At the chateau everything was going nicely, no problems, all was quiet, except for the fact we were all waiting for news about John. We were all worried about him right now, not knowing what was going to happen. Would he live or die? Kat was keeping John alive and Sky brought Dr. Jorgenson back home quickly since Samantha didn’t think she was qualified enough to remove the second bullet from near John’s heart. Dr. Jorgenson is now one of the Black Wolves and everyone calls him Doc. So, right now he is operating on John, and we’re all waiting for news.

“Misty,” said Nadia, “go see what Steve would like with afternoon tea.” Misty was about to call me. “No, no,” said Nadia, “why you girls always use talking devices? Why you not go talk with Steve yourself? You not like him or something? Talk in person, that make him feel better and make him feel like people want to talk with him, he needs that now when he have to stay at home all the time.” Misty thought for a moment, then she hugged Nadia and off she came, running up that long curved stairway. She was puffing a bit when she arrived, but not too badly, which was kind of impressive.

She then asked me what I would like with my tea, Nadia had a selection of different muffins ready. I asked why she didn’t call me instead of making the long trip up the stairs. She hugged me and said she loved me and calling on our device was too impersonal. She then left with my order for muffins. Shortly after she went down, Courtney came up and sat down on the loveseat beside me but didn’t say a word. Obviously there was a problem of some kind and she didn’t know how to start talking about it. I put my arm around her and she put her head on my shoulder and started to cry.

I figured she was crying because of her sister, so I tried to comfort her about that. “That’s not it right now,” she said, “it’s…” “Don’t you like it here?” I asked. “Oh, yes, I do like it here, very much!” she said, “it’s just…” “It sometimes helps to just come out with it and talk,” I said, “if it’s something you want to ask me, then ask.” “It’s just…when I came to look for Carmen, I didn’t have much money,” she began, “before I came I had asked around online to see if anyone knew Carmen and maybe knew where she was, so I could find her. This one woman contacted me and said she had worked with Carmen for a while and got to know her and Vincent.

I asked her if she knew of a cheap hotel where I could stay, one where I could maybe cook some light meals to save some money. She and her friend said I could stay with them. They had only lived in that city for 2 years and were originally from the UK. Anyway, now I’m worried that maybe that Marchetti character will try to find out where I was living and he might hurt those two women that helped me.” “I will get our girls over there right away to check on them,” I said, “just give me their names and address.”

Unfortunately Courtney was correct and Marchetti had told his men to find out where Courtney could have been living, or as he said, Carmen. “Someone had to have been hiding her while she was here,” said Marchetti, “find out who it was and bring that person, or persons, to me, alive. I want them alive!” I communicated with Sky to get her Bad Girls over to check on Shirley and Harley right away. I also contacted Mac and Bear who had stayed behind in case I needed them again.

I told them to watch for Rocco and stop him if possible. I also said to be careful if he had two young women with him since they could be Shirley and Harley. I sent photos of them as well. Since Rocco had been sent to kill Giorgio, which he did already, Marchetti sent other men out looking for whoever had hidden Courtney. Marchetti finally found out that Carmen had a twin sister named Courtney who had come to look for her sister. So, he figured she must have been staying with someone since there was no record of her staying in any hotel in the city.

One of his men, who was good at finding information, discovered that Courtney had been having conversations with a woman named Harley, so he tracked her down and Marchetti sent men over to pick up Shirley and Harley. They arrived before the Bad Girls, but only found Harley at home, so some of them went to pick up Shirley at work. However, Shirley had a gun in her desk drawer where she worked as a secretary and she pulled it out and shot one of the men. But one of them shot Shirley and the men ran off.

The men at Harley’s flat came out with her just as the Bad Girls arrived and a fight began! Sky guarded Harley while her girls did the fighting. There were only 6 men, so the fight was quickly over. Harley then told Sky that other men had gone to get Shirley at work, so they went over there next and arrived just as the other men came running out of the building, without Shirley. The Bad Girls jumped out of their vans and another fight began. There were 5 men this time since one had been shot by Shirley. The Bad Girls were not gentle with either group of men, most were killed and the others were seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Mac and Bear were looking for Rocco. “That’s him,” said Mac. He was sitting at a sidewalk cafe when he suddenly felt a sharp knife against his back. “You shouldn’t have killed Giorgio,” said a deep voice. Rocco slowly turned around a bit. “Carver!” he exclaimed, “But how?” “I came back from the dead to clean up some garbage, like you.” There was a slight groan and Rocco slouched over onto the table. A car stopped and Mac got in, then they sped away. Mac then called me and said Rocco was now dead, so I told them both to head over to Carmen’s house and help out.

While this was going on Jennifer and the Wildcats were at Carmen’s house looking for any valuables that might be hidden in the house. They checked the basement floor, just in case there was another cavity under the cement were things might be hidden. But it was Tiger and Rusty that found something interesting, the round bed in the round bedroom sat on a “tree”, they said. Amber looked underneath and sure enough, it sat on some kind of post.

Mac smiled when they told him and he said to take the blankets off the bed. He then found an oddly placed light switch and said to turn off the lights. Red dots showed up on the ceiling in a circle over the bed. Mac then pushed a button beside his odd light switch, then went to the bed and began to turn it slowly until a red dot turned green. He chuckled and told them it’s a huge combination lock. At the last green dot the bed locked in place again and a wall panel in the room slid open, revealing the contents of a safe.

There was about 50,000 euros and a few diamonds, but the real treasure was the paperwork and some external HDD’s containing a lot of information about Marchetti and his organization. Rossana came to pick up this information herself and she told Jennifer to keep the money and diamonds and give it to Courtney. I then told everyone to head back home, but…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.