Chapter 114 Dead Engine
Serena's POV
It was nothing like what I could remember. It was nothing like the beautiful structure I met just about a week ago.
My eyes grew wider till the car finally rolled to a stop.
It was a mess, it was barely standing, a complete horror sight to what it was earlier.
I was the first to step out of the car, slowly making my way towards the building.
Dante joined me to my left shortly before joining the fray.
“What. The. Fuck?” Nico exhaled slowly as he looked around.
The wooden walls of the all bungalow had been broken on all ends, the roof dipped inside from the left, and the door was laid as a mart now.
The paintings had been peeled on different sides and the windows barely had any glass left in them.
But one thought ran through my mind in all these. A fallen tree in the way, a crashed barricade, dead security, and now, a banged up house. Did mom really survive all these?
I needed an answer so I dashed towards the small steps leading into the building.
“Serena, wait—”
Dante tried calling me back but he was a second too late as I already stepped on the steps to the building.
But I didn't expect it to collapse under my weight as I pushed up on one step.
I crashed into the ground, finding myself between the wooded materials of what used to be the step.
I struggled to come out but found it a bit hard without getting injured, then Dante with Nico walked over and they both gave me a disapproving look.
Dante shook his head and turned to his driver.
“Get her out, then get the tools,” he instructed.
The driver nodded and in seconds, he pulled away the broken pieces of wood, giving me a clear space to step out.
He reached down to help me up but I couldn't just let him do everything, so I swayed his hand away.
“I can do it myself,” I said and pushed myself up and out of the ditch.
The driver nodded as I stepped out and jogged over to the back of the car, bringing out what looked like trackers.
Nico brought out a tab and from I could tell, he was connecting the tracker to the tab.
It took a few minutes but when he'd finished, the tracker beeped loudly and Dante nodded his head at him.
“We'll go round the house, searching for anything that would point to a particular person being behind this,” he instructed in Nico's direction.
“When the rest of the men come, tell them to prepare to bring this building down,” he instructed the driver.
“What?” I exclaimed.
“It can no longer be spotted as a safe house, too many damages here,” he replied calmly and as he spoke, I folded back.
I folded back cause I realized that in all these, he's counting this as another loss. The security systems, the building itself, the mere purpose of the spot, everything had been lost in one night.
I was all about my mother again, but I'm sure he's got more than that in mind now.
So I said nothing again as they began walking by the side of the building. Then waited till they had gone out of sight before turning to the driver.
“I wanna check the inside,” I expressed.
He looked stiff as fuck. “No, Don hasn't cleared that,” he replied and I took note that it was the first time I was hearing his voice.
Not what I expected with all the muscles and all, but phewww.
“I know, but it beats having to stand her for hours doing nothing,” I replied, crossing my hands over my chest.
“You can head inside and I'll leave the car running for you,” he replied and I nearly rolled my eyes.
“I'm heading inside, tell Dante when he comes,” I said firmly and walked off, knowing fully well he wouldn't want to lay his hands on me out of fear.
I got to the small steps and took extra care this time, jumping over whatever looked weak enough to crash.
And in a short while, I had my feet on what used to be the door. I slowly strolled inside, taking in the battered sight.
Just like the outside, everything had been turned on its head and nothing looked to have been spared.
The flat screen was laying flat on its screen, the table lamps were all over the floor and the sofa had more foam outside of it than inside.
I wasn't fancying this one bit, I restrained myself from calling out her name at once even though I longed to hear her voice again.
The ceiling had bullet holes in them, clearly pointing to armed men. I strolled over to the kitchen and marveled at how everything had been flipped around.
What was I looking for? Maybe a sign, anything to show where my mom had been taken to. Or maybe I just felt like exploring, seeing and hoping I would find her.
It was a bungalow, so no stairs, good. I made my way carefully towards where she slept.
The bed had been disfigured and torn apart, but that was less of my problem. I noticed a few papers on the ground and I picked them up, putting them together to reveal a letter written by my mom.
I knew this cause the first line read, “Serena, my daughter.”
I sat on the floor with my legs crossed and read it to myself, smiling at the beautiful words she prescribed to me.
From all indications, this had been written before anything happened. I still smiled even if it wasn't what I was looking for and when I reached the part that nearly drew tears from my eyes, I folded the papers and stuffed them in my pocket.
The last thing I needed to do now was cry. I got up and did a quick look around before making my way towards the exit.
As I stepped out, my eyes first fell on Dante who had returned from his search with Nico and the rest of the men had arrived.
Dante gave me a hard stare but said nothing as I made my way down.
“Nothing is in there,” I said, trying to deviate his stare.
He hesitated for a while before replying. “I know, we've already found enough evidence to point that Luca was here and your mom was taken.”
“Really? What's that?” I asked in a rush.
He hesitated again before pointing the screen to me. “We found bullets from Luca's camp, wheels that matched his, and we were able to activate the footage from a hidden camera in a tree,” he explained.
I watched the video on the next slide and on a full zoom in, I watched as my mom was carried out of the house dropped in a car.
Then the video paused and what looked like Luca's face staring it's way.
“What now?” I asked, handing it back to him.
He didn't answer me directly, he just turned to his men. “Bring it down!”
And I'm seconds, flames took over the entire building and we watched it reduce to nothing but ash.
“Let's go, we need to find them from better grounds,” he said and headed towards the car.
I didn't know what he meant by better grounds but I followed all the same.
Everyone filed in and we moved with us leading the small group.
We made it just about half way to the barricade when the car stopped suddenly again.
I jerked forward, then turned to the driver angrily as there was nothing in our way, but the anger slipped away fast as I watched his pressing the gas with all he had.
That's when I noticed that the engine had seized and everything inside stopped working.
This can't be good.