The Runaway

Chapter 5.

Dianna

"So they ran?" Mila asks as she takes in the damage of my daughters room.

I nod.  I haven't had the self will to clean up in here,  I feel bad about it but at the same time I think it's a reminder that I need to find her.  With everything I have, I will.

"We need to find them Mila." If not to bring them home, then just to apologize for my actions.

"And why aren't we telling our husbands?" Mila crosses her arms. 

"Because it was Volkovs idea in the first place to keep her trapped here.  He would do the same without hesitation.  If he finds out Ryder helped her, he would hurt him Mila." Tears spring to her eyes, as well as mine at the thought.  In this business you ask the Father for even the slightest outings with the daughter, helping her run away? Now that's a huge no no. 

"It's reality Mila. We can help them." I grab her hand and give it a light squeeze, "help me, help them.  Please." I whisper. 

She nods and lurches forward, giving me an earth shattering hug.

———————-

Ryders room is the complete opposite of my daughters.  While he has 5 different screens, it's dark and there's Blue lights, Sawyer is more of a light colours, book reading type of girl. 

Mila sits down in his gaming chair and take's the mouse into her hand almost immediately.  "One of Leon's biggest rules is that all of their systems should be connected.  You lose one computer or network, you should be able to trace it."

Many green lines of different sequences of numbers, symbols and letters pop up.  She scrolls and scrolls until she hits a certain area. 

"How do you know all of this?" I ask and pull up another chair to sit beside her. 

"While Ryder learnt everything I cued in and listened, I learnt everything he did." She shrugs and begins typing.  "Then men think us women are delusional and useless." She scoffs. 

"Can't blame them when they were raised like that, we just need to fix it." She nods in agreement and begins typing.

—————- 

Sawyer

Ryder doesn't do much work, he finishes it in a couple hours and does his own thing the rest of the day. 

So when he doesn't come out of his office for 6 hours I get a bit nervous.  I head in with a quick knock and let my eyes adjust to the darkness for a couple moments.  Then I head over to him while also leading myself with my arms so I don't bump into anything.  I drag my feet against the ground too so I don't trip and land on my face.

He didn't hear me enter so when I wrap my arms around him, his little jump doesn't surprise me. "You've been up here a while." I state and kiss the side of his head.

He nods, "your father is meeting with Alessio in a couple of days at a high schools football field, I have to get into all of the cameras around the school and cameras within a 4 block radius."

"Wow." I massage his shoulders briefly, "big job."
He nods and turns his cheek onto his shoulder and kisses my knuckles. "Don't you think this is all a bit much though? On Alessios part? I mean he barely knows us and he's starting a whole war with my family just for us? doesn't seem plausible."

"Alessio is doing this for his own reasons as well." Ryder turns his chair around, "it's none of my business, but I do know that your father and him used to be very close back in highschool."

"Oh." I didn't know, but then again I didn't know anything when it came to my father. I didn't know about his business until I took the initiative myself to find out what the hell was going on behind closed doors.

——————

Dianna

I pop open a bag of chips, take a handful and pass it to Mila.  "I can officially say this is the first time I have ever stalked anyone." I sigh and lean back further into my car seat. 

Mila eats a couple of chips and stretches her legs up onto the dashboard.  "I've stalked plenty." She says plainly. 

"Oh yeah?" I grin. "When?"

"Back when Ryder was 7 and we were still in our old house, I thought Leon was having an affair." She swallows and picks up her vodka soda for a quick sip.

I hum, "was he?"

"No." She laughs, "he was meeting a realtor to move here, Volkov even went a few times to help out since he wanted us to be close.  I thought Leon was gay."

I laugh, "Volkov has never given me a reason to stalk I guess, he's just always been uninterested in other women."

Mila turns and grins, "that man doesn't pay any attention to anyone else except for your family.  You got lucky there D."

I look down at my lap and fiddle with the label of my candies, "yeah." I mutter softly. 

"What's wrong?" She grabs my hand and gives it a little squeeze.  All of the thoughts swarming my head take a pause as I look back up at her. 

I shrug, "Volkov, it feels like he took so much."

"Away from Sawyer?" Mila asks. 

"I feel like he took so many opportunities away from her and I feel so manipulated." Tears gather in my eyes and even though I'm done crying and basically feeling bad for myself, now I just feel absolutely horrible when it comes to my baby girl. 

I continue, "I've been against the whole 'keeping her protected shit' since she was a baby.  Eventually I stopped fighting it, I thought it would just be easier to let Volkov do what he needed to do. He told me countlessly that this was the right thing to do, that it would protect her."

Mila swallows roughly, "protect her from the world? Or lock her away from it?"

"Both." I laugh unamused, I swipe at a tear that has fallen.  "I'm just done with that shit now, I should never have stopped fighting it."

"I mean yeah, but that doesn't mean you should degrade yourself like this D, Volkov and many other mafia men do this.  They're controlling, manipulative and no matter how much you fought he somehow would have got his way.

If you take all of what has happened into account, look who's winning now.  Your strong and capable fucking daughter Dianna.  She had to learn that from someone." She nudges my shoulder with her knuckles. 

Just as I sway to the left towards the window of the car the garage door opens ahead.  Ryder steps out first, lazily swinging car keys between his fingers. He turns back around and seems to say something to someone.  A bright smile parades his face as he places his sunglasses on top of his head.

A gasp leaves my lips as my daughter steps out in a sundress, her hair down and a brown bag tossed over her shoulder.  She looks so grown up.

Ryder pulls her in and kisses her as soon as she gets close enough.  "Oh shit." I exclaim.  Mila lets out a shocked and throaty laugh.

"Oh my Lord, that was, wow." She places a hand on her heart.  "Isn't that just cute? Young love." She giggles.

Ryder finally lets go and gives her ass a swat as she turns around and heads to the passenger side of the car.  I immediately close my eyes, "what the fuck!"

Mila squeals, laughing her ass off.  "Oh my, this is the best day of my life."

"Stop please." I laugh, "I did not need to see that."

Mila and I laugh again and we watch them drive off. I've never been more proud of her for making her own decisions and going after the things she wants, and yeah, if Volkov thinks I was done fighting for my daughter, he has another thing coming for him.