The girls were sitting around the room and Sky was looking at me. “Well, do we get to find out who this mysterious Mr. M. is?” she asked. I gave her my phone and she then passed it around to the other girls. Kat handed it back to me. “I certainly did not think of that,” she said. “It appears that Mike, Brent and Dan got the idea a couple of years ago,” I explained, “but they needed money to back their venture.

Everything was going well until about 6 months ago when the backers decided they wanted Mike to be the main man running the operation. That did not sit well with the other 2 and a lot of grumbling and fighting began between them. Finally the backers told Mike it was time to get tough and get rid of his friends and their wives, or they would get rid of all 3 of them.

They also wanted him to get rid of Penny, that is where Blade comes in since Mike could not kill Penny himself.” “That is so compassionate of him,” said Sky sarcastically, “so now he runs that casino by himself.” “Yes, and he hides money and other things for the backers who are involved in all sorts of crime,” I continued, “and now Mike is going to start up doing some of those things here in this little town as well.

Chief Darryl will have his hands full dealing with that sort of crime.” “Yes, this quiet little town will not be so nice if that happens,” added Crystal. The night passed quickly and quietly, which was nice. I needed another good night of sleep, that headache came back again. It must be these late nights, we only get about 4 hours of sleep each night and that is just not enough for me at any time.

We went out for breakfast again and while we were there, the not so friendly crew of 3 came in and sat across the room from us. Guess they do not like sitting close to us. We got our order in and my phone rang. It was Tracy. “Steve, we are at the hospital with Penny,” she said, “she answered the door while we were making breakfast and some guy stabbed her and took off in a fast car.

She is still alive, but it is touch and go right now.” “Stay there with her, at all times!” I said, “I will call Chief Darryl to make sure you do not have trouble with hospital staff.” Darryl went to the hospital right away to explain about the girls guarding Penny, that way they can stay with her at all times. “Sky, let us go and say good morning to our ‘friends’,” I said casually.

We got to their table and I stood there staring at Blade while he continued to eat. He finally stopped and looked at me. “If you do not leave now, you never will,” he said. I then very quickly hit him hard with the back of my fist. That knocked him off his chair, but he quickly got up again and stood like he was going to attack me, holding his knife tightly in his hand.

“You are dead now,” he growled. “You would never get close to me,” I told him, “my wife can pull her gun and shoot, accurately, in just one second. Remember that. Now, remember this also, if Penny dies, you will die too. And there is nowhere you can hide where I cannot find you.”

“You idiot!” exclaimed Brink, “why did you not tell me?” “I do not answer to you,” he replied, “I answer to Mike alone, that is why I am here.” “Then I would suggest you leave, speedily,” I said, “get out of this town by 3pm, or I will hunt you down. That is a promise, and I keep my promises.” “I will leave when Mike tells me to leave,” he said, “not before.”

“Then you better tell Mike what I said Brink,” I said, “you disobeyed what I told you, now you have me and The Fox to worry about. That casino of yours is finished for good.” We then went back to our table, just in time for our food. The other 3 left in a hurry though. This should get interesting now. I doubt that Blade will leave town, not while Penny is still alive.

I put in a call and Team 5 arrived quickly going straight to the hospital to help guard Penny. Meanwhile, “Okay Mike,” said Drake, “we thought you could handle looking after this casino, but it seems we were wrong. You can still be co-manager with Brink and we will take care of that guy that has caused you so many problems. Who is he and where is he?”

He told Drake and they left. After we got back to our room, Kat and I went downstairs to see if they had more painkillers. The man said no, so we drove over to the pharmacy which is fairly close by. It only took a couple of minutes, but as we came out there were 3 men leaning on our car and 4 others came alongside us.

They put us in the car, blindfolded us and off we went. They only said 2 words to us the whole trip and that was “get in”. We drove a long time, hours it seemed like, but finally we stopped…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.