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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Here we are at the home of Colin and Sugar Davies and he is supposed to be at work this time of day. Hmm, his car is not here, but there are two rather expensive vehicles in the driveway plus a large van on the street in front of the house. Someone is obviously here and up to no good I’m quite sure of that. We went up to the front door and I told Rock to open it, his way. He smiled and with one big body slam against that door and it flew off it’s hinges! We went in quickly after that with guns out, and found Sugar on her hands and knees in the middle of the floor.
There was a man standing next to her so I told him to back away from Sugar and do so quickly. He just stood there looking at me and folded his arms. He was quite big and muscular so I told Rock to move him out of the way. Rock smiled and walked toward the man and when Rock got close enough, the man hit him on his cheek, then a punch to his stomach. Rock just stood there without flinching, then he gave the man a solid punch to his chest, knocking him back about 5 feet and onto the couch.
“What do you think you’re doing?! yelled a woman sitting on a chair to my right. I turned to her and said, “Well, well, if it isn’t our old friend Ms. Medina,” I said, “you don’t give up easily I see, but you will this time.” “I should have known it was you!” she exclaimed as she stood up, “Now, get out of here, we have every right to be here, this woman has signed a contract with us of her own free will.” Medina had a smug look on her face so I went over to her and slapped her hard, knocking her back onto her chair.
Back home Jennifer was about to yell “danger” to me, but Friskie got the message first and she jumped in front of me just as a man hiding on the other side of the large fireplace began shooting at me. He emptied his clip shooting at Friskie as she began walking toward him. Before he could put another clip in his gun Friskie was in front of him and she began to hit him amazingly fast, finally kicking him and he fell against that brick fireplace and he fell, hitting his head on the marble hearth. “Don’t worry Sugar,” I said, “we are friends and have come to take you away from this.”
“Don’t believe him Sugar,” exclaimed Medina, “he plans on taking you to a much worse life than you have now!” “Don’t believe her!” said Celestine emphatically, as she now came into the house. “Celestine!” exclaimed Sugar and she then got up off the floor and hugged Celestine tight. “You don’t have to be afraid Sugar,” said Celestine, “you can trust Steve and all of us. We are going to take you away from this horrible life.” I sent Angel and Friskie with Celestine and Sugar so that Sugar could do some packing. “You won’t get away with this Steve,” said Medina.
“I already have Medina,” I said, “but I’m not here to fight with you right now, so you can leave if you want.” “You are parked behind me,” she retorted, “how am I supposed to leave?” “Just get in your fancy little car,” I told her, “and my car will get out of your way.” Just then I got a communication from Angel saying that Medina had Carmeline’s gems. “Stop Medina!” I yelled to her as she stepped out the door. John was there so he grabbed her and brought her back inside.
“Let me look in that big bag of yours Medina,” I said, “it seems you have something that belongs to someone else.” “Everything in here belongs to me!” she yelled angrily, “And no one is going to take it from me!” Mac, however, was right behind her and with a quick slice with his very sharp knife, her rather large bag fell to the floor and he picked it up, handing it to me. “Hmm, let me see what we have in this cloth bag,” I said, while untying it.
At that moment a man jumped up from behind the couch with a shotgun aimed at me! Rock was closest and he threw himself at the couch smashing the man against the wall and quite obviously breaking a few ribs in the process. The man groaned and dropped his shotgun and Rock pulled him out, throwing him onto the floor with a loud thud and even louder groaning. “Your people are getting better Steve,” said Medina, “my compliments to you. May I go now?”
“There seems to be a few of these lovely gems missing,” I said, “would you happen to know anything about that?” “Come now Steve,” she said, “can’t you let a poor girl keep some of those beautiful rocks?” “You are not poor Medina,” I said, “so the answer is no. Hand them over please.” She then opened her jacket and the inside lining revealing an assortment of interesting things. “I was wondering why you were wearing a jacket on such a warm day,” I told her as she put a smaller cloth bag on my hand. I then reached over and took some money she had also.
“Hey now Steve, that is theft,” she said, “the money is mine.” “Let’s just say you are making a donation to our orphan fund,” I said, “after all, I could hand you over to the police and have you charged with extortion, sex trafficking, selling drugs, theft of gems and attempted murder, to name a few.” “You will regret this Steve,” she said, “I mean that.” “You may go now, and take your dead men with you,” I said. She gave the order to her men and they left, with their dead friends.
Then Medina was about to leave, but she turned around and quickly stuck something on my back. “That, my dear Steve, is a bomb,” she said, “and this little gadget in my hand will cause that bomb to explode. If anyone tries to stop me, or kill me, then you will die too. An explosion just big enough to kill you, and I know it works because I have used it before. Now, I will take my property back, including Sugar, plus Celestine, for my orphan fund. I also want Carmeline. I know you have her hidden somewhere, but you will give her to me or your team will lose their leader, and I’m sure they don’t want that.”
“Are you talking about this little bomb Medina?” asked Friskie who was now standing beside Medina holding the bomb in her hand, “go ahead and press that button.” I turned so Medina could see my back, then I turned to face her. “That’s impossible,” gasped Medina, “nothing can loosen the glue on that bomb!” Then Medina lunged toward me, but Sky tossed a lightning ball at her which sent her smashing through the window and onto the lawn…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Well, Kat, Sky, Kitty and Kristina are with Carmeline at Mandar’s safe house in Italy now. Vlora is there too with Teams 4 and 5 from Mandar Security Forces. Vlora is very trustworthy and works with these two teams, plus Teams 6 and 7, on a regular basis. That way they learn to work together which is very important. The Wildcats are also with them, though at the moment they are just wearing regular clothes so they don’t attract attention. Although we expect Harold to check on the Wildcats and look at the photos posted of them, it won’t help him much.
We have changed the photos of all the Wildcats to make it impossible to track them down. Actually, everything has been changed about them, even names. That way they can still be seen at our chateau as part of our team, just not by the name Wildcats. Carmeline can’t believe how much effort and expense we are putting into keeping her safe. Oh yes, Celestine is there with her now as well, plus 6 of our cats. “Do you ever hear from Sugar?” asked Celestine.
“Yeah, poor girl,” said Carmeline, “that is, until her husband took her phone away. He kept her a prisoner in their home. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere and he would lock her up during the day when he was at work. Then he would let her out of her room when he came home so she could make dinner and as long as she “behaved” herself, she could stay out in the house until 10pm, then he locked her in her room again.
If she did anything he didn’t like, then he would hit or kick her and lock her up early. She was allowed to call me or text me providing I promised not to call the police. If I did call them, then he would kill her right away.” Celestine told this to Kat who then told me about it. “Steve, we have to do something to help that poor girl,” said Jennifer. I agreed with her, so Jennifer asked Kat for Sugar’s address which turned out to be in Miami, Florida. “Which team hasn’t had much action lately?” I asked Jennifer.
“Well, either the Night Owls or the Sneakers,” she replied. I looked at her. “Well, that narrows it down,” I said, “but I actually asked which ‘team’, not which ‘teams’.” “You are the leader, my dear husband,” she reminded me, “therefore you should know the answer to that yourself.” She then smiled. I sighed. She also insisted that I take 2 ghosts with me, although she really wanted me to take 3, but that would leave her alone here so I said no to that one. I will take 5 of the guys with me on this trip too, and that will be Mac, Rock, John, Cal and Trapper. Plus, I can always call Sky if I need to.
“That’s providing you have the ability to call her,” said Jennifer, “can’t you take her with you? Kat, Kristina and Kitty should be able to handle things without her.” “I don’t really think that’s necessary,” I told her, “this isn’t as bad as a prison break, and it’s only one guy.” “Only one that we know of,” said Jennifer, frowning at me. She then communicated this with Kat and she agreed that I should take Sky with me too, especially since Friskie was a new addition and not able to use her abilities fully yet. I was outvoted again.
Good thing Jennifer had just reminded me that I was the leader of the Investigators, otherwise I might not know. Sigh. I understand though, they want to make sure I don’t get killed, after all, I likely wouldn’t be coming back as a ghost. Melody told me that she had finished checking on this guy and he still lives at the same address. She also found photos of Sugar on a porn site and she said it was quite obvious they had been using makeup to hide some bruises. That is not good, I wonder what else he is doing with his “wife”.
She isn’t a real wife as far as I’m concerned, she is just a sex slave and this guy is making money off her. It’s amazing how often this happens, yet people don’t believe it happens in our modern society. Melody told us this information while we were flying across to the US. Since this guy is trafficking his wife there is a good chance there are friends of his that are involved in this too. That could also mean a gang is involved so Melody is checking on that possibility for us as well.
Akila has hacked into this guy’s computer to try and find out more information about him and what he does. She has also hacked into his phone and is now checking out his contacts. The man’s name is Colin Davies and, interestingly, he is involved with people that we know. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me, yet it still does. Maybe I should say person, not people, and that person is Danielle Boyer, also known by us as Medina. That woman sure gets around, but it also means that Colin Davies has some serious money backing him., and her gang is back too, though it isn’t a large gang at least.
We had slowed Medina down a bit before, cutting off a large chunk of her money, but it seems she must have remedied that little problem. However, we just want Sugar, so we will go in and take her as quickly as possible and then get out again. Sounds easy on paper. Yes, I still use paper, it can actually be safer at times. I was feeling a bit lightheaded for some reason, so I decided to lie down for a while since we still had 5 hours to go. A short nap might help right now. Celestine came into the room shortly after me and laid down beside me.
“So, what’s bothering you, my dear husband,” she said, “you’re not lying down because you’re tired, so what is it?” “Are you sure that you’re only 21?” I asked, “I mean, no one else came to check on me, but you spotted something even though you were talking and laughing with a couple of the girls.” “I’m your counselor and advisor, remember?” she reminded me, “It’s my job to notice things.” “Right,” I said, “I just felt a bit lightheaded, nothing serious.”
“Hmm, you have been under a lot of stress again, which is not good,” she said, “you don’t need to get involved in every part of the case, not even every case. Let the others take over now and then.” She smiled at me. “But I need to stay involved,” I reminded her, “otherwise I fall apart. I’m a hands on kind of guy and I didn’t start the Investigators so I could sit and watch other people risk their lives while I sit at home well protected from danger.” She smiled again.
“Yes, I see your point,” she said, “we need to work on some kind of compromise, otherwise you’re going to burn out totally and no one wants that Steve, no one. Now, relax for a while and try to get some sleep.” “Are you going to tell Jennifer?” I asked. “I won’t tell anyone right now,” she said, “but all the leaders need to get together after this and get things figured out. Deal?” “Deal.” I said. She smiled again and kissed me on the cheek. I asked her to stay with me and make sure I don’t sleep longer than 2 hours.
She woke me up right on time and we went back out to the others and began to go over our plans to get Sugar out of the house while her husband was away at work, or wherever he goes. Soon we were landing at the airport where the cars and vans were waiting for us. Soon we were getting close to their house and the team parked on the street, though our car, a limousine, pulled into the driveway…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 