Crossing the Lines

FOURTY

Ace's POV

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It's been three fucking days.

I don't know if Hannah's even alive at this point. We've been searching everywhere for her but only came up with dead ends. We expected her to be in a populated city but we've searched Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles and came up empty.

Sarah swore that Hannah would be in Texas so we searched every abandoned building that was a possibility. She was still nowhere to be found though. I love Sarah, and I feel sympathy for her, but I think she's starting to go a little crazy. She won't admit it, but the only reason she wanted to search Texas was because she thought there was a possibility that Ben was alive. I miss my best friend but he's dead, we can't mourn him forever.

Cixi has been trying to help us from her side. She gave us access to her sightings and sent soldiers to help us search for her. Kai was currently with her so there wasn't much she could do at the moment. I don't trust that bastard and, even though they don't love each other, he broke Cixi. Like I said before, whether theres love in your marriage or not, your partner is still your strongest ally.

As for my father, I've been avoiding him like the plague. He keeps trying to talk to me about something. I don't care though, I don't care about him. If it's about the mafia, he can have Cosimo tell me, like usual. The only conversation I plan on having with my father is when I ask him what his last words are before I put a bullet in his head.

I've been going crazy without Hannah here. I can't eat, sleep, or think clearly without knowing that she's safe. I realized I loved her but I wish I didn't. It gives her too much power over me, it puts her in harms way, it makes this world a dangerous place for her. I don't know what's going to happen between us, I just need to find her first.

"Ace?" I hear a soft voice from behind me. Currently, I was on my balcony, halfway through a bottle of whiskey when Sarah came out here.

"Hey." I give her a weak smile before looking back over the yard. She walks to stand next to me, leaning on the railing.

"Any new updates?"

"I don't know, I've been up here for a couple hours." She was silent. I knew she wanted to ask me something but was debating on it. "What?"

"You haven't given up, have you?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, the night you got home you went crazy looking for leads, even the day after that. You've been silent today."

"I couldn't leave but I needed to think." I tell her, taking a sip of my glass.

"About?" I didn't want to do this to her, she's been through enough.

"The possibility of her still being alive." She was silent again, thinking as well. I wasn't drunk but I was definitely passed the point of sober, making me open up a little more. "You know, Police are wrong about a lot of predictions and statistics, but there is one they're right about."

"What?"

"If someone is kidnapped and isn't found within the first forty eight hours, there chances of survival drops drastically. I don't want to believe it but she's probably dead by now?"

"No." Sarah immediately crosses her arms and shakes her head, almost as if she's denying it.

"Sarah, we don't get to decide th-"

"Ace, I said no!" I tense as she snatches my glass and throws it off the balcony. "Ace, I lost the love of my life to these people. I will not lose my best friend to them to. I get it, okay?! I get that you're sad and lonely and just want to wallow in self pity. Hell, I feel the same damn way. We aren't doing that though.