Stephen’s POV
Damn this piece of shit! How many of Aries’ lackeys are there?
I quickly swerved the car as I noticed that two of the occupants in a white van were pointing guns at me. I can send them all to hell right now if I fucking want to. But I shouldn’t waste a single minute dealing with them.
I need to see my wife as soon as possible. That’s all that matters to me right now.
I grabbed my cellphone and immediately called the head of the mafia guards accompanying me. “Clear my way and back me up! Make sure to kill all those motherfuckers!”
“Yes, sir!”
I hung up the call and threw my phone onto the dashboard. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel as I noticed my men systematically taking down the enemies ahead. As they were finally eliminated one by one, I quickly sped the car away.
I glanced at the side mirror and saw my friends swiftly following me. Meanwhile, our men had successfully fallen behind. They’re blocking the enemy’s way.
“Rhyz, did you already tell Amelia to follow us immediately?” I asked Rhyz through the earpiece I was wearing.
“No worries. According to her, they’re almost done disposing of the bodies.”
“Anderson, where are we heading?” Ash interjected.
I was about to answer him when my phone suddenly rang. I reached for it and answered immediately when I saw that Liam was calling. I put him on speaker mode.
“Anderson! We’ve found the car that Nathalia’s kidnappers used. I’m with Uncle Edwin and Aunt Marcel right now.”
I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt anxious. I quickly overtook the cars that were on the road alongside me. I didn’t care even if they honked at me one after another.
“What happened? Did you get Nathalia?” I was hoping for some good news. Even though I knew it was unlikely.
I could hear his rapid breathing from the other end of the line.
“I’m so sorry, man. We arrived too late. Only the car is here. We tried to search the whole area, but there’s no sign of Nathalia or Cole.”
I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. “They must have been taken by Aries, or they switched to another vehicle. Cole knows that the car has a tracking device.”
I still can’t believe that he’s the traitor in the group. I trusted him completely. I entrusted him with Nathalia’s safety and shared almost everything about our plans with him.
No wonder our operations and transactions often get compromised. Dad will probably be disappointed when he learns the truth about Cole. To think he’s the one who brought Cole to the mansion eight years ago. Dad said Cole was just a wandering soul on the streets when he found him, so we didn’t bother to dig into his past and family background. And that’s our biggest mistake.
“I contacted the reapers already to inform them. What should we do now? We need to find my cousin as soon as possible! We will never know what Aries will do to her. That bastard is mentally sick!” Liam furiously said.
Despite everything, I didn’t make a mistake in entrusting Nathalia to Liam and his family. They truly treated her as one of their own.
“Head back to the mansion for now. We’re almost there. We need to formulate a plan.”
“Okay. I’ll tell the others too.” He hung up.
“I’ll order my men to secure the airports, just in case,” Riley said through the earpiece.
“I’ll contact my friend from the police to secure the exit points as well,” Ace added.
“We won’t let him escape this time,” Shan said with determination.
My jaw clenched. “Hell, yeah!”
If there’s one thing I regret in my entire life, it’s letting Aries escape seven years ago. That’s why I’ll make sure to correct that mistake now.
After a while, we reached the mansion. Luckily, Amelia and her men were able to catch up quickly, so they immediately took care of the scattered bodies both inside and outside the mansion.
I had never really imagined that they could breach the mansion’s security system. It only takes one traitor to destroy everything I’ve worked hard for.
We were currently gathered in the living room, including the Sarmientos and the reapers.
“Where should we start finding her? We don’t know what’s going on inside Aries’ mind!” Ryza paced while looking down.
I focused my attention on Rhyz.
“Her phone has a tracking device. Find her location.” I didn’t mind the puzzled looks they were giving me.
Rhyz nodded and was about to type on his laptop when Liam stopped him.
“There’s no use.” He hesitated before handing me Nathalia’s phone. “We found this in your room, together with this one.”
I was taken aback as he handed me a familiar photo album. My hand trembled as I took it, and then I looked at him in shock.
“Don’t tell me—”
“Yes. She managed to break into that room.” Liam confirmed my suspicion.
“Oh my gosh!” Ryza covered her mouth, followed by audible gasps from everyone present.
“How did that happen? Unless...” Shantel’s face was full of concern as she glanced at me.
My heart suddenly raced. “Do you think her memories are returning?” I almost held my breath as I waited for Liam’s answer.
He sat down and shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. We reviewed the CCTV footage earlier. She happened to pass by that area, and it seems that curiosity got the better of her. When she saw the eye sensor security system, she just gave it a try, and that’s it.”
“That’s not surprising. Our only mistake was assuming that she wouldn’t suspect that room and try to access it.” Oliver nodded.
To be honest, I also hadn’t thought much about that matter, as I was too confident that she wouldn’t remember anything. But even so, I didn’t regret maintaining her access to that room.
“She must be confused now. It must have been really hard for her when she saw the pictures of all of us together. That’s probably why she took one of the photos from there.” Mads wiped her face with her hand.
I quickly opened the photo album. Truth be told, one photo was missing. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the picture of us with Cole for the first time.
But Aries is not part of that photo. He’s always been distant from us. The only reason we sometimes have contact with him is that he’s the child of one of the reapers in the Fuentes family.
I took a deep breath and ran my hand through my hair. Whether her memories come back or not, I’m prepared to tell her the truth as soon as we get rid of Aries from our path.
But why did she have to find out about it in that way?
“What now? We can no longer track her down. They left the car behind, and Thalia’s phone was left here. How will we know where they are now?” Aunt Marcel asked worriedly. Uncle Edwin tightly embraced her.
“This will not happen if you just let us take her to Canada the moment we adopted her. You should have settled the problem with Aries and the traitor first before you married her.” Uncle Edwin threw me a sharp look.
I clenched my fist. “If only I knew that this would be the outcome, I wouldn’t have let Aries escape back then.”
“This is not the time to blame each other. All we have to do right now is make a plan on how we can locate and save Nathalia,” Ash said, looking at me. “I think it would be better if Uncle Isaac knew about Cole as well.”
I shook my head. “No. I’ll tell him later when things have settled. It’s better for now if he focuses all his attention on managing transactions abroad.”
“Well, what if we ask for help from the organization? Once they find out about Nathalia, they won’t hesitate to assist us. After all, she’s the rightful head of the organization and the only heiress of the Fuentes Mafia, who has been leading the underground society since then.”
We all fell silent because of what Amelia said. I hate to admit it, but she has a point. I’ve thought about that for a long time as well.
But as much as possible, I would prefer that they don’t find out about Nathalia’s true identity. The truth that even Nathalia herself doesn’t know, even back when we were kids.
She’s the youngest one in our group, aside from our family’s reapers. But she’s more powerful than us.
That’s because she’s the one and only daughter of Gray and Nathasha Fuentes. The most influential mafia family in underground society.
She’s the queen of the mafia world. My queen. And yet, she’s unaware of it.
That’s why we went to great lengths to protect her, knowing that she was likely to be targeted by our enemies. Especially since she’s destined to take over her parents’ position someday. Even if she lost her memory, we wouldn’t stop protecting her.
I entrusted her to the Sarmiento family, who were one of their family’s reapers back then. They’ve since become a mafia clan as well, in order to protect her. It would make them more powerful if they entered the world of the mafia themselves instead of remaining as reapers.
But even though it goes against my instincts, I know that I shouldn’t hide that information from her any longer. I shouldn’t deny her the truth about her real identity and let her decide whether she wants to accept the responsibility assigned to her or not.
I took a deep breath. “I doubt that. Even if we tell them the truth now, they probably still won’t believe us. You know that they still consider us traitors.”
“But we have evidence that could clear our—”
“Don’t worry. No matter where they go, we’ll surely be able to track them. Just keep your teams alert so they won’t be able to escape,” I interrupted Riley.
They all turned to look at me, puzzled.
“What do you mean?” Uncle Edwin asked.
I looked at Rhyz again. Aside from being our tech genius, he’s also an agent of a private institution. He’s more skilled in these matters.
“Her wedding ring has a tracking device as well. Track her down.”
He grinned at me before typing rapidly on his laptop.
The others almost dropped their jaws at what they heard.
“What the hell? Seriously?” Ace asked, incredulous.
“Don’t tell me that even her body has a fucking tracking device too!” Uncle Ed exclaimed. I felt like he could attack me any moment now.
I shrugged. “I have no other choice. I know that this day will come; that’s why I need to be prepared.”
“But what if she removed it? Or if Aries removed it?” Shantel panicked.
I looked at her seriously. “Believe me, they won’t be able to take that ring off that easily. It’s not an ordinary one.”
Confusion was still evident on their faces, but no one spoke.
“I got it! I know where she is already!” Everyone stood up upon hearing Rhyz’s words.
I quickly grabbed my guns and holstered them at my waist. “Let’s go! We need to bring back our queen now!”