Then last but by no mean least, standing center ground with Nicco, was the mountain of the 25 year old, hot tempered, 6ft. 8, Dimitri Vazclav. Out of all of them who Erin was now being forced to confront, he would have to be the most intimidating, as he towered over everyone else in front of us. His eyes which were glued forward, bore straight through her.
I had grown-up in this house, seen people come and go by the dozens over the years, but never had I seen anyone like him come through our door before. Which is a fact that I'm sure that has not fully registered in Erin's mind yet, because if it had there is no doubt in my mind that she would be on her knees begging for leniency.
I'm sure that I was not alone with still feeling not only shocked but dumbfounded as well that not only was he basically the only reason that I have Mia back and alive, but that he was standing shoulder to shoulder per say with my men willing to protect and defend Mia, my wife. I was finding it mind boggling that the son of Gregory Vazclav, a man that Mia personally had not only led a raid on his home, but also the man that had made it clear to Mia that the next time that they came face to face that he would personally make the end of her life come slowly by his hand. Somehow it wasn't just that he was the son of the man who had ripped my family apart that but also because he came with both a reputation and a past that she was well aware of. The reputation that followed Dimitri was just that of his father's name, but one that he built for himself as well. He was known to for being completely heartless, emotionless and merciless, gaining what he wanted no matter what the consequences were that came with it, in his mind he not only did he deserve everything that he had forcibly taken from others, but felt as though he was owed what he took as well due the horrible childhood, family life, let alone the vile way that he had been trained and brainwashed by his father.
There were an uncountable number of differences between the Dimitri and Erin, though the one that should have sat them apart, was the one I now found the roles being reversed on in a way that I would have never imagined that I would ever see in my lifetime. Whereas Erin should have had every reason to protect Mia, even if that meant laying down her life in order for Mia to survive. We had never given her a reason be feel as though she had been betrayed, unwanted or unneeded by our family. So, to find out that she had been part of this whole plan that had been put into motion against Mia baffled me due to the amount disloyalty, hatred, vengeance and amount of disregard for life that it took to plan something so cruel against now only us, but against Mia in general. When Dimitri had no reason to show us any amount of loyalty, let alone the amount of trust and compassion that he did. There was no reason for him to help Mia, to the lengths that he had gone to get her out of his father's grasp or to insure she was alive when we got to her. Yet again here I stood still baffled that he was ready to rip out Erin's throat in front of me, in front of my family, in my home, in defense of Mia, in order to protect someone who not long ago her would have rather put into the ground.
When I was younger my father once told me that it only take one event to completely change your entire outlook on life and change the way that you live your life. At the time he told me that I remember laughing in his face telling him that he needed to stop living in time that had long since passed, which made me realize that I owed him an apology now, because I was witnessing how much truth that statement truly held in this situation, and how much one event had changed Dimitri.
When his father and Irena had taken his son from his arms at birth, shipping him away in hopes that he somehow get lost in the system here and that Dimitri would never be able to find him again. That was Dimitri's life changing event for sure, seeing the true colors of his father in the same way as my family has. So, when he saw Mia that day cuffed, beaten and made to kneel before his father as he laughed, then hearing that she had been ripped unwillingly away from her babies, and how they had been left, something in him snapped. I can't say for sure, but I think that was when he made his choice take a chance on getting Mia not only home to her own kids, but also use this as a possibility of seeing his own son again and being the father, he wanted to be for him.
I had, had no intentions initially of trusting Dimitri at all, because I knew all too well how smoothly he was able to talk to get what he wanted or needed without following having to through on his end. But like every time before somehow Mia was able to talk me into letting her make what she knew was the right choice. There was something that I had never been able to put my finger on, but somehow she was always right about people when it was needed the most. Although I would trust Mia hands down with my life over anyone else that I have ever met, though I was sure she was crazy for trusting him, let alone asking me to trust him as well. Looking back on it now and thinking about how clear it was to me now, that she had been right. He had willingly given us the name and location of his son, the one and only weakness he had in order to prove that he was not the only one that had something to lose if this agreement went south unexpectedly.
I remember feeling like my heart stopped when Irena had called me with that video, and whether she meant to or not, she had flashed the camera towards Dimitri's location. When I saw for myself that he wasn't sitting comfortably in a chair with his head turned away, ignoring the situation while he waited to play his part again.
No, that's not what I saw in that brief amount of time that the camera showed him. Honestly, I think I would have preferred seeing that than what I saw that day for myself. Though he had not given me nor Mia any reason to doubt him up to that point, for some reason watching him being forced to kneel on the floor in front of his father and Irena, his head hung down in shame, while making every attempt not to witness another victim being hurt at his father's hands. He had made to kneel on the floor in front of the, with his hands with fingers interlaced on the back of his head, while the woman who had both given him and taken his son, stood over him, while he was helplessly forced to watch who he could no longer deny was Mia's sister-in-law while she streamed the video to her family as well as the way that she cheered his father on while he inflicted merciless pain onto someone who had been willing to take a chance to trust him. I couldn't even begin to imagine the thoughts that would have had to been going through his head at that moment. This was probably the first time in his entire life that his words were meaningless to his father, he had been made defenseless should their rage have turned to him suddenly, forced to watch as they took out their version of justice on Mia while he was made to helplessly watch without a way to keep his word, which to him was more than likely the worst part of this equation.
I would never tell him that I been able to clearly see his reactions each time that a round was released from Gregory's gun.
The look of horror that accompanied the first crack of the gun, the sickened look that quickly turned into a defeated panic as the second round was fired, the instant mourning at the loss of his chance to see his son again in his eyes as the final shot rang, a look that truly killed me, and that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Even though I knew I would have to keep my word to him, after seeing how only hearing the shots effected him, while knowing that somehow at that moment I had been cheated, let alone the fact that if I wouldn't have kept my word that Mia would have found away to come back and kill me herself for not honoring my word. He would have gotten his son back in his arms, able to watch him grow, able to watch him smile and laugh everyday, and finally being able to live out his life in any way that made them both happy. While I on the other hand would have been getting back my wife in order to bury her. I wouldn't have heard her laugh again, hear her tell me that she loves me, I would never be able to hold her against me to feel her heart beating in perfect rhythm with my own. My life would have been over in that moment, I would have never loved another women for the rest of my life, even then I knew that no matter how much she would have wanted to move on and be happy that no one would have been able to fill her place in not only my heart, but my family's as well. But I also knew from just that scene, not only had he not been trying to play us for fools, but he also had had no choice in his position for those events.
After watching those events play out there was nothing could have prepared me for Dimitri making the call telling me that Mia was actually still alive after Gregory had shot her. Even after he had proven himself several times over already, I should have never doubted that Mia had been right about him.
When we landed, while Alex our father and I waited for their plane to land, the thought was still in the back of my head that he was still playing us all as part of a plan of his father's sick plan. Though that thought almost instantly disappeared, when I saw Mia on those stairs, wounded and weak but walking off the plane with Dimitri holding her close to him for support. I was also ashamed of myself for not having faith in someone Mia trusted, knowing that if this had been a planned ambush, we wouldn't have made it out.
He had managed to stop her bleeding, cleaned her wound the best that he had been able, and kept her warm after the amount of blood that she had lost. It didn't take me long to realize that if it hadn't been for Dimitri, Mia would have more than likely died that day. If it had not been for Dimitri that day, there is no doubt that she would have died painfully, and completely alone, while I would have had live with the knowledge that Gregory and Irena had left her where she fell and watched as it happened.
I would be indebted to Dimitri Vazclav for the rest of my life, because this was a debt that I had no way of ever repaying him for, but seeing him standing where he was now I may have come up with a way to somehow start to repay a never ending debt.