This is a story of friendship, love, deceit, and some violence. I fully credit Janet Evanovich for her characters and have added a few of my own. Obviously all mistakes are mine and I look forward to unrolling this scenario to you.
Traitorous Intent
Chapter 1
There's a traitor, a turn-coat, scum-sucking bastard of an enemy in my company.
Ranger sat at his desk and scrubbed his hands up and down the sides of his face, rubbing the stubble on his chin and right up past his ears and into his hairline. He had his door closed and now leaning back in his chair, he sighed.
He had gone to bat for the men under his employ, even shedding blood a number of times. He had taken a chance on fellow soldiers so damaged by their life experiences and this was what he was now up against?
He had the Trenton list in front of him with the names of all his employees, past and present. Right now everybody was suspect, everyone was the enemy.
He looked at the list again. Who could he trust? Who could he not?
His first thought was of course to stash his Babe in a safe place but he suspected she would fight him tooth and nail at the very mention of a safe house. And right now, like it or not, she was only one of a few that he could trust.
Ranger looked at the list again and picked up the green highlighter. Green was optimism; green was hoping against hope that he was right. With an almost smile, he stroked off Stephanie's name, then Ella and Luis. He crossed his fingers figuratively and stroked through the names of the Core Team.
He picked up his blue highlighter. Unfortunately a number of employees had died, either on duty or from illness. Their names drove a stake into his heart.
Manny who had pushed Ranger out of the way on a take-down gone wrong and took the bullet meant for him. Losing an employee that valuable was bad enough, but the fact that he had recently found the woman of his dreams, his soul mate, made it even tougher. They were supposed to marry in a few months and Manny used to walk around with a perpetual smile on his face every morning when he had come to work.
Big, strong Eric. Killed by a flesh-eating disease that had struck so quickly they hadn't been able to stop it in time. The medical personnel at St. Luke's had amputated his leg but they still couldn't save his life. Bobby been on holidays and he had blamed himself that he hadn't been around to catch it in time. While nobody had blamed Harold, his assistant, one of the ER doctors had spoken to Ranger about how fast it could turn from a routine medical condition to an emergency issue.
Taylor, a relatively new man who had been felled on a government mission gone wrong. His death continued to sadden Ranger. His helicopter and all his companions had been shot down by a surface to air missile. A couple of factions had gleefully taken the credit but the simple fact that six lives had been lost had hurt. Ranger and his men had known every one of those on that bird. The pilots flying the helicopter had transported them into and out of areas of combat so toxic that it was a miracle that any of them had survived at all on their missions.
The Wall of Honor in the main conference room had increased by three more heroes.
Onto yellow. Some men had left, believing that they needed or wanted to get on with their life and settle down. Most of them were happy with their new situations and some were either married, or expecting children. A few had tried to drift back but Ranger could see that they were desperate for a paycheque more than a desire to work and had gently refused to allow them to return. These men had sweated and bled real blood for him and his company. Each man had put their own lives in peril every time they had pulled on the RangeMan uniform. He had wished them well, with the full knowledge that desperate men sometimes did desperate things. Shortly after, one had committed suicide, and three had been recruited as mercenaries for hire out of the country. Another was facing a myriad of charges related to violence against his partner and was looking at a lengthy jail sentence
Ranger hoped that soon he would be able to change the color but he needed to do his due diligence and check them all out to his satisfaction.
He looked at the rest. Too many questions, too many things to check.
His black pen sat ominously alone. Black was the traitor.
He stood up with the papers in his hand. He strode over to the wall safe and punching in the newest combination, he inserted the files onto the floor of the safe and closed the door. He spun the dial and rehung the picture. Sitting at his desk was not what he needed right now. Hmm, gun range or the gym.
He headed to the locker room and swiftly changed into gym attire. It was quiet in the room as he warmed up then stepped on the treadmill, setting it for a newly installed Ranger training course.
The sweat rolled down his face drenching his shirt and droplets landed on the deck. The machine slowed down signalling the end of the training session and Ranger looked around. He had been concentrating so hard on the course that he had forgotten to be aware of his surroundings and realized that at any point he might have been targeted. That too was disconcerting. He was always aware of his surroundings. That had kept him alive in so, so many situations over his life.
~~~o0o~~~
It was little things that finally drew him to the possibility of something very wrong.
His car, which up until this time had NEVER been vandalized when he was driving it, was keyed on one call, then the windshield smashed on another. As his beloved Porsche was sustaining damage never seen before, Ranger put it down to stupid punks who had just moved in and didn't know of him (yet).
Tank had chuckled at this turn of affairs and had kidded Ranger that the infamous Bombshell vehicle karma had rubbed off on him. After a discussion on the mats Tank had admitted with a wince or two that while it was aggravating it would probably be the last of the pranks when the perps were identified.
Next had been a take-down gone wrong. While Ranger was cuffing an FTA, he had glimpsed the shine of what he believed was a rifle barrel scope and had dived taking his man with him to the ground. No shot had been fired, but he firmly believed that there was intent was enough to put him on alert. Checking later, he tracked to where he believed he had seen the glint and noticed that the grass had been disturbed, and recently.
He had been getting hang-ups on his phone. The calls were always blocked and no voice-mail had been left. He had a passing thought that now he knew how Stephanie had felt anytime she had a stalker and these kind of things seemed to happen to her. She had always waited too long, if she even bothered to let someone know at RangeMan. It had almost turned disastrous a number of times. The calls were coming at different hours of the day and night and lasted no longer than a few seconds, but enough that he was sure that there was an intent to disrupt his sleeping and working patterns.
Trucks stopped at Shorty's one evening had been subjected to a barrage of eggs as the men were inside. Checking the security cameras outside, nothing could been seen with definition, but there had been a blur here and there as whoever had thrown the eggs had been hiding behind a truck, then moved to behind another before once again throwing the projectiles.
The latest episode came yesterday. A number of the men were ferrying vehicles to the company compound out of town. Normally he led the convoy but today he had been forced to take a phone call he had been waiting for. He had nodded to Tank to take the lead vehicle and he would get someone to drive the recovery van and pick up the men at the compound. The five car convoy had just left the garage and came upon a light turning red. The vehicle Tank was driving had failed to slow down and even though his foot was pressed firmly on the brakes all the way to the floor, it had felt squishy and slow to respond. Pulling on the emergency brake was also useless. Rather than hit the pedestrians crossing in front of him, Tank swung the truck to the right and had centre punched the light standard. The air bags had deployed and he had emerged from the wreckage rubbing his chest to look at the damage. The entire convoy had stopped and they all waited for the authorities to arrive. It looked like the truck was a write-off but nobody had been hurt and that was the main thing. Word coming down later had confirmed that the brake line and the emergency line had been punctured.
~~~o0o~~~
Stephanie sat on her couch with a carton of ice cream in her hand and sighed.
She was tired. Her days were filled with catching her FTA's and trying to keep Vinnie happy. Well, she reasoned, Vinnie was never happy. He had taken happy out of the vocabulary. Everyone was tiptoeing around the office as long as he was in attendance. The air literally changed when the door closed behind his good for nothing behind at the end of another day.
None of the ladies had any idea why he was so charged up. The bonds were being brought back into the system if they faltered in returning to court on their appointed days.
At the same time, it wasn't enough to consistently live on and Ranger had asked her if she could help out around the office. He had mentioned that they were short of personnel on site and he really needed her for as much as she could give him. Numerous times he had asked if she would just quit and work full-time at RangeMan.
Maybe this time, if and when he asked, she might agree.
~~~o0o~~~
Les and Bobby came into the break room and grabbed a cup of coffee each and a yogurt. Bobby opened the lid on his and slid his spoon in and commenced eating but Les had also grabbed a box of cereal and was mixing it all into some kind of concoction in a cereal bowl. He spooned out a large dollop and jammed it into his mouth crunching with satisfaction.
They sat down and looked around. The room was almost completely full as it was break time and the chatter ranged from whispered conversations to checking cell phones, or a bark of laughter at one of the tables.
Bobby spoke. "While last night was a blast and I have no idea how you found those ladies for us, I have been thinking that it's time to start acting our age."
Les looked at him with his spoon sticking to his nose from friction. "What, can't keep up, buddy? Or is it, you are having trouble keeping 'it' up. I know you have some magic in your cupboards down in that room somewhere." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and grinned.
Bobby grimaced and then glared at his best friend. "Thank you very much. Everything is working just perfectly in THAT department. It's just that I'm starting to think that it's time to settle down a bit and maybe try for my own Someday."
Les took the spoon from his nose and placed it on the table. He started to frown slightly. "What, this means you want a divorce? Are you looking at moving out of our place, the building or Trenton?
Bobby shook his head. "No, certainly not out of town. I think it's time to move out of a building that holds only guys except for Ella and Stephanie. While I love working with these guys, I think that it's time to start separating my working life with my after working life."
Les turned to his friend, his snack forgotten.
"Did I do something that is pissing you off? We both clean up after ourselves and we don't steal each others dates."
Bobby shook his head. Les was not getting it.
He looked around at the men. Most of them had been employed at RangeMan for years. Only a few had steadies, wives or someone special to be with. Most of them were loners by choice, wanting companionship on a casual basis only.
Bobby shook his head again. "I've been rooming with you since basic and I just think it's time to get our own places. I don't have a problem per se, but, well, I'm starting to feel that it's time to make some changes and grow up."
He looked over at Les and could see the hurt in his eyes. They had roomed together forever and while the guys never judged, a number of them had probably believed that they were a couple. To hear Bobby admit that he was contemplating moving to his own place was gut wrenching. Had he done something to finally make that scenario go south, had he crossed the line on his never-ending pranks and rude jokes. Had a girl finally come between them? Bobby had never mentioned a steady in the past, but well, stranger things could happen.
"What I mean is … you know, this is not the place to discuss this."
Bobby stood up and motioned for Les to follow him. They had a few minutes left on their break and this conversation needed to be held in the security and the serenity of their two bedroom apartment downstairs.
Les followed Bobby down the stairs. He was mentally going through all the scenarios and the recent past activities that might have triggered this request.
They closed the apartment door behind them and sat down in the two gaming chairs in front of the tv. They had pushed the sofa against the back wall some time ago and it was only used when fellow RangeMen had come in to have a drink or to party.
Bobby turned to Les and spoke.
"Les. Let's face it. We're 35 years old. The old biological time clock is ticking, not as much for us as for any woman who we meet that will want to have any kids one day. Unless we want to rob the cradle, and I for one would like to have an adult conversation having been living through the same decades. I want a family, Les. I want a woman who I think about every day and sleep with every night."
Les looked at his best friend. While he truly believed that such a woman would never be in his future, stranger things had happened and he really couldn't be unhappy for his friend. Bobby was the healer of the group, the thinker, the voice of reason.
He spoke. "I never imagined that you were starting to feel this way, but I should have. Tank has Lula, and it looks serious this time. A number of guys here have taken the plunge and like it or not, we are all getting older. Ranger and Beautiful are a couple, and everybody but them can see it plain as the eyes in our heads."
He looked around at the apartment, seeing for possibly the first time how it was decorated. Of course there was the standard furniture but it was the lack of anything 'personal' in the room. On the coffee table was a stack of Guns and Ammo, and Soldier of Fortune, and a catalogue from Remington with the new fall line. There were no photos, no small mementos made by loved ones.
He chewed on the bottom of his lip before he spoke. Bobby smiled internally. He had done that for years when he was on the verge of coming to a hard decision. The Bomber also did it and he had always smiled while waiting for what their internal ramblings had come up with.
Les shrugged his shoulders. "I guess we can talk to Tank, and see if anything comes free in the next little while. There's only one empty apartment on four and Woody is having woman troubles of his own. I heard him asking Tank if he needs lead time to request it. I guess they're still trying to work it out, but it does not sound promising. Natalie doesn't like his hours and his keeping mum on what he really does here."
He looked at Bobby and grimaced, in spite of himself.
"I'll miss you buddy, and even though we still work together", and he paused. "You still want to work with me, right?"
Bobby reached over and punched him on the shoulder. " Duffus, who else has saved your skinny ass more times than me? Of course I still want to be your partner, but maybe not as a living together partner. Besides, then you can tell me what's going on when we're on surveillance to pass the time, instead of already knowing about it first-hand."
~~~o0o~~~
Unknown POV
I've got to be very, very careful. Ranger will suspect soon that something's up.
Do I have the balls to continue this or will I roll over and cave? At the same time, I want to kill him before he kills me!
Revenge, that's what it's all about.
~~~o0o~~~