Chapter 40—Aiden

We’ve gathered in the forest a mile away from the facility. We’re so close to where we need to be yet so far away.

Far away in terms of knowledge. It’s not sitting well with me because we’re doing things the old-fashioned way.

It’s as I said to Olivia. We’re checking the place out and moving in if we see an opening to do so.

The delay this morning was us trying to get Dominic’s device to work.

It didn’t, or rather it’s not working yet. He’s designed it to wear away the firewalls bit by bit, weakening the system. We don’t know when that will be because Eric has some crazy ass setup that outdoes everything we do.

“You have to assume the facility and the surrounding areas are like a death trap,” Alejandro begins in an accented voice that suggests he mostly speaks Portuguese and only English when he has to. “There have been reports of the place being rigged with traps of all sorts of descriptions designed to kill you in a heartbeat.”

He reminds me a lot of my father, even though the two men look nothing alike.

Alejandro is a lot younger at forty-six years old, but he carries himself with the authority of an older man who’s seen the rough edges of life far too many times.

As I look at him before us, I can tell he’s seen too much death—a little like me.

It does take one to know one. I think it might be something about the light a person carries with them that’s recognizable.

Those who walk in the dark, like me, carry no light. That’s what we recognize.

I see it now as I look at him.

“The house is over there.” He points toward the path with the tallest trees. “My men will show you the way. It’s important to keep to the path and follow them precisely. This is their territory, so we’re like a lamb to slaughter if any of us gets caught.”

“In that case, I think it’s best we group up,” Massimo suggests. “And use the communicators.”

“I agree,” Alejandro answers with a clipped nod. “How about ten men stay here for backup, and we go in with the rest in three teams of ten.”

“Agreed. You stay here. If shit hits the fan, we’ll need someone strong to see everything through.”

“Alright, let’s do this.” Alejandro shakes Massimo’s hand, almost like he’s saying goodbye already.

Massimo looks unfazed and focused. Two things I wish I could be right now.

Unlike him, who’s taking charge, I’m like a walking time bomb ready to go off. Like the savage I am, all I have is death on my mind. Death and the image of the disappointment I saw on Olivia’s face writhing through me.

Neither of those are good. They are both throwing me off balance, and I can’t afford that.

We split into three groups between the three strongest men here leading. That’s me, Massimo and Dominic.

I have Maksim at my side, who still isn’t happy with me for withholding the information on Eric. He didn’t say anything when I briefed him and Ilya this morning, but I could tell he was pissed, whereas Ilya expressed no emotion one way or the other.

At the head of us are two of Alejandro’s men who lead us through the thicket of trees. Trees so thick and dense you would hope to never be lost amongst them. With everywhere looking the same, you’d probably be lost forever. The place reminds me of the forests in Russia. A person could go missing there and never be heard from again.

I glance at Maksim as we move and note the way he’s moving. It’s like a true warrior and like the way my father trained us. He moves like he’s protecting his leader so the mission can be carried out.

I’ve been thinking about what Dominic pointed out from Persephone’s revelation. I can’t wrap my head around it because, like always, there’s something I’m missing. Some key factor and that key factor might excuse my men.

My cousin in particular, who’s always had my back. A man who moves like him, essentially using himself as a shield, is not the kind who would betray another. Neither is a man like Ilya.

Maksim glances at me, and tension creases his brow.

“What is it, Pakhan?” he mutters, keeping his voice low.

“Nothing, just be careful.”

His eyes narrow for a fraction then he goes back to his observation as we move forward.

We continue walking for what feels like a mile, and then I see a slight clearing ahead.

Alejandro’s soldier holds a hand up, and we stop, then he beckons me to come closer.

“We need to be careful here,” he says to me. “I suggest you and your second in command check the place out from here, and we stay here to watch your back. It’s up to you to assess the place and decide whether you want to risk moving forward.”

“Okay, I got it,” I reply.

“We will wait for your word.”

I cock my head for Maksim to come, and he does.

We move together in stealth, crouching down until the surroundings become clearer, then lowering to the ground when I see we’re at the edge of a steep hill.

The facility is below us, and it’s as endless as the picture Dominic showed us days ago.

Not only that. It’s heavily guarded like fucking Fort Knox.

We’re over two hundred feet away, but I can see a host of men on the roof and men on the ground. All are carrying guns.

I reach for my binoculars and zoom right in so I can see more. Maksim does the same thing.

“This is crazy, Aiden,” Maksim says. “I don’t doubt that we can get past those guards; the problem is we don’t know where we’re going. And I think we need more men. If only to divide things up to give us a clear chance of getting through.”

He’s fucking right. There are a total of forty one of us here, with Alejandro included. It’s not enough if we’re flying blind.

It would be suicide.

“Try and look at the entrances. Let’s make sure we scout the place properly and move closer if we have to,” I answer. He nods and moves down a little way to start checking the entrances.

I do the same by looking past the balconies.

“Hey, Aiden,” Massimo’s voice rattles in the receiver in my ear.

“Hi.”

“There’s a shit load of men on my side guarding the place. I seem to be at the back of the house, and there are people going down steps into the ground. I’m guessing that’s where Eric is.”

“We should come over to you,” I reply.

“No. I think we’re vastly outnumbered. And—”

“What.”

“Wait, I heard something. I’m going to check it out.”

The receiver goes dead.

At the same time, Maksim signals me over, waving his hand quickly.

I rush over.

“What did you see?”

“Fucking look down there, Aiden.” He points down below at the driveway within the opened gates.

I look through my binoculars and see one lone black Sedan.

Next to it is an elderly man with shoulder-length silver hair. As I watch him, I feel I’ve seen him before. His back is turned, so I can’t see his face. It’s his slightly hunched posture I recognize.

I stare, though, until the fucker turns around, and I see instantly why Maksim called me over.

The man I’m looking at is Jeshero Nikitin, Gabriella’s father.

The sight of him standing in a facility that belongs to the Order is one more piece of the puzzle and possibly the biggest piece since he was a man who knew the ins and outs of my home as it was back then.

He would have known when both me and Gabriella would be at home. Near enough where we were at all times.

He was always with my father. He could have been someone watching my movements in plain sight, and I wouldn’t know.

More importantly, he’s a man who would have known Jude and his father because they were all in business together.

It wasn’t someone close to me who betrayed me.

It was someone close to my father and someone close to Gabriella.

I always believed the attack on my home felt like someone opened the gates and allowed the enemy to walk right in.

Well, that’s exactly what would have happened if my father-in-law went to my home. No one would have questioned a visit from him. He would have gone into the house with no problem, and no one would have thought anything of it.

He came to see Gabriella and Aleksei every day after she’d given birth and even tried to tell her she shouldn’t be going back to work so soon after having the baby. He would have known her work schedule and known she went to close up the salon at night when her staff finished for the day.

But that night, he got it wrong.

It was him.

Gabriella’s father. But why?

He didn’t want me to marry his daughter. But did he hate me that much that he wanted to kill me?

Maybe he did because he stood to lose something by the loss of opportunity.

Gabriella was supposed to marry Jude. Dominic said Jude made that plan to kill me and take her like he had permission, so maybe her father gave it to him.

I glance back at Maksim, seeing how wrong I was, and for the first time in nearly a decade, I allow him to feel like my cousin. A man I should trust.

“It wasn’t me, Aiden. It must have been him,” Maksim says.

“Yes. I’m… sorry. I should never have doubted you,” I rasp.

“Don’t worry about it. Now we know who betrayed you. Or at least we have a fucking good idea of who was responsible for what happened.”

The whole thing is shit—all of it.

When I look back down to the house with my binoculars, who I see next makes the analysis of who was responsible for taking Aleksei irrefutable.

A little dark-haired boy gets out of the car. I’m fully zoomed in so I can see his face.

His face looks just like mine with his mother’s eyes.

That’s Aleksei.

The parent in me makes me bolt forward like a wild beast, but Maksim holds me back with all his strength.

“You can’t, Aiden. You’re dead if you run down there like that,” he argues.

“That’s my boy. I’m going to get him.” I know I’ve fucking lost my mind, and he’s right, but I can’t think straight.

The beast inside me wants to kill. It wants vengeance. It wants blood.

“Aiden, listen to me. You can’t get him back if your fucking dead. You—”

The sound of gunfire steals his next words away.

“Aiden and Dominic, get out of here!” Massimo balks into the receiver. “We’ve been ambushed.”

I glance down below and see Jeshero walking into the house with my son and the gates to the house close behind them. Even if I could fly down there, I wouldn’t get there in time.

“Come, Aiden, let’s get out of here and come back with more manpower. We’ll get him back,” Maksim promises, tugging on my arm. “You can’t die here, Pakhan.”

That’s what snaps me back in focus.

I can’t die here. Not like this.

We rush back down to join the men we left behind, but the loud gunfire is enough to tell me they’re under attack.

Shit. Men in black masks swoop down from the trees like ninjas.

With a spray of bullets, they take out five of Alejandro’s men and two of mine.

Maksim and I rush behind a thick oak tree to cover ourselves. I pull both my guns and fire fearlessly, taking down a line of ten men as they come at me.

More come, and the tree no longer serves as protection. Maksim and I move away from there, heading back down to the meeting area where we know we have more men and Alejandro waiting.

But we’re being pursued.

We run as fast as we can, shooting anything that moves. I have Maksim’s back, and he has mine until we get separated.

I don’t know how it happened, it just did, but I can hear him.

Then suddenly every fucking thing goes quiet. Quiet enough so I can think, and I wonder how in the ever-loving fuck they knew we were here.

“Aiden, get down,” Maksim calls out, throwing himself into me.

Two shots fire as I’m knocked to the ground.

One bullet left Maksim’s gun and lodged in the head of the masked man who was sneaking up behind me. The other bullet is in Maksim’s chest.

I rush to his side as he grabs at his wound and cries out. As the dark red blood flows from his chest, I’m reminded of his words.

I’d take a bullet for you the same way my father took it for yours.

“Get out of here. Leave me,” he husks.

“No, I’m won’t.”

Panic fuels me, mingling with adrenaline, and I pick him up, hauling him over my shoulder.

I can’t leave him. I won’t.

Summoning all the strength I have, I run down the path with him and get down to where Alejandro is. He seems to have had the same shit happen to him. There are dead men everywhere.

He sees me coming with Maksim and runs to meet me halfway.

“He’s been shot,” I shout. “This is my cousin.”

“Come,” he replies, and we rush over to one of the open trucks.

I lay Maksim in the back, and Alejandro grabs a first aid box. He rips away the fabric from the wound, and I see Maksim’s been shot close to his heart. He’ll need medical attention immediately if we hope for him to live.

Maksim looks at me, breathes out a ragged breath then his eyes roll back in his head.

“No, wake up,” I shout. “Wake the fuck up.”

Today there are too many reminders of the deaths of those who are no more in my life. I thought of my father earlier, and right now, Maksim looks like Viktor as he died in my arms.

“Get out of the way,” Alejandro says, moving me aside.

“That’s my cousin.” It’s like I’ve been programmed to say that.

“And I’m a fucking doctor, unless you have the same skill as me, move.”

I move, and Alejandro checks for a pulse on Maksim’s neck.

When he starts doing CPR, my chest caves.

Dominic rushes up to us at that moment with his men and blood on his face. He sees Maksim in the truck, and his expression falls.

Alejandro pumps hard on Maksim’s chest and gives him the rescue breaths. I know how to do that, but I never knew how weird it would be to watch someone who means something to you die in front of you.

As the scene of horror plays out before me, my phone rings in my back pocket. It’s because I’m programmed to answer is why I do. I don’t even take note of the unrecognized number calling that I usually loathe.

“Aiden Romanov,” comes Jude’s voice, and it’s the first time that this man has made me feel like he has me where he’s wanted me the whole time.

“Motherfucker!”

“Call me whatever you want. It’s me who’s in charge now.”

“How the fuck did you know we were here?”

“I played the waiting game. I know the truth Aiden Romanov. I know who you’re looking for, and it’s not just your son. You and your men have some type of skills I have to give you credit for. It’s amazing you managed to find out Aleksei was alive, let alone where I’m holding Eric Markov.”

“Fucking bastard. You have my son. I just saw him. Fucking give him back to me.”

“Much as I would love to get rid of the little runt, you’ll be dead before the day is out, so that’s not happening. You’re on my turf now. In my lair, where I have the backing of the leaders of the Order. The little posse of men you brought with you is nothing. Definitely not when I own Eric Markov. He’s a weapon unlike anything any of you have faced, and he’ll do anything I say if he wants his mother and sister to live. He doesn’t have to know I no longer have possession of his mother. I found you because he can track any phone I tell him to, and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it. I know where you and Maksim are. And Ilya. Ilya, who is with Olivia.”

Fuck. Fucking hell, no. He knows where Olivia is.

“Leave Olivia alone.”

“She’s mine. I told you that before. What I never said was she was a great replacement for Gabriella. I fucked her the same way. Both begged me to stop. It’s always sweeter when they do that.” He laughs, and something inside me shatters like a bolder going through thin ice. Another part of the past reveals itself. It was him. He abused Gabriella. And he did the same to Olivia.

“Olivia is mine, and I’m taking her back,” he taunts. “Besides, I’m sure Eric will be persuaded to destroy all of you once he sees I have his sister. My what a shock that will be.”

Jude hangs up, and my blood freezes.

He’s going after Olivia. The horrific thought of him taking her, along with watching Alejandro try to revive Maksim, tears me apart.

“I have to get him to a hospital now,” Alejandro shouts, snapping my mind back in focus. “I have a heartbeat, but he’s weak. Go to the girl.”

Dominic pulls me out of the way so Alejandro can get in the driver’s seat of the truck. It takes seconds for him to gun the engine and drive away.

I watch them go, and it’s only when Dominic tugs on my shoulder that I see Massimo is behind us. He would have seen and heard everything.

A myriad of thoughts race through my mind. Everything is out of control, and I can’t fall apart with it.

I think of Olivia, and I make myself move.

“I have to get to Olivia,” I blurt, jumping on one of the bikes.

Massimo and Dominic don’t answer, they just follow.