Chapter 35

Kai looks slightly terrified as he follows behind Nessa and Cillian. I am at the back, watching everyone move while keeping us all together. Seeing Kai here was a shock, but even more so was Nessa allowing him to join.

It brings back memories of the last time we were all moving in on a target, and I do not like it.

Suddenly, Cillian presses himself to the wall, raising his gun. We all do the same, careful to keep Nessa and our soon-to-be-adopted son safe. Kai holds the red handgun I gifted Nessa like a professional. He never lets it out of his sight, and seeing him use it now, poised with such precision, somehow brings me some peace.

This is his element just as much as it is ours. I need to trust him.

Two guards round the corner facing away from us, and we all hold our breath. We aren’t sure of all of their movements inside yet, so we plan to see what they’ll do and only kill if necessary.

A creak on the floor gives our position away and causes the guards to turn. Looks like killing might be necessary this time.

Before I can take care of the problem, Kai draws back on his gun and fires, hitting them both in the head without so much as a second’s pause.

We all turn to him and he shrugs.

“I told you I was a decent shot,” Kai says in a low voice.

Nessa sighs, dropping her head back. “So much for no guns.”

“I won’t practice if you don’t want me to, but I want to show you that this is where I belong too.” Kai looks down at his gun, keeping it aimed away from us as he flicks on the safety again.

We enter the stairwell and make our way up to the bedrooms on the fifth floor. I have no idea how the kids inside are feeling about the sounds being made at the front gate, but we can hope that they at least know someone is coming for them. We just need them to believe it’s someone who wants to help them and not steal them.

Once we’re a little over half way, a door above bangs open, the sound of two sets of feet hitting the stairs. Nessa’s eyes go wide, but Kai leans over the railing, his gun aimed up as he shouts.

“Hey, asshats!”

Just as they peek over, he fires. One loses his balance and stumbles back, the other falls forward and over the railing. The man drops at least five stories before he is greeted by the ground.

“Guns and murder. Glad to see that the majority of my list is now null and void.”

“Hey,” Kai says, flicking on the safety again and loading a new clip. “I swear on my life I will stay away from the drugs.”

Nessa eyes Cillian and me before shaking her head.

“If you want to use that gun, you have to stay sharp. But I’m the only one you’re allowed to do target practice with. Deal?”

Kai nods his head so fast that I’m shocked he doesn’t give himself whiplash. “Yes. Deal.”

A small smile forms on Nessa’s face before it vanishes.

“Let’s go get these girls. There should be three in this wing, and they seem to share a large room.”

Cillian puts a hand on her shoulder before glancing up the stairwell. “Let’s move,” he says, raising his gun as he begins to walk up the next flight.

“Good shot, kid,” I whisper to Kai before the two of us make the turn. He freezes, looking back at me with a grin.

“Thanks, Pops.”

No. Absolutely not. That will not be his name for me.

I hear him chuckle under his breath as he follows behind Nessa, and I huff in annoyance. This is definitely going to be what he calls me.

I open the door to the top floor and we file out. Three faces turn towards us, and two dead bodies are on the floor.

“Who the fuck are you?” one of them asks. Guns raised and pointed directly at us.

“We came to rescue you,” Cillian says, removing his helmet. They all square their shoulders, clearly not believing us. It takes Kai stepping forward for them to not look like they are about to attack.

“Are you the ones making all the noise outside?” a girl asks and Kai nods.

“They saved me from the initiation camp. I was supposed to head here this month, but they shut it down and got all of the kids out.”

“Where did they send them?” another girl asks, eyeing Kai’s weapon.

“Some went back to their families. Others are staying with us at a really nice house where we have the freedom to leave when we want. A few of us have been adopted into vetted families.”

He smiles after saying that, and it makes my heart feel warm. Kai loves our family just about as much as we love him, and we do not love easily.

“How do we know we can trust you?” the first girl asks, reaching behind her back. There is a gun in all of their hands but hers. It seems the other two disarmed the guards and took their weapons before shooting them in the head with it.

Nessa steps forward, handing the girl her spare weapon. It’s a good thing too because I just got her the new one she’s been holding most of the night.

The last time she handed one of my gifts away, we ended up keeping the kid. I was hardly ready for another boy at this point in my life, I am definitely not ready for a teenage girl.

“You don’t know that,” Nessa says, placing the gun in her hand. “But we will do what we can to earn that trust.”

They glance at each other before nodding. “Alright then, let’s move. We call the shots though.” This command comes from the taller girl.

“That’s fair. We do not know this place like you do. We have two more teams here extracting the other dorms,” I concede.

“Shit,” the shortest girl says before grabbing a walkie-talkie from her pocket. “Retreat to your rooms. Reinforcements have arrived.”

“What’s going on?” Kai asks.

The one holding the walkie-talkie waves it at him. “We were planning to get out of here tonight. The alpha team was supposed to move first three minutes ago. We were next.”

“You were escaping tonight?” Cillian asks with a laugh. “Damn, that’s some good timing.”

The girl rolls her eyes. “Not if we shoot your friends it’s not.”

“Lev,” I say into comms, “tell the other teams not to fire. One of the groups is already on the move to get out of here.”

“Got it. They’re staying put until we give the all clear.”

The walkie-talkie flashes red before a voice comes over. “What the fuck do you mean by ‘reinforcements’, Maree?”

She rolls her eyes again as if she is dealing with a toddler. I feel her pain because this is how I feel working with Cillian half the time. “I mean, go back to your fucking dorm before you get shot, Rick.”

Letting go of the button so he can no longer hear her, she makes eye contact with me.

“Are all boys this dumb?”

I shrug. “The majority of the time, yes.”

“Hey,” Kai and Cillian say together, their heads whipping to me. Nessa laughs and winks at me.

“If you wish to argue this point then you are only proving my statement,” I add.

Kai and Cillian whisper to each other before they fist bump, and I have a feeling they are going to do something dumb later.

“We need to take care of Richard and Alberto,” the tallest girl says.

“Who are they?” I ask.

“The two guards who stand watch at the bottom of the stairs. During the day there are more of them, but at night there are two posted outside our room, two in the stairwell as backup, and two at the base.”

Cillian scratches his head. “Yeah, they’re kinda dead.”

“You killed them?” the same one says in horror. She clenches her fist before letting out a frustrated growl.

We feared some of them had developed relationships with the guards and trainers. I just hope they can understand why we did it.

She kicks the bedframe before turning to the others.

“I had so many ways I wanted to torture at least one of them. I even sharpened my new knife!”

The four of us exchange glances before I call out to Lev, “Tell the others to capture one of the guards for us. It appears these kids wish to exact some revenge.”

“We’re not kids!”

“Rhea, stop,” Maree says.

“I did not mean to offend.” I place my hands in the air just as Lev speaks in my ear.

“Got it, Damien was toying with one that was shot in the leg. He wrapped it up and knocked him out. Everyone, head to checkpoint A now.”

“Our team captured one of the guards, so you can still use your knife,” I inform her. This seems to help her relax.

“Great, let’s go then.” Maree begins heading to the door.

Kai looks to the last girl we have yet to learn the name of.

“What’s your name?” he asks.

She looks more shy than Maree and Rhea, but I think she blushes when Kai holds out his hand to hers.

“I’m Storm.”

“Wicked name. How’d you get that?” He shakes her hand, and they smile at each other.

“Everyone says I look just like Storm from X-Men and it just stuck. I don’t really remember my birth name.”

That has us all freezing. “How long have they had you?” Nessa asks.

“We have all changed hands a few times, but I think I was around seven when I was taken. We were all in foster care of some kind, but Rhea and Rick were on the streets after the system failed them. They were the oldest we had here for a while.”

She talks about it like this is no big deal, just average information as if sharing with us the school she attends.

“How old are you?” Cillian asks.

Maree speaks up this time. “We think that Storm is fifteen. Rhea and I are sixteen, though she will be seventeen in a few weeks.”

“Where did you plan to go once you escaped?” I ask as we get ready to leave the room.

They grab some bags and pack up a few things but not much, and they keep their tactical gear on.

“I had contacts before I was brought here,” Rhea says. “Being homeless, I worked underground in the hacking world, and I planned to reach out to some people I knew as soon as I could get a computer.”

Nodding, I decide to make an agreement with her. If our goal is to earn their trust, maybe this will help.

“I can get that for you, and you are welcome to stay with us until you can reach those contacts.”

They all exchange a look before Rhea tightens the backpack over her shoulders. I can feel them about to refuse, but I do not want them on the streets.

“They’re good people,” Kai says. “They adopted me.”

Nessa wraps an arm around him and pulls him close.

“You make me want to pull my hair out, but I couldn’t say no to someone willing to take a bullet for me.”

He grins, hugging her back. “Give them a chance,” Kai pleads.

“For now, you do not need to trust us,” I say. “But we would like to assist in getting everyone out, and our plan was to move from the main entrance. We have two people outside guarding it until we can get there.”

Rhea speaks up then. “I will get us there, follow my lead. There are still plenty of guards, especially if you want to go to the main part of the building.”

“How many? I would like to share that with the rest of our team if you agree.”

She gives a go ahead gesture with her hand.

“On the property, there are usually thirty-eight guards at night and around forty-five during the day. Some don’t live far from here or sleep in a connecting suite, so I assume we’re dealing with all of them.”

I give Lev the information, and he starts tracking how many have died. Damien and Alexi have gotten most of the ones who ran to the explosion of the front gate outside, but there are still a few more inside.

The girls follow behind us after trying to put up a fight to be in front. Cillian laughed at them and took the lead again. He let Rhea stay behind him, giving him movements of where to go while using their device to talk to the other teens.

There are a lot of twists and turns, the old gothic style building not anything like the modern setup we are used to. The floors creak in random areas, giving us away a few times. Rhea and Cillian are on it, and when they are busy, we all fill in the gaps.

Rhea keeps a hand on Cillian’s shoulder with Kai right behind them and the other two girls in the back with me and Nessa. After a decent bit of bloodshed and only one of us tripping over a body, we meet up with the others at the main entrance.

Rhea runs to the boy across the room, and he embraces her, holding her close while he glares at all of us.

The lights are off, shrouding the atrium in darkness, only the moonlight beaming through the windows to assist in guiding our movements. Thankfully, it is a full moon and has helped us even in the dim hallways.

“How did you find us?” the boy I assume is Rick asks.

Kai steps forward. “I was supposed to be sent here before they rescued all of the kids at our camp.”

Rick looks Kai up and down, tucking Rhea behind him protectively even when she rolls her eyes.

“And how do we know we can trust you? This timing doesn’t feel right.”

Kai nods, and Nessa steps up beside him. Everyone in the room is pretty relaxed, the other group of kids not caring much about talking. Most of them look like they just want to get out of here.

But the air shifts, and everyone freezes when Rick raises his gun, pointing it at Nessa.

Kai sucks in a sharp breath. “Out of every move you could have made, that was the worst fucking idea you could have had.”

Rhea puts her hand on Rick’s shoulder, but he shoves it off. My nerves spike, and Cillian looks two seconds away from shooting the kid.

“No, explain. Now!” Rick shouts, hands shaking as he threatens my woman.

Slowly, I step in front of Nessa, causing Rick to look at me. “Lower your weapon so we can get you out of here, then you can ask all of the questions you want.”

I raise my hands as he assesses me. “How do we know you aren’t one of them, that you won’t do the same thing?”

He is trembling, scared and shouting with a weapon now pointed at my chest. My bulletproof vest gives me some protection, but there is still a chance something could go wrong this close. With Nessa and my soon-to-be son in harm’s way still, I cannot risk their lives. Not again.

“We allowed you to keep fully loaded weapons and ensured you were all brought together before we left the property,” Arrow says from behind him.

Our eyes connect, and I give him a subtle nod. When Rick steps towards me, feeling Arrow at his back, I move.

My hands come together around his gun, twisting it to the side as a shot rings through the room, stunning us all. Arrow thrusts a needle into Rick’s neck, his wide, panicked eyes looking up at me as he begins to fall into a deep sleep.

“We have no plans to hurt you,” I say as he blinks, his eyes not fully lifting. “But we need to ensure you cannot hurt any of us.”

When he falls to the floor, his body still, Rhea begins to panic. Kai steps in, moving her hand over his heart. “We just made him sleep.”

Arrow steps over them while I look to the other children whose faces are filled with trepidation. “We are only doing this so that we can complete the mission while keeping everyone safe. You may all keep your weapons, but aiming them at us is not advised.”

Rhea calms quickly, and Alexi gives us the all clear to exit.

The other teens still seem hesitant, but Rhea steps up.

“They could have killed him. Rick threatened them and it would have been easier to shoot him than risk him getting off a shot. For now, we will trust them enough to get us out of here.”

I nod to her and she gives a shaky tilt of her head in response.

Lev has the transport van pulled up and waiting. I lift Rick into my arms, and Rhea stays by our side.

“I hope he can forgive me,” I say.

She snorts a laugh. “He probably won’t.”

My stomach sinks, worried that I inadvertently ruined all of our carefully laid plans to gain their trust and respect.

“When we saved Kai, Nessa was shot. We did not know if she was going to survive. When Rick pointed the gun at her, I could take no chances.”

Rhea lifts her shoulders, taking a deep breath as we move along. “You don’t have to explain it to me, buddy. I knew he took it too far. It’s what Rick does. You guys could have shot him in the head right there and didn’t. That’s all the proof I need that you aren’t trying to hurt us.”

I lay Rick on a seat, checking that his pulse is strong as Rhea sits beside him. Once he is settled, her hand covers mine.

“I understand what it feels like to lose someone. I’ll talk to him when he wakes up.”

I lift a small smile, anxiety coursing through my veins like a bad drug. Choosing to sit beside them during the short drive to our vehicles, I find out a bit about how they met.

They were so young and on the streets together. At first, they would beg for food, and once Rhea found out she was proficient with a computer, it went downhill from there. She made a few contacts, and that became their life.

She prefers dark underground bunkers with a lot of servers over people and crowded spaces, which we can both agree on.

By the time we arrive, I feel that she has developed some trust with me. We have yet to take their weapons, and I am sure that will cause a riot, but for now, there seems to be a truce between us.

Getting out of the van, I look at Rhea.

“If you want that computer, you should talk to Lev. He has a van set up here with surveillance. Would you like to see it?”

She glances from me to Rick, and after checking his pulse, she agrees. Rick is handcuffed to the seat, so even if he somehow wakes from what should be a solid twelve hour nap, he cannot hurt any of us.

“So, what was your fucking plan coming into this whole thing?” Rhea asks as we make our way to Lev’s little fortress.

“The exterior building plan went quite well, but we did not know what to expect with you, so a lot was left to chance.”

“And the little tranq darts?”

“Were for emergencies only. Like if one of you decided to pull a gun on the love of my life.”

She chuckles as if I had just told her a joke. “You’re fucking hilarious.”

“You sure do have a smart mouth,” Cillian says to Rhea as everyone files out of the van. She puts a hand on her hip and tosses her hair behind her shoulder.

“You would too if you constantly had others telling you what to do.”

Cillian laughs deeply, grabbing at his stomach.

“Oh girl, you have no fecking clue how much I understand that.” He looks at Nessa, making her smack him in the stomach.

“If I didn’t tell him what to do then there would be mass murders because someone made his sandwich order wrong.” Rhea’s brows pinch.

“That was one time,” Cillian whines.

“Are you five?” Rhea asks him.

“Right?” Nessa says, following us to Lev while scanning the area a little more precisely. I think she is a little shaken, but seems to be in good spirits now.

Rhea nearly dies when she sees the set-up Lev has. She jumps into the van, running her fingers over different objects and calling them by name, grabbing Lev’s attention straight away.

“What kind of computer do you need?” I ask her as she stares at one of Lev’s machines that has flashing lights.

“MacBook Pro would be preferred, but I know they are pricey.”

Lev turns in his seat, assessing the girl as the rest of the team gets settled into their cars. The other kids start introducing themselves as we all split up into different vehicles, making sure everyone is comfortable.

“The scrolling performance is shit when hacking or programming with an Apple device. What are you trying to accomplish?” Lev questions.

Rhea shrugs, inspecting another item that looks like a metal brick. “There is a secure online chat I made with some contacts a few years ago. I need something that will let me talk to them without leaving a trace.”

Lev runs a hand through his white hair before snapping his fingers. “I’d go with the MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS-036. It’ll give you better scrolling, plus the battery life is top notch.”

“Ugh,” Rhea shakes her head. “That’s the one with the crazy noisy fan though. What about an Acer Nitro 5?”

Lev looks amused. “That’ll work so long as you’re never going to need to use an SD card or you always want to carry a dongle with you, and I have a feeling you won’t want to be limited like that.”

“Well, shit.”

Watching them go back and forth is amusing. Eventually, she settles on Lev’s original suggestion, so long as Lev helps her to replace the fan with something quieter.

The rest of the kids are getting to know us, and Kai seems to be blending in well.

“These kids are so different from the first,” Nessa says, coming up to me and allowing me to wrap my arms around her as she folds into my chest.

Resting my chin on the top of her head, I let out a long breath. “We got them though. They are safe now.”

“Ten years, Boris. They have had some of them for as long as they can remember. No matter how we feel about it, these are trained killers. What are we going to do with nine weaponized teenagers?”

I cannot help the chuckle that escapes me. “You forget, Lisichka , Cillian is basically the same thing.”

She leans back and shoves my chest playfully. “Yes, and now we have nine more of him. Do you not see the problem?”

Her eyes sparkle in the night, so full of life it makes me feel as if I can finally breathe again. She is healing, we are healing. Nothing is going to get in our way this time. I will not allow it.

“We will figure it out, my little fox.”

I kiss her on the head so we can begin to load up. Arrow says he is going to ride with Damien and keep the hostage in check, so I ask Kai if he will ride with me. His gaze drifts to Nessa and Cillian, but he agrees.

I know I am the old man here, the odd one out. But I want a relationship with Kai too, and I plan to foster it as much as possible. I know that I failed with Alexi, but I will not let myself make the same mistake twice.

We sit in comfortable silence on the way to the airstrip. Once the cars are loaded, everyone begins to pile out. Alexi says he will show some of them around the plane, and others are planning to sit and eat on the top deck.

Kai moves to get out, but I put a hand on his shoulder. “Can we talk?”

He visibly deflates, making me feel like shit. “Are you angry with me?”

“Kai, I am not angry. I just want you to know that what you did today was reckless.”

He nods. “I know, but I needed to show you that I can be part of the team too.” Pleading eyes look up at me. “I wanted to fit in with you all.”

“ Misha , you are so much more than that. You are part of our team, but you are our family too.”

“ Misha ?”

I smile at him while ruffling his hair. “You know that I call Nessa Lisichka ?”

“Yeah.”

“It means little fox in Russian. When I first met her, she was always darting around; there for everyone in our circle, including me. That, mixed with her bright red hair, reminded me so much of a fox.

But Misha means ‘little bear’. It is a term of endearment for a son, but it also fits you well. Bears protect. They are fierce and devoted.”

His dark eyes sparkle as a feeling passes between us that is so much more than any father-son bond. It is a vow. He is my son, and he will never be alone again.

Kai comes up out of his seat to wrap his arms around me. I hold him tight. “Thank you, Pops.”

I want to hate this name so much, but when he says it like this, I cannot bring myself to be bothered.

“We are in this together,” I promise him.

He sits back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear. “Together.”

And just like that, our family feels complete.