Alpha Farm: The Beginning (Prepper Chick Series Book 1)

by Annie Berdel

  “Something happens?” Emma asked

  “Rumor is they are planning on taking the law into their own hands… I need to get this solved before that happens or a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt.”

  “I’m going to have to talk with Tom about this first. When do you need an answer?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “I need something in return,” Emma responded

  “Name it,” Brian said

  “I need info on this plate, rental info is for an Elsie Baretto. I need to know who she is, where she is from and if she has family,” she said as she flipped a piece of paper on John’s desk.

  The look both men passed between them made the hair on the back of Emma’s neck stand on end.

  57

  Ben kicked back in his chair, linking his fingers behind his head as he took a long puff on his cigar. “Life was good when you were the sheriff,” he thought.

  Quickly sitting forward, he snubbed out the cigar and picked up the phone.

  “You have reached the voice mailbox of John Kendrel. Please leave a message and I will return your call as soon as I can. Thank you”

  “Now where the hell would John be in the middle of the afternoon?” Ben thought.

  58

  “Where the fuck did you get this info?” Brian said to Emma

  “Doesn’t matter” she shot back a little startled by his reaction.

  “Like hell it doesn’t! Where did you get this?” his voice several octaves past normal now.

  Emma looked at him, afraid to blink. “What’s going on?” she finally said

  Brian walked over to the door, opened it, walked out and motioned for someone. A young skinny male approached him. Brian said something to him and the kid left. Walking back into the room, Brian shut the door and walked over where Emma was. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he turned her to face him. “We’ve know each other a very long time” he began “I’ve always trusted you. Trusted you with my life. I need to know how you know this Elsie Baretto and I need to know now.”

  Emma sat down. Her mind racing a million miles a minute.

  “I have a car in the creek,” she said.

  Blinking at her, Brian’s brows furrowed, “What?”

  “There’s a car in the creek. I dug a little and found out it was rented to her in Miami, Florida,” Emma said.

  “Oh God no!” John muttered from behind the desk.

  Emma had almost forgotten he was there. She looked quickly at Brian, her mouth still open, a look of confusion on her face.

  Brian ran his fingers through his hair as he breathed out the air he had been holding in.

  “What the hell is going on?” Emma yelled.

  Looking at John, Brian nodded….

  “Emma, Elsie Baretto works for Senator Varga.”

  “Like Varga…. Florida Varga? Like, ‘I’m gonna piss of the Prez’ Varga?” Emma asked using air quotes in a comical way.

  They both nodded.

  Emma collapsed back in the chair blowing out a steam of air. “Shit,” she said.

  “How’d she get in my creek then?”

  “Last we can trace, she was heading north with the senator’s children to a compound outside of Pittsburgh.”

  “Children? What children?” Emma asked.

  “Varga’s kids. They lived mostly with their grandmother in Florida. They aren’t very old.”

  “Like maybe 3 and 4?”

  “Ya, that’s probably about right” Brian added.

  “Names are Matheo and Alicia?” Emma asked.

  John slowly nodded, his mind quickly picking up that Emma knew more about this than he thought.

  “Ah shit,” Emma mumbled. “Both of you need to sit down and let me tell you a story”

  Two hours later, the three walked out of John’s office. The plan was to keep the kids at Emma’s safely hidden since the only one who knew they were there was Sheriff Olan. Senator Varga would be notified and plans would be adjusted accordingly.

  “Wait ‘til Tommy hears all of this!” Emma thought with a grin as she slid into Brian’s car.

  59

  He just stood there shaking his head. What else could he do? He knew there was no turning back, for her, or for anyone else. It was his duty to protect her… protect her not only physically, but mentally and spiritually also. She had saved him so many years ago. A path of self-destruction, a hard life on the streets of New York was a cruel road for anyone, let alone a child. He couldn’t blame his parents, they did the best they could with what they knew, who they were. But to her, he owed his life. She was responsible for who he was today, picking him up from the ashes of his own personal hell, for breathing life back into his hardened heart. And his vow was to save hers, if need be. Even if it was the last thing he did.

  60

  “Senator Varga! Senator Varga!” Deep in thought, Nina did not hear the man yelling out to her until he was right in her face. Stopping abruptly, she looked up at him, her eyes blinking in disbelief that someone could actually get that close to her.

  “Yes?” she asked looking around for the men she was paying to protect her.

  “Matheo sent me,” the man replied.

  “What?” she stammered in disbelief. Regaining her composure, Nina motioned for the man to follow her. Swiftly walking past the elderberry bushes, Nina’s skirt snagged on a branch. Reaching down to release herself, the man saw how bad her hands were shaking.

  “Ma’am. My name is Tomás Montalvo, and this is my grandson Jack. We are here doing some research on the branches of our fine government. Part of my wife’s homeschooling right now is learning about the functions of each branch including the House of Representatives, and what better way to do that then to see them first hand.”

  “But Matheo… what do you mean Matheo sent you?” her lips calmly asking but her eyes scanning his face, begging for information.

  Taking the senator by the elbow, Tom lowered his voice.

  “Matheo is at my home.”

  “What? Who are you?”

  “Elsie brought them to us,” Tom replied.

  Nina’s composure relaxed a bit, as her mind was trying to make sense of the information.

  Tom watched as a well-dressed man came out of the side door of the house.

  “Yes, we were wondering if you would care to discuss with my Grandson Jack here your role as a senator within the government.”

  “It would be my pleasure,” she replied, picking up on Tom’s cue.

  61

  With the kids off visiting at Kevin and Jessica’s and Tom off to Washington with Jack to deliver his message, Emma sat down and started doing some intensive searching for information.

  Senator Nina Varga looks like she has a little bit of spunk behind her, Emma thought. Nina had been in the news a lot over the last few months. The press absolutely loved her for ratings as she, and her constituents, were causing quite a commotion every time the sitting president tried to make a move. It was like watching a well-orchestrated game of block and tackle! “Well done,” Emma murmured. Looking through the list of colleagues that Nina had aligned herself with, Emma caught her breath.

  “Well I’ll be a monkey’s grandma!”

  There before her, Emma started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Nina Varga had the total package to pull off what was so glaringly obvious. This woman was going to run for the presidency!

  There were plenty of rumors that President Walker would not go down without a fight, and many thought he would use some kind of false flag to pull off retaining his current term. He was at the end of his control over this country. Halfway through his second four years, he had previously tried to sneak a bill through Congress to open up the office of the president of the United States to be able to be elected indefinitely. As long as the people voted him in, he would still be commander-in-chief.

  Swooping down like an eagle attacking its prey, Nina had outed the president’s plans. “The last six years had been enough tor
ture for this country and it is time to hand the reins over to someone else before Walker destroys everything!” she had been quoted as saying. And the woman had some strong supporters behind her… friends in high places, as they say.

  Emma’s mind was spinning with questions. How deep was Senator Varga into the gray government? If she has already attempted to remove her children from Washington, were they planning on a collapse soon? What was coming up next and what could Emma do to get her friends better prepared? And more importantly, what was Emma going to do with the senator’s children?

  Emma sat back in her chair and took a deep breath.

  She stood and walked over to the window, looking up at the sky, a prayer escaped her lips. “Need some help here Big Guy.” In her gut, she knew that going forward it was GAME ON.

  62

  Johnisse, or Jay as her business associates called her, fingered the fine linens in her closet. Lordy, she thought. How far life had brought her. And how far life was going to take her. She had a plan. She wasn’t a hardass for no reason at all. It was all a part of her plan. 2-year, 5-year, 10-year… whatever… she had the plan and was working it. Wrong side of town to penthouse suite. Yes, success suited her. Or success suited her lover. Tiffany was high upkeep and at times Jay’s worst nightmare. For what now? 5 years … 5 years of only the best Jay’s money could buy for Tiffany.

  Jay let out a sigh. She could handle the high stress of Wall Street. She could take on the “suits” without even breaking a sweat. But something about that woman…that woman …Tiffany had the ability to manipulate Jay into giving up her right arm if it suited Tiffany. Had she created a monster? Or was she just feeding the monster? Jay couldn’t decide but knew it wasn’t in any of her plans to correct the issue anytime soon so she just dismissed it. Much like she dismissed the asshats who were shocked when she walked into a meeting and dismissed her because she was black and a female. Jays hunger to prove herself worthy was the driving force behind the determination it took to take her from the slums of Bushwick to the Upper East Side. And nothing was going to take her back to the trash she grew up in and around.

  Startled, Jay realized she had let herself drift back to when she was growing up. The smells of Brooklyn in the summertime now made her sick to her stomach. But back then, they were a comfort, a stabilizing factor in her childhood. She closed her eyes and drifted back... she remembered lying in bed, the window open… a faint breeze drifting in coming from the East River…she could clearly hear the siren of the ambulance even on the sixth floor of their apartment building.

  Tears began to drift over her cheek as she remembered Nelly. Nelly was her best friend. They grew up together in Brooklyn and lived in the same apartment building. When Nelly was 12, she was raped by a group of boys from the neighborhood. Not long after that Nelly jumped from her apartment window to end the torture she lived with daily after the rape. The neighborhood dealt with her death the best they could, mostly by just not talking about it.

  Jay shook her head as if to clear her mind of the memory. Muttering under her breath she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She would be damned if the hard edge she had developed over the years was going to be undermined by a two-bit memory from long ago. Hell, she couldn’t even recall Nelly’s face no matter how hard she tried anymore…and she did try.

  Walking across the room, Jay pushed the button to turn the TV on. She needed to unwind and one fetish that few knew about was watching a show about a man and woman who threw themselves into survival situations and videotaped what they would do. Actually, she could blame it on her old boss who talked about the woman drinking the man’s piss to stay hydrated. Jay couldn’t believe these people existed outside the loony bin and was intrigued. Hooked from the first show, Jay talked with her boss often about what was going on in the world and how to handle different situations. She learned a lot during that time in her life, not only about business but survival also. She missed those days. She missed the woman who quickly became her mentor.

  Picking up the phone, Jay dialed and waited for someone to pick up. It had been a while since the last time they had talked. “Hello,” she heard, recognizing the voice on the other end.

  “Hey boss!”

  “Jay?”

  “Yes ma’am! How’s life out there in the middle of nowhere?”

  Laughing, Emma was happy to hear Jay’s voice. “How are you? Where are you?”

  “I’m home in New York now and doing great! Just wanted to check in and see how you were doing.”

  The next few hours drifted by quickly. The two quickly reconnected with nonstop exchange of information.

  Johnisse used to work for Emma when they both lived in Indianapolis. Both being transplants from other states, the two had bonded quickly being outsiders to the area. Jay came to Indy by way of Chicago after leaving New York. She would go back one day but first she needed to make a name for herself.

  With Jay losing her mother at an early age, it was easy to get tucked under Emma’s mothering wings. Jay looked up to her and learned a lot during the years she worked under her, not just a keen business sense but a lot about how to treat people. Jay had a hard edge to her due to the tough life living in New York but Emma wouldn’t give up on finding her soft spot, her sweet side. It also helped to sit around and reminisce about life on the street with Emma’s husband Tommy. They had walked the same pavement many years prior and shared a kinship that not many could understand. They quickly melted into something deeper than friends, more of an adopted family without the necessary involvement of blood.

  “Oh Emma, I don’t think I could do that. You know how Tiffany is. She isn’t going to want to leave here.”

  “Jay, as long as we have known each other, have you ever known me to feed you bullshit?” Emma asked

  “No ma’am. No you haven’t,” Jay replied.

  “Time for a vacation then. You need to get to Chicago on business and want to stop over for the night. Just tell her I have some really nice homegrown marijuana to give you. That should shut her up.”

  “Ouch! That stings!” Jay shrieked.

  “Tell me she quit. Just tell me she quit and I will apologize,” Emma chuckled.

  “No. That should get her there alright,” Jay said sadly knowing Emma had found the perfect hook to get her out of town.

  “Good. Now start packing,” Emma said.

  “Packing what? Hell! I can pack for a normal trip but from what you are proposing, we are going to need to invite one of those crazy survivalists along to get us there. How am I supposed to keep Tiffany happy if something happens and we are still several states away? I don’t have supplies like that here. Living in Manhattan is like living in the middle of an Island. Well….it is an island but you get my drift. Like freakin’ Hawaii!” Jay said, her voice getting higher as the panic began to set in.

  “Jay! Jay!” Emma screamed into the phone, “Calm down!”

  “Calm down!? You want me to calm down? Seriously? How do you propose I calm down? You have been getting ready for this for years. I got nothing! No supplies and very little Boy Scout skills to get my ass to Ohio!” Jay screamed back into the phone.

  “Then the sooner you get out of there, the better,” Emma said, barely audible. It was enough to get Jay to listen. “Listen. I know how you feel right now, but trust me when I tell you to get out of there as soon as possible. You have a room here as long as it takes, OK?”

  Emma could hear Jay let out a long breath in the receiver.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Jay finally said. “Let me talk with Tiffany but I want to call you back later…maybe tomorrow and maybe you can help me put something together for the trip. Just in case.”

  “You know it. Deep breath, chica. You can do this. And when you get here, I am going to turn you into the best doomsday prepper that ever lived!” Emma laughed into the phone.

  “Doomsday my ass!” Jay snarled back. “Those people are nuts!”

  “Good. I hate lying but you need to get he
re and we need to talk and put a plan together. I’ll have a box of supplies ready for you when you arrive. By then we will have had a drought, or fire or something. I will make something up to tell Tiffany about the lack of sinsemilla to take the heat off of you. Just trust me Jay, you need to get out of the city and soon,” Emma said with just a small amount of agitation in her voice to entice Jay to put the plan into action even faster.

  63

  Senator Varga walked into her bedroom. She was finally alone. No prying eyes or ears to dictate or record her every move. Crossing the room, she walked into her bathroom and undressed, sliding into her bathrobe. She turned and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Raising her hand, she touched the well-earned lines in her face with the tips of her fingers. War wounds these wrinkles were. Battles fought and won… battles fought and lost. Just like the stretch marks that highlighted the landscape of her stomach showing that she earned the title of mother, the fine lines on her face recounted every late night, every disenchantment, every time her heart was broken. Her eyes started to glisten slightly from tears forming as her past flowed through her mind until they gently overflowed and ran down her cheeks. She locked eyes with this person in the mirror staring back at her. Nina’s chin rose ever so slightly in determination. She had no choice but to trust these people who had her children.

  Drying her eyes, Nina walked into the bedroom. Walking over to her bed, she lifted the blankets and sheets off of the foot of the bed. Wedging her hand down between the footboard and her mattress, she felt around for the groove in the wood. Hitting the edge, she flicked her finger back until the board opened. She reached inside the hidden compartment and pulled the envelope from its hiding place. Replacing the trap door and the blankets as they were, she walked over to her desk and sat down. She took a deep breath and just stared at the envelope. What she was about to do would change the lives of everyone she knew. She only hoped they were ready.