Back at the cabin, Roxette and Ginger had just been stabbed and the guys had brought them back upstairs to let Bridgette look at them. Fortunately Bridgette is not only one of our nurses, but she is also our vet. Roxette had been stabbed 3 times, but none were deep and had not touched anything serious, so Bridgette was able to stop the bleeding and get her bandaged quite quickly. 

Ginger, however, had the more serious wound. ”Storm, I want you to curl up around Ginger like this,” said Bridgette showing him what to do, “then start purring for her so she knows you are there. That will help her to fight harder.” Meowr.=Yep, me do that to help poor Ginger cat. ”What do you think?” asked Astrid, “does she have a chance?” 

“I am not sure,” answered Bridgette, “that stab wound is bad, it went deep, but it does not look like anything major was hit. But if she bleeds too much inside, she will not survive.” ”They got 4 of those men,” said Candace, “I wonder how many more there are hiding in here?” ”I hope they can open that other door down there,” said Penny, “that must be where they hide.” 

The guys were down there looking right now to find out how to open that door. Tiger and Tiia were with them looking around. Tiia was looking at the bottom log of that wall next to the door and she noticed a tiny x on it. She remembered what Muffin had told her when telling about previous cases and how sometimes things were marked for opening secret doors. 

So, she dug her back claws into the floor and pushed hard against that log, which moved quite easily and the door swung open. Rock went in first, there was a scream and he came right back out and told the other guys not to go in. Then he called up for Bridgette, Sapphire and Penny, and told them to bring a blanket, which they did. Rock went inside again holding the blanket up, then asked the girls to come in. 

There was a woman chained against another wall inside that new room. Bridgette quickly wrapped the blanket around her so the guys could come in. The poor woman was almost hysterical. ”Please, please do not hurt me any more!” she sobbed, “I cannot take anymore, do not let him hurt me, please! I will do whatever Lauren says now, just send me back to her, I will obey her, I will do what she says, honest, just please, do not hurt me again, please!” 

“Hey, do not worry,” said Bridgette quietly, “no one is going to hurt you, we do not work for Lauren, we are trying to stop her, we will take you away from here and take you somewhere safe. I am a nurse, it will be okay, really.” The woman stopped and looked at Bridgette and the other girls. ”But what about him?” she asked, “he is big, like Shark and Shark is a horrible man, he is more like an animal.” 

“This is Rock,” said Penny, “he will not hurt you, I promise, and he will not let that Shark hurt you anymore either.” ”You don’t know Shark,” she said, “he is huge, like that guy, he is a killer, he is like a wild dog, he…” She began sobbing too hard to continue talking, then she stopped long enough to tell them her name was Cheryl Stillwater. 

“Rock, can you break these chains?” asked Sapphire. He came over now that the Cheryl was covered up and snapped those chains quite easily. Then he carried her upstairs. ”You men will have to stay out of here for a while so we can give her a bath,” said Bridgette, “but you could bring in some water from the well first.” So the guys did that and then went back downstairs to look around. 

That is when they met Shark. He just looked at Rock and growled. ”You the one that took my woman?” he asked. ”She does not belong to you,” said Rock, “now, let’s see what you can do against someone your own size. Or do you only fight women that are chained to the wall? You are a no good coward!” That got Shark and the fight was on! 

Shark was big and strong, but no match for an angry Rock. And after some smashing and crashing about, Rock finished him by smashing his head into the log wall a few times. But another man emerged with a shotgun and was about to shoot Rock, but John was there and shot the man first. According to Cheryl, they were the last 2 men at the cabin. 

Cheryl said that she knew nothing about anything valuable out there except some gold and silver bricks in the safe. But the men had talked a lot about rocks under the table in their kitchen. So, the guys looked but the table did not move, until Miles found a button under the table. Then the table could be pushed over, opening a door in the floor. Under the door were a large number of rocks! 

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.