41. Finding Ann

Where the hell are you Brice?
Let's hope you get scared and stupid and now hiding away from me.

That night when he didn't check up on me, I feel worried immediately. Though I've only known him for a couple of months, I could sense that there was something wrong with him. I tried calling him but got his voice mail instead. The next morning I called him again and went straight to voice mail. By then I started to get worried and insisted to my brothers that I was leaving my parents to go to his penthouse.

Grady and Percy meet up with me at Brice's penthouse since they also couldn't reach his phone. They also brought a specialist to check his place out. I was fiddling with my phone, trying to contact him but for the hundredth time, I reached his voice mail instead.

His bed was untouched, his fridge was still stocked with food. Even his laptop was there. There is no sign of forced entry, no sign of him leaving in a hurry, not even an indication that he was going to leave his penthouse for days. If he had, he would've taken his laptop and all of his clothes and bags are still there.

That day I decided to stay in his penthouse telling my brother that I'd wait for Brice there. They agreed but leave me with my personal guard, Jill. By day two I was agitated already. Is he dead? Is he in trouble? Did the stalker decide to get to him?

"It has been two days, don't tell me you guys haven't found anything on his disappearance?" I decided to go to their place, if they won't come to me, I'll go to my brothers. They've definitely been ghosting me, probably trying to protect my feelings.

"Sis, we're working on it, we have the best men trying to find him. They've cleared Clara, Brice's agent who's the last person he was with. She was as surprised as we are and now asking our help to find him." Grady was the first one to explain.

"They have also found his car in an abandoned parking lot with no CCTV coverage on it. As far as we know the person behind this has been planning it for a while. We will let you know once we have anything significant. You should go back to Brice's place and we'll let you know once we have info on him." Percy continued his explanation while I drink the coffee that Grady made us.

"This is what we have uncovered to date, we don't want to bother you because we haven't located him, yet."

"A woman? that's it? empty apartment and a storage unit full of his printout pictures?" I was disappointed when I looked at the pictures and the report. They were nowhere close and I was stressing myself even further.

"See, this is why we didn't want to tell you the details. Look, we will find him." Grady pulled me into his brotherly hug and I sobbed in his arms telling him that I love Brice and I want them to find the sick bitch.

"We will little sis, now...why don't you let Jill take you back to Brice's and wait for him there?" Percy gave us a group hug and I cried even harder, but I nodded once I was done with my crying. I was about t leave my brothers' place when out of nowhere I suddenly think of Ann.

"Guys, I don't know if this is relevant or not but I need someone to check on one of my friends from Brice's fansite. Her name is Ann, but that's all I know. Some time ago she strangely appeared in front of my apartment building. I didn't know why... maybe she had told me before but I thought she lives across town. And somehow our meet was a bit too coincidental? I don't know, it's just a hunch. So, I was wondering, if one of your guys can clear her?"

Grady looked pissed at me, while Percy looked extra concerned that he started pulling out his phone and was connecting to someone on the other line. "Get your best tech guy to our place, I need to run an IP address and search a live location."

"Sit," Grady said to me with his stern look.

Oo...oh...

"Every fucking detail, Ella. I need you to tell me anything out of the ordinary."

"Shit, Grady. I didn't think she's, look, I wasn't thinking straight back then."

"It's okay, Ella." Percy put his hand on my shoulder telling me to have a sit on the sofa. "Not now Grady, if this will help get us to find Brice sooner, we'll take it." He shook his head and told Grady to grab a beer instead.

The tech guy finally arrived twenty minutes later. I logged in to the fan site and leave a message for Ann, requesting a meet-up, and click send before my brothers told me not to. "What the fuck? Ella! you're supposed to have a chat with her while we pinpoint her location. Not asking for a meet." Once again Grady looked frustrated with me.

"Just in case your tech guy couldn't do it, I'll have my guards, you'll make sure of it. I know you'll keep me safe." I shrugged, thinking I need to find him, I can't just go back to his apartment and do nothing but wait. I was done with the waiting game.

"Shit, it's Ann, she replied." The tech guy cut our heated argument. "The town's library in two hours." He looked at us, but then back to running his fingers typing on his laptop and shushed Percy when he was about to ask more.

"I found her, an hour drive from here, she's at an old housing complex. I'll share you the location."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. Percy, you go with him and take two more men to the housing complex. Be prepared for anything." Percy nodded and left the room with the tech guy, I was speechless at how quickly they left the penthouse.

"Jill, you go with Ella to the meeting point, dress the same from head to toe, you'll be her double when it's deemed necessary. Stick with her like glue, you hear me? Ella, stall for the meet, tell her you're running late. We need her out of the house just in case she held Brice there."

"Fuck." I cursed at myself. They were thinking miles ahead of me as if they had done this many times before. I haven't even made the connection that Ann might've had Brice at her house.

Oh, crap. What if she did? What had she done to him? has she been his stalker all along?

"Oh, god...Grady, I don't think I can do this..." my hands were shaky imagining that something might happen to Brice. I just thought Ann might be a little crazy, I needed them to clear her, I didn't think she could actually be the psycho stalker. My nerves were all jumbled up when Grady put the thoughts in my head.

My brain was piecing back the puzzle, all the weird references that Ann would make every time we chat about Brice. One time she said she had a room dedicated for him alone and I thought she was joking, then she said she's going to his hotel to snoop around. We all laugh at her chatter, thinking it was all a joke. But now. Shit.

"Hey, Ella, baby sis... look, everything is going to be okay, I will be coming with both of you. I'll be watching from a short distance. Okay?"

"Okay."

Grady could come with me, Jill could be my doppelganger but still, I really need Brice just to be okay.