Chapter 18

"It's our job Tommy, if you could just let is do the negotiations, we'll keep the boy and give you what you want, that's not your worry, we'll keep go our side of the deal, never mind the press and media, we've faced better opposition" Pete insisted.
"How? With what? You're out of cash, stack is frozen and with nothing, how do you run with no resources Jackie?"
Pete stood, dumbfounded as the man nodded with a sympathetic face.
"Exactly, you can't. That will be risk myself, yourself and the bab__"
"Cut the bullshit! You don't give a rat ass what happens to the baby or Brownson" Pete stated.
"Despite this minor political disagreement, we're friends and colleagues, Brownson's a good man" Tommy replied lowly.
"Right, and you sleep with his wife and now kidnap his only child, very poetic" Pete stated with a sarcastic laugh.
Tommy's expression gave him away at the very statement but within seconds, he regained his composure and smiled.
"Be it as it may, a safe house, food and whatever else you need until this is all over, that's what I can give" the Senator stated firmly.
"And the baby?" Pete asked.
"For everyone's good, I'll take the baby from here" Tommy replied.
"We won't be needing your safe house, we'll be fine on our own" Pete replied and made to move away.
"I'm afraid I can't allow that. We must not let you loose all over the place, not until this is over, we don't want you saying what you're not ought to" Tommy stated in a nice voice.
"I'm not a child, nothing I say would keep me out of jail, so no need. We'll be safe out there" Pete said and nodded to Valeria and Nick who too turned.
"You must stay Jack, you need to stay until all this is over, all of you" Tommy stated and with that, signalled the five men who quickly grabbed them and began to cuff them up.
The man handling Valeria took the bundle from her and frowned, handing her a sounding slap that turned her cheek red in a split second.
"What is it?" Thomas asked as the guard looked at the bundle and frowned.
"It's a doll" the armed man replied and showed the bundle to Tommy.
Just as Tommy clutched the bundle, a small pop sound was made and a foul gas emited from the bundle, making Tommy leap away as it hurt his eyes.
Valeria retrieved a dagger from her ankle length boot and threw it at the nearest guard, her aim was perfect as usual and if stuck into his left eyes and he yelled, fighting to take it off.
Nick was quick to overpower the man handling him, he gave a punch to the gut, tossed with him on the hay covered ground seized his guns and fired twice at the other two who rushed to the scene. Pete took a spare gun from the holster of the man beside him and fired thrice before turning to Senator Tommy and without a second thought he fired thrice too, watching as the portly man fell to the floor, stone dead.
"Let's go" Pete yelled as he heard gunshots from the distance, piercing the haystack around them.
Valeria was first to take cover and ducked between the goats, laying flat on her belly in the dungs and crawling to the other end where the bullet proof jeep was parked, Nick followed behind her as Pete fired and tried to fend off the attacks. As soon as the engine steamed, Pete ran into the Jeep, a bullet missing his shoulder by an inch and together, they sped off the farm, picked up Moses who was wrapped in hay and laid in a cow she'd before zooming off into the city.
Pete was perched on a low stool in a poor looking restaurant in Oregon. The air was slightly humid, thankfully and the soda he had was very cold. Nick sat two seats from him, both pretending not to be together inorder to curb suspicions, he too was nursing a bottle of soda since that was all that was on the drink menu in the rundown place. Valeria was on a table, nursing Moses with a worn out expression on her face, whether from the past events or from the younger man talking her ears off, one couldn't be sure but she dutifully fed the baby his milk as she chewed the tasteless toast and drank her can of soda too.
The expression "Bad news spread like wildfire" was one of the most fitting expressions Pete had ever heard, considering he'd seen a wild bushfire before and now was witnessing how fast bad news seemed to spread. In the short hours they'd driven to the small city just east of the farm, over a dozen patrons in the overcrowded bar were either discussing the shootout or some cooked up version of mafia nd drug cartel shootout that happened at the farm. Nick sat now, sandwiched between two older men, heatedly discussing about the shootout like they were there on the farm when it happened.
Pete gulped his chilled drink, happy at least that it quenched his taste, his nerves though we're far from calm or appeased. He sneaked a look behind him anytime the bell above the door chimed t indicate the entry of a new patron. He had changed his black shirt to a polkadot sweater and a hoodie he borrowed for free off a clothing store when no one was looking.
Valeria had changed into a large top and yoga pants, a red bob wig and discarded the glasses. Nick too was changed into a brown leather jacket, a white T-shirt but kept his faded blue jeans. They had all washed the blood and dung from their hair and faces and decided to hit the road after a quick bite, not because they were hungry but because they wanted to watch the news and here the gossip about what had happened and how hot the police was on the matter.
Having lost their phones during the search before they met with Tommy - a now dead Tommy, they hadn't quite waited to get it back when rounds of bullets was being fired at their heads. Now with no phone, no radio except the one in the car what they had stolen off a small photography studio after ditching the Jeep in a hospital parking lot once Nick had stated that it had a very active tracker. The radio in the new stolen semi-van wasn't working and so they had no choice but to grab a few bites and maybe quench their tastes while at it.
"May I?" A busty blonde asked Pete as she already sat on the barstool next to his and crossed her fishnet clad legs.
Pete subdued a sigh and flashed her a smile, wondering if it wasn't a little too early for the 'work'. It was just 6:48 PM and in the July summer, the sun still shone a little too brightly and the heat had hardly subsided.
"Want to buy a lady a drink?" She asked sweetly.
"I'm afraid not" Pete replied conclusively and emptied his bottle before rising from the stool and moving to the door.
Outside, Nick was already by the semi-van, munching on a bag of chips and trying hard not to pace, his face schooled in a very calm expression.
"We'll have to get a place for the night" Pete said as he approached and went into the front seat.
"Thanks Mr. Obvious" Nick snapped and got behind the wheels.
Valeria emerged from the front door, thanked the kind young man that had insisted on helping her and then sashayed into the semi-van, heaving a sigh immediately afterwards.
"Lucky you, all the men are too blind to put two and two together" Pete observed as she dropped her very full bag on the seat and laid the baby slowly on it.
"What now?" She asked as Nick started the engine.
"First, we get gas and then a place to pass the night" Nick said, nodding at the empty tank that was already indicating.
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