3 years earlier…
Ranger slowly made his way up the stairs to Stephanie's apartment. It had been a long day and all he wanted to do was crawl into a warm bed. Especially if that warm bed contained Stephanie Plum. He knew that she had been having a rough time lately and all he wanted to do was see her. She always made him feel better, like he belonged.
He worked his magic in her front door and as soon as the door swung open he sensed something was wrong. Peering into her apartment the first thing he noticed was that her hamster's cage was missing. He knew that when she got especially freaked out by one of the crazies that Vinny gave her to track down she would put Rex's cage into her room – to keep him from being scared she claimed – but something didn't feel right this time. He drew his gun and crept into the living room. It was empty.
No couch, no T.V., no end table. Nothing. All of it was gone. Walking into her bedroom only confirmed his suspicions. Stephanie Plum was gone.
Present Day: Los Angeles…
Tommy jerked awake when his cell phone went off. Looking down at the Caller ID he silently swore to himself. Before answering he sat up a little straighter in the seat of his black SUV, fixed his tie, and wiped the drool off that had formed in the corner of his mouth. His boss always yelled at him when he looked soppy, even if she couldn't see him, she could always tell.
Checking his appearance once more in the rearview mirror, he answered his state-of-the-art cell phone, "Hello Miss Manso." His boss, Carmen Manso did not sound happy. He listened to her angrily tell him that she needed those new recruits today.
He contemplated his words carefully before asking, "Miss Manso," he paused and sucked in a deep breath, "is something wrong?" As soon as the words came out of his mouth he regretted them.
For a minute or two there was no sound on the other end of the line. Then Tommy could hear Carmen sigh. She never sighed. She never expressed emotion—excluding anger and that calm thing all the Manso children possessed.
"Ricardo and my mother are here 'visiting'. I'm pretty sure my mom dragged Ric here; he's still pretty torn up about that woman. My mother isn't happy with me because I'm not married yet and there aren't any applicants for the job."
"Oh" was all he could manage. The Manso family had had a lot of trouble in the last couple years. Ric's--or Ranger as he was known to anyone that wasn't family--sort of girlfriend had disappeared 3 years ago. I had worked with Ranger before he met the woman, Bombshell everyone calls her, he never laughed, never smiled, never….anything. The only time--before Bombshell had come into Ranger's life--he smiled was when he talked to his daughter. Ranger came to help his sister out a couple of years ago and he would get this look on his face whenever Tank or one of his other guys talked about her. Now, he's worse then he was before she came into his life.
Just as he was about to say something else, one of the women they had been tailing, testing really, for the available position at RangeMan. Gladly diverting the awkward conversation, he told his boss that the target had just arrived and quickly disconnected after Carmen told him that Tank, Ranger's right-hand man, would be joining him to talk to their target. He watched as she walked into her apartment building and before following took a last glance at her file.
Her name is Stephanie Wilson. She's 5'7", weighed 115 lbs, had curly hair, and intense blue eyes. She could run a 5 minute mile, bench press 110 lbs, and had quick instincts. She ran for 5 miles every morning before her first job–waitressing at Sally's Diner—she worked from 8 am to 12:30 when she went back to her apartment for lunch and to change. She then goes to her second job as a filing clerk at a local law office from 1:30 pm to 6:00 pm. From there she goes to the gym to spar and lift weights for and hour, then she heads home again. At 7:30 pm she picks up her 2 year old daughter from her neighbor's and goes through a normal nightly routine.
The only reason Carmen had balked at the idea of hiring Stephanie was because of her 2 year old daughter. She eventually rethought her response when she faced Stephanie on the mats. They had sparred for 45 minutes before Carmen had finally defeated her. Now that we had identified Stephanie as our lead candidate, all Tommy had to do was approach her about the job. He took a moment to contemplate the options open to him and almost immediately decided that he should talk to her before Tank arrived. Tank tended to scare people.
He got out of his car and made his way to Stephanie's third floor apartment. Collecting his thoughts, he knocked on her door. He heard some muffled shuffling noises and the sound of the chain sliding off the door. The door opened she surprised him by saying, "You're the man that has been following me around all week. What do you want?"
Tommy could tell by the way that she was standing with her hand on her hip that she had a gun in the waistband of her jeans. Trying not to alarm her, he let his hands hang down by his sides and spoke,
"My company has been watching you for awhile; we want to offer you a job."
She gazed at him with a questioning expression and asked, "You're not a cop or a fed are you?"
His lips turned up in a grin at the thought of himself as a cop. "Not even close. I work for a security company called RangeMan." At the mention of RangeMan Stephanie's eyes got wide and her gazed shifted slightly to the left, focused on something over his shoulder. He stepped back and turned his head to see what she was looking at and barely moved his fingers in time to avoid getting them crushed in the door as Stephanie slammed it.
Snapping his head back over his shoulder so that he could see what Stephanie had seen he was assaulted with a very astounded Tank--frozen in his tracks. He looked back at the door and then at Tank, seeing the anger transforming Tank's features and how he kept flexing his hands he quickly stepped out of the way. As soon as Tommy moved Tank balled his fist and menacingly moved towards the door.
He pounded his fist against the door and said in ominous voice that had the same effect as a shout but really was only a whisper, "Stephanie, open the door." He paused, listening for a response. When there was no answer he tried again. This time raising his voice, "Open. The. Door." Still no answer. He sighed and said, "Bomber, don't make me kick the door down, I know you hate it when I do that." Again he listened for a response.
He was about to say something else when he heard a tiny voice ask, "Mommy, are that the bad guys?" Momentarily caught of guard by the presence of the tiny voice and its question, he almost didn't catch Stephanie's sigh before she answered.
"No sweetheart, those aren't the bad guys." The owner of the tiny voice pondered this and then replied, "Well then why can't they come in?" Stephanie sighed audibly and the sound of the chain slowly being unlocked could be heard. The door inched open to reveal Stephanie Wilson, or as Tank knew her, Stephanie Plum. The door stood wide open and the three just stared at each other.
To everyone's surprise, Tank was the one to break the awkward silence. He took a giant step forward and enveloped Stephanie in a hug. By the look on Stephanie's face, Tommy could tell that—however she knew Tank—she didn't know Tank to be so affectionate. Slowly he released her and stepped back.
"Where have you been Bombshell?" When Tommy heard the nickname 'Bombshell' something in his head clicked.
He looked from Stephanie to Tank and back, "Bombshell? As in Ranger's Bombshell?" He continued to shift his gaze from Stephanie to Tank. Stephanie looked at Tank with surprise when she heard Tommy call her 'Ranger's Bombshell'.
He continued, "Stephanie Plum? That's your name isn't it?" She jumped when he said her real name and quickly looked down the hall before stepping back and letting the two men in.
She closed the door after them and bent down so that she was eye-level with the little girl gazing up at the two strangers. The child just stood, staring up at the two biggest men she had ever seen. Stephanie took a finger and guided the little girl's chin so that she could look her in the eye.
"Charlie-babe, why don't you go watch some television before bed?" At the mention of television the little girl forgot about the two large men standing in their hallway and her expression brightened.
"Can I watch," she paused and squinted her eyes trying to think of a good movie. Finally one came to her, "The Wizard of Oz!"
Before Stephanie could answer Tank chuckled, drawing all attention to him. He just shook his head and smiled. Stephanie and Tommy stared in amazement, Tank didn't chuckle. Hell, he hardly ever smiled. Charlie anxiously tugged on her mother's sleeve to regain her attention.
"So, can I Mommy? Pluh-eeease!" Her eyes begged her mother to say yes. Stephanie smiled and turned the little girl toward the living room. "Go put it in sweetheart." The child ran off and Stephanie stood up. Gesturing for Tommy and Tank to follow, Stephanie led the way through one of the doors that led out of the hallway.
She went into the kitchen and headed towards the fridge. Opening the black door she turned to the two sizeable men standing in the doorway and queried, "You guys want anything to drink?" When both shook their head no she closed the door again and sat in one of the chairs at the slightly beat up wooden table. Tank and Tommy followed her example and sat in two available chairs.
For a moment everyone was silent, and then Tank stated more than asked, "So she's your daughter." Stephanie pursed her lips and nodded. "Her name is Charlotte Avery Wilson—well now that you've found us, I guess it's Plum again. She just turned two a couple of months ago." Silence settled over the trio again and was broken yet again by Tank. He simply stated, "Morelli."
When he said it he could not have imagined that Stephanie would react so venomously, "NO! She is MY daughter. She is MINE, not anyone else's, especially not Morelli's."
He paused, momentarily taken aback and conceded, "It's alright. I'm sorry; I didn't realize that it was such a sensitive subject."
Stephanie dejectedly hung her head, "God, Tank, I'm sorry. It's just…she's….she doesn't have a father. I'm all she has," Stephanie closed her eyes and admitted to the men, "She's all I have."
Tonight had been full of surprises from Tank and he yet again made his opinion on the subject at hand known, "No. You had Ric. You had us. Do you have any idea what you did to Ric when you left? Jesus, you just disappeared. I thought only the Mansos could do that. He's been looking for you, you know? He never stopped, even after the cop gave-up; he still kept—is--looking for you."
Stephanie let out another sigh and scrunched her still closed eyes tighter together before opening them to reveal her tear filled blue gaze.
"I never meant to hurt Ranger. You have to understand that. The whole thing—," She broke off trying to find the right words to explain her reasons for leaving. "A lot of things made me want to leave, he was one of the reasons I almost didn't. There was too much for me to deal with there. I would never have been able to live my life—the one I wanted—if I hadn't have left. You need to understand me. I can't tell you why I left, just know that I wouldn't have if I didn't have to."
Tank was about to say something when his cell phone went off, at the exact same moment that Tommy's did. They simultaneously looked at the caller ID's and swore. Tommy glanced at Tank and Stephanie before standing up and going into the hall. Stephanie had known who was calling the second the phone had rung. The hairs on the back of her neck had stood bolt upright. Only one person did that to her.
Slowly Tank brought the phone to his ear and pressed the talk button. "Yo," the standard RangeMan hello. He was silent for a moment and visibly paled as he listened. Stephanie could hear the dial tone from across the kitchen table.
Never letting his eyes leave Stephanie's he carefully put his phone down. They shared a moment of silence, both knowing who had just called. Then Tommy burst into the room.
"Ranger's on his way here!"