Chapter 78: #SEVENTY-EIGHT

Adrian’s POV

By the time we returned to the house, the whole air had changed completely. None of us had anything to say after leaving the hospital, and even though we had spent most of the night there, nobody seemed willing to go upstairs and rest.

Our father had remained behind with Nicholas’s mother, so the four of us were left to deal with everything that had happened. I could still see the expression on her face when she woke up again after the anesthesia finally wore off and realized Nicholas was still missing.

Her voice kept replaying in my head, especially when she begged us to find him, and fuck, if it didn’t make me feel like shit.

Elijah was the one who finally broke the silence. "Nicholas called me."

We all turned toward him.

He was standing in the middle of the sitting room with his phone still in his hand, looking like he had been waiting until we were all together before telling us everything.

He explained that he’d received a call from an unknown number and had almost ignored it, but the moment he heard Nicholas’s voice, he knew it was him. He told us about the conversation, about how Nicholas had managed to get hold of a phone inside the place where he was being held and, most importantly, how he’d told him that Jayden was responsible.

For a few seconds, nobody moved. Then Cassian immediately reached for his laptop.

"Give me the number."

Elijah handed it over.

We started working almost immediately. The number was already switched off, but that didn’t mean there was nothing left to trace.

We checked the information connected to it, searched through its recent activity and tried to determine the last location it had transmitted from. Everyone was working at once, and for once there was no argument about who should do what. We all understood what was at stake.

"Anything?" Elijah asked.

"Not yet," I replied, continuing to work.

He paced behind us. "How long does it take?"

"As long as it takes." I muttered.

"I know that. I’m asking if you’ve found anything."

I looked at him. "We’re working on it."

He moved away again. A few minutes later, Cassian finally stopped. "I’ve got something."

We all moved toward him. He turned the laptop so we could see the screen. "The phone’s off now, but this is the last location it transmitted from."

Elijah leaned closer. "Where?"

Cassian gave him the details and Elijah immediately reached for his phone. "We’re going."

Nobody disagreed.

Cassian contacted the two special-forces officers our father had brought into the investigation and gave them the location. He explained that Nicholas had managed to contact Elijah directly and that we now had a possible location connected to the phone. He also told them that we had reason to believe Jayden was responsible and that they needed to move quickly.

When the call ended, Cassian looked at the rest of us. "They’re heading there."

I nodded, but I wasn’t satisfied. "We should go too."

"We are." They all agreed.

I went upstairs because I needed something. I entered my room and closed the door behind me before crouching beside the bed. I reached underneath it and pulled out the gun I’d kept there. I sat there for a moment, staring at it.

I hadn’t expected to need it. But the situation had gone far beyond anything we’d dealt with before.

We had already seen enough evidence to know that Jayden wasn’t harmless, and now we had a location that could potentially be connected to whatever he was involved in.

I tightened my grip around the gun because I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we got there too late.

I didn’t want to admit how much Nicholas mattered to me either. Over the past few weeks, I’d been irritated with him more times than I could count. He had pushed everyone away, refused to explain himself and made it almost impossible for any of us to understand what was going through his head. There had been moments when I’d wondered whether things would ever go back to normal between us.

But the thought of losing him had become something I couldn’t accept.

I stood up and put the gun away. When I opened the door, Elijah was standing outside.

His eyes immediately dropped to the weapon. "You brought that?"

I nodded. "We don’t know what we’re walking into."

He stared at me for a second before shrugging. "Then bring it. At this point, we’ll need everything we can get."

The others were already outside, and the vehicles were waiting. Elijah was still holding his phone when he turned toward us. "I did something."

Cassian looked at him. "What?"

"I contacted the police checkpoints around the city."

I stopped but Elijah continued before anyone could react. "I know Dad said he wanted everything kept discreet, but I couldn’t sit here knowing Nicholas might be moved. I gave them the information we had and told them to watch the routes around the location."

Cassian looked at him for a moment. Then he nodded. "You did the right thing."

Elijah looked relieved. "I wasn’t sure."

"We’ll deal with Dad if he has a problem with it. Right now, Nicholas comes first."

I was about to get into the car when another vehicle entered the compound.

Our father had returned. He got out and looked at all of us standing outside with the cars already prepared. "What’s going on?"

We all went quiet and he looked from one son to another. "Where are you going?"

I stepped forward. "We found a location."

His expression immediately changed. "A location for what?"

"For Nicholas."

He stared at me and I explained that Elijah had received a call from Nicholas, that we’d traced the phone and found its last known location and that the special forces were already being informed. I also told him that Elijah had contacted checkpoints around the city and Dad listened without interrupting.

When I finished, he looked toward the vehicles. "And you were all leaving without telling me?"

I hesitated. "We didn’t know when you’d be back."

His expression hardened. "You should have told me anyway."

I lowered my head slightly. "I’m sorry."

He looked at all of us before walking toward the house. "I’m coming with you."

Nobody objected. There was no longer any question about whether we were going to find Nicholas.

We were going.