Chapter 40

It was four days after their last encounter with Pete at the amusement exit. They had arrived California yet again as Nick suggested and we're holed there, in a tiny apartment complex just by a small suburban estate. Nick had decided that since they started off at California and had infact left at lot of tracks and trouble behind, the last place anyone would look for them was at the same California where they fled from.
Valeria was seated on a low stool, her gun now loaded and laying on the small centre table not far from her. She hadn't said much for the few days and she didn't get too from her gun either. As they sat in the small living room cum bedroom space, Nick munching on a bag of corn chips and Valeria sipping from a small Martini glass. Nick had also insisted they rented aj apartment and not stay at the hotel, that way lesser attention and curious stares.
"Is he asleep?" Nick asked, glancing at the baby coat at the east of the room, close to the edge of the side of the bed that Valeria usually slept on.
She simply nodded.
"You did the right thing" he said. She stared at him and didn't say anything.
"The other day, you mentioned a child, was it yours?" He asked.
Valeria sighed, she didn't want to talk about it, the burden and hurt was too deep and Moses incidence had just made it worse  for her.
"I understand if you don't want to talk about it" he stated.
"No, it's fine. I should. I've never really spoken to anyone about it, I guess I really never had anyone who asked" she replied with a sad smile and downed her glass of martini before topping it up with more
"I was just 26, I had made a lot of enemies and friends through the years and I just...I didn't...well, I guess I got careless and got pregnant, something I never wanted to do. I didn't like the look of a baby bump frankly and I didn't want to be a mother" she said, a small nostalgic smile on her face.
"She was a beauty, she was hard not the love, just like Moses, she had a way of making everyone love her" she continued.
"The father?" Nick asked.
Valeria gave a deep laugh, rumbling from her stomach, a genuine and slightly sad laughter.
"Like hell if I knew who the father was. I had a job the previous month, I had taken my pills, I had sex with a half a dozen men and frankly I don't still know who got the lucky sperm.
I started noticing the changes in my body the following month, my boobs ached like hell and most times I overslept at the job, sometimes waking to see my targets trying to serve me breakfast in bed. It was really creepy and scary, it wasn't like me to sleep in late and well, I just knew I was pregnant.
Turns out that the pills had expired and I was still taking them, too busy with the jobs that kept coming in and having to hide out once in a while. It was a lonely life and I didn't have no support system, if I fucked up at a job, I had the clean up my own mess and try not to get caught or killed.
Eastern Europe was slowly knowing my name and I was making a lot of money at the time, I had just finished a huge deal and was living quite okay. So, when the baby came, I guess I just decided I was comfortable enough to keep her" she shrugged.
"What happened to her?" Nick urged.
Valeria huffed, a sad smile on her face all through as she recounted the experience.
"I had just completed a gig and some lawyer had committed suicide because of it, frankly I don't know if it was murder suicide but you know the papers, they said it was a suicide. Anyways, while I was still pregnant, I took another job, a business Mogul that had a little bad blood, I was sent in to swap some papers and I did. I noticed someone was following me and I had to hide out for a few months. I still had men trailing me and I had to travel back to the US to be safe with the child.
I gave birth to Lily while hiding out here in the US and although I was broke as a college kid, I decided it was high time I started a new life. Stupid as it sounded that time, I had made up my mind and I lived with it. I took day and night shifts at the cafe and hospital, I scrubbed floors, washed plate and any other thing that I could drop considering I didn't have a college degree to help me earn a decent living" she said and from then began to soh mutely, tears rolling down her face as she reminisced
"Then Lily got sick. She was born with a weak heart and needed a surgery badly. Well, cleaning tables and washing shit off the hospital floor wasn't going to afford a surgery, I had to think. As it turned out, my contacts called, told me of a gig that was worth about twice what I needed for the surgery, it seemed too good to be true, not because the money was so much, no, I had taken better pay in the past, it was that I felt lucky, like God was on my side somehow and I was blessed to have a job just when he badly needed one.
I had stayed for a whole year since Lily's birth without as much as stealing a cigar stick. I guess if she hadn't fallen ill, I never would have returned to this life. I took the job and went for it. It was a set up and I paid dearly for it. Vince, that was his name, he had lost a son because of a job I did, it was the evidence that I swapped and for that, his son was sentenced and killed. It was the same lawyer that lost the case that  committed suicide afterwards.
Vince was a drug lord and he wasn't very forgiving. I was taken and locked up, roughed up bit too, but I escaped" she said, took a sip of her drink and wiped her eyes clean before inhaling deeply and exhaling.
"I just wanted to get to my daughter and run away with her. So I got home, took her from my house of neighborhood, Mrs. Hank, she was a really kind woman, had given us left overs more times than I could count and was always offering the take care of Lily while I went to work. She offered me her car that night and that's what I drove away with. I broke down, I was stranded and the men were still hot after me.
I tried everything, I ran, I hot shot, I plead, but Vince decided it would be an eye for an eye, he took...he...he killed my child...right before my eyes...he took her pretty head off her shoulders and left her body there with me for the night...he...he killed her...he killed my baby!" She sobbed and smashed the glass on the wall.
"Hey, it's fine. It's okay, I'm so sorry to hear that" he said and pulled her into a hug, soothing her hair and whispering softly to her hair.
"Moses won't die. He's fine, we'll get him back, I promise" he said.
"I can't let her die again, I can't, I wouldn't live with myself" she wept.
"Shhhh...she's fine, Moses is fine, it wasn't your fault, it's okay" he shushed and petted her short hair.
"I want to save him, I want him to be save, I don't want him to be hurt again, he's been hurt, he's been through hell, I can't...."
"Hey, stop, he's fine, I'm not letting anyone hurt any of you, we'll get him to his mother, I promise" Nick said, staring at her and nodding as she looked back at him.
"I don't like it when you get Valeria, it does strange things to me"
She smiled up at him and he looked down at her lips before claiming it in a kiss.
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It was midday, the sun was up yet the whether had a certain chillness to it, it was October and the wind was gradaully coming with the cold that was ushering the winter. The days were cold but the nights were colder, most times, Valeria had to triple the baby's clothing so he could sleep soundly through the night.
Moses had taken his first step the previous night whilst they were all watching the small TV. It had been a very happy moment for Valeria and  she had laughed and cried and then after putting Moses go sleep that night, she had made passionate love with Nick before they both slept off, tangled in each other's embrace. The neighborhood they stayed was a quiet one, there was a small fabric store and a library not too far from them, it had very low patronage and so, most time the whole place was very quiet.
That day, after a lunch of spaghetti and corned beef and vodka for the adults and baby milk for Moses, they sat in front of the TV and while Valeria Nick talked, Moses sat on the floor, playing with his dolls, the okay basically involved him ripping their arms off and trying to reassemble them.
"There is a conference in Washington DC in six days. It's the first official meeting of the Congress after the whole Brownson saga. It's a big deal and I know that Brownson will be there, so will Martha" Nick began.
"What do we do?" Valeria asked.
"There's a lot of talk on the street, some corrupt men are bidding for Moses, I think this had become more a political scheme than we thought possible"
"You heard about the cops?"
"Pete did, you know how he is, he hears everything. He said two Senators are bidding for the boy, I think they need him as bargaining chip too"
"Has everyone gone nuts? He's just a child or fucks sake!" She snapped.
"Tell that to power hungry men" Nick shrugged.
Valeria sighed and shook her head in disgust.