By 7.55 AM the conference room was nearly full. Bailey was still up on the seventh floor, but almost every other seat was taken. Tank had arranged the meeting after I'd finished my council of war with him, Bobby and Lester yesterday morning. Apart from Bailey, they were the only ones who knew about my upcoming mission.
I planned on telling the rest of the guys that it was just another government job, so it was business as usual, with the exception of Junior as he was Rangeman Trenton's computer expert and we would need his help. Bringing Bailey in was going to confuse the team and it might make some of them a little suspicious, but they didn't need to know what was going on.
At 7.59 AM Bailey slunk into the room. She was dressed in German army boots that were loosely fastened with purple laces, black combats ripped off at the knees, a black tank top and what looked suspiciously like one of my black silk dress shirts thrown on over the top to hide her weapons. Her black curls where held out of her face with a length of olive scrim net folded over and used as a headband. The loose ends of it trailed down her back with her hair.
I knew for a fact she was carrying 2 guns and at least 3 knives. With all that hardware on her toned body, she was a soldier's wet dream. Unfortunately, that meant her inconspicuous entrance failed. The room went silent. Eyebrows were raised, looks were exchanged, Steph started choking on her donut and Bobby had to grab hold of Lester's wrist to keep him in his seat. Shit, looks like Bailey was right and Lester had recognized her, though I don't know how he did. Good thing I'd given Bobby a heads up on the situation and he had swapped all the bullets in Lester's guns for blanks last night.
Bailey dropped down into the empty chair between Tank and Cal, slouched back and started picking her nails. She was trying to look unobtrusive, but nothing she could do would stop the stares she was getting. My men were always interested in any new female that worked with us.
I could tell by the tiny creases at the corners of her eyes that she was assessing every single person and exit in the room. Her gaze passed over Lester, who was still fighting Bobby's grip on his arm and she paled. I watched as she flexed her left arm slightly to release a knife hidden up her sleeve and placed her hand on her leg to hide the blade from view. I mentally shook my head. This is going to go to shit. I know it. But what can I do?
I stood up and addressed the room. "Ladies, gentlemen. Thank you for coming in early today. I would like to introduce you to Bailey; she has transferred in from the Boston office."
I went round the table introducing the team to her. She was mostly received with polite nods and smiles. Junior winked at her and Vince and Woody exchanged looks with each other when they thought I wasn't looking. Steph offered her a weak smile, making me feel like a right bastard, Lester shot her a malevolent glare and Cal bumped fists with her while making some comment about her "cool ink."
I really felt for Steph, as there was no doubt that the office grapevine was fully functioning. The graveyard shift would have told every man and his dog that a strange woman had spent last night in my apartment. God knows what they were saying about us behind our backs.
Apart from Steph staying over during the Slayer fiasco and the Dickie mess I had never let another woman up there. I didn't have much choice anyway, as the fourth floor was full, I had no sub basement rooms here and if I put Bailey in a hotel she was likely to get jumpy at the un-secure surroundings and start shooting at shadows. The guys and Steph were just going to have to deal with Bailey's presence. Maybe I could talk to Steph later and smooth things over with her.
"I have a government contract coming up that will run for an undetermined length of time," I announced. "As of today, Tank is in charge. Bailey will step in as his partner."
Glances were cast at Bailey again and at the back of the room someone I couldn't quite make out made a crack about her performance in bed and how good she must be to have gotten the job. Suddenly, Vince yelped as a throwing knife nicked his bicep and buried itself in the wall behind him. Guess Bailey had heard who had made the comment. She was fuming. Yup, things were going to go to shit.
All hell broke loose. Vince had immediately pulled his gun and levelled it at her and his partner Woody had done the same. Bailey was standing now and had pulled her Sig from her hip and her Glock from the small of her back. Without hesitating she squeezed off a round from her Sig that grazed Vince's other bicep while keeping her Glock trained on Woody. Cal was trying to be a gentleman by pushing himself in front of her, hoping the guys wouldn't try for a shot if he was in the way, Tank was laughing silently and Bobby was trying to hold on to Lester as he was attempting to reach Bailey over the table.
The rest of the team sat there in a stupor. There had never been a shoot out in the conference room before and I don't think they knew where to put themselves. I remained standing, leaving Bailey to handle herself, but kept half an eye on Lester in case he managed to shake Bobby off. If he didn't calm down we'd need to stun him. I guess I had underestimated his mental state.
It was Steph who finally diffused the situation. I watched with interest as she fished her gun out of that huge bag of hers and shot out one of the overhead lights. Glass rained down over the large table and everyone stopped and stared at her. She stood, and with her hands on her hips she gave Vince the full Burg glare. He shrank back.
"Let me ask you something Vince," she said. "If Ranger had given me that job would you have said the same thing?"
Vince kept silent, but you could tell by the look on his face that his answer would have been yes. Sexist bastard.
"So you are assuming that women only get a job in this company if they sleep with the boss?" she spat.
Bull's eye. Steph had him there. He was starting to sweat. "No," Vince replied. He wasn't looking very comfortable.
Steph was on a roll now. "So you think that any woman who spends the night in Ranger's apartment must be having sex with him up there? Well, I can tell you now that I have never had sex with Ranger in his apartment and I have stayed there on a number of occasions."
Good answer babe, I thought. Crisis averted. When mad, Steph yelled, but Bailey just shot people. Maybe I need to sit down with Bailey and have a little talk about her crisis management skills.
Steph swung her gaze to Bailey, who had managed to shove Cal out of the way, but still had both of her guns drawn.
"Bailey, have you ever had sex with Ranger in his apartment?"
Uh oh, sneaky cunning woman alert, very clever tactics babe. Good job we got in late last night and crashed, otherwise this could have gotten ugly. I'd like to think Bailey wouldn't shoot Steph, but you never knew with her. It reminded me why she worked alone; in Boston.
Bailey looked straight into Steph's eyes, blank face in place. "No," was her reply.
Madre de Dios. If this carries on I think I'll be glad to get out of here and on this mission. My staff are pulling guns on each other and my only two female employees are either about to start a bitch fight or go out and buy donuts and start discussing the size of my dick. I sat down and kicked Tank in the shin. He pulled himself together and thumped his fist on the table to get everyone's attention.
"Back to work everyone. Bobby, go patch Vince up and when you're done I want to see you both in my office. Lester, Bailey, my office now. Junior, my office in 10 minutes.
Tank strode out of the room then walked straight back in again. He zeroed in on Woody. "Get this shit cleared up," he barked, indicating the shattered light fitting.
My men stood up and filed out of the room in silence. It was a first to see them speechless, it made a nice change. Bailey re-holstered her guns and went to dig her knife out of the wall at the other end of the room. Steph put her gun back in her pocket book, caught my eye, started to say something and then stopped herself. She turned on her heel and stomped out of the room. Fuck. I'd have to deal with her later.
While my attention had been on Steph, Lester had approached Bailey. He'd shoved her face first against the wall, his body was flush with hers with his arms boxing her in with a hand either side of her head, palms flat on the wall. He whispered something in her ear and walked away. With a shaking hand Bailey pulled her knife from the wall.
"What did he say?" I asked.
Bailey swallowed and looked away. "Nothing."
I went down the corridor to Tank's office with Bailey trailing along behind me. Tank sat behind his desk and Lester stood next to the door, arms folded and legs crossed at the ankles. He looked like hell. His long light brown hair was coming loose from its braid, he hadn't shaved this morning and he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. I wouldn't be surprised if he had slept in them.
I dropped down into the guest chair and Bailey took up station in the far corner, leaning against the wall. I didn't think it was a coincidence that she has put me between her and Lester. Bobby came in with Vince behind him. Both Vince's t-shirt sleeves had been cut off and he had white bandages round each bicep.
Tank looked up at Bobby.
"Flesh wounds. Nothing but scratches," he replied.
Tank turned his gaze on Vince. "Desk duty, graveyard shift for the next two weeks, you and that idiot partner of yours."
Vince glared at Bailey. "She threw a fucking knife at me and shot me!"
Tank stood up, towering over Vince. "You should be thankful she's such a good aim. If in two weeks you still can't keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself then I suggest that you either ask for a transfer or look for another job."
Vince nodded and stamped out of the office.
Tank walked over to Bailey and pulled her into a bear hug. "Good to see you again, little girl," he said, kissing her on the cheek.
Tank was the only other person in the Trenton office who had worked with Bailey in the past. They had got on well and I didn't see any problems with them working together. They were complete opposites, but then again that was why I had always worked well with Tank. Bailey was like me and I knew that we could never work well together for a long period of time. Tank and I were like fire and ice but Bailey and I were like ice and frozen water.
"I have no idea how long I have until I get the phone call. I need to meet with my lawyer this afternoon, but after that I'm gonna start sifting through any Intel we get," I said.
No one said anything, but I knew that the three guys in the room were still a bit numb from the news about Phoenix. They had all been there and as I expected Lester was taking it the hardest. It hadn't helped that he had recognized Bailey and only time would tell how his mental state would hold up.
We were wasting time. "Lester, go do some digging on all our inside contacts. Bailey, go get your stuff out of my truck and set up in my office. Bobby, go give her a hand," I ordered.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind Bobby and Bailey, Lester lost it. "What the fuck are you doing, Ric? Don't you know who the fuck she is?" he screamed.
I let him rant, figuring that if he was really unfit to be in work then we might as well establish that sooner rather than later. Placing my hands on his shoulders I spoke calmly and quietly, "Lester, I need you man. You have to put all your personal problems to one side and help me."
"If I hadn't gotten captured…" he whispered.
I shook him forcefully to snap him out of his flashback. "And if I hadn't taken the mission in the first place… Don't play the "what if" game with me, cousin. What's done is done. I can't change the past. I can't bring Manny back and I can't change what happened with your father either."
"She's a killer, Ric."
"Look round this room, Lester. We all deal in death. You work with killers every day."
"I know, but she's a fucking assassin. They have no moral code, it's just about money."
I sighed. God forgive me for what I was about to do. "You care about Steph?" Lester nodded. "You remember Abruzzi?" He nodded again. "You remember what he did to Steph?"
"Yeah," he whispered. "But that was different, man. That was the right thing to do."
I rested my forehead against his and took a deep breath. "I didn't kill Abruzzi." Pulling back slightly, I looked in his cornflower blue eyes; they were wide with shock.
"But I thought…" he trailed off.
"You thought wrong, bro. I was here in this building that night. I never left. Too many people knew I wanted him dead, so I asked Bailey to take care of it for me."
"She killed him for you, for money?"
"No, Les. She killed him for Steph and for every other woman he had ever hurt. She did it for free. It was the same with your father. Can you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me that he deserved to live."
I pulled away and walked out of the office, praying to God that my words would have some effect on my cousin.
It was after lunch by the time I got back from my lawyer's office. Steph's reaction had troubled me all morning and I had decided that I needed to clear the air with her. She was sitting in her cubical printing out a report and sipping a cup of coffee.
"Babe."
She turned round and looked at me. Annoyance passed over her face before she finally settled on the blank look she had been perfecting recently. That was the only trait she had picked up from my men in the ten months she had been working here. She still hated her gun and had to be lured to the gym with the promise of donuts. Sometimes I wondered why she continued to work in this line of business when she had so little regard for her own safety. At least Morelli was off the Maalox now that she was working here and she hadn't attracted any psychos lately.
"Ranger," she said.
You want to grab some dinner with me tonight?" I asked.
"No, I have plans," she replied curtly.
"Lunch, tomorrow?"
"I think I'm meeting the girls."
"Dinner tomorrow, then?"
"There's a Rangers game on."
I was getting nowhere. "You can't avoid me, Babe. We are going to talk."
I turned and walked away and when she thought I was out of earshot she let out a curse and something heavy thudded against her cubby wall. For a woman living with another man she was acting a little green around the edges. I guess she didn't like it now the shoe was on the other foot. I thought she'd moved on, maybe not. Interesting.
I walked across the control room and pushed my office door open. It seemed things had changed while I was out. My desk had been pushed into the far corner and it was filled with a load of computer equipment. Bailey was sat at it working on a laptop. Junior's desk had been moved into the opposite corner. Wires trailed over the floor connecting all the hardware together and a printer was sat on my oak coffee table. Junior never stopped hammering away on his keyboard as I entered; I guess Tank had filled him in on the necessary details while I was out. Bailey gave me nothing other than a small glance.
"Report," I demanded.
Both of them carried on working. Junior remained silent and Bailey shrugged slightly.
"Well?" I said.
"Nothing to report," Bailey answered.
"Nothing?"
"We can't get past the firewalls," Junior said, looking at me for the first time since I entered the room. His brown eyes were wide; he had a major caffeine buzz going on.
"Why can't you get past their security?"
"'Cos they're tracking our signal as soon as we try and breach the firewall," Bailey replied in a frosty tone.
"So route it through a couple of satellites," I snapped. How hard could this be?
Tension crackled in the air. "You want to have a go, Ric? Be my guest," Bailey growled as she pushed away from my desk and shoved past me as she walked out of the room.
I looked at Junior. "What was that about?"
"Man, you really don't have a clue do you?" He said with a grin, taking a gulp of coffee.
I chose to ignore that comment.
"Do you have any idea how good she is at this shit?" Junior asked, indicating the collection of computers with a wave of his hand.
"Sure. That's why I hired her."
"So you know who she is?"
"What do you mean?"
"She's a fucking legend, man."
I looked at him blankly.
"Tell me who you think she is," Junior said with a smug look on his face.
"She's a computer hacker and hit woman."
"And the rest?"
"That's it." I said with a shrug.
"Why've you locked her up in Boston for the last four years?"
I didn't answer, so he continued. "Government looking for her by any chance?"
I still remained silent.
"Four years ago you went on a government job and "Bailey" appeared at Rangeman shortly after that. You were supposed to find her and turn her in I take it."
"Maybe."
"Why?"
I shrugged. "They wanted to neutralize her."
"Wrong. They wanted to give her a job. You've seen The Matrix, well you bagged yourself your very own Trinity."
"She was wanted for 23 known hits. It had nothing to do with her computer skills."
"Yeah, whatever. Money on it she's wanted because she's one of the best computer hackers and virus generators on the planet, not because she kills scum. She brought Microsoft's XP operating system to its knees 6 years ago. Just for the hell of it, just to see if she could do it. You might not know who she really is, but I do.
"How'd you know who she is?"
Junior smiled. "We've been chatting on IM since she started in Boston and she's helped me out a lot over the last few years. Didn't take me long to realize that she was really shit hot at this stuff. There are only a few really good hackers out there and only three of them are women that I know of. In the end it was a simple process of elimination. Don't tell me that information was missing from her government file?"
"They may have missed out a few of the facts," I muttered. What the hell? I knew she was a very good assassin and that she was good with computers, but the rest of this was news to me. I'd offered her a job because I needed someone to do computer work in Boston and it always helped to have someone on the payroll that didn't mind cleaning up the occasional "problem". I didn't realize I'd ended up harbouring a serious menace to cyber space.
I'd not set out to hide her from the government, but when I finally caught up with her after a nine-week chase through16 different states I decided that she would be an asset to Rangeman and offered her a job. Anyone who could evade me for nine weeks had to be pretty talented and deadly. Despite her "wanted" status, Bailey had fallen firmly into my morally right category, as she'd seemed to be doing the world a favor.
She was a hit woman with ethics, cleaning up little problems with the different Families. Turf wars often happened when someone got a little too big for their boots and it was often easier to nip things in the bud before the corpses started piling up. A large body count was never good for business and it tended to attract the attention of the authorities. So Bailey stepped in before things got too out of hand, doing the Mob's dirty work.
"It still doesn't explain why she's pissed at me." I grumbled.
Junior laughed. "She's pissed because who ever is working for them is better than her."
"Shit."
"Exactly."
I'd decided to retreat to my apartment after Junior's revelations about Bailey. There was nothing to go on so far concerning my upcoming mission, so my time would be better spent working on paperwork. It would make life so much easier for Tank if he didn't have a backlog of files to catch up on as well as every thing else.
I was a little concerned that so much information had been left out of Bailey's file. The government had wanted her brought in alive, but I'd had no idea what their plans once she was handed over. I knew I was acting in my own best interests when I decided to hide her in Boston and I had always been aware that one day my decision could come back to bite me on the ass. Maybe I did the wrong thing and I should have turned her in. My actions had never made much sense, but I'd had a feeling that I was doing the right thing and that had been enough to settle my conscience.
At a few minutes past five I heard my front door click open. "In my office, Bailey." I called out. I could apologize for my earlier outburst and blame it on the stress. And then I could quiz the woman I had known for four years and see if there was something she would like to tell me.
Quiet footsteps made their way across the hard wood floor of my apartment and when they reached my office doorway I looked up from my work.
"Ranger."
"Babe…" Oh fuck.
"I came to return your apartment keys."
"Why?" What the hell?
"I don't think your girlfriend would appreciate me walking in uninvited. I wouldn't want to interrupt anything," she said.
"Going to use the shower in the guys locker room now?"
"No!"
"Well, then you'll need my keys so you can use my shower."
"But what about…"
"She's not my girlfriend."
"But I thought…"
I looked at her, definitely a little green. Interesting to know. "Shouldn't you be going, Babe? I thought you had plans."
"Huh?"
"You said you had plans for dinner."
"Oh…yes. I, er… better go."
She turned and rushed out of my apartment and I afforded myself a smug grin. There wasn't a lot in my life to make me smile at the moment, but baiting Stephanie Plum put a welcome smile on my face.
It was late when my cell phone rang. The caller I.D told me it was the control room. "Talk." I demanded.
"Boss." It was Cal.
"I think you better go down to the gym, we have a problem." And then he hung up.
I switched on the security monitor that sat on the end of my desk and flipped through the screens until I got to images of the 3rd floor gym. Shit. I double checked my utility belt and ran for the stairs.
Bobby and Tank stood just inside the doorway to the gym. The only other occupants were Lester and Bailey. They were beating the shit out of each other in the middle of the mats. While Lester had military training, he still fought dirty due to his teenage years spent running with a local gang. Bailey's style was slightly different to his, but just as dangerous. They were most defiantly not pulling their punches.
"Explain. How. This. Happened."
"I don't know," Tank shrugged. "Cal called to let me know. He must have picked it up on the screens in the control room."
I flicked my gaze back to the fight in the center of the room. They were circling each other at the moment, trying to gauge each other's weak spots. "Who's winning?"
"Pretty even so far," Bobby said with a grin.
"Are you enjoying this, Mr Brown?" I snapped.
"Oh come on, Ric. This was bound to happen," Tank said. "Least it's down here out of the way. I've just scrambled the cameras, but I'm beginning to wish I hadn't. This is one pretty amazing fight; they've been at it for nearly 10 minutes."
A thud and a curse brought my attention back to the action; Lester was flat on his back. It looked like Bailey had foot swept him. She stepped in to kneel on him and subdue him when he grabbed her by the ankle and yanked her feet out from under her. It all happened so fast. Suddenly, Lester had her pinned to the floor and had pulled a knife from somewhere. He was holding it at her throat. Fuck. This did not look good.
Bailey went still and Lester started talking to her in an angry voice, Tank put a hand on my arm to stop me from interfering. I could only hear bits of Lester's rant but I caught Manny's name a couple of times and that of Raul, his father too. It was like watching a train wreck, horrifying. But I just couldn't bring myself to look away.
Lester started screaming something about his father again and then he started to cry. Shit. I hadn't seen Lester cry for eight years, not since his brother's funeral. Bailey reached up slowly with one hand and wiped the tears from his cheek with her thumb. She was talking quietly to him now. I had no idea what she was saying to him, but he let go of the knife and collapsed on top of her, sobbing loudly. She put her arms around him and held him tightly.
"Well, I didn't expect that," Bobby said. "I thought I was going to have to stun him or sedate him."
I shrugged,"she listens, she understands and she never ever judges."
"Sounds like she's good for your soul, man." Tank said.
She was. Looks like she's good for Lester's too, I thought.
Lester's sobs turned to silent tears after a few minutes and Bailey finally managed to wiggle out from underneath him. She stood, offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet. Lester looked broken as she slipped an arm round his waist and steered him towards the door. We all looked at her as she got to us and she simply shook her head and led Lester from the room by his hand. He followed her like an obedient puppy; the fight was gone from him. Stupid, how could I have missed this. I'd thought he was dealing better than this.
Bobby went to follow them but Tank held him back. "I know he's your partner and that you're worried about him, but let him go. Give him an hour to sort himself out."
"I don't know what to do for him. He's gone back to how he was after… it." Bobby said with a sigh, as he scrubbed his hands over his face.
"We let him be. Pushing him to talk about it didn't help last time. If he wants to talk he will." I stated.
Two hours later and there was still no sign of Bailey. I was getting worried. My cell rang: Bobby.
"How is he?" I asked.
"Sleeping like a baby on his sofa with his head on Bailey's lap."
"She o.k.?"
"She's fine. A little bruised, but nothing major."
"Did she say what happened?"
"No, not really. I didn't stay long as I didn't want to wake Les. I'll check on them again later."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Come back alive, man."
