Chapter 291

ALEXANDER

The tracker blinked faster. My pulse matched it.

She was here. Somewhere in this rotting stretch of wasteland, within a few hundred metres of the slowly approaching SUV.

Close. So fucking close. I could almost feel her. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to move — to tear through everything in sight with my bare hands if that was what it took.

The thought of another minute—another fucking second—with Alina still in Santos’s hands made my fingers twitch against the door handle.

Every instinct screamed at me to move.

To tear through every man between me and my wife. Let the bodies pile up and worry about the consequences afterward.

I wanted it so badly my chest felt ready to split.

Fuck.

Calm the fuck down, Alexander.

Breathe. Think..Charging in blind wouldn't save her.

It would give Santos exactly what he needed—chaos, confusion, and an opportunity to put a gun to her head before I could reach her.

Patience. Just a little longer.

Rage wasn't going to bring her home.

Do this right, and she walks out alive.

Do it wrong, and I'll spend the rest of my life knowing my impatience put her in the ground.

And that was the one thing I would not allow.

Leo eased off the accelerator. The SUV crawled the final stretch of gravel in near silence. I was already out before the vehicle had fully stopped.

My boots hit the ground hard. My heart slammed against my ribs so violently I could hear it in my ears.

The night air was cold and damp, thick with rust, stagnant water and decay. I barely registered any of it. I didn’t feel the cold.

All I felt was the clock still ticking in my head… and the fact that every second that passed was another second she remained in his hands.

She was here. And I still couldn’t fucking see her. Still didn’t know what condition she was in.

Hold on, Alina. My fingers curled around the device..I’m here.

Then my thoughts turned to the man who had put her in that place.

A cold smile touched my mouth.

Santos, you had your fun.

Enjoy your last few breaths.

Because once I found my wife, there would be nowhere on this earth he could hide. I almost laughed at the thought of him believing an abandoned warehouse could keep him safe from me.

You kidnapped the one woman I would burn the world down to protect.

And you thought a few locked doors and concrete walls were going to save you?

Fucking adorable.The smile disappeared.

No more fantasies about what I would do to him. No more wasted seconds. First I found Alina. Then Santos could learn exactly how badly he’d miscalculated.

I looked toward the darkness ahead..

My eyes scanned frantically across the landscape — There was nothing here. Nothing looked like a fucking warehouse.

No lights. No obvious structure large enough to hide a man like Santos and whatever men he still had left. Just darkness, weeds, and the distant hum of the highway.

Leo climbed out after me, already speaking quietly into his radio.

“All units, hold position. No engines. No lights. Stay silent. We don't have a count on hostiles, and we don't know how close they're sitting Mrs Dimitri. One wrong sound and we lose the only advantage we've got left. Confirm."

Soft clicks of acknowledgment came back one after another. My men were professionals. They understood what was at stake.

I stared down at the tracker again. The red dot pulsed steadily, almost mocking me with its certainty.

She was here. So why the fuck could I see nothing?

I lifted my eyes. Trees. Thick bushes. Overgrown weeds swallowing the ground around us.

Nothing else. No warehouse. No lights. No road. Not even a fucking wall.

“Where the fuck is she?”

Leo turned slowly, scanning the darkness.

“I don’t fucking know. The signal says she’s right here.”

“If Arthur has sent us on a wild-goose chase while Santos has her somewhere else, I swear to God—”

“You can kill him afterward,” Leo cut in sharply. “But I don’t think Arthur is that fucking stupid.”

“He’s a fucking manipulator.”

“He’s also a coward who knows exactly what happens when he wastes your time.” Leo pointed at the tracker.

“That signal is here. We just haven’t found what it’s coming from.”

I looked at the trees again. Nothing. Just darkness and tangled branches.

“Then look harder.”

“We are.”

“Clearly not hard enough.”

Leo exhaled through his nose, visibly fighting his own frustration.

“Give me a minute.”

“You have thirty seconds.”

“Fuck, Alexander.”

“Twenty-nine.”

Leo muttered something under his breath, then hissed into the radio,

“Spread out. Fifteen seconds. Find the fucking warehouse.”

Leo and I moved forward together, weapons drawn, staying low.

The rest of the team fanned out behind us in a wide, silent arc.

We passed the remains of an old loading dock, then a row of rusted shipping containers half-swallowed by weeds.

Still nothing..The tracker insisted we were close.

Leo stopped suddenly and lifted a hand.  He pointed through a thick stand of overgrown trees and tangled fencing to our left.

“There,” he whispered.

At first I saw only darkness and the silhouette of what looked like an old retaining wall. Then my eyes adjusted.

Behind the vegetation, set back from the road and deliberately screened by years of unchecked growth, was the long, low shape of a warehouse.

The walls were dark, the windows boarded or painted over. No exterior lights.

No vehicles visible from this angle. If you weren’t specifically looking for it — or standing in exactly the right place — you would never know the building was there.

Santos had chosen this location carefully. I felt my heart kick hard against my ribs. She’s close.

“Leo.”

My voice came out barely above a breath, but there was nothing soft in it. Just tightly controlled rage and the kind of frustration that had been grinding against my ribs for hours.

“This goes clean. No alarms. No gunfire unless I give the order — and even then, only if there’s no other option. The second Santos knows we’re inside that building, he gets a choice. And men like him never choose mercy. He’ll put a gun to her head before he lets us take her. Or something worse. We don’t give him the chance to decide.”

I checked the blade at my hip out of pure habit, more ritual than need at this point.

“Every man who makes noise tonight better have a body on the ground to justify it. Because if Santos hears us coming before I’m standing in front of him, I will hold whoever gave us away personally responsible for whatever happens to her next.” I locked eyes with Leo in the dark, making sure the words landed exactly as intended. “We move like ghosts until I say otherwise. And if it does go loud — you make damn sure nothing standing between me and that room is still breathing by the time I reach it.”

Leo held my gaze for a second, then gave a single, sharp nod.

“Understood.” His voice was just as quiet, just as steady. “Ghosts until you say otherwise. Anyone who fucks that up answers to you — and then to me.”

He lifted the radio to his mouth, thumb pressing the button.

“All units, listen carefully. We move silent. No alarms. No gunfire unless the boss gives the order. If Santos knows we’re coming before we’re on top of him, the package is at risk. Anyone who makes noise without a body to show for it answers directly to him. We go in like ghosts. Confirm.”

Soft clicks of acknowledgment came back one after another through the earpiece.

Leo lowered the radio and checked his weapon with a quick, practiced motion.

“We’ll get her out. Clean if we can. Fast if we can’t. But we get her out.”

He looked around “How many do you think?”

“Enough to make him feel safe. Not enough to stop us.”

I raised my hand and gave the signal. My men began closing in from multiple angles, using the darkness and the overgrown terrain as cover.

We moved like shadows — no wasted motion, no sound louder than a careful footstep.

I took the left approach with Leo and two others. We stayed low, using the trees and the uneven ground.

As we drew closer I could make out more detail: a side door near the rear, a loading bay that looked sealed, and two men standing near the front corner of the building, rifles hanging loosely across their chests.

They were talking in low voices, clearly bored, clearly not expecting company.

I watched them for nearly a full minute, timing their movements, noting the way they occasionally glanced toward the road but never toward the treeline where we waited.

Sloppy. Santos had gotten comfortable. That would cost him.

I signaled Dante and Vincent to split. I circled wider, coming up behind the first guard while Leo took the second. The night held its breath with us.

I closed the final distance in three silent steps. My left hand clamped over the man’s mouth at the same moment my knife slid up under his ribs, angled for the heart.

He jerked once, hard, then went heavy in my arms. I lowered him carefully into the weeds, already moving.

Leo’s target dropped a second later with almost no sound..Two down.

We dragged the bodies deeper into the undergrowth and kept moving. Another pair of guards was stationed near the side entrance. Same approach. Same result. Efficient. Quiet. Final.

By the time we reached the rear of the warehouse, four of Santos’s men were already dead and Dante had confirmed two more neutralized on the far side.

The building remained dark and still. No alarms. No shouts. No sudden movement from inside.

I pressed my back to the cold metal wall and checked the tracker one last time.

Alina was so fucking close.

I could feel the weight of every hour she had spent alone with that bastard pressing against the back of my skull.

The things he might have said to her. The fear she must have felt. The possibility that she was hurt worse than the photo had shown.

I shut it all down.Emotion would get her killed. Precision would bring her home.

Leo appeared at my shoulder, voice barely above a breath.

“Rear door is our best entry. Two more hostiles visible through a cracked window on the east side. Main floor looks mostly open. There’s a stairwell or lower level toward the center — that tracks with the signal.”

My gaze swept over the team, making sure every man understood me.

“Once we’re inside, nobody fires unless you have a clean shot and you know—without a fucking doubt—that Alina is nowhere in the line of fire.”

I paused, my voice dropping colder.

“She comes first. Always.”

My eyes settled on the building.

“Santos is priority two. If he puts her between himself and a weapon, you do not take the shot. You hold your fire and let me handle him.”

I tightened my grip on the weapon.

“I want him alive long enough to understand exactly what he did.”

A beat of silence followed.

“Bring my wife out safely. Everything else comes second.”

I looked at the dark warehouse one more time, heart slamming against my ribs hard enough that I was surprised the men around me couldn’t hear it.

I’m here, Alina. Just hold on a little longer.

I raised my hand, gave the final signal, and moved.

We crossed the last stretch of open ground in a low, fast run, staying in the deepest shadows.

The two men near the east window never saw us coming. One died with a hand over his mouth and a blade between his ribs.

The other managed half a turn before Leo’s knife found his throat. We lowered both bodies without a sound.

The rear door was locked but old. One of my men made short work of it with a pick and a quiet click. I took point, pushing the door open.

The second we stepped inside, the fucking alarm screamed to life.

A high, shrieking wail that tore through the warehouse and announced our presence to every bastard still breathing inside.

“What the fuck—”