Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 44

Natalia went into the living room. Kareen was now there holding Grace. She and Larsa looked settled on the sofa. Sherri was standing, looking as if she was supervising Kareen and how she held Grace. Someone was upstairs moving some furniture. She figured it was Grazie since Sherri wasn’t saying anything. She figured if it was one of the girls, she would be yelling at them.

“Where are the girls? Are they still out back?” Natalia said.

Without waiting for an answer, she headed for the back door that went out to a patio. All the girls were there, huddling against the house, out of the breeze. They looked cold but somewhat determined to stay out there.

“Come on in. I’m heading to the basement to see what treasures we have,” she said.

They looked interested and eager to follow at first until they realized their mother was tagging along.

Natalia turned on the light.

“No grubbies down here, but I don’t know what is.”

The basement proved to be a series of rooms. The laundry was down there. There was a full bathroom. Every room was empty. The bathroom, however, had towels and toilet paper sitting on the counter.

Zean jumped up and down on the floor.

“Nope. Nothing under here.”

“It’s way too small for grubbies,” Sherri said. “Ours is almost too small, but we manage.”

“I like the beetles,” Marian said. “Tastier than grubbies.”

That started giggles and bantering between the girls.

“Girls, stop fighting,” Sherri said with a stern voice.

The girls hushed immediately.

“Ooh,” Natalia said. “Scary furnace room.”

“Meh,” Zean said. “Not scary.”

Natalia laughed.

“I guess it would take a lot to scare you girls. So if you had a bedroom down here, which room?”

Natalia knew this would start a game. The girls seem to know it and started to play.

“I’d want the one closest to the stairs so when someone goes to the bathroom…” Tracy started to say.

There were giggles stopping her from finishing and causing her to break out laughing.

“I want the one in the middle. I bet it’s the warmest,” Zean said.

They stepped into each room and worked out where all the furniture would go. By the second room, Natalia could see that Sherri was looking annoyed, but since Natalia was fully engaged in the game, wasn’t saying anything. When they started with the third room, Mag came down with a plastic bag and cleaned out the bathroom.

“Only use the bathroom off the kitchen, please,” Mag said.

“I think we’re done down here,” Sherri said.

She opened her arms and waved them up like someone herding sheep.

There were groans as the girls complied. Natalia followed them up, figuring Mag’s appearance was a sign that they were done loading the van.

Natalia paused on the stairs.

The van.

Black plastic bags.

Uri had emptied the trapdoor with their eighty plus million in cash into the van. Under the nose of everyone.

She finally figured it out.

“Nattie?”

“I’m coming.”

She hit the light switch when she came through the door, then shut the door.

“I don’t know why you took the sheets off that bed, Mag,” Grazie said. “Now where am I going to sleep?”

The girls laughed.

Natalia could tell he was joking.

Everyone was now congregated in the living room.

“This will make a fine bachelor house, Uri,” Grazie said.

“Much too nice,” Sherri said.

“It’s a wonderful house,” Zean said. “I like it. It’s cozy.”

“We only have two more bags, and the kitchen is empty,” Mag said. “We’re heading out.”

Mag followed Zena and Kate, who were carrying bags, out the front door.

“I think that’s our cue,” Uri said.

“Thanks for letting us come over and run amok,” Grazie said.

“You’re welcome. Everyone out through the front please,” Uri said.

Everyone gathered in the laneway. Natalia noted there was no van in sight. All the garage doors were closed.

“I’m riding with you,” Marian said.

Kareen got in her car and drove off.

Tracy ended up riding in the car with her mother.

“Thanks for letting us come,” Marian said. “We needed to get out. Mother doesn’t let us go anywhere.”

“Controller,” Zean said, almost singsonging the word.

“Being a mother is hard,” Natalia said. “I just saw my brother who’s five and he’s a handful. I bet it runs in the family. And with Uri being the father...”

All the girls broke out laughing.

“Hey,” Uri said, pretending to sound offended.

Natalia smiled. She enjoyed the sound of laughter.

When they reached Sherri’s house, Natalia knew the girls were sad to see them leave.

“Take care. I’ll come visit,” Natalia said to their long faces.

They all waved a goodbye while Bonnie pulled into the street.

“Which gate?” Bonnie said.

“Grazie recommended the warehouse gate or the East one.”

“East is quite a drive. Let’s try the warehouse.”

“I wish we had the limo,” Uri said.

“Even if we did, I couldn’t use all the radars and radios,” Bonnie said. “They would key right into those and know exactly our position.”

Bonnie drove into the warehouse district. Natalia recognized the way from when Tia had driven her there to see the safe. However, she had never seen the warehouse gate. There were a dozen loading docks.

“Big area,” she said.

“We needed to give the trucks room to navigate and turn around,” Uri said.

Bonnie drove through the gate. There was no traffic on the other side. After two blocks, Bonnie made the turn. A moment later they were surrounded by police cars.

“Shit,” Uri said.

Bonnie rolled down the windows on her side, but police surrounded the car as if they were trying to get away.

“Get out Uri,” John said.

Uri opened the door. He had his ID ready which John took.

“Turn around.”

Natalia felt worried while she watched them make Uri lean against the car spread eagle. They patted him down.

“Knives, Uri. Where are they?”

“I’m not wearing any. I didn’t think I needed them to visit family,” he said.

“Pop the trunk, Bonnie,” John said.

Bonnie complied.

“So what do we have here?” John said.

The police pulled out the bags and emptied every single one of them. The sounds of plates and silverware hitting the street echoed around them. Black plastic bags drifted off in the breeze. No one seemed to care about them. Natalia knew there was no money in the trunk. Uri wouldn’t be that stupid. She palmed her phone and turned on the video feature.

“Where’s the money, Uri?” John said.

“I don’t have the money you’re looking for,” Uri said. “The Council already questioned and cleared me.”

“The Council is tilted in your favor,” John said. “You’re their sweet boy who does all their bidding.”

“If that’s so, then why did I get audited when I bought Nattie’s car? Why do they have half my knives and won’t give them back? Why does my father hate me?”

“Your father is the only thing that keeps you in check,” John said. “Everyone else wants to breed with you.”

“That will be hard. I can’t do Viperian breedings,” Uri said.

“Oh, then what’s with Mina? I hear she’s having a Uri baby.”

“She figured out how to bite me just so. I won’t let anyone do that again.”

Natalia wanted to get out of the car and beat the shit out of John, but she stayed where she was.

A car pulled up. She saw John take a step back. Kareen stepped out of the car, then Friesa and Pearl.

“What’s the problem, John?”

“Just a check point,” he said.

“This doesn’t look like a check point. What did Uri do?”

“We’re just taking precautions because Uri carries all those knives.”

“How many knives do you have on you, Uri?” Kareen said.

“None. I didn’t think I needed to carry any since I was visiting family and I don’t need to do any more rescues from the Church.”

“Did you search him?” Kareen said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How many knives did you find?”

“None, ma’am. We were just about to let him go on his way.”

“Good idea, John,” Kareen said.

Uri pushed himself away from the car.

“May I have my ID back?” he said.

John handed it to him.

“Evening,” Uri said with a nod toward the three ladies while he slammed shut the trunk.

Uri got back into the car.

Police cars backed off. Bonnie pulled ahead and away from the group.

“What about our stuff in the road?” Natalia said.

“It was all trash. Let the police clean it up.”

“That was pure harassment,” Bonnie said.

“More fuel,” he said.

“I have a video. I don’t know of what, but I got all the audio,” she said.

“Send it to my phone. I’ll send it to Rog.”

Uri worked on that during the drive home. The car found no check points and the way seemed void of any police cars.

Natalia felt relief when they reached the house and pulled into the garage. In the first garage stall, was the car she had seen Mag, Zena and Kate arrive in at the other house.

“That’s Kate’s car,” Uri said before she could ask. “I said they could park there while your car is in the shop.”

“Good idea. Thanks, Bonnie. Have a good night,” Natalia said.

“Nite.”

Bonnie headed to the guest house, while they headed into the house. Uri left to his office, already calling on his phone. Natalia stopped in the dining room, but found it wasn’t set for dinner. In fact, there was no smell of any dinner.

“I wonder if dinner is going to be late?”

She heard a noise and followed it. Someone was in the laundry room that was off the kitchen. She opened the door.

“Oh, Nattie, you scared me.”

Mag and Zena were stuffing money into the washing machine. The smell of balsam was already filling the room.