FAMILY

DANTE'S POV

Once we get home, I turn everything upside down. I shoot holes into my wall and I scream in frustration. All I can feel is hate and regret. We did nothing today! Absolutely nothing. I should have just let Headshot kill Veronica when he had a chance. He had a fucking clear shot! But that was not the goal. The goal was to capture her alive and extract information from her. She would have been no use to us dead.

Now that all this has happened, I'm starting to wish we just killed her cause now we haven't only lost her, we have lost Adrian too. After all what I did to keep Adrian in the palm of my hands. I had him; I had the bastard. There's also the fact that she blackmailed us with Naomi. If anything had happened to Veronica, she would have killed Naomi. I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't do that to Liam.

"You know doing all that won't change the fact that we lost today." Liam says calmly as he sits with his elbows rested on his knees. I don't know how he can be so calm but after what happened today, he seems to be lost in thought,

"We still have hope, and we still have other things to do. We still have to get Colton's sister and we have to raid erotica on auction day. We haven't lost yet Dante. It's just like you said, we keep pushing. As long as we can still breathe, I see no reason why we should give up. I see no reason why we should sulk and lose hope. I know it seems like we haven't accomplished anything, but we have accomplished a lot. We have Colton on our side. We know where erotica is found and in just a few days, we'll burn the place to the ground." Liam says to me and then rises to his feet.

He stands in front of me and the other men in the room and holds his head high. "We need to take what happened today as a lesson. The most important thing is that we're alive and I want to believe that Kent is fine too. We lost today because we didn't know exactly what we were running into. We didn't expect Veronica to be so destructive and take out a bomb. But now we know the severity of the situation and we know how far she's willing to go. We need to learn from this so that next time, we don't go in blindly. Next time we will be prepared." Liam's voice is more confident and courageous than I remember it to be.

I can see the hurt in his eyes, I can see the pain but I can also see his strength. He has grown so much in these past months and I am so happy for him. I'm so proud of him for developing the strength that he has today.

"When both of you called us here…" One of the man rises to his feet to address Liam and I. I remember his name to be James. He's the quietest man here, always observing and carrying out his tasks with great precision. I like James.

"We were doing it for the money. All we wanted was enough money to live as freely as we wanted and you had the ability to provide that for us. After working with you for all this time, after witnessing and hearing about all the horrors that you have been through, I think it's safe to say that none of us are doing this for the money anymore."

He says and all the other men agree with him, nodding their heads as they rise to their feet too.

"We're all brothers now." Headshot says. "I mean I'm not going to lie. The money sounds great but it has been a while since I served a bigger purpose in life than just being a hitman. All my life, I worked for spineless people who wanted me to do their dirty work for them. I had no problem with it. I shut off my emotions and before ever agreeing to a job, I made sure they deserved it. You've given me a bigger purpose to serve Dante. I knew there was so much evil in the world but like everyone else, I decided to turn a blind eye. You've shown me that I have something greater to fight for and I will give it my all till the very end. I'm not even doing this to help you anymore. I'm doing it to help all those girls that need us. I want to save them. I want to kill them all."

"We're with you till the end." Another man says.

"Headshot is right. I really don't care how many times we lose. Only the end matters and I know that in the end, we will get al those girls to safety. We'll bring Adeline and Naomi home." Shadow says.

I immediately start feeling emotional. After I lost my sister, I was all alone in the world. I didn't trust anyone. All I wanted to do was be on my own and find the people who hurt my sister. All I wanted was revenge.

"When I first met Adeline…" I start saying. I don't know why I feel the certain urge to narrate mine and Adeline's meeting to them. But I haven't been able to properly talk about her since she was taken away and I just need to get this out.

"I was immediately bewitched by her beauty. She's so beautiful. The most beautiful person I had ever met. I was drawn in. I needed to know more about her. I needed to know if she was beautiful on the inside too and she did not disappoint. I started stalking her. I left her favorite flower at her doorstep once."

At the end of my sentence, Liam gives me a look as if he just realized something.

"I know most would argue that stalking someone is creepy but it is all I had ever known. I had kept to myself so much that I thought the best way to approach a person was to stalk them. I learnt everything there was to learn about her and I found out that she was so much more amazing that what met the eye. I wanted to get to know her and I did. She let me in and she made me feel like I had a family again and I love her. She made me feel whole. Like she was the missing piece my soul needed all along. She gave me piece and I was willing to give her everything."

"Adeline was my best friend." Liam starts talking. I guess we're all sharing out entre life stories today. "She is my best friend. We grew up together. We did everything together. I promised to always take care of her. To never let anything bad happen to her. She was always there for me. She's the kind of person that brightens up your day without even trying. She's intentional about the people she cares about and when she wants something, she fights for it. All she ever wanted was a peaceful life. All she ever wanted was to be happy. She never bothered anyone. She was never rude to anyone. She was so kind, so beautiful in every way possible. She's the silver lining to every cloud and if anything, she's a fighter. I know she'll be okay somehow. I just know it."

Liam ends his sentence with a smile and almost immediately, someone else starts talking about their own experience with someone they love. As we all share out stories, I realize that we've all lost something and we're all fighting for something and we all have something or someone we want to save.

I have always felt alone but I have a family now and I will defend them as they have chosen to defend me. No matter what happens, no matter the outcome of our situation, at least I know that we will always be there for each other.