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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I explained to Dawn about the riddle and that at one point it said Celestine needed a King or she would not find a thing. That’s how the King and Queen began, just as something fun. “Rats,” she said, “I was hoping for something more exciting than that, oh well.” Then she sighed. “I’m sorry my dear wife,” I said to her, “it just wasn’t meant to be.” She gave me a fake slap and giggled, as did Jennifer and Celestine. That is, they joined in with giggling.
At lunch those 3 guys were back, plus one, so Jennifer, Celestine and I stayed behind longer after the other girls went back to their rooms. Then we went outside and stood there for a few minutes. Those 4 guys came out, just like I figured they would and a car came speeding up, slamming on it’s brakes right beside us. The four men took out guns and another man got out of the car, also having a gun. “You men are either very forgetful,” I said, “or, you are very stupid, which is it?”
“All of you get in the car,” said one man, “we’ll see who is stupid.” “Yes, we will see right now,” said Jennifer and the men suddenly yelled and dropped their guns. Then the fight was on! Celestine took on one man while Jennifer and I each took 2 men. The driver of the car sped away without picking up his friends. The police showed up about a minute after the driver had gone. I told them the make of car and Celestine told them the license plate number.
I told the police these guys were trying to kidnap us, or something, but we didn’t like that idea, so we fought back. The police told us that was a dangerous thing to do, but I replied that allowing them to kidnap us would be more dangerous. The police seemed to be deliberately stalling, I must remember that, they may not be much help to us in the future.
Finally they arrested the men as they began to wake up and they drove off. Sherry and Aasta followed close behind them and discovered the police dropped off their prisoners at a place called The Black Swan, which was just three blocks away. It was one of the largest gambling places in the city and had a large hotel with it. So, that is where Tobias and his men are staying, and likely where he is keeping Delena and her kids as well.
I don’t like thinking this, but I don’t think there has been a kidnapping. That will be very hard on Richard. I’m not saying anything just yet since I don’t have the proof yet, but hopefully I will get that proof soon. One way or the other. I hope I’m wrong. Cristy told me that Tobias was born and raised in London, had a successful business but for some reason it went bankrupt. Then he moved to Las Vegas, and got a job at The Black Swan as one of the security men, apparently he is quite big and strong.
Amazingly, after just three years, he is the manager and part owner of The Black Swan. It’s while here that Celestine ran away from him. One day she went into his office and saw the safe door open, so she grabbed some money, put it in her purse and ran, very quickly, out of the building and into a taxi. She went to the airport and flew up to Canada, going to Vancouver first, then after a couple of months she went to the Philippines after her parents had been killed, so she could help her grandmother.
She had just enough money to make the trip. Anyway, back to the present. It’s time to bring in Trapper, I mean, Dean, Delena’s long lost brother. Hopefully he will be a good enough replica of Delena’s brother to fool her, so we can find out if she really is kidnapped or not. The next day, at lunch, Dean was in the restaurant with two friends and he asked the waitress if she had ever seen the woman in the picture he handed to her. Right away she got nervous and asked why he wanted to know.
“She’s my sister,” he said, “but we haven’t seen each other in 17 years. I have been wanting to get in touch with her again and a friend of mine said he had seen her here in Vegas not long ago. So, I came hoping to find her.” “Well, we get thousands of people through here,” she said, still nervously, “there’s no way I could remember one woman.” Dean then started counting out $100 bills on the table, and at $800 she grabbed the money and tucked it away.
“You won’t tell anyone, will you?” she asked. “Nope, I just want to find her, that’s all,” he said. “Well, I have seen her twice in here, with 2 kids,” she began, “she was with a man named Tobias. They both wore wedding rings, so I thought they were married. They certainly acted married too.” Dean then put another $200 on the table and said if this Tobias, or his sister showed up, then to tell them he was looking for her.
She said okay and left. Fortunately no one else working there saw this take place, or the waitress might have been in trouble. Shortly after, Tobias came in with 4 of his men and sat down. That same waitress came to their table and told Tobias that a man named Dean was looking for his sister Delena. She pointed him out to Tobias and he handed her $100. “Does she have a brother named Dean?” asked Herman. “I don’t know,” he said, “but I’m going to find out.”
He sent Herman back to pick her up and bring her to the restaurant. She sat down beside Tobias so she could see Dean. “I do have a brother, Dean,” she said, “but it’s been 17 years, he has likely changed a lot, I’m not sure if it’s him or not.” Tobias then told the waitress to ask Dean to join them at their table, so she did so right away and Dean came over and sat next to Delena, smiling. “Don’t quite remember me do you sis?” he asked. “Well, it has been 14 years,” she said. “Actually it’s been 17 years sis,” he said.
“Mom and dad were so worried about you when you disappeared suddenly,” she said. “Ha! We never got along and you know it,” he said, “dad was likely glad I ran away.” “You’re right, he was,” she said, “even mom was happy about it, I’m the only one that missed you.” “I missed you too sis,” he said, “hey, remember this photo?” He pulled it out of a small holder in his pocket. “You brat!” she said, “I always wondered what happened to this one. I thought dad was going to kill us both that time.”
She showed it to Tobias. “A friend of mine took the picture after we came out of the pool at her house,” she said, “I was 14 and Dean was 10.” “I was 12, dear sis,” he said. They talked more and Dean answered every question perfectly and told of different things that only he and Delena knew about. Dean mentioned he had stopped by her and Richard’s place in London and he said she had been kidnapped.
“Does it look like I’m kidnapped?” she asked, “I left Richard after meeting Tobias about a year ago. The kids love Tobias too which is nice. Richard made up that story so his boss won’t fire him, it seems his boss doesn’t like it when his employees have family problems. It doesn’t look good for his business.” “Well, I’m just glad you’re okay sis,” said Dean.
Then Tobias invited Dean and his 2 friends for dinner at The Black Swan tonight. Kristina was with Dean the whole time, but stayed invisible and after he went back to his friends, she remained to listen and heard Tobias tell his men to take Dean and his friends into the back room after dinner, and make sure they don’t come out. Kristina then told me…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Here we are looking for Richard’s wife and children and instead we run across some guy that Celestine knows and is very afraid of, which is not good. We are now back in our room so Jennifer and I decide to talk with Celestine about this guy named Tobias. Well, Jennifer decided I should talk with Celestine, and I agreed. Kind of the same thing, sort of. Oh well.
So, I asked Celestine about Tobias, who he was, what he does and what her involvement was with him. “It isn’t easy talking about this Steve,” she said, “all of you will hate me once I tell you what this is all about.” “None of us will hate you Celestine,” I said reassuringly, “but in order to protect you, we need to know what’s going on, and why.” “He and my dad worked together for a few years,” she began, “they actually worked for another man, but I don’t remember his name, they seldom mentioned it.
Anyway, over time dad went into debt because of his gambling and Tobias finally loaned him the money to pay his debt in full and dad quit gambling. Tobias said that he would consider the debt paid if dad gave me to him for his porn operation. So, dad did so and I became the property of Tobias. I was 16 at the time, but I looked like I was 13, which Tobias thought was perfect and he portrayed me as a 13 year old, which brought in a lot more money for him.
I guess you will want me to leave now. But can I ask one favor? Take me to a different city and toss me out, maybe Tobias won’t find me then.” She was crying, Jennifer was crying, Dawn was crying. I hugged Celestine. “No way, my Queen,” I said, “you are not going anywhere. You are part of our family now and we fight for each other. I promise you that Tobias will never touch you again. See Dawn over there? She was sold by her dad into porn at 16, then disowned her for getting involved in porn. You two have much in common.”
Then I said, “Sky.” “You called Steve?” she asked, “where’s the trouble?” “How did Sky get here?” asked Celestine. “Um, we’ll explain that in a little while,” I said, “Sky, can you come if Celestine calls you, please, it’s important.” I then told her Celestine’s story and I told Celestine that Sky had a similar experience as well. Sky then said she would come at Celestine’s call, then she took her aside into the bathroom for a few minutes.
“Cristy,” I said, “I need you to, um, are you awake?” “Naturally I’m awake,” she said, “I have had my customary 5 minutes of sleep so that I can be of service to you the remaining 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day.” “Ooooh, someone hasn’t had their morning coffee yet,” I said. “It’s the middle of the night Steve,” she reminded me. “Oh, right, well, I would only do this if it’s important,” I said. “I know, it always is important,” she said sighing.
“Wow, that was a long sigh,” I said, “anyway, I need information on Tobias Trundle, whatever you can find and quickly please.” “Good thing you added that please on the end,” she said, “just joking, I’m not upset, really.” “I think she’s being sarcastic,” said Jennifer. “How can you tell?” I asked. “It’s in her voice,” she replied. Sky and Celestine came back out at that moment. “I feel a bit strange,” said Celestine. “That will go away quickly,” said Sky, smiling, “but now, when you say my name, I will come to help you.”
“But you don’t ever carry a gun, or knife, or anything,” said Celestine, “what if the bad guys have guns?” “Then I will take their guns away from them,” said Sky, still smiling. “She can do it too,” I said, then I turned to Sky, “how come I can’t do that?” “Because it’s not one of your abilities,” she said, “concentrate on what you have, learn to use them perfectly, others might come along later.”
Meanwhile, in another hotel not far away. “Well, why didn’t you bring her back?” asked Tobias. “We were still outnumbered, and those people are not easy to scare, they just stood up to us and said to tell you to forget about Celestine while you’re still healthy.” “Check with the hotel register and get their names,” said Tobias, “then check out who they are, and do it now!” Gordon was the name of his computer guy and he was on it right away.
He hacked into the hotel computer and checked the register and the only name he found was mine, listed as Steve Moore. He tried getting information about me but was unsuccessful, so he checked with his contacts. One of them knew a woman named Jazzy and contacted her. We had already given Jazzy information to give away about us. She told him we were a smaller gang from Canada called The Lynx Club, all women except the leader. She told him that although we were a small gang, we were tough and we didn’t back down.
She also told him it would be better not to get involved with us because my wife is the sister of the leader for The Black Wolves, a gang also from Canada, but they were much bigger, about 200 rough, tough men that you don’t want to tangle with. Gordon then gave this information to Tobias. “That’s why that guy acts tough,” said Tobias, “when he has that many men behind him. Well, we’ll leave him alone for now, we have this other deal going and I don’t want anything to get in the way of that. But watch those people, if you have a chance to grab Celestine easily, then do it.”
Back to us once more. Sky disappeared and went back to her Bad Girls in the hotel across the street. “Um, what happened to Sky?” asked Celestine, “She’s kind of, different.” I chuckled at that one. “Yes, that’s true,” I said, “some of us are a bit different, but Sky is one of the nicest women you can know, after Jennifer of course.” “Good thing you added that last part, my dear husband,” said Jennifer. Dawn and Celestine laughed.
“Okay, I understand,” said Celestine, “will I ever know what goes on with certain people?” “Yes, everyone finds out in time,” I said, “I’m not deliberately withholding information from you, honest.” “I believe you, my King,” she said, smiling, “oops, I messed up.” “It’s okay,” said Dawn, “I have heard you say that before. But I have yet to see you and Steve playing chess.”
“Um, well, we play secretly right now since I’m not very good,” I told her. “Uh huh,” said Dawn, “well, I don’t believe you. Something else is going on between the King and the Queen.” She giggled, so did Jennifer. Celestine looked a bit worried, but Jennifer told her not to be…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 