A/N: This is the prequel to All's Fair in Love and War - How Ranger met Bailey; it is set four years before that story. Anthony belongs to the wonderful Robin, Ranger is JE's and Bailey is mine. This story, like AFILAW is totally AU.
Better the Devil You Know
Chapter 1
Anthony POV
"Well?"
I looked over at Ranger and raised an eyebrow. This was bullshit; something, crap, everything in this file was way off.
He let out a sigh. "Come on Anthony, what do you think?"
What did I think? That someone was fucking with him, Rangeman. "The intel is shit, it has more holes than like, Swiss cheese, dude."
He did the barely there smile thing and I resisted the urge to punch him. "Why is the intel off, little brother?" he pressed.
I ran my fingers through my dreadlocks. "What intel, man? The government can't really expect you to bring in some two-bit mob hit man; they'd send some desk jockey to deal with that shit. My money is on the fact that there is something that they are not telling you. Who the fuck is this person, I mean really? Can't be just low level mob."
"Piqued your interest yet then, bro?" Ranger teased.
I let out a growl and flipped him off, the smug bastard. The problem with my brother was that he always knew how to push my buttons; the more he teased me, the more I'd step up and do this job. I was never one to back down from anything and he damn well knew that.
"Maybe, I gritted out finally."
"Atta boy, Antonino," he grinned as he ruffled my dreads. "You gotta keep your hand in, you know. Doesn't pay to stop or quit in our line of work; quitting gets you dead."
"I'm an investment banker, man. You know I dont do that shit anymore."
Ranger gave me that look the one that said that I was in serious shit. It worked on me when I was a kid, but not now when I was like twenty-four. Now I just had to worry about not hurting him. He could dish out what he liked and I'd return it in spades, but I still had to hold myself back. The only thing I had left to fear was hurting those I loved or losing them to some psycho like we lost Manny four years ago and nearly lost Les. Shit, we may as well have lost Lester; he was still a total basket case. No, I didn't want to do that sort of thing anymore, and no amount of pressure from Carlos was going to change that, was it?
The harsh look softened and morphed into one of concern. "Look, bro, I know how you feel, but I honestly think that you should get back into the game. You trained too long and too hard to let those skills go to waste. Besides, with Rangeman trying to get the new Trenton office off the ground, I'm short staffed. I can afford to leave Tank and Bobby in charge, and the only other man besides you that I'd trust at my back is Lester, but he's going through a rough patch right now its four years next week since the death of his brother and I can't afford to have him fall apart on me. Please, just this one job?"
"What if it's a set up?"
Ranger looked at me like I was crazy.
"Well?" I pressed. "There's still all that crap over Phoenix to deal with; don't tell me you've forgotten about that, swept it under the carpet?"
He shrugged. "I doubt anything will ever come of that."
"Bullshit!" I coughed.
"So come with me and watch my back, little brother."
Shit, I was so screwed.
It was a very good thing that I was a trained sniper, otherwise I would probably have gone insane by now; lying on a dank roof top for hours didn't faze me in the least. Shit, I'd been in a truck load of worse places than the run-down, bad side of where ever the fuck we were.
I glanced over at Ranger, who was mirroring my prone position, next to me on the dirty roof. "So we any idea who this guy is yet?"
I was met with a slight shrug.
"Fuck, we actually sure that this is the right building?"
He nodded.
I let out a sigh. "So we have a name: Bailey, and a location, but that's it? Shit, what the hell are we doing here?"
"Working?" he suggested with a hint of a smile. Jeez, Ranger humour; gag me with a spoon.
I sighed again; this was going to be a very long and dull job. "So weve got what, eight apartments?"
He nodded. Enough with that lack of speech thing already, bro!
I scanned the building again with my binoculars. "A hooker in 1A, drunk in 1B, old couple in 2A, nothing as yet for 2B, single mother in 3A, single guy in 3B, nada on 4A and an old lady in 4B."
"I am aware of this," he muttered.
"Hush, I'm thinking," I murmured. "So we're down to 2B, guy in 3B or the occupant of 4A. Pass me the list of tenants again that you so skilfully charmed off the letting agent this afternoon."
Ranger pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of one of his cargo pockets and handed it to me. I scanned the names of the building's occupants. "Do you think the guys could run us some background checks on these three apartments?"
He glanced over and looked at the names. "2B and 3B, yeah they could fit the bill. I wouldnt bother with 4A, thats just some young woman; we'll dig the dirt on the other two first as they're the most likely suspects." With that he pulled out his cell and called back to the mother ship, or whatever. "Need you to run a couple of names for me, Zero. Justin Davies and Philip Newton - Tank has their address; its for that job in Philly. Call me when you have the intel."
Who taught Ranger his phone manners? Not my mother, that was for sure. They totally sucked, would it kill him to say goodbye?. "So now what, oh great one? We ready to call this a night yet?"
Ranger glared at me.
"What? The London market opens in about half an hour and there are always good waves in Hawaii this time of year."
"Hold that thought, we've got movement, Anthony."
A short figure in black with a baggy hoodie on jogged around the corner, up the front steps and unlocked the front door. About a minute later a single light in 4A came on, but we couldn't see the occupant because the shades were drawn. "Dervla Maguire." I stated as I checked the list in my hand.
Ranger nodded in acknowledgement and flipped his cell open. "Talk."
"You sure?"
"Well dig some more."
He ended the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket.
"What?"
"Justin Davies is doing time for drug dealing and has no known connections to the mob; doesn't seem like his style. And Philip Newton was found three days ago floating in the river, so I doubt that he was our man either; most of his connections are gang related."
"I told you that I had a bad feeling about this," I grumbled. "Maybe its the drunk in 1B? Shit, I could be out picking up some chick in a bar, but instead I'm stuck on a fucking roof top. I hate you, man."
Ranger jerked his head around and looked at me. "What did you just say?"
"I hate you?"
He shook his head and grabbed his cell again. "Yo, run me a check on Dervla Maguire."
"No, I'll hold while you do it."
"Yes, the same address."
"What do you mean she doesn't exist past six months ago?"
"Fine, dig as deep as you can; I want to know who the hell she is."
"No, I don't care what damn time it is, just get on with it, Zero."
He listened in silence for a couple of minutes and then put his phone down on the roof top. With a frown he picked up his binos and trained them on the top corner apartment. "Our marks a woman, he said eventually."
"What?"
"You did exactly what I did, assumed that this Bailey person was a guy. $50,000 says that its her that were looking for."
"Chicks with guns, thats like, you know..." I said in my best stoner voice.
Ranger glared.
"Youre serious aren't you?"
"If the government intel is right about the address, then yes. And then couple that with her missing past, I'd say were on the mark."
"She could have come over from Ireland or something six months ago."
"That would show up; she'd have a visa or at least have passed through customs. And if she didn't then she must be hiding something. We need to get into her apartment, plant some bugs and dig around for something incriminating."
I rolled my eyes. "You mean like a little black book full of names with lines through them and amounts of money next to them?"
Ranger clipped me around the ear. "Shut up."
"Ow!" I hissed as I just about resisted the urge to break his damn nose. And he'd well deserve it too, the bastard; some days I really hated my brother. But could he be right about our target being some chick? I guess stranger things had happened.