Chapter 6

Saturday late morning

Nexus Ranch

Outside of Harborton Washington

“Okay everybody let’s get started. Lizzy I know you haven’t had much time but have you been able to make anything out of those documents we recovered?” said Ben

“I’ve skimmed some of them and started digging into the finances a bit. Nothing much concrete yet but this whole thing stinks.” replied Lizzy.

“How so?” said Kelly.

“Well for one thing, there’s just too much money changing hands here. From what I was able to gather from the DEA files these biker morons were pretty low rent drug distributors, but with some connections to a steady supply and a predilection to violence. After we destroyed Red Dragon it looks like they went looking for another income stream, and they found it. It also appears that they have ties into several legitimate appearing local businesses and especially with that dive bar that Sarah found them in. There’s a bunch of shell companies hiding the money but there’s just too much changing hands for a small time operation.”

“Yeah I have a hunch that this isn’t the first or only time they’ve trafficked women and girls. From what I could see in my vision the operation was too smooth for that.” said Sarah.

It looks like we may have stubbed our toe on the tip of the iceberg here. We need to figure out if there’s more we need to do to shut this down. Lizzy, can you and Sarah dig into this some more as soon as possible?” asked Ben.

Lizzy looked downcast for just a second, then gathering herself gave a half smile. “Sure I’ll get on it right away.”

Ben was just about to start the next topic when he felt Kelly glaring at him. “Uh sorry Lizzy, I meant to start on it tomorrow. You have a dance to get ready for today.”

Lizzy smiled brightly “Sure Ben. I’ll start it first thing tomorrow!”.

Ben could tell that Lizzy was excited that he hadn’t forgotten about Lizzy’s ‘date’ tonight. Thank god that Kelly had given him the signal or he would have seriously hurt his sweet Lizzy’s feelings and he never wanted to do that.

He gave thanks every day for the changes that had brought all these wonderful women into his life, but dang, sometimes it was a minefield of feelings and emotions way too complicated for an old beat up Marine such as himself.

He was just starting to appreciate how subtle and nuanced they were in creating and maintaining this 6 way relationship. If it had been the other way around with 5 men there would have been bloodshed every day. He had to chuckle, it seemed to work the best if he just stayed out of the way. Which brought him to the next point.

“Okay so I understand that you all have a ‘girls day out’ planned. Have fun, but please remember our security protocols. While you ladies are doing whatever it is that you do, I’m going to check out a possibility for our first animal rescue. Mei is the pasture fencing complete?” Ben said.

“Yes it’s ready. Ben, do you mean we might be getting a horse!” Mei squealed excitedly as she bounced her cute butt up and down in her chair.

Ben had to laugh to himself about Mei’s reaction. She was normally so serene and a little reserved about most things. For some reason that Ben had never completely understood, Mei, a one time top tier Chinese intelligence operative, had always wanted to be a cowgirl. This had been her secret dream since she had been a lonely little girl in the orphanage who had never been allowed friends.

Ben would do anything for his Mei, and if a nearly 3/4 ton pet would make her happy then Ben would make it happen. Besides, what kind of ‘ranch’ would they have without at least one horse on it? Also, they had collectively come up with the idea of combining their non profit women’s shelter with an animal rescue and they had to start somewhere.

“I take that to mean that we are ready if this animal fits our parameters?” Ben said to Mei with a grin.

“Yes! What kind of horse is it?” said Mei.

“I don’t know the details yet, but the ad said it was a male Appalousa about 3 years old with ‘behavior issues’.”

“Um, what is an Appalousa? I thought horses were black or brown or spotted?” Said a wonderstruck Mei.

“Oh, an Appalousa is the kind of horse you get when you shaka the tree!” said Ben with a belly laugh.

The whole table of girls (excepting Mei) groaned loudly.

“I don’t get it.” said a wide eyed Mei.

“Just a stupid dad joke Mei, I’ll explain it later.” said Sarah giving Mei a quick hug.

“I’d say enough with the dad jokes honey, but you better get your practice in while you can!” said Kelly to Ben with an arch look.