Twenty minutes earlier

We drive in silence, heading to the address that our informant at boarder control gave us that was linked to the van that took Darcy.

We are stronger than the Russians in the sense of arms power and our connections with allies but they outnumber us in men.

They utilise compounds, huge stretches of lands filled with soldiers that live there whereas we have bases, which keep our homes separate from work. This means that everyone that works for Volkov is currently all in one spot, meaning getting into their compound will be a difficult mission.

We currently have one hundred vans all heading towards their compound, each containing ten men as well as fifty of Cruz's, Santiago's farther's armed trucks. This sounds excessive but it'll be the same amount of men Volkov will have, maybe even less.

I didn't want my brothers to be apart of this, with this many men we lose the element of surprise, meaning it'll be a blood bath the second we arrive. This isn't a mission I'd ever send them on but they actually scoffed in my face when I suggested them staying at home.

"Gain entry as soon as we arrive, kill anyone in sight," I remind all my men over our ear pieces. As we approach the gates of the compound I turn to my brothers and Santiago, "We are to move as a group, find Darcy and immediately return, no wondering off and no side missions," I order them strictly.

They all agree, a hint of excitement glistens in Romeo's eyes at the possibility of slaughtering people.

Our bodies jolt as our van goes barrelling through the gate of the compound, an alarm immediately sounding as we do so. We swiftly climb out the van, letting our men advance through the house first and eliminating any guards that got in our way.

We all enter the house, searching for an entrance to where they keep their prisoners. I head to a rusted door with the stench of decomposition wafting through it but a russian guard blocks my way and raises his gun to my head, only to have his face completely blown off by Dante.

I slam open the door, the overpowering smell making me grimace as we rush down the stairs. We're met with two long corridors, each as disgusting as each other.

"Split up." I order. "Santiago,Luca, Angelo and Arlo with me, the rest of you search that one," I command, pointing towards the left corridor of cells.





Me, Alonzo, Dante and Rome all take off down the left hallway as the sound of gunfire and explosions ring from above us. The rest fall back, searching every individual cell as I run to the last one, deciding to search back to front.

I look in the last three cells, only to find hollowed out corpses of prisoners sprawled out on the stone floor. Not only until I reach the forth one do I see a horrific sight that'll forever be etched into my brain.

Darcy is huddled in the corner, covered head to toe in blood and her face swollen with bruises. Her arms are tightly crossed over her torso, covering her exposed chest as stares at the ground, seemingly out of it.

"Fuck! Guys she's over here," I yell, briefly looking away from Darcy to see Dante and Alonzo running towards me as Rome runs in the opposite direction, most likely to alert the others.

I desperately try to open the cell door but it's sealed shut.

"Darcy?" I say softly, trying to divert her attention away from the disfigured body laying in front of her. Dante and Alonzo come hurtling to a stop at the cell door, pausing in horror looking at the sight before them.

Alonzo violently pushes me out the way, forcibly trying to rattle the door open but to no avail. "Go find a guard, get their keys," I say to Dante. He looks at Darcy reluctantly, obviously not wanting to leave her but he eventually turns around and bolts past the others who are just now arriving.

I see the colour physically drain out of Lorenzo's face and Santiago's eyes gloss over as they look at the unfolding situation. "Get her out of there!" Santiago shouts, desperately trying to get to the cell's door.

"It's locked," I say, placing my hand on Santiago's shoulder. We wait hopelessly, knowing there's nothing we can do until Dante returns with the keys. We try comforting Darcy but she hasn't even acknowledged that we're here.

Dante finally comes back with a set of bloody keys that he probably pried off a dead guard, he rushes to put them in the lock and pulls open the door.

Santiago is the first to go flying in, crouching on the floor and reaching out for Darcy but she immediately pushes away from him and further into the corner.

"Hey hey, it's just me baby, it's Santiago," He rushes out, putting his hands up in surrender. She looks at him, her face covered in splatters of blood and her throat imprinted with visible hand prints.

Dante slowly approaches, unlocking the shackles around her arms and legs with the set of keys before backing away, wanting to give her space.

Alonzo steps over the naked bloody man in the middle of the room and his erm.. appendage and hands Santiago his jacket.

"Can I put this on you?" He asks gently. She looks at him with recognition in her eyes and slowly nods. We all advert our eyes as Santiago covers her body with his back and zips the jacket up.

Lorenzo kneels down in front of her, softening his voice in order to not frighten her further. "Everything's going to be okay, we're going to get you out of here now," He promises. "Can you walk?" He asks.

She nods her head unsurely and tries to get up with Santiago's help but her legs are wobbly as she collapses into Santiago who grips onto her, preventing her from hitting the floor.

"I've got her," Santiago assures, picking her up bridle style. She hides her head in the crook of his neck as we rush out the cell, heading towards the gunfire.

We form a human shield in front of Darcy as we make our way through the building, climbing over the bodies piled up on the floor.

We get in the van and waste no time in speeding off. Darcy whimpers in Santiago's arms and clutches her stomach as we drive to the closest Russian hospital. "Can I feel?" Arlo asks, now in his doctor brain.

He leans over and feels her stomach for a moment before sitting up straight. "The babies are in position, they want to come out now," He confirms.

"What? She's in labour now?" Santiago asks frantically, his face pained. "It's too early, isn't she only 7 months?" Romeo interjects, the worry evident in his voice.

Arlo nods solemnly, "There's nothing we can do to stop it," He sighs.

Darcy yelps in pain, gripping onto Santiago's hand as we pull into the hospital. We rush out the van and into the hospital. Everyone turns to us in shock as Santiago holds a screaming pregnant woman covered head to toe in blood.

"Help! She's in labour," Santiago exclaims in panic but the nurses look at him in bewilderment, not understanding english. Not knowing russian either, Lorenzo just points to her pregnant belly which should be a pretty obvious clue to what the problem is.

They take her and wheel her away into a room with Santiago following. He stand silently as we watch our sister disappear behind the swinging doors.





The nurses lift Darcy off the stretcher and onto the hospital bed as she screams out in pain. I rush to her side, letting her squeeze my hand tightly as the nurses rush out the room.

They return moments later with another woman who's holding a small bag. "Good evening, I'm Dr. Petrov the only English speaking doctor we have available tonight," She smiles. I nod, too in shock about this whole situation to even formulate words.

An hour ago I was focused on rescuing my kidnapped girlfriend and now I'm about to welcome my boys into the world.

"This is a little labour package we put together for all our patients," She explains, holding out the bag. "We'll be back in a moment," She says, leaving us in the room.

Darcy's disorientated and hasn't said a word since we found her, I'm worried she won't be able to cope with the labour of two babies.

I pull out a wash cloth out of the bag and rush to the bathroom to wet it before returning to clean Darcy off.

The anger rises within me as clean the blood off her, revealing all the marks that sick bastard left. I want to ask her what happened but I know now is not that time and I'm not even sure I'm ready for her to confirm my worst nightmare.

I clean her up, tie her hair up and dress her in a much more loose, comfortable hospital gown all in time for the nurses return.

They assess her for a minute before looking back up at us, "Well it looks like you're just about ready to push," Dr. Petrov says cheerily.

Darcy doesn't move, her eyes remaining fixed on the wall in front of her until she grimaces, a pained expression appearing on her face which causes my heart to constrict.

"You need to push," The doctor reminds her after a few minutes of me comforting her. "Sir if she doesn't start pushing we'll need to preform a C-section," She says worriedly after noticing that Darcy still wasn't pushing.

I look at Darcy, her eyes are filled with utter exhaustion, the traumatic events of today must have completely drained the energy out of her. I look back at the doctor, nodding in agreement as I realise that she won't have enough strength to push out two babies.

The nurses immediately spring into action, pulling out her wires quickly and pushing her through the long white halls. I'm ushered into a room next to Darcy's as the doctor instructs me to dress in a set of blue scrubs.

I put them on quickly before rushing to Darcy's side, terrified to even leave her alone for a moment.

The whole situation feels surreal as I stroke her hand with my thumb while the doctor begins cutting her open. I was having second thoughts after seeing all the sharp tools laid out at the doctors side but she assured me it wouldn't hurt Darcy at all.

Suddenly the sound of a babies cry rings through the room, pulling me out of my dissociative state.

A nurse cleans him off and places him on Darcy's chest. She weakly smiles, looking at the beautiful boy with tiny strands of brown hair adorning his head. Tears blur my vision as the nurse places another one on Darcy's chest.

They're so tiny.

I gently touch the baby's hand, his tiny fingers wrapping around my large one as I start full on crying now. Darcy's tear stricken face looks up at me before reverting her attention back to the two perfect things we created.

My heart if overwhelmed with more love than I ever thought was possible to feel as I look down at the most precious things on this world.

"Lucian and Emilio Cruz."