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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Poor Jennifer, she could not believe what she saw upon entering the room. It looked like total chaos in there with their belongings tossed around everywhere. But that was minor, it looked like the cats had been tossed around as well. Plus Kitty, Milena and Monika were lying on the floor, bleeding, with Beryan, Aasta and I missing completely. Jennifer called Kat immediately to tell her what had happened.
“Okay, put plan B in effect,” said Kat, “that way the Bad Girls can enter legitimately without giving themselves away as part of our team. I will call Rock and let him know since he is in charge now. Obviously Granger did this and since he wants to play tough, then that is what you do as well, play tough. And if you can find him, hold him until he agrees to release Steve and the girls.” “Okay, Granger was downstairs, so hopefully he is still there,” said Jennifer, “and I will get the Bad Girls on board right away.”
In plan B Katresa and Amerie acknowledge to be my younger sisters, but the others do not. For now 6 of the Girls will take the three wounded girls to the local hospital, which is 45 minutes away. “We will get there faster than that,” assured Suzette. As the Girls were carrying the wounded girls out, the owner of the hotel came along and asked what had happened. “My friends were shot,” said Jennifer, “and I know exactly who did this.”
“Oh, um, maybe the police should look after the matter,” said the owner nervously. “I doubt they would do things right,” said Jennifer, “they likely get paid by the man who did this.” Then she noticed that Granger was in the restaurant drinking with his 2 bodyguards, so she went in to say hello. She walked straight over to Granger, grabbed him by his arms and swung him around in his chair. The first bodyguard got up to pull her away, but with 2 kicks he was knocked out.
The other bodyguard took out his gun but Jennifer kicked it from his hand, then 2 more kicks to knock him out as well. She didn’t want to kill them just yet. “Where is my husband Granger?” asked Jennifer, very angrily. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he answered sternly. “Wrong answer!” she exclaimed and she gave him a hard back handed slap, nearly knocking him off his chair.
Jennifer had tried to communicate with me, but without success, which could just mean I am unconscious and therefore unable to answer. Dawn, Katresa and Amerie stayed with Jennifer, the remaining six Girls are in our room checking on the cats. Two of the cats, Jewel and Midnight, had gone with Jennifer, so they are okay, but Muffin, Storm, Rascal and Ginger were unconscious. They had been shot with darts, likely just to put them to sleep.
Rock asked Baldwin to call the city police, and the hospital so that our team could guard the girls. He also flew Samantha, Chantelle and Bridgette out there to look after our girls too, although Bridgette, who is also our vet, came out to the castle to look after the cats. Two of the cats, Tiia and Tandi, also came along with Samantha to check all food eaten at the hospital. Now we go back to Jennifer and Granger. Dawn, Katresa and Amerie just stood off to the side for now, but they were ready to help.
“Do you see those two girls?” Jennifer asked Granger. “What about them?” he asked in return. “We are Steve’s younger sisters,” said Katresa, “we took a different path, but we still are willing to fight for him.” “And that includes our whole gang,” added Dawn, “you made a very big mistake kidnapping that man.” “Yes,” said Jennifer, “and I will keep you until your men release my husband, alive and unhurt.”
“You don’t understand lady,” he said, “keep me and that will mean the death of your husband, so you may as well let me go and maybe we can talk about his release.” Jennifer gave him another hard back handed slap. “It is you who doesn’t understand Granger,” she said, “release my husband and the two women with him, then I will release you. That is how it works.” While this was going on, no one was watching around the room.
“Perhaps you should look around you,” said Granger, smiling. The girls turned and there were 6 men standing behind them with automatic weapons. “Hmm, I suppose they know how to use to guns rather well too,” said Jennifer sighing. “Oh yes, they are well trained,” said Granger. “Well, let me check them out,” said Jennifer, and she started walking toward them. Suddenly they were yelling about their guns being too hot and they dropped them on the floor.
Jennifer kept walking. “Why not fight me?” she asked them, “surely 6 men can handle one small woman, or are you men cowards?” “Kill her!” yelled Granger. The men came at Jennifer and she went into action, very skilled action, and amazingly fast. Her feet and fists were moving faster than could be seen by those watching. Dawn watched Granger, with her gun out, while Katresa and Amerie watched the fight.
Jewel and Midnight also watched the fight, but they took turns glancing over at Dawn. Then Jewel screeched! She saw a hidden door open and 4 men came out with guns. Midnight flipped onto his back and “Thwock!”, one man was down. Katresa and Amerie each shot one, then another “Thwock!” from Jewel and the fourth man dropped dead. “Your men are stupid Granger,” said Dawn, “you will not be that easy to rescue.
Now, be smart and make the trade, it will be better for everyone. You don’t look very old, so I’m sure you don’t want to die just yet, but if those 3 people die, you will too. Think about it.” Then Jennifer came back from dealing with those 6 men. “How would you like to work for me?” asked Granger, “I must admit, that was amazing fighting.” Jennifer smiled. “I already have a job,” she said.
“Okay, how do we make the trade?” he asked. “Just bring my husband and the two women out here,” said Jennifer, “and I will let you go. Quite simple really.” It only took a few minutes and the girls and I were brought out. Jennifer was true to her word and let Granger go free, even though she really didn’t want to do it.
But we keep our promises, even to our enemies, it can be a helpful thing. The girls were released first, then Granger and I were released at the same time. Granger then turned and grabbed me around my neck. One of his men gave him a gun quickly and we disappeared through that hidden door once again. Jennifer couldn’t believe she had been so easily tricked…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Katresa and the other girls are pretending to be a group of friends from Canada, traveling around Europe. They are hoping to see as many castles as possible, they had told the waitress. Midnight went over to visit with the girls while they talked with the waitress. Then he will report back to us with the information the girls can get from her. The owner doesn’t want any of the employees to talk about what they see or hear, apparently so as not to scare the tourists.
She could lose her job if she does talk, and that is even more scary, she told them. A friend of hers that had come with her to work at this castle hotel, and she was caught talking to some tourists. She was found dead outside the castle wall the next day. So our waitress, Nicole, is afraid to say anything to anyone now. She is actually from a small town about an hour away from our chateau. She and her friend had thought this job would be fun, especially living in an old castle, but now wishes she had stayed home and worked in the family bakery.
I then sent Ginger over to talk with Dawn. I would like Dawn to ask Nicole if she would like to leave, we would make sure she got away and safely returned home. But, apparently, if she did leave, her family would be hurt, though she didn’t know exactly what that meant. We knew what that meant, however, and it means that someone important is in charge of things around here. That makes staying here very dangerous, but I don’t want to leave Nicole here by herself either.
So, for now, we will stay and try to find out what is going on around here. Nicole warned the girls not to get involved or something might happen to them also. They told Nicole that they are not afraid of anything or anyone and if someone tried to hurt them, those people would be sorry they did so. Nicole gave us the same warning, telling us it was especially dangerous right now while a certain American was staying there. I asked her who this person was, that is so important.
She hesitated a bit, pretending to talk with the cats. She was putting on a good act, her boss did not suspect she was talking to us about anything other than normal tourist stuff. She even brought out castle maps which included the area around the castle where there were nice walking trails through the forest. Anyway, she told us his name was Granger Williams. Nicole then went back to get us some more coffee. While she was gone I got that odd sort of feeling again.
“I sense trouble Jennifer,” I told her. “Yes, so do I,” she said, “I also sense danger, and it is not far away either.” Just then Granger and 2 men came into the restaurant and sat on the other end of the room. Granger had his back to us, but his 2 men could see us plainly. We decided to wait here for the castle tour to begin, which was in another 20 minutes. The owner came out and talked with Granger for a few minutes, looking over at us a couple of times.
One of Granger’s men never took his eyes off of us the whole time they sat at their table. Finally they left, going outside and driving off somewhere. Then the owner came over to us and said the castle tour was canceled for today, because there was not enough people. According to the paper in our rooms there must be a minimum of 10 people for the tour to go ahead. Between the Bad Girls and us, there are 21, so I am going to talk with the owner about that later.
Obviously Granger had something to do with this cancelation. That means he knows who we are, and that is not a good thing. We could still go out and walk around, but the owner said we could not go beyond the fences as those areas were dangerous to walk around due to falling rock from the walls and other buildings. The Bad Girls went out to walk around, but my team went back to our room to talk for a while first.
I wanted a large room so we could all meet in it at times, however, they only had 2 large rooms and one was already booked, so I took this one. There is a large bed for Jennifer and I, plus bunk beds for the other 5 girls. Considering what we have learned so far, it is probably a good thing we are all in the same room. “We need to check the area behind those fences,” I said, “they are hiding something over there.” “I will check it out tonight,” agreed Jennifer.
“What do you mean ‘I will check it out tonight’?” I asked. “I didn’t say you would check it out,” she said, “I said that I would check it out.” “That’s what I just said,” I reminded her, “you said you would check it out.” “No, I didn’t say you would check it out,” she said, looking at me sternly, “I said quite clearly that I would check it out.” By now the girls and cats were having a good laugh. Sigh. “Okay, let’s stop with this, I’m getting confused,” I said, “but why can’t I come along? I can turn invisible now too.”
“Yes, but you can still be hurt, I can’t,” she reminded me. “How can anyone hurt me if they can’t see me?” I asked. She just looked at me. That ‘look’ means I have lost the argument. We all went out to look around the place during the day, but nothing of real interest was found. At least, not the kinds of things I wanted to find, which was evidence of some wrongdoing by Granger. Whatever he is doing, it must be underground, or hidden in the part of the castle that is off limits to us tourists.
I really don’t want Jennifer going alone, however, even if she is a ghost and can’t be hurt. She could protect me too but that would hinder her ability to look around so she wouldn’t be able to cover as much ground as she can alone. Still, something isn’t right and I don’t like it and I told her I sensed trouble, and she did too. However, after it was completely dark, she went on her way.
A couple of hours later I sensed danger, something new for me, so I communicated with Jennifer and asked her to come back. She did so right away and as she passed the front desk Granger was there with his two men. “You should not be outside after dark,” said Granger, “it is not safe, too many wild animals around here and they come within the castle walls.”
The owner of the castle said the same thing. Jennifer thanked them for their concern, but said she is not afraid of the local wild animals. Of course, there are none in this area that are dangerous anyway, we already checked that out. It is the wild people that are dangerous around here. Jennifer came into our room but she wasn’t ready for what she saw…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 