The Next Generation: The Legacy (Book 3)

Chapter 19 - The trade-off ...

Freddie

Sadly, it didn’t take long for his true colours to come out again, and he demanded to be set free before showing us where the money was. Christa and I left without answers and more frustrated than we were before we saw him!

“I will pay her ransom.” I had been thinking about it the entire time while we were fighting to get George to talk.

“NO! You can’t and you won’t.” Christa’s face turned bright red. “Besides, we need the money she is looking for to follow her. If you pay, then there is a very real possibility that she will disappear for good.”

“So, then we make sure we have the serial numbers.” I shrugged. I was ready for anything she might throw my way. “Look, all she wants is to get out of here. She knows she has been burned and that there is no way she can ever do business in our town again. We can still trace her. We have her on kidnapping on top of escaping and everything else that she’s been convicted of.” Christa silently sat beside me mulling over what I had said and as soon as we pulled into the station parking lot she sighed deeply.

“I don’t like this.” She climbed out and I followed her inside. We informed the task team of what happened and not long after, I was making my way to the bank. I had more than enough money. I could easily pay what Cat wanted and more. We just had to make sure she didn’t realize that I was paying, or she might demand more. At the moment, all she wanted was what she thought belonged to her.

Chante

I knew by now that the station was looking for us. As Cat shoved me and my mom into a room before locking the door behind us, I told my mom we would be getting out soon. I hoped we would. I wasn’t sure how long my mother would last with this damn woman continually threatening to kill us. I hated my dad more than ever before for what he was putting us through. For what he was putting my mother through!

If I remembered protocol correctly, we would soon be released … If my dad played along. I sat down on the cold floor beside my mom as she softly cried in the darkness of the room we were in. This time we didn’t even have chairs to sit on, and I silently swore at myself for being so damn stupid in the first place. If I hadn’t insisted that we moved or if I didn’t come to meet Cat without backup.

I sat there angrily swearing at myself for most of the night. The sun slowly started to shine through the window. I heard her footsteps echoing through the building long before the door opened. Was she coming to threaten us? Kill us? My heart raced as the door unlocked, and a smiling Cat walked in.

“It seems that George still loves the two of you. Come on. We have to go.” She helped my mother to get up and shoved us back into her van a couple of minutes later. I didn’t ask where we were going as we drove into what looked like the centre of town before turning in the direction of the industrial area. She was clever. She made sure we were hidden well, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if she had driven us out of our district to get away! As she opened the door, I could see a couple of men waiting. All of them were dressed in black gear and were frowning.

“I will call you.” Cat nodded at one of the men before getting back into the van.

Freddie

An old blue van pulled up to the meeting point and I could see Cat sitting in the front. She climbed out smiling, and I was ready to strangle her!

“Where are they?” I felt like growling at her arrogance.

“Somewhere safe. As soon as I’m gone with the money, you can have them. You didn’t think I would bring my only leverage here, did you, Freddiekins.” She was still the same Cat. Even though she no longer had her expensive clothes and nails! “Now show me the money before your little captain gets any ideas.” She didn’t have to threaten us. We all knew she would kill Chante and her mother if she didn’t get what she wanted.

Since we were unable to trace her, we couldn’t arrange a rescue mission. We had to go on blind faith and I didn’t like it. I threw the bags of money on the ground in front of her, and she glared at me. She kept her gun pointed at me while opening the bags and then checking that the money wasn’t fake.

“As soon as I’m safely on a plane, I will call my guys to release your little friends.” She huffed as she loaded the bags into the van and I glared at her.

“That was not what we agreed, CAT!” I shouted, but she jumped into the van and pulled out of the driveway. “Do we follow her?” I heard my radio squawk and Christa quickly set things in motion. We couldn’t follow Cat too closely while she still had the two women. That was if she still had them. All we could do now was hope and pray that she would stick to her word and release Chante and her mother. We returned to the station where the task team were monitoring her movements as she got onto her flight. An hour later, I heard Chante’s voice echo down the passage at the station.

They had been dropped off just outside, and her mother was injured. I rushed out of the briefing room and breathed a sigh of relief to see both of them. There were no serious signs of injury, but I could see there might be emotional ones.