The Chauffeur (#60) Valentine’s Day

BY PABLO DIABLO

Copyright 2019

CHAPTER 1

As we approached Valentine’s day, I was constantly thinking about what to get all the ladies, including Jill and Dakota. I wanted something truly special for them not that I was intending to buy ‘junk’ for the other ladies, but both are pregnant with my baby.

Dr. Ronda’s intention of me helping her make a baby has cooled down dramatically. She has come by and played with me, but nowhere near the amount of passion she had just a couple of weeks ago.

My mind is jumbled up with trying to decide what to get all our ladies. Should I get them a trip to some exotic place, or maybe a gift of something unique?

We all headed into the Hawk to get our work done today. Thankfully, the day was an easy day with a few people calling out sick. Sharon was working the phones to follow up on those who called out.

I walked over to Jennifer’s desk and sat down asking how things in the real estate department were going. Jennifer told me she was looking at a couple more deals like the multi-office towers that we bought from Kraft; however, she will be checking out each building personally before we make the purchase.

Hiring Special Agent Fernandez’s wife to work in our real estate division was a good choice. She has the talent to move residential real estate, which is what we wanted her to do. Since we were approaching lunchtime, I offered to take my real estate division to lunch. I suggested Longhorn Steakhouse. The three of them quickly agreed. I wasn’t sure if they agreed because of the restaurant that I picked or because I was buying, and they were hungry.

As we go inside the restaurant, Diane tells us that she needs to go to the lady’s room. Since she is not Jill nor Dakota no agent goes with her. Jennifer and Mariana both sat at the table and began to chat about work. I listened in but I was bored with the conversation. The waitress brought our drinks that we ordered when we sat down. It seemed as if Diane was gone quite a while, but since I didn’t look at the time on my phone, I really don’t know how long she was gone.

I asked Jennifer if she could go check the ladies’ room for Diane. She got up from her chair and headed towards the bathroom. I see Jennifer open the bathroom door and go in. A couple of minutes later, she comes out of the bathroom and quickly walks over to our table. She tells me that Diane is not in the lady’s bathroom. I send one of the SS agents to check the bathroom. She checks it and comes back to the table to tell me that she is not in the bathroom. I ask the SS agents to search the entire restaurant as well as outside for Diane.

I dial up John and tell him that Diane is missing. He freaks out worrying about Diane. I tell him that all the agents are working on finding her and Jill and Mariana are both trying to find her as well.

After I hang up from John, I get a text on my phone telling me that they have Diane and I’m not getting her back until I pay the ransom. I call Special Agent Fernandez and tell him what just happened right under our noses. He tells me that he will be joining us at the restaurant in just a few minutes.

I am now worried as I never expected that the bad guys would go after Diane. I understand going after Jill or Dakota, but why Diane? The odd thing about the text from the bad guys was that they didn’t list a dollar amount for me to pay as ransom.

When I saw Special Agent Fernandez arrive, I felt a bit better but still worried about Diane. My mind was swirling with questions about who might have taken her and how did they get her out of the restaurant without any of us seeing.

Special Agent Fernandez had also brought a few agents with him. Fernandez came right over to me. First, though he kissed his wife and asked her if she was doing OK. John arrived just moments later in his truck. He was mad as a hornet, but he kept it in check. All of us walked around the restaurant looking for Diane, but unfortunately, we didn’t find her.

Special Agent Fernandez received a text message from the kidnappers as well. It read, “Agent Fernandez, I expected to see you. So, here’s the plan. David Greene will deliver $5,000,000 in cash to postal box 5311 in a plain large envelope. The envelope will then be sent to an undisclosed location of my choosing. The money transfer will take some time, so if you think you will figure out who is behind this you are sadly mistaken. This young lady’s life is in your hands Special Agent Fernandez. Just remember, I’m watching, but you’ll never know when I’m watching. Oh, and tell David Greene that I expect cash, not some banking wire transfer.” The text said to Special Agent Fernandez. He used one of his other agent’s phones to get a trace on his phone.

It only takes the FBI a couple of minutes to trace Fernandez’s phone to one that was used inside the restaurant. We searched for this phone, only to find it in the trash can at the hostess station. Fernandez spoke to the General Manager, explaining to him what had happened. The GM invited Fernandez back to his office to view the security video.

Fernandez spent about 20 minutes looking through the video. When he came back out to the restaurant he said something to his agents, who all got into their cars and left. I stood there wondering what he had told them to get them to leave. Once they were all gone, he came over to me and sat me down along with John, who was having a hard time keeping it together.

“Guys, I have some disturbing news for both of you,” Special Agent Fernandez started.

“What is it?” I asked.

“We know who the perpetrator is,” he tells me.

“Well, then let’s go arrest him,” John says.

“We can’t…. not yet anyway. Right now, he holds all the cards and is going to make us jump through a lot of hoops before he will release your girl,” Fernandez tells us.

“If you know who it is, at least tells us that much,” I say to Fernandez.

“It’s Lt. Horowitz who is leading this whole thing. I saw him on the security video. He put something over your girl’s mouth that made her pass out looking as if she was drunk and no one thought about it at all. Now, you tell me that she is pregnant, so let’s hope that whatever they used won’t harm the baby,” he says to us.

John is now pacing the room madder that I have ever seen him.

“Horowitz? Really?” I say to Fernandez.

“Yep, since he’s trained in police ways, he knows our tactics which gives him a distinct advantage,” I’m being told by Fernandez.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Well, go home for one thing. Second, gather the 5 million he wants and put it into a large envelope. Plus I would stop by the closest post office to check out where box 5311 is located and how big the box might be as if it can hold the envelope or is that just a ruse to have us jump through some hoops at his discretion,” Fernandez tells me.

“OK Special Agent Fernandez, but mark my words, all of my gang will be carrying their firearms from now until Diane is recovered,” I tell him in a sincere manner. John looks over my shoulder and says, “If David doesn’t get this guy, I will. I promise you that,” he says in a really pissed off manner.

I stand up and gather my group. Although it is only the real estate group when Diane went missing John showed up. We all head out of the restaurant. We get back into the limo and head towards the post office. I wanted to see this box 5311. When we get to the post office, I go inside and look for this box. It turns out that box 5311 is the smallest postal box that is available, which tells me that Horowitz has a different plan for me. I text Fernandez that the postal box is the smallest box that the post office offers and will not hold an envelope with 5 million dollars in it.

Fernandez tells me to just keep to the plan at this moment and let’s see how this plays out. I text him back an ‘OK’.

I get back into the limo and we head for home. I’m not very chatty. Taking one of my group only pisses me off and will bring the wrath of my group down upon their heads. I text Fernandez asking for a synopsis of police tactics on kidnappings so we can decide to throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing as a wildcard. He begins to text me what happens during a kidnapping. Jennifer and I read it looking for a distinct place to go against the grain and put a monkey wrench into the kidnapper’s plans.

Fernandez goes into how time is a critical factor. John is almost seething with anger about how we are wasting time not looking for Diane. I got him to think through his statement asking him, “Where would you like us to look, just tell me and I’ll drive there right now,” I say to him.

He stops and thinks and has no answer for me.

Once we arrive at the Chateau, Fred pokes the proper buttons to open the outer gate first then the inner gate. He parks the limo into the garage, letting us out. We all walk through the house, but news of what happened has already arrived ahead of us to the house. John followed behind the limo and parked his truck into the garage.

Paula tells me that she is having a new clean limo to be delivered during the night and the one in the garage to be picked up and taken back to the new car get ready.

Donna tells me that there have been no calls to the call center regarding the kidnapping.

Jennifer and Mariana are both a little stunned. I sent Mariana home in the limo we just used. I texted Fernandez that she was being sent home. He texts me back saying thank you for taking care of her. Of course, I felt that I really didn’t do that good taking care of her. It could have been just as easily Mariana rather than Diane, but I suspected that Horowitz didn’t want the entire FBI looking for his stupid ass.

None of us were happy with the direction that the kidnapping was taking. I went to my safe in the bedroom and took out the requested 5 million dollars and put it into a large brown envelope. The entire amount almost didn’t fit into the envelope, but I made it fit.

Bobby and Sammy asked if I was hungry, which I was. They offered to make me a grilled cheese sandwich, which sounded wonderful to me. I asked my Jennifer if she would like to join me, she agreed that a grilled cheese sandwich sounded rather good.

CHAPTER 2

As Bobby was cooking the two grilled cheese sandwiches, I realized just how hungry I had become. I received a text from Fred telling me that Mariana was delivered home safely which caused me to thank him via text.

When the sandwiches were finished cooking, Bobby put each one on a paper plate and handed one each to me and Jennifer. He also poured each of us a glass of 2% milk, which tasted wonderful.

Jennifer sat at the table with her head down eating her sandwich. I reached over and lifted her head up by the chin. I leaned into her and kissed her. She responded but it didn’t feel as if she was really into the kiss.

I called everyone to the dining room table. I addressed them, “By now, everyone knows that John’s girlfriend, Diane has been kidnapped from right underneath our noses at the restaurant. I want everyone who is licensed to carry a firearm to do so. We are to stay in groups of three,” I tell everyone.

There is silence in the room. However, Bobby and Sammy ask a question, “Boss, do you want us to wear our sidearm when we leave the Chateau for something such as grocery shopping?” Bobby asks.

“Yes, I would prefer it that way if you two don’t mind,” I tell them. Neither one of them has an objection. As I look around the table, I see virtually everyone nodding their heads. Even Fred is nodding his head. He returned from getting Mariana home and parked the car into the garage.

Mom was not out at the table, so she didn’t hear the news that I preferred everyone to come and go in groups of three, with their sidearms.

Once again, I didn’t see the porn twins nor their new husbands, Fred’s nephews. I’m not sure what caused them to get married, but they did and now they have a profile to live up to.

I finish my sandwich. Bobby asks if I would like a second one, but I politely decline. Jennifer really doesn’t finish her sandwich and tosses it out along with the plate. She gets up from the table and heads towards her bedroom. I suspect that Jennifer somehow feels responsible for losing Diane, but that is not the truth. We lost her because we were hit when we were least expecting it.

John is a bit calmer, but he is still really worked up about losing Diane. He takes off his sidearm and carries it up to the bedroom that he and Diane share.

I begin to think about the shady shit that Horowitz has done, so it shouldn’t surprise me that he chose Diane as the one to kidnap. She was an easy target and we didn’t keep an eye on her, which we should have.

As the night wore on, Jill and Dakota came over to me trying to console me. I just sat at the table worrying about how they might be treating Diane.

“Daddy don’t worry. I’m sure that they won’t harm Diane. It wouldn’t be smart of them,” she tells me.

Jill agrees with Dakota but that doesn’t make me feel any better at all.

I ask the group if anyone has a reason to leave the house tomorrow. Paula and Donna both must go into work. Jennifer and Mariana are scheduled to be at the Hawk along with Sharon. I think about BJ and Danni also needing to go to the Hawk.

I tell all of them that we will use a limo and get everyone to work in the morning. Bobby, Sammy, and Amy need to go get some groceries for the rest of the week.

I sat up for quite a while not being able to sleep. I saw John still pacing the floor of the Chateau. At some point, Dakota told him to just go to bed, which he did.

Finally, about midnight, my eyes started to get tired and heavy. Jill and Dakota got me up from my chair at the table and walked me to my bedroom. Once they get me inside, they strip me down and have me climb into bed. As usual, Jill lays with her back to me. I’m in the middle and Dakota backs up into me wiggling her cute little ass. Because of the high level of adrenaline, I fall asleep rather quickly as does Jill and Dakota

When I woke the following morning, someone had put my phone on the charger. My eyes opened and I felt the urge to go pee. I quietly got out of the sleep bed and headed into the bathroom to do my morning rituals. While I was in there, I stripped down and stepped into the shower. With the hot water cascading over my body, I felt relaxed.

Since no one had joined me in the shower, it only took me about 5 minutes to wash, rinse, and shampoo myself. When I finished, I took a clean dry towel and began to dry myself off. As I stepped out of the shower, my little Dakota peeked her head into the bathroom but saw that I was drying myself off.

Dakota headed over to her own room to shower and dress for work. Once I was done dressing, I woke Jill who took her time getting ready for work. As I left my bedroom, I met Dakota in the hallway. We walked hand in hand out to the kitchen. I could smell the food cooking and it made my stomach rumble as well.

I sat down at the kitchen table. Bobby and Sammy were taking care of everyone breakfast wise. John was just sitting at the dining room table eating a bowl of cereal, but you could tell that Diane was on his mind 100%. I picked up the plate that Sammy handed me with breakfast on it. I got up and went over to John sitting next to him. I could see in his eyes that he didn’t know what to do. Since Diane and him began dating a couple of months ago, they have not had one night that they didn’t spend together. I told John that we will find her, and the FBI will help us.

I get a text telling me that our limo is on the way. I announce that to the room, and I see several ladies scurry around to put the finishing touches of makeup on their faces.

John approaches me. He has an idea about being able to find anyone else that might get kidnapped. He thought about those watch looking at things that measure how much exercise you do in a day. His idea was that the program could be changed to act much like LoJack, activate it and it will show your location. I wasn’t sure if it could be done, but I like that John was trying to think through all of this while Diane was missing.

However, it was Tina who had a wonderful idea that both John and I wanted to follow to look for Diane.

She told us that everyone has that special place that you go to for clearing your head and thus this Horowitz character might just have one as well.

I dialed up Fernandez and told him of Tina’s idea. He thought that it was a dandy of an idea and he would gladly follow it up after he brings Mariana to work today. Just as I hang up from Fernandez, someone announces that the limo has arrived. I see women’s bodies scurrying around and heading towards the front door. I ask Bobby and Sammy to please keep Amy close. She doesn’t wear a sidearm and I don’t want to lose her while they are getting groceries. They both agree to have her within arm’s length. I smile and thank them for doing that. Amy, on the other hand, put on her pouty face, which only made me giggle

I was thankful that our largest limo was ordered. Fred, of course, was driving which made me feel much better.

Fred took us to the Hawk for work. When we got there, I see Mariana kissing Fernandez. I give him a wave and Mariana joins our group that took the elevator to the top floor. Once we were in our office, I started making some phone calls.

I fire up my computer to start getting rid of unnecessary emails. First, I look through and eliminate the duplicate ones first. After that, I begin to look for emails from people that I must reply to, which I saw several.

The first one that I needed to respond to was one of the trucking managers. They have an idea that some of the independent truckers could pay a monthly fee and our company would send a truck to fix theirs if they broke down. I liked the idea and asked them to send me some additional information on how we can make this idea work.

The second email that needed my attention was one from a manager of a Pinetree location in Georgia, just south of Atlanta. Apparently, there was a huge religious party that caused lots of damage to the hotel. The manager asked about who to bill for the damages. I replied that whoever rented each specific room should be charged for the damages. I also said that if there was damage to common areas, such as conference rooms and the such we should bill the conference promoters.

The third email that also needed my attention was from one of the casinos. They said that they would like to invite me and my group to the casino for us to look around and give them an honest opinion about anything that might need updating or fixing to make it more inviting to customers. I replied that it probably be a couple of weeks before my group made it to the casino.

I had an email from a friend of mine that owns and runs a large jewelry store. He asked me if I had any idea what to buy for my ladies. He said in the email that he has something special that he is sure that I would like. It is a 3-carat diamond solitaire on a platinum chain with matching 1 ½ carat diamond earrings. The price he gave me was amazing. However, even if I bought one for each of my ladies, I still have no idea what special present I should get for Dakota and Jill.

Dakota comes over to me and tells me that back at the house, there is a single man trying to get into the Chateau. I phone up Sammy and Bobby to let them know NOT to let the guy outside into the gates. Keep him outside and dial-up Fernandez. They agree to do so and promise to get ahold of Fernandez as soon as we end this phone call.

Once my phone call to Bobby and Sammy was over, I called my friend who owned the jewelry store. I told him that I needed one of those neckless sets for each of my ladies: Jill, Dakota, Amy, Jennifer, Donna, Paula, BJ, Danni, Tina, Sharon, Mariana, Diane, the porn twins, and Mom. He gave me a great price and I put the total on my new AMEX since they sent me one of their metal cards. He told me that each set would have the lady’s name on the card and be wrapped in beautiful gold foil with a red ribbon.

He promised me that I will have them at the Chateau by tomorrow, which was Valentine’s Day.

As 4 o’clock rolled around, I decided to call it a day and walked around the office telling everyone to shut down their computers and head home, everyone seemed to be happy that I made that choice.

CHAPTER 3

As people were leaving the office, I got a call from Fernandez on my cellphone.

“Hey, thanks for having your assistant call me about the guy standing outside the entrance gate to your house. It was your friend and mine Lt. Horowitz. There was also a car of three Russian guys out of the camera’s view waiting for Horowitz to come back to the car. Our tactical unit took them down without firing a single shot,” Fernandez tells me.

“So how are you going to charge Horowitz?” I ask.

“Conspiracy to extort money, conspiracy to assist in felony affairs,” Fernandez tells me. He continues with the charges most of them he says will get Horowitz 25 years to life in state prison.

“Well, can we close the book on Horowitz then?” I ask.

“Absolutely. City Police fired him today. Right now he is in Federal prison and may stay there for the next 20 years before he is transferred back to state prison,” he says.

“David, hold on a minute, I have a call coming in,” he tells me.

I sit there thinking that he needs to have some music while you’re on hold with him, which made me chuckle to myself.

It was about 10-15 minutes before Fernandez came back to the phone.

“Hey, David, would you like some good news?” Fernandez leads with.

“Of course, what is the good news?” I ask.

“We’ve rescued your girl, Diane. We’re taking her to City hospital to have her checked out before we release her. So, if you would like, meet me at the hospital and when the doctor clears her, we’ll release her to you,” he says.

I tell him we’ll be there soon.

When I hang up, I yell out for John. He comes running over to me.

“What’s up boss?” He says.

“We need to run a quick errand, let’s go right now,” I say to him without telling him where or why we’re going to run this errand.

We take the elevator downstairs and Fred is waiting for us. I tell him he needs to drive us to City Hospital right now. While we are driving to the hospital, I call Paula to have her send a new limo to the Hawk for everyone to get home.

John is just sitting in the limo, not really understanding why we are going to City hospital. It only takes Fred about 20 minutes to go from the Hawk to the hospital. When we arrive, Fred drops us at the ER entrance. John and I go inside, and I ask for Special Agent Fernandez. We are directed to exam room 6. John and I head down to exam room number 6. Surprisingly we pass Dr. Ronda in the hallway. She stops and gives me a kiss.

When we get to exam room 6 there is an agent standing outside. I introduce John and myself before the agent lets us in. When he does, John sprints into the exam room grabbing Diane. He is hugging and kissing her and is quite tearful being that she has been rescued by the FBI and that she is safe.

Of course, John has about a million questions for Diane, all of which centered around what they did to her. She was quite plain-spoken about it all saying that they just had her sit and sleep in a windowless room. When she had to go pee, they walked her to the bathroom and waited outside. She said that although they too her, they had no intentions of harming her.

She told us that they guys that were holding her were Russian and that she couldn’t understand what they were talking to each other about as they spoke in Russian.

I asked about Lt. Horowitz, she said that he was nice but told her not to even try to escape or that he would not be able to stop the Russian guys from hurting her. She chose to follow his directions and not risk getting hurt. John kept hugging and kissing her and telling her how much he loves her. I told Diane that he was like a lost puppy without her. She just playfully punched him in the arm calling him a big silly softie.

While John was holding and hugging Diane, I stepped out of the exam room to call Jill and Dakota. I let them know that Diane has been found by the FBI and that John and I are at the hospital while she is being checked over. They were very happy that she has been recovered and told us that they would tell everyone that Diane is with us and is fine.

The whole exam only took about 45 minutes before the doctor and nurse pronounced her to be just fine. Special Agent Fernandez told us to take her home which made John smile and hug her even tighter.

We left the exam room and headed outside. When Fred saw us, he started the limo and pulled it around to where we were standing. As usual, Fred got out and opened the back door for us to get in.

He smiled and told Diane that it was nice to see her back. She just smiled and told him ‘thank you’. Fred took us back to the Chateau. As we were driving there, I dialed up Paula to make sure that she sent a new limo to the Hawk. She assured me that one was already outside the Hawk in the parking garage waiting on them. She also said that she called Sharon to let her know that the limo was already there.

My friend called me to let me know that he sent me a package to the Chateau in which someone had to sign for it. I thanked him and ended the phone call. When we arrived back at the Chateau, we went inside, and everyone was so happy to see Diane. John wouldn’t allow her to not be more than an arm’s length away from him.

I opened the box and found all the presents inside for the ladies. I began to sort them. The first one that I handed out was for Diane. From there I handed out one to Jill and one to Dakota. Then I walked around the house and handed out a box for each lady. Every time I handed one out, I got a squeal from the lady as she was very excited to receive a beautiful box wrapped in gold foil with a colored ribbon. As I was handing a box to Jennifer, Dakota came over and told me thank you and kissed me passionately. I squeezed her cute little ass which made her wiggle it and giggle at me.

Sammy and Bobby told me that there was someone sitting by the outside gate. I don’t remember seeing him when we arrived at the Chateau. I asked John if he had his firearm, which he did. We walked down to the outside gate only to find a Hispanic looking guy slumped over on the ground against the fence. John checked for a pulse but there was none. I dialed up 911 and told them what we found at our outer gate they said they were sending city police to our location.

John stared at the body clearly wondering if the body was put there to throw us off track or if it was put there to try and implicate us in something. Either way, neither John nor I were going to touch the body other than John checking for a pulse.

It took about 15 minutes for the police to arrive. The first thing that they noticed was John wearing his sidearm. Of course, they wanted to see that he had a carry permit before they looked at the dead body. After they cleared John, then they called for the coroner to send a wagon to pick up the dead body. I was questioned with only a couple of questions such as ‘do I know the deceased’ and ‘how did the guy end up at our outer gate’?

After a couple of questions, they told me that I was ‘allowed’ to go back to my house. John and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and headed back to the house. When we got inside, we were pestered with questions about what happened. When we didn’t have much of a story to tell, the ladies walked away bummed out.

With it being dinner time, Bobby and Sammy had a couple of turkeys cooked along with mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and jellied cranberry (out of a can). We all went to the dining room table waiting for Bobby and Sammy to tells us that the meal was ready for us to feast. When they did, many of the ladies got up quickly and headed into the kitchen.

John and I just sat there enjoying the view of the ladies. I could tell that John was so happy that Diane was now safe at home with all of us. I didn’t change the safety procedures because I wasn’t sure that anything was done yet considering that a dead body was left at the outer gate. I was surprised, however, that the police didn’t really seem interested in asking John or me any questions. They asked only a couple of questions before the coroner showed up and picked up the body and took it away.

As we all sat around the dinner table, there was a sense of relief with Diane back home. We all thanked the good Lord for our fortune.

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