~Elijah Woods~

I clench my jaw, as I feel her slip a hand in mine. I hate her so fucking bad, but I need to hold on just a little longer, just enough to get Zaya out of there. Valentina has been, clinging around my arm, as she watched with a devilish smile how an unconscious Magnolia is brought away from the plane to get her thrown in the back of the car. I turn my head to the side to avoid watching this horror film display in front of me. Please hold on just for a little while longer.

She never deserved to get thrown into my mess. I created this and if I could have kept her out of it, I would have I promise. But at this point, my sister Zaya is more important than anything. She is captured in the hands of the Italians and as her older brother, I need to get her out of there. I already made a huge mistake by letting her leave the house that night, but I intend on fixing just a hundred of this mistake. It won't be able to compensate the trauma she probably went through, but I have to try.

I know they plan on selling Zaya to some horrible sex trafficking gang in Japan in the next couple of weeks, along with other girls, so this is my last moment to get her out of there. I have been calculating my moves since a whole year now. Alliances with the Italians, gain their trust, win the heart of Valentina, make Magnolia fall in the hands of her brothers and literary selling her to the path of death...

I betrayed everyone I have ever known. Blake... He is probably my biggest regret. His family got dragged in this dark hole, only because the Italians wanted the keys they possess and that I knew I could get it. Magnolia... this beautiful girl doesn't deserve any more damage that has been done to her. But I can't help it.

I sneaked my way into Valnetina's life, building alliances between their gang and mine, only so I could stab them in the back, as they have their head turned elsewhere at the calculated moment.

But for now, I need to stay in my role and be with Valentina, while she drags me into a secured car that is already waiting for us to drive to the destination.

Only twenty minutes later, after she laid her dirty fingers on me, we arrive in front of a big luxurious White House. She explains that it belongs to her grandparents, the founders of the Italian gang. It's so beautiful on the outside, but on the inside it's rotten by the people who live in there.

As we make our way inside the house, butlers take our bags to the assigned rooms, and I follow Valentina to lead the way to our room. She is exhausted and just wants us to go to bed, so I follow her proposition even if that's the last thing I want to do.

My sister is on my mind for the whole night and I can't seem to find any peace. The decisions I made the last few days have been weighting on my chest even more and I don't know how much longer I can continue this.

The betrayals.

Too many of them.

It's worth it...

For Zaya.

I keep telling myself the last words for the whole night until I finally find two short hours of sleep.

In the morning we wake up soon, so we could see her father that has been waiting for us. I follow Valentina to the office of her father to apparently talk about Magnolia.

I need to stop myself from clenching my fists, when I see the face of Alejandro, the person responsible for the kidnapping of my sister, Zaya. He is responsible for killing what was best in her and if I could I wouldn't hesitate to fire a bullet through his brain. Maybe one in his balls first.

"You finally arrived." He states as he blankly looks up to us. "The plan went well I see, the little Knight wasn't so smart after all." I watch as a tiny smile creeps on his face, when the corner of his lip tugs upwards.

"It went well dad, Elijah did amazing. I told you we could trust him." she says, embracing her father in a tight hug. Her statement makes me smile on the inside. They are gonna be just as fooled as Magnolia and won't even expect it.

"Are you going to get the informations for the vault out of Magnolia soon ? If think the quicker the job is done, the less problems there will be with her brothers." I say with a smirk that eradicates confidence and power. Valentina looks at me with desire, to which I need to stop my face from cringing.

"You are right. I am going to pay her a visit as soon as she wakes up, which should be..." Alejandro looks at his watch, before looking back up at me. "In less than an hour. Get ready Elijah, you are coming with me to the warehouse where we are keeping her." I am surprised that I am allowed to even join him, but I don't say anything to contradict his proposal, which is what I had wished for.

"Valentina stay here." Her father orders as she tries to follow us to leave the mansion. "We don't need you right now, make sure everything is in place here."

Valentina looks taken back by his request or rather order, but doesn't dare to disrespect his decision, so she keeps quiet and backs away. The pain that her father just caused her is visible in her icy blue eyes, but I don't feel any pity for her. She is spoiled and knows nothing about the pain that Magnolia is probably going to go through in the next couple of days.

Before leaving the mansion I make sure to give a quick peck to Valentina and enter the SUV to go to the warehouse.

The way there, I hope that my sister is at the same warehouse as Magnolia, which would definitely make my task easier. The quicker I can get her out of there, the faster I can give as much information to Magnolia's brothers about her whereabouts. It's still too risky to do so now, even if I wish I could help her.

"How are you going to get the password out of her ?" I ask the person that is responsible for the whole Italian gang. He doesn't even need to turn around from the passenger side that I already know he has a wide smirk plastered on his face, as he responds to my question.

"It's fairly easy. Magnolia either gives me the answer that I want or we make her spill out the answer by using some violence. She won't last very long with that, so she will give us the answer. The second option is asking her brothers the password if she doesn't give up, which would surprise me. And if they don't give it. Very simple. We kill her.

A cold shiver of anger runs through my spine as he utters those disgusting words. She is fucking 17.

I stay silent for the rest of the ride which only lasts for 10 minutes, until we stop in the middle of a forest. A thick forest that doesn't even let the sun pass through, which gives very little light to the environment.

Perfect location to have a warehouse, but where the fuck is it ?

Alejandro steps out of the car and indicates me to follow. We start walking further into the forest, until we stop near a trap that is clearly invisible if you are unaware of its existence.

Some man that followed us in an other car lifts the trap up with ease and immediately a light switches on, projecting on a wide flight of stairs.

Alejandro starts descending the stairs and I follow. The temperature in the narrow corridor slowly starts to drop, as we continue to descend the stairs until we arrive at the bottom. In front of us a straight corridor with identical doors appears and I analyse how it splits into multiple other corridors. It's like a giant underground maze.

My skills in vision memory are yet to be used, as I try as best as I can to remember the way out of this maze in case of emergency. Or rather in case I find my sister and I can take her out...

Questions are swirling around in my head, but I keep them for myself as we finally halt in front of a door, that the mafia boss opens after entering a code with numbers, that I make sure to watch.

We enter a room that looks already way cozier than the cold concret corridor we just walked through, and I notice how it looks oddly similar to the office of Alejandro from the mansion. It's like a replica, but bigger and filled with computers that project hundreds of videos of security cameras that are watched by multiple people.

Bingo.

"The girl just woke up a couple of minutes ago boss." A random man adresses the mafia boss and the latter nods, as he gestures for me to sit down in one of the chairs that are placed by the walls. I make sure to chose one, where I could easily peak a look at the camera footages and maybe find where they are holding my sister.

"I'll pay a visit to our dear guest, so make yourself comfortable. I am sure it won't last too long." Alejandro states to which I give him an understanding nod. Seconds later he leaves the room, followed by three men and I turn my head to try and find him on the computers.

I easily see him and the men walking, passing from footage to footage until they arrive at a certain room, which can be no other than Magnolia's.

The minutes that pass after they enters the room, seem like hours as my eyes are glued to the screen that projects the violence of the two men towards the youngest Knight.

Bile rises from my throat, because of the scene that displays in front of me like a movie and I tare my face away from the screen.

I can't believe I send her straight to hell.

As my eyes try to divert from the violence, they fall onto an other video tape that immediately catches my attention.

I nearly choke on air, when I suddenly recognise to whom the frail body that tries its best to aim a gun at a target belongs to.

It's Zaya.

She is trembling as she, and half a dozen of other girls, try to aim at targets, guns in their hands, as multiple men force them to shoot.

Rage engulfs me completely when I realise what is happening. They train these frightened girls to become murderers against their will. Including my fucking sister.