“Have Rico keep a watch on my father. Until we find out exactly who has taken Roxanne, we can’t assume anything. This could still be about the bounty on her head.”
I know it isn’t, but I’d rather be cautious, especially if it comes with less bloodshed on my side of the field. There can’t be change without chaos, but can there be chaos without bloodshed? Up until a couple of weeks ago, I would have said there was no chance in hell you can’t have one without the other. Now I’m not so sure.
I will protect Roxanne and Fien no matter what. I just don’t want my victory to come at the ultimate price.
2
Dimitri
With traffic light and my foot heavy, I make it to a ritzy family estate in a well-to-do area within a record-breaking thirty minutes. I want to say my blood cooled a smidge during the commute, but that would be a lie. If anything, it’s more heated since the tail a secondary crew had on Roxanne was lost.
The van they transported her in has been dumped and burned, and the cameras in the area aren’t controlled by me. They’re owned by none other than Mr. Isaac Holt, and his security personnel isn’t playing friendly. Smith has attempted to reach out to Hunter numerous times the past thirty minutes. He’s yet to be successful. I’m tempted to ask Isaac what his problem is, but since that could cause more issues, I’m holding back the urge—barely!
Not wanting my guest to be aware of my arrival, I park at the side gate before using the secret entrance only a handful of people know about. I’m not surprised to spot a man guarding the door with a customized M4. Only a fool goes against a man with nothing to lose halfheartedly.
The guard slumps to the floor before he knows what’s hit him. It isn’t often a victim can respond to a bullet between the eyes. More times than not, they’re dead before they hit the ground.
After pulling the security guard into an area he won’t be seen by little eyes, I unlatch a set of keys from the waistband of his jeans, shove it into a retro-looking lock, twist, then wait for further instructions.
Smith is guiding me from above. Since this compound is wired to the hilt with surveillance, he has eyes in every room. “Target is in her office. She isn’t alone. Halo is in the vicinity. Three guards are walking the hall. One is out back…” The hiss of a silencer whizzes out of the listening device in my ear a second before Smith corrects, “Pool house is clear. Rocco is on site.”
As my lips curl into a smirk, I creep down the lit-up corridor like a real-life action hero. Despite my many wishes to be born to any family but the one I was, the adrenaline roaring through my veins bares reason to my birthright. Hate is strong in my bloodline, but so is vengeance. I live for this.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Three guards are dead. Serves them right for standing together in an open arena. Regardless of what you’ve heard, there’s no safety in numbers. If you want to stay alive, branch away from the group. You have a better chance of remaining hidden if the loudmouth of the group is nowhere near you.
The faintest hum of a melody I’ve heard a handful of times buzzes into my ears when I lower the handle of the office door now housing the blood of three men. Their deaths were silent, but the smell of desecration is obvious. Unfortunately, it isn’t solely coming from my side of the room.
Alice is standing in the corner of her home office. She has a gun butted under her quivering chin, and sweat is beading her brow. Her daughter, Lucy, sits at her left, oblivious to the fact her mother is moments away from blowing her brains out. She’s immersed in a video game all kids seem to love these days.
Although shocked Alice has placed her life on the line with the very gun she bought to protect herself, it is understandable. She’d rather die via her own hands than be tortured like she was when she was seventeen. That’s why Rocco is out back, waiting by the pool house. Alice’s biggest fear in life is losing her daughter. Her second is being drowned like her father attempted to do when she told him she was pregnant with Lucy. Both Alice and Lucy survived his attempt to kill them. Alice’s father didn’t.
“I had no choice,” Alice coughs out in a sputter as tears flow down her face. “They took Lucy. T-t-they wouldn’t give her back until I helped them secure Roxanne. I didn’t know she wasreallypregnant. I swear to God, Dimi, I had no idea.”
Her blubbering response exposes holes in her defense. Roxanne let slip to her this morning that she didn’t need free-flowing garments added to her wardrobe selection because her pregnancy was merely a ruse to fool Dr. Bates, so how is Alice aware Roxanne’s test returned a positive result in Dr. Bates’s office this morning? If all she did was inform my enemies Roxanne was wearing a tracker, she’d assume Roxanne’s pregnancy was still part of our ruse.
Although pissed, news of Roxanne’s positive test doesn’t change anything. “Whether she’s pregnant or not makes no difference. You went against me—”
“F-for L-Lucy,” Alice defends, her words stuttering. “Only for Lucy. I couldn’t let her be a part of that lifestyle, Dimitri. I couldn’t only see her through a monitor like you do…” Her words trail off as her eyes widen in fear.
Bringing Fien into this won’t do her any favors because not only is she reminding me just how far I’ll go to protect my daughter, she’s also reminding me that it’s more than just Fien’s life at stake now. Roxanne’s is in my hands as well, and so is our unborn child’s.
Too pumped with anger to stand still, I house my gun into the back of my trousers, then storm to Alice’s side of the room, confident gamers these days are as ignorant as Rocco and I were anytime we playedSuper Mario.
I reach Alice before she even considers deflecting the barrel of her gun to me. She wouldn’t fire at me even if I still had my gun in my hands because she knows as well as her ex-husband, it isn’t an eye for an eye in this industry.
It’s family for family.
Mine for hers.
Or better yet, hers for mine.
As I drag Alice toward the open French doors that lead to her patio, my anger gets the better of me. “They took my wife, they have my daughter, yet that still isn’t enough for you. You want them to take everything away from me.”
“No,” she denies, shaking her head as she eyes the pool we’re heading toward. “I was just protecting Lucy.”
I’ve never laid my eyes on my daughter in person. That doesn’t make me any less of a father, though, so I understand her objective, but I’m just too worked up with anger to absorb it. “Because your daughter’s life is more valuable than mine?”
