Chapter 2

I received a phone call from a Bobby almost immediately after I arrived home. He told me that my application had been accepted and that I needed to have a physical and drug test screening the next day. He gave me the name of a doctor at the St. Francis medical center and gave an appointment time and told me the rest would take place at Rangeman afterwards. I thanked him for the opportunity and hung up. The next day, I showered, shaved, had my coffee, put on clean undies' without holes, dressed semi professional in slacks and departed for the physical.

Inside St. Francis Med Center I was looking at the names on the doors in the hallway and counting down the numbers when I heard a voice behind me and I turned and a strikingly handsome, well dressed man beamed at me. He said…"May I help you beautiful lady?" Well that got a beam right back. Wow..Could he help me?..I was about to drool. "

"A, yes I was looking for the office of Dr. Vincent Palmetto, do you know where that is?" His eyes sparkled, he stuck out his hand, "Cas Visser, at your service miss?"

"Amanda Smith", I said. "It just so happens that I am having lunch with a colleague in this building and I think your door is right across the hall."

We walked to almost the end of the hallway and he stopped, bowed and said…"I think this is your door my lady." I closed my eyes and felt a rush of heat go all the way down to my toes…then I said a breathless "thank you very much." When I opened my eyes, he was stepping through the opposite door and turned with a grin and I swear, I think I saw a smolder there. Dammit, I opened the office door and thought well I ruined my clean panties that I wore special for my physical. If I had known I would have a "sex flash" on the way to my new job I would have brought another pair.

I signed in, waited a few minutes and was escorted to a room, asked to pee in a cup, had blood drawn, heart and lungs checked, the usual. In about 45 minutes I was done and off to the Rangeman building. I went through the same door again and gave my name and who do you think appeared off the elevator? He reached out took my hand, kissed it and said,…"So nice to see you again Ms. Smith. I thought I might have to infiltrate the boss's office and do some recon to retrieve your phone number." I rolled my eyes at him and said…"Well, at least your lines are improving, Mr. Santos." That got me an ear to ear grin and equal eyebrow waggles. The elevator bumped, and I was thrown off balance right into Santos's arms. He gave me a squeeze and said in a sexy voice…"I am definitely going to keep working at it, gorgeous." Dammit, I was going to have to throw these panties away at this point.

We stopped at level 4 and the sweetest lady met me there. She said her name was Ella and humbly told me that she took care of most menial things for the Rangeman employees like clothing, cooking and cleaning and that her husband Luis, took care of the building. She said this with warmth and care in her eyes and I liked this woman immediately. I told her I didn't think food and clothing and care was menial at all. That got me a warm smile and a pat on the cheek.

She handed me a duffle bag and told me that it included some Rangeman athletic clothing and showed me a female restroom and shower should I need to change. Ella told me that Rangeman before Stephanie had been an all male company and that they were growing and slowly adapting. Soon they would have all the proper male and female restrooms, showers etc., but I might be a little inconvenienced for a little while. She told me that if I ever needed anything to call her extension number. "Bobby will be waiting for you on level 6.", she said.

When I arrived, Bobby gave me a warm greeting and handshake and asked me to follow him inside the gym. He said, "we're pretty much self sufficient here for our jobs and training. We have a full gym up here and showers and it's mandatory that our employees stay fit because not only do we do the electronic kind of security, we also do the personal kind and the fugitive recovery."

"We have a jail in the building and a target range, weapons rooms and infirmary. We have a few apartments in the building and the boss has a penthouse apartment on level 7. We are still growing. We have a large, secured garage and Rangeman vehicle fleet." Bobby told me that he was a certified medic and EMT and that he took care of the teams emergency medical needs when necessary.

He said that he had been friends with and worked with Ranger and some of the other guys through half of his life and career and he and Ranger were tight and he was a good man to work for. This made me feel good about the choice I had made to try this new career. Then, Tank strolled in and grinned and asked how everything was going. I said.."Great, I think."

He said, "As soon as I was done with Bobby to come to his office on 5 and he would get my paperwork finished and give me keys, ID and a Rangeman phone."

Bobby showed me around a little more and took me down to level 5. He said, "This is where our control room and offices are located. Then you saw the large conference room on 4. That's our equivalent of a "war room" when we need it." I said, "Wow then you guys must really be serious about your work?" "Yes, It can get serious sometimes."

He dropped me off at Tank's office. "See you later, Amanda." "Thanks", I said. When I walked in, Stephanie Plum was there. They both said, "Hey there Amanda."

She gave me a big hug. Stephanie asked, "How's your day going so far?" "I think good. "Stephanie said, "I was hoping for someone like you?"

"Like Who?" I was puzzled. "The perfect distraction of course."…Okay, I didn't really get it."I'm tired of being the primary form of entertainment around here and I need an ally too," she said.

"I think we'll be great friends", Stephanie grinned.

"Let Ella know your clothing sizes on the way out and she'll have your uniforms in a couple of days. Tomorrow morning come to my office and I'll give you a couple to borrow until yours get here."

Tank gave me my official personnel stuff and a contract to read and sign with the Rangeman rules and regs' and dress code then told me to be back at 0800 in the AM.

"Yes Sir", and I saluted him. Stephanie snorted and giggled and said to him, "Told Ya'."

The next day I walked into Stephanie's office but she wasn't there so I found Ranger's office and knocked. A voice said, "Enter."

I opened the door and said, "Mr. Ranger"…"Just Ranger", he said..

I was supposed to meet Stephanie in her office. She was going to let me borrow some uniforms. He said, "She told you to meet her before 0800?".."Yes"..He rolled his eyes and grinned. "That woman doesn't roll out of bed until after 0800."

He grabbed his phone and dialed a number. "Babe, Ms. Smith is here ready to begin work and she doesn't have a uniform. Ring a bell?...Yes..He turned around, NO you are not coming down here like that..I'll come up..Babe..I have work to do..Steph, I am going to have to teach you proper phone etiquette later plus a lot more."

He closed the phone, turned around, looked at me with a grin on his face and said, "Just wait right here and I will run up and get the bag for you."

Ranger came back in about 10 minutes and handed me a bag. "There are some new male and female restooms and locker rooms on 4. We are going to get around to remodeling the ones on the gym level soon, I am sure that the men would be happy to have a coed shower, but that would probably get me sued." I laughed at that. "Just change and meet Tank in his office."

I went to the locker room and changed into gym clothes. Then I went to Tanks office and knocked…"Come in". "Sorry I'm a little late Mr. Tank."

He grinned,"It's just Tank and Ranger called me to let me know."

Have a seat, he said. He started to talk and then Stephanie sauntered in, flopped in the chair next to me, cocked her leg over the side and winked at me. "Hey!"

He gave her a blank look and continued, "Amanda, I think that there are multiple areas where we can use you in our company. We need women for apprehension distraction which we have already discussed and we always have an opening for computer literate individuals who can do research. Stephanie groaned, and he cleared his throat.

You used to be a travel manager and know how to make travel arrangements which we need on a regular basis. Can you do last-minute arrangements, charters, etc. "Sure, I said I just need to know my local resources and I have some of my own guides and resources at home still." He stated, no problem we already have some good ones. You know how to find hotels, cars etc? "Yep"… "Would you be willing to do some discipline and focus training?" "Like what do have in mind?" "Like Tai Chi classes and self-defense on the mats in the gym?", he said.

"With your guys?" …I snorted

"Yes."

Stephanie giggled, "Give me a front row seat and some popcorn for this." Then she got up and strolled out.

Tank just sighed and shook his head.

Tank took me up to the gym on level 6. Ranger was there along with several of his men. Ranger introduced me to the guys as Amanda and then started the introductions. The Ranger name made sense. Ranger, Rangeman. Tank, I get that one. He said, "This is Woody."

"Mornin' to you Woo..uh..shit?"... Audible snickers. "This is Cal." I was staring at the flaming skull on his forehead. It was like trying to talk to somebody with a huge hairy mole on their lip. It was lookin' at me and I couldn't look away. I said , "nice to meetcha'. They just call you Cal, that it?" Chuckles… "Yes Mam", and he gave me the warmest ear to ear grin.

"This is Hal." He was huge, blonde, cute and sweet smile. "You know Bobby." "Yep, with the nice ..."…Chuckles. "Oh, crap, sorry, Just a little nervous."

"And of course, you already know Lester?" This guy did not look like a Lester. He was grinning from ear to ear, he was light skinned, latino but more exotic like Portuguese, light amber eyes, long lashes, dimples, silky light brown wavy hair and a beautiful white smile. About 6'3, standing there shirtless, let me count, holy jeez an eight pack, with sweat pants low on his slim muscular hips, hard muscle every where else and packing and I do mean heat…Yum.

Like he read my stupid mind, he beamed and said, "Morning gorgeous!" Then he commenced to tell me that he heard about my martial arts skills and that he had volunteered to be the Yang to my Yin. The whole room snorted and rolled their eyes. "Right, wang, shit, yang, Lester!"... Lots of chuckles... Red faced, I glared at him.

I looked over and saw Stephanie had in fact pulled up her front row seat and there was Ella too and I did a double take and realized she also had her bowl of popcorn and was grinning, happily making yummy crunching sounds. I just kind of cocked my head sideways. What a quirky character she is. Ranger and Tank both gave me this knowing look and nodded.

Tank said, "Men, she's going to introduce you to Tai Chi this morning, BE GOOD!

They are all yours Amanda."

"Uh, Great"…Oh crap I thought, time to be true to my hillbilly heritage and make a butt out of myself..

I told the guys that any one who couldn't get a three syllable word to work could just call me Mandy and they all chuckled and elbowed each other.

We all lined up on the mat and I explained about how Tai Chi was good for focus, relaxation and breathing and a good low impact stretching exercise. The results were similar in some ways to yoga.

"It'll take you a couple or three days to learn the moves. We'll just try a few today and you can just follow me. Line up guys, I'll go slow." I began slowly showing them some slow sweeping moves with arms out, hands out, legs out, legs up... Hold..uH..oH. I watched as about half the big muscled guys felled like trees in a forest trying to hold one leg up like a stork and stretch, the room was shaking like an earthquake had struck. I thought how do I approach this now? I stopped and turn to them. "Okay guys, you robots gotta' loosin' up. Your makin' me look bad here in front of the boss." I heard Stephanie giggle.

"Okay, Have you ever picked up a little kid who's mad and they just go all noodley on you? You can't hold em' they just slide right outta' your hands?" Most of them cocked their big heads to the side and looked at me like I was koo koo. What was I gettin' at? OH yeah. "Well I'm tryin' to demonstrate here that it's not all about the braun. Well, the braun is actually really good but yours is too stiff..shit..not your..I mean your whole body." The guys on the floor were grinning, especially Santos. I was makin' myself sound like an idiot.

I spied Ranger in the back of the room with his arms crossed and Stephanie and Ella giggling…Enjoying the show.

Oh , man I was going to have to redeem myself and fast. Uh, anyway here goes... "I need you to noodle up so you can move and flow better during the exercises and it could be used for self defense too. I't not an official move, but you could use it to escape an attacker." I did the quote sign with my fingers while making the official comment and I heard a couple snorts.

I put my hands on my hips. "Good Grief Guys, I know I'm a girl and I'm talking about flowy movements and stuff to the WWE here but, I ain't tryin' to make ya' put on tutus and try to do pirouettes' around the dang room! This is martial arts I'm tryin' to demonstate! Can you give me a break?" They were all laughing now. What a crash and burn. Who's idea was this?

Oy!, "Here's a demonstration. Okay, Tank you grab me." He looked over at Ranger who was leaning up against the doorway and I watched as Ranger nodded. Tank grabbed me into a bear hug and I went total spaghetti noodle on him, wriggled and slid out of his grasp down to all fours and baby crawled all the way over to where Ranger stood. Ranger grinned and the guys on the mat fell over again like trees but this time with laughter as Tank just stood there with a stunned look on his face. Ranger said, "Take another whack at the Tai Chi demonstration then that's good for today." He said, "Tomorrow, everyone except for the control room monitors would again be on the mats."

TBC-