78

“Where the fuck is he? Move out of the way or I will fucking end you. I don’t care if I love you!” Zane looked up from his work as the shouts boomed in the house. The voice was familiar, and it peaked Zane’s curiosity. He needed something to take his mind off his angel, so he walked out of his office and looked over the rail to the floors below. What he saw had him stunned. Ryder was trying to restrain a struggling Gabriel that did his best to slip out of his boyfriend’s grip.

“Calm down, he is not in a good mood,” Ryder tried to say.

“I don’t fucking care. Do I look like I’m in a good mood? Take your hands off me now, Ryder. I am not telling you again. I am going to talk to Zane if I have to walk over your dead body to do it,” Gabriel told his boyfriend. Zane could see Ryder flinch.

“What the fuck is going on?” Zane asked. Gabriel’s eyes shot to Zane and Zane had to use all his willpower not to take a step back from the pure anger that shot from them. Jax came walking to see what was happening. Even he seemed lost for words.

“You!” Gabriel yelled at Zane. “I need to talk to you, you piece of shit.” Zane just looked at him. Had he taken something and had a bad reaction to it? That was the only explanation Zane could think of for the complete personality change in the man.

“What did you do? Hit on Ryder or something?” Jax walked up to Zane and asked.

“I don’t know. Nothing I can think of,” Zane told his friend.

“Nothing? You have done nothing? Let me go, Ryder, so I can end the fucker,” Gabriel growled. Ryder just held him to his chest in a wise like grip, not saying a word.

“Gabriel, you need to calm down. You’re not making any sense,” Jax tried.

“Calm down? I should calm down, when you fuckers have done something to Ava? I will fucking kill all of you for this!” Zane and Jax looked at each other. Zane felt the now familiar stab in his chest as Ava’s name was spoken. But he had no idea what her friend was talking about. Suddenly, Gabriel bucked in Ryder’s arms. He managed to get enough room to knee his boyfriend in his private parts. Zane watched in stunned amazement as he saw Ryder’s surprised expression, laced with intense pain, as his grip on Gabriel loosened and he grabbed for the railing to keep himself standing. Gabriel wasted no time bolting up the stairs towards Zane. Jax got a hold of him and easily took him down on the ground. Zane stood over him and looked down at the seething man.

“Gabriel, I honestly have no idea of why you are so angry. Ava went home almost two days ago. She is at home,” Zane told him.

“The fuck she is. I don’t know what you lot did to her, but she is missing. She was supposed to call me yesterday. She was supposed to come and live with me when she didn’t need to be here anymore. I was going to take care of her and protect her. But you did something to her and now she is gone!” Gabriel’s shouts had gradually morphed into sobs. It was clear as day, whatever Gabriel thought had happened to Ava, he was seriously concerned. Panic leaked into Zane’s emotions.

“We’ll talk in my office,” Zane said, turned around and walked into his office without waiting for the others. As he sat down, he saw Jax leading a struggling Gabriel and Ryder limping up to them. Taking Gabriel out of Jax’s hands and leading him to a chair, Ryder forced Gabriel to sit, and placed his big hands on his boyfriend’s shoulders. If Zane wasn’t on the brink of panic, he would have found the scene amusing. “Tell me,” he said. Gabriel glared at him for a moment, as if he was about to refuse. Zane was about to lose his patience when Gabriel began to talk.

“Two days ago, Ryder called me. He said Ava’s uncle had paid his debts, and Ava was going home. First, I didn’t believe it. There is no way that worthless piece for a human being would do something like that. If he had won that kind of money, he would take them and disappear. He doesn’t care about Ava. In his world, he would have had the perfect solution. Using Ava to get you off his back and then a pile of money to spend,” Gabriel started. Zane had never even thought about it like that. Fuck, why was his brain not working? He should have been just as suspicious as Gabriel was. “But Ryder reassured me he had seen it for himself, Ava had left of her own free will and everything was alright and she would call me the next day. When she hadn’t called by ten the next day, I called her. But it went straight to voicemail. I tried again an hour later, and the same thing happened. I called Ryder because I felt something was wrong, but he told me to give her time, she was probably just getting used to being back home.” Gabriel shot a glare at Ryder, and it was clear to Zane Ryder was in trouble. “When she still hadn’t called this morning and I couldn’t get hold of her, I went to the house.”

“You did what?” Ryder asked.

“You don’t get to say anything. You convinced me she was fine. She isn’t,” Gabriel told the man looming over him. “I went to her house, and it was empty. I don’t mean that no one was home. The house was empty, as in no furniture, nothing in the fridge or in the backyard. It was unlocked and empty.”

“You went inside?” Ryder almost shouted.

“Of course I went inside. Ava. Is. Missing. You all seem to think this is me throwing a fuckin hissy fit. It’s not. Ava is missing, and if I need to go into an abandoned house in the suburbs, I will. I would walk into a drug house in the slums if it would give me answers to where she is. And don’t you tell me she has moved to get some distance from all of this. We had a plan,” he said angrily, glaring at the three of them. The more he spoke, the stronger Zane’s panic became.

“A plan?” Jax asked. Zane could see his friend was becoming worried as well.

“After her contract was finished, either by serving her time or if we could buy her out some other way, she would come and live with me until she got back on her feet. She would come work for me, and we would be partners,” Gabriel told him. That was news to Zane. Had she been planning this all along? As Zane was making plans for her future away from him, had she made plans of her own? Zane felt stupid. Of course she had. He had never told her he was making sure she would be okay. She must have felt the need to make sure she had something to go back to. He had let her down.

“Ava would work as an accountant? I thought she was a nurse?” Jax asked.

“No, not as an accountant. She will handle the clients and in the future the employees. She is brilliant with people,” Gabriel said. “But now she is missing, and no one seems to fucking care. Which makes me think that you lot has something to do with it,” he said, sending new glares at the three men in the room.

“Get me Spenser,” Zane told Ryder. Ryder nodded and disappeared out of the office.

“Who is Spenser?” Gabriel asked. Zane could see he didn’t trust them at all.

“He finds things,” Zane told him. He stood up and walked over to the window when he waited for Spenser and Ryder. Jax walked up behind him.

“I thought you were acting creepy stalker,” Jax said quietly to him. Zane clenched his fists.

“I was giving her space,” he hissed. Jax knew him well enough not to press him. Zane knew it was just a poor excuse. The real reason he hadn’t put men to watch her was he was afraid it would break him. He was holding on by a thin thread as it was. He was holding himself together with a layer of self restraint. Underneath this paper-thin layer, there was a sea of emotions he didn’t know what to do with. He wasn’t used to feelings which went this deep into his being. If he was forced to hear about Ava going on with her life, he was afraid the thin layer of self-control would crack and the emotions would take him over. That was the reason he hadn’t let Anna collect Ava’s things from his bedroom. He couldn’t stand the thought of removing her presence from his life. It was the last part of her he had. And now she was missing. How the fuck had that happened? He had really fucked things up. A part of him just wanted to sit down and cry. But the more dominant part of him just wanted to find Ava’s uncle and aunt and kill them. He was convinced they had a hand in what was happening. The door to the office opened and Ryder walked in with Spenser. At least Spenser had dealt with Ava’s relatives before, Zane thought.

“What do you need, boss?” Spenser asked.

“Ava is missing. I need her and her uncle and aunt found. They need to be found now,” Zane told him. He saw Spenser’s jaw tense, and he nodded.

“Last place they were seen?” he asked.

“Leaving this property two days ago,” Zane said.

“I will find miss A. Her relatives, how should they be… delivered?” Spenser asked with a glance at Gabriel.

“Breathing with all their limbs and a working mouth,” Zane told him. Spenser looked disappointed, but he nodded. He turned to leave when Ryder stepped in his way. He was looking at his phone, pale as a sheet.

“Boss, you need to check your email,” Ryder said. Zane was about to question if now was the right time. That was until he saw the look on Ryder’s face. He walked over to his computer, logged on and went to his email. There was an email from an anonymous sender. He opened it, and with a nod from Ryder, he opened the attached video file. Zane’s world came crashing down around him as he watched an image of Ava. She was wearing the same clothes as when she left. His angel was lying on a concrete floor. Her hair was a mess and there were bruises all over her face and the part of her back that was visible. The swelling and bruising told Zane there were both old and new injuries. Someone had beaten her for two days. Zane felt his anger rise and his heart break all over again. The email contained one line.

‘She is mine now.’

Zane picked up the penholder on his desk and, as he stood, he threw it clear across the room. “I will end anyone who was involved in this. Bring her uncle to me. NOW!” he roared. Spenser turned around and vanished from the office. Zane knew if anyone could find the fucking worm, it would be him. Jax and Gabriel, who had no idea what Zane had seen on his screen, walked around the desk and saw the short video that was on a loop.

“Ava!” Gabriel exclaimed as Jax tensed up and kept looking at the screen.

“Gabriel,” Ryder tried to calm his boyfriend.

“No. Don’t even try to say anything. I knew something was wrong. She is in that place being hurt because of all of you. She told me you promised to keep her safe, that I didn’t have to worry. I am going to find her and I’m going to make sure nothing like this ever happens to her again. If I see any of you ever again, it will be too fucking soon,” Gabriel shouted, and left Zane’s office in a fury.

“Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. All we need is for him to get himself killed. Ava will never forgive us for that. Lock him up if needed,” Zane told Ryder. He could see the man didn’t like the idea, but he nodded and followed Gabriel.

“Are you okay?” Jax asked when they were alone.

“What the fuck do you think?” Zane growled at the idiotic question.

“Right, what I meant was, do I need to put someone to make sure you don’t do anything stupid?”

“Like what?”

“Like go after Johnson on your own, killing half the seedy part of the city and getting yourself killed along the way,” Jax said.

“You think it’s Johnson as well?”

“Of course it’s Johnson. No one else would do something like this. I know you are going after him. I’m not even going to tell you not to do it. Just asking you to not be an idiot. Ava will be expecting you to save her. Please don’t lose sight of that.” Zane looked at his friend. Jax knew him too well. Zane had planned on heading out to find Ava. She had to be in one of Johnson’s properties. Zane just needed to find out which.

“Fine. But I will find her, I will bring her back and this time I won’t let her go, even if it means confining her to her room for the rest of her days,” he told his friend. Jax sighed and shook his head.

“You know there is a middle way between letting her go and keeping her prisoner, right? You could just tell her how you feel and hope she wants to stay,” Jax told him.

“And risk losing her again? No. I was wrong to think I could protect her as she lived her own life. I won’t make that mistake again.”