Author's note:
Thank you to the people who pointed out to me that it didn't make sense if Ranger was called Ranger in this story, since he wasn't an Army Ranger. I tried to come up with a reasonable explanation, but failed. So I have changed it in the previous chapter. My apologies for the confusion.
Thank you all for your lovely comments.
Stay tuned,
Erdi
Ranger's POV
Present day
Steph is the first to break the silence by asking "How are you?"
"I…I am good. Thanks" I reply. I don't know what else to say. There wasn't a day in the past 10 years that I didn't think about her, that I didn't wonder what she has been up to or how she looked. I told my friends and parents to never mention her again, after I broke it off and they respected my wishes. "How are you?"
"I am fine thank you." She replies with a small smile. "It is good to see you and congratulations on being released."
"How do you know I didn't break out?" I question "You could be talking to a fugitive right now!" I add with a small smirk.
Steph laughs and it is like music in my ears. I haven't heard that sound in a very long time. "Your mother called me after the hearing…"
"CUPCAKE?" A man's voice shouts across the car park on the other side of the street and seconds later no other than Joe Morelli stands in front of me. "There you are, thought you got…" He stops mid sentence as his eyes fall on me. "My…my….If it isn't Manoso…heard the let you out of the slammer."
"Morelli" I reply with a nod and slide my blank face in place.
"Are you ready to go cupcake? Your mother is waiting for that meat" Joe says and slides one hand around her waist and with his other he pushes his flannel shirt away, to make sure I spot the gun and badge attached to his belt.
"Yes…" Steph replies and I hand her the rest of her shopping. "It was good to see you Carlos." She ads and shoots me a small smile.
"You too, babe." I reply without thinking and earn a death glare from Morelli. I stand there and watch them walk across the street and Steph throws another glance over her shoulder. I shoot her another small smile, before turning around and jogging into the direction off the diner.
"Where have you been?" Les questions loudly as I finally enter the Martha's diner.
"Sorry, I ran into someone" I reply shortly and as I look at my closest friends, all of them have an eyebrow raised in question.
"Into some one? Or into Steph?" Tank questions and now it is my turn to raise in eyebrow.
"Steph it is" Bobby ads and picks up his menu.
"I saw her walking past, in the direction you just came from." Les answers my silently asked question.
I just nod and pick up the menu myself. I am starving. Mom wanted to make me some breakfast, but I declined. Now I wish I hadn't. The diner is packed and I highly doubt we will be served soon.
"Hey Les, Bobby…" A young, blonde waitress greets the two guys as she approaches the table. "The usual?"
"You got it darling" Bobby replies with a wink, earning him a slap on the shoulder. "assaulting good paying customers now, are we?"
"Pfft…good paying?" She replies with a small smirk.
"Hey…if it weren't for us, Anna, you'd be out of a job. We keep this place in business" Les retorts with a smirk.
"Stop flirting with my daughter, she has other people to serve!" An elderly woman with grey hair says as she walks past our table with a coffee pot in her hand.
"Who says she isn't flirting with us?" Bobby calls after her and then adds "Anna, let me introduce you to Ric and Tank. They will have two serves of the special, for each of them."
Anna's eyes grow wide and then she shakes our hands. "It is nice to meet you. These two have been talking about you non stop. Congratualions on making it out." She says, writes down the order Bobby just gave her and then leaves.
"So how did it go with Steph?" My cousin questions.
"Good" I reply and shoot Tank a glance.
"What's the special?" Tank asks, immediately cutting of further inquiry about my interaction with Steph.
Turns out the special is a huge plate full of all breakfast goodies. There are pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, lots of bacon, baked beans and hash browns. Unfortunatly I am not able to finish of my second plate and push the rest towards Tank.
"Nah man, I am full. No way I will fit that in too" Tanks pushes my plate to the center of the table and Les immediately pulls the plate towards himself and exchanges it with his empty one.
"Amatures" Les mutters and digs in.
"How are you not a 500 pounds, I will never understand!" His best friends shakes his head.
"I burn it of during the night. You gotta be well fed, if you go ALLL NIGHT LOONG" Les sings the last part, earning a slap on the head from Tank.
"Please….keep your awful singing to yourself" Tank mutters.
"I got something for the two of you" Bobby interjects and puts two boxes on the table. "Your new phones. They are charged and the most important numbers are already saved."
Tank and I both grab a box and pull the phones out. IPhone 5s it says on the box and I tap the screen, but nothing happens. "Uhhh…Bobby?"
As I look at Tank he is equally confused. We have seen these before, on TV, but it doesn't mean we know how to work them. For the next half an hour Bobby walks us through every little detail of the phone.
"Alright what do you guys want to do now?" Bobby questions, after we leave the diner.
"We need to take them shopping man" Les pipes in before I or Tank even have a chance to speak up. "Can't have you running around in 2004's fashion. Plus Tank's clothes are way too small for him!"
I look at Tank and bite back a laugh. I didn't see until now that his pants are at least three sizes too short, his pants are held up by suspenders and his shirt is way to small. The only thing that seems to fit properly are his shoes.
"Not a word" Tank growls at me. He used to be a lot skinnier 10 years ago, but all the working out in prison really bulked him up.
"Shopping it is" I say and we all pile into his 1965 Ford Mustang GT. My cousin is pretty proud of this car. Les is a mechanic by trade and runs his own shop. One of his regular customers was diagnosed with cancer last year and he didn't had long to live. So he gifted the Mustang to Les, who rarely drives it, according to himself.
Les gushed about this car all the time as he came to visit me. And I think if he could marry it, he would, that's how in love he is with it.
"You are worse than a woman, cuz." I tell him as we walk out of the tenth shop. "And I swear if you drag me into one more shop, I may have to kill you and I will hide your body. Tia Ella will never find you body!"
"That's a bit harsh don't you think? You are hurting my feelings, primo" Les says with mock hurt and clutching his chest.
But thankfully he listens and we leave the mall. We drive by a bottle shop and pick up some beer, before making our way to Bobby and Les's houses. It shouldn't have come to a surprise to me that those two are living next to each other. As we were kids, those two were joint at the hip.
Since Les and Bobby didn't have the money to buy the houses outright, Bobby's parents bought them and my cousin and his best friend are paying them off, to a very, very low-interest rate.
"Hey cuz, how about you come and stay with me?" Les questions, bringing me out of my thoughts. "I know how much it sucks to live with the parents again!"
"And Tank you can come and stay with me" Bobby ads and Tank and I look at each other and shrug.
"Ok" I reply for the both of us.
"Sweet primo, we will get your stuff tomorrow." Les informs me as we enter Bobby's house. It is a spacious two bedroom and three bathroom two story house. The ground floor is open with the kitchen to the right hand side and the big lounge room with floor to ceiling windows at the back of the house. To the left is an office, dining room, toilet and stairs leading down and up.
The first floor has a master bedroom with an en suite bathroom to the right hand side and a guest bedroom with en suite bathroom to the left.
"Where does that door lead to?" I question as we end the tour of the house in the cellar.
"That is a connection to my house" Les answers proudly.
"You got to be joking" Tanks shakes his head in disbelief.
"What?" Les shrugs " If the lady friend you brought back home the night before is still there in the morning, this comes in handy."
I laugh and shake my head. Unbelieveble. "Is your house the same?"
"Yes, but it is a mirrored layout." He answers and we make our way to the back yard, which has no barrier between Les's and Bobby's house. There is a deck leading from one house to the other and a pool right in the middle. As we step further into the yard a golden retriever and a german Sheppard come running, flapping their tails and barking all the way.
"Yours?" Tanks asks and kneels down to pet the dogs.
"Nah, took them in temporarily. They belong to Squirt and Mom refused to take in one more dog. So I got stuck with them" Bobby answers and hands us all a beer. As much as he tries to be annoyed by the fact that he is stuck babysitting those dogs, he doesn't succeed. He loves animals, always has.
Bobby is a veterinarian, taking after his dad and granddad. Bobby works for the local animal clinic and volunteers on weekends at the shelter. As we were kids he always had at least one animal tugged away in his bedroom, nursing it back to health..
"How is squirt?" I questions and crouch down as well, to pet the german Shepard. Squirt is actually Sarah Lee, Bobby's youngest sister, hence the nickname.
"She is good. She really wanted to be here, when you guys were released, but she only got notice that she got the internship at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany." Bobby informs us.
"Wow, she must be pretty happy about that" I say and give up and sit down on the grass. The Sheppard is all over me and I have to hand my beer to Les, for it not to get knocked over.
"Yeah, Mom was beyond excited. Not that she isn't anyways, since Squirt is the only one who took after her, professionally." Bobby answers with a small smirk. Rachel and Gabriella are more or less taking after their older brother. Rachel is a veterinarian, but works for an animal rescue company and Gabrialla is a dog trainer.
"Are you alright, cuz?" Les questions, hands me another beer and sits in the chair next to me.
It is a beautiful summer night. At last 25 degrees and the only sound is coming from a few birds close by. I am not sure how long I have been sitting out here on the deck, behind Les's house. "What's the time?" I question in return.
"Just after 2 am" Les replies. I have been sitting here for at lest three hours. Tank, Les and Bobby went to bed around 10.30 pm, and I was bored inside. "Too quiet?"
"Yeah" I answer and take a sip of my beer. "Thank you."
"For what?" Les questions and turns his face to look at me.
"Getting me out of there and believing in me" I reply.
"I didn't do anything…so no need to thank me" Les waves it off and then stares ahead.
"You didn't rest the last 10 years. Always contacting lawyers and stuff. I wouldn't have made it out, if you hadn't contacted them!" I know my cousin too well. He won't accept my 'thank you'. Les is odd that way. "I owe you big time!"
"You don't owe me anything, just don't go and find Michael and Jay, by yourself." Les replies harshly. He unfortunately knows me well too.
"Any word?" I question.
"I have a couple of contacts telling me that they are in LA." My cousin takes another sip of his beer before looking at me again. "We will find them and we will get answers. They will answer for what they have done and if I have to kill them myself."
"You won't kill anyone. I don't want to you to face murder charges because of those two scumbags." I draw a deep breath. Everyday I have been grateful, that Les and Bobby, were inside the club as it happened. "I have met a few people myself on the inside and some of them owe me a favour."
"Are you gonna seek her out?" Les asks after a long time of silence. There is no doubt to whom he is referring.
"No…she seems happy. Besides she has found someone better, someone who can give her more than I can. Even though that someone is Joe Morelli." I answer.
"Pfftt….They have been on and off more times than I can count" Les says. "You are still carrying a torch for her?"
"Les, I haven't seen her in 10 years, I am not still carrying a torch for her" I reply and get up. My heart screams 'LIAR, LIAR', but I ignore it. Les shoots me a disbelieving glare, but I ignore that too. "See you in the morning" I add and leave him sitting out there alone.
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