Chapter 80
“Fine.... But promise me you would not do anything reckless. Promise me you will stay here until we figure this out.”
Jace’s lips trembled into something that was supposed to look like a smile, but Elias could see right through it. His voice came out soft, cracked around the edges. “Yeah... I promise.”
Elias wanted to believe him. He wanted to trust that for once, Jace would listen. But as Jace turned and disappeared into the shadows of his apartment building, something twisted in Elias’s gut. Jace Rivera was many things, he was brave, infuriating, impossible, but he was not patient. And he definitely was not the type to sit and wait when his brother was in danger.
So Elias waited. He lingered in his car across the street, pretending to drive away, headlights fading into the night. Then, once he was sure Jace thought he was gone, he made a slow U-turn and parked his car in a dark spot where he had a perfect view of Jace’s front door but could not be seen himself.
The minutes dragged. One hour... Two. The night grew cold, his breath fogging up the windshield as the clock on the dash blinked 12:00 a.m. He was seconds from leaving, half convinced he had misjudged Jace’s recklessness when the front door of the apartment opened.
There he was.
Jace stepped out, his movements jerky and nervous. Even from afar, Elias could see the tension vibrating through him, his shoulders hunched, his phone clenched too tightly in one hand. He looked like a man walking to his execution. Jace hailed a cab and got in.
“Dammit, Jace,” Elias muttered under his breath, turning his key and letting the engine hum to life without headlights. He followed, keeping his distance, careful not to draw attention.
Elias followed from a few cars back, every red light stretching out his nerves. The cab weaved through the city, heading toward the industrial outskirts, where the streetlights thinned and the buildings grew silent and abandoned. Finally, it stopped at a deserted warehouse that looked like it had not seen life in years.
Jace stepped out, clutching something close which Elias recognized immediately. The file.
“What the hell are you doing?” Elias whispered. He parked far enough not to be noticed and got out, heart thundering. He crouched low as he watched Jace walk toward the gate. The air around the warehouse felt wrong. Jace paused, looking around, then bent down beside an old metal post near the side of the building. He slid something into the crack between the concrete and the rusting frame.
The file. He was hiding it.
Elias stayed still, his pulse roaring in his ears as Jace straightened, glanced over his shoulder once, and disappeared through the entrance.
“Idiot,” Elias hissed. He wanted to yell after him, to drag him back to safety, but any noise now would give him away. Instead, he pulled out his phone. His fingers trembled as he made a quick call. When the person on the other end picked up, Elias spoke quietly, quickly, and ended the call without waiting for a response. Then he went after Jace.
Inside, the air reeked of oil and rust. The place was silent except for the faint hum of a generator somewhere deep in the building. The corridors were narrow, lit only by the weak yellow glow of a few hanging bulbs.
“Jace?” Elias whispered. No answer.
He crept forward, every step a calculated risk, until a sound stopped him– footsteps. Heavy and more than one pair. Instinct kicked in, and Elias ducked behind a stack of broken crates.
Two men appeared, tall, broad, dressed in black. Between them, they carried two figures. Elias strained his eyes and caught a glimpse one small, frail, unmoving. The other, a woman’s shape, limp in their arms.
His blood ran cold.
They were being taken upstairs. Elias followed, silent as a shadow, his jaw tight enough to ache. Every instinct screamed at him to act to just rush in, fight, grab them but logic held him still. One wrong move and they would all die.
The men carried the bodies into a smaller room and shut the door behind them. Elias waited, breath shallow, until their footsteps faded toward a larger, open hall down the corridor. Then he followed, pressing himself against the walls until he reached the doorway.
And there under a single hanging bulb, he saw him.
Jace sat strapped to a steel chair, his wrists bound tight, and standing before him, gun in hand, was Victor Crane.
Elias’s chest constricted.
He could barely hear the first few words just fragments. Victor’s voice was low and poisonous, Jace’s voice shaking but defiant. Then the creak of a door behind him made Elias turn sharply.
Footsteps again, softer this time. Someone entering the room. Elias pressed himself deeper into the shadows. He could not make out who it was until the figure stepped into the light beside Victor.
And then Elias froze.
“Aiden?”
He almost said it aloud, but his voice caught in his throat. His mind reeled.
Aiden, standing beside Victor.
Aiden’s expression was stiff, hollow. He did not meet Victor’s eyes when he spoke.
“Noah and Elias’s mother are secured in the back room,” he said quietly.
Elias’s breath stuttered.
My mother?
His pulse quickened, a harsh, painful rhythm in his chest. He thought of the two unconscious figures he had seen being dragged. So that was them.
He wanted to run to her, to Noah. But he could not.
If he moved, Jace would die.
He clenched his fists until his nails cut into his palms.
What the hell was Aiden doing here? Working for Victor?
Was that why Jace ended things with him.... because he found out?
Every question burned in Elias’s mind until Victor’s laughter sliced through the air.
“I can not believe you trusted him,” Victor was saying, his tone almost gleeful. “Where you that desperate for love, Rivera? Or is it just that orphans crave affection so much they willl trade anything for it even critical thinking?”
“Fuck you!” Jace spat, his voice raw with fury. He struggled against the chair, the metal rattling against the floor."You are the most vile human i have ever met... i hate you."
Victor smirked, raising the gun lazily. “I don’t have time for melodrama. I have a plane to catch. Bring the boy out,”
Elias’s stomach turned to ice.
Two men entered, dragging Noah into the light. The boy’s wrists were bound, his lips trembling, his eyes wide with fear. Jace’s face crumpled when he saw him.
“Jace, tell me where the document is,” Victor said coldly, pressing the gun to Noah’s temple. “Or your brother gets a bullet in his skull.”
“No...no, please!” Jace’s voice broke. “Please. Don’t... don’t hurt him."
“Then tell me where the document is. Don’t waste my time.”
Jace’s throat worked. His entire body shook. “It’s… it’s outside.”
"I put it.... in the crack between the concrete and the rusting frame by the gate. I swear to God. You can check.”
"Do you think I am so stupid I would take your word for it?”
“I am not lying!” Jace cried out. “Check it.... Please..... You can look.”
Victor nodded toward one of his men. “Check it. See if he is telling the truth.”
The man left, boots echoing on the concrete. Elias crouched lower, his every muscle screaming to move, to do something, but he could not at least not yet. He had to time it right. The sound of his father’s voice made bile rise in his throat.
Minutes later, the guard returned with the file in hand. “Got it,” he said, tossing it to Victor.
Victor flipped through the pages, scanning them briefly, and then gave a satisfied smile. “Ah.” He nodded to the men. “Put the boy back. We are done here.”
The guards dragged Noah back toward the room. Jace’s breath came out ragged, broken. His eyes flicked to the doorway as if searching for a miracle that would not come.
Victor turned the final page, exhaled slowly, then looked back at Jace. “Nice doing business with you.”
Elias’s blood went cold.
He watched as Victor lifted the gun and aimed it straight at Jace.
Jace’s eyes widened, and in that instant that sliver of time before the world broke....
BANG!
And the world went silent.