84 | Get Me If You Can
Everything froze.
I couldn't decide whether the calm was of the one before the storm or that of after it when nothing remained apart from a disintegrated mess.
"We need to follow them." Liam spoke, breaking the silence.
His action left us all dumbfounded. That's it? He won't react to what Camila just dropped on us? Not even Toby?
"No." Jake protested quickly. "They'll shoot her if they knew we're following."
"We can't sit here doing nothing." Oliver massaged his temples, thinking a way out of this.
Stop this please. Ignoring it won't make it go away. We were just stretching it. When it will snap, it will only cause more damage.
Mason was eerily quiet and so was Vittoria. Her body trembled ever so slightly as she sat on the couch with her legs close to her chest. I pulled her close to me in an attempt to make her feel better but I knew the guilt won't go away. I was feeling the exact same thing and fuck, the pain was excruciating.
"Vittoria." Jake caressed her back gently but his action caused her to flinch. "Vittoria look at me, dear."
She further buried her head into my chest as if she was afraid to even so much as meet his gaze.
"It wasn't your fault, Vittoria. You don't have to feel this way." Jake assured.
"You're lying." She sobbed, wincing at the pain which was physical for her. "You hate me. Even he hates me." The last part came out as a dying whisper.
They hate me.
My brothers hate me.
"Where are you getting all these ideas from, kiddo. I can never hate you. Come here." Mason treaded carefully towards her, afraid any quick motion would break her.
"Then why aren't you saying anything, Mase?"
"He's scared, Vittoria." Allegra tried to reason.
"First of all we need to calm down and think straight. We can't afford to lose track like this." Oliver said, taking the command from here.
I felt so grateful to have him.
"You two." He pointed out to two of the guards working in the intel team. "Go and track their location. And Jake, please send a team to Harrison's place. I want security there twenty four by seven."
An evident shudder ran through my spine. It only reminded me to get working back and be a good person for once, if not a good Leader. I can't sit here in my own misery and let others take care of things when I am expected to make those very things right.
I got up with a lethal determination although I didn't know shit about what I was going to do.
"Rafael." Toby said hesitantly, gripping my arm.
"Say it goddammit! Just say that you hate me. Stop stretching it."
I felt Vittoria's hand slip into mine as if trying to bestow me with some unreal strength. But it wasn't working. How was I going to live with their hate.
"We knew." Toby mumbled.
My heart, beating erratically stopped altogether.
"I'm sorry?" I did a double take.
"Camila didn't say anything we weren't aware of. Liam and I both knew it a very long time ago."
Oliver gasped at the revelation. Vittoria held me tighter. My legs gave away the strength to handle the weight of my body and I flumped down the couch, letting my throbbing head fall into my hands.
"Things like these aren't very easy to hide in Esztar. We received a folder exactly one year after their death. It was the folder . The maroon one. The folder carried a letter from the Visitant telling the truth about our parent's death." Liam explained in a weakened voice.
I did not want to do it. I did not. Trust me, I did not! I did not agree on that punishment. Fuck that! I did not agree on the mere fact that I had the right to punish someone who protected my family all their life. I told my father that rules are not greater than relationships. I told him to bend the rules this once. They are our people. Protecting them would make me a good Leader, not killing them.
I wanted to scream all that out to them. But I did not.
I couldn't afford wasting time in making it all about me. There were other people who were hurting, who had something larger at stake than just a filthy guilt of a terrible person who has done anything but let everyone down.
"Rafael," Toby placed an assuring hand on my shoulder, "Esztar has always tried breaking us apart. But what has happened every time? They can try all that they like but they won't win. We know you, Rafael. That's all I'm going to say. I hope that would explain everything."
"I... I don't know what to say. I'm just so grateful for... for...." My voice eventually broke like I thought I would if Toby and Liam wouldn't have enveloped me into a brotherly hug. The gesture bestowed me with the strength to face this terrible situation.
The room was bathed in a calming stillness for a while which crumbled with the heavy thuds of a guard's urgent footsteps running towards us.
"Boss! Boss, we found something." He panted, conveying the seriousness of the information he was here to share.
We all stared at him with hope shimmering in our eyes as we awaited any possible positive news about Suzanne.
"What is it?" Mason urged, half relieved and half terrified.
The guard's eyes pitched down to avoid Mason's gaze. My heart fell.
"Its very strange, boss. It seems to be too much of a coincidence."
"What is it, goddammit!" Mason snapped.
"We might have found Sadovsky's location." He dropped the bomb.
Silence.
A couple of seconds later it snapped with Allegra's surprised gasp.
"But why exactly now? Something isn't right." She mumbled mostly to herself.
"We split up-"
"No!" Alli interrupted me. "What if its just a diversion from going after Suzanne? We can't afford focusing our resources on anything apart from saving Suzanne at this point."
"But what if it isn't a coincidence? We cant ignore it. We have been looking for him for so long." Vittoria protested.
"Liam, you will be with Alli and help her find him." Oliver directed.
"You know I'm going to flirt with her, right? A lot." He reverted with a cheeky grin, lightening the heaviness of the air. No one could ever be around Liam and be sad at the same time.
That boy was pure enough to have that power.
"Good. And we continue with Suzanne." Rafael said, heading to the intel team already.
"Hold on, hold on! Where are you going, grandpa?" Vittoria tugged on Oliver's shirt, stopping him from following me. "Are you really going to allow Liam flirt with your girl? You're taking the threat lightly." She giggled softly, pushing him towards Allegra.
"No wait, he's right." Allegra supported him. "This news about Nikolai doesn't seem to be very concrete. We can't waste many people behind it. Besides, I have the smartest person with me." She slung her arm around Liam's shoulder.
Our eyes flew towards Liam awaiting an extra melodramatic arrogant reaction which never came.
"What?" He shrugged feigning innocence. "Facts being stated, fam."
"Okay, get over it." Toby rolled his eyes at his twin.
"Oliver, you go and find that bastard. You have the right to." Vittoria urged, although I think the urgency was more to stop an upcoming Toby-Liam feud.
Oliver nodded lightly, not trying to conceal the shining hope of finding and punishing the monster who killed their child.
"Okay." Liam expelled an annoyed sigh. "But I'm still flirting with her."
•••••••
My eyes prickled as I spent another useless minute staring at the footage of every nook and corner of the city from the security cameras we hacked from all possible sources. I lost count of how many hours we spent gluing our eyes to the screen in search of Suzanne. The result? Nothing.
"They cant just disappear." Vittoria grunted in frustration.
Were we missing something?
"You guys!" Toby dashed in dramatically. "You wont believe what Oliver just told me. Our intel from Aruba confirmed Sadovsky's presence in the country along with two people, not yet identified. But looks like we'll soon know his exact location." He gushed excitedly.
"That fucker has been enjoying his life in the Caribbean all this time?" Vittoria twisted her face.
"Nothing is confirmed yet-"
"Right there! Replay that! Screen 6!" Harrison screeched all of a sudden. "Boss, look here." He frantically pointed to a black suv which was identified to be Camila's car. "This car went into the alleyway but never came out. This means they've changed their vehicle somewhere in the alleyway. We need to track all these cars exiting the alleyway."
"Or they could enter any of the buildings on either side and melt into traffic. How are we going to find them?" Vittoria tugged on her hair.
She needed to rest. But I knew there was no point telling her that. She wasn't going to listen.
Next few hours went by in tracking all the possible leads and it did look like we were going somewhere with this one.
"That's it! That's the place!" Mason banged his fist on the wooden table as we found Suzanne's location. "I'm not wasting a second." He snatched his car keys and sprinted outside, not giving anyone enough time to feel a little relaxed.
"You and Toby work with our team. I'll go with him." I kissed Vittoria's forehead and ran outside to catch up with Mason.
"Be careful. Both of you." Vittoria shouted from behind but her voice was overpowered with Jake's horrified curses which made me and Mason stop in our tracks.
"No! No! No! What took you so long to reach there?!" Jake yelled at one of our guards over the phone.
Jake gets mad ever so rarely which indicated about this being something very very bad. Mason and I exchanged horrified looks, not ready for a mew problem.
"What is it, Jake?" I asked, dreading the answer.
He remained quiet for a while but I couldn't decide if it was the hesitation to reveal some more devastating news or was it the shortness of breath.
"Jake, please have this." I handed him a glass of water, helping him to take a seat on the couch. I couldn't even begin to imagine what he must be going through right now. Suzanne is all he has. He devoted his life protecting me. If anything ever happened to Suzanne, I'll never forgive myself for my incapability.
"I'm sorry, Harrison." He quivered in a defeated voice, his terrified eyes afraid to meet Harrison's questioning gaze."
No! This can't be what I was thinking. This can't happen!
"There was no one at your house when our security team reached there. The door was as broken." Jake threw the news that I wished would turn out to false with my refusal to accept it. But it didn't work that way.
"Fuck!" Mason screamed in aggression, punching the glass wall which disintegrated into pieces.
"Mase!" Vittoria ran to him, quickly extracting the first aid and wrapping his bleeding knuckles.
"Don't you worry, Harrison. I won't let anything happen to your family. I promise." I assured Harrison who was still motionless from the shock.
Why was he being targeted anyway?
It felt strange reassuring him about his family's safety. My vision blurred as I swept my eyes over Vittoria looking at me with tears of panic pooling in her eyes, Jake and Harrison with dread eating them up, and everyone else. I have two fathers who are uncertain of them seeing their daughters again, my best friend giving it all to avenge the man who killed his child, my friend who has been living without the freedom to do anything at all, and everyone else who have done so much for me. I was failing them terribly.
My head felt like someone was nailing inside of it. I was losing it. I couldn't understand anything at all. Everything seemed to be out of place and weird and strange.
But there was this one thing which I never expected to feel strange. My eyes fell over Harrison and that feeling only grew stronger.
"You two should continue to Suzanne's location. We'll take care of this here." Toby spoke quickly, reminding us a about the time which we did not have.
"He's right. Lets go, Rafael." Mason pulled me towards his car.
I turned back and cast a final look at Harrison and my stomach felt sick. Was I overthinking? I should be.
The sound of the car engine roaring to life got me out out from the disturbing thought running in my head.
"Mason." Jake called out. "Please get my daughter back to me."
He nodded and stepped on the gas, making the vehicle fly.
"Camila has no fucking idea what I'll do to her if anything happens to Suzie or Nia." He gritted.
"Mason slow down."
He didn't.
"I can't lose her. I love her, Rafael." His words quivered and those tears of fright finally broke their barrier.
"We're almost there, Mase."
"Did you just call me Mase?" He threw me his classic look, wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his tee.
"Yes."
"I still hate you."
"I know."
I kept staring at him until he broke a laughter. I felt overwhelmed as I thought of the day he got himself kidnapped by us just to make a dramatic comeback. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we could share a bond like this.
"Finally here!" Mason jumped out and headed towards the inoperative water filtration plant- the place where they had kept Suzanne.
The crisp sound of dry leaves crunching beneath our feet was the only sound to be heard in this place filled with darkness. We stealthily headed inside, our guns ready to fire.
"This place is huge." Mason whisper yelled.
"Just keep going."
We passed through hallways carpeted with trash and dead leaves, and large rooms filled with huge machinery which was now coated with dust. The place was perfect to hide a person. It wasn't going to be easy finding her.
"Hey Mase," I nudged him as we crept deeper into the facility, sticking to the wall as we moved ahead, "Something's been bothering me."
"I'm not your therapist. Fuck off." He whisper deadpanned.
"Toby and Liam just look dumb. They are smarter than even you and Oliver. They won't be stupid enough to hate you." He added two seconds later.
Typical Mason.
"No, its not that. Its Harri's reaction to his father and daughter being taken by the Visitant. He didn't look worried enough."
What I heard in response was an annoyed sigh. "Aren't you marrying my sister? You still have a problem with Harri?"
"Its not that, Mason." My face twisted in annoyance.
"So what are you trying to say here?" He stopped and turned back to face me, the scanty moonlight falling over his face highlighting the crease between his brows.
"Don't you sometimes feel like its all acting? Harrison? I mean... I mean I feel like his entire personality is scripted. I felt that very strongly in the beginning. But after I found out about Xenia, my judgement shifted. But is that justified? Does having a child make you worthy of all the suspicions being thrown away?"
He didn't respond but his narrowed eyes conveyed that he was considering it. But it was like a switch flipped. He shook his head as if shaking off my proposition.
"His family is taken by the Visitant, Rafael." He turned around and continued ahead of me. "Hasn't he proved his loyalty enough? Trust me, I can identify people very well. There's nothing wrong with-"
His defensive words stopped right there as he let out a sharp horrified gasp.
"What's that, Mason?"
He couldn't speak but I followed his terror stricken gaze and found myself mirroring his reactions.
There were bloody finger marks on the wall ahead as if someone was being pulled forcefully and they clutched the corner to help pull apart. They faded shortly but the blood stains were now on the ground, forming a path clear of the trash and dried leaves on the floor.
With heart threatening to leap out of our chests and blood pounding into our ears, we followed the trail which led us to a closed wooden door.
"She could be in there." Mason quivered, passing me an unsure look.
She could be dead.
But I didn't have the courage to say that to him.
I noticed the way his shaking hands dropped just as they came into contact with the door.
"I- I can't do this."
Even in this darkness, I could see the horror on his face so clearly.
My heart drummed inside my chest and I could hear a non existent sharp din ringing in my head as I pushed the door without giving it another thought.
"Fuck!"
My scream reverberated in this empty space and it was me now who was holding onto Mason's arm to keep myself from losing balance. He just blankly started at the empty room.
Not so empty though. It has a lone table in the centre with a small bulb hanging right on top of it. The golden light emanating from it fell harshly over the single object placed neatly over it.
A maroon folder.
"They led us here. We got tricked! Fuck! What are we going to do now?" Mason banged his palm over the wall, not bothering to hide his panic.
I picked up the folder, not wanting to read the Visitant's message.
Eaztar is Falling.
"What the fuck does this mean now." I huffed, feeling exhausted and defeated.
I looked over at Mason hoping he used his intelligence to sort this mess but I found him motionless, his eyes pitched to the cemented floor.
"Mason are you oka-"
"Where is she?" His eyes, filled with terror and pain searched mine for an answer he never received. "Where's Suzanne? And Xenia? We couldn't save them. W-what are they going to do with them, Rafael?"
"Hey, hey, Mason. We're going to find them."
"They won't see that she's just a kid. They won't see that they're all innocent. Rafael do something! Please do something!"
Do something, Rafael.
My heart broke when I looked at him slump down the wall, holding his head in his hands. I knew that fear very well.
"Its not going to be okay if that's what you're going to tell me. We can never win against them." He sobbed.
Just then my phone rang, the caller id showing a non traceable id.
"What's that?" He snapped his head up at me.
Having no clue, I showed him the screen.
"What the fuck!"
Casting him a final glance as if seeking reassurance, I hit the answer button. There was silence on the line for a couple of seconds until a somewhat familiar voice cracked from the speaker.
"Check your phone. You should see two locations." With that, the line went dead.
Author: I can't believe I finally updated!
Mason: Yeah, we can't either. *rolls his eyes*
Author: Hellooooo! I was busy alright! You have any idea how many things I have to do all by myself?
Vittoria: You're On Your Own Kid!
Author: *cries dramatically* You're the only one who understands. But jokes apart, I can't tell you how thrilled I was while writing this chapter. I hope it came out well in the writing and you enjoy this one.
Sorry for the super late update, I hope its worth the wait. Thank you to all you beautiful readers for checking on me, you guys are amazing!
One last chapter to go and let me tell you, this one's going to be a big big surprise! Hang tight, you might have never expected this one.