I am in an internet-challenged region and was unable to get internet access to post yesterday. Oh the joys of a secluded lake in Canada.
Chapter 4
Ranger headed out of his office to a client call. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that both Les and Tank looking at each other, debating by a raised eyebrow and a grimace who was going to win. Tank appeared to have won over Lester and strode to the stairs, closely following Ranger down the flights to the garage.
Ranger waited until he was sitting in his truck before looking sideways at his best friend and confidant.
"You couldn't have made it more obvious?"
Tank shrugged nonchalantly. "I've had your back, man, and have for a long time. Like it or not, anytime you head out of the building until this settles down, one of us will be with you, either as a friend or as back-up."
Ranger shook his head and headed out of the garage.
"I should have kept it to myself and figured it out without your help. But, saying that, I do appreciate you having my back."
Tank nodded his head. They drove in silence to the Ronald McDougall Law Office. Ron wanted an upgrade on his security system and after lunch a few days ago with his fellow lawyer friend J.J. Jamieson, had contacted RangeMan. J. J. had mentioned that he had served with Ranger and Ron could trust him.
The secretary was aware of their appointment but still tried not to literally fan herself as the two walked into her office. She tried to appear totally professional in her demeanor but the sight of Ranger and Tank standing in front of her desk sent mental shivers of lust up and down her body and she licked her lips as they walked into her boss's office. Her first thought had been, 'were they ever built', and her next thought was 'whoever climbed them were very lucky, lucky women.'
Ron had his hand out as they closed the door. Striding to the desk they reached over and shook his hand and sat down in the chairs that Ron had gestured to.
Ron smiled to himself at J.J.'s description of the men in front of him. He could just feel the electricity of testosterone rolling off them. Their handshakes had been firm, not overpowering, but confident in their existence on this earth. He liked that in a man. He could tell that they made a good business team and J.J. had assured him that they had no bias to personal and private lifestyles.
"I am not pleased with my present security arrangements and my friend J.J. Jamieson, a lawyer I know referred your company to me. He says you can do good work."
Both Tank and Ranger chuckled at the back-handed compliment. Ranger was still chaffing after the last bill J.J. had submitted to him. He was still mulling over whether it was a joke or not. J.J. had a wicked sense of humor.
He was pondering how he was going to get out of paying for one of J.J.'s new prosthetic legs. J.J. had mentioned that whenever someone from RangeMan was going rock climbing that they give him a call. He had accepted an invitation by Ranger and Tank to get away one weekend and a rod on the artificial leg had broken. They had taken turns rappelling him back down the hill.
J.J. had partially blamed the guys because he had told them he hated to be monkey in the middle and they had ignored him. He had tried to muscle Ranger from taking the lead but quickly realized that if Ranger wanted to lead, not many men could convince him otherwise. Consequently when his rope got caught on a rock overhang, he had attempted a difficult manoeuver to free it. The strain on the artificial leg snapped the steadying rod.
Ranger wiped the smile off his face and spoke. "While we are pleased that he still thinks of us as kindly as he says, someday you might want to question why he ordered the most expensive leg on the market."
All three men chuckled. It was a well-known fact that J.J. didn't like seconds on anything.
The three got down to business. Ron explained why he wanted an overhaul and Tank took notes while Ranger quizzed him on his needs and wants in a security system.
"I'll have my installation specialist make an appointment to go over your building and personal requests. I'm sure we can accommodate your requirements and of course, if you have any questions, Hector should be able to solve any concern. At the same time, you can always contact Tank or myself personally."
He laid a card on the table facing Ron and both he and Tank stood up. They were about to reach over the desk to shake his hand once again when Ron put up his hand.
He pushed the toggle on his wheelchair moving backwards, then moved the toggle and headed around his desk to where they were standing. Ron pressed a button and the chair began to lift, standing him upright so that he was almost as tall as they were. He then held out his hand and shook both hands.
As they walked to the door, they could hear the chair descend back down to its rest position.
Ron shifted in his wheelchair after the door closed. He may have no power from his chest down but that did not take away from his mind. He was a well-respected property lawyer who had been injured in a car accident on the evening of his Grade 12 graduation. He and his friends had been drinking. Riding as a front seat passenger without his seatbelt fastened, he had been ejected from the car when it had flipped going too fast around a curve. He had been the most seriously injured. When he woke up in the hospital he kept hearing how lucky he was to be alive. Unfortunately at 18, he had no desire to feel 'lucky'. He had his life ahead of him and strapped to a turning bed for possibly the rest of his life held no interest.
He was angry at his lot in life and ignored the machines in the gym at the rehab facility. At first he had refused to even try to regain some strength. The staff were patient and with a lot of psychological therapy gradually he had accepted some help and some simple exercises. He came to realize that while there was still life in his body he had some meaning to his life and decisions to make.
He had always wanted to be a lawyer. Hell, he had already been accepted to Harvard but with his future uncertain he had sent back his registration unsigned. It had taken him three years to get that precious letter once again accepting him into the freshman class.
He was sitting in the back of the large lecture hall in his wheelchair as a guest speaker was introduced. He held the entire audience in suspense as he elaborated about how one turn of events could shape a young persons' future. It was only toward the end when the guest lecturer started to pace that Ron could see the prosthesis. The address ended and J.J. Jamieson had received a standing ovation.
Students had flocked down to shake hands and congratulate him on his accomplishments. Ron waited for his friend to wheel him out of the theatre. There was a steep ramp and he had been unable to manage getting himself to that lecture hall until he had swallowed his pride and asked for help. The paperwork for getting an electric wheelchair was buried somewhere still in the works and until then, well, he had to rely on the antiquated but sturdy economy model.
The crowd thinned and J.J. Jamieson climbed the steps toward the door. He stopped in front of Ron and held out his hand thanking him for attending his lecture.
Ron just sat there tongue-tied until he literally shook himself and spoke.
"Thank you for a most interesting presentation. I almost didn't come but was literally pushed to this lecture hall to listen to you. I have a feeling that my friend wanted me to see that what limitations I have are mostly in my head when it comes to practising law."
J.J. chose his words carefully. He had been advised by the Dean about a potential law student in a chair.
"You may have a physical limitation but the fact that Harvard accepted you means that they value the brain that you have and the ability to, shall I say, think on your feet."
Ron nodded his head but he still looked a bit shocked that this famous lawyer was talking to him.
J.J. took a card out of his wallet and placed it in the side pocket of the wheelchair.
"Call me. I have a good ear and I do understand."
J.J. walked to the swinging door and pushing it forward, headed out of the lecture hall.
They had chatted over the phone many times. J.J. had attended his convocation and one of his friends had offered Ron an articling position.
When Ron had opened his own office, a box was delivered containing a bottle of wine celebrating another milestone.
J.J. met his new care-giver and showed no objection that they were looking at a relationship. Everyone deserved to be happy, and it was very apparent that they were a good match. Might marriage and children be in the future, who was to know?
~~~o0o~~~
Tank and Ranger drove back to the office. They were discussing what special measures that Hector should be concentrating on when out of the corner of their eye they saw a nondescript brown car run the red light. Ranger had no time to react, and braced themselves as the vehicle smashed into the side of their vehicle, pushing it across the lane and up against a cement retaining wall. The airbags deployed and collapsed almost as fast, but by that time the driver's door of the car was open and the driver had fled the scene.
Two men ran to the vehicle with their cell phones to their ears calling 911 and Ranger's phone began to ring.
~~~o0o~~~
Stephanie was at her desk working. She had taken a copy of the list and was slowly going through the names. Each time she typed in a name she remembered who they were. She had started on the names of the men who had left for whatever reason. She knew she had to start somewhere and while there were only twenty in total, she wanted to confirm they were OK.
It was already a question where to start, alphabetically or first or last one out. She shrugged her shoulders and just decided to go by the files as they had been handed to her. Probably Ranger had already been through them and to re-shuffle so many thick files might draw some unwanted attention.
She typed in the first name. He had come and gone before she had even started working at RangeMan.
Derek Kinney. He had only been employed by RangeMan for just over a year, but what a year. He was a fitness guru among fitness fanatics. He had moved back to Maine to start his own business as a personal trainer and was just this month opening his fifth franchise. He had done well. His wife was also a personal trainer and it looked like she was helping to train elite figure skating athletes.
Stephanie really couldn't see a reason why Derek would want to harm Ranger and figuratively stroked his name off in her mind.
On to Thomas Granger. Now he had been a character. He was even more of a prankster than Santos was. Nobody had been left out and men had almost sighed in relief when he left. He had returned home to help his sick dad on the farm. From all accounts he had met a former school mate and they were tying the knot in the near future. She was certainly at home on a farm and they had improved it immensely. She loved horses and they were busy boarding and helping to train other peoples' animals.
Stephanie crossed another name off her mental list. RangeMan's search programs were excellent but Randy's program was much more in-depth. Before she had had to go in and out of programs when doing an extensive search but this one was letting her couple different searches then combining them for possible issues and time management savings. Time was money and the bottom line was always important in a company the size of RangeMan Incorporated.
Stephanie was going to Ranger when this was over and try to convince him to buy it for the guys. Mind you, Tank usually made the decisions when it came to purchasing equipment for all the branches, but he was hard to convince. Obviously Ranger was the final decision maker, but the men joked at how Tank figuratively rubbed two nickels together and got change. Tank made sure RangeMans's money was well-spent.
Onward she typed, checking carefully and either confirming that they were OK, or earmarked for further in-depth study.
She could hear the chatter pick up in the monitoring room and putting down her pen, she stood up and strolled over to check it out. Her face paled as she listened to the men talking to Ranger and sending a vehicle to assist. She walked behind Woody and looked over his shoulder to see the monitor and read the 911 calls from the men and the deployment of a fire truck, an ambulance and two black and whites to the scene. She could hear Woody talking to Ranger confirming that neither of them were injured and had to hold onto the back of his chair when she heard that they were trapped in the vehicle waiting for assistance.
Les came over and stood by her, rubbing her back soothingly, trying to keep her calm.
"Beautiful, we've got a vehicle on the way. A tow-truck has been dispatched to pull back the car that seems to be embedded in the drivers' side. Ranger's uninjured and Tank is also OK, just trapped as the truck was pushed into a retaining wall and they can't exit the vehicle from either side. As soon as they pull back the car, they can move the truck and force the doors open."
He tried to calm her as he mused. "Actually they could get out if they had to by crawling out the drivers side window. I would have liked to see Tank get over the centre console and wiggle out. Now that would be worth a picture or two."
Just then Bobby came up behind Les and slapped the back of his head, messing up a whole section of spiked hair.
"Do you really want to see Tank with his cracked rib crawl out? I know I don't. He's going to be pretty pissed off as it is."
Les sucked in his breath. Yeah, he really liked to breathe without wincing.
All work was forgotten as she waited for word on Ranger. She visibly sagged and sat down in a vacant chair when the call came in that the men were on their way back to RangeMan headquarters. She heard Bobby order that they report to him on four upon their arrival to be checked out.
Stephanie stood to follow Bobby down the stairs, but he put up his hand.
"I'll just quickly examine them and then you can see him, Steph. He sounds fine, actually he sounds really angry that it happened to his truck, but I'll just do a few tests."
He cheekily grinned. "I could release him into your custody and then you can re-check, if you want."
She smiled a shaky smile and prepared to head up to seven. She just couldn't concentrate right now. She headed to her desk and tossed all her work into her desk drawer, locking it away.
Fobbing her way into the apartment on seven she headed in to say hi to Rex. He was sleeping with his little hamster butt hanging out of the soup can. She noted that he had some fresh fruit in his bowl and some kind of hard crunchies. It certainly didn't look commercial and she made a mental note to ask Ella if she had been experimenting with some new recipes again.
She did notice that there was a cake dome on the counter and sidled over to check it out. Ranger and Tank might have been the ones directly affected by the accident but Ella certainly understood that when Stephanie was stressed, food, and especially sweet dessert food helped to calm her down.
She lifted up the lid and found a bowl of caramel popcorn. She grabbed a handful off the top and popped a couple into her mouth. The caramel coating made her smile. No commercial popcorn tasted like this.
She heard the door open and a key fob drop into the dish. She quickly put the lid back on over the bowl and hurried out into the living room in time to see Ranger grimace as he leaned against the wall and then bend over to untie his combat boots.
She put her hand on his arm and stopped him from continuing, then knelt down and gently untied the laces and motioned for him to lift his leg as she slid the boot off one foot then another.
Ranger didn't fight the act of kindness and put his hand out to help her to stand up. He pulled her into an embrace. Stephanie tried not to press too hard into him, but it appeared that Ranger needed the physical contact and he ignored her efforts and pulled her even closer. She could feel the tension slowly release and leaning back, she looked into his eyes, gauging his emotional state.
Ranger spoke. "I'm fine Babe. I might have a few bruises from the seatbelt when the vehicle hit us. Tank is also OK."
Stephanie shuddered in spite of herself. She had had a flash-back to one of her more spectacular car crashes when a skip had tried to run her off the road and had pinned her in her car. She had spent many tense minutes before the emergency personnel had freed her. Trapped in the car as they sprayed protective foam, she had smelt gas, fully expecting to be burned alive at any moment. The fire personnel, using The Jaws of Life had finally ripped off the driver's door and freed her. Ranger had been there to comfort her. She found out later that a number of her Merry Men had tracked down her skip, and had escorted him to the police station sporting a few bumps and bruises. The official report stated his injuries must have been as a result of his car impacting her car.
Ranger headed to the bedroom, tugging his shirt out from his cargoes, and dropping everything in the laundry hamper. He headed to the shower.
Stephanie didn't waste any time also stripping. She was going to check out her man and in the shower was as good a place as any to make sure he was OK.
~~~o0o~~~
Lula was also checking out her man. He had phoned her that he was coming over early and she was waiting at the door as he walked in. She had no idea what had happened but his voice sounded, well, off.
He winced as he stepped in and Lula tried to be gentle as she gave him a hug. His rib was still healing and she was a strong woman. He headed to the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee into his mug, then sat down gingerly on a kitchen chair.
"We were broadsided by a car running a red light, Lula Belle. It pushed us against a retaining wall and we had to wait until they could pull the car away where it was smashed into Ranger's door before I could exit the vehicle. I'm fine. Between the seat belt and the airbags, nothing is damaged. Unfortunately the driver of the car took off after he hit us and is still at large. The police let us know that the car was stolen and are dusting it for fingerprints. In their preliminary report, they could smell liquor and saw some empty bottles on the passenger side floor."
He looked at her. They had each stated that they were unsure of making any formal announcement about their relationship and to the casual observer they appeared just to be 'friends with benefits'. Tank knew in his heart that Lula was the only woman he wanted to spend his life with, but she was so very afraid of any kind of commitment and up to now they were just casual. They both still had their own places and tried to maintain the façade of living apart, but most of the time Tank was with Lula. Could it be time to pop the question about getting a place together? He used to enjoy living in the RangeMan building being close to the action but lately he was wishing that there was a buffer between work and down time.
He thought of Ranger and Stephanie and their own issues with commitment. Everyone could see the electricity between the two of them but they seemed totally unaware. He shook his head. When it came to relationships and commitments, they all appeared to be fucked up.
~~~o0o~~~
Hector glared at his equipment. He had the best that money could buy and he couldn't find out who was targeting his boss?
Stephania had let it slip that she was testing one of his programs before going up for sale. He hated that little shit Randy but he did admit that Randy knew computers. Maybe if he asked her, she could put in a good word and Randy might let him test new material too.
Taking a knife out from one of his many hiding places, Hector was planning his next move. If he moved some of the equipment around in his room, he could set up whatever Stephanie managed to get Randy to release for bench-testing.
Stephania could work with anyone but the few dealings he'd had with Randy made it difficult to actually like anything about him. Hector shrugged. He knew he was also a bit difficult to work with but that added to the mystery. Working with military men and their regimented ways made him the unknown element. It was quite exciting some days.
Would anyone miss Randy if someday he just disappeared?
Hector shook his head. No, Stephania would miss the asshole.
He took a soft cloth from a drawer and began to polish the blade. While it shone already, he rubbed the blade gently, checking the edge with his thumb and nodding his head. It would do the job if asked.
~~~o0o~~~
Lula phoned Stephanie.
"I'm 'a gonna bust a cap upside his ass."
Stephanie groaned. She didn't have enough money to bail out Lula right now but the situation between that Jeff guy and Lula was getting more serious. Lula refused to stay out of his way and they glared at each other every time they were in the same vicinity.
"How about I bring in breakfast tomorrow? I need to pick up files anyway and we can talk about it."
Stephanie knew that her financial picture was a whole lot better than Lula's and her rent was also due.
"Ok, but don't bring that sample box. We need to talk and that takes energy, White Girl."
