Chapter 72: Rescued

Chapter 72: Rescued "Uncle Zane, where’s mom? Where’s Mr. Ewan? Where is Uncle Aiden?" Nathaniel asked, as soon as he opened the door, after speeding past Gianna when the knock had landed at first. He asked, because he had smoothly checked behind Zane and the male with him, Sandro, and saw no other person. Not even a security detail. Zane exhaled gently, bent to Nathaniel’s height, and tried lifting the boy into his arms. But the boy stepped away from his embrace. "I asked a question, Uncle Zane. Where is my mother?" Zane sighed, and pushed the door wider so that he and Sandro could step into the room. Immediately they shut the door after them, Gianna got up on her feet. "Sandro, what’s going on? Why are you two here alone?" Zane detested the fact that he was being ignored, but he said nothing because there was really nothing to say. He had let an old feud almost cost him his friend. He should have known that for Gianna to have called him more than three times, there was actually something happening. "Aiden asked us to return, so that he won’t have his hands full, protecting us too. The den looked quite dangerous. So, we had to leave; he wouldn’t move until we did." Sandro finally answered, slumping into a chair. He bowed his head in his hands and said a word of prayer for Athena. From the earnestness in Aiden’s eyes as he spoke on extracting Athena from the clutches of the kidnappers, he could see how much the woman meant to the man, could also see the camaraderie there; it was like a soldier fighting for his fellow soldier in death’s trap. It had made him wonder about Athena and her recent past, but again, her safety triumphed over it. They could discuss her past when she was safe and sound. "What about Ewan? Was he sent away with you two?" Gianna asked, both for herself and for the sake of the twins. Kendra was still sleeping. "Yes, he was." "Where is he then?" Gianna asked, noticing the irregular tap dance the feet of the twins were making on the floor at the mention of Ewan leaving with the two males. She knew why. Hadn’t she been there when they had tasked Ewan to bring their mother back? Sandro furrowed his eyebrows. "He stopped on the way, citing that he had to see a friend. He didn’t mention the name of this particular friend, and the meeting hadn’t been part of his schedule either." When he looked at Gianna and saw the thin smile on her lips, he wondered if Ewan had really stopped by to see a friend. Had he returned to the battle they had left? He looked at the twins, who looked so much like Ewan that he didn’t need a DNA test to confirm their paternity, and noticed them glaring at him. "You said Mr. Ewan left you to see a friend?" Sandro nodded slowly to Nathaniel’s question, wondering where the boy was getting with the query. He piqued an eyebrow when the boy hissed distastefully. His sister, though, patted him gently on the thigh. "Don’t give up hope, Nathaniel. He might have returned to save mom." "I hope for his sake that he does that." Sandro couldn’t explain why that statement unsettled him deeply. He found himself hoping that Ewan had returned to the battle, never mind the danger that meant to his family and to the company. Meanwhile, back at the kidnappers’ den, shouts and gunshots rented the air. Athena was restless, counting to the minutes when she would be delivered from this hellhole. She heard the explosion of the bomb, and wondered who Aiden had arrived with, and where he had gotten an arsenal at such short notice. Because surely their group couldn’t get here in such a record time, even if they used a private jet. "What’s going on?" She heard Heron ask, when more shots rang close-by, and snickered. Her saviors have come. Again, she said a prayer of thanks for her children. Her ears peaked when she heard the rough opening and shutting of doors, when she heard another voice speak; one that had come to report the matter happening outside. "They have come for her. They are not common people either, but people skilled in weaponry and the art of welfare. Boss says we should leave. Most of our people have fallen, and he has escaped." There were shouts of curses from the people in the room. "But how did they get our location? We are off the grid for god sake!" Heronica inquired. A pause. "I think they utilized the services of a great hacker... but that would mean tracing her phone." The same reporting voice answered. "Her phone? It’s with the boss, and it is switched off. I think the SIM card was broken too. So, how could they have traced her?" Heron. A significant pause where Athena was sure they were considering options. When she heard their footsteps marching toward her room, her heart plummeted to her feet. She held back a scream when she saw the death on their faces as they finally entered the room. They looked at her contemptibly. "How did your people find you? How did you contact them?" Athena stayed mute. Heronica hissed, walked up to her, and gave her a dirty resounding slap. She slapped Athena again, when the latter made no sound. When she saw Athena staring up at her defiantly, her nostrils flared. She balled her fists in anger. What was wrong with this woman? "You know what, let’s just kill her here and now. Was that not the mission in the first place?" The strange male, hefty and black, suggested. Heronica smiled evilly. "That’s true, Dax. That way, their extraction efforts would be in vain." Athena shrunk. Heronica brought out a pistol from her back pocket of her cargo pants to commit the deed , but a bomb sounded behind them, shattering the opposite walls and furniture. Immediately, they abandoned the quest, seeking to save their lives first. But Heron stayed behind, refusing to let go like that. His sister shouted at him. "Let’s go, Heron, through the secret spot. They already have the place surrounded." She was looking through the window and speaking, but Heron waved her away. "I will meet you there." Heronica paused, looked at her brother in unbelief, shook her head in disgust, and ran away with Dax. "You think you won?" Heron asked Athena immediately his sister left, grabbing her left breast suddenly. Athena gasped, not expecting the invasion, as revulsion burned within her. She gritted her teeth in anger, when he roughly pushed the thin brassiere material away, when he frantically fondled her bare breast, when he zipped down his fly. "I might not have the time for a quickie, but I will need a blow job. It will be quicker, since I’ve been hard since you were stripped naked." Athena couldn’t shout for help. Her voice was barely there, and her throat was too dry. So, she shut her eyes, ready to welcome the embrace of unconsciousness, when Heron’s penis popped out and slapped her face. She would rather pass out than watch herself become this. The darkness suddenly lifted when she needed it. So, she clamped her mouth tightly. She won’t go down without a fight! She waited, fretfully, for the forceful attempt to open her mouth, but what she heard was a loud thump. When she opened her eyes slowly, she saw Ewan with a large stick in his hand. Heron was limp on the floor, bleeding from his head. "Ewan..." She has never been so happy seeing him. "Athena, I’m sorry. I’ll get you out of here..." She watched him get to work, freeing her limbs from the tight ropes she was sure would leave marks on her skin for a while, feeling the final thread of unconsciousness stealing her. But before she succumbed to the darkness, she told the truth. "Fiona..." Her voice was so faint that Ewan stopped untying her for a moment, and placed his ear close to her lips. "Fiona was behind it."