Book 2, Chapter 10: Don't Tell God

**Third Person**

At the O’Donnell compound, in the training warehouse on the far side of the property, eleven brothers are sparing fiercely against one another. All four of their fathers are watching closely, correcting form when needed. Younger siblings are pitted against the older ones.

“Again!” Charlie shouted to Wyatt and Zane, who was practicing a new defensive kung-fu move. Arthur was helping Jamison with the punching bags while Oliver, Chapman, Xavier, and Jamie wrestled on the mats. Ben and Jason were cheering them on.

Kai was watching Tristin and Lucien's tag team against Caleb, the oldest, in the boxing ring. They were going skin to skin, like MMA fighting. The trio was dancing around the ring; you could feel the tension on the other side of the warehouse. The twins were holding nothing back, sending blow after blow to Caden. Caden had blocked many blows and landed a few of his own, but the twin’s relentless assaults eventually won, and Caden fell on the mat, where he began to spit out blood.

“What the fuck is wrong with you both? This isn’t war! Are you trying to kill me?” Caden growled, spitting more blood on the mat. Kai just watched them with a curious cock of his head.

“Oh, stop your complaining, you ass! Get up and take it like a man!” Tristin seethed, bouncing on his heels, ready to take another shot at his oldest brother.

“Tee, maybe we should stop? We got him good. Enough, now,” Lucien tried to intervene, but Tristin pushed him away.

“No! Mads is gone because of him! He was supposed to protect her. We all were! We all failed! She should be here with us! But he is our oldest brother. He and Arthur are supposed to protect all of us. They were supposed to handle Black Spade and didn’t. He fucking failed. And now, who knows where she is, if she’s okay?” Tristin cried out. He sunk to the floor in despair and began to cry softly. Lucien sat next to him, and the two of them grieved.

The youngest triplets were extremely close; being unable to see or hear Madison’s voice every day hurt the younglings more than anyone knew.

Seeing his youngest brothers so distraught broke Caden’s heart. He wiped the blood off his nose and walked over to the pair, sinking on his knees in front of them. “Tee, it’s going to be okay. You are right, we failed, Tee. We all fucked up. We didn’t take the threats as seriously as we should. She is alive. And you know Mads is like a mini version of Mom. She is stubborn, smart, and a quick thinker. Whoever the bastard Black Spade is, he will have a rude awakening when she starts causing mischief. The whole organization is looking for her. We are going to find her and bring her home.” Caleb said gently, reassuring his brothers. “Besides, I don’t think we want Mom’s wrath again. I was just healing from that beatdown. We all were. I’ll take running through the maze with Abba any day.” Caden added, and the boys chuckled.

Just as Caleb helped the boys up, the main door opened with a bang. Everyone turned to see a silhouette in the doorframe holding a travel bag. The tall, shrouded man walked further into the warehouse, his features no longer masked by shadows.

“JULIEN!” Tristin and Lucien yelled with glee and ran sprinting to their brother. They pounced on him like tigers having dinner.

“Julien! You came back.” Tee said, still hugging him.

“Of course, I came back, little bro. I can't let you asshats have all the fun!” Julien exclaimed. Tristin released him only for Julien to be embraced by Lucien, followed by all the brothers and their fathers.

“Thanks for coming back, son. I am sorry we pulled you away from your parish,” Charlie said as he embraced his child.

“It’s okay, Dad. Family comes first,” Julien said with a small smile. “Where’s Mom?” He asked, looking around. He was wearing his black pantsuit and collar, looking groomed and pious.

“At the house with the girls and the kids. Lockdown has been hard on the little ones especially,” Jason told him.

Julien just nodded before he bent down and grabbed his bag. “Good,” he said, opening his bag, taking out a small black knife, and examining it in the warehouse lights. He pocketed the knife. All the men had shocked expressions on their faces. “The less Mom knows, the better…” he said with a shrug. “It’s time to bring our Princess home. And I think I know where to start looking…” Julien said, an evil sparkle in his eye. Julien then removed his sacred collar from his neck and loosened his shirt. He then grabbed his rosary from his pocket, kissed the cross, and put it in the bag along with the collar. “Don’t tell God, deal?” He said with a wink to his younger brothers, who happily smiled.

“We have scouts in every city tracking down spade suppliers for intel, and our tech team is working around the clock to see if there are any digital footprints. Where do you think she is, son?” Ben asked. All eyes were trained on the quiet brother.

“Let’s just say a little birdie may have told me that the Black Spade has part of his operations in Eastern Europe along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Based on some other chatter I’ve been picking up, most likely Albania, but possibly Croatia or Bosnia as well,” Julien told them.

Ben and August’s faces lit up when they heard the mention of those countries. “Papa? Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Could it really have been under our nose the whole time?” August asked, and Ben nodded eagerly as if they had just solved the da Vinci code.

They took off together down the stairs into the “nerd herdquarters” as Madison once coined, and they quickly went to their computer systems and began typing away. Screens with exotic symbols flitted across the screens.

The others followed behind and watched both men typing furiously. They began to speak to each other in a language no one understood.

“AHA! Gotcha, you son of a bitch!” August yelled with a smile on his face. “Papa! Come see.” He called out. Ben rushed over and looked at the mumbo jumbo on the screen. “I have to hand it to him; the guy is really good.” August admired. The other men stood on pins and needles, waiting for the two tech geniuses to fill them in.

“Fuck yes! Look here…. Send this to Harvey. Now that we know what we are looking at, we can turn the tables and track this bastard. Oh, way to go, son!” Ben said and kissed August’s cheek exaggeratingly. The boys all chuckled at their father’s dramatic antics. Ben was one of the more affectionate of the four.

“What’s going on, Ben?” Jason asked, stepping up to the computer.

“Albanian. The fucker uses Albanian in his codes, which is why we have had a hard time properly fighting the Trojan horses we encounter. And it looks like a mix of old and new Albanian. It will take some time to decode as only Madison studied it religiously when she was younger, but I picked it up from her. Papa knows some words, too. We are one step closer. I bet my inheritance she is in Albania.” August said excitedly.

“Both Durre and Tirana have massive shipping ports on the coast of Albania. Father… That cargo ship that carried several of our containers that got ambushed a few weeks ago… the manifest had it stop off in Tirana…” Arthur pointed out.

“And the next port is where they discovered some of our supplies were missing or damaged,” Caden said, finishing his brother’s thoughts.

“Shit, you’re right. We need to check all of our European manifests in the last ten years, especially the ones where cargo was missing, stolen, or damaged. Let’s focus on digital search in Albania, Croatia, and Bosnia. And someone needs to call Uncle Tyler. He will be able to get us our spies in Greece. You all know what needs to be done, so do it. I want our baby girl home.” Jason said with finality. All the boys hurried off to get dressed.

“Julien, come with me. Your spot was never filled. You belong back on the team. We have two recruits for the Omegas; I think you will love them,” Kai said, clapping his son’s shoulder.

“That sounds good, Abba. Let’s get recon started. Madison is our number one priority. When we get a new lead, I could use a few rounds in the maze. I’m itching to practice with those new ninja-throwing stars,” Julien said eagerly.

“That’s my boy! Wait till you see the new snake collection. I’m designing a whole new experiment…” Kai said excitedly as they went down to the exclusive Omega Team headquarters. Opening up the door, Kai whispered, “Welcome home!”