Chapter 19: Beverly Glen Hillside

Chapter 19: Beverly Glen Hillside
Zane's Pov

I can't stop thinking about what Amy told me about the pregnancy test strips.
I had my doubts when Isla told me about the pregnancy and I made her do multiple tests to prove she was pregnant and they all came back positive, but I can't explain the test strips Amy found.

If they were Isla's, then how did they come out negative? And if it isn't hers, how did it get in her room?

At least I'll be able to get some clarity when I find out the results of the test Amelia is making Steve carry out.

“Zane, focus on the mission,” Elias snapped his fingers, he was sitting beside me in the car while two of our men were in the driver and passenger seats of the car.
“I can't shake the feeling that your mind is miles away,” He added.

He wasn't wrong, I wasn't thinking about the fact that one of my men was in enemy territory, the same territory we were about to step into. The only thing on my mind was Amelia.

“Our plan has been carefully thought out and I know everything will go according to plan, so there's nothing to think about,” I grumbled, staring up at the roof of the car.

Elias just let out an exasperated sigh and brought out his iPad, scrolling on it. He was looking at Luke's location.

“His location still hasn't changed right?” I asked him.

“Nah, he's still at Beverley Glen hillside of L.A.”

“That has to be where Damian's house is located, I wonder why he decided to buy a property that far from the city,” I said under my breath and turned my gaze toward the road in front of us.

Beverly Glen hillside was a secluded tree-lined canyon neighborhood in the Santa Monica mountains, it wasn't very populated, but Damian's house in particular was located far back into Beverley Glen, even more isolated than the already Isolated place.

“Beverly Glen is just in front of us now,” Elias said, pointing at his iPad.
“we'll get to his house in approximately 15 to 20 minutes,” he added.

As we drove deeper into Beverly Glen, the city lights disappeared behind us, covered by the extremely tall and densely populated trees on either side of the road.
The farther we drove, the deeper the silence grew, broken only by the distant hoot of owls, the steady chirp of crickets, and the crunch of our tires against the rocky road.
It was as if we were going into a place that had been completely forgotten by the world.
There were no houses or people in sight.
Everything was pitch black, our car headlight being the only source of illumination.
We were heading to a place where no one could find us, hidden and away from the world.

Since we weren't planning on going into a full-blown fight with Damian's men, we came with just five cars, ours included.
With five fully armed men each in the 4 cars in front of us, while ours had just 4 men, making us twenty-four men in total.
Our car was the last in the convoy.

“Radio the men in front of us and tell them we'll be getting to our destination in a few minutes and they should be prepared,” I ordered the man sitting in the passenger's seat.
He nodded his head and brought out his walkie-talkie.

I put on black tactical shooting gloves and loaded my gun.
All we had to do was show up and fire a couple of shots in the air, Damian would already have his men stationed in multiple locations who would definitely fire at us, so our plan was to make a U-turn and leave, to give him the impression that we had to run because we weren't expecting him to be prepared to take us down.
That way, Luke would be able to earn his trust because we showed up, just like he told him.

We were already approaching his house, which was just a few meters away.

Static came in through the walkie-talkie, followed by a voice.
“Boss, are you there?” The voice asked, and I grabbed the walkie-talkie from the man it was with.

“Talk to me,”

“Boss, we're getting close to Damian's house and we can see it from here. But it looks dark, almost like the house has been deserted,”

“What do you mean,” I furrowed my brows.

“Boss I don't think anyone's here, we're getting close to his gate now. We're just gonna park by the…….”
He just stopped talking abruptly and for some reason, it made me feel uneasy.

“Are you there?” I demanded

“Oh My God!!!” the person talking over the phone exclaimed and I immediately knew something was terribly wrong.
“Boss, y…you need….. you need to see this,” he said, his voice breaking.

“Speed up the car!” I ordered the driver.

“What exactly is going on?” Elias asked, and I wish I knew the answer to his question.

Our car pulled up and parked beside the other four cars that were parked in front of Damian's house and I noticed some of the men standing and staring in a particular direction.
They were all looking at something, and judging from their body language, I could tell it was bad. Really bad.

I got out of the car and made my way toward the direction they were standing, with my gun in one hand.

I had seen all kinds of things throughout my life, things that could make one question their view of the world, things that could subject one to therapy for years, things that could break one completely, but nothing prepared me for what I was about to see.

I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
Horror sank in and the world immediately went silent the moment I set my eyes on him.
He was looking in my direction, but it was almost like he was looking past me. There weren't any emotions in his eyes, they were void of the warmth I once knew.

Then my gaze drifted lower. A single, precise line wrapped around his neck, clean and deliberate.

I was looking at his head.

Luke’s severed head.
Stuck on a pole like a horror trophy.

I tried to scream, but nothing came out.
Only silence. Cold, merciless silence.

I looked down, tightening my jaw as my eyes twitched trying to suppress the anger boiling inside me.
Then something caught my attention, there was an envelope on the ground.
I picked it up and opened it, to see a note kept inside which read, “Play a stupid game like this with me again and it might just be your head on the spike.”

I felt Elias's hand squeezing on my shoulder trying to calm me down.
“I'm really sor….”

In a split second, gunshots erupted in the air cutting him off. I immediately docked and tried to pinpoint the direction the shots were coming from, but it was impossible, it was coming from everywhere, every direction.

“EVERYONE GET IN YOUR CAR!!!” I roared, my voice tearing through the Chaos, sharp and commanding.

Elias grabbed me and shielded me with his body as we both ran towards our car, I watched in horror as a number of my men collapsed, having been hit, and there was nothing I could do to help.

Elias guided me to the passenger seat and he got into the driver's seat while three of my men jumped into the back seat and we sped off after the three cars that were already in front of us while the last one followed behind us.