Hi guys! Please, as you read this chapter, keep in mind that I love you all very much. I suggest you listen to "Farewell Life (Arn Andersson Remix)" by Nights Amore. And just know in advance that I am sorry. :)

We all got out of the car and ran to the steps of the jet.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Are you trying to get yourselves killed?" Seraphine scolded. Very loudly might I add.

Xavier cocked his head. "Well....."

I turned around and slapped him lightly on the arm to tell him that now was not the time.

Alessio appeared at top of the stairs by the door of the plane. He didn't say anything. He just watched in entertainment as Seraphine reamed us all out.

That ass.

"You can't go to Odessa. You can't go to Russia in general." I started to warn them. I turned to Alessio. "We can't trust the information I gave you anymore. I did some thinking. Something's not right."

Seraphine turned to Alessio. "Wait. You got the top secret Russian intelligence from your 15 year old sister?" When he nodded, she turned back to me. "The motherly side of me wants to lecture you about the dangers you probably went through while getting that. But the mafia boss side of me wants to call you badass and congratulate you on your achievements."

I snorted, but was quickly reminded of why I was here in the first place when Alessio shouted to Seraphine.

"We have to go." He informed her.

"Alessio, please! Don't go." I begged him.

"Marlowe, we have to. The Russians have something very important in their possession right now. It's too dangerous for them to have it." Alessio talked to me as if I was a baby.

And he seemed...

Annoyed.

"Alessio. Think about it. The information was so easy to get. My trip to New York was so easy. I know how Sebastián operates. I think how he thinks. He trained me! He made me his own personal weapon! Trust me, this is something that he would do." I don't know why I was getting this emotional or why I was basically on the verge of tears.

But I can not lose them.

I have never in my life had a sense of family. My life has been amazing since I met my brothers and I haven't even known them a month.

Before Alessio could answer me, there was shouting from the inside of the plane. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I knew it was something bad because Alessio's face paled. He ducked into the cabin of the plane.

Seraphine looked at me with pity. "Honey, I know you're worried about your brothers. But they have been training their whole life. Just like you. They can handle whatever comes our way in Russia and more." She looked past me to Théo. "T, while Alexandre and I are gone, you need to watch over Valerie."

Just as Théo was about to respond, Alessio emerged from the plane again, his face as white as a ghost.

He shakingly walked down the stairs and came over to me. I could see something strange in his eyes.

"Marls, there's something I need to talk to you about." He told me while gently taking my arm and pulling me aside.

I looked up at him in question as he took me to a spot out of hearing range from the others.

"Alessio, what's going on?" I asked him.

"While you and I were talking, Orlando got a phone call. From Andrei Kamenev, the don of the Russian Mafia. Somehow, they got word that we were coming to get something that was important to them. So to distract us, they took something, someone, important to us." Alessio explained to me softly, as if he was trying to drop news that something terrible had happened to one of my other brothers.

Wait.

When he said something, he corrected himself. To someone.

"Alessio. What's going on? What happened?" I demanded.

"Marlowe, on the boys' way home from school today, they were run off the road by a vehicle from what we believe to have been the Russian Mafia."

I felt everything inside of me go numb.

"Please don't say what I think you're going to say." I begged him.

This can't be happening right now.

"The soldiers tried to attack them right after they wrecked, thinking that it would be easier. Antonio were able to fight off their attackers. He thought that there was only one attacker. But there was another one." Alessio continued. I was shocked when I saw tears start to well in his eyes.

Dino was never the best fighter.

"Alessio just say it." I told him, looking away.

"The Russian Mafia currently has Dino on a plane heading to somewhere in Odessa. Exactly where we are going."

This is all my fault.

This is all my fault.

This is all my fault.

"Is he alive? Were there any signs of life?" I asked, wishing the answer to be yes.

Alessio took a sharp breath, as if I just asked the question that he was hoping wouldn't come up.

Please no.

No. No. No. No.

"We don't know. They wouldn't confirm. Antonio is in bad shape from the crash and his attacker. There's no telling how bad Dino is, let alone if he's alive or..." He dropped off the last word of the sentence, not being able to will himself to say it.

"Dead." I choked out.

Out of all people, why Dino? He was the sweetest out of all of us. He didn't deserve this.

It should have been me.

Why was I not targeted?

I'm the one causing all the trouble.

If it weren't for me, none of this would have happened.

Alessio looked as if he was going to say something, but shouting from inside the plane cut him off.

"I'm sorry Marlowe, but I have to go." He pulled me in for a quick hug and kissed the top of my head before jogging over to the plane. I watched as he hurriedly walked up the stairs into the cabin, closing the door behind him.

The steps were pushed away and the plane started towards the runway. The world fell numb around me as I felt hot tears begin to stream down my face.

I couldn't stop them.

I tried to bite back a sob as Théo and Xavier silently made their way over to me.

The reality of the situation dawned on me as the plane carrying most of the people I love took off.

I couldn't hold it back anymore. My knees buckled. Théo ran over and caught me before I fell to the ground, steadying me.

I put my head against his chest, and sobbed.

"What the hell did Alessio say to her?" Théo asked Xavier quietly.

Xavier mumbled, "I don't know," before wrapping his arms around me so I was enclosed completely.

-

After dropping off Xavier, Théo dropped me off at the house. He went inside with me and made sure I was with someone before he left.

Lorenzo guided me to the living room and sat me down.

"Kiddo, why don't you tell me what's going on in that brain of yours?" Lorenzo prompted.

I shook my head. "Where's Antonio?" I asked him, wanting to see my brother and wanting the current conversation to end.

"He's in the warehouse infirmary. They're fine. Now stop avoiding my question. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I lied.

Lorenzo gave me a look as if he knew that I wasn't telling him the truth.

Damn him and his psychiatric shit.

"I'm fine." I reassured him. "I need to talk to Haidyn. Can she come over?"

I knew that I hadn't talked to her for a day or two just because of everything going on. First the letters, then the phone call with my "dad," now this.

"Yeah, if that will help you through this. I will take you to see Antonio tomorrow when he is feeling better, okay?" He told me gently, while starting to get up.

I was just about to pull out my phone to call my best friend when Lorenzo stopped me. "Marls, you know that Alessio won't let one stone go unturned looking for Dino, right? We will find him."

I nodded my head. The same head that contained my mind. The same mind that had thoughts running through it like crazy. The thoughts telling me that this was all my fault. Not just because I gave them the information, but because if I had stayed down in Texas, none of this would have happened. They would have gone on with their lives thinking that I was dead. I never should have put this burden on them.

Once we find Dino, the only way to stop this from happening again is to take the burden away.

-

I called Haidyn and told her that something horrible happened and asked her to come over. She told me that she would be here in thirty minutes. That gives me enough time to figure out how I am going to get my brother back.

I was reading the letters over and over again, trying to figure out if maybe, just maybe, there would be a clue in them. When that didn't work, I resorted to the last option. Calling the person back that claimed to be my father.

I'm going to need snacks for this. It was already late in the night and I had barely ate anything today

I went down to the kitchen and threw some mini corndogs into the air-fryer.

Lorenzo went to the warehouse to check on Antonio, all my other brothers were in Russia, and Haidyn hadn't gotten here yet. I was home alone.

As I was waiting for my food to be done, I started going over everything out loud.

"Okay. So the first letter arrived, saying 'You can run, but you can't hide.' It looked like it was printed from a computer. Folded neatly with recent pictures of me. The second letter was 'Miss me?' written sloppily on notebook paper shoved into the envelope." Everything in side of me snapped at once. "Holy shit. They were from different people. Or maybe someone that was trying to make it look like they were from two different people. Does this have anything to do with the guy who called claiming to be my dad. Ugh, this is all so confusing. I should have never left Houstin. This never would have happened."

A thought popped into my mind that scared the living shit out of me.

Luciano never should have stopped me from jumping off that bridge.

It was the first time I had had a thought like that since I was eight years old.

I lightly pressed a hand against my mouth and turned around to lean against the counter.

And standing right in front of me was fucking Théo Chevalier.

I jumped out of my skin and was about to scream at him for scaring me, when I remembered everything that I had just said. The thought that had come into my brain.

"How much of that did you hear?" I asked him shakily.

"A lot more than you would like. I came back in because I forgot my wallet." He responded. "Marlowe. Why did you not tell anyone? When did the first letter arrive?"

I thought back. "Probably two weeks ago."

Théo cursed under his breath. "Do you have any idea who would have send you a threatening letter?"

"Oh a ton of people. Let me start off with a list. Probably my seventh grade science teacher after I accidentally lit his room on fire. He would be on top. Then maybe the Spanish Mafia leader. The Russian leader is probably on that list somewhere. This random guy that called me claiming to be my sperm donor might be one. Maybe someone in the multiple families that I've hurt. The list goes on and on and on, Théo."

Théo nodded his head, trying to figure this all out. "Do you still have the letters?"

I was about to say 'Yes' when both the doorbell went off and the air-fryer started beeping, telling me that my mini corndogs were done.

"I'm going to go get the door. You get my food out of the cooky thingy. Sound like a plan, Stan?" I told him sternly.

Théo gave me a confused look. "Who the hell is Stan?"

I shook my head, then went to the front door to let in Haidyn. She kept ringing the bell.

She probably wasn't annoyed at me for not getting the door faster, she just liked pushing the button.

"Alright, alright! I'm getting the door. Chill." I swung the front door open and stopped in my tracks when I saw who was standing in the doorway.

A tall man in a dark suit who looked exactly like my brothers and I.

"Hello, Marlowe." The mystery stranger greeted. "It's been a while since I had been back home."

Whoever it was, had the same voice that the man on the phone had. And now that I was seeing him in the flesh, there was no denying who is was.

"Dad."

-

And there goes Chapter 26! I am so sorry for doing that to Dino. I will say that that is not the direction I was planning on going with this chapter, but I saw an opportunity and I had to take it.

Domenico is finally making an appearance and Haidyn is coming back, too! Also Théo knows about the letters now! And her brothers are in Russia after her desperate attempts to stop them!

What do you think will happen?

That's honestly the question I ask myself when I start writing chapters because even I have no freaking clue. I will tell you that I had one plan for this book that I'm for sure not going with, so I'm going to tell you. In this plan, at the end, Marlowe revealed to her brothers that she has been working with Sebastián all along in an effort to kill them. I honestly couldn't do this to you guys or myself, so I decided against it. But yeah. That was a plan.

Question of the chapter: Have you ever witnessed an actual physical fight during school?

I just witnessed my first high school fight yesterday! Talk about a milestone! So basically these two kids have been arguing for like a week about whether or not JFK's assasination was planned by the government or not. Then one kid, we'll call him Mark, called this other kid, that we'll call Travis, inbred and a result of incest. So for the past three days, Travis has been threatening to beat up Mark, but none of us thought that he actually would. Then in the hallway coming out of our cafeteria, Travis body slammed Mark into the wall, then threw him against the wall across the hallway and put him in a chokehold and started hitting him in the face/head with his arm. My friend and I were walking behind them when it happened. They got pulled off of each other and sent to the office. I just found out today that Travis got three weeks of out of school suspension and a fine that his family has to pay. Mark has a concussion from Travis slamming his head into the wall.

And that's the story of two kids in my grade fighting over John F. Kennedy.

Alright, that's all I have! Byeeeeee!