Ryan and Aari had gone to meet with Luna and Brielle in a rather bad section of the city. The initial greeting wasn’t too friendly either. Ryan had walked forward a bit to sit down on one of the empty armchairs and was immediately shot dead by one of Luna’s bodyguards. Now, what will be Aari’s response to this?

“I see you are purging out some of your top people,” said Aari calmly, “seems like an odd time to be doing it.” “I see that killing Ryan didn’t seem to bother you much,” said Luna, “I must say that I’m impressed with your reaction.” “As for my reaction, I wasn’t worried about being the next one on your hit list,” said Aari, “I have all the protection I need.”

Just then Sky came out from behind Rock and stood beside Aari. Then Carine did the same thing. “My wife and her, uh, cousin are quite able to protect me from your gunmen,” said Aari, “they could kill them all before they fired one shot.” Luna and Brielle looked at Carine and Sky. “They don’t seem to have any kind of weapon on them,” said Brielle.

“I don’t need a weapon,” said Sky, “I am a weapon!” “She is right,” said Aari, “it would be a foolish thing to try. Never provoke her or my wife. As for Ryan, I think it might have been bad timing to kill him just now, he knew the city well and that can be very helpful. But he wasn’t very trustworthy.” “I could say that you are not very trustworthy either,” said Luna, “already making plans with Ryan about taking over my organization. Very naughty indeed.”

Aari had a good laugh over that one. “I knew Ryan wasn’t serious,” he said, “he was just checking me out, so I went along with him.” Now it was Luna that laughed. Brielle didn’t laugh however, she just sat there with a face of stone. “I told him it wouldn’t work,” she said, “but I let him do it, after all, it might give us some information about you, like how many men you have in the city.”

“Well, all you know is a number I gave to Ryan,” said Aari smiling, “which may or may not be true. I learned a long time ago never to share your weaknesses or your strengths. Both can be used to destroy you.” “That is true Aari,” said Brielle, “by the way, I’m staying as part of this organization, whether that meets your approval or not.”

“Makes no difference to me,” he said, “you do your part and I do mine, we will get along okay that way.” “Do you know a group called the Investigators?” asked Brielle. “Yep, but they are over in France,” he said, “not a problem for us, unless you’re planning on expanding to Europe already. Better to get things firmly in our grip here before expanding.”

“Oh, I wasn’t thinking about expanding,” said Brielle, “just wondering if you knew about them.” “I have heard a lot about them,” said Aari, “they have taken down large organizations before, but I have never had any dealings with them. From what I have heard, they only get involved if provoked, or if specifically hired for some reason.”

“Someone is outside,” said Carine, “there is danger waiting for us.” “A trick of yours?” asked Aari. “No, we have nothing planned,” said Luna, “but perhaps the cops followed you out here.” “No one followed us,” said Aari, “we are very careful about such things.” “Hey Luna!” a voice yelled, “Come on out, let’s see how tough you and your new friends are! Don’t make us come in there, you won’t like that!”

“How quickly can the rest of your men get here?” asked Aari. “You’re looking at them Aari,” said Luna, “what about your men?” “They are not far away,” he said and he took out his phone, “Clarence, we are surrounded, make some noise.” “Sounds like your men are out there too,” said Brielle sneering, “I don’t like surprises either.”

“Would you prefer that I let them come in here and kill you?” asked Aari, “you should be thanking me, not complaining.” Then the outside door to the main building was smashed open! Meanwhile, back to Kat and the cuckoo clock. She had been sitting looking around at things when that cuckoo clock tried to once again make it’s cuckoo sound, but without success.

So, she decided to check and see why. She took it off the wall and opened the back…and smiled. Tucked inside was a folded piece of paper, quite old, and when she looked at it she smiled even more. It was sort of a treasure map, but the treasure was inside the house, not outside. It took her upstairs to the third floor, which was only a partial floor.

She called for Jennifer to come and help and to bring Jewel too. Kat had Rusty and Tracker with her, Jennifer brought Jewel and Azura with her. The cats were busy looking for something, but they didn’t know what. But they did find a door that was shown on the map, but no longer existed. Kat and Jennifer went through the wall and into a small room on the other side.

It was an old home office that Lily’s dad used to keep track of his business, his legal business, before he and his family got involved in crime. In there they discovered that Edwin had opened a bank account for his daughter Lily which was to be turned over to her when she turned 25. Well, she is now 28.

At the time of the last entry there was 15 million dollars in her account. Getting at the account will take a bit, but Sienna’s lawyers will help with that. There was also a small safe which Tiger was able to open. Mac had allowed them to take Tiger to help look through the house. Inside were more business papers and a few beautiful gems.

They packed up everything and drove away. A short time later the old cottage was burning and the girls called the fire department but by the time they arrived, there wasn’t much left. Meanwhile, I hope Aari and the Black Wolves are okay…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.