Author: Emerith Damera
Title: Pivot Point (#3)
Chapter#: 1
Category: Angst / Adventure / Romance
Pairing: Hector / Steph / Lester
Rating: This chapter really isn't bad at all.. Maybe some language. Surprising, I know.
Summary: The 3rd story in Hector's saga. Ranger negotiates for Hector's knowledge.
Disclaimer: The characters in this story (with the exception of Rufio, all mine) belong to Janet Evanovich, I make nothing from them. Just a wee bit of amusement.
Warning!! Really not much of a warning here.. Except maybe an allusion to gasp boys who like each other! snort
Ya'll should know by now I don't write for the light of heart.
Author's Note: Huge Thanks must go out to the team of wonderful Beta-Girls who helped me keep my ass in line on this one. Wouldn't have been able to do it without ya! (I ain't naming names, ya'll know who you are, and I love ya for it!)
Thanks for holding out for this guys! Hector and I are having a great time writing this together and plan to keep it up until he's happy that everyone knows the whole story. Once again though, there were parts of this story that he wrote without me, I'd be peeved if I didn't think they were pretty good. Sexy man's my damn weak spot.
The music for the first chunk of flashbacks in this chapter and the next, is: Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries (I know, I know, I have issues)
Enjoy Ladies!
Pivot Point
1
My name is Hector Koa Aguila.
It means 'Steadfast Warrior Eagle' in a combination of my Mother & Father's native languages.
For the last few hours I've been holed up in my apartment with two breathtaking specimens of the human condition.
Lester and Stephanie.
Yes, for lack of a better term, I am bi-sexual. Although I prefer not to label it. Why does emotion have to be labeled? Why can't it just be felt and enjoyed for the exquisite thing it is?
Not only were they both wonderful to look at, but they were both quickly finding a place in my heart. It was the little things. They seemed so big when you weren't used to experiencing them. There was a point in my life where simply treating me like a human being was enough to garner someone my loyalty. No one has ever treated me more like an equal, shown me more respect, sincerity, trust or loyalty than these two amazing people.
I wanted both of them to be more to me than just a casual experience.
Only one other person in my life has ever meant that much to me before. Losing him had cost me dearly. It was over a year before I could breathe again without feeling the pain of his absence squeeze around my heart like an iron fist. Lester had been the one to get me through the worst of it. More long tense months would pass before I was able to let go of Rufio's ghost and give in to what I'd felt for Lester since the beginning.
Losing Rufio made me a different person. Shattered the already fractured mask I was using to keep the real world at bay. But these two people had a right to know who I was. They need to know what I've been. What could still be inside of me. They meant enough to me to finally tell someone. But I had to start out small.
I lay on my stomach in my bed, naked as the day I was born. My hands laced on my pillow, my chin resting on them. Lester and Stephanie were curled tightly together against my right side, each trailing fingers up and down my back, tracing the tribal lines of my tattoo or just making random patterns. Their soft touches lulled me with a sense of comfort I wasn't used to as I proceeded with my tale.
OoOoOoO
Up until a few short days previous, I was a relatively high ranking member in the local Tribe of The Almighty Nation of Latin Kings and Queens, a rather virulent street gang. There were Tribes up and down the East Coast, on the streets, and much stricter sects in prisons in just about every major city.
Now they wanted my head.
Sitting two seats away from me at the head of a long conference table was the man who might be my salvation.
Ranger Manoso.
I was currently sitting in a corporate conference room on the fifth floor of RangeMan. A high end security company, owned by Manoso. Or so he'd said while explaining to me what my duties would be as one of his employees, were I to accept his deal.
Training, training and more training. The first part of which would take me to Miami, on his dime. Not that I'd complain, the memories in Jersey were too fresh, getting away from them at that point was probably the best thing for me. And I'd never turn down a chance to learn something new.
Six months in Miami he said. That would give his men time to train me in the hardware and electronics they frequently used on jobs, as well as the gadgetry and Intel tricks of their particular trade. Sounded promising. Some men felt about their porno mags the way I felt about electronics and gadgets.
Ranger also assured me it would be enough time for him to clean up LK from Newark and Trenton's streets, just as long as the information I gave them was enough…
It was enough.. It had to be enough. Rufio couldn't go un-avenged, and I'd decided I was taking every single one of the bastards down for what they'd done to him. Crossing Koa had always had it's price, this time, the price would be their lives. Those who survived being hunted and taken down by Manoso and his men would undoubtedly rot the rest of their lives in a cell.
I'd rather feel their blood on my own hands, know that I was personally making amends for not being able to save him.. But if I wanted to truly fight for the Angels now, I couldn't do that. So Ranger's plan sounded good enough for me.
"When things are cleared up, and you've finished the required training in Miami, you'll be brought back here. Tank and Lester will take over your physical training, and you'll spend a few more months working with them before you finally settle into your work here. I'll keep the apartment we put you in last night available for your return."
Ranger's attention hadn't wavered from me since I'd set foot in the conference room nearly an hour before. He'd simply settled into his chair, leveled that intense gaze of his on me, and began slowly outlining every good reason he could come up with for me to sell him my soul.
Had he known before I walked in the door that I had already planned to give him what he wanted, I couldn't be sure that he would have been as cordial, or as charitable with his resources. But as things stood now, it looked like Lester had kept the previous nights visit to himself. As of now, no one else knew my secrets.
"You'll be paid throughout your training. A sliding scale that will rise with your levels of expertise. Once you pass all of your training and are taken off of probation a pre-defined set of bonuses will be available to you each year. There's also, of course, an entire benefits and healthcare package that will kick in with your official hiring as well."
If it were healthy to imagine Ranger Manoso in a tutu with a wand.. I'd be inclined to call him my Fairy Godfather.. But I liked my testicles just where they were at. I should probably stop him before he gets carried away and offers me the Golden Gate Bridge.
I held my hand up, stopping him just before he started off into another list of the fabulous benefits of working for the right side of the law.
"Before you go any further I should tell you, I've already made my decision. I'll give you the information you want. You don't have to keep baiting me."
I tried not to sound scornful as I said it, but really.. Even for the information they needed, he was offering too much. No one gives you this much simply for some information. Not stability. Because that's exactly what he was offering me. Stability. And the ability to take care of and handle myself. In my life it had always been 'Give me what I want, and I'll take care of you'. Never before had someone made this kind of offer. 'Give me what I want and I'll give you the tools to take care of yourself.'
Something flickered across his face for a moment. Something unreadable. But it was there all the same.
"Can we have a moment Men."
He didn't phrase it as a question, and I knew that as well as his men did. I bit back on my apprehension as they filed out of the room.
I had a feeling he wouldn't straight out kill me right here in his conference room. Wouldn't want to get blood on the freshly painted white walls. I had no clue exactly why the idea of being alone in a room with him made me so squeamish.
The aura of menace that rolled off of him, maybe.
You just knew instinctively that when this man was around, you weren't in control of things. I had a real hard time with not being in control of things. Don't misunderstand, it wasn't an authority issue per se. I could work under other people, I'd done it before. Just as long as I had a handle on my own environment. I didn't like going into things blind.
When the door closed softly behind Lester, Ranger lifted his eyes from the table to meet mine. I braced for the chill of danger, but his eyes were no longer the icy mask I'd quickly gotten used to. Suddenly Ranger Manoso was human. His dark brown eyes were so sad. A phantom pain tracing the edges, bleeding out into the tiniest creases across his face. Like he was showing me a small fraction of his true self and holding the rest back physically hurt him.
"Normally I wouldn't give a shit about something like this, but I want you to know why I'm making you this offer." His eyes were still very much human as he spoke to me, but a solemnity had settled behind them.
"When Plum first handed me your file, I had no idea who you were. This office hasn't been here more than a few months, we've barely gotten our feet wet in Trenton." He shook his head from side to side for a moment with an almost wistful smile, before going on.
"I did the research just like we would with any other skip. Your juvenile record hadn't been sealed because you dropped off the map after you were released into state custody the second time. Your name hadn't been registered in any government system again until this, so your whole history was there."
A hesitant pause, one more thing I wouldn't have expected.
"I grew up in Newark too Hector," he met my eyes again and this time I just couldn't place the look. Diffidence maybe.. Indecision. "Not the same part of town, but I still remembered your story. My parents followed your trial like you were their own son. I had just come back for college, I can still hear my mother telling me over and over again, 'If you hadn't cleaned up your act you would have ended up just like that poor Hector boy."
He seemed to physically shake off the emotion that had been clouding him, his face returning to a much more humane version of the shrewd businessman who'd sat at this table earlier. They genuinely seemed like two different people.
How could one person handle so many guises? It had been so hard for me just to maintain myself and the street persona. Without Rufio I probably would have truly turned into the monster I pretended to be. But Ranger Manoso seemed to have more masks up his sleeve then I could ever conceive of. Like a thousand tiny sparkling facets of one carefully hidden personality that would encompass them all were it ever allowed to see the light of day.
There was a lot more to Ranger Manoso then I'd thought there was.
"Your juvenile history wasn't the only thing in your file though. When you were brought in a few weeks ago, the officer on duty did a short work-up on your tattoos. Enough so that someone with gang knowledge could figure out who you were."
So that's how he knew. Maybe he wasn't all seeing after all. Maybe he just knew where to look to figure out the little things.
"I don't understand why you're telling me any of this." And it was true. I didn't. What did my criminal record have to do with his job offer? It made no sense to me whatsoever.
The look on his face told me that if he were the type of man who sighed, now would be the time to do it. Frustration and a certain wariness. His hands ran back over the top of his long dark hair, tightening the leather strap that held it at the base of his neck. A gesture I'm sure not many saw. Nervousness did not become this man.
"I walked the path that led where you are. A few short years before you did. Had it not been for my parents stepping in when they did, I might have been there." He hesitated again, but I was already pretty sure I knew where he was going with his speech. "Your state records were there as well Hector. I know you didn't have the luxury of having someone to help you back then. It's taken me a long time, but I'm finally home again, and I'm finally in a position to help people."
I was about to protest his charity, but he raised a hand in request of silence, as I had done earlier. Since he had heeded my wishes then, I returned the favor now and allowed him to speak his piece. Swallowing back on my objections.
"I'm not looking to give you pity or charity of any kind. I know you've had a hard life, but those experiences are exactly what may make you invaluable to this company. I asked around about you, with the few contacts I have so far here in Trenton, and old associates in Newark. Your aptitude with electronics and technology could be what sets us apart from every other security outfit on the East Coast. In this business the right equipment can be what draws that fine line between being there on time to save someone, and being there on time to wipe them up off the floor."
"That is why I'm offering you what I am. A multitude of reasons. But when you get right down to it, I'm an opportunist Hector, and the profit you could bring to my company is an opportunity I don't wish to miss. What I'm offering you, is no more or less than I've given every man who has signed on with me. With the exception of the added security to keep you alive long enough to get the Kings off your back. You'd be no good to me dead."
He hesitated again for a moment, as if there was more yet to come. His next words led me to believe that whatever it was, it would never cross his lips.
"If that explanation is sufficient, I'd like to call the rest of my team back in and get this moving." Again, not phrased as a question. So I suppose my answer wasn't necessary.
OoOoOoOoO
To be continued…