The gates to the castle were quickly opened, and the two cars, led by Cronos’s car, sped inside.  Alex and Oz jumped out of the car, and ran into the main house.  They did not wait for their uncles to so much as open a car door.  They knew who was the boss.  They knew that Jabari and Maximus did not fart without Elasaid giving them permission.

And Elasaid, along with his wife Leda, were waiting in the living room.  Oz ran up to his father.  Alex, however, ran up the stairs.  He had to check on Kari first!

“How could you, Papa?” Oz asked.  “They still have Zylena!”

Leda was angry.  “You left her?  How could you leave without her?”

“What are you talking about, Mother?  There was no choice to be had!  Jabari and Maximus came out shooting.  They did not give us a chance to get her out.  They did not give us a chance to negotiate a truce!  They did not give us a chance!”

Upstairs, Alex heard his family’s voicing, arguing the way they usually did, but his mind was focused on getting Kari.  He ran all the way around that wing of the home until he made it to his bedroom.  When he saw that the door had been kicked open, his heart dropped.
“Kari?” he yelled as he ran into the bedroom.  But Kari was nowhere to be found.  And when he saw that the bathroom door in the back of the room had been not only kicked open, but kicked all the way down, his heart fell.  He ran into that bathroom, praying there would be no blood.  There was none.

And then he looked at the sink.

Kari, he was pleased to see, had attempted to push it all the way back in place.  And she almost succeeded.  No man, who did not know better, would have seen the inch of space between the sink and the wall.  But Alex saw it.  And it was the first time since the madness began did he begin to feel hopeful.

But that hope was crushed as soon as he was about to run to that sink and go and find her.  Oz ran into the room.

“Alex!  Alex!” he yelled.

Alex turned around.

“Papa has Karena.”

What did he mean by Papa having Karena?  He spoke as if she was his prisoner.  But Alex did not ask for clarification.  He hurried past his brother, and then they both hurried downstairs.

Kari was standing in the living room with two of Elasaid’s men holding her by her arms.  There was now a large army of Elasaid’s men in the living room.  They had found Kari, and all had come in together.  Jabari and Maximus had arrived in that living room too.

But as Alex came down those stairs and saw her standing there, he was livid.  “Release her at once!” he yelled angrily to those men.  “Remove your hands from her!”

But both men looked at Elasaid.  And Alex began to make a fast run toward Kari, to release her himself, but every man in Elasaid’s army of men closed in on him with their weapons trained at his head.  It was only then did Alex understand just how different everything had become.  He used to command every one of those men, and they respected his command.  Now he was just another enemy Elasaid ordered them to dislike.

Alex looked at Kari.  She tried to smile, to let him know that she was okay, but he could see that look of terror in her eyes.  But he knew what he had to do.  His only purpose was getting Kari out of this country, and his father’s house, alive.

“Let her go, Papa,” Oz said to their father.  “Why have you captured her.”

“I thought I could use her,” Elasaid.  “For leverage.  But you and your brother performed mightily.  Especially you, Alex.  I ordered Odysseus to bring you here to get us in that meeting room with all five number twos.  You did that for us.”  He smiled.  “You even killed them for us, from what I’m understanding from my brothers,” he added.  “That is all I need from you.  Now I dominate this country.  Now they will have no choice but to come to me.”

“And what about Zylena?” Alex said.  “Or do you not care?”

“I care,” Elasaid said.  “A little.”

“Elasaid!” Leda yelled at him in horror.  “Do not speak so cavalier of your own daughter!”

“I care,” Elasaid said again, “but I care about our position in this country more.  They will do her no harm because they know I am now in charge.  They will have to come to me.  Everything comes through me now!”

Alex looked at Kari.  “Are you alright?” he asked her.

“She’s fine,” Elasaid replied before Kari could.  “I ordered them to kill her if they had to,” he added.  “And they would have had she not been so black.”  His brothers laughed.  “They simply could not see her!”

Alex made an aggressive move toward his father.  He just wanted to get his hands on that bastard.  But Elasaid men stopped him, with their weapons and their hands.  He, too, was now their prisoner.

But then the phone rang.  It had been dispatched straight through by Security.  Everybody looked at Elasaid.  He nodded at Jabari.

Jabari walked over to the phone, placed it on Speaker, and then spoke.  “We have Zylena,” the voice on the other end said.

“And we have the power,” Jabari responded.  “Which of those, do you suppose, are more potent?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.  “We are willing to negotiate a truce,” he said.

Elasaid grinned, and shoved a fist in the air.  He mouthed, “I knew it,” as he did.

Jabari looked at him.  “They want to negotiate a truce now,” he said with his own cocky smile.

But Elasaid quickly shook his head.  “No truce.  They have no power against me.  But they may join me.”

“Tell them not to harm Zylena, Elasaid,” Leda insisted.

“No harm,” Jabari said to the voice on the other end of the line, “has come to Zylena?” he asked.

“No harm yet,” said the voice.

“Harm her and you die,” Jabari said.  “We will call you back with our terms.”  And he ended the call.

“You bastard!” Oz yelled at Jabari.  “You could have ordered them to bring Zylena home.  You could have pretended to want a truce just to get Zylena home!”

“We’ll get her home,” Elasaid replied, “but only on our terms.  When they took her, they did us a good turn.  They forced Alex to make a decision to meet with them much faster than I had anticipated.  They can keep her a little longer.”

“And you,” Elasaid added, “can take your whore and get out of my country.  Your usefulness is now beyond its sell-by date.  Leave and do not come back.”

The men finally removed their guns from Alex’s head, and the two men removed their hands from Kari’s arms.  Kari ran toward Alex, and Alex ran to Kari.  And he did not delay.  He did not look at his mother, his father, nor his own brother.  He took Kari in his arms, and left that house as quickly as his feet could take him.  He did not look back.

 

Cronos drove Alex and Kari along the winding driveway that led to the security gate.  And when the gate opened, and gave them safe passage out, Cronos drove along the side of the private road that surrounded the castle.  But it drove slowly.  Very slowly.  Kari knew something more was up.

She looked at Alex.  Still holding her hand, he turned to her.  “I want you to go to the plane,” he said.  “Cronos will see you safely there.  You can trust him.”

“What are you going to do?” Kari asked him with grave reservations in her voice.

“What I should have done a long time ago,” Alex responded.  But he would not say more.

Kari stared in his hard, blue eyes.  “You may need backup, Alex.”

“No.”

“Whenever I’m with you,” Kari said, “I have no fear.  I know I’ll be okay.  You may need backup, Alex.”

Alex stared at her.  How could he allow her to go into such a dangerous situation?  But what if they attacked her at the plane?  What if Cronos was unable to protect her?  What if something happened to her because she was not in his sight, and at his side?

It was a calculated crapshoot.  But he made a decision.

She was safer with him.

He lifted his hand.  Cronos saw it.  And pulled to the side of the road.

 

They entered the house the way Kari, at the moment of her gravest danger, exited it: through the passage way behind the bathroom sink.  They were armed and ready: both with high-powered shotguns, and both with silencers on the muzzles.

Downstairs, the Drakos family was still in the living room.  Jabari and Maximus were having drinks.  Oz was slouched down on the couch, still processing what had transpired, and Leda was still arguing with Elasaid about the best way to get their daughter back, and back unharmed.  The army of men had now gone, and the castle was back to normal.

As Alex and Kari entered the landing that led to the staircase, they stood at the railing that overlooked the living room.

“Who?” asked Kari.

“Odysseus,” replied Alex.  “Make sure he remains neutral.”

Kari nodded and pointed her weapon in the direction of Oz.  And then Alex lifted his shotgun, aimed, and fired.  Maximus took a shot to the forehead, and fell first.   The silencer did its job, and nobody heard the shot.  But they saw Maximus fall.

Especially Jabari, who was suddenly fearful.  After all they had survived, had his beloved brother succumbed to some sort of heart attack?

But that was exactly as Alex had wanted it.  He wanted Jabari, the ringleader of those two sadistic bastards, to feel pain first.   And then Alex shot Jabari, through the side of the head, ending his reign.

When Jabari fell too, Oz jumped up from the couch, and Elasaid looked up at the top of the staircase.

As Kari kept her weapon trained on Oz, Alex trained his weapon on his father.  “Move one muscle,” he said, “and you’re dead.”

Elasaid and Leda both, appearing shocked, stared at Alex as they placed their hands in the air.

And Alex and Kari made their way downstairs. 

 

They arrived outside the gate at the Galen estate three hours after the phone call had been made.  Even with Alex’s small group of men assisting, it took that long because of the way they had to get out of the castle without alerting Elasaid’s guards.  But they made it out in two cars.  Alex and Kari, driven by Cronos, was in the second car.

Alex released his hand from Kari’s, and got out.  As soon as he did, the gate was opened and a large army of armed men stood with their weapons aimed.  Kari’s heart pounded.  She grabbed her own weapon, ready to launch a counterattack, but she stared at Alex and waited for a cue from him.

The armed men were led, this time, by the third in command of the Galen crime family.  Alex couldn’t even remember his name.

But it didn’t matter.  The guns trained on Alex didn’t matter, either.  He had a job to do and he was going to finish it.

He went to the first car, opened the back door of the car, and grabbed first Jabari’s body, and then Maximus’s, and dragged them toward the gate’s entrance.  He tossed both dead bodies to the feet of the leader.

“These are the men,” Alex said, “who attacked you.”

“You were there, too,” the leader said.  “And Odysseus.”

“We were defending ourselves.  I do not attack when I gave my word I would not.”

The leader stared at Alex.  Kari could tell that man didn’t know what to make of all of this.

But Alex gave him very little time to muse over it.  Alex, instead, went back to the first car, opened the front passenger door, and pulled out the prize: his own father, with his hands and feet tied.

All of the men immediately stood at attention.  This was amazing if it was true!

But it was true.  Alex escorted his own father up to the leader, and pushed him toward them.  The leader gladly grabbed him by the arm.

“My sister,” Alex said, “for my father.  The man who killed all five heads of your families when they thought he came in peace.  The man who ordered the killing of all five number twos when I thought we came in peace.”

This was the Alexio every man at that gate had heard about, and respected.  Alexio Drakos, they were always told, was a man you could always do business with.  His word was his life.  He would never betray you.

“What is the catch?” the leader asked Alex.

“My sister’s release,” Alex said again, “and my brother’s right to head the Drakos family business.  Not as the leader of any one of you, but as an equal.”

The leader studied Alex, as if he was considering his response.  Then he looked at Elasaid Drakos.  They had the king.  They had the king!

The leader nodded, and in less than a minute, Zylena came out of the main house, saw her big brother standing there, and began running toward the gate.  When she saw her uncles’ dead bodies, and her father’s tied up body, she hesitated.  But then she ran to Alex and fell into his arms.  She buried her face in his chest.  She had been told how her father, and her uncles, were willing to risk her life for power.  She had been told how certain her life was over after the poolhall attack.

And as Alex, with Zylena in his arms, began walking toward the second car, where Kari and Cronos were waiting, Elasaid began to beg.  “Alexio, don’t do this.  Alexio, please, I would have never harmed you.  Alexio, these men are going to kill me!  They’re going to kill me!  What did I ever do to you?”

But the gate closed, and Elasaid was now at the mercy of the very families he decimated.

Alex, along with his kid sister, got into the second car.  Zylena got into the backseat, leaned against Kari, who placed an arm around her, and cried.

Alex looked at Cronos.  Cronos backed up, and drove away.

And Alex Drakos had a sneaking suspicion, a suspicion born out of his heart’s desire rather than life’s necessity, that he would never see Greece again.