Ahead With The Plan

DAMON'S POV;

Leonardo and I for the past few days had been laying down plans and strategies that could certainly help to get back at Derek. My thirst for revenge was getting stronger by the day and I couldn't be happier that Elena had chosen to be a part of us. Uncovering the secret that Derek had been hiding all these years was one of the things that I was targeting. I couldn't help but imagine myself having the victory at the end of it all. He had to pay for everything that he did to me, and my parents. They were never his anyway. But the fact that he wanted to keep on being anonymous all his life could never get past him and wouldn't do him any favour.

It was a good thing that Elena had been able to capture his attention. It was a good thing that he gave her that card. And honestly, it pained me to have involved her in all of these because I knew my brother quite well. I knew his ways with women. I knew what he did to them. If he ever did anything like that to her I'd make sure that I plucked his eyes out and make sure he underwent an excruciating torture, more painful than death itself.

Elena seemed uncertain, yet determined to do this, and I understood that it was a result of her being kept home all day pleasuring different kinds of men. I shuddered at the thought and tried to calm the vexation that was bubbling from within me.

"The card contains the details of his address. From what I see here that's what it says." Elena furrowed her brows. "Isn't that weird? Isn't he supposed to be anonymous?" Her question was also my question and it made me reason, what was Derek attempting to do again? She handed the card to me, and I had to say that I was perplexed. He never disclosed his address to anyone. He trusted nobody enough to actually do so. What was going on? I contemplated and got suspicious.

"We can't be so sure about this. I know we've planned and strategized but none of us saw this coming. Him giving up his address just like that could be a trap. We can't afford to act out of impulse." Leo chimed in, his voice low and urgent, his eyes darted around with caution. "We have to be discreet when it comes to Derek. He's anonymous for a reason, and one of those reasons is because he's unpredictable."

I clenched my fist, having a feeling that he was steps ahead of us in this, but how could he know that Elena had anything against him? She was as innocent as a little bird. And I knew my brother fell too much for innocent ladies. He was a playboy and his targets were mainly innocent, naive sort of women. Could I even risk putting Elena in this sort of position? I mean it really didn't sit well with me, I didn't want her to get hurt. I didn't want to put her in harm's way so I had to look at her to study her features, but they gave nothing away which was unusual. Her face was always contorted with uncertainty and fear, but now, she seemed pretty determined to do what was on her mind and I needed to ask.

"Why?" I blurted and they both glanced at me with perplexity.

"Why what?" Leonardo asked but I faced Elena.

"Why have you volunteered to help even after what I did?" I questioned and she seemed to be searching for the right words.

"I don't know." Was her answer and that made me cock a brow. "I just want to help you because I know I can be of help. It's what you want, isn't it? After explaining all that happened between you and him I guess I didn't have the mind to say no anymore."

"I'm not forcing you to do this Elena. If you know you don't want to, you can just say so and we'll find a different means." I said with a low and calm tone, but deep down, I was scared something bad might happen to her.

"It's my choice, Antonio. I chose to do it because I can. I'm not going to back down from it just because I'm scared." She stated and my eyes dilated a little bit. I didn't understand where she was getting her confidence from but I had to admit that I liked it.

"Very well. I'll have my men keep very close tabs on you because I can't afford to see you getting hurt. You don't know Derek as much as I do." I said and she just shrugged. Not wanting to think too deeply about her nonchalant shrug, I shifted my thoughts to the card and took my time to think about it. We couldn't get to the bottom of the issue if this was the way it was. We would certainly have to investigate further.

I stared at the card as unease washed over me. I never felt this way about anything before, but it was Elena...Elena was involved. It just felt off. It felt like some sort of trap to lure us into danger. Or could it be that he understands that it's us? I thought I made sure he wasn't aware that we were behind her going to him.

"We need to be careful from what I feel like literally. Because he never, ever since we were young; Derek had never disclosed his location to anyone, not even his mother or father. We'd searched for him and searched and even given up believing he was dead if not for the fact that his body was not found gave us a little hope that he could still be alive." Leo said and I remembered that day.

The day he had disappeared from home because he no longer wanted to live with his family. I thought it was a joke when he was telling me that night, I never knew he meant every fucking word.

"This could be a way for him to have an upper hand over us and I really don't want such a thing to happen. Especially when we have a lady as one of us." Leo's voice broke through my thoughts as his tone was urgent and cautious. I cocked a brow. He'd been showing compassion towards Elena lately. He never did that to any of his girlfriends. What's going on? I didn't have time to ponder about it.

But he was right. We couldn't afford to let down our guard. Derek, right from when we were kids had proven to be an unredeemable adversary. He would never hesitate to strike if the chance were given to him. This opportunity, I dared not allow to slip away from my hand, my desire for revenge gawned at my throat, every day and night and I never thought it would leave me until it was fulfilled. I had anger clawing through my veins every night, I had self-control trying to curb the anger I felt within each time I remember that night.

"Nothing can hold us back. If that is how he wants to do it, then we better have not only a plan A but a plan B and C. We can't permit fear to hold us back and we need to see ourselves through this." I turned to Elena who stared at me with her doe eyes. "Since you're willing to take the risk, we need a more detailed plan, we can't let him know that you're from us. We can't let him know that. Neither can he know that we're onto him."

"We're searching for his secret, and I understand what you mean. I'll do all that I can to expose him and bring him down." She said.

"Gathering more information is required at the moment before making any moves. Perhaps we should wait for a sign. We can't walk into his traps blindly. He gave you his card, insinuating that you could come anytime. And from what I know about him, he expects his women to be submissive and run after him. If you do that, it could build a way for suspicion because most of those women had plans and you don't want to know what he did to them."

"It's still on the internet to this day," I said as I typed away on my computer, browsing for the ladies he'd molested after they tried to use him. I didn't think Elena would want to see the horrific sight of these brutally damaged women. She could barely stand a person getting shot, not to talk of this. "Each of these ladies was meant to be anonymous as well, but it appears some of them were being used by mafia groups to get at him, whereas he had warned them never to disclose the location he sent them. Turns out many of them died immediately after he did what he did to them. It's written here. 'I told them not to disclose my location, but they did immediately. I sent them the address. They really thought I was a fool'.

I noticed Elena visibly gulp. "Leo, I need you to do some research on this." Leo walked down to me. "He pasted the address he sent to them on the internet. Could this mean..."

Leonardo immediately went to research the locations.

"Thirteen different locations. Most of them are hotels but never his personal place. Few of them are his mansions, but he has way more than fifteen mansions all over the world. It appears he gave these girls addresses to the mansions he never used. He never slept in those mansions. They were mainly to trick the girl." After Leo said that, we unanimously turned to Elena who was dumbfounded.

"You sure you still wanna go for this?" Leonardo asked. "Or perhaps we could gather all the necessary intelligence to ensure our plan has the best chance for success. I'll have to do more research just to ensure safety because we can't tell what he's after. But then you're our key, we need to figure out what he's hiding. You're our chance to get close to him but we want to be sure one more time. Elena, can you do this? We don't want you to get hurt. I think we should get another girl for the work."

"No. Don't!" She said.

"I don't want to risk you ending up like one of those girls. I swear to god I will invade all his spaces and destroy everything that he has. He had better not risk it."

"That's it!" Leonardo stated it was his turn to be glanced at. "Your brother knows you. He knows to which extent you can go. If it is true that he knows that she's from you, it wouldn't be so easy for him to hurt her. But if he doesn't know and thinks she's clean? She's also safe. I don't think he fears any other mafia as much as he fears you, Damon. Gaining his trust would be easy."

I placed a hand on her shoulder, a mix of gratitude and concern washing over me. "Just promise me you'll be careful. Derek is dangerous, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

Elena smiled faintly, a glimmer of reassurance in her gaze. "I'll be careful, Damon. I won't let him catch on to what we're planning."

The stakes were really high because it was a dangerous game we were playing. But we wouldn't stop till the very last drop of his blood touches the ground. I didn't want anything bad to happen to her. But I'll be there to protect her, to watch over her so she wouldn't risk such happening to her. I knew she was willing to go to this extent for me, and that was why I would go to any extent to keep her safe. I had her, and she had me.