Chapter 37
It was ten minutes later before the train finally began to rattle and steam, ready to move. Pete and Nick had both began to look for Valeria, all the bathroom stalls had been empty except for one where two young girls were doing really noisy things. They had searched the tickets area, the cafeteria, the magazine stand and everywhere else in the station but Valeria was nowhere to be found.
Pete had decided that they board the train and leave Oregon like they had planned, the local news was already reporting the fire outbreak, gunshot and dead body found in the early hours of the morning and their neighbours at the flat had mentioned a couple and a brother in-law having stayed in the flat. A description had no doubt been given and he knew if he stayed in Oregon longer, he and Nick would be fished out and that would be game over.
"Call her again" Pete said as he went inside the train and took his seat.
"Line's still off" Nick replied
"Fuck that snake! That bitch" Pete swore angrily and clenched his jaw in rage.
"She may be caught up in__"
"No, she isn't. I know Vee and I know she can be a manipulative and tricky bitch sometimes, I just hope she isn't stupid enough to do what I think she wants to do" Pete cut him in.
"Sir please take your seat, we're leaving" the attendant said as others sat.
"Seat 305 and 308?" She asked.
"My wife couldn't make it, she'll be joining us in Nevada later" Nick replied and the attendant cast him a wink before smiling seductively and catwalking away.
"Bloody hell!" Pete wore between clenched teeth as the train moved away that morning, gliding noisily on it's rusting tracks.
Valeria sat on the immaculate white sheets of the hospital bed, looking at Moses who was fast asleep after being attended to by the pediatrician. She hadn't slept a wink all through the night and had stayed awake until the she was told she could go in and see him. His wound was cleaned and now smelled just of antiseptic and fresh gauze, his face wasn't as pale and his breathing was less raspy than it had been the previous day.
As she sat, her mind was troubled, her nerves rattling and her face no matter how hard she tried was a mask of worry. Her rattled look was what had got her quick help yesterday when she arrived at the hospital, crying and begging to be helped. She had said she was a French widow who was had no where to go and no one to turn to, lying that Moses, who's name she had changed to Frank had been burnt by hot steam in the kitchen when her husband's family came to meet with her after his death. she was infact a mistress in this pathetic story and the legitimate wife hated her with a vengeance.
She insisted that all she wanted was for her child to be okay and she didn't want to press charges, saying it was an honest accident done by a six year old niece of his late husband - lover - while helping to make coffee for the family gathering.
The kind nurse sympathized with her and and had taken the child to the ward for her, insisting he be attended to quickly as the wound had already been infected, thus giving the baby fever and it was at the point fatal.
As Valeria fidgeted on the hospital bed, she could feel her phone vibrate yet again. It had been a nerve wracking decision to turn it on earlier that morning but as she sat now, she wondered if it was the right decision at all. The calls had been coming in for hours now and she knew exactly why it would be from, she didn't want to take them, hoping that Nick would call instead and then she could try talking to the more reasonable of the pair.
She scooted closer to the baby in his cot and peeped, he was still sound asleep and she sobbed in relieve and joy, he was going to live and not die right in her arms just like Lily had done years back. She wiped feverishly at her eyes and sighed heavily, wishing she didn't have to do any of this, she didn't take the gig at all and even wishing also that the kidnap had been unsuccessful that night. But knowing Pete, it would never have been unsuccessful, infact, it had no choice but to be a success. Pete was meticulous like that, everything was planned to the walk and plans he crafted out really rarely failed and when and if they did, it was fatal and the results needed another plan to cover them up.
Just as Valeria thought about braving herself and answering his calls, her wish came true and Nick rang her, his number unmistakable. It had been a necessity to all know the others encrypted numbers off hand and the code to trace the real line should they be using an encrypted phone too. So as Valeria saw the seven digit number, she knew at once that it was Nick.
"Hey" she said as she picked.
"So we should still be waiting at the train station?" Nick asked
"Don't play dumb, I know you couldn't wait there for long, the local cops had our alias and some CCTV shots all over the news by then, I knew you'd leave without me" she replied.
"This wasn't the plan Valeria, if anything changed you should have spoken to us" he said.
"How? Pete was being unreasonable, he refused to listen to anyone and you weren't exactly on my side either Nick, I had no choice, I had to do what I had to do" she defended.
"We are a team and we don't just do stuffs without running it through each o__"
"Running it through Pete you mean? I'm sick of his stupid schemes and plans, I'm sick of it all, is can't be dancing to his tune no more"
"So that's it now? You're becoming lone ranger again? Huh?"
"Once was, no big deal in doing it again" she replied, hoping her fears didn't betray her.
"That's very selfish, what about us? Huh? Have you stopped a second to think want this means for us? The stack? The job?" Nick asked, his voice raising.
"You know what? I haven't and you know why?" She asked.
"Because I'm tired of thinking of the stack and the job when there's a fucking baby's life on the line! There is ought to be honor even amongst thieves, where is our honor? Tied to some loot in the centre of nowhere? We've risked too much for that stack and I'm thinking maybe it isn't worth it" she replied her very own question.
Nick chuckled from the end of the phone, a confused and irritated laugh.
"Is this some joke? Are you really turning on us? Because you don't expect us to just watch you ruin everything" he reminded her.
"No Nick, I don't exactly expect anything. I just want the baby fine and then we can settle our scores by ourselves" she responded.
"There will be more than scores to settle if you lose that baby without us making the videos we can show to Brownson" he stated
"I'm not afraid of you Nick, I never have been and never will be, infact, I don't care what you guys do, I simply don't care, you can have the stack, have everything, just leave that little boy out of this, he is battling with his fucking life for a crime he don't commit, a crime not even his father committed! What exactly are we punishing Moses for? Huh? This wasn't part of the plan, we're just being horrible people right now and you and I know that this boy doesn't deserve half of what he's getting, he is just a year old Nick, where is our bloody conscience?" She asked, exasperatedly.
"I don't think you know what you're doing Valeria, where will you go to? What will you do with him?" He asked.
"I'm not so foolish to tell you where I'm going Nick, nice try. As for what I'll do, I'll do what we should have do me a long time ago, leave him in safe hands and let his family get him, simple" she replied.
"We will do just that, let us just do the videos first, I promised we'll return the baby to some hospital and__"
"Stop, you won't and we both know that. You can't take that risk, I can. I will and I don't care what I have to lose, I'm not letting Moses die in my care" she said, q finality in her voice.
"Fuck!" Nick swore loudly and she could hear some rustling in the background before Pete spoke next.
"I'm gonna need you to listen real good Vee, I will find you, and I will get that baby from you, now you can bring him to us and save us the stress, don't forget, if we go down, we all go down" Pete sneered.
"No one has to go down if you could quite being greedy and just take the money and leave the child alone! We will clean our stack later" she replied.
"We can't fucking do that no more! He has all the details to the stack and legally that means it's all his. I have sent him everything we own in details, engine number, description, size, name it! If we don't have that child as bargaining chip what are we using to get him to comply with us huh?" Pete asked.
"You're the king of ideas, you'll figure something out" she replied
"We are Soo close, soooo fucking close to securing our life's work and you do this Vee? You turn on us?" He snapped, tone frustrated.
"You'll have to let it go Pete, I'm sorry but we will have to let it go" she answered.
"Are you joking? Let everything for? Do you know how many years we worked__"
"I know Pete! I fucking know because I fucking have my stack too! We worked, we! I know how long it took but it isn't worth the life of an innocent child" she insisted.
"Return the child Vee, you have my choice but to" Pete replied, his tone deceptively low.
"I won't do that Pete, I'm sorry"
"Don't forget I made those lines, I can trace you Valeria and I can find you, and then what?" He asked, his threat very unmistaken.
"We made the line Pete, We did, all three of us and for your information, I have changed my codes. I wanted to let you guy know what I've decided on, we will talk once the baby is safely home with his family" she stated.
"Don't do this Vee, you promised this was our last gig, what was it you said about thieves and honor? You gave your word, you've got to keep go it" Pete reasoned with her, trying to guilt her into returning the child.
"I gave my word because you promised that no harm will come to the child. You broke that promise and I get to break mine too" she replied
"This is one big mess Vee, you're making a big fucking mistake and you will__"
"Good bye Pete" she said and hung up. Swearing as she did.
She couldn't imagine what it would be like for her out there. With just six diapers full of cash and a handgun, she knew it would only be so long before she was broke and had to go into the game again. The very thought of being the 'Lone Wolf' scared her shitless, she had been part of a family for over a decade. Dysfunctional as it may be, it had been her home, he'd shelter, her coverage and she felt broken as she left.
Her fear wasn't what they would do to her, no, her fear was what she could not do for herself. She had become so dependent on the team work, the Intel and the instructions that somehow she had lost her curious eyes and ears and only played the glorified role of "dress up and become".
The thought of her alone out there scared her but she squared her shoulders and decided that the right thing might cost an arm and a leg but it was the right thing nonetheless.
Just one look at the baby and her decision was cemented. He was worth more than some stack, at least for the moment it seemed so although a small voice in her head told her she was messing up big time and would be lost in just a few days. As Nick and Pete and stated, they had worked for the stack their whole lives and naturally felt some sentiments towards it.
She may be ready to lose it and save the child for her own personal reasons but she was sure that they didn't share in those reasons and thus they loved their stack still.
The stack, she thought back at the jewelries and yacht she had stored up also, the diamonds worth hundreds of thousands and the paintings worth in millions to the right buyer. It was her babies and she took pride in them. But looking at an actual baby, Moses, a loving breathing and living child, one who in the short time he'd been with her had began to see her as some symbol of protection and care. Always turning to her after he woke, reaching for her when he was hungry and even trying more than a dozen times to suck on her implanted breasts.
Try as much as she wanted, her heart wasn't made of stone and steel and Moses had crushed all her defenses with his innocent smile and now he was willing to let go of the one family she had known since birth to make sure he was out of harms way.
Valeria turned to the child as he yawned, his tiny hands reaching to her, his eyes open, a soft smile on his face and her heart leapt, she was a goner. There was no way in hell she was leaving him unless she was sure he was absolutely safe.
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