The gravel crunched beneath the tires as Alex pulled into the circular driveway of Villa 3.
He killed the engine and sat for a moment, taking in the three-story estate that had become home to Viktor's team.
The place looked lived-in now. Not just occupied, but claimed. Security cameras tracked his approach with professional precision. The gardens were meticulously maintained. Lights glowed warmly through the windows, suggesting activity inside.
It hadn't been that long ago... weeks, really... that these same men had been desperate, hunted fugitives watching their commander die by inches. Alex remembered the hospital room, the hollow eyes, the barely-controlled panic radiating from every one of them.
They'd been dangerous then too, but in the way cornered animals are dangerous... unpredictable, liable to lash out at anything that looked like a threat.
He'd been one wrong word away from becoming that threat.
Now?
Now they were his. His people. His family.
