Niall’s P.O.V.

I woke up to the wretched sound of someone vomiting. It was so loud that I could hear it from the sofa downstairs, where I had resorted to sleeping after Aria refused to share a bed with me. I sat up and let my body adjust before following the sound of the vomiting all the way up the master bathroom. Aria was bent over the toilet, pouring out yesterday’s meal like no tomorrow. I don’t even think she noticed me approaching her, or pulling her hair away from her face.

I remembered the doctor bringing up something about the morning sickness coming back, but I didn’t think that she would be right. However, when Aria collapsed onto the floor with a groan after her episode of vomiting, it seemed Dr Feingold was correct.

“Can you get the pills?” Aria asked weakly, pointing to the bedroom. “They’re on the night table.”

“Um, sure.” I scratched the back of my head, wondering whether we were still fighting. Even if we were, that didn’t mean I shouldn’t get my wife’s medication for her after she’d just vomited. I brought her the pills and watched her gulp two of them down with a sip of water. An uncomfortable silence took over the bathroom as we both struggled to find words to say to each other.

“I’m not mad at you anymore.” Aria looked down as she spoke softly. “And I’m sorry that I left the house without telling you yesterday. I wasn’t thinking. I was just so upset.”

Normally, I wouldn’t accept her apology. I really wouldn’t. She had scared me to death by leaving the house, and then she had completely disrespected me for being worried about her. She didn’t deserve any forgiveness from me. But because of how broken she’d been yesterday, and how messed up and all over the place her mind was, I forgave her. It was the right thing to do.

I nodded shortly at her apology and grabbed both her hands, pulling her onto her feet. A smile broke out onto her face when I forgave her. I pressed a soft kiss to her lips and pulled away before it could get anymore intense.

“We need to talk.” I told her, letting go of her hands. Her smile faded, and she nodded.

“We do.”

“It’s still early,” I told her. “Let’s talk over breakfast before the kids wake up.”

Aria nodded again and followed me downstairs. I made myself a coffee, and she poured herself a glass of orange juice. We toasted a few slices of bread and grabbed the butter to spread over it, bringing our small breakfast to the table. There were visible bags under Aria’s eyes, providing me with the fact that Aria had not slept well last night. I wasn’t much different. I had stayed up all night thinking about Candace, about where she was and how to find her and put a stop to this.

“So, you go first.” Aria pushed me softly, stirring her straw in her glass of OJ. She looked nervous, so I grabbed her hand and rubbed my thumb over it assuringly.

“I was thinking about Candace.” I began, not surprised my Aria’ expression. She looked weary to continue listening. I knew she was sick of Candace, and anything to do with her, but this conversation was necessary. “I know you hate her, and I know you hate talking about her, but this is really important.”

“Okay.” Aria agreed, waiting for me to go on.

“Remember you told me Candace being in the FBI?” Aria nodded. “Well, it actually seems reasonable. The FBI would provide her with all the necessary tools and appropriate information for finding us, being able to track our phones and hack them, and know exactly where we were at all times.”

“It does make sense.” she agreed.

“Right, so our main problem was figuring out how to get through to the FBI.” I stated. Aria nodded again. “I was thinking alot about it last night. Actually all night. It seemed there was no way to get to the FBI without making our problem publicized to all police Corps. But see, I was so stupid that I sort of forgot that one of Greg’s best friends is an FBI profiler.”

Aria’s mouth dropped open. “No way.”

“Yes way.” I grinned. “So all we need to do is contact Greg. Once he hears what’s happening to us, he won’t hesitate to call up his friend, Grant, I think. I’ve met Grant before. He’s a really nice guy and I’m sure he won’t deny us.”

“What if he does, though?” Aria spoke softly. “What if he doesn’t want to help us? I’m sure he’ll be violating some policies for helping us.”

“It’s worth a shot.” I shrugged. “We haven’t really got any other option.”

“Wait, how can Grant be a special agent if he’s not from America. Isn’t there some rule that you have to be an American citizen?”

“They were pen pals for a really long time.” I explained. “They kind of got closer by writing to each other and eventually they met up and became really good friends.”

“Okay,” Aria said after a bit of thinking. “Well, it’s a bit early, so we should wait a few hours before giving Greg a call. For now, I’ll make a decent breakfast. Can you go shower the kids?”

“Yeah, sure.” I smiled, pushing out of my seat to stand up. I headed for the stairs, but turned around at the last second. “Hey, Ari?”

She looked up from the eggs she was taking out of the carton. “Yeah?”

“I love you.”

The corners of her lips tugged upward. “I love you, too.”

I blew her a kiss and left the kitchen to shower the kids, happy that we were okay again. However I had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t last very long.




Aria’s P.O.V.

Niall and I sat by the phone at Chrissy’s house, waiting for Greg to pick up the phone. We decided that making the call from Chrissy’s landline gave us a lesser chance of being tracked by Candace or an of her little followers. Chrissy was in her living room playing with Nate and Colette who missed her dearly.

“Hello?” Greg answered, his voice projecting through the speakerphone.

“Hey, Greg.” Niall said. “It’s Niall.”

“Oh, new number or something?”

“No,” Niall replied quickly. “We’re using a friends phone.”

“Oh okay... how are you?” I could hear the genuine smile in Greg’s voice, probably glad to hear his brother after a long time.

“I’m okay.” Niall spoke slowly. “But we’ve got a really big problem, and we need your help.” he said, cutting to the chase. “I’ll let Aria explain.”

After exchanging greetings with Greg, I told him about Candace and Scarlett from the very beginning, explaining everything that had been happening over the past seven months or so. Greg listened carefully, cursing softly when I told him about the brutal things such as Chrissy being shot, and what had happened to Corryn. After we told him the story, he asked us how he could help.

“Well, you know how Grant is a profiler for the FBI?” Niall asked.

“Yeah,” Greg said. “Go on.”

“We think that Candace is in the FBI. It would make sense, since she somehow has tracking devices and managed to hack into our cellphones and other electronic devices. We just need some way to get connected to the FBI without Candace knowing.”

“Isn’t that against some sort of FBI rule?” Greg wondered. I gave Niall a worried look. Niall squeezed my hand and spoke.

“I’m sure what Candace has been doing with the FBI systems is more that violation.”

Good call, Niall.

“Okay,” Greg agreed hesitantly. “Let me get his number for you.”

Greg left the phone to find Grant’s number. We heard a bit of shuffling of papers, and soon Greg returned to recite a number to us. We gave him our endless thanks before ending the call with best wishes from Greg. I hoped and prayed that Candace wouldn’t go and kill Greg now for helping us out.

Niall then dialed the number that Greg gave us and looked over at me. “Here’s goes nothing.” he mumbled, biting his lip nervously. I was just as anxious to see what would become of this phone call.

“Hello, this is Agent Grant Allison speaking. How can I help you?”

I realized that Greg must have given us Grant’s work phone number from the way he answered the call.

“Hi, Grant.” Niall cleared his throat. “This is Niall, Greg’s brother.”

“Oh, hello!” Grant replied. “No offense man, but how’d you get this number?”

Niall laughed nervously. ‘I actually got it from Greg. We need your help.”

“Oh,” Grant’s tone of voice became more serious. “What’s the problem?”

Niall took a deep breath and explained our predicament the way I had told it to Greg. Grant listened carefully, grunting a few times at the parts that sounded quite unbelieveable. When Niall got to the part about Corryn and her attack resulting in a coma, Grant claimed himself all in.

“I’ll see what I can do.” he said immediately. “I’ll try and send you some names of the agents in my station. I don’t think I can send all the names at once, even though I have them all. They’ll probably be in a locked file since I normally only profile for criminals. What position if at all do you think Candace could be upholding at the moment?”

“Whatever position has access to a worldwide tracking device and hacking systems.” Niall answered with a bit of sarcasm.

“That would probably be a tracking agent." He decided. "I know she can't be a head agent or else I would recognize her name."

"Okay," Niall said. "Send us whatever names you've got, especially if there's anyone by the name of Candace, or anyone with the last name of Grace."

"Will do. By the way, what stationed state do you believe Candace is working in?"

"Possibly California. That's my best guess."

"Well that's convenient." Grant laughed. "I actually work in the Los Angeles station base. There's only one other station, in Sacramento, so I'll send you names from there as well."

"That sounds great." Niall smiled. "And please don't spread the word."

"I won't." He assured. "Just one question, though?"

"Sure?"

"Why aren't you getting professional help? This sounds like some serious business." Grant cautioned. "Everything you said she's done can give her a ton of jail time, possibly a lifetime of service."

"The thing is, if we get cops involved, then the news will spread fast." Niall sighed. "Not to sound cocky or anything, but there are news channels and magazines just waiting to get into my personal life. We can't afford to let that happen."

"That's a pretty lame excuse." Grant said bluntly. "I guess I understand, though. The lesser amount of people who know, the better."

"Spot on."

"I'll put Candace on profile and see if I can find anything else out about her." Grant offered. "I'll send you the names and anything I can find through my private email, since everything on these systems are being tracked."

"Thank you so much, Grant." Niall said. "I'll get back to you if we need anything."

"No problem, Niall. Talk to you later."

Grant hung up and Niall sighed, leaning back on the chair. "Now all we can do is wait."

---

Niall's P.O.V.

I called Aria into my office, excited to see an email in my inbox with Grant's name in the sender box. Aria hurried in with an apple in her hand, obviously in the middle of snacking.

“Did he send a list of names?” she asked eagerly, a little bounce in her step as she came towards me. I nodded and grabbed her by the hips, pulling her onto my lap. Then I reached for the computer mouse and opened the email from Grant, holding my breath in hopes that we had gotten one step closer.

Niall,

I have gathered a list of tracking agents from both the Sacramento and Los Angeles bases. There was no one with the name of Candace Grace, or anything similar to that.I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’m sure you can figure something out. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I’ll get started on the names.

Sacramento Tracking Agents:

Sofia Ross

Jenna Doh

Jason Everett

Kathleen Kelly

Michelle Han

Samantha Kenwald

Adam Stone

Joshua Hart

Yvette Longoria
Lisa Hanson

Penny Marino



Los Angeles Tracking Agents:

Kerry Lee

Rachel Mc Carthy

Katie Norton

James Wright

Peter Gonzales

Andrea Cacceg

Sherline Joans

Kerli Wilson

Hannah Steurt

Madison Kemeco

Joseph Reed

I hope these names will help you with your circumstances. If you need anything else, or if you find anything that could lead you closer the Candace with these names, then please do not hesitate to give me a call. I suggest you don’t use my work phone because those calls are tracked. My number is below:

(310) - 855 - 6351


Best wishes,

Grant


“So there is no one by the name of Candace Grace,” Aria sighed, seeming defeated.

“But maybe there’s something we’re missing. Something’s got to be hidden. Maybe Candace has a fake name or something.”

“It’ll take us years to go through every name,” Aria groaned, falling back against my chest. “They could have a totally different position for all we know.”

“Hold on,” I sat straighter in my chair, “let’s cut Candace’s name down and rule some people out.” I grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote out Candace’s full name.

C A N D A C E G R A C E

“There’s three C’s, three A’s, and two E’s.” Aria observed. “That’s what stands out the most when you first see her name.”

“Agreed,” I nodded, writing those three observations out as bullets. I then looked up at Grant’s email and realized that there were a number of people who we could rule out just from those few observations. Aria and I split the names up, her taking the Los Angeles names, and me taking the Sacramento names to look through.

“Aria,” I began, after a minute of looking through the names. “None of the people in the Sacramento Agency had a ‘C’ anywhere in their name.“

“There are three people in the Los Angeles Agency who do.” she replied. “Rachel McCarthy, Andrea Cacceg and Madison Kemeco.”

She wrote the names out on a different piece of paper and handed it to me. I squinted my eyes as I looked over the names, realizing that one name had exactly all the requirements of Candace’s name.

“Andrea Cacceg.” I gasped quietly. “Aria, look!” I pointed at Andrea’s name and watched Aria’s eyes widen. She grabbed another paper and wrote out Andrea’s full name, my knee bouncing in excitement as she got to work unscrambling her name.

A N D R E A C A C C E G

C A N D A C E G R A C E

“Holy shit.” I whispered, unable to wipe the grin off my face. “We did it. Oh my god.”

“That is unbelieveable.” Aria covered my hand with her mouth. She turned to me and giggled. “I feel a bit like an FBI agent myself.”

“Maybe we should apply for the job.” I joked, wrapping my arms around her waist to pull her back tighter against my chest.

“I can believe with unscrambled that.” she whispered. “this just means we’re one step closer to finding her.”

“I know.” I grinned. “It’s a good feeling, isn’t it?”

“The best.”

“We should probably email Grant back.” I suggested. “It’s a bonus that she works in his station, too. He can probably open up some sort of background check information on her and send that to us.”

“I don’t get it, though.” Aria frowned. “How could she have gotten past a high profile background check with all the terrible things she did in her orphanage? She doesn’t exactly have the cleanest background, and it’s not easy to get into the FBI with a past like hers.”

“Well, it’s like she said in that letter.” I amused with a shrug.”She’s got friends in high places. Maybe she’s got close connection with a head agent or something. There’s still a huge piece of the puzzle missing. We’ve still got a lot of things to figure out.

I began typing the email to Grant with a triumphant smile on my face.

Hi Grant,

I want to start by saying that Andrea Cacceg is not who you think she is.

Notes

HOLY SHIT. That was probably one of the funnest chapters to write!!! I swear I was like smiling the whole time I wrote that chapter because I was so anxcious to get all my thoughts down on paper. So, what do you think about Andrea Cacceg??? Or should I say, Candace Grace ;) This story is getting so freaking intense and I love it. I love writing it. Like if you guys haven't noticed, I've updated three times in less that twnety four hours which is huge! That only means that I'm super dedicated to writing the story, and also that I'm really excited about the story. Well, I'll be going now. It's lunch time and I'm starving.

Comment down below all your thoughts, and be sure to subscribe if you like, and vote if you love!!

Thank you for reading!!!