Chapter 190: Ernest Cross

Sienna turned back to her machine, fingers flying across the keyboard, trying to trace the IP address the video had been sent from. Middle East, the location confirmed. But the Middle East was vast, endless, full of places a person could disappear into without a trace.

"Sienna," Viktor said carefully, placing a hand over hers to still her frantic typing. "I need you to stop."

She turned to him, disbelief flashing across her face. "What do you mean, stop? Aria looks like she’s in real trouble. I need to do everything in my power to help her."

"Remember the winner of the bid?" Viktor asked, his voice careful, like he already knew this was going to make everything worse.

"Yes, I remember. The organization," Sienna said, still staring at the frozen image of Aria’s face on her screen.

"The head of that organization is Ernest Cross," Viktor said.

Sienna’s head snapped up. "Wait... what? You mean Aria’s father is the man working with Don Konstantin?"

Anger flared hot and fast in her chest. Mr. Cross. A man who had spent years despising everything about the mafia world, who had warned Aria away from Sienna more than once because of exactly this kind of danger, and now he was the one who had signed a deal with the devil himself.

"And I believe Aria was infected," Viktor added quietly, "so he stays motivated. So he doesn’t back out."

"Either way," Sienna said, her voice sharpening, "I need to save her."

"How?" Viktor’s tone rose slightly. "Help them finish the vaccine? That means they release the virus on the rest of the world first. All of it, just for money."

"I don’t know, Viktor!" Sienna’s voice cracked, frustration and fear bleeding together. "But I cannot just sit here and watch my friend die. I need to go there."

"No." Viktor’s voice turned hard, immovable. "Sienna, are you even listening to yourself?"

"Yes, I am." She turned to face him fully now, her jaw set. "My friend is in trouble, and I want to help her. I can’t do enough from here."

"You mean to walk straight into Don Konstantin’s territory," Viktor said, "to save your friend. That’s insane, Sienna. You might be brilliant, even a genius who can solve almost anything from behind a screen, but there is no way in hell I am allowing you to do something this reckless."

"So now I’m reckless?" Sienna shot back, her voice rising to match his, eyes burning.

"That’s not what I said."

"She is my best friend," Sienna said, cutting him off, her voice trembling now with something raw beneath the anger. "She is the only family I have left that actually chose me."

"I never said that," Viktor snapped, his own frustration boiling over now. "But you’re acting like an irrational right now."

Sienna’s eyes flashed, but before she could respond, he kept going.

"May I remind you," he said, his voice rising, "she is my niece. Her mother is my step-sister. Her father is my brother-in-law. So leave this to me. Just stay safe." He crossed his arms, jaw tight. "End of discussion."

"You don’t give me orders," Sienna said, already turning toward the door, her whole body rigid with anger.

"Okay... okay, fine, I’ll leave," Viktor said quickly, some of the heat draining from his voice as panic replaced it. "Stay. You are being impossible right now."

But even as the words left his mouth, he knew they’d come out wrong. What he had actually meant to say was so much simpler: it’s too dangerous, don’t carry this weight alone; let me be the one who handles the danger so you don’t have to.

He wanted to protect her, not push her away. But somehow, of all days, today was the one where he couldn’t find the right words to make that clear.

The past week had worn him down more than he wanted to admit the invasion of his home, the blood on his hands last night, the constant, gnawing fear of losing her. And now this. Aria. The virus. Another impossible fight stacked on top of everything else.

He ran a hand through his hair, watching Sienna’s back stiffen near the doorway, and hated himself a little for how badly he’d just handled this.

Viktor walked out. Sienna shut the door behind him, harder than she meant to, the sound echoing down the hallway.

He still thought she was some fragile princess who needed locking away in a tower while other people fought her battles for her. She sat down at her desk, jaw tight, and got to work.

It took her several minutes. She traced the IP address thread by thread, bouncing through firewalls, dead ends, false trails clearly built by someone who knew what they were doing. But so did she.

Eventually, she broke through, sliding into their system quiet as smoke, and began working her way toward Aria.

On the other end, somewhere deep inside a facility in the Middle East, a man sat hunched over his own terminal, sweat beading along his hairline as red warnings flashed across his screen.

Around him, other technicians scrambled, typing frantically, trying to keep their system from collapsing under whatever had just breached it.

What do you want? He typed, hands shaking slightly over the keys. Want to talk to someone, Sienna typed back. Not possible. Ask for something else.

You already know who I am, Sienna replied. If I’m already inside your system, it will take less than a second to crash it. All of it. I wonder if you’ll be able to explain to your bosses how you lost years of research data.

A pause; it was longer this time. Please don’t do this, he typed.

Give me what I want. It’s simple. She sent the coordinates next, precise. You have a patient locked in one of your labs. Pass a phone to her. I want to talk. Here’s the exact location I traced.

We can’t. We can’t open the doors where the patients are kept.

Then get someone who can, Sienna typed. You have one second to give me what I want. Silence stretched for a moment. Then:

Fine. How about we connect you to the voice speaker in her cubicle? They’re isolated no one can enter. That should work.

I only want to speak to her. It didn’t take long. A small click sounded through her speakers, and then the line opened. You’re connected, the man typed.