Chapter 51
The flight goes smoother than I would have guessed possible with how sick Trent looked at the idea of flying.
Unfortunately, the rest of the night has been anything but.
It’s no secret in our world that Ivan had long since been trying to get his hands on the older property in Plati.
The Calabrian mafia once used it, but they went down over thirty years ago.
Elio runs that territory now, but the ruins of the Calabrian rule still stand, unneeded but not forgotten. A memory of sorts.
Father has very little that he makes a say in now, but that is something he has stood behind. Buying the Plati properties is a bad idea. So much happened there, so many lives lost, pointlessly.
Yet just because Ivan can not publicly purchase it doesn’t mean he hasn’t found another way. Ivan has no boundaries, something that my father doesn’t understand yet.
He will, though.
The flight takes about five hours, but it feels like an eternity.
I’d thought it was torture to watch her go back to the rings, but this is so much worse.
At least there, she knew what she was doing, or she had, by the time I found her.
Jade decided to go back, knowing she could help others.
It was dangerous, and I hated it, but I didn’t have any room to tell her what to do, and I believed in her ability to handle not only herself but those she wanted to protect.
Everything about Ivan is unknown to Jade.
I’d be shocked if she could call him out in a crowd, let alone know how fucking sick and twisted he can be.
I’ve never seen him fight personally, but I’ve seen those he ‘employs,’ and they would die to protect him.
They do die to protect him, even when it’s unnecessary.
Ivan has zero regard for any life that isn’t his own. He doesn’t care if he has to kill hundreds. Men, women, children—everyone is a stepping stone on his path to success.
Jade thinks of herself as a monster. Hell, most people think of Vengeance as the monsters in the city, but we still have morals, something Ivan can’t even begin to understand. We might do bad things, but we do them with cause or in reaction, not for a power trip, and never just because we can.
Leo and I take the time in the car to explain why Ivan would most likely choose Plati.
They aren’t happy that we don’t know for sure. I’m not either, but I can’t exactly do anything about that. None of us can, and this is the only idea anyone has come up with. If they don’t like this, I can guarantee they won’t like the reason he wanted it so badly.
“Wait, what?” Zander holds up his hands, and Leo pauses, looking to me for assistance.
“Yeah, a whole system of tunnels and rooms. Under Plati is pretty much just another city built to be hidden. It did just that for a long time, but eventually, they were discovered and taken in, and the tunnels were left unused but not forgotten. The city was all but abandoned. People feared what would happen should they come back,” I tell him, stepping in to explain.
It doesn’t make anything better, but sometimes understanding helps, and keeping everyone talking keeps our minds off the time as it continues ticking by.
“But they didn’t,” Rick says, and while it doesn’t sound like a question, I elaborate anyway. He might know something about it with his love of knowledge, but nobody else seems to.
“No, they didn’t,” I say, shaking my head.
“That’s not how things work in the mafia,” Leo says with a sigh, as if he’s just now realizing just how deep all of this goes.
These guys aren’t from our world, and while they have adapted well enough, they have a lot to learn if they want to stay with Jade.
The empire she will rule isn’t for the weak.
“Most of them got pretty heavy sentences, and they brought in enough of them to cause a tip in power. The majority of the family was taken in during a raid, and those who made it out fled, leaving the territory open. Open territory isn’t something that can be ignored.
Someone has to be in control, or we risk wars. ”
“So, who took over?” Jake asks, trying to put the pieces together.
“Elio,” Kratos says, looking at me to assure him he’s right, and I nod.
“Why the hell would he just leave those tunnels open? Why not close it all up and be done with it?” Spencer demands.
His anger isn’t something I’m used to. Before Jade, he was rather indifferent, always along for the ride but never in the heat of it.
He’s their intelligence. He did what he had to and often didn’t even care why, only interested in the thrill of cracking code and things like that.
“That’s not how it works. He had his hands full with getting the city in order and making sure nobody else tried to step in. On top of running his own territory and still trying to find Emma back then,” Kyn says from the passenger seat, turning to face us.
I shoot her a glare, both for her attitude and for her being here.
She told Elio she would stay on the jet, but I knew better.
Kyn never does anything she’s told, a lot like someone else I know.
She wouldn’t even hear it when I tried to get her to stay behind, claiming she would be our getaway driver.
I’m still not convinced she’ll stay in the car when we get there, but I didn’t have time to fight with her. Something she was well aware of and had no problem using to her advantage.
The car is quiet, everyone lost in their thoughts.
There isn’t much to be said. Elio really couldn’t do more, but that doesn’t change the fact that Ivan had his sights on this area for a long time.
If he had shut the tunnels down, Ivan would have found somewhere else anyway, and at least this way, we know where to start looking.
“So what exactly do you think we’re walking into here?” Trent asks, speaking up for the first time since we got in the car.
A million different scenarios are possible, but the one that stands out the most is the one I’m hoping doesn’t happen.
“An ambush,” Leo says, sagging back into his seat and looking defeated.
The others look at me as if hoping I’ll have a better option.
I don’t.
“Well, fuck Ivan and his ambush.”
I turn in my seat to face Zander, where he sits in the third row with a malicious smile on his face.
“I’m in the mood to kill someone, anyway.
At least this way, we don’t have to fight over who gets to handle Ivan, because it sounds like his dumb ass brought plenty of fun for everyone.
” He throws his head back and barks a laugh worthy of a movie star villain.
“I think your idea of fun, and ours, is a bit different, Zan,” Trent says with a snort, shaking his head.
“I don’t know, sounds like a good time to me.” Kyn shrugs, turning back around in her seat.
Leo barks a laugh, and it’s so stupid it’s funny because she’s not wrong.
We grew up like this, ready to fight, and no matter if it’s fun or not, I know these guys would do whatever they have to in order to bring my sister home, and I can’t help but laugh as well.
Laughter breaks out around us as if someone pumped laughing gas through the car, but it doesn’t matter, even if they did, because it wouldn’t stop us.
Nothing can.
A fucking ambush is exactly what we walked into.
Ivan might be a monster, but he didn’t get where he is in life because he’s stupid.
No, he knew what he was doing, knew just where to put his men to slow us down.
The fact that he looks at them as if they’re disposable doesn’t help our odds.
He could lose all of his men, and he would just find more tomorrow, which means he didn’t hesitate to pull out every stop in order to get what he wants.
Jade dead.
All so that he can lead.
Too bad for him; that will never happen.
There’s a difference between men driven by fear and money and those driven by loyalty and respect.
What Ivan has isn’t real power. He’s never known true power, the kind that changes people and makes them want to serve you.
The kind of power that makes you love what you do and pushes you to put your life on the line to accomplish it.
Ivan will never be more than he is because he only cares about what he wants and bettering himself.
I fire off two shots into another one of Ivan’s goons before taking a second to look around and see how the others are faring.
Ivan’s men easily outnumber us, yet from what I can see, we have the upper hand.
All the training seems to be paying off.
Not to mention the fact that these guys are all but savage with the thought of getting to Jade.
There’s something to be said about fighting for a cause you believe in, even more so for a woman you love.
The guys Ivan picked up are sloppy, and I’d bet they're just contracted. A paycheck doesn’t keep you loyal if you’ll die before you ever see the money.
Some of them have gone so far as to turn tail and run, but even with the upper hand and the few choosing to live, we have our work cut out for us.
The hillside isn’t the easiest place to fight, but I’ve had worse, so I’ll take it.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Leo. So far, he’s been putting guys down without hesitation.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about his ability to fight with us.
There was a very real chance he could switch sides when we got here.
I’d talked to Kratos about it a bit before we left, and we agreed to keep an eye on him.
If he’d been an issue, I told him I would handle Leo myself.
I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to that, though. No matter our differences growing up, I really didn’t want to have to kill him. But I would if it meant keeping Jade safe.