Chapter 38: Running a Little Late

The girls are a bit tied up and are late meeting their husbands. Will they make it to the banquet and their spouses' sides in time?

Sheldon and Leonard completed their hygiene rituals and began to dress themselves for the night ahead. As they were helping each other with their ties, Sheldon asked his friend, "What do you suppose is keeping our wives? They should have been here by now."

Leonard checked himself in the mirror as he responded to Sheldon's query with, "Maybe they're over at Helmut's place. You know, having a visit after they dropped off Annelise."

Sheldon pondered those words for a long moment and then asked, "Do you suppose we should get in touch with Helmut and ask if they are there?"

The shorter man gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders and replied, "I suppose it couldn't hurt. Could you do the honors and send him a text? I've got to find my cuff links. I know I put them down somewhere around here."

Sheldon gave a pronounce eye roll and pointed towards the other room down the hall, "Leonard, you left them on the nightstand by your bed. And yes, I'll text Helmut right now."

A few minutes later, Leonard returned, cuff links in place. After checking his look in the mirror yet again, he suddenly remembered the situation with their wives and asked, "Any news from Helmut?"

Sheldon sadly shook his head, "Not anything good. He says Annelise hasn't arrived there, either. I must admit, I'm beginning to get concerned about this situation."

Leonard walked over to his friend and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, "Relax, buddy. Knowing our wives, they probably went on a shopping spree when they finished with their search. Let's give them a little while longer to show up. You know how Penny and Niki love to shop."

Now it was Sheldon's turn to gaze into the dressing room mirror, "Thank you, Leonard. Now you have given me something completely different to worry about."

Leonard gave a small chuckle, straightened his tie, and reminded Sheldon, "There's no need to worry. Most places over here only take cash and traveler's checks. They can't melt their plastic from over use here in Germany like they can at home."

"I suppose you're right, but I know Niki purchased a truckload of German currency before she left. She showed me last night."

Leonard paused in his preening for a moment and then replied, "Then I suppose Penny did, too. Hey, look on the bright side. It's their money they're blowing, not ours."

Sheldon walked away from the mirror muttering, "Small comfort, Leonard. Small comfort."

Leonard checked his watch, "Look, we can't wait much longer for them. Let's just shoot them a message telling them we're leaving for the banquet and for them to meet us there."

"That's a brilliant idea." Sheldon grabbed his phone and quickly typed out a message to his wife. He then looked at Leonard and told him, "Now, what do you say we leave for the hall and get ourselves some good seats. We can always save a couple of them for our wives."

Leonard reluctantly grabbed his dinner jacket and headed for the door, "Yeah, I guess so. Let's grab our wallets and keys and get the hell out of here. I hope the girls show up before dinner. Penny can get a bit testy when she misses a meal."

Sheldon joined his friend at the door and remarked drily, "Don't I know it. Well, Leonard, our public awaits us."

Penny's husband headed out the door and called back over his shoulder, "Whatever, Sheldon. Let's go."

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Niki took a look around the room and pointed something out to the others, "Look, over there, in that corner. More rope!"

"That works perfectly for my idea. Now, let's put our little plan into action, girls. Those goons can't be too far away. I'm sure they want to guarantee that everything goes according to their stupid plan."

All three of the ladies wrapped the used rope around themselves and gave the appearance of still being tied together. They then placed themselves close to the wall by the door and began to pound on it with their feet and bodies. As predicted, the three men raced into the room to check on them and seemed relieved to find the ladies still bound together.

The tall man admonished them, "Ladies, ladies, can we please keep it down in here? While this building is quite isolated, I wouldn't want any of you to hurt yourselves, or draw any unwanted attention from the rare passerby."

Penny looked up at him, eyes wide and pleading, "Hey, I'm really sorry. It's just that I really have to use the bathroom and we had no other way to call you."

The tall man seemed unimpressed with her dilemma and leaned over her to say, "I'm sorry as well, but untying you for any reason is not in the cards at the moment. I believe you will just have to wait patiently for the dinner to be over and for us to untie you."

At that moment, a leg lashed out and caught the man on the inside of his calf and dropped him like a stone. All three women threw off their ropes and proceeded to bring down the other two men with quick, cat-like moves. Niki crowed as she delivered a debilitating blow to the Adam's apple of the next man, "Good job, Penny! That was the right way to get this party started."

The third man acted quickly and twisted one of Annelise's arms behind her back. He called out, "Back on the floor, girls, if you don't want me to break your little friend's arm."

"I don't think so, sir," cried the small woman as she used her double-jointed abilities to easily escape from the man's hold. She then delivered a lightning fast kick to his groin. "That didn't feel good, did it?" the young woman snarled down at him.

Niki and Penny soon rendered the other two men in the same condition by using the same maneuver. Penny wasted no time in instructing her friends to, "Quick, get the other ropes!"

Annelise failed to understand Penny's intentions and asked her, "What are we going to do with them?"

"Tie them up, of course."

Annelise was still confused and looked down at the rope in her hands, "How will we do that?"

Penny couldn't help but sneak in a little bragging, "Hey, you're looking at the woman who won a first place belt buckle in calf roping at the Junior Rodeo. Just follow my lead. I don't want to use our ropes; the police will need our DNA samples to prosecute."

Niki turned to Annelise and gave a huge smile, happy to have gotten some form of revenge, "You heard the lady, take that rope and let's get busy!"

As Penny busied herself tying up the men, she answered her friend's comment with, "Uh…Nik. I wouldn't put it quite like that."

Niki followed Penny's moves and tightened the last knot on her section of rope. She looked over at Penny and then down at her captors, "You know what I meant. Get busy that way with these guys? Don't make me ill…wait…" with those words, she unintentionally deposited her breakfast on Hugo.

Penny couldn't help smiling at the sight of Hugo covered in an avocado and bacon omelet, "Touché, my friend. Now that's the way to put an end to this saga."

Annelise asked in a panicked voice, "Wait guys, shouldn't we call the police right about now?

Niki cast a disgusted smirk down at the men and answered, "We should, but they have our purses with our phones inside them. If we call the authorities at this point in time, they'll never tell us where our things are. I doubt they're just going to tell us anything without a little persuasion."

Penny had an idea, "What about if we try to strike up a deal? Guys, we won't call the police if you tell us where you stashed our purses and phones?"

Hugo looked up at her and snarled, "We'll never tell you, so I suppose you cannot call the authorities, can you?"

Annelise's smile started small then grew exponentially as she casually replied, "We could only do that if one of us carried her phone inside her blouse." Her hand rummaged around inside the front of her shirt and she triumphantly pulled out her second phone and crowed, "Hey, guess what? Here it is. Now, where are our things?"

Hugo jerked his head to the right, "Two rooms down. The door is unlocked. You will find your bags on the back table."

Niki put up her hand and motioned the others to stay in the room. She then looked down at the trio of men and asked, "Wait, one more question before we leave. Who are you working for?"

Hugo shook his head stubbornly and replied, "That I cannot tell you, young lady."

Niki stood over Hugo, "Gee, I feel a little sick again…"

The tall man confessed, "Her name is Heather Powers. Truly, we were not hired to hurt you, just delay you getting to that venue and joining your husbands.

Niki's eyes narrowed, and she spat out, "Powers? That bitch? Thanks a lot, Hugo. I owe you one."

"Such as untying us?"

Niki snorted in derision, "Not a chance, buster. But how about us not calling the police on you and your friends." To Penny and Annelise, she said, "I have another idea on how we're going to handle this, ladies."

Penny ran past the men and called over her shoulder to Niki, "How?"

"I'll tell you on the way to the hotel. Right now, let's just get our bad selves back to the hotel." Niki gave the men a parting shot as she headed out the door, "Gentlemen, I'd like to say it's been a pleasure meeting you…but it hasn't."

The short man called out after them, "Wait, how are we supposed to get loose from these ropes?"

Penny looked down at the men with more than a little scorn, "Why don't you figure that out for yourselves? We did. C'mon ladies, let's rock 'n roll."

As they raced down the hall after retrieving their belongings, Penny turned to Niki and exclaimed, "Free at last! By the way Nik, if I were you I would call the doctor about your stomach."

Niki gave her friend a wry grin as she kept running for the elevator, "Don't worry, Penny. I already have."

Well, the girls got out of this one safely. Now, will they make it to that banquet? Also, what are the guys doing in their absence?