I could feel myself being carried. I could hear voices but they were faint. My head was aching but I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes.

I concentrated on those voices and instantly recognized them. It was those of Alessio's, Enzo's, Dominic's and Dante's.

"Here she is…" I heard a familiar voice say. I just couldn't place my hand on who. My head was hurting badly.

I heard Footsteps getting closer to me which meant that someone was coming in my direction. I then felt a finger running over my face. "She's just like me."

"She isn't." Alessio defended. Who the fuck was he talking to? And who the hell was that soon-to-be hand-less man who was touching me?

I tried hard to open my eyes but I couldn't. What the hell did Enzo inject me with?

"She is my daughter, of course, she's like me." The unfamiliar voice replied.

"Vladimir" I recognized that voice, it was Enzo. I sure as hell knew that name. Was Vladimir here? Wait, someone please tell me what the hell is going on?

"Yes?" The familiar voice asked. Enzo called him Vladimir and he replied- that means…Oh fuck no! I need to get up!

"You have her now hand over Blake and the girl." Enzo said to which Vladimir chuckle. "Of course."

|Enzo's POV|

The man who was holding Lea walked towards Vladimir.

"Place her on the couch. Tell me, Enzo, when is she gonna wake up?" Vladimir asked,raising his brows.

It was a fifteen minutes drug. It's effect must've already worn off. Lea wasn't unconscious, two minutes left and she'll be as good as new. I wasn't stupid, I would never hand over the only woman apart from my sister and mother—that I've grown close to.

Even though I was deeply hurt that she lied to me. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive her for that. I opened up to her, I told her things that I never told anyone before and what did I get I return? Betrayal, lies.

"There's about two hours left." I replied Vladimir's question. He was a fool to think that I would ever negotiate with Him.

My men as well as Sean and His men were outside, waiting for my orders to attack. Vladimir was a fool but not that big of a fool. He had men around too, hiding, waiting for any of us to make one wrong move.

I already knew where all his men were. In the house where we were standing, there were only thirty men. I had fifty seven men with me. Sixty were a few kilometers away from Vladimir's base, waiting for orders to barg in and attack.

My men were taking down Vladimir's men who were outside, one by one as we were speaking.

I looked and saw Blake and Marissa being held at gun point by two men. Why wasn't he letting them go?

"So we can leave, now?" I asked to which he smirked. "Not so fast, boy."

"What now?" I gritted my teeth in anger.

"Where's the money?" He asked, raising his brows "I believe I told you to bring money along with the Deadly."

"You did?" I asked, playing dumb. I wasn't in shortage of money. I had lots of It. The problem was, if I had given him that money he would have used it to buy shipments and other things to get more powerful than me.

"Where is the money?" He hissed before pulling his wife to him. He held a gun to her forehead. The woman was crying and struggling but in vain.

"Let her go!" Alessio shouted at Vladimir who only smirked. "Let me think…Hmm.. No! Give me the money or mommy dearest dies."

"But I don't think she's the one who's going to die today." A familiar voice said and everyone snapped their heads towards the person.

"So, dad…is this how you're going to welcome your daughter home? Thought you were better than that." I said sarcastically before making my way towards my so called father.

I was shocked to see that my mother was alive. But I didn't show any emotion. I was standing in the same room as my enemy. I couldn't think of anything else apart from his death.

"You weren't supposed to wake up now…" he whispered making me smirk, "Said who?"

"Enzo" he breathed out and gritted his teeth as he glared at Enzo. "You lied!"

"Obviously" Alessio replied in a 'duh' tone as Enzo shrugged. I removed my two guns from my boots and shot two of the men who were around, dead. Alessio then shot three of them while Enzo shot another two, one by one, before anyone could react.

"What the fuck?" Vladimir gritted his teeth in anger as his eyes travelled from body to body. "I'm gonna kill her." He pressed the gun even more to my mom's forehead.

"Go ahead. We already mourned her death once, what's twice?" Alessio asked, "You're gonna lose your leverage and that makes things easy for us."

I placed my gun back in my boots and walked towards Vladimir who had a gun pointed to my mother. I smirked again, "You didn't kill her four years ago. You won't kill her now, you're bluffing."

"You really wanna see whether I'm bluffing or not, daughter?" He smirked back.

"We mourned her death four years ago, boy. We can do it again." I said Alessio's words but I didn't mean it like he did. I was kidding. I wouldn't be able to do it again. I was bluffing

He was holding the gun to my mother's head with his left hand. He wasn't left-handed since; one- his hand was trembling and two- in all of the pictures of him in this house, he was holding things with his right hand. But those pictures were when he was younger.

I heard that last year, he met with an accident and his right hand got paralyzed. Not many people knew about this information though but I did.

He won't be able to use his right hand. A paralyzed man started a war; that was a first.

"My men are outside, killing yours, as we speak." Enzo spoke making Vladimir laugh. This man definitely loved to laugh.

"So? They can always be replaced, however…she can't." He gestured to my mother.

"I'm being generous right now." Vladimir spoke up, "I'm offering you a choice...daughter." He looked at me.

"What?" I was confused as well as me and everyone else.

"You can save your mother." Vladimir smirked, "You can save Blake but you can save only one. Who's it gonna be? Blake or mommy?"

"Or...I could just shoot you right where you are." Alessio said taking a step forward only to be stopped by Enzo. "Don't."

"I won't let anyone I love die today." Alessio said to Enzo who sighed, "They won't. Trust me."

Vladimir began taking steps backwards with his mother still in his hold. "Come on, Lea, time's ticking."

"One move and I'll shoot her." He warned, noticing that both Alessio and I were trying our best not to take a step forward.

"Blake or mommy?" He asked again just as my eyes travelled to a man holding Blake with a gun to his head as well as Marissa beside him.

"Blake, are you okay man?" Antonio asked,concerned about his twin.

Blake nodded,giving him a reassuring smile,"I'm fine. Just kick his ass and get us outta here."

"You see...daughter...if you want everyone here to get out of this place, safe, you just have to choose." He then repeated the same question,"Who's it gonna be? Blake or mommy?"

"Don't do this." Alessio hissed in frustration. Vladimir started laughing again. "Time's ticking, princess. Mommy or friend?"

"Me," My mother said, pointing to herself, "Kill me, sweetheart, please."

I shook my head, "No! No...I'm not killing you... I—" I didn't know what to do, I was going crazy.

"The most feared assassin can't make a simple choice?" Vladimir began laughing, "Look how pathetic you are. Love, family, friends, all of these makes you weak!"

"Why? Why the fuck are you doing this?"

"One is Because of you and second is because I want to be rich and all powerful. I want people to fear me. Is that too much to as for? Anyway, I'm still waiting. I'm patient. My sniper isn't very patient though." Vladimir added.

What sniper?

Just then I saw a red dot on Blake, on his chest. Then the red dot shifted from Blake to my mother. It kept shifting from these two again and again.

Alessio and the others turned around, looking for the sniper but they didn't find him. Where the fuck was he hiding?

"Come on, Lea!" Vladimir pressed, "I'm bored!"

"Lea," Blake spoke, "I'll be fine."

"No!" Marissa shouted, her eyes widening at Blake's words, "No no I can't lose you…I just found you. I don't care if I'm being selfish. I— I like you, Blake. I really do!"

Blake smiled when he heard what Marissa said, "I like you too."

"Aw young love!" Vladimir spoke, "How sweet. Time's ticking!"

"No, dear, don't. Lea, you and your friends deserve a far better life. I'm sorry for everything. You and Alessio are far better off without me. I love you both. Kill me, Vladimir, just let them go!"

The red dot kept on going from my mother to Blake until it stopped on Blake.

"Its not in Lea's hands anymore. Guess the sniper made his choice." Vladimir said with a smirk before looking at me. "Remember sweetheart, Blake's death is on you."

"No…no!" I shouted and was ready to jump in front of him, ready to take the bullet instead of him but it was too late.

Blake was shot. He fell on the ground, blood pooling out of his stomach.

Marissa screamed and fell on her knees next to her boyfriend while Enzo rushed to his side, trying his best to stop the blood.

I saw red. Before I could do anything, the sniper fell on the ground, dead. I saw Alessio putting his gun back in his waistband.

Just then the door flew open and Sean rushed in with a lot of other men. The back door was opened also and before Vladimir could do anything, he was shot, making the gun fall from his hand and my mom rushed towards me.

Alessio rushed towards my mom and I before pulling her for a hug, "I'm so glad you're okay." While Alessio was with mom, I went to Blake.

"We need to take him to the hospital right now!" Dante shouted, looking at Blake who was barely breathing. We all left the mansion and went straight to the hospital except Alessio who went to the main house to Lock Vladimir up.

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