Life's Challenges
High SkiesChapter 2
I drove to the airstrip and parked my red Ferrari in the hanger; I grabbed Carlos' hand and towed him to a tan jet. I performed various safety checks before clearing for take-off and launching into the air.
"Babe?" Ranger asked when we were set. "How did all this happen?"
"How did what happen?"
"How did you become rich, learn all this, and in the meantime hide it." It had become very well known within twenty four hours of the A-team returning. I had a full inbox; but it was all auto-deleted before I listened to it. "How did Rangeman not know, and how did you get the pink Lexus in the garage?"
"I'll start with the one that bothers you most?" I questioned, grabbing my Droid and shutting it off.
"The Lexus." He smirked.
"Alejandro pulled some strings." I hope this slips…
"Who?" He tensed. I should have known.
"My bodyguard, Raphael insisted that while you were away, I had to have a body guard." Raphael, Carlos' Brother, had been so nice to me. He had provided me with resources, means, immunity, money if and when I needed it, everything except for the one thing I needed the most, Ricardo "Ranger" Carlos Manoso.
"That's good; He'd be dead by now if he didn't." He smiled, then leaned over and kissed me before walking to the back of my plane and returning with sweet ice tea.
"You found my secret drink" I grinned. I had visited South Carolina once and gotten hooked on the sweet tea, Kentucky on horse racing, Florida on sports cars. I had passions now I'd never have had before, like my Ferrari. Well, maybe I'd have the Ferrari anyway, but, you get the point.
"I'm impressed, Babe. You can fly, you have a Ferrari…"
"Four Ferraris." I smiled. "Six Porches, Five Lexus, and then the other vehicles, like the trucks, sedans, and SUVs my employees drive. When one of my employees gets a ticket, its chaos figuring out which car it was. And if you look me up at the DMV, I hope you have a lot of time!" I laughed at Ranger's face, oh the shock.
"Who are you and where did you put Stephanie?" Lester asked.
"How did you get on this plane?" Carlos yelled
"I followed you here and snuck in during the safety checks." Of course.
"Who else is here?" I questioned, handing the controls over to Carlos.
"Tank, Cal, Hal, me, Diesel, Alejandro, Connie, Lula, Grandma Mazur, Raphael, Hector, and Bobby." Oh boy. I smiled and walked into the midsection of the plane.
"Hey guys! How did you get here?" I questioned sweetly, walking over to a cabinet that held spare electronics. I withdrew a case of Apple stuff, walking around and setting the box in the middle of the floor. I grabbed a stack of ultra lite laptops and passed them around, stating "If I hear a word from you, I'll throw you out of this plane. Not a friendly drop at oh some 10,000 feet." I walked back and grabbed cords. "Plug them in if you run out of battery. There is a hotspot attached to the USB. Have fun." I turned and then thought of something, "Oh, and Grandma, no porn, please" She looked like I had smashed a prized vase. "And no pictures of my fiancé, either"
"Dam..." She almost muttered.
"Grandma!" I warned. I strolled lazily back to the cockpit and took over the controls.
"Babe, why all the laptops?" I sighed.
"When I first started flying, everyone would come with me. So I learned to entertain them, you had to have stuff to occupy them. I started keeping stuff on board, laptops, iPads, E-Readers, MP3's, etc. They are all monitored, have built-in spending accounts and limits, and can be personalized down to the color of the keyboard. I figured that Grandma can't do much damage with $1,000,except all the … costumes. She's already got 2 MP3's, 2 iPads, and 2 E-Readers." Yeah, she pretty much had everything, except a driver's license. But why do you need one when you have a driver, anyway?
"Babe, you need to quit spending money." I knew that.
"I have plenty of income, I make more money in a month than I used to a year." Way more. He just sighed.
"Not because of that, because your my babe, and I enjoy making you happy. I'm home now, and I don't want to wait on everyone else to finish what they're doing before I get my turn." He stated, nodding towards the midsection of the plane.
"Fine. But I get to pay my way half the time. And I need my freedom, you know that." I declared, then I smiled stating "or Grandma gets you for a day… and night" He looked green. Ha!
"Carlos" I mumbled, rolling over and looping my arms around his neck, kissing him deeply before he woke up.
"I could get used to that wake-up call" He smiled, pulling me down for another kiss. God I loved this man.
"I love you" I said.
"I love you too"
"The elves and I have a meeting at 10. I want you to meet them. You should like them, Sally Sweet came back, so my boys are home" I smiled against his lips when I felt him tense, "Don't worry, most are married, engaged, gay, or just too busy for a partner." I said, rolling off him and stumbling into my large wardrobe, as I wasn't… clothed. I chose a blood red bra and pantie set in black lace, with a flowing red sundress that ended mid-thigh and red two inch sandals that strapped over my ankle. Ranger walked in and dressed in black slacks and a white (!) shirt that hung loosely around his body. I smiled and walked back to my dresser, pulling my hair into a pony tail that ended about an inch longer than my shoulder blades. When I turned around, I ran into Ranger, hitting my shoulder blade on the dresser, causing an old cut to break open and start lightly bleeding. Ranger grabbed some cotton and dabbed it on it, and the bleeding stopped.
"Babe, how'd that happen?" I avoided his gaze and focused on my feet...
"I was chasing a skip when he threw me into a sidewalk. Lula electrocuted him with some strange new stun gun, and then I got up to my back bleeding. I also cut open my right hand, between my middle and ring finger down my wrist." I lied holding my hand up where you could see a faint scar.
"I have a scar like the one on your hand. It's a cut, and that fall wouldn't cause your back to scar or break open, it would cause bruises at worst, and maybe some skinned knee or shoulder." Crap. He was onto me…
"Morelli, he is a complete idiot. He approached me a few weeks ago, and I shot him in the kneecap. He asked me if I had a secret and I told him yes, and that he wouldn't be able to find out to save his life. He challenged me, and grabbed hold of my wrist. He had a knife in his hand, that's why I have the scar. When he asked what it was, and I broke his nose, I couldn't let him know."
"You couldn't let him know what?" He asked, grabbing my hand and kissing it.
"The night you proposed I got pregnant. I hid it from everyone by living in NYC. We have a daughter named Camille Marie Manoso." I smiled. "She has my eyes, and she has the darkest hair I've ever seen. She lives with a friend of mine, Celia. We're meeting her for lunch."
The 10:00 meeting went well, with Ranger only trying to kill one guy, a new kid called 'striker', who tried to ask me out, only to find a ring on my finger, a gun to his head, and his job(and life) at risk. He quickly backed off. No-one flirts with the boss lady! I lazily walked to the Porsche 911 parked in the garage, beeping it open and sliding in next to Ranger, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
"I need to go shopping for some new clothes; Alejandro is assigned to me again today. And Lula is coming with." I stated, cranking the engine over and listening to the smooth purr it released. God I loved this car! We slid from the garage, the shiny red body of the car reflecting our surroundings.
"When are you going home?" Ranger asked, grabbing my hand from the console of the car and starting to rub it gently.
"I'm picking up Camille at lunch, then we're headed to Greece, for a break, and I'll be in Trenton by Friday." It was Saturday, and I so desperately wanted to take Carlos away and just relax. Now we where equals, theoretically, but I wanted to live with Ranger, and be able to forget my life, just focus on him, Camille, and us.
"I'll fly us, you must be exhausted, you got less than six hours of sleep. I'm fine on that, you can't be" He said as the car rolled to a stop in front of a café.
A/n: Sorry for not updating, and leaving you on an edge, but I haven't decided about the next chapter, so I'll upload hopefully, in less than a week! |JLRS|
