CHAPTER 9

"Annabeth" Thalia's forehead crinkled, her jaw dropping to the floor—her confused expression suspended in animation.

I buried my face in my hands then ran my hands frustratedly through my hair, "Yeah. Why?"

"Annabeth." She narrowed her eyes, "The name's just not common, that's it. It's a name I probably would remember if I met her somewhere. I told you I thought she looked familiar right?" Thalia reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone.

I looked up at her, "What are you doing?"

"Calling Rachel."

"What?! Why?"

"She'll know. She did say Annabeth looked familiar too."

"No, Thalia. Don't call her."

"Percy, it's the fastest way. For all we know, Ace—or Annabeth is some mass terrorist we've been harboring without knowing."

I shook my head in disbelief, "She's not a—"

"Hello? Rachel?" Thalia had already called her. I groaned, turning to press my forehead against the fridge.

Thalia ended her call and turned to me, "She's coming over."

"Good God, I can't deal with Rachel right now, Thalia."

"Percy, do you want to know where she is or not?"

I let out a sigh, "I do."

"Then, we're getting Rachel's help. Her minor's computer science."

I shook my head with narrowed eyes, "What does that have to do with being able to find someone?"

"Trust me. I once wanted to see where my ex boyfriend from middle school was and she found him in a few clicks."

"Her major's art."

Thalia gave me a sharp glare for me to shut the hell up.

With a million thoughts already occupying my brain, I pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and gulped it down in a useless attempt at clearing my head. I threw the bottle in the bin then turned to Thalia again, "Why is she so familiar to everybody? I don't get it."

Thalia gave me a pitiful look. It annoyed me. I didn't want her pity. I wanted answers.

We'd already exhausted all of the social media with that one first name. I don't know what Rachel could do to help us.

Once Rachel came, she wasn't alone. She'd come with a lanky guy who looked like he could dress up as one of santa's elves for the picture with santa thing they did at the mall. He was a hacker.

I looked at Rachel with a brow raised, "Seriously? Whose the wiz?"

"He's my cousin. He can help you. I promise." She said.

"Hi, I'm Leo." The elf said, "Heard you needed to find someone."

"Yeah, I do."

He sat at the kitchen bar as we all gathered around him. Leo stretched out his arms and cracked his neck side to side before opening his laptop. I looked at weirdly at his theatrics.

"Alrighty." Leo said, "Tell me everything you know about her. You know her name?"

"Just the first. Annabeth." Thalia said, "And that's all we really know about her."

Leo typed something really quick.

"How exactly can you find someone, Leo? It's legal, right?" I asked.

He turned to me and gave a mischievous smile, "You could say that. Don't worry. I can find a person without breaking any laws. My computer can scope everything and anything that is out there about this girl. And unless the person you're looking for has never even touched a keyboard before, I'll be able to find her somewhere."

He turned back to the screen, typing a bit more.

I felt like I was in some spy movie. I ran my fingers through my hair like I did when I was nervous. Rachel noticed and placed a hand on my shoulder, "Hey, it's going to be ok. We'll find her."

"I can't believe I let her slip away so easily."

"Percy, you'll find her. We'll find her." She said, trying to be reassuring.

None of them knew how connected she was to me. About the bet.

They didn't know how incredibly dire it was that I needed to find her.

Thalia left soon later, needing to go get Jason and Tristan who stupidly didn't have enough money for a taxi. So it was just Rachel, me and elf hacker here.

"Aren't you some hacker genius? Why is this taking so long?" I asked Leo.

It had been close to two hours already.

"Uh, you really haven't given me much you know."

"Percy, be patient."

Everybody was getting crabby.

"Hey, why don't you take a walk. Clear your head a bit?" Rachel offered, "I'll call you if Leo finds something."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She said with a smile.

"Alright, thanks." I left out the door, but I did't go for a walk. I simply put on my jacket and took a seat on the steps that led down from my apartment door.

I leaned my forehead in my hands, breathing in the night air. Finally being able to sort out my thoughts.

Ace—Annabeth was everything to me. It was sort of scary how much of a hold she had on me. But, I didn't regret anything. Things weren't over yet. I was going to find her. I had to find her—my luck had limits, I knew that way too well.

I loved her. I knew it for a while now.

And she needed to be here to hear it from me.

"Did that girlie break your heart?"

I whipped my eyes up to see Gabe leaning there against the wall, two cigarettes sticking out of his mouth.

"Shut up and get the hell out of here." I said through clenched teeth. This man was the very last person I wanted to look at right now—or any time for that matter.

He gave me a wicked smile, "Figures she ran away from you. I was wondering why a girlie with such class could be with a good for nothing shithead like you." He said with that gruff, nicotine infested voice of his.

I glared at him, eyes narrowing, "What?"

Gabe shrugged irritated that I was asking, "I said I really was wondering. Thought she had to have a screw loose in her head or something."

"Because?"

Gabe snickered, picking out one cigarette and putting out the end against the cement wall and leaving a black stain, "You know I did business on the west coast sometimes."

I did. He always left me to take care of Tristan and me for weeks on end, saying it was a business trip.

"I thought you were lying about those business trips as an excuse to hit strip clubs."

He sneered, then smiled with his yellowed teeth, "Business, pleasure. All the same. I retired from that business, but I still remember a lot of who my clients were."

I never knew what Gabe did. I never asked or ever wanted to know.

"You're clients?"

His smile never left his face, "Powerful clients. Powerful families who have such unimaginable wealth and power that they could be kings and queens — and princesses." He added suggestively.

My eyes widened.

My phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my back pocket and looked at it.

Rachel: Percy, you need to come see this.

I got up, "Get out of here, Gabe, or you'll be very sorry" I said darkly, not in the mood to be any nicer.

He humphed then threw his other cigarette on the ground before stamping on it, "I'm here for money."

I glared at him before going back into the apartment and closing the door behind me. Rachel looked up when she heard the door close.

"We found something." she said.

I went over, heart panicking-mind still not completely clear after what Gabe had just told me. Was she really?

My heart stopped seeing the screen.

"It took a while since I wasn't looking in the right area. I found this picture on Pheme Ossa—it's a top notch magazine popular-"

"On the west coast." I finished for him, my eyes still glued on the screen.

"Right." Leo said.

My heart hitched in my chest as I looked at the beyond gorgeous girl on the computer screen. Her sliver blue mesmerizing eyes usually striking clear was glancing dashingly at the camera while a guy had his affectionate arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her up on her feet. She was obviously drunk and with the richest people and celebrities at the party she was at. The guy was no doubt someone ridiculously famous.

This was dated a few years back and she reeked of being rich, spoiled and reckless. Top it all with the fact that she had golden blonde hair styled to perfection—the golden setting off the color of her eyes even more.

I didn't know the girl in the picture.

"She's a Chase." Rachel said incredulous, reading the caption.

"Is that supposed to mean something?" I asked, trying not to completely lose it.

Leo simply clicked through more photos and articles. Photos ranging from her partying even more with the rich of the rich to her fashion shoots in Ibiza, Milan and who knew where else to her lip-locked with every famous guy living and breathing on the west coast. Articles about her father's company winning big in the stock market or some other huge achievement and how the king had to only move a finger and mountains of cash moved. Articles about her brother, Malcolm Chase, taking over.

Then there came the silence. Nobody seeing her. Rumors of her being kept locked inside because of some pregnancy or something worse by her parents. It dated a couple months ago.

That was when she'd run away— all the way across country. To where I was.

A completely different person.

The girl I knew to be Ace.

Not this Annabeth who had pretty rich boys eating out of her hand.

No wonder she was familiar and could make people love her in an instant. She was raised to impress her whole life.

I never paid attention to famous people so I never would have figured she was someone from such class. Annabeth was from an entirely different world— and not only by distance. She was a Chase and that meant something.

It meant something...

Never in a million years would I have figured her mysterious past was this incredibly different from mine. For a brief moment, everything about her was fake and unreal. Her pain was fake. Her understanding for my pain was fake. Her love for me was fake.

Why'd she run away from a life so grand. A life that people only dreamed of.

The whole time she was with me, had she been mocking me? My life and how miserably I was getting by?

But those questions came to a stop right as I thought them. She was my mystery girl. Her sickness had been very much real and the pain she knew then was very much real as well.

I was full of self hate for even beginning to think that about her. Judging her like any other person when I'd spent so much time with her, knowing her for the most amazing, sweet, beautiful person she was.

I needed to see her. I needed to go to her.

"Hey, Leo. Do you think you can get an address?"

Leo scoffed, "Of course I can."

I looked up at Rachel, "I'm going."

She looked back, "I hope you know what you're doing?"

I did too.