Chapter 30
?The dining room table, which just seconds ago felt like a battlefield of family secrets, suddenly didn't matter at all.
Anna felt the change in the room first. Her survival instincts, built from years of living in danger, kicked in immediately and washed away the sleepy effects of her pain medicine.
She was instantly wide awake, her eyes locking straight onto Aiden.
?"What is it?" she asked, her voice dropping into that low, dangerous register Aiden knew all too well.
?Aiden didn't answer with words. He slid his hand out of hers and stood up. He leaned down, pulling her into him, and kissed her deeply, completely ignoring Marcus, Enzo, and Vanessa. It was a kiss full of possessive, desperate love, a silent reassurance against the panic creeping into the room.
?When he broke away, he rested his forehead against hers. "I love you so much. I'll be back before you know it," he murmured, hugging her close enough to feel her heart racing against his chest.
?Anna looked spooked, a rare flash of vulnerability crossing her features before hardening into cold anger. "Someone tell me what the hell is going on. Marcus!"
"The feds are coming for Aiden," Marcus said in a quiet, worried voice. "One of our informants just texted us. They'll be here in ten minutes."
"I'm sorry, what?" Anna hissed. She tried to sit up straighter, but the movement sharply pulled the stitches in her back, making her wince in pain. Aiden immediately took her hand, holding it tightly to reassure her that everything would be okay.
?He then looked over at Marcus, his voice completely calm. "Don't let the kids see any of this. Is everything ready?"
?"Yeah," Marcus nodded, his jaw tight. "The perimeter is locked down, the kids are safe in the panic room wing with the nanny, and we are already erasing the active logs from the servers."
?"Take care of them for me."
?"With my life."
?The two friends, more like brothers, shared a single, heavy nod. There was no need for a long goodbye, they had faced death together too many times to count.
?Enzo stood up, his large frame casting a long shadow over the table. The instinct to fight, to protect blood, was written all over his face. "Anything I can help with?"
?"It's better if they don't see you here," Aiden said smoothly, cutting him off. "Two mafia heads in one room? They would find any stupid, manufactured reason just to take you in too, and right now, Anna needs people on the outside."
?Aiden's eyes glued themselves back to Anna. She had fallen completely silent. He knew her better than anyone, when she was this quiet in a serious or dangerous situation, she wasn't panicking, she was calculating risks, counting numbers, and mapping out exit points.
?He remembered Elena's warning over the phone. He reached out, cupping Anna's cheek, forcing her to look at him. "Baby, you can't kill federal officers."
?A sudden, nervous laugh broke the silence.
Vanessa laughed softly, genuinely thinking Aiden was trying to crack a dark joke to ease the terrifying tension in the room.
But as she looked around and saw the dead, sober expressions on everyone's faces, the laughter died in her throat.
Her mouth hung open in pure shock as the reality of how dangerous Anna truly was hit her all over again.
?The heavy front doors of the estate hadn't even opened before the flashing red and blue lights began to paint the dining room windows. Aiden gave Anna one last, lingering look, squeezing her hand tightly before stepping out into the grand foyer to meet them.
?The federal agents didn't cross the threshold.
They only had an arrest warrant, not a search warrant, meaning they legally couldn't enter the house, and Marcus's security detail stood like a wall of iron at the door to ensure they didn't try.
Enzo and Vanessa remained deep inside the house, entirely out of sight.
?Anna had followed Aiden with her phone already raised. Her hands were steady as she took a continuous video and a crisp photo of the lead agent cuffing her man.
?The officers sent to execute the warrant were cocky and riding the high of arresting the untouchable Aiden Thorne. When the lead agent caught sight of Anna watching, he smirked.
?Anna didn't smile back. Her voice carried clearly across the courtyard "I know the exact state he left this house in. You better make sure he remains that way, or you'll have me to worry about."
?The agent chuckled, shaking his head as he opened the back door of the cruiser. He viewed her threat as simple, harmless hysteria from a pretty wife. Little did the idiot know.
?Aiden was placed inside the police car, the door slamming shut with a heavy, definitive thud. The tires crunched on the gravel as the convoy sped away into the night.
?Inside, the silence was deafening. Marcus was already on his phone, his voice sharp. "Connect me to the consigliere. Now. I want our top legal team at the federal building before the cruiser even parks."
?Anna's eyes never left the empty driveway. "I want to know what the hell they think they have on him," she said to Marcus, her voice dangerously quiet.
?"I'll also try and see what I can find," Enzo offered.
?"Maybe I can stay here to assist if you need any help with the kids," Vanessa added helpfully. "You're still healing."
?For a second, Anna had forgotten they were even still there. She turned to them, pinning her sharp eyes right on Enzo.
"If I get a whiff of your involvement in this, trust me, you won't like the consequences, family or not. Marco was your guy after all." She then turned her gaze to Vanessa. "We're not there yet, and I'm not some damsel in distress. I can handle my own business."
?Enzo completely understood Anna and where she was coming from, all he could do was try to help as much as possible. Things were about to get incredibly rocky in their family.
A section of their followers was loyal directly to him, while others only followed him out of fear but remained loyal to his late uncle, the true head of the Rossi syndicate.
They had been hopeful for years that they would find the rightful heir and crown her Don. Now that Enzo had finally tracked her down, he was expecting a massive division in the syndicate, which was never a good thing. For now, he would leave it to Anna to decide what to do next.
?At the federal holding facility, Aiden sat under the harsh, buzzing fluorescent lights of an interrogation room. His hands were cuffed to the metal table. He waited. And waited.
?Hours passed in deliberate silence, a classic psychological tactic meant to make a suspect sweat.
When the door finally opened, two agents walked in, immediately starting the textbook good cop, bad cop routine.
One slammed a folder on the table, yelling about federal prison and life sentences, while the other sat down with a sigh, offering a fake, sympathetic smile.
?Aiden watched them, his expression completely blank. He knew exactly what they were doing, and he almost laughed out loud. They actually thought they could break him.
?The bad cop leaned in close, his breath smelling of stale coffee. "Think about your kids, Thorne. Think about that cute little woman you left back at the estate. You think she's gonna wait for you while you rot in a maximum security cell?"
?Aiden didn't even blink, though a dark amusement sparked deep in his eyes. They thought mentioning his family would make him sweat. But Aiden knew that as long as Anna was out there, his children were safer than they would be in a military bunker.
The feds thought they were dealing with a vulnerable housewife, completely oblivious to the fact that the cute woman they were referring to was the Wraith, the underworld's most lethal, terrifying assassin. She was a creature far more dangerous than him, and these suits were completely blind to it.
?Back at the estate, Anna was a caged predator. She was restless. Her body was still recovering from three gunshot wounds, meaning she couldn't physically move the way she wanted to, which left her alone with her most lethal, unfiltered thoughts.
?By midnight, she already had a fully mapped out tactical plan to ambush the transport vehicle and break Aiden out before he ever reached a permanent federal prison, if it came to that.
?A sharp beep interrupted her thoughts as an encrypted file dropped into her private secure terminal. It was from an anonymous source, but Anna instantly guessed it was Elena.
Anna opened the file, her eyes narrowing as the video began to play.
It was a hazy, low resolution security feed showing a figure firing two shots, then pulling the trigger a final time to kill Marco.
The footage was incredibly blurry, and Aiden's face wasn't visible at all.
But Anna knew him too well, from his height, the way he carried himself, and even the distinct watch on his wrist, she could tell it was definitely him.
?The feds didn't have solid proof, they just had a highly educated guess, a shot in the dark. That was exactly why Elena had told him to cooperate. The evidence was too weak to hold him for long, but resisting arrest would have given them a real, undeniable reason to keep him behind bars.
?But weak evidence didn't make him safe.
Aiden had a massive list of powerful enemies.
If word leaked to the streets that the king of the Thorne empire was sitting defenseless in a local holding cell, his life would be in immediate danger.
It was a brutal irony, a police station, surrounded by hundreds of armed cops, was the most unsafe place in the state for a mafia king.
The building was full of greedy, desperate, and easily bought dirty cops.
?The feds had been hunting Aiden for years, constantly humiliated by his clean track record. Now that they finally had a sliver of an opportunity, they wouldn't let go of it easily. They would drag their feet, leave him exposed, and let the sharks circle.
Anna closed the laptop. She couldn't wait around for the consigliere to play nice with federal judges. She had to take action, and she had to do it now.
?Reaching into her nightstand, she pulled out a heavily encrypted burner phone, one she hadn't touched since the day she decided to become a ghost. It held contacts that didn't exist on any modern grid.
?It was time to start redeeming some of the blood favors the underworld owed the Wraith.