collateral chaos

Five

The children all fall asleep easily after playing on the trampoline for two hours. Bella feeds Giovanni for the night as Dacre arrives at the Estate. He, Sadie, and Sabrina go into one of the conference rooms to talk.

"What's wrong?" Sabrina asks, confused.

"Remember the trackers we gave the kids from the fighting ring?" Dacre asks.

"Yeah?" She replies.

"They turned on again for a couple of minutes and we got a location," he says.

"Where?"

"Latvia," He answers.

"Latvia? Didn't you find them in Greece?" Sadie asks.

"We did. And we left them there in Greece but they must have moved them after they shut down the tracker," Dacre explains.

"And now it's back on?" Sabrina questions.

"It was for a couple of minutes and then it shut off again," He answers.

"We have a chance," Sabrina states. Dacre nods, "I can't go out in combat though."

"We know," Sadie answers, "But you can help us from here. With my security team."

"Doing what?"

"Being our communication. Helping us track down the children," Dacre answers, "We know how much you wanna help those kids, but you obviously can't do it with your arm still healing."

Sabrina nods in agreement, "Alright. I'll do it. When do we start?"

***

The next morning, Jenna, Sabrina, and Gianna travel out to Dacre's village. His men have cleared the land for Sabrina's new mansion and Dacre wants Sabrina to discuss the layout.

"This is what we have so far, a lot like the layout of your old one——"

"I don't want it to look like the old one," Sabrina tells Dacre's contractor. He looks over at Dacre with surprise.

"Don't look at me, you heard her," Dacre states.

"Ma'am, that means I'll have to start from scratch——"

"That's what you're worried about?" Dacre asks, becoming annoyed with the man, "Fine. Go get your second-in-command."

"Nikolas!" He calls. The younger man comes running over.

"Yes, boss? Sir?" He addresses both the contractor and Dacre.

"You're the new contractor," Dacre says to Nikolas. He turns to the older man, "You're fired."

"Sir——"

"Get out of here!" Dacre shouts. The other men turn and watch the scene, knowing Dacre means business. They quickly return to work when Nikolas waves them back to work.

"Looks like he had the plans drawn up here——"

"I want a new design. From scratch," Sabrina states. Dacre looks at the man to see if he will make the same mistake the last one made or if he will just go with the flow and make Sabrina happy.

"Alright, what are you thinking? Start with a basement or ground floor?"

***

Bella and Sadie sit on the patio as the kids play on the new trampoline in the rising sunlight. They have new, clean clothes on and their hair is slightly better than before. They are all in desperate need of a haircut, but they won't rush the kids into it. Haircuts can always wait. Bella holds Giovanni in her arms as he eats from a bottle.