it was all he could do. Cry and blubber like a child, the aching in his soul worse than any gun shot he had ever endured. 

As the plane soared through the sky and the anxiety of the take-off had subsided, Elias leaned his head against the window and reached in his pocket, taking out the coin he had given Olivia more than a year ago, staring it and wondering if he would ever get the chance to thank her for unintentionally saving his life. The bullet was still lodged within the golden coin and If she hadn't placed the coin in his pocket that day, the bullet would have pierced his skin and he would have been dead. Perhaps it would have all been better of that way, if he were dead, at least he wouldn't be able to feel pain anymore.

By the time Jonathon had driven in to base, Sander was awaiting their arrival eagerly, a tablet in his hand while John, who had come down from Birmingham to help out with the search, stood behind with arms crossed, a stoic expression on his face.

"I've been waiting for you." Sander announced with a slightly excited tone, Elias furrowed his brows, slightly annoyed. 

"What the fuck are you so happy about? You lead us to another dead end." He spat, grabbing his backpack before storming past them all. He dropped his bag when he reached the office, running a frustrated hand over his face. He didn't know how much longer he could do this, how much more of this he could take. With each day, each moment, each second that passed without knowing Olivia's whereabouts, whether she was alive or not, Elias felt a piece of his heart crumble until eventually there would be nothing left but a big black hole where his heart used to be. 

"Elias," A stern voice called from the door way and Elias wiped away the tears he hadn't realized fell down his cheek before turning to face Adam, whose expression softened upon seeing his friend. "Elias you didn't have to be so rude to Sander, he's trying just like the rest of us."

"I know, "Elias sighed, "I'm just tired." His voice cracked as he said this and Adam took the initiative to rush over and wrap his arms tightly around his friend, giving him the comfort he so desperately sought. "I'm tired of the dead-ends, I'm tired of the lack of results, I'm tired of hoping, I just want her, I want her back, Adam, I can't do this anymore." Elias' sobs echoed throughout the room, true vulnerability shown as his tears soaked up Adam's shirt. Adam felt his own eyes well up with tears, he rubbed Elias' back, trying to remain strong for the both of them.

"I know, Eli, I know it sucks and I miss her as well, Eli, I miss her so fucking so much." Adam's voice cracked as he said this and Elias sighed, sniffling a little as he pulled away from him. 

"You really cared for her didn't you?" He whispered, bloodshot eyes staring sadly into that of Adam, who gave a small, sad smile in return. 

"Yes, and I still do Eli, as long as I believe she's alive I will forever care for her. Just like you'll continue to love her, you'll to continue to love and believe in the day she'll finally be back in your arms again." Adam spoke firmly, holding on to both Elias' wrists, thumbs tracing the patterns of the tattoos that embellished his arms. 

"I need a cigarette." Elias said finally but before he could get up to go outside; Sander, James, Jonathon and John had walked into the office. 

"Elias." Sander said shyly, looking down nervously at his feet. "I need to tell you something."

"Yeah, go ahead Sander, I'm sorry for reacting the way I did, I just got a bit worked up." Sander nodded, acknowledging the apology before attaching his tablet to his computer, an image suddenly displayed on the large monitor.

"This drone footage was taken a few days ago in Naples, Italy, it was one of Marchesi's drones."  Sander started, waiting for everyone to take a good look before continuing. 

"How did you get this from him?" Elias asked as he observed the image of a house disguised in the outskirts of a forest, the screen changed to a zoomed in version, where you could see a man outside speaking on the phone. 

"I hacked into his system a while back." Sander explained simply as if it was no big deal. "Anyway, with a little more digging I found that the house belonged to Luca's cousin and his wife." He pressed a button and the image changed to another of the same man but this time in a different location.

"Is that Jerry's pub?" Jonathon asked, squinting at the image of the man, looking specifically at the building to be seen.

"Yes it is, Jerry took the picture as he was walking in to work, thought he looked suspicious and sent it to me, bless him. He never found out why he was there but at least we have the pictures, it tells us enough." Sander said, smiling as if they were all supposed to know something now but none of them had caught on.

"Aight, get to the point will ya, your doing me head in with all this beating around the bush." John groaned, his thick Birmingham accent causing Adam to smile discreetly while Elias nodded in agreement, wanting to know how this was any different to the other leads. 

"Well, first, images were taken several days apart, which meant the man travelled from Naples to London and then back again, and we can assume it had to do something with that phone call because I hacked into London's air traffic control, a helicopter left Naples to London shortly after the time that drone footage was taken and the same helicopter was recorded returning to Naples hours later on the same day."

Everyone was quiet, it wasn't much, but it was a lot more to work with than they had before.

"So that means," Elias started, piecing things together slowly. 

"It means Luca probably ordered one of his men to do something in London, perhaps spy on us, find out what happened to us I don't know. But I can confidently say, Luca is very much involved in this, this is a real clue Elias, not a dead-end, I can feel it." Sander said, and even though none of them wanted to put too much hope in this lead, they all shared the same feeling; this was it, this was the first real clue to finding Alexia and Olivia.  Elias turned to the rest of them, a sick smile on his face; 

"Pack your things boys, we're going to Italy." 

A/N: I know a lot of you wanted to know what happened with Olivia and Alexia from the last chapter, but patience, patience people, all in due time. Don't forget to vote and comment!