22

'Ready or not'

_ _ _

-Kara-

"Did you find anything on Ries Sideris? ", I asked Donny.

"No. There was no one by that name in the database. "

"What do you mean there was no one?!", I shouted as my temper flared. Donny squirmed under my hot gaze.

"Kara. ", Caden said as he put a hand on my shoulder. I calmed a little.

"Santiago, send the audios to officer Morgan. Tell them to put up Ries Sideris as wanted everywhere.", I ordered.

My cellphone pinged.

Kara,

I told you not to contact the police. I'm sure you heard how much I hate Emily and your brother. That aside, you might want to reconsider sending those audios to the police, you see, o just had some people pick her and Killian up. Think carefully.

- R.S

Ries Sideris! I crushed my phone in my hand.

"Santiago...Don't send those files. ", I said.

Everyone looked at me in confusion. My phone pinged again.

Good. Now, I will keep Emily here with me until I fulfill my goal. Don't worry since you care about her I won't kill her now. After I'm done, I'll give her a swift clean death. The same goes for your brother.

-R.S

That son of a... He thinks I'll sit around waiting for my siblings to be killed? Fat chance!

I raised my hand signaling everyone to keep quiet. I went to the computer and turned on the projector and opened the notepad.

Roger Sideris knows our every move. We know he can't see us because we would find a breach in the cameras' security system if he had hacked in. That only means he's bugged the place.

I typed. They read raptly without making a sound. So I continued.

From now, don't speak and talk only in sign. First, we need to find Emily and Killian. He probably doesn't know I have a tracker on Emily. Santiago... Find her.

As soon as I finished, Santiago started typing in codes rapidly. He had her location in a few seconds. He gave me a thumbs up signing he had finished his work. I turned to the laptop again.

Okay. Caden, get your gang. Tell them not to make a sound. Jake, tell Lucas to ready the vehicles. Garrett, get them to load their arms. Meet me in the Garage.

They gave me a nod and went off to do their job. I turned to Santiago.

Send the location to my phone.

As soon as I got to the location, I went home and changed into black pants, a black tee, combat boots, and a black jacket. I tied my hair into a French braid. Then I loaded myself with arms. Knives, guns with a silencer, a lighter, acupuncture needles. The needles I'd learned to use to paralyze the enemy. They were pretty handy.

I got down for the garage and saw everyone ready. I got into the bulletproof challenger which Caden was driving and connected my phone to the car's GPS.

"Let's go.", I said.

The address was miles out of town. It would take us at least an hour to get there. Meanwhile, I couldn't stop fidgeting with worry. So, I took out a tablet from the backseat and tracked Emily. The tracker I had put on Emily was an implant in her molar. It was hidden well and had a speaker. We could hear everything.

As soon as I turned it on, the car was filled with a scream.

"Ahhhhhhhh", Emily's agonized scream, tore through my heart.

"No! You bastard! Don't touch my sister! ", Killian shouted.

"Don't worry, boy. Boss just wants her alive. Broken or not, makes no difference.", a man said.

"Ahhhhh! Noooo!", Emily begged as she sobbed.

"Don't make her scream. She has a lung problem. She'll die.", Killian lied. Emily coughed just then, solidifying the claim.

It seemed like they stopped the torture. I released a breath of relief. Suddenly, I heard a loud smack. My senses were on red alert.

"I told you to stay away, you fool! She shouldn't die. ", I heard the man from before admonishing someone.

"Sorry, sir.", a man replied meekly.

Silence filled the car again. Many minutes had passed. I saw it was almost an hour. I dreaded what I would get to see when we went in.

We parked the car a few blocks away. We walked to the abandoned building where they were held. I sent Jake and Garrett to spread out around the place and get rid of the hostiles. Around 5 minutes in, I head Jake in the earpiece.

"Boundary secure, boss. "

"We're going in. ", I told the rest.

"Lucas, Jordan, and Ryder get rid of the patrolling guards. Rest of you, cover us as we go in.", Caden ordered.

"Let's go! ", I said and we moved forward.

After getting rid of the guards, we went in cautiously. There were not many people, which was surprising. I looked around the corner and saw that there were a few corridors.

"Split up! "

Caden and I along with a few others took one of the corridors. We turned a corner and spotted two guards outside a room. We shot them swiftly and entered the room with our guns raised.

Killian and Emily were tied to chairs. Killian had several bruised on his face and I suspected, on his abdomen too. Our guards down, we rushed to untie them. They were unconscious almost like they were drugged.

Smoke started filling the room. Caden ran to look into the corridor.

Shit.

"They're gassing the whole building. ", he said.

We knew we couldn't escape. We didn't have gas masks and neither could we try to escape without Killian and Emily. We gazed at each other conflicted, as darkness started lapping up on the edge of our vision. Our weapons dropped from our hands and we knelt on the floor as our knees gave out. Hopefully, everyone would be in one piece when we regained our consciousness.

Then we sunk into oblivion.