On The Border - Marry Him Or Die

41

Alex’s POV

I messaged Lucas and told him to head back to the house because I was going to be late and wasn’t going to make it back to the warehouse on time.

I surveyed each camera from the day before the wedding and the same day. Those were the only days the shooter could have been smuggled inside in. Because up until those two days, my father was checking the feed regularly and he would have taken some actions if he noticed something suspicious.

It took me literally five hours to survey all the feeds from all the five cameras, I was being extra careful not to let anything slip by me so I took my time with them.

When the last feed ended, I got up from my stiff position and started walking around the empty warehouse to relieve my sore muscles. I was as confused as I have been; if not more, since I first walked in here looking for a god damn answer.

I started analyzing what I saw in those feeds logically, trying to make sense of the lack of answers.

The day before my wedding, no one passed through the mountain roads. They were only used for smuggling and we didn’t have any operation for the past week before my wedding. The official road in and out of Snow had some people passing through it. But every single car was thoroughly inspected by the security guards posted there. I checked every single inspection carefully.

The same goes for the day of my wedding. The official road had many visitors coming that day to attend the ceremony. And they were equally thoroughly searched. I even saw Melanie’s car being searched. There was nothing suspicious there. All the other mountain entrances, on the border, had no passers the day of my wedding. All except one car.

My uncle’s.

That was the only car the passed through one of the entrances.

I stopped dead in my track as I tried to remember if their car was searched or not but the dread that coursed through me at the possibility of that betrayal clouded my memory.

I raced back towards the monitor and frantically looked through the feed again.

He stopped at the roadblock. He and David were in the front seats and there was no one in the back seat.

He spoke a few words with one of the guards; I recognized as a Snow named Ethan, smiling broadly at him and then….

He let him through!

He didn’t check his trunk!

“No, no no no…. No way” I shook my head violently repelling the idea from registering into my head.

It’s impossible.

He would never…. Smuggle the assassin in his own car….he would never personally transport the murderer who would shoot his brother a mere hour later…. That’s just…. Fucking impossible and outrageous to even consider in the first place.

But it was the only car not searched. And It fits the timeline.

No, no! He would never kill his own brother. That’s just downright shattering.

What was his fucking motive? What would make him do something this vile and evil?

It can’t be power over the leadership! It can’t be greed over the tons of money offered by the drug lord to open up the path for drug smuggling! CAN IT!!!!

Because if that was the case, I’m not sure my mind could begin to understand the utter sickness of that logic!

Was he capable of killing his own flesh and blood for what? Leadership? Money?

Was he capable of watching us, his family, go through an unbearable amount of pain and agony just for his own agenda? For his own benefit?

My mind started peeling the layers that clouded my perception of him and his son ever since they came here. The layers that said he was family and there was nothing to be alerted or tentative about to seek further analysis about their behaviors.

I went back to the moment after I told him it was Patrick Walker who smuggled the shooter. He looked so shocked and distraught. It was genuine and so believable.

Then the moment my dad’s letter was read out loud. The one where he appointed me the head of the clan instead of him.

I remembered his angry dark look, and his son’s….. Fear.

I remembered how I thought it was weird for David to act scared. But I dismissed it back then.

It came as a huge shock to me that my dad passed the leadership over to me and not his brother.

Did he suspect him? Was that the reason he chose me? Was he afraid uncle Stefan was going to allow drugs into town because he suspected he was working with Lord Z?

But why didn’t he mention anything to me? Why did he keep this to himself?

The more I kept thinking about it, the more it continued to make sense and increased my disgust further and further.

How come I never questioned why he kept his son David here despite the fact that David never met us before the wedding? I never questioned why all of a sudden he decided to keep the son he never bothered to bring with him before and introduced all those years, living with us and among us when I made it clear to uncle Stefan that it was too dangerous for him here.

Why he didn’t call for him to come back now that the peace was established and we were no longer at risk of losing our lives.

David was his spy here.

He was present during every meeting and every plan we made, during our first operation after I took the leadership.

My heart refused what my mind was absolutely sure about now.

It was uncle Stefan.

He was the betrayer.

The killer.

I felt nausea course through me at the acceptance of that harrowing discovery, and I sprinted outside the warehouse.

I barely made it outside before I threw up my entire breakfast on the green wet grass.

I heaved and coughed rapidly while tears of anger and betrayal streamed down my face.

I shouted in the empty stretch of land to release the unbearable pressure threatening to make me explode into a million particle.

I screamed till I was blue in the face, but it did nothing to dull down the pain in my heart, in my soul.

Was the word family a big fucking lie everywhere?

Was loyalty and love just something temporary that can quickly be replaced with greediness and selfishness once money and power gets involved?

I can’t imagine a day where one of my brothers decides to eliminate me just to become the new leader of the clan.

Was it me? Was I wrong to refuse to believe that my uncle could be capable of such treachery? Was I living in a fake fantasy world of my own where I still believe with all my heart in the unbreakable bond between family that absolutely nothing could ever break it up or destroy it? Or was it the people around me who were wrong? The people who were selling their souls to the devil without giving a fucking thought about who gets killed in the process, even if that meant the closest people to them?

I can’t believe I put Jacob’s life in my uncle’s hands and sent him there to protect him.

My breath hitched, Jacob!

What if Jacob didn’t leave on his own? What if…. What if he did something to him?

I pulled out my phone from my jeans pocket and shakily dialed his phone.

He didn’t pick up, it was ringing though, which was better than hearing the not reachable tone.

I began to type a message for him to call me asap, but thought better of it and deleted it. Giving him till the end of the day before I go into a full panic mode.

It took me a long time to have the strength to get back up and stand on my legs again. But eventually I did.

I wiped away all traces of my disgust, anger, heartbreak, and grief, and focused on one thing, and one thing only.

Revenge.

What do they say about it?

Revenge is always sweet, it’s the aftertaste that’s bitter.