Dark Revenge Of An Unwanted Wife: The Twins Are Not Yours!

Athena folded her lips as she read the message for the second time, then the third. What was this that Spider had planned? Something that was capable of ending his life, something that would look like suicide.

She chastised herself again for thinking that the fellow had betrayed them, when the opposite was the case. Spider was too loyal!

She felt the need to see him, to know him, to understand his way of thinking. She couldn't let him die. Her thoughts on this matter surprised her. What was wrong with her?

"Can you see my fears now?" Ewan's voice dragged her from her thoughts.

"He is trying to commit suicide. The twat! How dare he do this without my permission!" He whisper-yelled, his hand stretching when Athena extended the phone to him.

"We can still save him, I think. He just sent the message a few minutes ago, so it means he's still alive."

Ewan shook his head immediately. "Didn't you see the message at the end, the one after many tabs?"

Athena frowned. She hadn't.

"It was a scheduled message. It had been sent a while ago, maybe while we were on the plane, before the extraction."

Athena sighed, palming her forehead. "We need to get in there now. Do you have guns?"

Ewan looked foolish under the bright fluorescent light. "I was in a hurry," he chimed when Athena cocked a brow.

"You are not alone. I'm sure the guards are still dead. We can take their guns."

Ewan chuckled at the attempt at humor, standing and following Athena as she covered the distance between the last of the vegetation and the gates.

—

"Still empty. What exactly did he do to empty this place of people? Did he drug them or something?"

Ewan quickly paused, looking at Athena with slightly widened eyes, the AK-47 gun poised properly in his hands. "That might be it. He must have drugged them, and he might have done it in a way that would trigger Kael's suspicions on him. We have to find a hall that would be big enough to contain the entire members…"

"Is there something like a cafeteria here, some place to eat?" Athena asked, connecting the dots. An eating space would be best for drugging.

"I don't know. The last time I was here, there was none. But maybe there have been a few changes. But I do know a couple of large spaces. Let's go."

In the first large space, they found a group of almost naked women, whimpering, stacked against each other like bread and ham.

Athena scowled, anger boiling within her at the view, at the implication.

"A new shipment," Ewan muttered bitterly, his earlier prayer going to the abyss. There would be a lot of detours. He knew that with Athena's next statement.

"We can't leave them there. They don't want to be here. What will be their fate?"

"Prostitution mostly. Escorts for the wealthy." A pause. "But how do we get them out of here? We have limited hands, and there is no backup."

Athena bit her lips, then brought out her phone from her side pocket. "I will text the President the coordinates to this place. I think I still have it in my head from Spider's narration. I will inform him it's the location of the new gang that the Grey Virus sponsor had hired for his deeds. I will also tell him that a potential mole told me there might be drugs and other things here, that there should be many military men, and that this was an emergency. They should also save the women here…" A pause. "What do you think?"

She lifted her head from her typing spree, meeting Ewan's unsure gaze.

"It might work, if the President is really on our side."

Athena exhaled fitfully. "But that's the best we can do in this position."

And then she sent the message off and turned to the women, who watched them as if they were movie characters in a play. "Don't worry. A rescue team will soon be here. But don't move from this room. Do you hear me?"

The women nodded as if remote-controlled.

Athena glanced at them one last time, and then walked out of the room. She removed the key from the keyhole and threw it to one of the women, who now had hope in her eyes. "Lock the room from inside. Only open for the agents that will be coming here soon."

The woman nodded and rose to her feet.

Athena looked at Ewan. "Let's go to the next space."

As they moved, she typed more and sent it to the President and Aiden, in case the President was not to be trusted.

In the second large room, after corridors that reminded Athena of a maze, they found children stacked on each other.

What was this?

From the unpleasant smell that wafted through her nostrils when Ewan pushed open the door, she knew that some had urinated or defecated on themselves. She turned aside and wept.

Meanwhile, Ewan assured the children of their safety, most being females, who would be reared to please men old enough to be their grandfathers. Keeping his emotions at bay, he touched their hair, and to some he whispered safety.

"My men will soon be here to save you. Just stay put, okay?"

A girl, who reminded him of his daughter, tugged at his sleeves. "Promise?"

Ewan's heart broke, as he nodded, hoping that the President would be a good person, that his men would arrive here on time to disrupt this operation. "They will be okay. The men will get here on time."

Athena spoke to him as they hurried to the next space. "We have to end your previous gang. There are no two ways about it…"

Ewan nodded. "I will help out in any way that I can."

At the third space, there was nothing but the smell of chemicals.

"What was kept here?"

Ewan, with a speculative frown on his face, shook his head slowly. "I don't know. This room has always been empty, or a place where we pass time and joke and eat and make plans. Not some… laboratory."

Their gazes hit at the same time.

"They are still producing the Grey Virus!" Athena whisper-yelled, ruffling her hair. "What the hell!"

And here I was celebrating, she thought, punching the inner of her palm with the other hand. Then an alarm blared, shattering their respective thoughts.

"What was that?" a hushed question from Athena, who had clutched her gun tighter and was already heading toward the door.

Ewan hurried to her front. He wouldn't let her take any brunt first.

Athena hissed softly at this display. "Get moving quick then!" she whispered, needing to needle him.

Ewan smirked, leading the way out of the room, eyes darting left and right, in case of any incoming gang person, but there was nothing.

At the last space, with the alarm still blaring, they looked at each other and opened the door, their guns falling to their sides when they saw the gang members sprawled on the floor, some lying on top of the other, with snacks, drinks, and whatnots.

Their eyes found Spider sitting alone on an armchair, a can of Sprite in his hand, head to the ceiling. They looked dead.

Ewan's heart immediately plunged. Without thinking, he rushed into the room toward his young friend, whose face he had just seen yesterday, and pulled and pushed. "Spider!"

Athena walked into the room next. From the way the men lay on the floor, from their non-rising and falling chests, she knew they were dead.

Maybe gas, she thought sadly, hurrying to Spider, to Ewan, whose eyes already shimmered with tears. "Spider…" he called, grabbing his friend to his chest.

Athena touched his pulse. There was nothing, nor was his heart beating. Her heart crashed to her feet, her eyes taking in the person that was Spider.

He looked younger than Ewan, so she guessed he was really younger too, maybe in his mid-twenties. Handsome.

Too handsome. She could see, noting the perfectness of his face, his lips, his nose, which for some reason looked familiar, his broad shoulders, his lean, muscled hand, his…

She frowned, seeing a piece of paper in his hand. Her frown deepened as she took out the folded paper from his hand and opened it.

"Take me out of here, old man. I knew you will come for me."

He was alive? Athena looked at Spider again, noticing something that she hadn't noticed before. His color wasn't pale, not as the others surrounding them. His body wasn't entirely cold.

What was this? Had he taken a drug that would seize his life for some minutes? She checked her wristwatch. That was impossible. The time was too long.

She tapped Ewan and showed him the paper. "I think he is alive."

Keeping her reservations to herself, she collected Ewan's gun as he handed it to her, watching as he lifted Spider to his shoulder, the latter's hands and legs dangling like those of the dead.

"What drug do you think he took? Any side effects?"

"I am not sure," Athena answered, leading the way. "We will find out when he wakes up," she added, relieved, yet curious about this familiarity she felt toward the interesting male.

Had they met before?