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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Although we had Aasta with us at first, we had left her behind at one of the warehouses for guard duty. That is why only Sherry was with us as we went home with Tammy. But before we were about to lose the car following us, one of the rear tires had blown apart. Obviously something to do with the car following us. Anyway, we had to pull over so I could change the tire.
But I first alerted Kat and Aari about our trouble and Aari had someone close to us. I told everyone to stay inside the car where it was safe, I explained to Tammy that it was bulletproof. I got out and Misty got out with me. “You should probably stay inside,” I told her. “I have a gun and know how to use it, my dear husband,” she said smiling, “and if I hold your hand I should be safe, right?”
“Yes,” I said, “but I need to change this tire, but keep your hand on me and you’ll be safe. Can you see that other car?” “No, they must have pulled over and parked behind those other cars back there,” said Misty, “didn’t take them long to attack us.” “No, it sure didn’t,” I said, “that was a bit surprising, I must admit.”
I had opened the trunk, but was unable to lift that tire out of there, my back immediately began to pain when I tried. But, just then that other car came speeding up and stopped! I pushed Misty behind the car and the rear window of the other car opened and a man began to shoot, though nothing happened. This car is completely bulletproof. “Sky,” I said.
She appeared and right away the man who had been shooting was screaming about his hot gun. Then the car sped away! “How long will that gun stay hot?” I asked. “Indefinitely now that they drove away,” said Sky giggling. Then she gave me a rather scolding look. “Did you forget already?” she asked, “Even after all that time Kat spent with you?”
“Um, guess I was just, well, taken by surprise by these guys,” I replied sheepishly, “all this new stuff will take some time getting used to.” “Hmm, okay, I will accept that excuse this time,” she said smiling,” at least you remembered to call for help, even though a bit late. Now, let’s get that tire changed.”
“I will lift it out for you Steve,” said Misty. “Please remember what Kat told you,” she said, “but, call me anyway if there is any kind of trouble, okay?” “I will always remember to call you Sky,” I said, “and thank you for being patient with me.”
She smiled and disappeared again, going back to the warehouse. She was at one, Jennifer at the other warehouse for the first 12 hour shift, while Angel and Kristina went back to the hotel with the other girls. We climbed back into the car and off we drove. “Um, I thought there was another woman out there with you,” said Tammy, “one of your girls.”
“There was only me,” said Misty calmly. “Oh,” was all Tammy said in reply. I could see she was thinking though. Guess I need to be more careful, I don’t want to let Ezra and Tammy know about our ghosts just yet, perhaps later if it is necessary. We were soon enjoying a wonderful dinner, though I was surprised that Ezra wasn’t home yet.
I communicated this to Kat, Angel and Kristina. Angel took 4 girls and went to check on him at the office. I had asked Tammy if Ezra worked this late normally. She said it was unusual for him to be so late and especially since we were here for dinner. She was obviously worried. I told her I would send someone to check on him, then pretended to send a text.
The girls arrived at the office and while there were lights on, they could not see anyone. Katresa stayed in the car, she was the driver, while Angel, Amerie, Suzette and Chloe went inside. The exterior door was open, a dangerous thing since it was now getting dark. Angel called to Ezra, but there was no answer. Then she went into his office, followed by Chloe, and they found Ezra tied up with duct tape over his mouth.
There was also a bomb on his desk. Angel grabbed the bomb and took it outside into the parking lot out back, then she called the police. A bomb squad was there quickly but the bomb was a fake. Apparently he had been told by the people to fire us or next time the bomb would be real. Ezra didn’t tell the police about the man wanting to buy his company.
He also told the police he couldn’t understand why anyone would be interested about who he hires for his guards. But he wouldn’t be listening to threats anyway, he will do what he wants. The police also told him he should have notified the police sooner about his problems. He explained that he did, twice, and the second time two officers came to question him about it.
He told them it was all recorded on his security disk. The officer asked to see the disk and that he would take it to the station and return it the following day after they look at it. I told Ezra that wasn’t a good idea, unless he had a copy of that disk, but he said that was the only copy. Tammy was very shaken up by this incident.
This was the first time they had been threatened directly like that and she was scared, which was understandable. I decided we would put our team in their office from now on too, and we would follow them back and forth to work as well. Ezra liked to work long hours, but I told him that for now he needed to cut back his hours to his normal company hours of operation.
Tammy liked that idea too, although Ezra didn’t like to show fear that way. I explained that wasn’t showing fear, it was showing good sense, after all, he had a family to think of too, not just his company. That seemed to get through to him. But, the next morning he was off to his office very early.
Apparently he had some customers coming to pick up their order at 6am, something that was not unusual we discovered. Once he left, Tammy phoned me and fortunately I was awake early, but none of the girls were, except for Misty, Amerie and Dawn.
The guards were changing at 6 anyway, so I asked Jennifer to meet us at the office. She, and her team, were there not long after Ezra arrived. His customers were already waiting and went with him into his office. Jennifer and her girls went inside too and could hear the conversation in the office…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Just like last time, our three teams are arriving at different times and on different jets. I have decided it’s safer for us never to all use the same jet or arrive at the same time. This way if we are attacked, it would only affect one third of our team. And for this case we don’t want to be seen together right now. That may change as we go along on the case, but for now, we don’t know each other.
Ezra was going to meet us at the airport, but he had called Sienna and told her that some problem had come up and he didn’t want Tammy to deal with it by herself. He didn’t say what the problem was, but it didn’t sound good. We picked up our vehicles and drove out to their business which was a considerable distance from the airport.
When we arrived, Ezra and Tammy were in their office with another man. The secretary in the outer office said we would have to wait, a Mr. Finders was late for his appointment and is with Ezra and Tammy right now and he did not want anything to interfere with his appointment, it was too important. “Good,” I said, “we won’t interfere, we will just join them.”
“What?!” she exclaimed, “No, you cannot go in there.” She had such a shocked look on her face. “Try and stop me,” I said and headed to the office door. She picked up her phone to call Ezra but Jennifer, showing no emotion whatever, told her no, and she took the receiver from the secretary’s hand and put it down. Then Misty, Jennifer and I went into the office.
“I told that woman I don’t want to be disturbed,” he said, looking at us. “You won’t be disturbing us Wayne,” I said calmly, “we will just sit and listen for now. Hi Ezra, Tammy, I’m Steve, this is my wife Misty and this is Jennifer.” We were all dressed very nicely and had arrived in a new limousine. “Do I know you?” asked Finders, “I certainly don’t recognize your name, yet you know mine.”
“Well, you are quite a successful businessman Wayne,” I said, “and so am I. These people have hired me and my team to help safeguard their business. As you might know, they have had a few problems lately, so we are here to fix that.” “Well, you may have wasted your trip coming from, wherever,” he said, “I am here to make these fine people a very generous offer for their company.”
“Oh, have you sold it already Ezra?” I asked. “No, Mr. Finders hasn’t presented us his offer yet,” said Ezra, “just how much are you willing to pay? You may talk freely in front of these people.” “Very well,” he said, “considering your recent losses, I am still willing to pay 2 million dollars.” “We are not remotely interested in such a meager offer,” said Ezra.
“And just how much do you want for your company?” asked Finders. “Try 40 million dollars Mr. Finders,” I said, “if that is out of your range, then I would suggest that you leave.” I just looked straight into his eyes, he was obviously quite angry with what I said. Ezra, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to laugh, but he held back. Finders did leave right away, slamming the exterior door on his way out.
I noticed he stopped and looked at our limousine before going to his car and leaving. Sherry and Aasta were sitting in the front seat the whole time and they began laughing after Finders left. I talked with Ezra and Tammy for a while. It seems that all of their security guards at their other two warehouses quit this afternoon.
I told him not to worry, that is why we are here, to take over those guard duties, and it is something we are good at doing. I called the girls to come to the warehouses, which are next to each other. We have 4 ghosts with us, Jennifer, Sky, Angel and Kristina. I left Carine at home this time to look after things there.
And Kat is with her Wildcats. So, we have 2 ghosts for each warehouse and we will do 2 twelve hour shifts, one ghost for each shift, plus there will be 4 other girls for each shift as well. Aari and his Jaguars will be keeping an eye on Wayne Finders, from a distance, checking to see who comes and goes from there.
Just in case he is crazy enough to use his office landline phone to talk with other “business” partners, we have his phone tapped so Aari can listen in and find out what’s going on, hopefully. We set up the first two groups of guards, then we decided to head back to our hotel. But before we had a chance to leave, Tammy invited us for dinner.
“We really would like you and your wife to have dinner with us tonight,” she said, “so we can get to know you both a bit, especially since you are helping us in such a big way.” “That sounds very nice,” I said, “we would be happy to.” Misty just looked at me. Ezra stayed in the office a bit longer, so Tammy came with us. I had already informed Tammy that our driver, Sherry, was with us too and she said that was no problem.
That should help calm Misty a little, she wasn’t quite prepared to have a major visit with Tammy and Ezra. As we were driving I noticed Fluffy in his usual position. “Me Fluffy, C1F, C1F”. “What is that?” asked Tammy. “Oh, he’s our mechanical cat, we use him in place of GPS sometimes,” I replied, “we can be traced through regular GPS, but not through Fluffy. He has become quite valuable to us.”
“Wow, I would never have thought about that,” she said. Fluffy was warning us that we were being followed by a black car. “Let’s show Tammy how Fluffy works Sherry,” I said casually. “Okay, hang on everyone!” Said Sherry. But before we had time to get going, one of the rear tires blew apart…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
