IMPORTANT: I know many of you have read Mia Regina and are reading the second book, Mio Re. I would really appreciate it if you didn't post spoilers here because I hate having you delete them or deleting them myself. If you have any questions about Arie and Leo around this point or have to say anything that you know is a spoiler, just message me privately.
AS FOR THE TIMELINE!!! Many of you were confused about this because Arie showed up. This event is taking place around three months after Mia Regina ended if you remember so it isn't around the same time as Mio Re. This book is going on in the past whereas Mio Re is set in the future, four years later so everything that is happening here right now has already happened in Mio Re and you potentially know how it all ends up. DO NOT CONFUSE THE TIMELINE! This is why I suggest people to read Mia Regina then Escort Me Baby and then Mio Re after it all.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION THAT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, JUST MESSAGE ME PRIVATELY! I'm more than willing to clear up any confusion and would love to chat.
Anyway, Enjoy the chapter. Vote, share, and comment! ❤️
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(Eros' POV)
We arrive at the location that was given to Athena after a two-hour ride. Our men swarm the empty streets of the abandoned small town in New Jersey with their guns hungry for blood. The only sounds echoing through the air are footsteps of those trained assassins hustling to take out any threats lingering nearby, the cocking of handguns, magazines being thrust into big assault rifles, and soft murmurs between them.
"I'm going to say this the last time, stay in the car. I'll have your brother out as soon as I eliminate the threat," Athena advises Arie yet again, but Arie is determined to be the hero herself.
"And I'm going to say this one last time too. I'm coming!" Arie gives Athena a hard look, nabbing a semi pistol from the trunk of a car that holds weapons ranging from knives to grenade launchers stashed under the flat flooring of the trunk. "Ready? Or are we going to argue a little more?"
Athena scoffs at Arie's confidence before Vince shows us a live satellite footage on his phone. "There are a few people scattered all around." He moves the screen, showing us little beams glowing in different houses and stores. "The biggest heatwave is coming from this building. I think that's our spot to hit." Indicating to a cluster of red dots radiating heat, he hands Athena the phone and orders men to raid the other areas to terminate the enemies sitting in trenches.
With a snap of her fingers, Athena rounds up some of the assassins to make a shield around herself, me, Vince, Jackson, Arie, and Rome. Apparently, Addy had been training him to fight while I was sulking in Staten Island for two months after Athena shot me. No wonder they are really close now.
We all move through the streets like ninjas, watching over our back with our weapons drawn to rip through flesh. My fingers tighten around the AR-15 as we close in on the rusty building that seems as though it'll collapse any moment now. Men kick down the door and go in first to scour the area that is eerily quiet.
"Eros, Roman, come with me," Vince orders us before he glances at Athena. "You take boss lady and Jackson with you.
"Don't call me that, Vince!" Arie chides him in annoyance.
"Sorry, Ms. Noelle," Vince apologizes, lowering his head a bit as Athena rolls her eyes.
"Move along!" Athena demands, forcing Arie to follow Jackson with some other assassins as Rome starts walking away with Vince and a few other men while I stand glued to the filthy and muddy concrete ground, staring at Athena who returns the gaze.
"Don't die," she utters in a stern voice, almost coming off as a threat.
I chuckle, shaking my head. "What if I'm not that lucky?"
"Just don't," she warns me, gulping hard to swallow down her emotions. "I might not find my mother and sister alive today, but I care about you too much at this point to have you leave me too."
I frown at the mere possibility of something grave happening to her or the turn of events that might lead to us falling apart along with the relationship we've built up so far. "No promises." I pinch my lips together in an attempt to refrain myself from pulling her into my arms and holding her until all this would end, but I know I can't do that. The situation won't allow for us to bask in each other's warmth at a dire moment like this. Lives are literally at stake and that can't be messed with.
Athena nods slowly, retrieving her guns from the holsters wrapped around her waist. "I'll see you on the other side if you survive."
She struts away without another word as I pace the other away, tracing Vince's footsteps into a narrow hallway. The feeling of unease thumps my chest in trepidation, but I need to be on my best game right now without any fear or else it'd end my life or my brother's which I can't risk.
Bullets start piercing through the musky, cold air as I immediately take cover behind the wall Rome was pinned to. The paleness on his face vibrantly screams of his oozing fear as he holds his gun to his chest.
"Scared?" I ask. He nods in response, ducking every time a bullet hits the corner of the wall. "Same, bro."
"Just need to get Cornelia and Addy out of here. I don't care about anyone else," he confesses, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
"Just admit that you want to be the hero in their eyes," I laugh to make light of the situation amidst the screams and mildly loud thuds of dead bodies dropping.
"I love 'em," he breathes out shakily as my eyes widen.
"Both?" His silence does the job of professing his love for the girls before I nudge him to the dooming reality. "Let's survive and save them then."
We carefully sprint across a hall, dodging bullets and kicking a door open that gives us access to a staircase. Skipping up the steps, we tiptoe around the landing and open the door to enter the second floor that reeks of dead rats and old rusty building, which this is. Moss covers the walls in a slime lining with vines swirling all around as dirty water drips from the cracks in the ceiling.
Rushed footsteps echo loud as they get closer which forces me and Rome to hurriedly hide in a room around the corner containing broken wooden furniture. Holding my breath, I remain quiet and completely still until I hear the people storm past the room before I jump out and attack them from behind, shooting them all dead.
"Damn, bro!" Rome swivels out of the room like a little mouse, taking in the scene of the bloody walls and dead bodies crumbled together on the floor. "You've done this before, right?"
"You have no idea what I've done." I huff out repressed air, motioning him to follow me into an empty hallway.
"Like what?" he asks in a curious tone as we carefully head down a narrow aisle.
Letting go of another long breath, I glance at him quickly before looking away and blurting out, "I killed dad."
He snorts to my confession as if it's an implausible statement. "Are you seriously gonna blame yourself for dad killing himself?"
"Well." I turn a corner only to come face to face with two armed men who immediately train their guns on me. "Fuck me!"
"Put the gun down, homie. Don't make me blow up your head," one of the men warns me, inching much closer as I slowly begin lowering myself to the ground. My mind starts working quickly to find a way to end them both without getting myself killed. I could make quick work with a pistol, but hilariously, I chose a fucking assault rifle instead. If I don't get their heads within a second, mine will burst into pieces for sure.
"Surprise, motherfuckers!" Rome comes up behind me and shoots them right between their eyes from a close range, sending their lifeless bodies flailing to the small puddle in front of me, the water of which splatters on my face along with their blood. "Damn! This is like some John Wick shit right here."
"Thought you ran away like a little bitch," I chuckle, wiping the filth off my face.
"Not until you tell me what you mean you killed dad." He stares at me with an intense gaze that I ignore as I get off the floor with my gun. "Bitch boy, don't fuck with me right now."
"Roland and I killed dad and made it look like a suicide. Okay?" I gush out the words in a quick exclamation that takes him by a storm of surprise.
He shakes his head in disbelief. "You are kidding, right?"
"What do you think?" I roll my eyes, striding down the halls and peeking into every room to see any signs of the kidnapped people when Rome decides to kick my back.
"Why the fuck would you do that?" he shouts at me before I shove him into a wall.
"Don't come at me in defense of that asshole! You and I both know how abusive he was with Mamá and us. He deserved it."
"It doesn't give you a right to fucking kill him!" Rome lands a punch on my face in anger, forcing me to cling to a wall to hold myself up.
"Have you lost your fucking mind!" I ram the butt of my gun to his stomach which forces him back in pain. "He was a fucking drunk who used to hit her. He made our lives miserable. You know exactly how many times Ro and I got close to killing him with our bare hands. You saw how bad it was yourself. He used to beat you up with belts too. Don't you fucking remember?"
"I fucking remember everything!" He rises to his feet with a broken piece of concrete and flings it at me, hitting me right in the head. "You should've at least told me about what happened. I wouldn't have ratted you and Ro out to the po-po."
"Fuck off!" Wiping the dirt off my head, I spit onto the ground, tightening my grip on the AR in sheer irritation to his unwanted tantrums. "Since we're at it, it's about time you know that Daisy isn't our biological mother."
"The fuck you mean?" He stares at me incredulously, his mouth slightly parting.
"Daisy is Roland's mom, not ours, but she took care of us when our mother killed herself because of dad's physical abuse and his infidelity. You were only two at the time which is why you don't remember anything," I inform, finally laying out the truth for him. "Roland is our half-brother because dad got Daisy pregnant while he was married to our mother before I was even born."
"And you never thought of telling me this?" He leaps forward, ramming his fist into my face along with the end of the handgun.
"Yo! Watch the fucking gun!" I exclaim in an angered tone, stepping back from him. "It'll go off."
Charging toward me like a wild horse, he drives his head into my side and sweeps me back into a room that has no floor. "Shit!" Rome yelps, but it's too late considering we fall through the large hole to the floor below us. As my back hits the hardened cold ground, I hear a loud pop with a jolt of pain exploding in my shoulder as Rome drops dead weight on top of me, his gun floundering to the side and firing off a bullet.
A man's shrilling scream grabs our attention at once in a panic only to see him holding onto his bleeding leg. Rome and I immediately rise up to our feet despite the pain of falling through the ceiling. Reaching for our guns, we begin shooting off the men in the room in an instant, taking them out one by one. My eyes then lock on Cornelia who's tied up against the wall, her arms held above her head by a rope and her mouth taped shut. With only a bra and underwear on, her body sways from side to side unconsciously which feels like a punch to my gut.
Without another thought, I pop back my dislocated shoulder into place, biting down my unimaginable pain before rushing to Cornelia's side to undo the ropes and release her icy cold body into my arms. "Cornelia, wake up!" I rip off the tape from her mouth before patting her cheek rapidly in trepidation. "Babe, wake up. C'mon, don't leave me hanging now." Getting nothing in response, I brace myself and slap her hard across her face to bring her back to the living world. Thankfully, she flutters her eyes open with a wince escaping her mouth, allowing me to breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank God!"
"Eros?" she mumbles, her eyes glancing around before reality strikes her. "Oh my God!" she begins chanting in fear and shakily uncontrollably.
Removing my jacket carefully, I wrap it around her and get us both up on our feet. "Babe, you're fine. You're safe now."
"Cornelia!" Rome hurries toward us, jerking the lady into his arms immediately. "Holy shit! You okay?" He pulls away, fanning his eyes over the tears that run down a bruise on her cheek. "I'm going to fucking kill every last one of them."
Cornelia sobs, her distressed eyes looking up at my brother. "They took Adena too. Where is she?"
"I'm going to look for Addy. You both should get out of here right now," I suggest, getting ahold of my gun once again.
"I'm not leaving without her," Rome rebels against my demands.
"Cornelia needs to get to the fucking hospital. Her temperature is dangerously low and we don't know what must've happened here, so listen and run while you can." I push Rome toward the door that seems to lead outside as I walk backward to the open archway on the other end. "I'll come out with Athena and Addy."
"Fine," my brother spits through his teeth before lifting Cornelia up bridal style. "Come back alive because I still gotta whoop your bitch ass up for lying to me about everything."
I snort. "We'll see about that."
With an aching body, I make my way through the halls carefully, hiding and dodging unknown men with guns when I come into contact with some unruly ones. Their bullets fly in my direction, forcing me to seek protection behind a wall and shoot from there when my ammo runs out. Shit! As I fiddle to take out another loaded magazine from my pocket, I get ambushed by men who aim their weapons to my head.
"I'm fucked, aren't I?" I drop my AR to the ground and raise my hands in surrender while my eyes dart back and forth, noticing every little thing on the four men, including their grips on the pistols they hold, other weapons strapped to them, and the easiest target for me to take out and use as a shield. I can definitely take them all out at once, but an unexpected face freezes me to the wall itself.
"You're more than fucked, Eros!" Janet pushes past the men to come to the forefront and taunt me herself with a gun.
I can't help but laugh at the whole situation, but it makes sense. She has access to Athena's penthouse considering she's her friend. Well, a two-faced, backstabbing bitch of a friend. And she knows where Athena is most of the time which explains the attacks on us at unexpected moments. But I would've never guessed her to be the snake among us.
"You conniving little bitc-" Before I could finish the sentence, she pulls the trigger and sends me curling up onto the floor in excruciating pain that knocks me out soon enough.
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I wanted to get Athena's POV in too but I'll just do it in the next chapter ❤️ I WILL HOPEFULLY POST IT SOON ENOUGH SO BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR IT MAYBE TOMORROW OR THE DAY AFTER!
What must've happened to Cornelia?
Cornelia and Rome OR Addy and Rome? Or all three?
What must be going on with Athena and Arie in the meanwhile?
Who expected Janet to stab us all like that? Why would she do it?
Much love ❤️
~Reet