Chapter 160: Kidnapping
After speaking with the two of them, William stepped back and left them to it.
Now that Peggy was no longer being tormented by cancer, she didn't need Frank running errands for medication anymore.
Which also meant Frank no longer had any chance to go to Pitts alone and try to get money for himself.
---
Meanwhile — South Side Chicago, at the red-light district safehouse
Sophia, wearing sunglasses, knocked lightly on the door.
Her movements were elegant.
In the South Side, she didn't need to hide the fact that she had regained her sight.
No one here knew her.
Or rather—once she had left her old circle behind, she no longer needed to pretend.
By now, Sophia had already submitted her resignation to the orchestra.
She was preparing to move to the South Side.
The door opened.
"The fuck are you?" Svetlana asked, looking Sophia up and down with open suspicion.
"You're Svetlana, right?"
William's assignment for Sophia was simple:
Help him keep Svetlana in check.
Now that the operation had grown to this scale, there was no way William was going to trust Svetlana alone with the finances.
So Sophia was his choice.
Mostly because there was no one else he trusted.
And lately, William hadn't had the time to go around building new followers through his prophet routine.
"I am. Who the fuck are you?" Svetlana asked again, still guarded.
"You don't need to be so wary of me. William sent me.
He said the business here is getting too big, so he sent me to help."
That was what she said.
But Svetlana wasn't stupid. She knew perfectly well this woman had been sent to watch her.
After making a call and confirming Sophia's identity with William, Svetlana had no choice but to let her in.
---
Elsewhere
After hanging up on Svetlana, William looked toward the van in the distance.
For a moment, he considered calling the police.
But then he thought—
If Peggy got arrested again, she'd probably never get out this time.
And sure, Frank might go to jail for a while too, but where was the fun in that?
If he was going to torment Frank, he wanted to be able to watch.
Otherwise, what was the point?
So William kept eating his ice cream and continued observing from a distance.
Now that Peggy and Frank had kidnapped two little girls, there was no way they were getting back to Chicago tonight.
William wasn't planning to leave either.
Frank was the kind of person who could create chaos if you stopped watching him for even one second.
So William stayed.
Just to keep an eye on him.
---
Nightfall
Peggy and Frank ate some fast food inside the van.
Frank had bought it using the last bit of money he had on him.
If they didn't get any money after this meal, the two of them would be out of options.
Peggy checked the time.
By now, Pitts had probably realized his daughters were missing.
She picked up the phone, looked at the business card she had taken from his office, and dialed his number.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The call connected.
Pitts's voice came through immediately—tight and nervous.
"Who is this?"
"Noah," Peggy said coldly, "is my money ready?
Tomorrow, I expect every last dollar.
Not a single cent short.
Otherwise—"
"Wait! Are my daughters with you?! Peggy, I'm warning you—if anything happens to my girls—"
Peggy cut him off before he could finish.
"Shut up. You know exactly what kind of person I am, Noah.
Don't disappoint me."
Then she hung up.
"Trash," she muttered.
Frank had been listening closely.
"Mom… how much does he owe you?"
His interest in the number was growing by the minute.
After all, Peggy was out on medical parole. For her to take this kind of risk just to collect a debt—
It had to be a serious amount of money.
From the moment he realized that, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about it.
But Peggy, just like earlier in the day, had no intention of answering him.
"Fuck. Food just keeps getting worse and worse these days. Shit."
"Mom, I deserve a cut too! I have to get a share of that money! You can't be this heartless—I'm your son!"
Frank kept pushing.
"Shut the fuck up," Peggy snapped, glaring at him viciously. "Say one more word and I'll rip your mouth apart."
The moment Frank heard her words, memories of his childhood—of being completely dominated by Peggy—flashed through his mind.
Instantly, he shut up.
---
Meanwhile
After Peggy hung up, Pitts stared at his phone, shouting into it in frustration:
"Peggy! Peggy! Fuck! Damn it!"
After a few curses, he started pacing like an ant on a hot pan, panic written all over his face.
"Honey… what's going on? Why aren't the girls home yet?" his wife asked, her eyes red with tears.
Pitts felt his head pounding.
He still had about seventy thousand dollars left from the old dirty money in his office.
But overnight—
How was he supposed to come up with the remaining one hundred and thirty thousand?
It was impossible.
---
Of course, Peggy wasn't completely insane.
At the end of the day, all she wanted was to recover her money before she died—
So she could send some of it to the sons she felt she had wronged.
She knew she hadn't been a good mother.
But—
As ruthless as she was, she wasn't shameless.
In that sense, she was actually quite different from the rest of the Gallagher family.
Strictly speaking, it was really only Frank's branch that was utterly shameless.
The others… were just ordinary Americans struggling to survive.
---
Time passed quickly.
To keep himself from dozing off, William activated [Undying · Bat Subtype] on himself.
He stayed alert the entire night—
Watching Frank and Peggy as they slept inside the van.
---
The Next Morning
At the agreed time, Peggy arranged to meet Pitts in a small wooded area.
Frank stayed behind in the van, waiting for her signal before releasing the girls.
Pitts arrived at the center of the park, carrying a bag.
He hadn't called the police.
He didn't dare.
Because if Peggy found out—
He might never see his daughters again.
In his eyes, Peggy was a truly dangerous woman.
"Peggy, I brought the money. You can't hurt my daughters!"
He clutched the bag tightly, staring at her with tense determination.
"My money," Peggy replied flatly, ignoring his plea. "Where is it?"
"This is one hundred seventy thousand," Pitts said quickly.
"I'm still short thirty thousand—I couldn't get it in time.
But give me a few more days, I swear I'll get the rest!"
---
The night before, Pitts had mortgaged his house and borrowed one hundred thousand dollars from loan sharks.
It wasn't that he didn't want to borrow the full amount—
They simply refused.
To them, his house wasn't worth that much.
If he defaulted, they'd lose money.
So they capped it at one hundred thousand.
Adding the seventy thousand he had left in his office—
He scraped together a total of one hundred seventy thousand.
And brought it all… here.