“I will, Nick. Mr. Gilbrech knows everything there is to know about the ins and outs of DC politics. We’ll stay tuned into even the slightest negative coming out of all this. It had to be done. Your results prove it. I’ll be in touch. See you next time.”
Clyde exchanged goodbyes with the rest of the Unholy Trio on the way out. It being late Thursday morning, Rachel, Tina, Jean, and Cala joined the trio in full dress. Rachel carried Quinn on her arm.
“We’re ready to leave, Nick. Seattle is beginning to get on our last nerve,” Rachel said. “Clyde sounded happy. Your business is finished. I know that because half of Ohio is in ruins.”
“You must have tuned into a bad media outlet,” Nick said, taking Quinn from his Mom. “We actually saved the Buckeye State, but we had to do it in secret. There were many casualties amongst the bad guys. Please tell me you haven’t packed the Bushmill’s yet. There wasn’t any drinking on the flight. My associates and I are in need of sipping whiskey before the long drive.”
“I figured as much. C’mon in the kitchen, and I’ll pour you guys some ‘I save the world every day’ liquor.”
“Can you tell us about it, Dad?”
“Remember our talk on plausible deniability?” Nick put his arm around Jean as he followed Rachel into the kitchen while juggling Quinn.
“Yeah… I thought maybe you could give us a short version. You know… just the blood and guts.”
“Jean!” Rachel spun on Jean who immediately ducked behind Nick. “I swear. Go wash your mouth out with soap, Daughter of Darkness!”
Jean giggled. “No one does that anymore. This op starred The Unholy Trio. That means it will be on YouTube soon anyway.”
“Here’s the Reader’s Digest version.” Nick accepted his drink while Gus and John awaited theirs. “Bad Isis Muslim fanatics, that don’t exist according to the government pinheads, planned to kill a lot of people in Ohio. We stopped them in a very messy and loud way. We were making a statement. Now, we’re looking forward to down time. We luckily don’t have to worry about cover for our actions. As John pointed out though, it would be a good thing to be on the road when all hell breaks loose.”
Cala took John’s hand. “I feared the worst, John. Three against so many was unthinkable. The news believes there may be twenty bodies or more.”
John hugged her. “I could not be waylaid from a more important task.”
John released her, knelt and held the ring he clutched nearly the entire return trip, bought from Saul’s jewelry shop. “Will you marry me, my love?”
“Yes!” Cala enveloped John in a no holds barred passionate kiss. So surprised was John as Cala’s entire body wrapped around his kneeling form, he dropped the ring. An amused Gus snatched it from the floor as the curious Deke gave it a snort while pushing the ring with his nose.
Rachel covered Jean’s eyes. “Hey, you two, calm those waters a bit.”
Jean twisted away with a giggle. She tugged Deke away from his sniffing inspection of the engaged couple. John straightened, taking Cala with him. Only then did she slide away from her mate, and allow John to frame her face for a moment before taking the proffered engagement ring from Gus. He slid the ring on her finger.
“We’ll have a proper engagement party in Pacific Grove,” Nick said. “Gus and I wondered if John would ask or not. So ends one more bit of happy drama. Any word from the killer Kaders while we were gone?”
Cala kept an arm around John but turned toward Nick. “Dimah called. She said they were getting threatening phone calls warning of doom if they proceed with the wedding. Bill changed all their numbers, but within a day, the calls began again.”
“That widens the net,” Nick observed while sipping his Bushmill’s. “Someone with access to their account information gathered the new numbers the moment Bill changed them. I guess we’ll look into the mystery when we get home. It was too good to be true they would see the deadly handwriting on the wall with their other relatives. I’ll try the bribe first when we get home. Obviously, the two survivors from our earlier Kader clash went home and spread the wrong word. Four burning dead relatives just doesn’t mean as much as it once did.”
“You really are serious about bribing the Kader family,” Rachel asked, somewhat in shock. “I thought that was a joke when I heard you guys mention it a few times.”
“It can’t hurt,” Nick pointed out. “If they listen to reason and money, Fontaine will have the good sense to back off because he won’t have a whole family of crazies between him and the deed. We won’t be any worse off than now with the possibility of continued threats and harassment. It will draw the whole thing out into the open too.”
“You’re always talking about unintended consequences,” Rachel replied. “I’m not a writer and I can foresee at least a dozen, including car bombs and IED’s.”