Chapter 39—Aiden
I’m here again.
At D’Agostinos Inc.
As I walk through the revolving doors, I hope with everything inside me I get over this next hurdle, and somehow, someway, it will finally be the path to finding Aleksei.
I never thought I’d be looking for Eric Markov too. And while I hope finding him will help me find Aleksei, I know I’m looking for him for another reason too.
For her.
Olivia.
Yesterday, I couldn’t let her go. Again.
When she asked to go with me to Brazil, I should have been stronger and insisted she go be with her mother. That would have been the sensible thing for me to do. I got the chance again to send her away this morning, but I left her asleep in my bed after another night with me where I couldn’t get enough of her.
She wanted to stay with me. She asked me not to let her go yet, and as she did, I lost myself to selfishness and became a slave to my emotions.
A slave to the thing I fear.
Love.
Apart from not wanting to let her go, what made me agree to take her with me was the idea of me keeping her safe. In all honesty, it wasn’t hard to persuade me when she used my own words against me.
I knew I couldn’t say no, because the only person I trust to keep her safe is me.
I don’t know what’s going to happen on this journey. I’ll be going to a place I’ve never been before, and it will be strange having to plan as I go along.
I get up to Massimo’s office, and he’s already there with Dominic and Tristan.
“Hi, guys,” I say.
“Hey. We have a location,” Massimo answers, and a hope I haven’t felt in so long sparks my heart.
“Where?” I ask.
“Not Rio de Janeiro; it’s in Mato Grosso do Sul,” Dominic answers.
“Where the fuck is that?”
Dominic flicks his flash pen, and the computer screen across from Massimo comes on.
An image of a fucking luxury estate comes on the screen. It looks like a combination of a European castle and a villa. The building itself is endless.
“I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Nor us. The structure goes underground too. I think that’s where they must be keeping Eric. If he’s designing weapons or whatever, then it fits they’d have some undetectable facility.”
“How the hell did you do it?” I have to know.
“I created a virus,” Dominic smirks. “It was the only fucking way to attack the encryption on the firewalls long enough to allow me to pin a location on where the email was sent from. Now that we have a location, I’m hoping I can insert my spyware into the surveillance system to see what’s going on inside. That’s going to be the hard part. But we’re ready to go.”
“Good, so here’s the plan so far, but feel free to add to it, Pakhan,” Massimo begins. “Me and Dom will go with you. We’ll be taking our soldiers. I think a combination of the Bratva and the Syndicate will be a good stronghold. My longtime friend Don Alejandro Ramirez has offered to lend us assistance as we will be going to his territory.”
Alejandro Ramirez is a cartel king; Massimo has been trying to get him to join us since he reformed the Syndicate. He was a friend of his father’s and the only guy with one sure seat in the Syndicate. It almost felt like the rest of us had to earn our place.
“I do know. That sounds like a good plan. Thank you.”
“No worries. Tristan and the Chicago crew will be here watching L. A., and the enforcers will continue to keep watch over Olivia’s mother. I want to fly out first thing in the morning. I assume Olivia be joining her mother later today?”
I stare at him, wondering how I’m going to answer that question.
I would say if this had to do with his wife, Emelia, he’d have her right by his side. But I wasn’t supposed to have that kind of relationship with Olivia.
Since I’m not a man to cower, I decide to come clean.
“I’m taking her with us. With me.”
Of course, the only person who doesn’t look surprised to hear that is Dominic.
Massimo raises his brows again, and Tristan tilts his head to the side. I get the feeling if we were talking about one of them, they’d make some wisecrack about it. But they’re brothers, so they can do that, and I never joke.
“Is that wise, Pakhan?”
“I know it’s not, but I’d prefer if she were with me. She’s in as much danger with us as she would be with her mother, and we are who we are, better than any of our enforcers put together.”
Massimo looks like he agrees, but I’m not looking for his permission.
“Alright, but we have to be careful. The advantage we have is stealth, but it will only benefit us until it doesn’t, and we’ve all seen what hell looks like. I would hate for her to get caught in that. Please understand we can’t guarantee anybody’s safety.”
I nod. “I understand.”
“Good, then we leave tomorrow at first light.”
***
Dominic and I get our usual coffee after the meeting and sit outside on the bench across from the building.
We’re silent for a few moments until he clears his throat and stares at me with all the questions in his eyes.
“I don’t know what to expect from Brazil, but if I can get into the surveillance system, we’ll have eyes on the place,” he states with a sigh. “Without that, we’re flying blind, but we’ll go in whether we can see or not.”
“Yes, and I’ll burn the place to the fucking ground if I must to get the information I need.”
“Right there with you. And if it helps, I get why you’re taking Olivia.”
“You do?” I set my hands down on the table.
“Yeah. I guess she did rub off on you.”
“I guess she did,” I admit. “I just couldn’t let her go yet.”
“That’s not a bad thing, Aiden, maybe you shouldn’t let her go.”
I chuckle lightly. “I have to, old friend. I can’t keep her. She told me how her grandfather wanted to keep her family out of the Bratva life, and I get it because I do too. If not for Persephone, she wouldn’t know Jude, and she wouldn’t have had a taste of darkness. I guess, too, if not for me, then she wouldn’t know Jude either. She shouldn’t know any of us.”
Persephone’s words have continued to torment me, and I thought of her hatred for Olivia and her family.
That hatred made my fate and Olivia’s intertwine unknown to us and out of our control like one of those unexplained phenomena that should never have been.
“I think in the end, it may be wise to pick things apart and see what the best answer is. I think we’ve all had to do that.”
I nod, agreeing because I already know what the answer is.
I can’t keep her.
“Have you thought more about who could have betrayed you?” he asks tentatively.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about it, Dominic.”
“If you’re taking Maksim and Ilya, it’s going to be difficult to keep them in the dark about Eric once we get to Brazil. Are they coming?”
“Yes, they’re both strong, as strong as me. We’ll need people like that if we’re going into the unknown. I don’t want to allow my unfounded suspicions to screw with me.” I draw in a breath. “I’ll brief them when we arrive.”
“Okay. There was something Persephone said that got me thinking,” He states.
“What was it?”
“When she explained Jude’s plan, there was something that flagged to me, but I’m not sure what it was.”
Everything flagged to me, but maybe that was because it was me. “What made you take note of it?”
“It was just weird because it felt like he thought he could just plan to take Gabriella and your son with no repercussions, even if you messed up with the Order. What made him think he could do that?”
I narrow my eyes, and I think about what he’s saying because, for the first time, I’m looking at this from a different angle. So maybe what I thought happened didn’t exactly happen that way.
My theory seemed plausible, but maybe it wasn’t.
So what actually happened then?
***
At first light the next day, we board the jet and take off for Brazil.
A little over thirteen hours later, we arrived in Brazil air space, and I find myself looking out for the religious monument.
Christ the Redeemer.
When I see it, I think of Aleksei, and I allow myself to hope again.
Olivia’s hand covers mine, and I look at her sitting next to me. I know she’s hoping too.
This time I can’t tell her not to worry when I’m worried myself.
I can’t say shit when I feel like I’m standing at the mouth of hell with nowhere to go but straight inside.