Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 38

“Where’s your coat?” Uri said to her in a terse voice.

“On the fourth floor.”

“Go grab it. Meet us in the lobby.”

Uri grabbed his coat. Moralis followed him out of the office, but while Natalia headed for the elevators, they headed for the stairs.

The elevator felt slow. At least it didn’t stop on any other floors. When it opened on the fourth, she ran to her office. Since she sometimes walked during lunch, she had walking shoes that she had brought in and left. She changed into them before grabbing her coat and heading for the stairs.

The four flights down seemed like nothing. When she burst into the lobby, only Moralis was there waiting.

“Come with me,” he said.

They left the bank at a jog.

“Glad you have other shoes,” he said. “We can go faster.”

“Uri go on ahead?”

“Yes.”

She followed Moralis out into the street. Traffic was moving slow, and the street was clearer than the sidewalks. She had to run full out to keep up with him. Natalia was amazed at how fast she could go without feeling winded.

They ran for three blocks down the main street before Moralis turned off onto a side street. They ran down two more blocks then cut over again. Natalia could now see the limo. It was hemmed in by three big city plow trucks. There was one at the back, one at the front, and one plowed into the driver’s side door. The limo was pushed against another car. Natalia could see that Bonnie had no way out.

Uri was standing in the middle of the street. The driver of the truck at the back of the limo had his window down.

“Back away from my limo,” Uri said in a loud voice.

He sounded mad.

“What limo?” the driver said with a shrug.

He had a big stupid grin on his face.

Natalia took out her phone and took pictures.

The truck that was against the driver’s side door, backed up a little, aiming for Uri. Its backup alarm beeped loudly like it was cursing at him.

“That’s a threat, and I’m going to defend myself,” Uri said.

“Stay here,” Moralis said to her.

He jogged around to the driver’s side of the truck that had backed up.

“Back off,” Uri said. “You’re going to lose your job over this.”

The driver laughed.

Natalia heard a window break, but she could tell the other driver hadn’t heard it since he was laughing and the idling truck engines were loud.

A few moments later, the truck backed up again, turning a little, almost as if it was aiming for Uri. The driver who had laughed at Uri laughed some more as if amused by the other truck. The truck that had backed up suddenly surged forward and into the truck that was at the front of the limo.

Natalia saw Uri, at the same time, rush over and jump up to the open window of the laughing driver. She was amazed that he was able to pull the large man out of the window, letting him fall heavily onto the street. Uri jumped down, grabbed the man and slammed him against the side of the truck.

“Why are you doing this?”

Uri kept slamming him against the truck. After the fourth time, he paused.

“Why are you doing this?”

“We…” the man looked terrified. “We were told this limo had excessive outstanding tickets. We were supposed to block it.”

“That’s against the law,” Uri said. “There are no tickets against this limo. You think a limo this obvious would even be allowed to move with one ticket?”

The man mouthed sounds, but no intelligible words came out.

Moralis came around dragging another man.

“What do we do?”

“Lawyer time,” Uri said. “Sit.”

He pushed down the man who collapsed onto the street where he seemed to cower by a tire. Uri brought out his phone.

“You think the law’s going to help?” Moralis said, pushing down the second man beside the first.

“We already have a good harassment case. Nattie signed papers earlier this week. We got stopped when she was driving and we were keeping to side streets.”

“Getting stopped isn’t harassment,” Moralis said.

“No, but coming later to the house and telling me a new car had no inspection sticker is. Hey, Rog. I got more to add to our case.”

Natalia stepped toward the limo, wondering why Bonnie hadn’t gotten out since the truck that had blocked the driver’s door was out of the way. Then the window shattered and Bonnie knocked it out. She climbed out of the broken window.

Bonnie looked around, then walked over to her.

“You okay?” Natalia said.

“Yeah. The door was jammed. I couldn’t get it opened.”

However, Natalia thought she seemed a little shaken.

“Good thing we carry window breakers in the glove compartment.”

A police car pulled up.

“Good or bad cop.”

“Don’t know. Get off to the side.”

Bonnie waved her over to the sidewalk.

Natalia backed up slow while she watched. She saw Uri put his arm around Moralis as if they were having a private conversation. The policeman stopped to take a look at the scene. Bonnie walked up to him and began to explain the situation.

Uri still had his hand on Moralis’s shoulder and they seemed to be talking. Or was Uri doing all the talking? Were they coordinating their story? Then, Moralis put his hand on Uri’s shoulder. They dipped their heads slightly toward each. Natalia had taken three breaths before they stepped away from each other.

Moralis crossed the street to join her. Uri joined Bonnie. Natalia thought Moralis seemed a little subdued.

“You okay?” she said.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.”

“Where’s the third driver?”

“Out cold.”

Natalia took more pictures without looking like she was. She paced a short distance up and down the street as if she was keeping warm. Moralis moved with her.

“Did you get all the license plates?” he said, keying her in that he knew what she was doing.

“Yeah.”

“Their going to try and clean up the scene.”

Two more police cars showed up. Everyone, at least for the moment, was being civil. The two drivers were now standing by the one truck, looking like they were afraid to do anything. Finally, a policeman approached them.

“Move the truck.”

“No, nothing moves.”

Natalia recognized Rog jogging up. She didn’t know where he had come from. There wasn’t a car, but she couldn’t see around the last truck. He took charge of the accident scene. Another man jogged up and Rog was directing him to take pictures. Uri left the group to join her and Moralis.

“You cold, Nattie?”

“No, I’m doing okay.”

“Oh, good. You’re in different shoes. I thought you were still in your office shoes, and your feet were getting cold.”

“No, I had my walking shoes.”

Moralis and Uri again touched shoulders with their hands and looked at each other. Natalia wondered what they were doing and why.

“Bonnie called the house. Zena is coming to pick you up in my car. Bonnie… she’s a good one,” Uri said with a grin and a shake of his head.

“What did she do?” Moralis said.

“She took the long way of getting here, going through a check point on purpose. They cleared her. So the story of this limo having outstanding tickets is so bogus. They can’t go and make some tickets up when the limo was cleared just a short time ago.”

“We’re learning we have to hit a check point or two,” Moralis said. “The Drivers Guild must have informed all the drivers to start hitting them.”

“My take on this is they’re going to plea mistaken identity,” Uri said.

“I’d bet on that. Well, well… if it isn’t Alfie himself,” Moralis said. He fumbled through his pockets. “I might have something for him.”

“You’re the best Moralis,” Uri said with a grin.

Moralis walked over as if he was seeing what was going on. Uri remained where he was. Natalia watched Moralis greet Alfie and put a hand on his shoulder.

Natalia turned away.

“He’s bugging him, isn’t he?”

Uri smiled.

“What was up with you and Moralis putting your hands on each other’s shoulder?”

Uri turned away from the group, looking up the street. A plow had gone by at a cross street.

“Reaffirming our friendship. You might refer to it as male bonding.”

“Even despite you drugged him?”

“That will only strengthen our bond. I apologized and told him if he ever doubted me that I would willingly submit to him drugging me.”

“Why… why did you ask him twice about…?“

“If it was the warehouse on Crows Avenue?”

“Yeah.”

“The drug doesn’t affect a movement. Only what he can say to me.”

“Oh, so he could nod his head, even though the truth is a no.”

“Exactly.”

“It seemed to have worn off fast.”

“I didn’t give him much.”

“What happens if he does ask to drug you? And what happens when he asks you how much money you took out of the safe?”

“I only took out two bags,” he said.

“What? But… “

“You’re the one who took out the rest,” he said with a grin.

“You… your… “

“I’m always one step ahead, thinking about not only what needs to be done but what I would have to say if drugged.”

“So you intentionally only did the two bags because if asked under a truth serum you would answer…“

“Only two bags. So now I know he took three. That’s okay. He’s risking a lot with what he does.”

“You’re amazing,” she said.

“Just running amok as usual,” he said, turning back to the scene.

The man taking pictures seemed to be wrapping things up. The two truck drivers were allowed to move their trucks. The last driver was now sitting on the bumper of another car. There were two people with him checking him over.

“I have permission to move the limo.” Bonnie said when she joined them.

She did a head nod in the direction up the street.

“There’s Zena finally.”