Moving Forward

Lester Finds a Home

Sven's POV

"Lester will be a big help," I told the Mother Superior. "He is great with kids of all ages, is excellent at yard work and building repairs. He can even keep a car running with a bit wire and a prayer."

"Can he be trusted with the children," she demanded to know.

"He is the one person at the local gym that I trusted to take care of Raschel when my family was busy." I did not hesitate to reply. "He took excellent care of her, kept her entertained, made sure she ate and carried her where ever she needed to go when her legs were in casts. He made her laugh when she wanted to cry, dried her tears when the pain was too much and he read to her from every book he could get his hands on."

"It would be nice to have a handyman around to help," she sighed. "The kids are notorious for stuffing up the toilets, especially the younger ones. We do have the Groundskeeper cottage that the Historic Society is demanding we repair."

"He may seem a bit slow at first," I warned her. "He isn't though; it just takes him a bit longer to verbalize what he wishes to say. He had a head injury as a child and it made it difficult for him to speak. He has taught himself to overcome it, except for the hesitation when he starts to speak. He enjoys helping others and he loves to read, especially when he has an audience. He loves working with kids and will go the extra mile to see they are well cared for."

"We can't afford to pay much." She reminded me.

"Chel researched and found that the Historical Society must help pay for the upkeep of the property if they wish to show it in their tours. While it is true that they will only show the outside of the building and main floor, they need to compensate you each month to help with the preservation. Lester has a trust fund that pays for his needs, pay him a couple hundred every two weeks, let him live in the cottage and eat the meals with the children and you will have someone who is completely loyal to this home."

"Fine," she gave in. "I don't know why you want to help him, isn't he the one who took Raschel from school?"

"His older brother Melvin did, he was using Chel to make Lester and I fight in the arena. Lester isn't a fighter, he is a scholar in his own way, but Chel is his friend and he will do anything to protect her. Melvin knew I would do whatever he wanted to get her back and he tried to use it to his advantage; he didn't think it through clearly and will now being wearing prison orange."

"Praise the good Lord for that," she murmured. "Where is he, I think I should meet him if he is going to be a part of our family."

"He was dismayed to find that no one had shoveled the snow from the sidewalks and the parking area. He rounded up some of the kids and has them helping him to remove the snow." I tried not to laugh at her look of surprise. I followed her to the front door and outside, knowing she needed to see it for herself. Sure enough, Lester had the kids all lined up and they were removing the snow from the parking area. The snow and ice was gone from the sidewalks already.

"Sister Agnes will be pleased by this," Mother Superior clucked her tongue. "She has been concerned over the kids hurting themselves when slipping on the ice."

"About the bus, we think we may have found one. Colt is looking at it now," I informed her. "It belonged to a private school that closed its doors after a few years; hopefully it is in excellent shape."

Victor's POV

When I was younger, my mother used to fret that someone would kidnap me. It got worse the older I got and was one the reasons my parents refused to let me attend Ashley Waters with my friends. I didn't believe anything like that would happen, especially to me. How wrong I was. I had believed people were held for ransom when they were kidnapped, that wasn't true. The first time Princess was stolen, she had been a baby and it had nothing to do with who her family was. It seemed like the man took her to distract his wife and she just wanted a child to torture. Money hadn't concerned them, she just seemed the easiest target. This last time, to force Sven back into the ring, how stupid was that. The person hadn't been brave enough to fight Sven himself, he had to force his younger brother to do it in his place.

Luke and I had just located her when we saw her lean down to pick up the pipe and run towards the man standing a few feet from the ring. We hadn't understood what she was doing at first, then we nearly had a heart attack when we saw he had a gun and she was hitting him with the pipe. I admit that we both were snickering the entire time she was yelling and hitting him, it had been funny to see. She hadn't been half his size and she was going after him full throttle. Then he shot himself with the dart gun, unbelievable. We had been confused when she went to talk to one of the bookies and walked away with a fist full of dollars, Luke was the one who figured she had placed a bet. Then Shan told us to get the pipe from her and get her out of there. Luke was quicker to move than I was, all those times he had to run from North. When she had been telling Sven what happened, our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard. She had been so outraged that people would dare to bet against her father and that the man intended to cheat. When Sven threw his head back and laughed, we knew everything was going to be all right. He set her down and told us to take her home while they finished at the arena. That is when it sunk in that he truly didn't blame me for losing her.

The entire event taught me that my parents had reason to be concerned. There was no set reason for a child to be abducted and I would be smart to pay more attention to my surroundings. Like Princess, I had a higher chance of someone kidnapping me. My family's wealth, my fame, and the way I would hop a bus to go to Kota's house without telling my parents before I got my license. Let us not forget the missions I did, often on my own. From now on, the three of us were going to be a lot smarter.

The key to Raschel 's return to Sven the first time was because they still had the umbilical cord and were able to get a sample of her DNA and place it into a database of missing children. When they rescued Sang Sorenson, the first thing that the doctors did was take a sample of her DNA and the police ran it through the database. Once they had a match, they did a paternity test on Sven. If the Ericsons hadn't been so quick to act, it would have taken a lot longer for her to be identified. Luke and I, we were going to have our DNA and fingerprints taken and Sven was going to put them in the safe with Princess's records. They may never be used, but it paid to be safe.

When we returned to school two days later, I'm surprised Princess was still talking to me. I didn't let her out of my sight and held her hand as we walked through the halls. The members watching her, weren't much better, we were constantly tripping over one of them. During lunch, all of us surrounded her. She was a good sport about it and joked that she was going to buy one of those sedan chairs so we could carry her through the hallways as if she was an Egyptian queen.

The Academy members who attended M.I.T. with us, they were students who were accepted but didn't get a scholarship. Sven paid their college fees in exchange for them watching over Princess. I was added to list once I was accepted for the program. They considered it a fair exchange since it allowed them to attend the college of their choice. While they had taken leave from their original teams, they were working together as a team while attending college. Their original teammates were doing the same at other colleges. They came from all over the country; were making contacts that would serve them in the future and they were forming a connection with a future High Council member.