Chapter Thirty-Four

Evangeline rushed through the halls to the security office. She quickly flipped through the cameras and smirked when she found Angel. She continued flipping through the cameras until she also found Belle. She frowned when she saw that Belle was with a small army of men, heading straight towards her family.

She let out a snarl as she spun on her heel and fled from the office. She easily caught up to Angel and pinned her to the wall. "I hope you enjoyed your time in this world Angel. Because your time is up."

Angel scoffed. "There's no way that you can kill me. You've been out of the game for years Evangeline." She said with hatred in her eyes.

Evangeline rolled her eyes. "That's what you said at the charity event and look at how that ended for you."

Angel laughed. "It ended with us taking you captive." She snarkily said as she gripped Evangleine's broken wrist.

Evangeline simply glared at her as she said. "Do you seriously think that me getting captured by you guys wasn't part of my plan?" She scoffed. "Please Angel. You can be so naive and blind sometimes."

Angel let out a snarl as she shoved Evangeline away from her. "I'm going to kill you now."

Evangeline let out a laugh as she gripped her sai swords tightly in her hands. "It'd certainly be entertaining for you to try."

Angel lunged for her with her short swords out and ready to strike. Evangeline easily dodged and shoved her away. They went back and forth for a few minutes before Evangeline sighed loudly. "Okay. I don't have time for this Angel." She said as she easily tripped Angel and straddled her waist.

Before Angel could react Evangeline brought one of her sai swords down as hard as she could, stabbing Angel straight through the heart. She watched the light fade from Angel's eyes before getting up. She smirked as she grabbed the short swords from around Angel's waist. "You're not going to be needing these anymore." She said out loud as she strapped them around her waist.

She took off down the hall again without looking back. It didn't take her long to reach the small army that was attacking her family. She made her footsteps as quiet as possible as she snuck up behind them. Without even hesitating she started slicing down the men one by one. Only stopping when she was sure they were all dead.

Once she did finally stop moving around she realized that her family was watching her. She leaned against the wall as she caught her breath. Her eyes widened when she saw Jennifer and Mark. "Jen. Mark. What are you guys doing here?" She demanded.

Mark chuckled. "Well there are eight of us here and we are here because your man asked us for our help."

Jennifer nodded. "We've taken out Belle but I'm sure Angel is still lurking around here somewhere."

Evangeline shook her head. "She's already dead. I took care of her and Nikolai already." She said in a rough voice as she placed a hand over a bleeding wound in her side.

Jennifer nodded with a small smile. "Of course you did."

Evangeline looked around and smiled when she saw Alessandro. "My love." She whispered as she started feeling faint.

He quickly walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. She let out a hiss as he put pressure on some of her worst wounds. He let go of her as if she had burned him. He looked her over. "Oh, my angel." He said softly as he took in every inch of her.

She shook her head before squeezing her eyes shut. "It's not as bad as it looks." She whispered.

"She's trying to put your mind at ease," Jaxon muttered. "Nikolai is as cruel as they come and he's had her for two weeks." He shook his head. "She's in bad shape. She doesn't want you to worry."

Evangeline glared at him as she tried to stay on her feet. "Always here to say the things I don't want to."

He chuckled. "Who else will if I don't?" He questioned with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes as she pushed off of the wall and started walking towards the exit. "Let's get out of here." She said quietly.

They all followed her out of the main building in the camp. They were making their way towards the entrance when Evangeline heard footsteps rushing towards them. "You killed my husband." A shrill voice shouted from behind them.

Evangeline let out a heavy sigh as she drew a dagger and threw it without even looking. She continued walking, knowing that her dagger hit just where she had wanted it to when she heard a soft thud. She walked through the entrance as she said. "Make sure you burn it down after getting the children out. If there are any here they'll be down in the basement of the living quarters."

She left the camp behind as she made her way to the SUVs that were driving towards them. Once they were parked she leaned against one as her wounds finally took their toll and the adrenaline wore off. She felt herself swaying as she tried to stay on her feet. As she started to feel faint someone walked up to her and wrapped their arms around her. She looked up through blurry eyes to see Alessandro looking her over in concern.

"Are you alright my angel?" He asked in a voice that sounded far away.

She blinked up at him as she tried to clear her vision. "I don't know." She mumbled.

He frowned as he looked up at someone who was standing behind her. "We need to get her home and fast."

Whoever he was talking to must've nodded because almost everyone loaded up into the SUVs that took off as quickly as they could go. Evangeline's vision had grown darker and she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold onto consciousness much longer. So she let the darkness envelope her. She let it sweep her away, knowing that she was once again safe in Alessandro's arms. And this time it wouldn't be threatened by anyone.

Alessandro swore to himself when he felt Evangeline lose consciousness. "We need to go faster." He growled out in agitation.

"I'm going as fast as I can, damn it," Richard shouted from the driver's seat.

Alessandro cursed again as he held Evangeline close to his chest. He knew that she was going to be in bad shape when they finally found her but he hadn't realized exactly how bad it would be. He just hoped that they would make it back to their house in time to save her.

After what felt like a lifetime to Alessandro they finally pulled up in front of their mansion. He carefully took Evangeline out of the car and rushed into the house. He quickly made his way to the hospital wing and yelled for the doctor. "Get in here right now!" He shouted.

The doctor came running over to them with a team of nurses pushing a gurney behind him. "What do we have?" He demanded.

Alessandro shook his head. "I don't know. All I know is that she's been tortured for two weeks."

The doctor nodded and started calling out orders to the nurses. "Let's move people. We don't know how long she has been bleeding like this so we don't have a lot of time."

Alessandro was forced to wait in the waiting room with Dimitri, Alexander, and Ivy. "We found her and she's alive," Dimitri said to himself. "She's going to be okay. She's going to be just fine."

He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down as he buried his face in his hands.

They were waiting for about three hours when the doctor finally came out. He pulled his mask off and rubbed a hand over his face as he stopped in front of them. "Alright, guys. She's going to be just fine." He blew out a long breath. "She had several deep cuts over her entire body except for her face. Though her face does have a small cut it wasn't that deep so it won't scar. Her back is torn up from a tipped whip, though it looks like someone patched her up at some point. Either way, she'll have more scars on her back. Most of her scars are simple basic scars but there is an incredibly cruel one. It's a strange design that doesn't make any sense to me but I'm guessing it was probably put there to remind her of what had happened to her. Her right wrist was broken and had to be reset. Other than that there are clear signs that she had been restrained and starved. She's severely dehydrated and it looks as if whoever's had her these past two weeks has done their best to keep her awake a majority of the time. So I have her on a couple of IVs. One for nutrition and one for rehydration. I also have her on antibiotics." He sighed heavily. "I am also having one of my nurses give her a blood transfusion." He reassuringly grabbed his shoulder. "We are doing everything to make sure that she's okay."

Alessandro nodded his head in thanks. "Can we see her?" He questioned after a couple of minutes.

The doctor nodded. "Yes. We gave her a sedative so that she could rest but you can all sit with her. Just follow me."

They followed the doctor to a decent-sized hospital room that was set up for Alessandro, should anything happen to him. "I'm not sure how long the sedative will last but you can stay as long as you'd like." He said before leaving the room.

Alessandro walked over to her and gently took her good hand. "I don't understand how someone could do this to someone as sweet and caring as Evangeline," Ivy said sorrowfully with tears in her eyes.

Alexander held her close as he softly said. "There are monsters out there who wear a human's skin, my queen. That is the only explanation that I can give you."

She leaned into him as she watched Alessandro with Evangeline.

Alessandro sat down on the bed next to Evangeline, being careful of the wires and IVs that had been attached to her. He gently caressed her face and smoothed her hair back. "I am so sorry that this had to happen to you, my angel." He whispered as he leaned down to press a kiss on her forehead. "I promise that I will never let anything like this happen to you ever again."

They all sat in silence for a few minutes, simply rejoicing in the fact that they had Evangeline back. They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Dimitri pulled it open to reveal the assassins that had helped them. Dimitri nodded at them as he let them into the room.

"We just wanted to come in and see how she was doing," Jaxon said softly as he looked over Evangeline's sleeping form.

Alessandro sighed as he lightly ran his fingers through her hair. "She's going to be okay. She's been starved, sleep-deprived, dehydrated, and tortured. Even her wrist has been broken." He said quietly.

"I'm glad that she's okay," Jaxon said in relief. "The wrist was her own doing though." He said with a small smile.

Alessandro looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Mark chuckled. "She's taught us a lot of stuff during our time together. One of her many lessons was that you could get out of any type of confinement. All you had to do was be willing to do what needed to be done." He explained.

"And it should be easy to do what needs to be done because we were tortured daily," Evangeline said in a scratchy voice.

Everyone turned to her with a smile. "You're awake." Alessandro breathed out in relief.

She shrugged. "The sedative she gave me wasn't that strong." She murmured as she sat up just a bit. She looked around the room and smiled at everyone that was around her bed. "It is so good to see all of you here."

"You had us all worried Eva," Jaxon said from his spot against the wall.

She ran her good hand through her hair as she blew out a rough breath. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "My original plan didn't involve getting taken by them but things just didn't go as I planned them."

Jaxon gave her a single nod. "We know."

She clicked her tongue as she looked at the ceiling. "Well, Nikolai is dead now. We don't have to worry about him anymore. And we can focus on taking out the camps now."

Mark laughed. "You plan on taking out all of the camps?" He asked incredulously.

She playfully glared at him. "I hadn't been sitting around and twiddling my thumbs all those years working under Nikolai. Trust me when I say I have very powerful people in every single part of the world."

Mark rolled his eyes with a smile. "Of course you do. You're Evangeline. You're prepared for anything at any time."

She nodded with a smirk. "That's the only way to do it."

Everyone laughed as she relaxed into the bed. She looked around again and frowned. "Where's Nick and Madison?" She questioned.

"Oh, they got reassigned to some dumbass recon mission out in Dubai or some shit," Jennifer explained.

Evangeline raised an eyebrow. "Why haven't you called them yet?" She demanded.

Jennifer scoffed. "You know how they are. They won't believe us when we tell them that we're with you and Nikolai is dead."

She laughed. "Of course. Those two are just as paranoid as I am." She held her hand out. "Where's the phone that you guys use to stay in contact with each other?"

Mark pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Here you go. Everything is just as you taught us."

She nodded. "Psh. It better be. I didn't teach it to you for no reason." She rolled her eyes as she proceeded to call Nick and Madison, the only twins that had ever been at the camps.

They all waited as she put the phone on speaker. "What is it, Mark? We're kind of in the middle of something." Madison answered.

Evangeline grinned. "Well, then you shouldn't be answering the phone." She said happily.

Madison let out a breath of a laugh. "Well damn. It is good to hear your voice again Evangeline." She clicked her tongue. "What exactly is going on?"

Evangeline laughed. "Well I killed Nikolai and I have our usual group here with me. We're going to take down all the camps. So you two need to stop whatever you're doing and get your asses over here as quickly as you can. Milan, Italy. We'll have someone meet you at the airport."

Madison laughed again. "Alright. We're leaving right now."

"See you both soon."

She hung up and looked around the room with a smile. "Now if you'll excuse me I do need to get some more sleep. I haven't slept much over the last couple of weeks."

"Do you want to eat something before you go to sleep?" Alessandro asked her.

She sighed. "I probably should eat something but it'll have to be small." She finally said.

He nodded and got up. "I'll bring your favorite little snack." He kissed her forehead before leaving the room.

While they were waiting for him to come back everyone spoke and rejoiced that they were all together again. When he came back she ate the small fruit salad that he had made for her. Once she was done everyone left the room and Alessandro laid down with her. He held her gently in his arms and kept her close as she fell asleep.

He refused to move even when he was sure that she was completely passed out. He kept her close and was just thankful that they were able to find her alive. Now that she was safe and in his arms once again there was no way that he was going to let her get away from him again.