Together Again

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own none of this and there's a lot I don't own here. Rating: K Time: After Infinite Kates, which is here on FF dot net.

Raina Mavias walked quickly past her friends and business partners and headed for their office. She opened her small safe and began taking out her money and false IDs.

Her two friends walked into the office. "Raina, what is it?" Rita Sullivan asked.

"Problem?" Collette Stenger asked.

"Raina, what is it?" Rita repeated.

"I got a call from the hospital the Castles put Staysa in. She's gone. Grabbed by two men when a nurse took her out in a wheelchair. I have to go find her."

"We'll go with you." Collette said, going to her desk and opening her own safe.

Rita did the same.

"What do you two think you're doing?"

"We're going with you." Collette answered distractedly, concentrating on her phony passports.

"That's absurd. If you're caught, you'll go back to prison for the rest of your life. And they'll make damned sure you stay there."

Collette held up one of her pistols. "I won't go back to prison. I'll kill myself first."

"Sweetie, maybe you should stay here. We need someone to run the place. I can go with Raina." Rita said.

Raina snorted in derision. "And if you're caught, you go back to prison in Florida for twenty-five to life, plus whatever they give you for escaping. Maybe they'll even try to hang the murder of the guards on you. That'll get you the needle."

Rita stood up and walked over to Raina. "You're family, Raina. And so is your sister, Staysa. Even if I've never met her. Except for Caleb, I've never had family before. I'm going."

Collette joined them. "I was a cold-blooded bitch for most of my life, living for the big score and the high it gave me. I met Theo and I actually fell in love." She laughed bitterly. "And Theo turned out to be a German intelligence operative. He turned me over to the Americans and I ended up in prison as a terrorist. Oddly, prison did change me and regaining my freedom allowed me to prove to myself that I can be and am a good person. And a good person does not let a brain damaged girl get kidnapped and do nothing about it. I'm going."

"You two are crazy."

"If we weren't, we wouldn't be here in the first place." Rita teased.

"It has to be Sylvia Vadalos." Raina said. "She's always hated me for being her husband's mistress. And because he loved me."

Neither of the other two women thought that gangster Virgil Vadalos loved anyone but himself, but they said nothing.

"At least you don't have to worry about the cops. They never did care about the goons you killed for raping Staysa and putting her in a coma. And when they caught that dirty cop, they got him for shooting Vadalos."

Raina shook her head. "It doesn't mean anything to Sylvia. She still blames me for Virgil's death."

"We need to tell Marianne that she'll be in charge now." Rita thought they needed to change the subject.

"I hope she doesn't want to come too." Raina muttered.

The three women finished in their offices and went to see their manager. Marianne was a lady who was blind in one eye, and a past that she never talked about and no one ever asked about. She also looked exactly like her three bosses.

"I swear, if we run into anymore people who look like us, I'll start hearing the Twilight Zone music."

Raina ignored Rita's comment. "Marianne, we need to go to LA for a while. Can you handle everything in our absence?"

"How long will you be gone?"

The three owners exchanged glances. "We don't know. And if anything happens to us, the place is yours. There are papers in the office safe. "

Marianne was obviously shocked. "Wait? What could happen to you? What are you doing?"

"It'd be better if you don't know." Raina said softly. "Take care of the place until we're back, or until…." She went no further.

Marianne shook her head. "Las Tres Virgenes is the hottest bar in all of Cabo San Lucas. We've expanded it twice and we've added the best restaurant in town and a first class hotel. And you're just walking away from it with no explanation?"

"It's family."

"Okay, then I'm going with you."

Raina shook her head. "Someone has to stay here and run the place. We have money, but we may need more. We need you here, Marianne. Please?"

Marianne hugged each of the three women. "Be careful, please. If you need anything, let me know. I'll do anything."

They went to their home and packed for the trip. In spite of the fact that they looked almost identical, they could make themselves look more like sisters and not triplets. Raina was a blonde, with hair so light as to be almost white. She usually wore four inch heels and a push up bra to make her boobs look bigger than her "sisters'".

Rita usually wore flats as she was quarter inch shorter than the other two. She had added blonde streaks to her light brown hair. Collette dyed her already dark brown hair even darker and had invested in a pair of green contact lenses. She favored wedge heels that added two inches to her height.

They drove in Collette's Mercedes, which had a space where they could store their false IDs, pistols and the bulk of their money.

"Just what are we going to do when we get to LA?" Rita asked.

Riana shrugged. "I'll figure that out when we get there."

"Maybe we should have a plan."

"I got into Virgil's place before when he had all his thug guards there. Sylvia didn't have the balls to take over Virgil's illegal operations, his competition grabbed that. She still has his legitimate businesses and all of his cash, but she'll be hard pressed to come up with competent guards."

"Except that she's grabbed Staysa and knows you'll be coming after her." Collette said." I'd say she's probably got lots and lots of guards around her and Staysa, just waiting for you."

"What the hell do you want me to do? Just leave my poor baby sister with that bitch?" Raina exploded.

"No, of course not." Collette said calmly. "We just need to have a plan. Look things over. See what's what. I'm good at that."

"And we're not?" Rita said.

"You stabbed your ex-lover to death because he wouldn't help when Caleb, his son by you, was found to have a deadly kidney disease."

"I didn't kill Doug. I stabbed him but his bitch wife finished him off."

"And you got caught. And Raina here ended up shooting the man who did not have anything to do with the rape and beating of her sister. She just got caught up in a power play by one of Virgil's underlings."

"And you ended up doing life without parole in a maximum security prison." Raina shot back.

"See? We've all made mistakes. So we have to learn from our mistakes. Be smarter. Okay? Whatever we do, you can't just go charging into Sylvia's with guns blazing."

They made it through US Customs and Immigration at the border with no problems. Just three attractive, upscale ladies coming back from some fun in Mexico.

They drove to LA without talking. Once in the city, Rita, who was now driving stayed on the Santa Monica Freeway.

"We'll need to get off and head for the Hollywood Hills. That's where Virgil's home was."

"Which is exactly why we're not going there, Raina. We don't want you anywhere near where anyone at all who knew Virgil or who knows his widow can see you."

"Where will we go then?"

"We'll find a nice, big hotel near the airport. Airport hotels are used to people coming and going and they won't pay any special attention to people with accents."

"I hardly have an accent anymore and neither does Collette."

"Wha, Sweetie, Ah was talkin' 'bout ma accent, 'tho I don't really have no accent. It's them damnyankees that has accents."

Collette laughed. "She's right, Raina. We'll need to carefully check Sylvia's place. She'll be expecting you, but not us. That should give us a little of the element of surprise."

They checked into a nice, anonymous and large chain hotel under the names they had chosen for this trip. Names they'd never used before.

First, they drove to the nursing home that the Castles had put Staysa in. The three women had saved Kate's life. And while neither of the Castles could do anything to help the three women, they could and did help Staysa.

"Ms. Mavias?" The manager of the home said, rising from behind her desk. Raina saw that her name plate identified her as Dr. Grivas. "I am so, so sorry about what happened to your sister. Nothing, nothing at all, like that has ever happened here before. I just don't know what to say."

"Have you called Mr. and Mrs. Castle?"

"Yes, of course. Right after we called you. But all we've gotten is their voice mail. Mr. Castle travels on business, I understand. Sometimes his wife goes with him."

"You said my sister was grabbed while she was being taken out for a ride in a wheelchair? Could I talk to the nurse who was with her?"

"OF course. Nurse Ann Plummer. She'd on duty today. It'll just be a moment to get her."

Nurse Plummer was a tall, skinny brunette who seemed genuinely distraught about Staysa's kidnapping. "I'm so sorry, Ms. Mavias. I started taking Staysa out in a wheelchair several months ago when the weather got nice. She seemed to enjoy it, although, of course, it's hard to tell with the poor thing. And I had heard that you sang to her in Russian. I don't know any Russian, but I did sing to her and she seemed to like it." She began to cry. "And now the poor thing is gone. I just feel awful about this."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"I had taken her out on the far end of the property, by the lake. We were just looking at the lake when I heard someone come up behind me. I thought it as another nurse or patient, but before I could turn around, I was hit with one of those stun guns. I still have the marks." She pulled up her scrubs' top and turned around. Raina could see she'd been stunned several times.

"You said there were two men. If Nurse Plummer was knocked down, how did you know that?"

Dr. Grivas replied. "We have surveillance cameras. Sometimes our patients get lost, you know. But they were too far away for the police to get any, what did they call them? Facial recognition and we never saw their car."

"Could I see them? Perhaps I can identify them."

"Oh, we gave them to the FBI. Since it was a kidnapping, the FBI is involved. Oh, a Special Agent Moreno said you should call as soon as you could. He gave me his card." She handed Raina a business card.

"They're trying to get in touch with the Castles, too. They think the criminals want a ransom from the Castles since they we're paying for the poor girl's care."

Raina took the card, knowing she'd only call the FBI as a last resort and after giving her friends time to disappear.

The next morning, they drove out to look over the Vadalos' home. At Collette's insistence, Raina rode in the back seat with a scarf around her head. The other women had large sunglasses and baseball caps. They managed to find a small shopping center from which they could look over at their target. They stopped at a high end coffee shop and sat outside.

Collette took out her camera.

"Photos?" Raina said. "Good idea. She might have changed things since I was there."

"My camera has a really good telephoto app and this one is telling me something. There's a big for sale sign on the house. And I can see a car in front, with some kind of logo on the doors. Damn! She's moved."

"If she's moved, I'll bet the real estate people know where she is." Rita said.

"Yeah, like they're going to rat out their client." Collette snapped.

"Wha, darlin', you jist don't know how charmin' a Southern girl can be. If I'm not back in thirty minutes, send me a rescue party."

"Rita, do you have…?" Collette mimed a gun with her hand.

"Right in my purse." Rita winked at the two women and walked to their car and left.

"Damn. We should have brought a car apiece. If she does need help, it'll take us an hour to walk to the house." Collette fumed.

As Rita drove up to the house, a petite, very well dressed redhead came out of the house with a huge, fake smile on her face. "I can tell you right now that you're just going to love this place. Hi, I'm Holly Carstairs, Bowen and Clark Realtors. Just let me show you around."

Rita gave an equally fake smile as she got out of the car. "Oh, Ah know what the inside is like. Mah husband and I sold some ahtwork to Mister an' Miz Vadalos. We moved back to Atlanta yeahs ago, but when I had to come to LA on bidness, I decided to drop by ma old customers. Imagine mah surprise that po' Mr. Vadalos was dead. Shot bah some crooked po-liceman. Imagine that. And eve'one was sayin' Mr Vadalos was some sort of criminal? I just can't believe that. But I can understand whah Miz Vadalos would want to leave this place."

"Oh! You hadn't heard then?" Holly said.

"Heah what?"

"Poor Mrs. Vadalos is dead. She killed herself on Mr. Vadalos' grave with the gun that was used to kill him. It was legally his weapon, so the police gave it back after the trial of that awful Detective Beck."

"Oh, ma stahs!" Rita, not having to feign shock. "The poor thing killed hersef'?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Well, Ah'm so sorry to have bothered you. I really shouldn't take up any of youh time."

Holly smiled ruefully. "Actually, I was thrilled to see you. You're the first person I've had come up here all week. The luxury home market is just totally dead right now." Her smile brightened. "Would you like to come inside out of the hot sun? I have both lemonade and iced tea? You can show me the pieces you sold them."

Rita was happy that Raina had told her all about the house. "Do they still have the antique Chinese screen in the livin' room?"

"Yes, it is. It's beautiful by the way. Could you tell me what it's worth? We may try to sell the house as is. That is furnishings and all."

Rita smiled and shook her head. "Wha, Sweetie, doin' aht appraisals is ma business an' Ah expect to get paid when Ah do work. But, really Miz Holly, Ah just don't have the time. Ah'm sure youh office can find just scads and scads of reputable appraisers heah in LA."

Rita chatted with the real estate saleswoman for ten minutes or so, but got no further information about Sylvia Vadalos.

When Rita left, Holly took out her phone and called a particular number. She gave a description of Rita and the license plate number of her car. She really hated to do this to a possible client, but the luxury home market really had been dead for too long. A girl has to get by, after all.