Hidden Truths

Chapter Veintiocho

Eli's POV

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?"

"Elijah, you need to-"

"HOW THE FUCK DID WE LOSE HER?"

"This isn't helping-"

"WE NEED TO FIND HER! HOW COULD THIS-"

"ELI IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP FOR A MOMENT, IM GOING TO MAKE YOU SHUT UP!"

Surprisingly, that last bit of yelling didn't come from me, it came from Zara, and it actually got me to zip it.

"I know you're upset and angry, we all are, okay? Yelling at us isn't going to help us find Mia though."

"I know I just," I raked my hands through my hair, almost pulling it all out from frustration, "how the hell did this happen? We were meant to be prepared for something like this."

"I guess we weren't prepared for someone knocking out Jacob when he decided to leave Mia's side", Aiden voiced, nodding his head over towards Jacob, who glared back at him, while holding an ice pack over his head.

"Oh yeah, and the four of you couldn't have kept your eyes on her for a moment while I went to take a fucking leak."

"Well maybe if you had told us we would-"

"Alright, stop it you two, this isn't helping either", Kat interrupted, before hands went swinging.

Meanwhile, Xavier paced around the room, the worry on his face very evident. Unlike me though, Xavier wasn't the yelling type, he was more the creepily too quiet type. If he ever was yelling, there were more than likely some punches being thrown, or a gunshot going off.

"I can't believe not a single camera can pick up what happened?" Alex questioned out loud what everyone was thinking.

"I guess we also weren't prepared for a fucking secret back entrance", I muttered, as I knocked over a chair.

I felt my anger seeping back in and decided to step outside to breathe some fresh air, because otherwise I would have started knocking over more than just chairs.

I couldn't believe this had happened.

I couldn't believe we had lost her.

Before I even got to tell her how much I-

Great, because now was really the time to discover just how much I actually liked Mia.

It wasn't like I was in love with her though...

I mean, I did kind of love the way she looked at my tattoos in awe when she saw me shirtless, as if it were the first time she was seeing them, every single time.

And I may have loved the fact that she was so much smaller than me, yet somehow our bodies fit perfectly together.

Oh her smile? Wooh. It blew me away. Nevermind her cute little nose and the way it scrunched up every time she laughed. Adorable.

Fuck me. Is this what it felt like to fall in love?

Xavier's going to fucking kill me.

I cursed out into the open air, frustrated at myself, and everyone back inside too, for letting this happen.

It seemed my little outburst had caught Jacob's attention, as he crept up behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't fucking touch me", I muttered under my breath, as I moved away.

"Look Elijah I-", he tried but I interrupted him.

"I don't want to hear-"

"No. Listen to me. I'm sorry! Okay. I'm fucking sorry. I feel like shit that this happened, because I couldn't do a good enough job of staying by her side, but excuse me for needing to use the toilet. I'll remember to shit my pants next time", with that, he huffed, and walked back into the house.

I was so mad at Jacob for leaving Mia's side, but deep down, I knew I had no right to be. I guess I just wanted someone to blame other than myself.

I had already blamed Xavier for not letting me go with Mia to the gala in the first place. I blamed Alex and Aiden for not scoping the place well enough. I blamed the girls for not keeping an eye on her...

But most of all, I had blamed myself. I should have been there to protect her. I shouldn't have let this even happen.

"Eli, we think we've found something", Zara poked her head out the door, alerting me of her presence.

I immediately rushed back in, in hopes that they had a solid lead.

"It's not concrete, but I remembered how you got pissed at the way this one guy was looking at Mia," Alex noted, not really helping my frustrated state, "so I turned back the tape to pinpoint the guy and look", he pointed to the screen, at the weird creep walking down the hallway... the same hallway Mia walked into moments later, and never came back out of!

"Holy shit, Alex, you're a genius!"

"Tell me something I don't know", Alex remarked, very proud of his discovery.

"Get the facial recognition software running on that man. I want his name, date of birth, address, last contact, last time he took a dump. Everything!" Xavier ordered and everyone immediately dispersed to get the job done.

Everyone but me.

I stood there staring at the screen, studying the face of the man I was going to kill.

"We're going to find her... we have to find her", Xavier muttered behind me. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or to himself.

I turned around to find him deep into thought, "of course we're going to find her there's no questioning that."

He looked up once he realised I was talking to him.

"You know what they'll do to her if they know who she is."

"I don't want to think about that Xavier. We're going to find her before it gets to that", I shook my head, before disturbing images crawled in there.

"This is all my fucking fault, if I had just-", he took in a deep breath to calm himself down. Xavier couldn't lose control. Well, he could, but it wasn't a pretty sight. Which is why I couldn't allow him to lose control. Not now anyway.

"You did what you had to do" I lied, as I placed a hand on Xavier's shoulder.

"I know you secretly want to punch me in the face and tell me I was wrong."

I chuckled at Xavier's brilliant sleuthing skills. He knew me too well.

"Does that mean I can punch you?" I slyly asked, full knowing what his response was going to be.

"If you want me to snap your fingers off, sure, go ahead."

I smiled for a moment, but as I looked into Xavier eyes, I remembered Mia, and my smile immediately vanished.

How could I be standing here making jokes with Xavier when Mia was still out there. What the hell was wrong with me?

♡ ♡ ♡

Authors Note: Okay, so I've never done a males point of view before, so I hope this isn't too bad, but if anyone has any tips or constructive criticism for me, you're more than welcome to let me know!

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