Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 57

When Natalia woke, she was already feeling nervous for the day.

“Pack your jeans and shirt with you,” Uri said.

He was rummaging through the closet.

“Here.”

He handed her what looked like a padded vest.

“It will keep you warm, but allow you to have your sleeve free in case you need to use the knives. Put it under your coat for tonight and if you have to you can just throw off the coat. Then you have full access to the knives.”

She noted he was also packing a bag.

“I’ll be going direct to the port after work,” he said. “You can go direct to the jail. I’ll check with Mirren if this is okay or if he wants you to meet up with them elsewhere.”

“Okay. What about your chain?”

“I’m having Zena come get it. It will be in a packet of papers that she’s supposed to leave in my office.”

She swallowed hard as if they were already heading to the jail.

He must have noticed and stepped over to her.

“You’re ready for anything,” he said when he wrapped his arms around her. “You are more deadly than most Viperians. Certainly more deadly than anyone we suspect.”

“It’s that unexpected that worries me,” she said.

“No more running amok after this,” he said. “You and Victoria are much too precious.”

He rubbed his cheek on hers.

Together they went down for breakfast. Zena served them.

“Mag called. She spent the night over at Cora’s. All is going well. According to Mag, Alfie is so preoccupied that he didn’t even notice extra staff,” she said.

“Good. Hopefully, things continue to go as planned,” he said. “I’ll need you to come get some papers from me at the bank. You can use my car. Leave them in my office.”

Zena nodded.

Uri told her the time to come and where to meet.

The moment Natalia was finished with breakfast, he rose.

“Let’s go. I have a busy day,” he said.

She thought he look a little harried and the day had barely started.

“Sorry to be a little rushed,” he said. “I have three mortgage closings that I promised to oversee. Those are always intense with a lot of details.”

“I’ve gotten the impression it involves a lot of paperwork.”

“We’ve got the paperwork covered. It’s the people. One is a hostile take over within a family. Or at least that’s how it has felt so far when dealing with them.”

“You’re the best when it comes to tact,” she said. “I know you can do that.”

He smiled and put his arm around her.

She hoped she was comforting him. His body heat was making her feel better. However, the feeling of being rushed returned as soon as they left the limo and hurried to get inside. He headed toward the elevators. She decided to expend some of her nervous energy and headed toward the stairs.

She had just gotten settled at work when Tonya, her best worker, arrived. A few moments after that a woman stepped up to the counter.

“Hi,” she heard Tonya say.

“I need a whole bunch of files.”

“Okay. Do you have a list?”

“I, like, need them fast.”

“Okay. Do you have a list?”

Natalia stepped out.

“Yeah, I have a list. Like, how long will it take? I don’t have two weeks.”

The name on her ID badge was Clarissa. She wasn’t Viperian. Natalia knew she was in the Collections Department.

“If you wait, we’ll have them out in ten or fifteen minutes, Clarissa,” Natalia said, stepping over. “How many files are we talking about?”

Clarissa finally handed over a list.

“There’s twenty,” Tonya said. “Do you need this piece of paper?”

“Uhm, no. It’s for you to get the files I need.”

Tonya tore it in half and gave Natalia one half.

“Just wait here, and we’ll get you the files,” Natalia said.

It was close to fifteen minutes by the time the stack of files was in front of Clarissa.

“We found all but this one,” Natalia said. “Looks like its checked out to Robert up in Compliance.”

“Thanks. I’ll stop up there.”

She hesitated.

“Why did it use to take weeks to get files?”

“The wrong people were in charge.”

“Oh. Nice to have a good change for once.”

Natalia smiled and nodded. She hoped the rest of her day would go this well.

At lunch, Tia showed up with bag lunches and sat with her. Natalia even noted Tia seemed worried.

“Mirren wants me to take you over,” Tia said. “He doesn’t want the limo to be around since the limo signifies you and Uri. Especially, Uri.”

“I can see that.”

“Uri said he has given Bonnie the night off.”

“How is he getting to the port?”

“Probably with Moralis,” Tia said.

“That means they’re hoofing it.”

Lunch was short and quiet.

“I’ll come down to get you,” Tia said, rising.

The rest of the afternoon seemed to crawl despite there were a lot of people coming or calling for files, and the fact that Natalia had to jump into help.

In spite of the fact that she kept watching the clock, she still jumped when Tia arrived.

“Sorry, you startled me.”

“Everyone’s jumpy,” Tia said.

Natalia changed shoes, put on her coat, and grabbed her tote.

“Glad to see you’re ready,” Tia said, indicating the tote.

Their conversation ended when they reached the elevators. Everyone seemed ready to go home and the area was busy. Natalia listened to the conversations around her and the reason for all the tenseness was weather related.

“A storm is supposed to hit tonight,” someone said.

“Six to eight inches of snow possible.”

“I heard a foot or more.”

Natalia just hoped it waited until they were home and all the bad guys were in jail. She just wondered who all the bad guys or gals were.

It wasn’t until Tia paused at the gates of Viperia, that Natalia realized they had been silent. Both of them had been deep in their own thoughts. She hadn’t even been paying attention to anything around them. It was now snowing lightly. Tia drove around the jail building and parked in the back. There was one other car. Natalia didn’t recognize it.

Tia didn’t get out of the car.

“Do you know who’s car that is?” Natalia said.

“Yes. It’s one of the police officers. He’s okay. The original two who volunteered with Kasseen were told not to come.”

Tia texted on her phone.

“Checking with Mirren to see if we can go in or if we need to wait.”

Natalia hoped they wouldn’t wait too long. With the car off and no heater running, the car was cooling fast. She stared at the snowflakes settling on the car. They were just flurries. She decided it would only be a worry if it was snowing harder. The thought, however, didn’t stop her from worrying.

Tia’s phone buzzed.

“We can go in,” she said. “We can get changed, too.”

Tia pulled out a tote from the backseat.

Natalia had never been in through the back. She could see that this was where prisoners were processed. There was another set of stairs that went down.

Tia cut through the area and headed to the front.

Mirren and Corean were sitting at a table. They looked as if they were sipping tea with no concerns about what was to take place.

“Go ahead and change,” Mirren said. “Do you want some hot tea?”

“Sure,” Natalia said.

Tia nodded and led the way to the women’s restroom.

They both finished at the same time. Tia was dressed all in black. They stepped out to find tea ready for them.

“Have a seat. We’ve got some waiting,” Mirren said. “Uri set Mag up to notify us as soon as Alfie leaves.”

“Won’t he be suspicious that he hasn’t heard from Kasseen,” Natalia said.

Mirren smiled and put a phone on the table.

“Kasseen has been in close contact with Alfie,” Mirren said.

“Kasseen’s phone?” she said.

Mirren nodded.

“The boys were thoughtful to have saved that,” she said.

Mirren smiled.

“Anybody can text. A voice can be recognized,” he said.

“I’m surprised he didn’t have it locked.”

“It took Uri about three tries. Kasseen used his birthday.”

Tia chuckled.

“I love old guys and technology.”

Natalia could tell she was being facetious.

“Lucky for us,” Mirren said. “Unlucky for us was that of the four teens, we couldn’t hack any of their phones.”

Natalia sipped her tea. It was rather good.

“What we do know for tonight, based on what Kasseen and Alfie texted, is that Alfie will be waiting at the dock. Kasseen is supposed to free Anna once Cora comes. They need her access to accomplish this.”

Mirren stopped there and sipped his tea.

“Did they discuss what they were to do with Cora?” Natalia said.

Mirren nodded, but didn’t say anything more about Cora.

“Anna and Kasseen are to go to the dock. We have the first meeting place established, but we’ll see what Anna has to say once she’s bitten.”

Mirren pulled out a second phone.

“Uri and Moralis are in position. I know Sophie…”

He paused while he looked at his phone.

“Sophie is in place. Mina has been there since three. She has set up cameras, so she can watch multiple places.”

Corean rose.

“Time to lock the front doors,” she said.

She was gone only a few minutes.

“So if anyone did come, they would come in the back?” Natalia said.

Corean nodded.