This is going to be an action packed chapter. JE owns the characters and would probably complain if she found out how much trouble they get into on my watch. Enjoy.

Lula's POV

I wondered where Tank and Hal were. They should have been back hours ago. I had hoped that Tank and I would be able to take a walk on the beach before we needed to head to the airport. At this point though, I wondered if they'd even make it back in time for our flight. I wanted to call Tank, but I didn't want to nag him or anything.

I was sitting in the living room of Ranger's Miami apartment with Lester, Fiona, Woody, Bobby and Ram. We were trying to kill some time and the guys were watching a game. Lester caught my eye and spoke quietly enough so that he didn't interrupt the others. "Have you heard from Tank? I've been wondering if we should call him."

I shook my head and said, "I've thought the same thing. I just didn't want to seem like I was checking up on him or something like that."

Lester smiled and said, "Give him a call. I'm sure he'll clear things up for us."

I agreed and stood to go into the other room so I could call Tank.

"Yo."

"Hey Tank, we've been wondering what's keeping you."

"Hey Lula. I've been tied up for the last several hours with the FBI."

"Why did it take so long to hand over that hussy of a woman to them?"

I heard Tank sigh and then he said, "It took so long because 5 minutes before we arrived, the SUV that the FBI was driving, blew up."

"Say what? Was Stephanie involved?"

Tank laughed and said, "No, Stephanie was not involved. Unfortunately, three FBI agents and Tim West were killed in the explosion."

I was so shocked that the phone slipped out of my hands. When I picked it back up with shaky hands I said, "Are you shitting me?"

Every eye in the room turned to me and I pulled the phone away from my ear and put it on speaker. "Tank, the guys are here with me and Fiona. I just put you on speaker phone. I think you need to tell us what happened."

Tank agreed and said, "OK guys, I have some bad news. The SUV that was carrying West was blown up earlier today. Three FBI agents along with Tim West were killed. Preliminary reports show that a device was placed under the car and set to go off at that time.

"Hal and I were running way behind schedule because we got caught in traffic. If we had been on time, we could have been caught in that blast and Rachel would definitely have been killed."

Lester looked like he'd been slapped across the face. His expression surprised me a little, but I just listened as he said, "I'm sure that Paula had something to do with this. Hopefully they can find something in the bomb remnant to implicate her or somebody working for her."

Tank grunted and said, "The FBI promised to keep us in the loop. They also promised to keep Rachel safe until she is processed. I just hope they can come up with something. Without West, we lose some leverage against Gina."

Tank informed us that he was on his way to the RangeMan office. He'd arrive just in time for us to head to the airport. I took the phone of speaker and said, "I'll grab your bag and make sure it's with the rest of our stuff so you don't have to run around when you get here. See you soon."

Cal's POV

I was reading though the daily incident reports when my phone rang. I looked down and smiled when I saw that it was Stephanie. "Hey Steph, I hope you like those flowers."

"Cal, get everyone out of the building. I think that those flowers might have a bomb in them. The card matches something that Gina Matthews said. Hurry!"

I confirmed her message and rushed out of my office and pulled the fire alarm. I yelled that this was not a drill and for the men to get out of the building as soon as possible. I then took the flowers and carefully carried them towards the elevator. I figured that if there were explosives, I could minimise the damage to the building if I put the vase inside the car and sent it to the top floor.

The guys were rushing to the stairs so I told Brett to make sure that everyone in the apartments was notified. The alarm should wake any off-shift workers, but some might lag behind if they didn't think there was a real threat.

I used my key to send the lift to the 7th floor and started running for the stairs. On my way out the door to the stairwell, I grabbed the duty roster. I barely made it into the stairwell before I heard the explosion. I was thrown against the wall and that was the last thing I knew.

Ranger's POV

Less than 10 seconds after Stephanie hung up, my phone started beeping. Whenever any alarm is set off at RangeMan, a bulletin is sent out to me, Tank, Bobby and Lester to let the core team know of a problem. About 60 seconds later, a second bulletin went out indicating catastrophic failure at the RangeMan headquarters building.

The look on Stephanie's face betrayed her fear. She didn't think that enough time had passed for my men to make it to safety. If I'm honest, I even had my doubts, but I had to think positively in order to move forward. I pulled out my phone and called the one person in Trenton that I could trust at this point in time.

I listened as the phone rang. When it was answered, I heard "What do you want Ranger? I heard some rumours that you were killed. Apparently that was an exaggeration."

"Morelli, I need your help. Something has happened at RangeMan. I am hoping that you can help. I need somebody I trust feeding me information."

"I'll see what I can do. I just heard a request for ambulances go out over the scanner. Hopefully nobody was seriously hurt."

I thanked Morelli and hung up. I looked over at my Babe and saw the look of fear in her eyes and pain on her face. I pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back. Her breathing calmed down a little but then she pushed me away and said, "She said she was going to ruin you financially. Would she try the same thing at your other offices?"

I didn't hesitate when I pulled out my phone. My first call was to the Atlanta office. They confirmed that they received a floral arrangement that morning. I explained what happened in Trenton and they sent out the evacuation alarm immediately. I repeated the same call to Atlanta while Stephanie called Tank in Miami.

Tank's POV

Today was shaping up to be one hell of a disappointing day. Hal and I just returned to the Miami office and we would need to leave for the airport in less than 20 minutes. None of my plans for today held up because of the car bomb and stupid Miami traffic. Hal headed up to the top floor and I headed to the control room.

I walked down the hall and noticed a large bouquet of flowers in the alcove across from the elevator. It stood out simply because this was a RangeMan building and we almost never have flowers. As I walked into the control room, my phone beeped. I looked down and saw that it was a catastrophic failure message about the Trenton office. Before I was able to take action however, my phone rang.

I answered to hear a panicked sounding Stephanie. "Tank, evacuate the RangeMan building. A bomb was sent into the Trenton office inside a flower arrangement that was delivered within the past 24 hours. Get everyone out."

Since I was in the control room, I didn't have to go far to issue the order. The alarm went off and an announcement was made that a suspected explosive device was in the building. I knew where the flowers were located so I instructed that everyone use the north stairwell to exit the building. I then ran as fast as I could and met up with the Trenton team as they made their way out of the building.

When we got to the street level, I found Lula and hugged her tight. She looked at me with confusion but before I was able to offer her or any of the men an explanation, the building we just existed exploded and then my phone went berserk. In fact, both Bobby's and Lester's phones also went berserk. They looked at me and I motioned for them to come over.

"Guys, we have a situation. It seems that Gina Matthews has somehow put a bomb in all of the RangeMan facilities. We don't know if this is limited to the offices or not. I need you Bobby, to go to the Martine's. Take Lula and get them to a hotel or something. We can't guarantee that our safe houses are safe anymore. Keep an eye out for tails or any other signs of surveillance."

Bobby nodded and Lula gave my hand a squeeze before they left. I looked at Lester and the other guys and said, "We all know that RangeMan has procedures for this type of event. Unfortunately, the procedure only accounts for a single office failure. We need to get up and running as soon as possible. The Miami office was about 1 month away from moving to a new office. Lester, go get Silvio and find out how quickly we can get things up and running at the new location."

Lester went off to talk to Silvio and I went looking for Manuel, the head of the Miami office. I explained the situation to him and we came up with a plan to ensure all Miami customers that despite the loss of our offices, we were still at full strength. All available men were sent out on patrol so any breaches can be dealt with in a timely manner. It was standard protocol, but we've never had a reason to use it before. Here's our chance to prove to ourselves and our customers that our safeguards work as planned.

Ranger's POV

Gina swore that she was going to ruin me financially and she's made a pretty good attempt. The Trenton office was already working with depleted staff, but now it's pretty much incapable of running at all. Hector, Woody, Ram, Hector and Hal were the only two staff members from Trenton to make their flight back to Trenton. Hector assures me that if his office was not destroyed in the blast, he could get Trenton up and running within hours from an alternate site.

Morelli called back and told me that Cal was in the hospital because he was injured in the blast. Joe informed me that the RangeMan building in Trenton was not completely destroyed, but most of the apartments were no longer habitable. The control room was mostly in tact but the elevator and the elevator shaft were ruined. The building inspector said that the building was stable enough to retrieve any necessary hardware and equipment but he advised against working on site. This meant that we would be able to get into the building and salvage what we could and then relocate. Hopefully Hector would be able to come up with a suitable solution.

Morelli went on to offer some help. He explained that there was an empty office building in downtown Trenton. He offered to contact the real estate agent responsible for that building on my behalf to see if we could temporarily relocate there. I agreed to this and thanked Morelli by saying, "I really appreciate that Morelli. I'll make it up to you somehow when we get back to Trenton."

I could hear Morelli chuckle and say, "There's no need Ranger. You've been through a lot and this is the least I could do to help. Despite our differences, I have always respected you and your men. I'll let you know as soon as I talk to the realtor."

I thanked Morelli and got off the phone. I thought about what he said. Cal's quick thinking probably saved many lives and I would make sure that his recovery is as comfortable as possible. I've placed Zip in charge of the Trenton offices until I return. His one and only task is to assure our customers that despite our difficulties, we can still maintain our high-level of security.

I felt that my presence in Trenton was now more important than ever, but before I could head home, I needed to talk to the FBI. I was positive that Gina was responsible for these bombings, but at the moment, we only have the photos that Cal sent Steph and the interview transcripts with Gina as proof. As soon as our meeting with them is over, Stephanie and I will return to Trenton. The RangeMan jet is already on its way here so we can get back as quickly as possible.

Out of all of the offices, the Boston office received the worst of it. Their entire building was completely destroyed and at current count, there are two fatalities and at least ½ a dozen seriously wounded, including the first and second in command. I have put one of the surviving members in command and have transferred all monitor controls to Atlanta.

By a fluke, the Atlanta office managed to survive the attack completely unscathed. The local Ella equivalent saw that the flowers had little water so she topped up the vase and that shorted out the electronics required to activate the bomb. As a result, the Atlanta office is scrambling to set up additional hardware and they are bringing in extra staff to ensure that monitor duty for Miami, Trenton and Boston are covered.

RangeMan needs to make sure that our round-the-clock customers are covered, even at minimised capacity. It would be expensive to maintain our expected level of service. I'd have to call in every contractor who ever worked in Boston and Trenton, but I will not let this woman ruin my dream. Not now when my Babe has joined us and we're doing so well.

To add insult to injury, I finally listened to Tank's message. Tim West was dead, and without his testimony against Gina, we had to rely on a lot of circumstantial evidence. I knew that over time, we'd find the necessary evidence to use against Gina. Now, I hoped that what evidence we did have would be sufficient for the FBI to keep her behind bars.

I had to step away and calm myself. The rage that was building up in me was going to come out at an unwanted time and place if I didn't get a handle on it. Normally I would head down to the gym and work off some of my anger but that wasn't a possibility right now. I turned as I heard the door to the meeting room open. My Babe looked at me and walked closer. As soon as she was within an arm's length, I pulled her towards me and I kissed her like I've never kissed her before. I poured all of my love, anger, fear, hope and desire into that kiss.

Lula's POV

It only took Bobby and me about 20 minute to get to Ron's house. As soon as we pulled up in front of his house, it was clear that Ron had heard the news about RangeMan. He hurried out to the car and asked, "Is everyone OK? I heard about RangeMan on the news."

Bobby answered him and assured him that everyone was OK. "We're actually here to protect you and your family. Whoever is behind this also attacked three other RangeMan buildings across the country in a coordinated attack. We need to get you and your kids to safety just in case there is another bomb. Did you receive any deliveries today?"

Ron shook his head and I breathed a sigh of relief. This was good news. Regardless, we couldn't guarantee a delivery was yet to reach them so I said, "Ron, we need you and the kids to each pack a suitcase. For now, we'll stay local so you don't need to worry about packing for a different climate. If we decide that Miami is not a safe environment, we will have to move you, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Just to be safe, please take your passports. We don't want to have to come back if we need to travel by plane somewhere."

Ron nodded and we all went inside. I helped the girls and Ron helped his son. I mentioned that we might have a pool where we were going so all of the kids included their swim suits. Once everyone had a filled suitcase, we enabled the security alarm locked up the house and headed to a very family friendly hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

The trip to the hotel went by without incident. We even played a few car games that the kids always won. When we arrived at the hotel, the kids were ecstatic to find that not only did the hotel have a pool, but it also had a 10-storey waterslide. We managed to secure a suite that had a living room, a full kitchen and four bedrooms. There was enough room so that each of the kids could have their own room and two RangeMan personnel could sleep on the large sofas in the living room. The suite was huge and we were lucky that it was available.

As soon as the rooms were selected, the kids begged their father to let them go to the pool. Ron agreed and Bobby and I separated. Bobby stayed at the top of the waterslide and I went down to the pool area. Ron would travel back and forth as the kids went back up to go down the slide. This plan ensured that none of the kids would be alone except when they were sliding down 10 stories.

Ranger's POV

We met with the FBI and showed them the interview transcript between Gina and me, as well as the photos of the flowers and card from Cal. After seeing this new evidence, the FBI assured me that they had enough to hold onto Gina Matthews. If for any reason, the evidence was not enough to arrest her for the explosions or her involvement in Lester's kidnapping and my false arrest, her immigration status was enough to ensure that she stayed in FBI custody indefinitely.

With the FBI's assurances about Gina, Stephanie and I headed to the airport to await the RangeMan jet. The pilot had just called me to tell me that they are about 10 minutes out, so my Babe and I had a little bit of time to kill. I wrapped my arms around her and asked, "Do you mind if I stay at your place tonight Babe? It seems that my apartment is not available."

My Babe actually smiled and nodded as she wrapped her arms around my waist and leaned into me for a hug. We stood there and I held my Babe until our attention was drawn to the incoming RangeMan jet that was less than 1 or 2 minutes from landing. I looked into my Babe's eyes and started to reassure her that everything was going to be fine when I saw a bright flash reflected in her eyes, just before we were both knocked to the ground.

Let me know what you think. I can't guarantee when the next chapter will go up, but definitely at some point next week. Please be patient with me. Thanks for reading.