Chapter Twenty
Inside The Matrix
Area Fifty-Two
Friday Morning
T hey were all standing there, waiting for MATE to get ready to change the location of the call, so that it couldn’t be traced back to them there. No matter what, that location had to remain secure.
It was their new workspace.
As Alyona was standing there, Jax was behind her with his hands around her waist, securing her to his chest.
He looked worried.
This was going to take a lot of trust.
Alyona’s life was now in the hands of these people, and more specifically, some Spiders.
When MATE appeared beside Alyona, she gave her the news.
“You’re secured. The call will appear to come from a bar on Bourbon Street . I can simulate the sound of patrons in the background to ensure it sounds legit.”
Maura nodded.
“Do it, MATE.”
Without moving, sounds filled the room, and they knew it was time.
“Make the call,” Elizabeth said, knowing that Greyson and Dimitri both spoke Russian fluently. If this was a trap, not that she believed it to be one, they would know.
MATE was also recording the conversation to trace it.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the burner phone, and typed in the number. It was one she had been forced to memorize in order not to get beaten each day.
It was burned into her mind.
As it rang, she stared into Greyson’s eyes, and he nodded at her in reassurance.
If she was lucky, he wouldn’t answer, and this was no longer his number.
Only, of course, it was still his.
“Da.”
“My love,” she said, the words repulsing her. “You’ve made it to the States.”
There was a pause.
It was long and pregnant.
“Who is this?” he asked.
“It’s Alina, your Number One,” she said, sickened by this whole conversation.
There was a pause.
“How do I know it’s you?” he asked suspiciously.
There was only one way.
“Ask me anything.”
There was a pause.
“What did I tell you on the day the doctors saw you?” he asked, picking something obscure.
She didn’t hesitate.
That memory was burned into her mind, and the reason she and Jax would never have a baby together. Oh, and she hated him for it.
All eyes were on her.
She lifted her chin, holding her head up high, and answered him.
“That sterilizing me was my punishment for being beautiful. Other men would want what you had, and you needed to make sure I would be yours only.”
That was all she had to say.
All of the women in there looked sickened, and Jax rested his forehead on her shoulder trying not to react.
But it was difficult.
What he wanted to do was kill the man and run off with her so she was safe.
Aly was the love of his life. There was no doubt when this was over, if they survived, she was going to be a mess. In that moment, he promised to be there for her.
No.
Matter.
What.
There was a pause.
“What is around your tattoo?” he asked.
“A heart. You had a heart tattooed around the one and mine is the only one like that.”
Only, he wasn’t done.
“Where is the birthmark on my body?” he said, knowing she would have seen it countless times when he was having sex with her.
“On your left thigh. It’s the shape of a broken circle.”
He couldn’t believe this. Alexsandr had just been thinking about finding a way out of there, and he’d planned on driving North, into Canada.
Then, she called.
“Is that really you, Alina?”
She didn’t hesitate.
“Yes, it is me.”
Then, his suspicion kicked in.
“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” he asked. “That you’re being used against me?”
Here was where it got tricky.
“No one knows where I am. I went under and I stayed under. I’ve built a life here. Word traveled through the community of Russians here that The Black Butcher was coming. I knew what I had to do.”
His voice was low.
“I need to see you for myself.”
She was honest.
“I’ve had my face done so I could assimilate, but you’ll know my body.”
As soon as she said that, Jax had to leave the room. He walked away, sickened by all of this.
There was no way he could listen to this.
“Do you need my help with your plan?” she asked, when Elizabeth held up a paper that said just that.
Oh, Alyona knew he wouldn’t want her help. She could hear his voice and she knew he was angry. She was the one walking into a trap.
Well, into the trap that would be used to end him.
Once and for all.
His voice was controlled.
“Possibly. I will need to see you first to talk to you and make sure you’re who you say you are. I’ll text you the address. You go in first. I want to make sure I watch and see you before I show up. You’ve gone missing, Alina, and we’ll discuss that.”
She knew they would.
“Da.”
“Come unarmed.”
“Da.”
Then, abruptly, the call came to an end.
When it cut off, she sighed.
“He’s going to be suspicious. I could hear the anger in his voice. This isn’t going to be pretty,” she admitted. “He doesn’t trust me, but Ethan is right. He wants to hurt me more than he wants to be safe.”
They couldn’t hear anything in his voice. He sounded quite tame.
“How do you know?” Maura asked.
She laughed sardonically.
“Because I know him. He’s going to want to see me just to make me pay. He won’t trust me, but he’ll show just so he can hurt me.”
Elizabeth needed to know, so she asked again.
“Can you beat him in a hand-to-hand fight?”
She was honest.
“I don’t know. He’s well trained. He’s in the KGB, and I don’t know what he’s been doing over the last few years. I won’t know until I’m there and we fight. The best part is you have Spiders there. What’s the worst he can do to me?”
Oh, they all knew.
“One of us will walk out alive, and one of us won’t,” she said. “This is where one of the monsters die.”
That didn’t sound good at all.
To any of them.
As Marines, they weren’t accustomed to sitting back and letting someone else handle their mess—and that was what this was.
A huge one.
Elizabeth patted her on the shoulder.
“You can do this, Alyona. Something tells me that you need to do this.”
She nodded.
“I know. He’s been the boogeyman for far too long. I just hope I don’t freeze.”
She reassured her.
“The Spiders will be there. Let’s just see what happens,” she said.
Elizabeth made a mental note to make sure the Spiders knew the situation.
“Why don’t you go find your man. He is taking this pretty hard.”
She was aware.
If Alyona was in his shoes, she’d be taking it the same way.
“I think I will. I’ll leave the phone with you so you can get the address to the Spiders.”
She handed Elizabeth the phone and walked out. When she was gone, the Major went there.
“I don’t like this,” Maura said. “I don’t like that she’s having to do this. This goes against everything that I know to be a good strategy.”
Greyson spoke first.
“She needs this. She has to be the one to take him out, since she’s been running from him. We have to give her this chance. She’s strong enough. Trust me.”
Jagger got that, but Alyona looked freaked out. She was a traumatized victim.
Was it a good idea to let that run wild?
No.
It wasn’t.
“And if this goes South and he kills her and escapes?” he asked.
Elizabeth said the only thing she could.
“Then I’m going to be here hunting Alexsandr Dominik with you because he possibly knows everything about us. Oh, and some spiders for dropping the goddamn ball.”
Despite their best judgment, this was now in the hands of a victim.
Yeah, how could this go wrong?
* * * H U N T E R – C R O F T * * *
In Their Private
Room
Minutes After The Call
When she found him, Ajax was pacing back and forth like a caged animal.
Honestly, she couldn’t blame him.
Aly wanted to do the same thing, but that wouldn’t help the situation.
When she walked in, he stared at her.
“Please don’t do this,” he said.
She crossed the space and went into his body, burying her face in his neck. Deep down, she wanted to tell him she’d be okay.
Only, she wasn’t sure she would be.
This might just break her. She was so damn scared to face him, that her stomach felt turned inside out.
“Let’s run,” he said. “We don’t need to be here. We can disappear, and we can become someone else. We can be new people, and start a new life.”
She lifted her head.
“I can’t run anymore. Not from him.”
Ajax hated this.
“Aly, he’s going to kill you. You know if he pulls a gun, you’re dead. I can’t lose you. I can’t…”
She placed her fingers over his lips.
“If I run, he’ll aways be out there, and that’s the last thing I need, Jax. I need this to end. I need this to conclude so I can stop looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”
This made him ill.
“They tried to get him, and it didn’t work,” she said. “I’m now the end of the line. If they have to hunt him, that’s going to take a long time, and we’ll always wonder if he’s going to figure out who I am. I’ll be too scared. Now he knows I’m alive, and he’ll never stop looking for me.”
He cradled her face in his palms.
“What are the chances you beat him?”
She lied despite what she’d just told everyone in the other room. Aly lied for his well-being.
“He’s not as well trained as I am. He’ll be off his game,” she said. “He didn’t fight a day in his life, and had it easy.”
And that wasn’t even close to the truth.
Alexsandr prided himself on his virility, his strength, and being one of the best KGB officers in Russia. He was in good strength, and taught her how to fight.
At her words, he relaxed marginally.
“That makes me feel a bit better.”
Well, as long as he felt that way. The truth was Alexsandr was a monster for a reason. He handled his own situations, his own tortures, his own fights. He wasn’t some pencil pushing oligarch.
He was hands on.
And brutal.
“I have this,” she promised.
He calmed down.
“Okay, so you have a chance.”
Maybe, if the universe favored her—just once—she’d come home to him.
That was all she wanted.
Was that so much to ask for?
“I’ll be okay,” she reassured him. “You can relax. After this, I’m going to need a nap.”
He laughed a little.
“Only a nap?”
She found his mouth with hers, and kissed him like it was the last time she was going to see him. Honestly, she believed that was the case.
Alyona was even more scared now than before she had talked to him.
It all came back to her.
And it was bad.
When she broke the kiss, there were tears in his eyes, and she was sick to her stomach.
“That felt like a goodbye.”
She smiled gently at him.
“Think of it more like a ‘just in case’ ,” she said. “I’m covering my bases.”
Oh, he didn’t like that at all.
Before he could toss her over his shoulder and run with her, there was a knock to the door.
When she opened it, Greyson stood there.
“He texted. The Spiders are ready to transport you, and then get into position before you go in alone.”
Then, it was showtime.
“Can you do this?” he asked. “If you can’t, you absolutely can back out. We can…”
She stopped the man she now considered her father.
“No, we can’t. This is it. There’s no plan C, Dad. I’m it. I’ll handle him, or I’ll go down trying.”
Ajax was shaking his head the second she said that last part. Only, he didn’t get to say anything.
“Go,” Greyson said, letting her past him. “I love you, Aly,” he added.
She smiled.
“I love you both,” she said, and then was gone.
When Ajax tried to follow, Greyson wouldn’t let him past.
“No, Son.”
“You have to let me go. She’s not ready,” he said, trying to strongarm his way past Greyson.
Only, Dimitri and Heath appeared.
“She is ready, Jax. This is her fight. She needs this to heal.”
He was panicking.
“She’s scared,” he said.
Greyson grabbed him by the shirt, made him stare into his eyes, and was honest.
“No, you’re scared. You have to let her do this so she can heal. She’ll never be ready to marry you or be yours if you don’t let her cut the ties to him.”
Ajax still had to try to help her.
Greyson knew he’d never stay put.
So, he did the deed.
“Heath, I want you to keep him in this room. He’s not to leave, and he’s not to get the address.”
Heath rolled his neck, and there was a popping sound when he did it.
Jax was horrified.
“What?” Jax asked. “You’re holding me hostage while my girl…”
Greyson laid down the law.
“She’s not a girl. She’s an assassin, Jax. She’s Number One. We haven’t seen everything she has to offer. We let her do her job and we trust her. She’s the only way this gets done. We’ve been doing battle against this mess for a while, and this is the end.”
“What if it’s the end of her.”
Greyson stared into his eyes.
“Then may God have mercy on my soul for letting her go,” he said.
And then, with that. Heath shoved him onto the settee that was in there, and sat on top of him.
Greyson closed the door, and the two men headed back into the main living area leaving Heath to babysit.
“Does she have this?” Dimitri asked in Russian.
Greyson sighed.
“I don’t know. That’s going to depend on her and how badly she wants to be free.”
Well, that was ominous.
* * * H U N T E R – C R O F T * * *
The Address
Thirty Minutes Later
Oh, she knew why he picked this place.
It was an abandoned warehouse outside the city limits, and it was the kind of place that he’d want to torture someone.
Where no one would hear the screams.
Where no one would hear the begging.
Where no one would be missed.
Only, she wasn’t going down to him.
There was no way she was going to lose, and let the monster in her closet be victorious.
The Spiders escorted her there on a motorcycle. She rode behind Reaper, and he stopped down the road, letting her take a few moments to get ready.
Then, he was picked up by his team.
They told her to give them twenty, and she did. Now, she was at the destination, and proud of herself.
She didn’t run.
Oh, she wanted to, but she stuck.
Now, as she took off her helmet, she had eyes on her. Alyona had to figure out if it was the Spiders or Alexsandr. That was the question.
Not that it mattered.
Alyona knew her mission. If the man knew anything about Elizabeth Blackhawk or the Hunters, he had to die.
Honestly, she wanted him dead anyway.
That would be her key to freedom, and that was something she craved.
It would be nice to be free for once in her life.
Getting off the bike, she saw the red dot on her chest. It was clear that while she came unarmed to the party, someone else didn’t.
The only reason she wasn’t freaking out was he’d want to hurt and assault her before killing her.
A fast murder wasn’t his thing.
Assault was.
As she began walking toward the warehouse, keeping that dot on her chest, she saw him in the doorway.
“Show me the tattoo.”
Luckily for her, she had Jagger draw it back on the spot on her wrist he’d put it. The permanent maker would hold out, hopefully. The heart had been drawn on but from a distance, he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
When he saw it, he moved into the doorway to face her.
That’s when she got sick to her stomach. Here was the issue with him. Alexsandr Dominik was a handsome man. He had gorgeous blue eyes, the face of an angel, and the soul of Satan himself.
If there was a devil in disguise, it was him.
Oh, how they all fell for it, and went willingly with him when he ‘recruited’ them.
“Moye vse,” she said in Russian, calling him ‘her all’ .
He watched her, and said only one thing.
“You did change your face.”
She was close enough to know that if he wanted, he could kill her without much effort. The man always carried knives, and now, he had a gun with a laser scope.
Yeah, the fear was there.
There was no way to forget that this man tried to destroy her.
“Da.”
He moved closer.
“Let me see your eyes, Alina. They were my favorite part of you,” he said, as she took off her sunglasses and stared into his.
In them, he saw defiance.
That was always what he loved most about Alina. She was so hard to break.
At one point, he’d been sorry he’d been able to do that to her. If it had been up to him, he would have loved her to death.
At least, no one would ever have her but him.
“Ah, there is my broken doll.”
She said nothing.
Why?
He’d trained all of them to only speak when asked a question, and that meant staying in role. He’d not trust her if she deviated from her ‘training’ .
“It is you, is it not?”
She broke her silence when he tucked the gun away to deal with her.
“It’s me,” she said. “I’m glad to see you, My love,” she began, but didn’t get to say any more.
Why?
Those words triggered his rage, and he was unable to keep it bottled up any longer.
Instead, he grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her into the building. His broken doll would pay for disappearing.
“We’re going to talk, Alina, and I’m going to make sure you know how angry I am.”
Oh, and there was no doubt he was.
And she was about to pay for it.
* * * H U N T E R – C R O F T * * *
Not Far Away
Doing What Spiders Do
Friday Noon
They could have intervened, but Elizabeth said to let Alyona handle it unless it looked like she didn’t have it under control.
This had to be her fight.
While all of their information hinged on this, her future was on the line.
She needed to kill the monster that haunted her.
As the men were in the warehouse, watching, it wasn’t a good show.
Alyona had yet to fight back.
The question was, what was she waiting for?
As they watched, the man took out his anger on her. It was more than difficult to watch.
It was sickening.
As Marines, it took all they had not to react.
Across the warehouse, the abuse continued.
“You are a worthless cunt, and I can’t believe I even loved you!”
He shoved her so hard she slid on the floor when she hit it.
Only, she got up.
Oh, not to fight, but to argue with him.
He went at her, and hit her so hard, she went back down again.
“You disappeared! You broke the rules! I trained you! I made you mine! I gave you honor! There was only one number ONE!”
She pushed off from the ground, spitting blood onto the floor from where she’d bitten the inside of her mouth from that hit.
“How dare you!” he raged, kicking her in the stomach, and knocking her back.
Alyona saw it coming and tightened her stomach muscles to take the hit, and down she went again.
“You’re going to wish you died. You’re going to wish you never betrayed me! I gave you my love!”
When he hit her so hard, spit went flying as her body turned and hit the ground, the men watching were close to intervening.
Only, Alyona got up.
She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and stared down the boogeyman.
“You never loved me. You wanted to break me.”
The second she said it, he smiled.
And laughed.
“Finally, you get it my broken doll and I loved every second of it. Do you know the pleasure I got from keeping you in a cold, dark, wet cell and raping you every day?”
She stood there, and the anger was building.
“Do you know how much fun it was to hear you cry and beg to die? I knew I controlled your life. I was your God, and now, I’ll do the same thing again. Now, I’m going to sell you to every man I can find and I’m going to enjoy you being their toy.”
Alyona stood there.
“You’ll be nothing more than bloody flesh when I set the foulest of the foul on you. I’ll let them do the most despicable things to you. Then, you’ll die only mine.”
And that’s when she found her courage.
“No, Alexsandr. I already have someone who loves me. I’m going to marry him. He loves me despite what you did to me.”
His eyes went dark and angry.
“You dared to love someone other than me?”
She laughed.
“I never loved you. I feared you. I love him. He’s the first and only man that I’ll ever love.”
He moved toward her.
“What is his name?”
“FUCK YOU.”
When he grabbed her, ready to break her neck, she wasn’t dying by his hand.
Instead, she fought.
She kicked out his leg, and he went down. When he pulled his gun, and she kicked it away, it went sliding across the floor to a pallet that was sitting there.
It only pissed him off.
“Don’t play with me, Alina. I taught you everything you know when it comes to fighting. You can’t beat me.”
She backed up.
Oh, well, he was in for a surprise.
She’d learned a lot from Greyson.
From Emma.
From Nikita.
“My name is Alyona. You can’t break me anymore, Alexsandr. I’m a new person. You can’t let men assault me, and you can’t torture me for hours. I’m stronger and I’ve healed.”
He stared at her.
“You just can’t resist me hurting you. One might think you like it,” he said, laughing at her and mocking Alyona.
Only, she wasn’t done.
That’s when she took off her leather jacket and dropped it on the ground.
He laughed.
“Oh, no. She’s taking off her jacket. I’m so afraid,” he said. “Why are you here, Alina? You know you can never be free of me.”
Well, then, they were both going to Hell.
Together.
“Elizabeth Blackhawk sent me.”
The second it was out of her mouth, his eyes went huge.
When he turned to find his gun, suddenly, it was gone as if some ghost grabbed it.
Because one did.
The Huntsman.
She moved closer.
“You’re not going to come to this country and destroy it. I love it here, and I’m going to protect it.”
He glared at her.
“Who is going to protect you from me?” he asked, picking up a metal pipe and testing it as he swung it.
“ME.”
He laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“Oh, my broken little doll. You’re nothing but number One. You are nothing more than my cum receptacle and my toy to damage.”
She had news for him.
It was time to scare him right back.
“Number Two and Three are dead. They didn’t exactly blow up the building. They were found and killed.”
He stopped swinging the pipe.
“Four, Five, and Six are not going to get much done in Cali, New York, and DC. In fact, right about now, Elizabeth Blackhawk has sicced Homeland Security on them.”
Now, he went red.
“How do you…?”
She cracked her knuckles.
“They know everything. They know that you’re trapped here, and they know that you have no way out. You came here, and unfortunately, for you, you fell into the trap. I helped clean up Boston , and now, I’ll help clean up here.”
She ran at him, drop kicking him onto his back.
Only, this was Alexsandr.
He flipped up, and he got back on his feet. If anything, he loved a good fight.
“I’ll break you again.”
She shook her head.
“I’m not that woman anymore, Alexsandr. You don’t scare me.”
Well, they’d see about that.
He moved at her, and when she ducked under his arm when he swung, he moved fast, and turned, grabbing her from behind. He placed the pipe over her throat, and started choking her.
She was pressed against his body, and she hated it.
From the shadows, all four of the Spiders pulled out their guns, ready to take him down.
“You’ll never be the killer I am,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re just a pussy I had fun with, and I think I’m going to use it again. Then, send you in pieces to the man you ‘love’ .”
As her vision began going gray, she knew what she needed to do. With all of her strength, she swung her body, when he had her dangling. Her legs wrapped around his body, and she got free.
Then, she grabbed the pipe before she punched him in the balls.
He went to his knees, and he was angry.
Only, she was far angrier.
He wasn’t sending her dead to Jax.
Hell.
No.
“We have the intel that the German left for you,” she said, making him growl. “I helped steal it from the bank box. You’re too late. You don’t have any leverage against anyone,” she said.
He knew they had it. When he’d gone to that bank that morning, with the safety deposit key, the bank was shut down because of a robbery.
Damn it.
She beat him to it.
For that alone, he’d kill her.
He got up, and went for her, and that’s when she hit him with the pipe.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Due to the hits, he went down.
Only, she wasn’t done.
“I am not afraid of you, Alex. I’m better than you. I came here, and I found my country. I found my motherfucking tribe!” she said, as she hit him in the head with the pipe.
Somehow, he stayed on his knees, but he was bleeding profusely from his head.
Well, until she kneed him in the chest, and then kicked him in the face.
“I found my life, and I’m not ashamed anymore. You tried to break me, but you didn’t. I’m stronger than you, and you fucking made me!”
From the shadows, they watched her. The Spiders came out of their collective spots, dropping down to the floor, coming out from the shadows. There, they offered their support.
Oh, and it was one hell of a show.
She beat his ass.
She broke his arms.
She destroyed his balls.
The whole time, she used that pipe, taking out all of the aggression she had for the whole year of torture that he put her through.
Alyona put everything in it.
“FUCK YOU!” she said, winding up like she was taking a pitch, and using his head as the target. While he fought to stay alive, she gave him the killing blow.
With a swing of pipe, she took his life, and got back all of the times that he’d abused her.
Tormented her.
Destroyed her.
When he landed on his back, his last breath taken, and his journey to Hell beginning, she dropped to her knees.
At first, she said nothing but continued to stare at the bloody, destroyed man.
That’s when she looked up, his blood splattered on her face.
“Long live the United States of America!”
As the four men moved closer, she dropped the pipe and stared at them.
Reaper crouched down.
“You kinda stole our line,” he said, his heart breaking for this woman. She was so damn strong, and she’d done what she’d needed to do.
She saved herself.
“Thank you for letting me do this on my own. I needed to do this,” she said, as Wolf handed her a bandana, and she wiped the dead man’s blood from her face.
“Who was stopping you, Slugger?” Recluse said. “Someone should be drafted into the Big Leagues. That was one hell of a swing.”
Alyona stared at the bandana smeared with his blood.
“You can tell Elizabeth Blackhawk that he didn’t know anything about her. He didn’t have the intel. We intercepted it,” she said, spitting out blood from when he hit her.
Yeah, they’d heard. The man had been surprised that they’d gotten it.
“Feel better?” The Huntsman asked.
Oddly, she didn’t.
“No. Why do I feel worse?” she asked. “I should be free, but killing him…”
Oh, they knew.
It was the story of their lives.
“Because it isn’t easy taking a life, even if its someone who doesn’t deserve the one they’re using,” Reaper said, handing her the gun that Alexsandr had lost in the fight.
Wolf jumped when she put a clip of bullets in Alexsandr’s dead body.
“Yowza. Women are so angry,” he said, his Cajun accent out. “Want to date?”
She started laughing.
Then, she started crying.
Because this was the end of that journey, and it had been a long time coming.
“What can we do for you?” The Huntsman asked, feeling for her. They’d all heard what he did to her, and that was enough to make a man testy.
“I need some paper. I need to leave a note for someone. Can you get it to him?”
Reaper suspected who it would be.
Recluse nodded and pulled some paper and a pencil form his little notebook.
She took it, and with blood dripping from her wounds that Alexsandr had given her in the fight, she wrote a note.
Then, she folded it, and handed it to Reaper.
“Give this to Jax, and tell my father I’m okay,” she said, getting to her feet.
She was wobbly.
“Oh, and tell Maura and Jagger I’m sorry for stealing their bike,” she added.
“Where are you going?” Lewis asked, worried about her.
Elizabeth had told them to protect her, and make sure she was safe.
It took her a second.
“I need to get away,” she whispered. “I need to find myself after this. Please let me go. I will be okay. I just want to go home and have some quiet. I can’t face anyone yet.”
The four men weren’t sure if they should, but they understood her pain.
Granted, if need be, they could always find her again. That was kind of their thing.
“Will you be okay?” Wolf asked.
She laughed.
“I don’t know. I was born to have no chance, I was killed by that man, and now, I have to find the new me. All I know is I’m an assassin. Am I any better than him?” she asked, spitting on the dead man.
None of them could answer that.
It was a question they each had to ask themselves, and it was the hardest one to face down.
Before anyone could say anything, in the distance, they heard sirens.
“ShotSpotter,” Reaper said, knowing they were about to have company. “Go. We’ll handle the situation. Someone’s going to be found.”
She was grateful.
“Alyona.”
She looked over.
“You did good. Now go find you,” Reaper suggested, as his team took care of Alexsandr for Elizabeth. “And if you ever need us,” he said, handing her a card. “We’ll come. Free of charge.”
She smiled.
“Along came a spider…,” she said.
“And they sat down beside her,” Recluse finished.
She touched her fingers to her forehead, saluting the Marines, and then, she head out.
Outside, on the motorcycle, she pulled on the jacket and helmet.
And hauled ass out of there.
It was a long drive back to Boston, but she wanted to do it alone.
Right now, she couldn’t face anyone.
Honestly, she needed a break.
A big one.
Honestly, Alyona was exhausted.
Killing the monster that made her didn’t give her peace.
It was funny how shit went down like that.
But of course, it did.
* * * H U N T E R – C R O F T * * *
Area Fifty-Two
One Hour Later
All four Spiders headed in, and when they got there, they were met with very anxious people. The whole time on the mission, there was radio silence.
Of course, not seeing his daughter, Greyson was the first up.
“Where is she?” he asked, looking around.
Reaper approached.
“She told me to tell you that she’s okay,” he said, giving him the message.
Jax was confused.
“Where is she then?”
Reaper handed him the note. When he opened it, his heart hurt.
His poor girl.
‘Jax, I’m good. I’ll meet you guys back in Boston. I need to drive home myself. I need to think it through. I’ll see you at home. I can’t be me right now. I need to find my way through this. I’m sorry.’
Well, at least he knew she was okay and that she was heading home. Thankfully, he’d gotten lucky, and she wasn’t running from him.
AGAIN.
If she did, he’d find her.
That’s what love was all about.
“What is going on?” Greyson asked. “Really? Where the hell is she?”
Reaper reassured him.
“She wanted to get home alone. She needed some space,” he said.
It was the least they could give her. She had, after all, handled the man and been the MVP on this one.
“And he’s handled?” Maura asked, heading toward Recluse. He’d yet to appear, and it had been a long time since she’d seen him.
“Completely,” Wolf said.
As Maura came face-to-face with the other Spider, a man who had been on her team, and lived through hell with them, she hugged him.
His arms went around her, and he was overwhelmed. He’d tried to avoid this, but Reaper was a dick, and told him to be a man and face her.
Truthfully, Harvey Lee didn’t want to face her. The memories of what she’d lived through to save them haunted him. She was his Major, and they’d failed to protect her.
“I missed this face, Harv,” she said, kissing him.
Time had gone by, but she was still the same old Major. The woman didn’t age. She just got more beautiful, and he understood why Jagger had it bad.
They all loved her a little.
How could they not?
He hated to point it out, but someone clearly didn’t miss him.
“Uh, Jagger didn’t. He’s giving me the hairy eyeball, Major,” he joked.
The man in question laughed.
“Uh, maybe because your hand is on her ass. The ass that is currently married to me.”
He snorted.
“The little guy finally got you,” he joked, hugging Jagger next.
The two men were busting balls, and that was normal in their world.
Ethan stood there, and while he loved a reunion, they had questions.
“And Alexsandr knew nothing?” he asked. “Because we can’t risk that he told someone the intel that was waiting for him.”
Reaper shook his head.
“Nope. When she brought up the intel at the bank, he was surprised and then angry when she said we had it.”
Finally.
They could all breathe a sigh of relief.
“So it’s over?” Stella asked. “Artemis and her plan to help him has been thwarted, and we can go back to helping the people of this town?”
Elizabeth nodded.
“It looks like,” she said. “That means you can go back to Boston, ” she offered, knowing Greyson didn’t like to be away from his wife and Chris for long.
The man was healing.
“It appears our work here is done,” he said. Then, he focused on The Hunters. “My friends, as always, this has been shits and giggles. Next time, my place for some whiskey.”
Maura hugged him.
“Thank you for saving our bacon with your plan B. It saved the day. We owe you one, and we’ll take you up on the offer. We’ll be there.”
Elizabeth cleared her throat.
“Uh, wedding? DC? My son? The invites all of you got but NONE RSVP’d for?” she asked, calling them out on their bullshit.
They all began laughing.
“Really? At the White House, Elizabeth?” Maura said. “Do you know how hard it’s going to be to get Zayn there?”
She blew it off.
“With all of the Secret Service?” she asked. “He’ll be fine,” she offered.
Jagger couldn’t help himself. Someone was a little giddy when Harvey called him ‘the little guy’ .
“No, getting his fat ass through the door,” Jagger said, going there.
The big man flipped him off.
“Funny, Little Guy. Real freaking funny.”
Then, Zayn focused on Elizabeth.
“You cannot make me go,” he said. “I’m not parading myself in front of…”
MATE appeared, surprising him.
“Then you can hang out with me. We can play cards. I need a new bestie. Want to tell each other all of our secrets? I’ve always wanted to wear a human.”
The man’s eyes went huge.
“I’ll be there,” he said. “In fact, can I come now?”
The whole family laughed.
How could they not?
This had been a long run, and so many days of pandemonium. Now, Maura was curious.
“Will we have some time to acclimate before you give us another case?” she asked Elizabeth.
The woman laughed.
“Yeah, sure. That sounds like me,” she said, pointing at Greyson. “We’ll give you a lift back to Boston . I want to hear everything about Ethan and Gene. You know, the early years.”
Ethan’s eyes went huge.
Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
“No, she doesn’t. Ignore her, Greyson. She’s insane. If you tell her, I’m bringing up the redheaded ME you had a thing with there.”
He held up his hands.
“Don’t bring me into this,” he said. “I’m an innocent bystander.”
“Said no one ever,” Dimitri admitted.
That said it all.
They laughed, and headed out, waving to their Southern sisters and brothers from another mother.
As of late, they’d spent too much damn time together. It was time for a break.
A temporary one.
Only, there was no doubt that Elizabeth would be back at some point. This city just couldn’t function without her.
Apparently.
When they were gone, Maura looked around.
“Spiders, want something to drink? It’s five o’clock somewhere.”
Maura walked away with Reaper, Recluse, Wolf, and The Huntsman.
And Jagger let her.
The Major was holding court, and now, at least his wife would be safe.
When the rest of the family followed, the men who began this ride together stood there.
With Jagger.
“Well, we handled this,” Jagger said to Dakota, Rogue, and Zayn. “I can’t wait to see what happens next.”
The big Native man laughed.
“I’m going to the motherfucking White House. That’s what’s happening next. Then, right to Leavenworth. After that, the gallows. I’ve read this story before, and it doesn’t end well for the Native man.”
Rogue laughed.
“Uh, in this story, what happens to the handsome, debonaire, half-Native?” he asked.
Zayn rolled his eyes.
“He did half the time in Leavenworth.”
Rogue snorted.
The other man rolled his eyes.
“Have I mentioned how much I love you chucklefucks?” Dakota asked, remembering how they came together, and how far they’d come.
It had been a journey.
“Every day, you pussy,” Jagger said.
As they were walking away, Zayn felt a pat on his ass, which was weird.
“Was that Dakota’s hand on my ass?” Zayn asked, looking around.
Before the man could answer, from somewhere nearby, MATE chortled.
That was all he had to hear.
“Oh, fuck no,” he said, not hanging around there.
HE RAN.
The other men laughed.
“That’s the fastest I’ve seen him move,” Jagger said, amused.
“You gotta stop messing with him,” Rogue said. “He’s going to need therapy. Holograms can’t pat you on the ass, but little guys can.”
Oops.
They found him out.
If you couldn’t fuck with your family, who could you mess with?
And that’s what they were.
FAMILY.
To the end.