Chapter 15: La Bambina (Pt 3)

"Fine by me."

Officer Rodwell pulls out his firearm of choice: The Beretta Model 92C.

"What the hell are you doing Rodwell?! She's just a child!" One of the cops asked astonished.

"Get off my back West! She's not your ordinary child, she's the daughter of the murder convict, Olivia Lawerence. This is not your average girl. Oliva was one of the hardest convicts to catch in my lifetime. Her case went cold several times due to her brilliance. At times, I had no type of evidence on her. Somehow, every step I took, Olivia was twelve steps ahead of me. Surely that talent of evil has passed on to her daughter."

Officer West looked over at Rina. The girl showed no fear on her face. If she had any type of regret in her head about what she said, It was gone by then.

"I'm not my mother for a reason." Rina lowly growled.

"You're right. You're even more deceiving and clever than she ever was." Officer Rodwell poked back.

"And you're garbage. Dirty cops like you never win."

"Tell me where the girl is, and all of this can go away from you."

"I don't know where Lynn is!"

"Enough lies you, witch!"

In a matter of seconds, Officer Rodwell releases the safety and points the gun at Rina's head.

"If the next answer you give has nothing to do with the whereabouts of Lynn Loud, you're dead Lawerence."

Rina stayed silent. Officer Rodwell looked around the room for any more clues that he could possibly use to warrant an arrest on her. The room like before was clean, so his odds were very slim to none.

"Where exactly did you get the money to pay for something like this?"

Rina once again didn't respond.

"Okay smart-alec, If you don't respond to any of my questions. I'll blow your brain to smithers."

"Isn't that a catch 22?" She muttered.

"What did I just say earlier?!" Rodwell angrily shouted.

"Drop the gun, Rodwell!"

Officer Rodwell turned his head, only to find Office West pointing his Glock 22 at his back.

"You've got nerves to even consider pointing a gun at me." He laughed.

"I can't believe I've even let you get this far! We both know this isn't right! Look around the room! There's nothing here to prove that Lynn Loud was even present." Officer West argued.

"She's the daughter of the evilest woman I've dealt with in my life! I have to do this!"

"I'M NOTHING LIKE MY MOM FOR THE LAST TIME!" Rina barked.

"DON'T SPEAK UNLESS SPOKEN TOO!" Rodwell answered back.

Slowly, another cop pulled his firearm on Rodwell.

"West has a point. Drop the gun." He reasoned.

"Oh come on! West couldn't even pull a gun out on the guy who committed a B&E." Rodwell argued.

"Maybe it's because he uses his brain before making critical decisions?" Rina poked back. "Maybe it's because the B&E guy actually BROKE a law."

"THAT'S IT!" Rodwell yelled.

The officer moved his hand and pulled the trigger...

But everyone knows that the bad guys are always terrible shots. Unfortunately for him, he is one of those guys.

The first shot misses Rina by inches and she takes advantage by quickly seizes the gun before he can fire a second shot.

"How in god's name did I miss!?" he asked. Rina doesn't respond and aims the gun at the Rodwell's heart.

The officer looked into the girl's eyes. The once emerald eyes of the blonde crusader had raged into a crushing wave of aqua green.

"I don't know much about my mother's past, and from what you said... I don't wanna know more about it. But she still raised me to be better than anything she was at my age. I never want YOU to speak my mother's name or mine ever again. The next time you do, I will ensure that you're finished... Now then, I assume our business is done here." Rina coldly threatened. Knowing better, the girl slides the gun over to the rest of the police officers.

The rest of the officers were as speechless as Rodwell was. Why didn't she finish him off?

"Well...I apologize for Rodwell's actions on the behalf of the police. However, we still would like for you to come back down to the station with us to see if you'd like to take further action on the situation that has unfolded here. As you could imagine, this could cause a huge PR scandal." Officer West admitted sheepishly.

Rina couldn't care less about their rep, as she along with Lincoln and Lynn planned to leave the city within a week prior to this fiasco. Everything the police would have gotten from the civilians if they were to learn of this, would be justified. Plus, Rodwell's actions deserved immediate termination.T he most important part was that Lynn could get away for now. Hopefully, they won't fall apart without her quick smarts. On the other hand, she sorta lied to Rodwell seconds ago. Her mother's past was well documented with multiple people, including the weird disappearance of her father back in Battle Creek, but there wasn't much Rina herself knew. Maybe co-operating with the cops could give her a chance to investigate a bit more...

"That's fine with me." Rina replied.

"We'll lead Lynn into the room as bait. The police will probably try to arrest her on the spot. Then Lincoln and I will swoop in and take em out, while Aaron and Tessa escort Rina and Lynn. Does everybody agree with the plan?" Tobin asked.

Everyone was in agreement: The consensus was no.

"Why not?" Tobin asked defeated.

"One, I am not the bait." Lynn stated. "And two, I'm sure there are more than two officers in that room, so I can only assume that you two will be swarmed and taken down before you can finish one at a time."

"Do you have a better idea?" Tobin wondered.

"They've kicked in the door, so it doesn't seem unlikely that they won't see us as soon as we head up these flight of stairs. Since we haven't seen any cop run down these steps as of yet, I can only assume Rina's doing a great job of keeping them inside the room. Our best bets are to run an ambush from the elevators using a lobby cart. Then, we run up on the policeman that checks outside and enter a Mexican standoff by stealing his or her gun!"

Everyone stared at Lynn like she was an alien. Well, everyone except for Tessa, who had stars in her eyes at the thought of the idea.

"Well as ambitious as that sounds, We can't use the elevators." Aaron stated.

"Why not?" asked Lincoln.

"Because they're jammed. I think there might be some people stuck on it as well."

"How?!" Tobin went white in the face.

Aaron pointed at Tessa. "Guess who."

"I wanted to see how fast the elevators went, sooooo I decided to hack them." She smiled.

Nobody believed her, until Tessa took off her long sleeve to reveal the buttons from the elevators inside of a secret pocket on the inside of her shirt. The fact that a girl that was so young could take down something that took hours to install in seconds.

"Tessa...You know that breaking the buttons off the elevator doesn't actually-"

Tessa grinned even wider as she reached into her pockets and pulled out the cords from the panel and a screwdriver.

"How old are you, Tessa..?" Lincoln asked in amazement.

"Ten." The girl replied.

Lincoln just stared at the girl. There had to be more to this girl then he was aware of. That's just a side note though.

Suddenly, voices began to get louder and louder near the steps. Tobin stood in front of Lynn while Aaron and Tessa stood in front of the Lincoln. At first, he was confused until Tobin made a motion to him and Lynn to crouch down behind them. Lincoln was also able to create enough space for himself and Lynn to lie directly on the floor. Slowly the voices reached an all-time high as the footsteps increased coming towards them. Lincoln was hoping for whoever it was to quickly leave the stairs, but the footsteps had stopped. Looking past Tobin's shoes were multiple types of boots and with one of the bodies wearing hightop shoes.

"Good Afternoon, sir."

"Good Afternoon. How's everything for you, kids?"

"Everything's good."

"Glad to hear that. Staying out of trouble?"

"Yessss sir!"

"Hahahaha alrighty. Well, we'll be going now. Don't stay on the steps too long tho. We don't want any accidents."

"We won't!"

"Alright, take care."

The sounds of shoes shuffling resumed as Lincoln took a small look past Lynn. He saw multiple cops with uniforms on. His eyes darted to the right and spotted a girl with long blonde hair walking behind an officer who was handcuffed. Lincoln didn't need to even guess who that was. But why was the officer handcuffed? Another day was the first thought in his head. When they were sure the cops were gone. Lincoln took a look at his sister. Lynn was red in the face but she kept her fists balled. Lincoln knew she was doing everything she could have to make sure she didn't lose her cool. She must have seen Rina as well.

The group huddled together to discuss what the next option was. Lynn headed straight upstairs to the room. Lincoln and the rest followed suit. When they found the room they began to survey it. Looking around, It was pretty much ruined. The beds were flipped over, chairs were on the ground, and the closet had a broken door. Lincoln also couldn't find his things. Suddenly the hotel phone started to ring. Nobody answered it and the call went to voicemail. The caller left a message as Lincoln went over to play it.

"How's it's going, Ms. Lawerence? I'm calling like you asked me to. This is a reminder for you to check the springs under the pull-out couch at 1:30."

"Anybody know what time it is?" Lincoln asked.

"1:30!" Lynn called out from the bathroom.

Lincoln looked over at the couch to do as the message asked. He reached under and pulled out a small bag. Inside the bag was a note that read:

"For Lincoln."

The boy peeked back into the care package and pulled out a watch and an older version of an iPhone. At that moment, the iPhone rung. Lincoln quickly answered.

"Hello?"

"Lincoln?"

"RI-"

"SHHHH. I need you to slip out the door for a moment."

Lincoln did as she requested. He walked a couple rooms away so that his voice couldn't be heard by the rest of group.

"Ok, I'm out. Rina?"

"Yeah, it's me. Did you guys get out?"

"Um... Yeah." he lied. "What's going on?"

"Listen... I'm going down to the police station-"

"WHAT!"

"Relax! I'm going to be okay. Stuff got a little crazy in the room while they were looking for Lynn... I ended up almost getting shot, so I'm going down to the station to settle with the police about the whole thing."

So that's why the man was handcuffed. Lincoln thought with a little anger flaring up. If he had the chance, he would have socked him.

"That's not important though. Right now, I won't be able to see you guys for a little while.

"Why not? What are you planning Rina?"

"I've realized that Lynn probably isn't safe in the state of Michigan anymore. So we gotta make sure Lynn stays safe until we can do more about it."

"We can't leave you behind! Let us break you out of there." Lincoln pleaded.

"I'll be fine Lincoln. I'm in the clear, so this should be the last the police will bother me about any of this. You guys won't need to move out of the state, per say but out of the public eye instead."

"Where could we possibly go? We don't have many supplies left."

Rina paused for a second. "Go to my abandoned house in Battle Creek. I'll send you the address after the call. Nobody has been there for ages. It's a small neighborhood with mainly elderly people, so there isn't much activity enough to warrant constant police watch. Hideout there and maybe in two weeks time, I'll be there to see what I can do. If you end up moving to another location, just text me off of the iPhone."

Lincoln accepted hesitantly. But there was something still bothering him about this whole thing.

"Hey, Rina?"

"Yeah?"

"Why exactly are you sticking around here for so long?"

"...Rodwell told me some stuff about my mom that even she didn't let me know about. I want to see what's going on with that and the disappearance of my father."

"Rodwell?" he asked.

"The cop that you saw me walk behind in the hall."

How did she see me?

"That little girl in front of you isn't very tall... I'm surprised the cops didn't see."

Welp, there's the answer.

"Well, that's all I can share for right now... The cops are loading up the cars now, so I should get off the phone for now. I know Lynn is probably angry and eager to search for me right now, so please don't let her know about the plan until I get to you guys. There's so much I have to let you know about me...
I look forward to the next conversation we have under the stars."

"I am as well. I guess this is goodbye for now. Thank you for everything Rina.." Lincoln softly spoke.

"No problem. But Lincoln?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sure the news has spread back home about Lynn being accused of the whole Chief Johnson ordeal, You might have to tell one of your siblings or a close friend about the situation to ensure local support."

And with those words, Rina hung up.

Lincoln truly pondered the idea. Who could he go to for support? Would they even believe him? Rina has been spot on in terms of reliability, so there must be somebody he can explain everything to. Clyde was the number one option, But Lincoln didn't wanna drag his best friend into any of this. He also figured that Lori and the rest of his sisters would use him as their alibi to explain his disappearance. It was definitely something he'd have to look over with Lynn's help.

"There he is!"

Lincoln spun around to find Tessa running at him full speed. Somehow, she tripped in mid-air and hit the ground hard. Lincoln couldn't help but laugh at her blunder.
Heck, he could use one right now. Aaron, Tobin, and Lynn followed her voice and met up with him in the hallway.

"You sorta disappeared on us, so we figured the cops showed back up." Tobin explained.

"We couldn't really find much left in the room besides Lynn's bag, and that was hidden in a secret place." said Aaron.

"Alright then, I guess we're done here." Lincoln stated.

"Hey, before we go anywhere else. Can we eat something? I'm starving!" Lynn asked.

"That's fine but we need to-"

Lynn and Aaron were gone before Lincoln could even finish his sentence. Tessa would have left with them, But Tobin grabbed her by her leg and kept her close.

"You and Lincoln are going to go free those people that you trapped in the elevators, Tessa." She explained.

Both Lincoln and Tessa groaned at the idea.

"I'll have Lynn and Aaron meet you two back here in about twelve minutes or so. That should give Tessa time to fix both elevators."

"Wait I thought it was just one of them." Lincoln slowly took a look at Tessa.

The girl coughed twice, revealing the second set of cords for the other elevator.

This was going to be a long twelve minutes, He thought to himself.

And so ends The "La Bambina" Arc. (Basically, It's the end in terms of not seeing any of the other characters in this story so far! Expect Luna and her sisters back in the next chapter.)

Honestly, This was my favorite part out of all of the Arc to write so far.

And Hey! It hasn't been a month and there's more to read now. I mean this was the end of the arc, so maybe it was easier to put out than your normal chapter.

If you want for fun or if you weren't satisfied, you can call it Chapter 14 (PT 2.) But of course, This is the official Chapter 15.

So look out for the Notification if you're following the story so far because I posted yesterday. If you haven't fav/followed, this story should be somewhere near the first couple of pages. It's 4 am as I write this, So this may change when I post it at like 10:35 ET (Depending on where you live/When you read it)

Also, let me know what you thought about everything so far. Any review helps.

Long Author Note, I know. Thanks for everything you guys. Hopefully, I can get another chapter out as quick as this

Stay Awesome!

Titan out! :)