Family Business

Chapter 26.

I spent all night reading over the files. I was nearly asleep when I heard a sound. I started to turn my head, but the muzzle of a gun stopped me from turning my head all the way around. I swallow and slowly hold my hands up. "Hands on your head," Says a deep voice.

I place the papers down, moving my hands to my head. "Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm going to kill you anyways. You really should not have asked for those files." The voice was hard.

I bite my lip hard, wondering if I could reach for the gun under my desk in time. I would definitely be killed if I moved. "I need to find who took them..."

"What?" The voice sounds genuinely confused.

"Breeze and Sierra. They were kidnapped last night." I replied quickly. "Aria."

The gun is removed from my head and I hear shallow breathing. I slowly take my hands down from my head, keeping them on the desk. "You better not be lying..."

"I'm not, I swear! I was there but then I got knocked out- there were signs of a struggle. She would not just willingly leave like that." I say softly. "I need to find them... and I can't do that without knowing about her past."

He sighs and walks around, sitting in front of me. I look up and see Draven Rossi. I glance down at the files, confirming my recognition. "I know, I saw the house surrounded by crime scene tape... I came as soon as the alarm was triggered." I frown, "Fletcher flagged her file but we are too late, aren't we?"

I nod a little, "Xander- that guy she was so afraid of. I think he came to take her."

"What happened?" Draven asks.

I sigh deeply, explaining what happened with Lawrence. How I was hit in the head, then woke up in the ambulance. "She's gone. They're gone!"

"What can I do?" He asks softly.

"I need to know everything about your family. I need to see what I can piece together from the small things she told me- where he might have taken her," I muse.

He sighs deeply, nodding. He then explains how their family were feuding with another family, the Violante's, confirming what Breeze- Aria had told me before. Aria had apparently been promised to Xander Arnell in a business deal but got engaged to Orlando Violante to attempt her way out of the deal. Xander came to take her during Draven's engagement, keeping her for a torturous week before the police got her out and into the witness protection program.

"We tried to track down his daughter," Draven finishes. "But that proved more complicated than we thought. Xander then kidnapped my younger brother, Fletcher, and his girlfriend." He runs a hand over his face, shaking his head. "He is slowly destroying my family piece by piece and there is nothing I can do."

I run my hand through my hair, "So we need to find Xander, shadow his movements until we are able to get to her."

"That's not going to be easy." Draven murmurs, "He will have lots of security, a small army nearby ready to fight if anything goes wrong."

I shake my head, "So we're screwed then..."

Draven laughs dryly, "No... But you're going to have to break some rules, Counselor. You're gonna have to become one of us."

I walk down the dark alleyway, glancing back at the illuminated street behind me. It was too late to go back now. With a shaky breath, I continued until I reached a door at the end by a metal fence. I knocked twice, waited for a beat, then knocked again. A small eye hole slides across, "Who the fuck is it?" Demands an irritated femenine voice.