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"Victor, please!" Jacqueline whispered, hoping that the kids didn't wake up.

"Do you want to be thrown out of here? Jacqueline?" His voice was low, dangerous. It was different from how she remembered it - as the annoying voice of her best friend's bodyguard, who could never get his job right. But now that she realized what was really going on, she knew that what she once thought to be his incompetence, was actually him deliberately trying to get her best friend kidnapped or killed. "You want your darling little niece and nephew alone with me? I don't think I will have much patience with them if you aren't here as their nanny."

Tears trickled down her eyes. It has been a month. It had been a month since they had gotten stuck in this apartment in the middle of god knows where. And she had tried her best, tried every possible trick and taken advantage of every possible moment but she was still stuck here with the kids.

"They are children, Victor." She pleaded with him. "They are five years old. What did they ever do to you?"

"They are the five year olds of the person I hate the most in the world." He chuckled. "I feel sorry for Dr. Johnson. I really do." He took a sip of his whiskey. "She is a wonderful woman and she does not deserve whatever she must be going through because of the kidnapping of her precious kids. BUT, they also have the blood of Mateo Adesso, Capo of the New York Unit of the Sicilian Mafia, and future Boss of the Sicilian Mafia, coursing through their veins. So I really don't feel any sympathy for those two vermins, Jacqueline."

Jacqueline closed her eyes and gulped down the lump in her throat. She wanted to scream and yell at him like she used to, but it was clear that she was not in the kind of situation where she will be able to do that.

One, she was scared for her life. What if she accidentally flipped a switch and he just pulled out his gun and blast her brain?

Two, she was scared that even in the situation that he got annoyed to the point that he just decided to chuck her out of wherever this place was, what is, as he said, he did something to the kids.

She didn't have much people of her own. Of the little people she had, the Johnson family played a major part. And she helped raise the twins. She was like a second mother to them, and she was not going to abandon her little ones now. That's why today and a month ago, when she was given the choice to walk away, she didn't take it. She knew River. She will find them. Jacqueline just needed to stay put and protect the kids until they got here.

Jacqueline turned on her heels and walked back to the room she shared with the kids.

Victor had been generous with the number of toys and games that he had bought for the kids, to keep them occupied.

He still had some humanity left in him, or so Jacqueline liked to believe. And it was this tiny speck of humanity that she wanted to appeal to. But so far, nothing she said worked.

"Aunt Jackie..." Kiara's sweet little voice reached her ears and Jacqueline rushed to her side.

"Yeah baby?"

"I want Mommy." She said, her voice hoarse with sleep.

"I know baby. I told Mommy to get here as soon as possible but you know how important her job is right? She needs to save lives."

"But it's been so long." She pouted. "And Papa isn't coming either."

"You know how Papa is always in a different city right? He is busy with work." Jacqueline said, her voice almost cracking. "And Mommy has been trying to get out of the hospital but people just keep coming, asking for her help."

"Don't you save lives to?" She asked.

Jacqueline smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I help save lives too. But your Mommy has asked me to take care of you both while she is away. Me and Victor. And so we are going nowhere until she gets here."

Kiara pouted, thinking for a moment before saying, "I want peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."

Jacqueline let out a sad chuckle. Bless her five year old heart that she was not terrified like Jacqueline was.

"You stay here." She said. "I will get them for you."

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"William Morris." Michelia growled as she typed in the name to her database.

"More like William Moron!"

All of them turned to the new addition to the office.

"Shut up, Petrov." Adam hissed.

"What? He made perfect sense." Alessia was still drunk.

"Sia, you need to sober up before I pour a bucket of ice over your head." River narrowed her eyes at her darling sister in law.

"That is exactly what I was going to say." Michelia hummed as she pressed 'enter'.

"You know I can't flip a switch to sober up, right?" Alessia pouted and snuggled into the couch.

Searching...

Searching...

Searching...

No results.

Michelia groaned as she leaned back on her chair.

"Where the fuck did that Ian Sanders get information on Victor which I couldn't find?" Michelia asked.

"As much as I am proud of myself for hiring him-" Dmitri started but was cut off by Leonardo.

"Save it, Petrov. We don't want to hear it one more time." He said.

Dmitri rolled his eyes. "What I am saying is, even I don't completely trust Ian Sanders. I felt as if he was..."

"Hiding something just for the fun of it." Mateo spoke at last. He had been too silent for a while.

"Is he playing with us?" River asked.

"This is the only clue we have for the time being and we have to hold on to it." Mateo said. "We can't let it go just because that detective happens to like playing games."

Everyone agreed with that.

A phone rang and everyone turned to Dmitri who fished it out of his pockets.

He took a deep breath when he saw that it was none other than Sergey Petrov, his older brother.

"Sergey." Dmitri spoke.

He thought that Sergey was going to be mad at him because he had ditched important yet boring paperwork to be with the Italians but he was surprised to hear that his brother had come bearing good news.

"He got information on William." Dmitri looked up. "He found something from Matthew's file."

"Thank heavens!" Leonardo exclaimed but Michelia was not as happy as she should have been. Of course she was happy that some news had been received and the information could be used to find her darling niece and nephew BUT they had found something that she had not been able to get her hands on? That hurt her ego. Just a little bit.

"I will come with you." Mateo said and Dmitri nodded.

They were ready to leave the place and towards when they were interrupted.

"Wait." Alessia said.

"What is it?" River asked.

She took in a deep breath. "Did anyone care to check the most obvious places he could be hiding the kids in?"

"What do you mean?" Michelia turned in her seat.

"Call it a psycho intuition." Alessia sighed, suppressing a burp that came up her throat. "But I think we have been running in circles while he hid the kids right under our nose."

"She does make sense." Dmitri said. "Quick, think of all the places that he could be hiding them in."

"Right under our nose." Alessia emphasized.

"My old apartment?" River was the first to say.

"Mine too." Mateo said.

"The apartment we stayed at before the accident." Alessia nodded.

"The ranch." Michelia said.

"Wherever Victor... I mean, William used to live?" Leonardo said.

"We will find some info from whatever Sergey has." Dmitri nodded.

"What about Jacqueline's apartment?" Alessia added.

"So let's split and search." Michelia said. "I will go to River's, River to Mateo's, Leo to the apartment we stayed at."

"I will fly to Wyoming." Adam said.

"Dmitri and I will meet up with Sergey and find out where William used to live." Mateo said.

"And I will go check in Jacqueline's." Alessia said, getting up from the couch and wobbling.

"Are you sure about that?" Dmitri asked, his eyebrows furrowed. The woman really didn't look like she was in any shape to step out of the house.

Alessia sniffed and pulled out her gun from her waistband, aiming at the picture of her grandmother on the wall, and shooting without waiting a moment to stabilize her arm. The bullet went right through the area between her arrogantly raised eyebrows.

Davis and George blasted into the room with guns at the ready.

"Sia being Sia." River shrugged at them while they nodded. They were used to her antics by now.

Dmitri was too stunned to speak while Adam flexed her jaw to prevent the proud smile from showing.

"I only do things I am sure of." Her eyes quickly flickered to Adam, herself finding a double meaning of what she said. Something that all the other worried men missed but Michelia caught on. A smile appeared on her face as she looked over at her fellow Adam-Alessia shipper and River nodded, confirming what she had interpreted.

"You two are going with her." Mateo pointed at River as he spoke to George and Davis. They did not know what the hell he was talking about, but they knew their job so they nodded. Wherever River went, they were to follow.

Mateo turned to the rest of them. "Same goes to the rest of you. Go in with back up."

His eyes landed on Alessia and they narrowed. "Don't get too cocky."

Alessia rolled her eyes. "I am not taking any chances with my niece and nephew, Mateo. Chillax."

"Alright, let' go!" Adam clapped, and the others nodded in agreement as they got ready to leave.

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"Mateo Adesso." Sergey Petrov laughed as Mateo walked in with Dmitri.

"You know you are in my lair right now right?" He asked. "I could kill you right now and right here."

"Seriously bro?" Dmitri rolled his eyes, his Russian accent making him all the more funny.

"What? Can't I even welcome my arch nemesis?" Sergey took a sip of his whiskey.

"Yeah, sorry to break it to you old man, but the enmity is sort of in a halt. At least until we find the fucker who killed your sister and attacked my wife and kids." Mateo said.

"She is not your wife, Adesso. I know it and you know it so why pretend?" Sergey got up from his seat.

"She will soon be my wife. I know it and you know it. So why not start getting used to the idea?" Mateo really did not want to waste any more time but he knew Sergey, the more annoyed he acted the more annoying he will get.

He hated how he had to interact with these idiots to get to the bottom of everything that had been going on.

"Alright, let's find this motherfucker." Sergey said.

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