Now we go back to Aasta’s brothers and our girls. ”Hey, about a kiss before you go babe?” asked Lance. ”Thought you would never ask handsome,” said Cinnamon and she gave him a nice kiss. Aoife did the same for Layne, then all the girls left. Back home, “Find anything about a Lauren yet Annelie?” I asked. 

I was trying to remember if any of our enemies had that name, usually I can remember, but sometimes it is better to rely on Annelie, her memory is definitely better than mine. ”Do you know anyone named Lauren?” I asked Aasta as she came into the library. She just stopped and stared. ”Is she here?” she gasped and ran over to me hugging me tight. 

“Please Steve,” she said shaking, “don’t let her come near me! I, I do not even want to be in the same room as her. Please!” ”Hey, nothing to worry about my pretty kitten,” I told her, “she is not here, I just wanted information.” She calmed down right away and smiled. ”She is a woman with no conscience Steve,” said Aasta, “she is involved in anything that makes money, prostitution, sex slavery, drugs, murder, anything at all really. 

She is plain scary. I met her once, she worked for Victor before and she stopped by to see daddy once. She looked at me and that was enough to make me scared, I was 16 then. She asked daddy how much he wanted for me. Daddy handed her an envelope from Victor then told her I was his daughter and if she ever touched me he would kill her. 

She just said “too bad” and left. Daddy said she was very dangerous and never go near her. He sure never needed to tell me that! Oh, her last name is Barden.” Annelie was on it quickly once she had a name and we soon had a complete profile of her. I then called everyone into the library and told them what we know. 

I told Matt, Mac and the girls to read over the information and make sure they let the brothers understand they know all about Lauren, then leave them. ”I thought we were going to eliminate them?” asked Cinnamon. ”Better to let Lauren do that for us,” I said, “though we will have to deal with Lauren I’m sure.” ”Nice Steve,” smiled Mac. 

“And Aasta is never to be left alone,” I said, “she will be with me at night with 2 guards during the day and she doesn’t go outside for a while. Kat, you are one guard and…” Aasta looked at me, “please,” she said, “for your kitten?” I smiled at her. ”Certainly kitten,” I said, “though others might be better.” ”You make me feel relaxed,” she said. Oh well. 

Meanwhile, back at the cabin. It was 1am, the girls were tired and were lying on their mattresses trying to sleep. But how could they sleep with Crystal buried under all that snow and boards. (Yesterday Penny’s name was used by mistake, it should have been Crystal, Penny was not with them on this trip) The girls were very worried, Crystal could be injured and not able to call out for help. 

Even if she could call, the girls could not dig her out anyway. ”All because of this stupid cabin,” said Dawn, “it is all my fault. If Crystal dies, I am going to resign.” ”No you are not!” said Sky firmly, “Steve needs you as one of his bodyguards, you are faster and more accurate with a gun than any of the other girls. And Steve would be terribly hurt if you quit on him. 

And that goes for all of you. I do not want to hear any more talk about resigning from any of you!” That is when they heard some roaring noise outside and lights coming in the windows. They grabbed their guns and looked, it was Rock and the guys! The guys came in and Sky quickly told them about Crystal trapped under the boards and snow. 

Rock was digging in there, tossing boards outside and out of the way, the other guys got in there too. They soon found Crystal and carried her into the dining room and put her on a mattress. There had been a large beam across her legs and a smaller one on her upper back. She was unconscious but alive at least. Chantelle felt for broken bones. 

Her legs seemed fine, but she frowned when feeling her back. They did move her properly, but still, things were not good. Alfred spotted the frown and knew what it meant right away. Chantelle went into the kitchen after putting a warm blanket on Crystal. ”No one move her at all,” she said, “she needs a hospital.” 

“We could put her on one of the sleds and pull her out,” said John. ”No,” said Alfred, “that would be much too rough.” ”I hope that ghost was buried under there too,” said Dawn. ”What is this about a ghost?” asked Rock. Sky then filled them in on what has been happening. Now 3 of the girls were injured. 

It was supposed to clear the next day, so they could get a helicopter in to pick up the injured girls. The cats took turns watching out the window to make sure no one went near the snowmobiles. In the morning Sky and Aari made breakfast while the others looked around some more. 

There was a trunk on the third floor on the nice side, but it was locked, so Candace held Storm in place while he tried to open the lock. It took a bit with that pin, but he finally had it open. Candace opened it and the trunk was filled with ladies clothes and some other things. The inside of the lid had a name on it, Lauren Barden…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.