8 Chapter 8

A week has gone by since I saw Christopher. I have been occupying my time by either doing work for the Record label or spending time with Tucker. This boy has energy for days that I wish I had. Right now, we are cutting up fruit for a day by the pool.

"Natalia, can you come here please?" my dad calls from the office.

"Coming," I yell out and set down the knife I was using to cut up fruit. Walking into the office, I see him holding a black folder which means we got a mission.

"A local police department needs help with getting a hostage out safe so they were forwarded to us," he states as he hands me the folder.

Opening the folder, there is no name of the person we are to extract, just a description of what he was last seen in and their features. They area 36 year old male with brown hair and blue eyes. Last location seen was at Mozo's, which is a high end restaurant. Their apparel was a gray Armani suit paired with a gold watch and black dress shoes.

"So this one is here in our backyard. Any other leads?" I ask as I study the file.

"Only that they care believed to be held in the abandon warehouses that are just outside of the departments jurisdiction. The boys and Megan are on their way over. You leave at sundown," he states and motions for me to go prepare. He isn't acting like his normal self. I wonder what is up with him today.

After I get my gear ready, I have the pool day with Tucker and mom. Six o'clock arrives fast and we are in the unmarked car in route to the tip off location. I look at the guys at nod for them to hit the button for our voice modifiers that are built into our masks. These are used so that if anyone is listening in on our vehicle, they won't be able to run our voices through a database to find us.

"The lead say's that they believe that the subject is held in the far back building on the left. We will park a short distance away and go through the fence that is located just behind it. Are we clear?" I ask the guys.

"Clear," is all that reaches my ears as I pull down the dirt road that leads to the back of the warehouse park.

After the car is parked, we all get out and make our way through the little bit of trees that stand between us and the warehouse. When we get to the fence, we wait for a minute to scope out the area. There is four guards on the back entrance and no patrol security. Automatically, we know that the same number are at the front entrance if not a few more.

"Activate the heat signature reader to see inside," I command. Grayson pulls out the device and turns it on. Pointing it towards the building, he starts to pick up the bodies that stand in our way.

"Subject looks to be in the basement with three guards and two guards on the ground floor," Grayson reports.

"Any cameras on the building?" I ask Megan and she hacks into their computers from here.

"Negative," she answers.

"Take them down as quietly as you can so we don't raise any alarms," I instruct the team.

One by one, everyone advances on the warehouse while staying in the shadows. Across the lot, I see Jaxon readying his dart gun that is loaded with sleeping darts. I hold my position until Jaxon shoots each guard, taking them down for a few hours.

We quickly pull them behind some crates that are by the bay door so that on the off chance there is someone patrolling, they won't sound the alarm. Checking them for the keys to the door, we come across something that we didn't expect. The guard that was carrying the keys had a 'V' tattooed on his neck. This is the symbol for the Russian Mafia that is located in New York called Volodya. They are an organization that is ran by Vladimir Ivanov that started when the system failed his family after his brother died fighting in the army. He named it Volodya after his brothers nickname for him as a dedication to him.

I pull out my micro-cam and get it for evidence. After showing the guys, we head inside. Grayson still has the heat signature reader on to let us know where the others are. Huxley and Jaxon I quietly move ahead and take down the two guards by the basement door.

Huxley takes lead as we descend into the basement to a hallway of doors. With a look at Grayson, he holds up four fingers then points to the left to tell us that it's the fourth door on the left that our package is.

Everyone takes their dart guns out and gets ready to ambush the guards inside. We have actual weapons on us but we try to subdue instead of eliminate as much as possible.

Huxley holds up his fingers to count down from three and we make our entrance. We rush in and shoot darts in all three guards and they drop. Our target is in a chair with his arms and legs tied to it with rope with a hood covering his face. My team starts to untie him and I see Jaxon pull off the hood but stops in his tracks with his back to me.

Curious, I walk over only to stop as well. In the chair sits Christopher and let me tell you. He looks like hell. His lips are chapped from lack of water, a giant bruise covers his left cheek, and there is a small gash on his forehead.

"Well shit," I say as Huxley looks at me. Christopher looks up at me like he is trying to figure out who I am but I know he won't. "Get him ready for transport. We need to g..." I am cut off at the sound of a gun shot and a pain in my left shoulder. Grayson tried to move me before the shot but was to far away and pulled out his gun with his aim behind me. I take a knee as the pain engulfs my left side. Damn that hurt!

"You okay, Boss?" Huxley asks in his morphed voice as he kneels beside me to look at my shoulder. Thank the lord that I changed to a level 5 bulletproof vest that is made with Kevlar KM2 Plus Fiber instead of the level 3 Kevlar vest. The level 5, or also known as 'tank' armor, is full back and chest protection. Basically full upper body protection for the wearer.

"Yeah. It just hurt like a bitch," I state. I look up in time to see an extra guard appear and aim his gun at Christopher. Without thinking of the pain, I grab Huxley's gun and take the guy down before he could shoot. My wrist shows for a second but covers back up when I drop the gun back down. Using my peripheral vision, Christopher thankfully is too busy looking at the man on the ground behind him.

"We need to go before more guys show up," I state and head towards the door. Peeping around the corner, I don't see anyone else in the hallway and motion that it's clear. We quietly walk back the way we came and out the door. The vehicle is still where we left it but we do a sweep for anything that could have been planted while we were inside. The vehicle is clear and we all pile in as Megan takes the wheel this time. She keeps the lights off until we get a safe distance away, relying on our night vision shades to navigate the path.

With my hand to my ear, I contact base with an update. "Package acquired, in route now." The other end acknowledges our position and goes quiet.

"Don't you need to go to the hospital?" Christopher asks me from the back.

"No," is all I say back. I glance to the rear view mirror to see him looking concerned at me. My mind goes back to the few times he looked at me like that when we were married but I mentally shake them away.

"You got shot in the shoulder with a 9mm. You might bleed out of the bullet isn't removed," he states as he stares harder.

"Did you see any blood from me?" I ask him as my head stays forward.

"Well, no. I didn't but I thought your teammate somehow bandaged it. There's also the fact that you are a female and have a smaller frame then these two back here," Christopher states as he looks like he is recalling the events that just occurred.

Tapping on my shoulder with the bit of my pocket knife, a ding fills the air. Reaching back, I pull the bullet out of the vest and show it to Christopher. "Bulletproof vest. No special ops or in the line of duty person is caught without one."

Christopher looks at the bullet and reaches up to touch my vest is stopped my both Huxley and Jaxon's hand on his shoulder. Seeing that he was about to piss them off, he sits back and abandons his curiosity on the vest.

"Do you know why you were taken?" Megan asks as she navigates the back roads to the drop off point.

"I have no clue. They just knocked me out as I was leaving diner with family and I woke up in that room," Christopher says while he tries to rack his brain.

"Who would send gangsters after you? Do you have any enemies?" Jaxon asks as he watches him closely.

"I don't know. My ex-wife hates me but I don't think she is capable of that. But then again, I don't think I ever really knew her since she did something I never thought she would do," Christopher states. I have to do all I can not to blow my cover at his comment. He doesn't realize that the two people he is talking about is in the same vehicle as him at the moment.

"It isn't her," Jaxon states as he is holding himself back as well by the tension in his muscles.

"How do you know?" Christopher ask with curiosity.

"Because the people who were holding you are part of a mafia located in New York that doesn't do jobs for outsiders. You must have messed with a member or the Dons family," Huxley states the facts. Christopher looks in thought and then what looks to be realization flashes across his face.

"You know who it was and why, don't you?" I ask as I turn slightly.

"I have a hunch. I was in New York to talk to one of the printing companies when I accidentally stumbled onto a mugging. I got away but I guess that's who I saw," he says with an emotionless expression.

"That sounds legit. They don't ever leave witnesses. It's very rare and comes at a price," I state as we near our destination.

"What's your 20?" comes through my earpiece as we are a few minutes out.

"2 minutes and 26 seconds," I answer back. I will be glad to get him out of here and also to go reprimand my father. He had to of known and judging by his behavior this morning, he did.

The short distance to the safe house seemed to take hours to get to. The fact that Christopher just tried to accuse me of having him kidnapped and beat infuriates me but I have to keep my face passive until we drop him off. Then there is my father, who must have known that the person we were extracting was Christopher. I knew something was up when he was rushing me out of the office this morning. On a normal basis, we go over the file in full detail and discuss strategy.

Finally, we make it to the safe house with no interruptions. They guys get Christopher out as soon as the vehicle comes to a stop and take him to the agents waiting at the door. Megan and I get out and go to the Toyota Corolla that is our departure car and get in to wait on the boys.

"Did he really just try to say that you were the one behind all of this?" Megan asks with an undertone of anger.

"He did. I am glad that we saw that mark on the guard or I would be under investigation now just from his accusation based on no evidence," I say as I see the boys heading our way.

The guys get in and I put the car in drive. After about five minutes of driving, we take off our masks and gear, handing it to Grayson in the back to put in the duffle. No one says anything as we make our way to the parking garage that Huxley's truck is sitting in so we can drop this car off for the agency to pick up later. The whole way home my mind is going through what I will say to my dad.

As soon as the truck comes to a stop in front of the house, I fly out like a rocket with my target locked. My brothers are silently following me as I speed walk into the house to find where my father is. You would think he would be asleep but we were on a mission in our town so he stays up to debrief us when we return. I get to the office door and slam it open to see my dad sitting at the desk with mom standing beside him. She probably saw us pulling in and came to tell him we were home even though we have cameras all over the property that detect movement.

"Did you know that it was him?" I ask getting straight to the point. There is no hostility in my voice but my tone is hard to tell him not to lie to me.

"Yes. I was told right before I gave you the mission," dad says with a serious face. Mom glances at him with a questioning look and I realize that he didn't tell her either.

"Who are you talking about?" mom asks.

"It would have been a nice to have a heads up instead of being blindsided," I state as my brothers stand beside me.

"This was the last test in your training for you to fully take over. I wanted to see how you handled situations where you knew the person involved and you passed," dad states in a tone that says not to argue.

"Who are we talking about? Someone answer me damn it," mom says again with irritation lacing her voice.

I look at my mom and keep my blank face as I tell her. "The person we extracted tonight was none other than Christopher Lane. He apparently witnessed a job that was being done by the Volodya and is now a target for them."

Mom's eyes widen and she looks at dad with demanding eyes. "And why did you not tell me this?"

"Because I wanted to test her ability to hold her own in a situation like this. If I told you, I knew there was a possibility that you would have told her," dad states as he turns to her with loving eyes. He knows he is in trouble and is trying to butter mom up so she calms down. Mom huffs and turns to us to help finish the debrief, if you can even call this one.

"Mission log," she says as she goes into her business mode while hitting record on the tablet for the file.

"Mission successful. Subject successfully extracted and transported to safe house," I state in a monotone.

"What are the findings?" she asks as she writes down notes.

"Subject is the target of the Russian Mafia Volodya which was confirmed by the mark on the Guards neck. Subject witnessed members doing a job and was able to get away. They were waiting for a higher up member to come and deal with him from the looks of it and had subject tied and beat. There was approximately twelve men guarding the warehouse the subject was being held," I state as I look at dad who is watching on with a phantom smile.

"Does the subject know who was after him?" mom asks and draws my attention back to her.

"Yes. Subject started off accusing their ex-spouse of the crime until they realized that it was not the work of just some thugs for hire. Subject redacted their accusation and stated what happened to make the mafia to come after them," I say in a monotone. My voice my not show my anger at this but my eyes must since both of my parents look at me in shock.

"Subject was successfully extracted and taken into protective custody. Mission status: successful," mom says and hits the button to stop the recording.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" mom asks as she comes over to me.

"I'm fine. Just a little irritated at being blindsided like that. If it was unknown information then it wouldn't be a problem. However, I know that dad did it for my final test," I tell her and look at my dad. "What's next if that was my final test?"

Dad stands up and walks over to me with a smile. "Next is you fully taking over the businesses."

I look at him not in fear but in determination. I have been training hard to make up for the time I was gone. If he feels like it is time, I will do everything in my power to make him proud as well as make the companies succeed.

"What's the first step?" I ask with a smirk.

"The first step is to announce you to the world as my daughter and heir," he states mischievously. He has been waiting for five years to make Christopher Lane regret ever throwing away his only daughter.

"Let's do this," I state as everyone bursts in excitement.