41
Aiden
I’m too late.
The first nightmare sight that greets me is Ilya lying in the dirt with blood covering his body.
All around him are dead bodies of men I left here and others that are injured.
I get off the bike and run up to Ilya, turning him over.
There’s dirt on his face mixed with blood but he’s breathing.
His eyes flutter open and he grasps my hand.
“Aiden, I failed you. Jude took her, Olivia. There were too many of them. Too strong,” he coughs and I shake my head.
“No you didn’t fail me.”
“I couldn’t stop them. They looked like they were ready for us. There were too many to fight.”
“They were ready for us. I have to get you to the hospital.”
“No, there’s no point. I won’t make it.” he coughs again.
“Ilya, stay with me. I need you.”
He smiles. “You don’t need me. You stopped needing me a long time ago. I never betrayed you boy.”
Fucking tears sting the backs of my tears. “I know. I found Aleksei, Ilya. He was with Jeshero.”
Even in his deathly state he looks shocked.
“Get him back, and get her back too. Get them both back and remember what your father said always.” His voice breaks off into another fit of coughs and blood runs down the side of his mouth.
“Never give up.”
“Never give up,” he whispers.
“So don’t.”
“I didn’t. Your father asked me to look after to you when he couldn’t and I did, like you were my own. I … have to go to my family now, Pakhan. It’s… getting dark. It’s …” His lips stop moving and his stare freezes in time.
The last time I shed tears was when Viktor died in my arms. One drifts down my cheek now and falls onto Ilya’s
Through the midst of darkness I thought I got a lucky break when Maksim started breathing, but fate is so cruel to men like me. the heartless hand of death came to take another from me anyway and in the same merciless way.
A hand rests on my shoulder and I look up to see Dominic’s saddened face, Massimo right next to him and some of my men that had followed behind us, others too that were here on site.
I hang my head down, trying to fight off that feeling of defeat but it’s hard.
Hard to keep bouncing back when your constantly knocked to the ground.
Hard to keep going when pieces of you keep shattering.
Hard to be strong when you can’t see a way out of a situation that’s above you.
Never give up?