2015 - Kiss Me, You Fool

Yet another was a security expert. Ann had asked to be present when he came in. Within minutes, they completely lost Leila with their technical jargon so she left them alone. They met with the electricians' foreman and walked around the warehouse discussing security issues, counter-measures and installation techniques. After an hour, Éric had to take his foreman by the collar and drag him back to work. When Ann popped in to tell Leila that she was going to the man's office to work on schematics with him, she was grinning from ear to ear.

Friday afternoon, Danielle made appointments with the two shift foremen the man from the security company had recommended. The first was a fine man who fit in perfectly with their workplace philosophy, so she hired him on the spot. The second was another matter. He was a bully who relied on threats and punishment to get his people working. Dani tried to get rid of him politely, but he insisted that she needed him, going as far as telling her that such a fine little lady couldn't possibly know what real men needed in a leadership position. She was already on her feet, ready to throw him out using the dirty tricks her mother had taught her to fight his kind of blubber and bluster bully when the office door slammed open and Éric stormed in. He slammed his huge hand on the man's neck and squeezed. Try as he might to resist, the man sank to his knees in seconds, teary eyed and whimpering. "Are we going to have any more trouble from you?" Éric growled menacingly. When the man only managed to shake his head, Éric used his grip to lift him off the ground and carry him to the door to throw him out in the middle of a crowd of angry construction workers. Needless to say he was badly bruised by the time he landed on the sidewalk outside the yard.

"I could have taken him." Danielle told Éric forcefully, still high on adrenaline induced rage.

He had seen this too often before in the army and spoke to her gently. "I don't doubt it for a moment, D, but it's bad form for the boss to engage in a scuffle with riffraff. Save it for those who really need it. There are enough people who care about you to handle his type."

"I... I suppose." Dani sat back, deflated as the retreating rush left her drained.

"There's someone out there all out of sorts with worry. Do you want me to send her in?"

"She's already... Yes, please. And close the door."

Leila's comforting presence on her lap went a long way toward calming her and restoring her energy.

Soon after, they left the yard for Éric to lock up when he was done and went to get a drink at the airport hotel while they waited for their wives' plane to land.

That evening, Carole and Kayla were worried when Jean went to her office and closed the door rather than eat supper with them all. They were doubly worried when she gently but firmly shut them out pleading that she had business calls to make.

They did their best to hide their agitation, but their friends picked up on it nonetheless.

"I hope she's not angry because of the incident at work." Danielle worried.

"It's not..." Kayla began, then decided that she'd better share her real feelings if they were all to become an extended family. "I'm afraid so, dear. You have to understand that she's an alpha, a protector and now that we're all a family, you fall under her umbrella of care."

"But I wasn't in any danger. I could have taken him easily." Danielle protested.

"That's not the point, honey. By now, I'd bet anything that she's been in touch with Ann and that some kind of action is underway. The best we can do is support her when she comes down. Unless I miss my guess, she'll just..."

Before she could finish, Jean came down with her keys in hand and kissed them all goodbye before rushing out.

"I realize I haven't known her long, but I've never seen her like this." Stéphanie said.

"That's her action mode." Carole explained. "She gets like that, cold as steel and hot as an acetylene torch. I can't tell who the target of her anger is, but someone is in for a rough time."

"So, who's hungry?" Kayla laughed. "These two will have their fun, but we don't have to starve while they do."

Later, Jean called in to say that she'd sleep at Ann's because they had early meetings the next day and it would save time on the commute.

Saturday morning, they were lounging by the pool when the patio door slid open and their three friends came out.

"Hi there, fellow widows of the vendetta." Anne-Marie greeted them. "Our two dark avengers are on the warpath, so we figured that we might as well join you for some fun in the sun."

When she saw Danielle's expression of misery, she went to her and sat on her lap. "Don't fret, darling. These two are our very own dispensers of justice, our Lone Ranger and Sargent Fury all rolled in two sexy packages. Don't worry about that awful man. Éric took care of him. I'm sure their target is much loftier and nothing anyone of us can do will stop them until the wrong they identified is righted to their satisfaction. Don't you just love them?"

"I... I suppose so." Danielle stammered, unsure what events her experience had set in motion.

"Trust me, you'll love it when they're done with whatever they're doing."

Not long after, the doorbell rang. Anne-Marie, Ryanna and Julia 'looked' and started laughing.

"Why don't you get that, Danielle?" Anne-Marie told her. "It's partly for you. No, you don't need to get dressed."

Minutes later she came back out with Cam and Kitty who rushed to Carole.

"Can anyone explain to me what's going on, please?" Cam pleaded. "Jean and Ann barged in earlier and sequestered themselves with my wives in Lee's office. Then they all ran out, telling me not to wait for them."

It took a while, but she finally made sense of the string of events. She went to sit with Danielle and took her hands.

"Don't worry, dear." She told her. "My Lee is like that too when she feels someone she cares about has been hurt or wronged. Now the four of them are out there fixing things. Maybe I should text Lee or Barbie to let them know where I am."

"I already did while I was waiting for you to get nakid." Kitty crowed from where she was cuddled with Carole.

"It's a wonder she's ever dressed at all." Cam sighed. "Sometimes we have to tie her up in the playroom when we have important guests over. Of course, sometimes we do it just for fun too." She giggled.

That led to another round of explanations and lots of laughter when Cam threatened to spank Kitty and Julia offered her own ass instead. Ryanna and Cam ended up exchanging and demonstrating techniques to everyone's enjoyment.

The four women arrived around 8:00pm and were immediately surrounded by laughing women who promptly undressed them while they were hugged and kissed. Outdoors, they were lifted on strong shoulders and paraded around the backyard... before being unceremoniously dumped in the pool.

As a fine supper was placed before the returning heroines, the others waited impatiently for the story of their day. They strung them along as long as they could, but soon the pressure got to be too much for them.

"Okay, okay." Lee Ann tried to pacify her wife who had just threatened to take her across her knees in front of everybody. "It was all their idea anyway. We were only along for the ride." She grinned pointing to Ann and Jean who were submerged by loving bodies.

"We didn't do much, really." Jean said modestly. "We only paid a visit to the man who recommended the bully to you, Danielle. He quickly saw how wrong he was to have done so. Of course, his wife being there when we explained the situation to him may have played a role in his decision to rip the service contract with you on the spot."

""He's going to have a nasty surprise on Monday, though." Ann grinned. "One of his high officers in charge of the trucking yards will suddenly retire for family reasons and I suspect you'll have a number of résumés from experienced security guards in your email in-box when you get to work."

"And since you don't want to be bothered with managing the security staff." Barbara beamed. "First thing Monday morning, incorporation papers will be filed. We hired a General Manager for the new company. At first, we tried to hire your mothers, Danielle and Leila, but Jolène is busy with the drug task force and doesn't want to quit. She recommended a Commander from the SQ who is preparing to retire. She has only good words for him as a manager and a human being. He'll accelerate the process and will be at work full-time in two weeks. He'll be in touch with your officer in charge over the next week for the initial set-up."

"We had so much fun today that we all volunteered to be on your Board of Directors and voted you and Leila co-Chairwomen and named you co-CEOs of the company. All you have to do now is to come up with a name for your security company." Lee Ann concluded.

"But we can't afford all that." Danielle protested.

"Of course you can, honey." Ann told her. "We drew up the service contract and your warehousing company will hire your security company at the same rate you would have paid in the first place."

"Your Board will guide you on how to manage your profits." Jean said. "If things work out as we think, you may have other inquiries for your services in the near future."

"When your company is up and running, some of those inquiries will come from companies I own outright and I'll let be known that I recommend your services. You remember the exchange of services I told you about? This is another example."

"We'll never have time to manage that second company." Leila complained. "We have so much work ahead of us already."

Barbara took her hand. "Of course you will, sweetheart. You own the company, you don't manage it. You have a General Manager for that and you'll help him hire the staff he needs by hiring out your HR team services to him. Then you set policy and read progress reports to see if you need to make adjustments."

"In fact, this may be another business opportunity." Jean told them. "You already hired out your HR team to Jocelyne and Addison. You could consider setting up a HR service. The Senior Team Manager who trained them and is unofficially your HR department Manager is very experienced and I wouldn't hesitate to put her in charge of the new company."

"That's too much, too fast." Danielle complained.

"We're almost done in Vancouver." Stéphanie held her. "A couple more weeks, and we'll be here with you full-time. We learned a lot that will help us later on." Turning to Lee Ann, she went on. "In fact, we looked at the situation in San Francisco and since they will start from scratch, things will be relatively easy to set-up. We sent you a preliminary outline. As for Vancouver, we're waiting to hear from a contact in Taiwan and another in a maritime company. Then all we'll need to do will be to complete our inquiries on a couple of trucking companies and confirm train rates and procedures for containers. So the West Coast hub should be set-up on paper soon."

"We met a man who could potentially be interesting to you to get things running and to manage the project." Abigail told Lee Ann. "He's not happy where he is, but he has an excellent reputation all over the transportation industry out there."

"Is it Mr. Wang?" Jean asked. "Great call, ladies. I met him when I was there and I agree that he'd be a serious candidate."

"It may look like a lot right now." Lee Ann told Danielle and Leila. "But they're only projects for the moment. Get your core enterprise running first and we'll talk about them later."

Ann and Jean laughed. "She's reasonable now, but we had to sit on her this afternoon. She only outlined a few of the projects she put in your file. That bright mind is scary when she gets going."

"Why do you think I love her?" Barbara asked drolly. "And check out the package for the mind."

"She is wonderful." Cam said as she gazed in Lee Ann's eyes dreamingly, then pulled Barbara in for a family hug. "And so are you, Barbie. I love your mind too."

When the Health Store inventory started rolling in, most of the kinks had been worked out and the Lachine warehouse was a well-oiled operation.

Since some of the products arrived or were produced at one end or the other, there was a need for transportation between the two warehouses. So the women used their own truck at first, but Steph and Abi had to roll as a team so they weren't gone most of the week though one of then occasionally took either Danielle or Leila along for the ride, but it quickly became obvious that they needed to put a second truck on the road.

"Hiya, Frenchie! How's life treating you these days?"

"Hey, Brenda! I'm fine and you? Still doing California in team?"

"Sadly no. My partner dumped me for a newer model. You know. The old story."

"So, where are you now? Still on the road?"

"What do you think? I'm not a kept woman like you. I need to work. I'm home today doing a log reset, but I'll be back on the road tomorrow. I have a load for Atlanta."

"You're working single?"

"You know it, Sugar, and it's a sad thing. The only work I can get is regional."

"What if I offered you a regular run between Montreal and Nashville? Door to door. A single customer. From one warehouse to the other."

"What's the catch, Frenchie? Not a lot of mileage? Low wage?"

"Come on, Brenda, you know me better than that. You'll be driving one of my trucks. There's enough flow of goods to keep you on the road full-time as a single, but it wouldn't be worth it for a team. I may even have to do a run now and again if there's an overflow or when you go on vacation. Otherwise the contract is all yours. When you have to stop here for a reset, I can put you up with friends until my house is built. After that, I'll have a guestroom with your name on it."

"If you were here, I'd ask you to pinch me since I can't pinch you anymore. Still monogamous?"

Stéphanie laughed heartily. "Wait until we meet. You're in for quite a few surprises."

"I can't wait. So, Frenchie, do you want me to fly to Montreal or are you coming this way."

"I'll be there in three days with Abigail in your brand new truck and our wives will fly in to help complete the set-up of the larger warehouse out of which you..."

"YOUR WIVES? Are those the surprises you mentioned? How many do you have?"

"If you mean our core family, it's just the four of us, but we're part of an extended family of eleven women... officially. We are very close with some more."

"You're killing me, girl. Maybe I should become a card carrying lesbian. I could get used to having all that pussy."

"It's not as easy as all that. We'll talk when we get there."

"You bet your sweet ass we will. I'm doing the Atlanta run because I'd go crazy sitting here dreaming about all the sex you must be having while I have to be satisfied with good ol faithful, but I'll empty my truck as soon as I get back."

"Don't worry, Sugar. The job is yours."

"I'll see you two in three days then. Give me a call when you arrive."

"See ya soon, girlfriend."

Thanks to the experience they garnered in Lachine and with Mario's help, the renovation and set-up in Nashville went along at a good clip. Éric flew down as project manager which helped a lot too.

Ann took a couple of days off and flew down with Anne-Marie. As a surprise, they brought Carole with them.

Unsurprisingly, Ann immediately immersed herself in the technical side of the renovations. So Abigail took Anne-Marie, Carole and either Danielle or Leila as they were available and showed them the tourist attractions as well as the fun side of the town known only to locals.

They experimented with the local cuisine, choosing a different restaurant every evening. Needless to say that the Sunday weekly supper at the Jackson's was a lively affair while they were there.

They were gathering information on the local security agencies when they received a call from Paul Leclaire, the General Manager of the ADLS Security Agency. He told them about a DEA Regional Manager from the North Eastern District with whom he had worked with years earlier and stayed friends with. He told them that the man had been wounded during a raid and been forced to retire. When Paul mentioned his current position, his friend expressed interest in the work. So Paul gave his name and references at the last Board of Directors meeting. The Directors immediately jumped on it and researched the possibility of creating a satellite operation down south which was just fine with the man who had trouble with the cold weather since his injury. He told them that they could expect more details soon.

In fact, Jack Gibson flew in the next day with Barbara and things picked up from there. He used his law enforcement contacts shamelessly and had a full roster within a week. While he was taking care of that, Barbara set-up the legal and administrative side of the operation thanks to their Dallas company and its contacts in Tennessee. Barbara flew back after five days and Jack a week later to prepare for his permanent move south.

Danielle and Leila stayed in Nashville for an extra couple of weeks and Steph and Abi flew in with Joce, Addy and Mrs. Lafontaine for a grand Thanksgiving party since they wouldn't be coming down for the holidays. Everyone stepped in to help with Southern and Québécois traditional dishes. Jocelyne made a friend for life with Abi's vegetarian brother by preparing dishes with Island products and spices for which Addison and she had secured exclusive import rights for the next five years.

Mrs. Lafontaine decided to stay over an extra week.

The reunion of the full extended family was a happy affair after the two months Danielle and Leila were gone and many of the others had flown in and out for days or weeks on end though they had all kept in touch as closely as modern technology permitted.

On December 9^th, the family corporation signed the final property transfer documents on a huge domain in Ste-Marthe, just outside St-Lazare.

At first, Steph, Abi, Dani and Lei had been weary when they saw the price of the land and the cost of the huge mansion they planned to build on it, but Ann and Anne-Marie explained their particular financial situation and, to sweeten the pot, Lee Ann, Barbara and Cam bought a piece of the land to build a four-season chalet at an exorbitant mark-up which Lee Ann refused to negotiate downward. The rest of Ryanna and Julia's original extended family also bought a piece of land so they would have a secondary house near their friends.

First epilogue

Over the months, Tia and Mia's parts often had the impression that they weren't alone in their refuge but they wisely didn't inquire too closely.

One day, Ryanna and Julia were roaming the temperate forest in cat form as they loved to do. After an invigorating chase after squirrels which were always just out of reach, they were sitting, grooming themselves and each other when they sensed a by-then familiar presence nearby.

The only sign of their awareness was the involuntary twitching of the tip of their tails.

'Why are you the only two who regularly manifest in this physical form?'

'Because it is as natural to us as the other.'

'We have been manifesting it since we were very young.'

'What is young?'

'Physicals have to go through a maturing process. Young is the first stage.'

'I like this form. It processes the... environment more fully.'

'It only seems so. It is simply different. For example, visual cues are better under dim light, but it processes colors poorly.'

'It is also nearly impossible to talk. We can only manage simple auditory cues. It is quite inefficient.'