A Twist in Fate

Chapter 9

The search for Gabrielle continued through the night. No one seemed to be able to find her. Chase looked into Mr. Goldblooms properties and found he had over one hundred and fifty unoccupied buildings in the city and seventy-five outside city limits. It was going to take awhile to search them all. He had his men separate into ten teams to search the buildings. Chase new it would take time to search all the buildings, but he also knew Gabrielle didn't have time. He was thankful that Alex didn't own anything besides his own house, or it would take longer to find her.

Chase had his men working around the clock to find Gabrielle. It had been almost 48hrs since she had been taken. It felt like an eternity to Chase. As the clock closed in on the 48hr mark he got a phone call.

"We found the Ford Escape."

"Where?"

"Down by the docks. We have a couple guys looking into it but there seems to be movement in the building."

"I will be there soon; remember I want Alex and Goldbloom alive."

Chase hung up the phone and ran to the elevator that would take him to the garage. He got into his car and took off toward the docks. He was hoping they had found Gabrielle, and it was soon enough that she didn't have to endure to much punishment at the hands of her father and ex-husband.

When pulled up to the docks, Chase saw his men surrounding the building that the Ford Escape was parked in front of. He pulled up behind it so if they tried to run, they wouldn't be able to move the vehicle that easily. He got out of his car and met Kevin by the door. Almost on cue to his arrival he heard screams coming from inside. He immediately knew that Gabrielle was there. He motioned for his men to close in and told Kevin to bust the door down. Once inside the screams grew louder. Chase and his men followed the sound, searching each room. They finally came to the last door. Chase wanted to bust through the door but knew he had to play this smart, if he just stormed in, they could kill her before he had a chance to blink.

With his men hunched down in the hallway, he told them to put the masks on. He took a smoke bomb and cracked the door, and through it in. Soon there was smoke pouring out from under the door. He put his mask on and signaled for his men to follow him. They entered the room and spread out.

Chase started toward the sound of coughing coming from the middle of the room. He saw a couple figures hunched over through the smoke. Off to his right he heard the sound of fighting, but he continued toward the figures. He then saw a table with something on it, his heart sank when he realized that it was a person on the table, and they weren't moving. The figures that were coughing were quickly hit on the back of the head knocking them unconscious. Chase turned his attention to the table, it was a person, as he thought, the person was Gabrielle. As quickly as he could he undid her ties and got her out of the room. He got her to his car and called Cathy, telling her where they were and to get there ASAP.

He radioed up to the men to clear the building and bring out everyone in that room. He wanted to make sure that Alex and Mr. Goldbloom were among the people that were there.

He then turned his attention back to Gabrielle; she was bleeding from somewhere on her head. She had cuts across her face, arms, and legs. Her clothes had been torn, showing a nasty gash across her chest. She had burns along with deeper cuts across her back.

Chase saw red, he wanted to go in there and kill every single person that played a part in her kidnapping and causing harm to her. He saw his men bringing out those that were inside, they were lining them up against the wall. Many of them had been knocked unconscious.

Chase heard a car pull up next to his and he turned toward the newcomer, it was Cathy. She took one look at Gabrielle and told Chase she should go to a hospital with how deep some of her wounds were. He knew she would kill him if he took her back to the hospital. He told Cathy to patch up what she could and take Gabrielle to the clinic they used when it was to much for her to handle. Cathy nodded and had Chase put Gabrielle in the back of her car. Chase told her that if needed keep Gabrielle sedated while they worked on her. Cathy nodded and took off toward the clinic. Chase wanted to go with her, but he had things to attend to first and he knew Cathy would take care of her until he got there.

He went over to where the men were slumped against the wall, looking them over carefully. After each one he started getting angrier, none of them were Alex or Mr. Goldbloom. He knew that his men were bring out a few more people from the building that had been in that room, he just had to wait to see if they were the men that Chase was looking for.

After a few minutes of waiting the rest of the men appeared. Chase found Kevin and asked if this was all of them. Kevin nodded as he sat that last person down against the wall. Chase looked over the newcomers and still didn't find the two people he was looking for. He punched the wall beside the last man that he looked at.

"They are not here." He said through a clenched jaw.

"Are you sure everyone is out of the building?" He asked, turning to Kevin.

"Yes, sir. Everyone is out of the building we double checked before we came out." Kevin told him.

"Well, the two scumbags that are most responsible aren't here." Chase said, fuming.

Chase was pissed. He told Kevin to take the men that were brought out to the hideout and question them as to the where Alex and Mr. Goldbloom were. He wanted to know by the end of the day. Kevin nodded before speaking again.

"Where are you headed?"

"To the clinic, Cathy took Gabrielle there to get her patched up." Chase told him getting into his car.

"Call me when you have a location on Alex and Mr. Goldbloom."

Chase then started the car and took off toward the clinic.

Thankfully, the traffic wasn't bad heading out to the clinic. Chase knew that Gabrielle may still consider it a hospital, but it was what was best for her with the amount of abuse she had received. He would deal with her being mad at him after she was taken care of.

When he got to the clinic, he took a minute to regroup. While he did his mind started wandering.

"What is wrong with me?" He thought "This girl has given me nothing but trouble since I met her. She was just a job that should've been easy to handle, instead I have turned into her caretaker and rescuer. She isn't even someone I a romantically involved with and she has me taking care of her, wanting to protect her, hell even making her breakfast."

He sat in his car while those thoughts ran through his head. For once in his life, he didn't know what to do. He ran his fingers through his hair before getting out of the car, pushing his thoughts out of his mind for the time being. He decided he would deal with everything later, right now his priority was finding the two scumbags that hurt Gabrielle and making them pay. He sighed as he walked into the clinic, greeting the receptionist as she told him where to find Cathy.

He walked into the room and his heart broke when he saw Gabrielle, her injuries were worse than he had thought. He asked Cathy how she was doing, and she told him that Gabrielle was stable for now, she had done what she could for the burns, the gashes, and the bruises. Now it was just a waiting game to see how she was when she came to from the anesthesia that she was given. Chase sat down next to the bed and grabbed Gabrielle's hand, willing her to come back to them.