Chapter 8

Mitch

    After Ben and James left, I walked back to the house and to the kitchen. Henry was preparing dinner, but my appetite was nonexistent at the moment. I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and patted Henry on the back as I passed by him. I went upstairs to my room and walked out onto the balcony.

Lifting my head up to the sky, I whispered, "I am so sorry my love. I could not keep our baby safe. Please forgive me.”

At that moment, as much as I hated to think about it, I was almost glad Grace wasn't here. She would be so disappointed in me. She was the love of my life, my light in the darkness, the one good thing in this horrible life. She never tried to take me from this life but made me promise that I would always keep our children safe. She never judged me for the things I did. To this day I have no idea why someone like her ever loved someone like me. I had done so many bad things in my life, I've killed so many people, yet she never stopped loving me.

She used to tell me that she loved me and the demon inside. She knew that this life was dangerous, and she wanted to keep the younger kids away from it as much as possible, which is one of the reasons we moved upstate. We knew the older boys could handle themselves. They were fearless and never backed down from anything. James was- well he was a little soft, but I didn’t fault him for that. Ophelia was just like her mother though. After Grace passed, she became our light. She became the one good thing in this life. Ophelia did not deserve any of this. She wanted to help people, to travel and do charity work around the world, which is why I assigned a bodyguard. She was too kind for this world.  She was always looking for ways to help people and only saw the good in everyone she met. I could only see that ending badly for her if she were not protected.

I walked back into my room, went to the bathroom, and took a shower. I put on a pair of sweatpants, went over to the bar next to my fireplace and poured myself some whiskey. I knew I wasn't going to be getting much sleep tonight, but the whiskey helped calm my mind. I laid down in bed and set my phone on the nightstand next to me. I turned on the TV, flipped through channels and checked my phone every few minutes. At some point during the night, I finally fell asleep.

I woke up startled when my phone started to ring. I quickly grabbed my phone, it was Ben. 

    "What do you have?"

The excitement in his voice was apparent, "Boss, I think I may have found something, get to your office and I'll send you the live feed!"

My heart almost stopped when he said he may have found something. Was this it? Did we finally find her? I jumped up from bed, grabbed a t-shirt and quickly pulled it on. I ran out of the room and down the hall to Liam's room. I swung the door open, "Liam, get your brothers up and meet me in the office, Ben found something!" I continued down the hall making my way to the stairs, I pulled out my phone and called Jax. 

"Mitch, what’s going on?”

"Meet me in my office, Ben found something!"

"On my way."

I ran down the stairs and to my office. I turned on my computer, turned on the monitors and the big screen monitor on the wall. I picked up my office phone and called Ben putting him on speaker. As he answered the phone, my sons burst into my office. This was the phone call we had all been hoping for.

"Ben, I’ve got everyone here and Jax is on the way. Send me what you found."

Live drone footage started coming across the monitors, "This is an old, abandoned paper mill about 80 miles east of Montreal." Ben said.

Jax came into the office as we all stood examining the footage coming across the monitors. 

"I count about twenty armed guards outside, and maybe another twenty inside." Noah said. 

Jax moved closer to the monitor, "I agree. Ben, can you zoom in a little closer?"

The images started coming in clearer and you could see people walking back and forth. There were people inside and outside the building. The drone began circling the building and we saw two more images in the back, not moving, but being guarded.     

"Is that?" I started to ask.

"That's her! Fucking shit, we found her!" Oliver said excitedly. 

"That's what I'm thinking too. I wanted you to see this. I am sending you more satellite images and the coordinates. I had James bring the other drone back to the truck, so it won't take as long to recharge.”  

Noah grabbed the search map, went over to the table in my office and rolled out the map. He, Oliver and Jax started looking for the building on the map following the coordinates that Ben sent. 

"We found it." Oliver said.

"She's right here. We need to scout this place out though.” Jax said. 

 Jax, Noah and Oliver talked to Ben and came up with their plan to scout out the area. I stood in shock still staring at the images on the monitor. Could it really be her? Had we finally found her? 

"Dad." Noah said.

    I shook my head and brought myself back in the moment, "That's her. That's really her! We finally found her!" 

        "Yeah, we think so too, but we have to scout it before we can go in there. We might outnumber them, but we still need to know what we're up against. When Ben gets back, he's going to charge the drones while Oliver, and I walk through those woods. Once the drones are recharged, Ben will get them back in the air and we'll have a daytime view of this place." 

"How quickly can we get them out of there though?" I asked.

"Let us scout it out and probably by night fall we can move in, if we don't run into any traps." Oliver answered.

"Night fall? Why will it take so long?"

"Mitch, there is no telling what is in those woods, we have to take this slow. Believe me, I want to get her out fast, but if we spook them, they could move her before we even get there. So, we have to do this quietly." Jax said.

"You’re right. That’s fine, do what you need to do, just get my daughter back.”

Noah and Oliver walked out to get ready and Jax continued talking to Ben to see what else he knew of the place. I sat at my desk and listened as they talked. My heart was racing, I wanted to go in and get her now. I knew what they said was true, we had to do this quietly. 

A little while later Noah and Oliver came back to the office. They both had on their Kevlar vests and were both armed, ready to go.

“We’re heading to Montreal. I’ll call you once we’ve scoped out the place,” Oliver said.

"You both better be careful out there."  

"We will," Noah said. They each shook my hand and walked out the door. 

 An hour later, Ben and James arrived back at the compound and started to brief the rest of the men on what they had found. Jax came up with a plan and everyone prepared for what would most certainly be a firefight. 

 Once the drones were fully charged, Ben contacted Noah and Oliver. He and James headed back to Montreal to relaunch the drones. I decided that I was not going to sit at home while everyone else went out on the rescue mission.

 I wanted to be there too, and despite Jax's opposition to the idea, I went to the garage, down to the weapons vault and got ready. I put on a Kevlar vest and put my 357 magnum on my hip then grabbed my rifle.

We loaded up and made our way to Montreal. Noah and Oliver had been scouting the area. They were pleased to find there were no traps and our team could move in safely. It was dark by the time we made it to Montreal and we still had at least another hour and twenty minutes to travel before getting to Noah and Oliver's location. They had set themselves up on the outskirts of the paper mill, far enough to not be seen, but close enough to keep an eye on what was going on. 

    As we moved closer to their location, my heart started pounding. I was anxious to be reunited with my daughter and I could not wait to kill the motherfucker who took her. We finally arrived about a mile from where the mill was. Noah and Oliver met us and briefed us on what they found and the plan they had come up with. We each grabbed a set of night vision goggles and started walking toward the paper mill, making sure to move as quietly as possible. 

    When we reached the perimeter, the men broke off into teams and surrounded the building. We moved in quietly killing a few of the guards that were walking alone by hand. We ducked behind trees and rocks to keep from being spotted by the guards on the roof. Suddenly I heard a gunshot ring out from one of the guards, my men fired back and just that quickly we were in a firefight. 

"Cover the exits, no one leaves this building," I heard Jax say over the radio.

I held my rifle tight against my shoulder and shot anything that moved. I was on a mission and no one was going to stop me from getting to my daughter. Noah and Oliver each had teams around the back of the building, they were going for Ophelia and Damian. Liam had a team to the right of the building. Jax was leading a team into the left side of the building, and I led a team right up to the front door. 

When we entered the building, it was dark and we encountered several guards, but took them out with ease. We stayed alert as we moved through the large building. There was old equipment still left in the paper mill and a catwalk that went across the top half of the building. The openness of the building did little to provide cover for us. We had to move quickly and quietly.

"We found Damian. He's alive," Oliver said. 

"Where is Ophelia?" I asked.

"I'm looking for her. The cell we found on this side was empty," Noah said. 

"Empty? What the fuck?"

When the shooting finally stopped, I started walking up the stairs that led to the top of the catwalk. I saw a door open to the office. I ducked down and stared through the scope on my rifle, waiting to see who was coming out of the office. That’s when I saw Anatoly walk out with Ophelia. I lowered my gun and examined the image in front of me. She looked almost unrecognizable. Her face was swollen and bruised. She had blood all over her body and her clothes were torn to shreds. I'm not even sure she knew what was going on, she looked out of it. I lifted my gun and put Anatoly in the crosshairs of my scope.

"I have Anatoly in my sights, he has Ophelia. All teams on my six." I said across the radio.

"ANATOLY!” I shouted. 

He looked at me in shock and held his gun to her head. I tried to get a clear shot, but this fucking coward was using her as a human shield. 

"Anatoly, let her go, it's over," I said as I lowered my gun and tried to keep him focused on me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Noah and Oliver stepping quietly up another set of stairs, making their way to our position.

"This is far from over my friend. You have no idea what you have done. You have no idea what is still to come." Anatoly said.

"So, let's talk about it. Right now. Let's negotiate."

I wanted to keep his attention on me, while Noah and Oliver made their way up behind him. 

"There is nothing left to talk about. You've killed Ivankov's men and he will not forgive this. You were told to comply."

"I was never going to comply. I was always going to fight. Your boss fucked up when he decided to challenge me."

I put my hands up and slowly walked towards him placing myself in front of him while Noah and Oliver were behind him. 

"There is no place for you to run, it's over. Let her go."

Anatoly looked down at the bottom floor. I knew if he were to jump and take her with him the fall would likely kill them both. Noah saw that he was looking for a way out, he lowered his gun down to his side and pulled out his knife. I knew what he was thinking. Noah and I locked eyes and he motioned that he was going in. I took a few steps closer to where Anatoly was standing, making sure I was close enough to Ophelia to catch her if he pushed her over the side. In one quick move Noah lunged at Anatoly wrapped his arm around his neck and pulled him backward. He lost his grip on Ophelia and his gun.

I darted forward and grabbed Ophelia before she hit the catwalk then looked at Noah standing there with Anatoly in a choke hold. I nodded my head and Noah grinned. He shoved his knife in Anatoly's chest stabbing repeatedly. He then stabbed his knife in the side of Anatoly’s neck, sliced it open and ripped out his throat. His body fell lifeless to the catwalk and Noah kicked him over the side. 

I sat there on the catwalk holding Ophelia's lifeless body in my arms. I placed my hands on her neck and could feel a very faint pulse. 

"She needs a hospital now," I said, as Noah and Oliver walked over to us. 

Noah picked her up out of my arms, carried her down the stairs and out the front of the building. I walked behind him and saw most of our teams standing outside with the trucks ready for extraction. I opened the back door and Noah placed her on the seat. I took off my jacket and placed it over her exposed body. When I closed the door, I saw Damian standing there looking at the ground, not wanting to make eye contact with me. He looked like he had been through hell. He had bruises, cuts, and dried blood on his face and hands.

I walked over to him and could see the guilt in his eyes, I didn't say anything. I grabbed him and hugged him. I knew he was feeling remorse, but none of this was his fault. This one was on me. I never should have let the conflict with the Russians go on for so long. I should have dealt with this shit sooner.

 I got in the back of the truck with Ophelia while Noah and Oliver got in the front. Oliver called the hospital to let them know we were coming. I laid Ophelia’s head on my lap and brushed my hands through her hair. Guilt gripped my core as I looked over her. This was something I’ve never had to deal with. I wasn’t sure how to fix this or what to even say when she woke up.