Aari is meeting with Medina once again at the same children’s playground and had just shot Trixie because she spit on him. “She’s dead as could be,” said Ryan after checking Trixie. “You have a bit of a temper,” said Medina, “I don’t like it when people can’t control themselves, they become unreliable.”

“I never back away from a deal,” said Aari, “not in any way. I can do my job and keep my temper under control. This was slightly different and was not part of any job I was working on. Look at it this way, you said she had information you didn’t want her talking about, well, she won’t talk about it now.” “He has a point Luna,” said Ryan, “certainly no loss for us.”

“Speaking of loss, what about Ralph?” asked Aari. “We’ll take care of him,” said Luna, “don’t worry about that.” “He’s a greater danger than this dead woman was,” said Aari, “he seems like the type who would sell out to the competition if the price was right.” “I see you and Ryan think alike,” said Luna, “that is what he said to me last night. By the way, where is your wife today?”

Carine then comes out of the van. “Oh, I’m here too,” she said as she sat on Aari’s lap. “Rock, put the body in the back of the van,” said Aari, “we’ll get rid of it on our way out of here.” They talked for a while and signed papers to seal their deal, then they parted ways, for now.

Meanwhile, back to us. We discovered that Valeska had one of our new rings which she used to knock out people, and the cats, so she could implant those little devices without them knowing. It wouldn’t even hurt and they would have no remembrance of being knocked out, they would just think they fell asleep. Misty had one of those rings, but she wasn’t wearing it while in the clinic and Valeska took it one time while Misty was sleeping.

Valeska would have needed to refill the ring a few times though, but she did go visit Carolyn a couple of times and she likely stole an extra refill bottle on one of those visits. That stuff will now be locked up at all times. I hate to do too much or it looks like we don’t trust each other, and that’s not good either. We need to have trust in each other or we fall.

“Steve,” said Hannah, “I may have some information about Brielle’s whereabouts, but the man wants a million dollars, in US funds, plus a plane ticket to the country of his choice.” “Okay, but try to get him down to 800,000,” I said, “just so we don’t look too anxious.” “Okay, shall do,” she chuckled. An hour later he accepted our counter offer and said that Brielle was in some town called Toronto, in Canada. She was living with her sister, a woman named Danielle Boyer.

“Well, well, Medina and Brielle are living together right now,” I said, “but he called them sisters, not cousins.” “He may have had that part wrong,” said Jennifer, “guys always get something wrong.” “You have a point…hey, wait a minute!” I exclaimed. She laughed. Loud and long. Sigh. Now, we just need to find out where Medina is living, or at least, where she is staying right now.

They might be in a hotel, so I had Hannah check that out for us. “Steve, do you realize how many hotels there are in that city?” she asked. “Quite a few, I imagine,” I replied, “but Medina won’t be in a cheap hotel, she will want one of the better quality hotels. But, she might have her own house too. We need a plan to bring them both out into the open.”

“That should be easy,” said Jennifer, rolling her eyes. Later, while sitting in the library with Jennifer, I was thinking again. “Hey, I thought of something,” I said. “No,” said Jennifer. “You always say that,” I said. “Only when you think,” she said. Cristy was helping Hannah at the computer when Jennifer said that. She started to giggle, then chuckle, then laugh…loud and long. Sigh.

We have Aari and his Black Wolves over there, but Sky and her Bad Girls are there now too. It’s good having so many different teams to use, we just have to be careful that the remaining family doesn’t see Sky and Kristina, or Melanie, almost forgot about her. Those three will stay hidden at certain times, which is easy for Sky and Kristina, Melanie will have to be more careful.

After thinking about that I called Sky and told her to bring Melanie back home and take Milena back to replace her. She did so right away. I feel a lot better now. Well, it seems that Medina and Brielle are not in any of the hotels, so Medina must have her own house. “She could be renting a place,” said Jennifer. My theories keep getting shot down and I didn’t even mention that one out loud.

I look at Jennifer. “You were thinking it,” she said. “That’s not fair,” I said. “Well, you can see through things,” she said. I then went to our bedroom and communicated with Carine about my plan. She liked it and said it just might work, then she told Aari. He liked it too and decided to test the idea. A few minutes later he got a call from Ryan and asked if they could meet at a certain cafe and he told Aari how to find it.

I wasn’t too sure about that, it could be a trap to kill Aari, so I said he had to take Carine along and she could stay invisible the whole time. He agreed to that and the next morning he was at the cafe waiting for Ryan to show up, but he didn’t arrive at the designated time. I told Aari to wait longer in case he had been detained by Medina for some reason.

Finally Ryan showed up 15 minutes late, and after he sat down some of the Bad Girls came walking in. There was no one else in the cafe at the time except a man and 3 women, all at one table. Ryan talked about some normal everyday things at the start, then asked if Aari was willing to help him take over Luna’s organization.

He would make a new deal with Aari, giving him 60% of profits. Then he stopped and mentioned that one of those Bad Girls has been looking at them. Aari acknowledged seeing that too and wondered which of them she was looking at. Then she got up and came over to them and began speaking in French, which both Ryan and Aari understood.

She mentioned looking for Danielle Boyer, who was also named Luna now and she knew Ryan and Danielle from Montreal. She gave him a message for Luna, the Bad Girls were here to kill her, and Ryan too, when the time was right. “If your new friend helps you, he will die too,” she said very confidently. She then went back to her table. “How did they know we would be here this morning?” asked Aari.

“I would like to know that too,” said Ryan. “Is Ralph still alive?” asked Aari. “Yeah, but he didn’t know about our meeting,” answered Ryan. “Someone knew about it,” said Aari, “or they wouldn’t have found us. I don’t like it.” Aari then wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to Ryan. “We will continue our conversation then,” said Aari and they both left…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.