Hello everyone! Enjoy the new story!!!
Stephanie POV
I was hungry. Not that that was anything unusual. I, Stephanie Plum, was always hungry. The men here at Rangeman couldn't quite figure out what I did with all the food I ate. It used to be that I ate until I couldn't button my jeans. Now, with working for Rangeman almost full time and using the gym every morning, that wasn't a problem.
I was looking forward to surprising Ranger with my new lean and toned body when he came back from wherever the hell he was right now. It was the longest he'd been gone since I'd know him and I was getting anxious for him to get back. Joe had noticed my anxiety and he wasn't happy about it.
I sighed and stood up, "Anyone want anything to eat?" I hollered. There was a course of "Yeahs!" and I sighed again. Of course, Tank and Lester helped me write down everyone's orders and I popped my earphones back in. We got into the elevator and I turned to face Tank and Lester. I started dancing and shaking my ass to Hakuna Matata, which only I could hear and grinned at their laughter. I felt the elevator stop and the doors open. Their grins faded. I turned around and froze mid-bop.
There was one man in a military uniform and two men in civilian clothes standing in front of me. My heart stopped. I dropped my iPod and felt my earphones pull out of my ears. It hit the floor with a clatter that I couldn't hear over the rushing sound in my ears.
"Stephanie Plum, Pierre Couvillier?" The uniformed man said. Tank stepped next to me and grabbed my hand to pull me off the elevator. I felt Lester step right behind me.
"That's us," Tank said.
"Sir, Ma'am, we're very sorry to tell you that General Manoso went offline three days ago during a mission. We were not able to recover his body."
I tried to comprehend what they were saying. Something was wrong. Ranger was not dead, I would know if Ranger was dead. I felt Lester's hand wrap around mine. "That can't be right. Ranger is Delta Force. He's fucking Batman. Batman doesn't die." My voice wasn't panicked, it was strong and sure. Ranger was not dead.
"Stephanie? My name is Jake; I was on Ranger's team. I saw … He's gone sweetie. He talked about you all the time. He loves you very much."
"Why don't we all go up to my office and discuss this?" Tank asked. The men nodded and we got back onto the elevator.
I looked at Tank and shook my head, "No, no, no."
He wrapped an arm around me as I started shaking. "Call Morelli and get him here now," Tank muttered to Lester.
"Stephanie? Sweetie? Calm down and breathe." I was breathing. Wasn't I? My vision was going cloudy. Tank was right. I wasn't breathing.
Bobby was talking to me, "Just breath Stephanie."
I took a deep breath, "I'm fine." They had to know too right? Ranger couldn't be dead. I would know. Just like I knew when he was in a room with me, I would know if he was gone for good. "I don't believe it," I said. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.
"Stephanie…"
"Don't you Stephanie me Tank! You know him. You know he's not dead." My voice was adamant. The men looked at each other and we walked into Tank's office and sat down.
I looked at Tank, "Where was he?"
"Steph you need to drop this." Tank said.
"Tell me." My voice left no room negotiation.
"I don't know Steph. You'd have to ask the General."
I looked at the General, "Well? He's Delta Force right?" I asked. "I mean he never wears a uniform and sometimes his hair is long and I know the kind of missions he does. So he's gotta be Delta Force."
"I can't really say," His face was kind but hard at the same time.
"If he was dead it wouldn't matter." I raised an eyebrow in defiance.
"Yes. He was Delta Force. He was flying a copter in North Korea. It went down. There was nothing left Stephanie. General Manoso is dead."
I stood up and set my hands on the table. I looked him in the eyes and there was no sadness, "I don't believe you." I slammed my hands down on the table and left the room. There were several men in the hall and I could tell they all believed it. No one believed me.
I rode the elevator down and got into Ranger's Porsche. I blew by a very surprised looking Joe and got on the freeway. I didn't have a specific point in mind; I just needed to drive and drive fast. I got out my cell phone and called Ranger's cell phone. It went straight to voicemail. "Let me know somehow. I love you." I hung up and called the one person I could think of who could help me find him.
"What's up hot stuff?"
"Diesel? I need your help."
Ranger POV
There was a path worn in the hotel room carpet from my pacing. I hated this. I'd been through two wars, hundreds of black ops missions, I'd been tortured, shot, and I'd technically been dead twice. None of those things compared to this. I was waiting to find out how my family had taken the news of my death.
My cell phone rang once and then went to voicemail. I waited for the beep and listened to the message. Stephanie. She may not be the most skilled bounty hunter ever, but her instincts were dead on. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she didn't believe it. I didn't know what else we could do to change her mind, we had to though. She would die if they didn't believe that I was dead. They would torture everyone to find out where I was. So this was for the best. But it was fucking hard. Letting everyone else hurt so that I could live? It was worse than any other torture I've been through.
I smelled Christmas. Fuck me. Why? I got a headache and turned around. "Seriously?"
"Dude. They told her you're dead and she doesn't believe them. She's a fucking wreck. I just popped in on her and she was taking your Porsche on a serious workout. What's going on?"
"Bad stuff Diesel. I did a black ops mission. I killed someone pretty high up in the North Korean government. Someone saw me and put it all together. After about 20 failed attempts on me our government stepped in and let someone else go down. North Korea thinks it was me. If they find out it wasn't, they'll torture everyone until I come to them. There is coup in the works; once it goes down I'll be able to come home. Christ. Stephanie needs to act like I'm dead or they'll pick up on it." I was horrified. If something happened to her because of me…because of my job…
"So let me pop her in. No one will know. You can show her you're still alive and she can act like you're dead."
I sighed, "Stephanie can't act to save her life. She needs to believe I'm dead. You need to tell her. Convince her." I ran my hand through my hair and took off my dog tags. I grabbed a lighter and toasted them. They would polish up as good as new, but now they looked like they'd been on me when the helicopter exploded. I handed them to Diesel who shook his head.
"Ranger…this is gonna kill her…" He said.
"I know. Take care of her until I can come back."
"You sure you wanna do this?"
I nodded. It was the only way. Diesel popped and my headache disappeared. I sent up a silent prayer for Steph and went back to pacing.
Let me know what you think so far.
