Dry Your Tears

Twenty Six

" Come on, let's get moving." Ashe ordered with an authority that the men were still getting used to, they had just arrived in Puglia after a four hour drive overnight from Naples, they were hungry, exhausted but determined, skilled and possessed with enough anger and hate to fight and win the battles to come. It was still slightly dark and after walking for about an hour from the cars, which they had hidden behind shrubbery and trees, to the end of the forest, Marchesi's estate far but in sight which meant that they were close.

"Let's rest here for a few hours, his security is at it's max when it's dark although inconvenient it's best to attack during daylight." Ashe spoke, the men dropped the heavy guns that were strapped on their bodies and fell to the floor with a tired sigh. Jonathon went off to call Amelia with a burner phone, Sander and James checking up on the gadgets while Elias, Adam and John spoke of the events that were to come. Adam looked discreetly at Ashe, who was standing away from the group, looking ahead at Marchesi's distant estate with an expression that could only resemble pain. He knew how difficult this must have been for her, going back to the place where she had tortured, assaulted, beaten all while she was still a child. She was witnessed the death of her mother, the prostitution that was rampant around her, men laughing at her, telling her that that was what would she would grow up to be. Adam and Elias had promised she'd never have to come back here that fateful day they'd rescued her almost four years ago and now she was back. She was back but on her own accord, back and ready to kill all the bastards, the perverts and pedophiles that had taken advantage of her.

With a heavy sigh Ashe turned away from her view of the mansion and began walking towards the group again. John looked in her direction, skepticism and doubt filling his voice when he spoke up.

"I can't believe we're putting our lives in the hands of an eighteen year old girl." He muttered bitterly and before him or anyone in his company could even blink, Ashe had whipped out two lethal knives, stealthily hidden in her sleeves, one piercing his neck, dangerously placed against his carotid artery, the other one against his ribcage facing up.

"What is the problem here exactly? That I'm eighteen or that I'm a girl." She hissed in his ear, knives still in their dangerous position while the others watched on with baited breaths, some looking at Elias and Adam to see if they'd intervene.

"All it takes is a little bit of pressure." She whispered, applying said pressure, not enough to hurt him but enough for a drop of blood trickle down his throat.

"Ashe," Adam began and the woman withdrew her knife, flipping them before hiding them up her sleeves again.

"Let's go, come on." She said before walking away, Adam and Elias exchanged glances, John earning a glare from almost everybody before they all got up to catch with the blonde.

The sun was already up in the sky, shining brightly as they walked, destination nearing, Adam and Ashe walked together side by side.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Adam couldn't help but finally blurt out after struggling for the past hour to find a way to ask.

"When I was younger I used to watch Marchesi's men train out in the courtyards, and when he killed my mother, a friend of hers taught me the basics. It's only when you guys brought me to the base did I really take the time to practice and improve, while you guys were helping the other girls find jobs, families etc., I was learning to be stronger, better, faster, deadlier. I hoped to one day join the team, if Elias would let me at least." Ashe explained and Adam looked at her with a stunned look, she was barely a teenager when they had rescued her, only sixteen when she had first met Olivia. It was sick to think that life and the cruelty of men had forced such a good person, a child, to age so quickly.