Adam Ludlum couldn’t believe what he was hearing from his second in command. That the hit he had setup for the owner of Atlas software development had been foiled last night. All four of his hired men were dead. His contact down at the morgue told him their bodies had come in and he had been order to run their dental and DNA through the system.

His second had tried to get a copy of the police report that had been filed, but the detective in charge wouldn’t share it with him. All he knew was a second person had been involved in taking his men down. He told him that all video footage of the incident was blurry and grainy.

Mr. Ludlum was even more disappointed because his bid to buy Transworld Trucking Company had fallen through. A holding company by the name of Wolfhart & Blake holding had beaten his bid. All he knew about the holding company was that its portfolio very in what they brought and owned. The board of the holding company were staff by members of two families. The head of one family was a well-known Doctor and Entertainer. The head of the other family was known in the intelligence community and the pentagon in Washington D.C. and was a well-known Doctor as well. Both heads were sisters and had their fingers in various business venue’s.

He needed to put Atlas software development out of business. He had planned on buying the company when it wasn’t doing very good to use as a front, but now that they had gotten the government contract to develop new tracking software for the government. The owners wouldn’t sell the company now. He had almost gotten them to sell.

Ludlum looks at his second “get me a copy of that report. I want to know who this other person is.”

Jerry hurries out of the room and goes about trying to get a copy of the police report for his boss.

Ludlum watches as his second rushes from his office. Once he is done, he opens a folder sitting on his desk. Inside was a picture of a young petite woman with long straight red hair wearing pink wrap around glasses. The file had been given to him by Joel Busterly, he was one of the minor crime bosses in New York City. Joel wanted this woman located. He didn’t go into detail on who the woman was, but he was offering a lot of money to locate her. Her last known location had been Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, New York, New York.

“Why would Joel want a she-male located?” Ludlum wanted to know what was so special about this person. Considering Joel was offering 250,000 dollars to locate her. He’ll get his people on it right away.

Adam just closes that folder and picks up another folder on his desk. It was a special request from an old client of his. They were looking for a new sex toy/slave. The requirements were as follow: Teenage female (preferred pre-teen, but would take a teen), petite, platinum blonde hair with amber eyes, no junkie or mentally handicap either. The client would pay 70,000 dollars.

A smile forms on Adams face. He had seen the perfect girl that matched this description. He knew the girl was homeless and had been going around collecting cans and doing odd jobs for people. He had seen her just the other day washing cars for a crooked car dealership not far from his house. The girl had caught his attention because the manager of the dealership had her and several other teenage girls out in skimpy bikini’s washing the cars. They had drawn a crowd to the lot. She stood out because of her platinum blonde hair and her petite figure. He picks up a burner phone he keeps in the top desk drawer and dials a guy he knows that specialized in abduction.

The phone is answered after the first two rings “Hello?”

“Hey, I have a job for you and your crew. There’s a teenage girl I need for you to pick-up and take to the house. You don’t have much to worry about with this one, because the girl is homeless. So, it should be easy.” Adam figures it should cost him about 5,000 or so.

“Alright, I’ll do it for 5,000. Send the information the normal way and when do you need this job done?”

“As soon as possible. I have a client that needs this done.” Adam knew he could trust this guy. He had done jobs for him in the past.

“Alright, you’ll have the girl by the end of the day.”

“Thanks.” Adam ends the call and puts the phone away.

He logs on and send an encrypted email to the client saying he has the perfect girl for him and will contact him later with details.

“Well at least one thing will be going my way today.” Adam leans back in his chair and tries to come up with another plan for the software company.

Chapter Four

Rose wakes up sore and tired from working all day yesterday. She had mowed and raked this couples huge yard. So far, she has managed to pay the rent on the room she was renting and buy some groceries to get her through till the end of the month. Put some money on her pre-paid cell phone. There was a rebuilt scooter a guy she knew and trusted had for sale she wanted to buy so she could take more jobs and get around easier. She had taken the bus home late last night after shoveling horse manure after she did some more yard work.

The people near her had complain about the smell, but she didn’t have any other clothes to wear. It wasn’t like she had planned on doing that work. The person that hired her said he only need her help with planting some flowers for his wife. The next thing she knew after they did the flowers, was she was being asked to muck a few stalls out in the barn. She could had said no, but she needed the money if she was going to buy the scooter. So, she had accepted and did the job.

Rose looks at the piece of paper on her make shift desk and notice today she had to be at Wildfire recording studios. She was filling in for Julie today on the janitorial staff. She hops in the shower and takes a nice relaxing shower to help loosen her sore muscles and then rushes out to get dress and make it down in time to the corner to catch the bus she needed to take to get to the studios.
By the time, Rose got to the studios the rest of the janitorial staff had arrived. She rushes up to Hector.

“Hey Hector, I’m filling in for Julie today. She’s at the emergency room with her son. So, I told her I’ll work in her place if it is alright with you.” Rose didn’t want to tell Hector that Julie had taken another job for today. She knew that if Hector knew he would shorten her hours and pay rate. Hector didn’t mind paying someone under the table for filling in. Since, she has done some jobs in the past for him. It shouldn’t be a problem.

“Alright, you can do the bathrooms and the recording booth.” Hector hands her a bucket that had everything she would need.

“Thanks Hector.” Rose rushes to catch the door before it closes. She had seen the band cars outside, so she had to be quiet while they were recording today.

Rose peeks in to see what they were singing today. She loved their music and practice their lyrics at home or while she was working. She stands quietly and listens to them as they sing as a group. Her favorite person was Sasha/Wildfire, because she played an awesome guitar. Her next favorite was the drummer Dusk. She took her name from the Scooby-Doo cartoon and dressed like the character. She was awesome on the drums and fun to be around. Mystic was cool on the electric keyboards and was the prankster in the group, next to Sasha. Jack of Hearts was the bass guitar player. Between him and Sasha there wasn’t anything the two of them couldn’t do. The lead singer Siren, was her name sake and could entice you with her sing.

Rose knew that Siren and Sasha were childhood friends and grew up together. They are best friends and business partners. Jack of Hearts real name is Richard Bachmann he had attended the same private school Sasha and Siren went to. Dusk and Mystic had attended the rival school that Sasha, Jack and Siren had gone to. Sirens real name is Susan Blackstone and Dusk real name is Julia Elizabeth Mackay. Rose knew that Mystic real name is Gregory Allen Green. Their manager Teddy Samuel Peck is friends with Sasha’s older sister.

Rose just listens and enjoys the music. She knew she needed to get the bathrooms cleaned, but she wanted to hear the people she admired sing. Rose just watches as they go through several songs, before leaving to do her job. She knew Hector wouldn’t pay her if she didn’t. Rose finishes up cleaning the bathrooms and helping the other staff with their duties.

Rose went back to see what the band was up to and notice they had stopped for lunch. She knows she shouldn’t, but she goes into the recording room and pick-up Sasha’s guitar. Rose carefully holds it like she had seen Sasha do and string the cords to a song the band had played. It was an older piece that Rose loved and knew the string movements to. She plays it on Sasha’s guitar and sings the song with her eyes closed.

Sasha had come back in to get her car keys. She left them with her guitar case. She stops in her tracks when she notices the teenage girl she had seen around the property with the cleaning crew. She was playing her guitar and singing with her eyes close. Sasha walks over to the recording console and turns the mics on to see how the girl sounded. Sasha recognized the song right away. It was one of their older pieces and had been written by Siren. There was a cool guitar rift in it for her and Jack. The girls voice was amazing and the song sounded better with her sing it, than with Siren.

Sasha takes her phone out of her back pocket, because she had worn jeans today to practice and sends a text to the gang to come in here. Sasha just listens and watches as the girl goes from one song to another song smoothly. Her guitar playing was so-so, but with some practice she could be better.

Siren and the rest of the band comes walking in and notice the teenage girl in the recording booth playing Sasha’s guitar and singing with her eyes close.

“Guys, listen to this.” Sasha turns the sound up so the rest of the band could hear the girl singing.

After a few minutes of listing to an older song of theirs she was singing “she doesn’t sound half bad. Her voice would match up with our voices or mine perfectly.”

Siren liked what she was hearing.

“I say let’s see what she sounds like with you Siren.” Sasha glances over to look at Siren.

“Okay.” Siren heads towards the booth and knocks on it.

Rose stops singing and almost drops the guitar when she heard someone knocking on the recording booth door.

She notices Siren walking in “you know, Wildfire would be highly upset if you dropped her favorite guitar.”

“I’m sorry, I…” Rose was scared and nervous that she had been caught singing and playing Wildfires guitar.

Siren could see that the girl was scared “Relax, you’re not in any trouble. Wildfire doesn’t mind you playing her guitar. Just be careful with it.”

A smile appears on Siren’s face as she walks over and sits down on her stool and looks towards the girl. She could tell that she had been working. Because Siren could smell Ajax and other cleaning chemicals on her. The girl had the most unusual eyes she had ever seen.

“I’m…” Siren never got a chance to finish.

“You’re Siren and the lead singer of the band. You’re also Sasha’s, I meant Wildfires closest friend as well.” Rose was excited that Siren was talking to her and scared as well.

“Yes, Wildfire and I are close, but that’s not why I came in here to talk to you about.” Siren needed to get this girl to relax.

“I know I shouldn’t had touched Wildfires guitar. I promise to never do it again.” Rose takes off the guitar after she gets the shoulder strap off and put it on its stands.

“Well, that’s good to hear. But that’s not the reason I came in here to speak to you. We heard you singing and thought you did a good job. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind singing with me for a little bit.” Siren smiles at the girl.

“I did?” Rose just looks at Siren to see if she was serious.

“Yes, you did. By the way what is your name?”

“Rose Garland.” Rose couldn’t believe it. Siren wants her to sing with her.

“Well Rose, will you sing with me?” Siren smiles at Rose.

“Yes, ma’am.” Rose just grins and couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Let’s try this song.” Siren sings the next song after the one they had heard her singing to.

Rose starts singing with Siren. For the next twenty minutes, Siren has her singing most of their old songs and one or two of their new songs.

Sasha and the others listen to them and realize that Rose would make a good addition to their band. She may be underage, but they could always work around that.

Roses throat was raw by the time Siren stopped.

“You did pretty good, Rose. Why don’t you come out here and get something to drink? Then you can come and have lunch with us?” Siren stands up and opens the door to let Rose out.

Rose walks out and a bottle of cold water is handed to her by Dusk. She notices the whole band was here and smiling at her. Her cheeks start turning red from their smiles. These people were her idols.

“Oopp’s, she’s gone and done it again. You’ve made another girl blush, Dusk.” Jack looks towards Dusk.

“I did not. It was seeing you standing there with a smile on your face that did it.” Dusk winks at Rose.
Rose just giggles at their banter.

“Alright, let’s let the new girl get use to us.” Sasha looks over at Rose with a friendly smile on her face.

Rose follows the band out of the studio and to their cars.

“Where are we heading for lunch oh, fearless leader?” Jack and Mystic look towards Siren.

Siren looks towards Sasha “O’Kelly’s?”

“Yep, I reserve a table for us.” Sasha looks at Rose

“Is Irish food okay with you?” Sasha didn’t know if Rose liked Irish food or not.

“I don’t mind, but I don’t have any money.” Rose looked down at the ground in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about that. It’s Siren’s turn to pay.” Sasha just winks at her.

“Get in if you’re going.” Siren gets into her car.

Sasha gets in on the passenger side of Siren’s car after moving her seat forward for Rose to climb in. Once everyone was in their cars, they all head down to O’Kelly’s to grab some lunch.