Stephanie finds out how deep the rabbit hole goes
"What are you talking about? I ask Ranger. "Is this related to your deep dark secret?"
"I did things in the past I'm not proud of. I guess this one's caught up with me."
"Maybe it would help if you tell me about it."
"In time. For now, expect a lot of harassment on RangeMan."
"Does the Chief have a personal beef with you?"
"Apparently."
At least we're getting somewhere. Sometimes I wish he would just tell me what's on his mind, it's so darn irritating being kept in the dark. I guess that's part of being with Ranger, he's not exactly the world's greatest communicator; but then, even Morelli kept things from me all the time. I guess I trust him to tell me if I'm at risk in some way. For now, as annoying as it is, I'll give him his space. I'll just find out on my own.
"So what do you plan to do about it?"
"There's nothing I can do at the moment, he's made up his mind. My focus right now is to protect all the other people that are not involved in this including you. You're not in danger in any way so don't worry about it. It's my problem and I have to deal with it."
"Are you planning to leave?"
"I figure I'll be around for a while; I'm just not sure how this will end. I need to prepare for all possibilities."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Help keep the staff focussed. There are going to be a lot of distractions, but we can get though it. We need to ensure that RangeMan still exists on the other side of this."
"I don't know the first thing about running a company."
"You'll do fine."
It suddenly occurs to me that it's the first time I can remember anyone expressing that level of confidence in me. It actually feels pretty good.
"So I take it that you're at least thinking about it," he says.
"The truth is that I'm scared stiff."
"When I'm done training you, you'll be a pro."
I snuggle up to him and put my head on his broad chest. I feel his arms wrap around me and he lightly strokes my hair. I feel so safe and warm and snug, if only for this moment, all is right with the world; nothing can touch us. It'll be ok somehow, we'll figure it out.
I wake up and I open my eyes and it's Sunday morning. The sun is out in all its glory calling to me; there is no way I'm spending the day at RangeMan. In fact, I don't even want to hear anything about RangeMan today, I'm officially declaring this Stephanie Day. Ranger is already up and I smell breakfast. I'm feeling pretty good even though I haven't had my coffee yet; I take that as a good sign. I rush to the bathroom, take a quick shower and join him for breakfast.
"Is Ella back?" I ask.
"She'll be back tomorrow."
"So where did all this come from?"
There were vegetable omelettes, whole grain toast, fruit and coffee on the granite countertop.
"I'm not totally helpless, I was in the army," he reminds me.
Great. Even a tough guy like Ranger is more domesticated than I am. I've got to do something about my kitchen skills.
He gives me a toe curling kiss. My Ranger addiction is kicking in, any more like that and I will end up spending the day in his apartment. I can't let that happen, I desperately need a break from RangeMan.
"Yum," I say, "I'm sure breakfast is good, but it can't compete with that."
He smiles.
"So what's up for today?" He asks.
"I'm going home."
"Why?"
"No offence, but I could use a break from here."
"None taken. Do you want to go home, or do you just want to get out?"
"Whenever I'm here, I feel like I'm at work."
"I can identify. I'll take you wherever you want to go today, just not to the Mall."
"I was thinking it's a great day outside. I think Point Pleasant will do it for me. We could pack a picnic –"
"No picnic."
"Ok, whatever. But I need to stop at home for my stuff and to check on Rex."
When we get home I check my messages and my full inbox. My mother asking about dinner, Grandma Mazur asking for a lift to a viewing, Connie with information on a skip, Lula wanting to know if I've fallen off the face of the earth and Morelli. The last one gets my attention, I'm not aware that we are still on speaking terms. "Call me," is all he says. I'll talk to him later. Ranger's not happy about the last message and doesn't hide it, but he doesn't say anything.
"How am I supposed to give Grandma Mazur a lift and I don't even have a car," I mumble, changing the subject.
"The job offer comes with an Explorer," Ranger says, "and a substantial salary increase."
Hmm. It's sounding more attractive by the minute. I could get a better place, I'd be in an office off the streets and safer than I am now. Yet somehow I'm not exited about being cooped up in the building, I'd probably go nutty in a week, it's already getting to me.
"Will I get to be on the road sometimes?" I ask.
"More than likely, when it becomes necessary."
I'm still not sure. I need to know what I'm getting into, too many weird things are going on. Then a thought occurs to me. It's against my better judgement, I promised myself not to talk about RangeMan today, but I have to ask.
"I haven't heard anything more about the raid, I take it they didn't find anything?"
"Remember the cops have used RangeMan as a safe house before, I don't leave things lying around for people to find."
"And they didn't search your apartment."
"The warrant didn't cover that, though I suppose they'll get to it in time."
"Sounds like you expect things to get worse."
"We'll see."
I clean Rex's cage and give him some fresh water, I've been a bad hamster mom, so I try to make it up to him with some extra grapes. I leave Ranger in the living room watching TV and hurry to my room to pack sun block, a swimsuit and other miscellaneous items in a tote, change my clothes and I'm out the door. We can't leave fast enough, I so badly need a break. Later I'll decide if I'm coming back home or staying with Ranger as I need to squeeze in some time to talk to Morelli about what's going on.
We get to Point Pleasant, but we're heading in a different direction.
"We're we going?" I ask.
"Fishing. I've got a friend who owns a boat here."
We head to a dock where a fishing boat is waiting. I really don't know much about boats so I don't know what to expect. I later learn that it's a 50 footer with two decks, a captain and a very friendly crew of three; the upper deck has the cockpit and navigation area, the lower walk around deck allows us to get around the entire boat. The crew is used to taking out six to ten people at a time, so they are a little surprised to see just two of us. The captain ushers us inside to a plush lounge area with a large sectional leather sofa, an expandable dining table set in a booth which when folded out can accommodate at least ten. The table is currently laid out with nuts, sandwiches, fruit and juice. The lounge area opens out into a fully functional kitchen with stainless steel appliances and like its neighbour is covered with wood panelling and chrome accents. I've often I'd seen these boats but never wondered what it was like to be on one. It's actually pretty luxurious. He takes us on a tour below deck which has two beautiful cabins; a master with master bath, and a smaller guest cabin with a tiny bath. The furniture and amenities look far better than my apartment; recessed lighting, plasma television, expensive bedding. He tells us to make ourselves comfortable; the boat is ours for the day. As we change into swimwear, I wonder what it would be like to get away.
"Maybe we should just take off for the Caribbean," I suggest to Ranger, "They've already got everything here. Do you think they'll miss us at RangeMan?"
"They will when it's time to collect their checks. Speaking of the Caribbean, one of these days I'll take you to Cuba so you can see what a real beach looks like."
We head back up to the main area.
"So, interested in fishing?" He asks.
"I think I'll pass, I'm behind on my tan."
"Babe, you can't come all the way out here and not fish."
"Maybe later."
We have lunch while heading out into the open water. We sit in silence enjoying the trip; I'm tuning in to the wind whipping through my hair, the feeling of freedom. I just wish we were heading somewhere far away from home; I so desperately want to get away for a while. Maybe never come back. I lean against him and he holds me in a hug. After about half an hour, the boat slows, then stops. We are far from land in the middle of the ocean, I can't even see the shore. We head to the rear of the boat- the stern as they call it- to an open area where there are deck chairs and fishing equipment. Ranger gets to work on his bait and tackle as I lay my towel out for my tan. There is a lot of space as it's just the two of us. Ranger is really relaxed and happy enjoying himself, that's not something I see often. I like seeing him in that mood, It'd be nice to see more of it. Were driving around, looking for a school of fish. I relax on my towel, soaking in the sun. I motion him over to apply my sun tan lotion. The combination of the sun on my skin, Ranger massaging the sun tan oil into my back, is bliss. This is living.
In my dream I'm baking in an oven and some one is trying to turn me over. I wake with a start to find Ranger crouched over me.
"Babe, I think you're just about ready on this side," he says poking me, testing me for doneness.
"Are you trying to compete with my complexion? Not dark enough?" He asks, smiling.
"Funny. Caught anything yet?"
"Not a fish in sight. Not good news, considering what we catch is dinner."
"You might want to start thinking about alternate plans."
Just then there is a shout, a lot of activity and men scampering about.
"Finally," Ranger says. "Are you sure you don't want to try to catch something?"
I get caught up in the general excitement and decide to give it a shot. I have no clue what I'm doing, but hey, I'm all for enjoying new experiences on Stephanie Day. He gives me a rod and I toss the line over board. Two fishes later, caught by Ranger I'm beginning to get discouraged, why isn't anything biting my line? I'm a little nauseous anyway, I must be getting seasick. I'm about to give up when I feel a tug. The excitement returns and I try to reel it in, but it's really heavy, bigger than I expected. I'm pulling with all my might when I slip on something greasy and I'm flat on my ass, being dragged along on the fibreglass deck by the fish. I brace my foot against the side of the boat to stop myself from slipping any further and hang on to the rod with all my might. I try to get up, but I need both hands for the rod. The fish suddenly decides to try to get away by swimming to the other side of the boat, dragging me in its wake, I'm hanging on to the rod for dear life.
"Ok, if it's a war you want," I yell to the fish, "then it's a war you're going to get!"
There's no way some damn fish is going to get the better of me, even if it means I have to dive in the water and clobber it to death, I'm getting it into the boat. I'm still struggling to get control without much success when Ranger reaches out and takes my rod with one hand and pulls me to my feet with the other. He easily reels it in, leaving me thoroughly embarrassed. It's a decent sized fish, about as long as my arm. The guys are laughing their asses off.
"We have an appointment at the gym seven tomorrow morning," he says.
"I slipped!" I say in my defence.
I reached down and picked up the remnants of my squashed sun tan lotion tube as evidence.
"See! Plus I'm not feeling well, I think I'm a little seasick."
"Babe, I doubt this fish weighs more than ten pounds."
He's right. What's the use, I'm pathetic. Maybe I do need to work out. Stupid fish. I'm going to take great pleasure in eating him. I hope there's tarter sauce.
This is supposed to be a relaxing stress free day, but somehow I end up feeling like I do when I totally bomb with a skip. I'm trying to do better, turn over a new leaf, but it's just not working. How am I supposed to run RangeMan if I'm so darn…useless?
I'm about to stamp off in frustration and head below deck, when a member of the crew explains what happened.
"Don't feel so bad," He says, "it's a Bonito. Pound for pound it's probably the strongest fighting fish in the ocean."
That's a relief. I still feel like a failure.
When I get to the cabin I take a shower and flop down in the bed, looking around. I'm thinking this really is a nice place, I wish my room looked this good. Whatever Ranger does, he does in style.
He walks in and sits beside me on the bed, studying me for a bit.
"Maybe fishing just isn't your thing."
"What is my thing? I don't seem to be good at anything!"
"You'll do great in the office."
"What makes you think that?"
"I've seen you work."
I'm not convinced. I turn over on my stomach in a huff, my head on my hands.
"Babe, aren't you forgetting something?"
What now?
"Look in the mirror."
I pad over to the mirror.
"What?"
"Turn around."
My tan! I'd forgotten about it. I'm half baked, I've only done one side. Great. I'm out of sun tan lotion, it's spread out all over the deck upstairs when I slipped on it. This is turning out to be one hell of a day. I put my swimsuit back on and head up to finish my tan. After about five minutes, clouds roll in. It's now overcast and grey, even the weather is conspiring against me. I give up. I'm still pale at the front and extra dark on the backside. If I'd bought chicken that was half cooked like me, I'd throw it in the bin.
By the time I get back to Ranger, I'm completely miserable. He's lying on the bed, freshly showered, legs crossed at the ankles and hands behind his head watching TV.
"Back so soon?"
"It got overcast."
"Come here, let me cheer you up."
When we wake up a couple hours later, I'm starving. We head upstairs for dinner. The table is set with candles, flowers and wine on white tablecloth; it looks like a high end restaurant. I'm impressed. Ranger and I exchange glances; he looks just as surprised as I am.
"This looks great," I tell our server.
"Are you ready for dinner?" He asks.
"Famished."
He returns with a platter of fish, shrimp and assorted seafood, another platter of steamed vegetables and yippee! Dessert. My day has finally picked up. Ranger is sitting in front of a mountain of food, he'll probably have to climb to the top and eat his way down.
"Do you need a ladder for that?" I ask.
"You should talk; I saw how you were eyeing dessert."
We eat in silence for a bit, it feels very romantic. It's already getting dark and as I look at Ranger by the light of the candles, I think of how lucky I am. He looks dark and mysterious and very sexy.
"What?" He asks, amused.
"I was just thinking how nice this is. Thanks for today, I really needed it." Except for the embarrassing fishing part.
"There's a lot more where that came from."
"Sounds promising."
When we're all packed and ready, I'm thinking I should probably spend the night at home. I would give me a chance to catch up on my calls and talk to Morelli.
"I think I'm going to stay home tonight," I say to Ranger on the ride home, "I'll come to RangeMan in the morning."
"Remember we have a date at seven."
Yeah, right. Even more reason to stay home. He's quiet for a while, thinking. He turns on the radio and we drive in silence as I feel my eyes getting heavy. I must be really tired. I can't believe how much I'm sleeping.
When I open my eyes, were sitting in the parking lot at my building.
"I'm going to stay here with you tonight," Ranger says.
"What? Why?"
"Why not? Have a problem with that?"
"No."
He doesn't want me to talk to Morelli. Well, there's always tomorrow.
Monday morning I wake up in a good mood and energized. I've gotten a lot of rest and it's great to have finally had some quality time with Ranger, its beginning to feel like we're really a couple. Morelli wouldn't have done what Ranger pulled off, he's just not that type of guy. The more I get to know Ranger, the more I see that I like. Things seem to be finally going my way. Ranger seems to feel the energy too, he looks rested and revived. I fought him on the gym thing; I wasn't in the mood. He eventually gave up and went on his own. I've got to wear long sleeves and jeans today to hide my tanning fiasco.
"You start your training today," he says at breakfast, "We have a series of meetings scheduled for this morning to get you up to speed on what's going on at RangeMan."
"I haven't accepted the job offer," I remind him.
"This is going to be a tough week; we have a heavy schedule and I'm going out of town. I need to start handing over responsibilities, it's either going to be you or someone else."
In the meetings, I'm beginning to get a feel for RangeMan; Ranger wasn't kidding, security is big business. The potential is huge. I notice something is different about him today; he has a higher level of intensity, a kind of military precision. Everything is going like clockwork and we're getting a lot done.
When I get a break, I call Morelli. I agree to meet up with him at my apartment as I need to find out what's going on with Ranger before I commit to the job.
"How're things?" he asks when he walks in.
"Good. How about you?"
"Bob misses you."
"I'm sure he does. Are you sure it's not just Mr. Happy that misses me the most?" I ask, glancing at his crotch. "Remember, I haven't changed. I still can't cook; I'm still not house wife material."
"Don't even go there. I don't know what you see in that nut. Maybe it's the money."
"You wanted to see me in person? What've you got?"
He took a breath.
"You need to leave RangeMan and get as far away from Ranger as you can. He's in deep trouble this time; he's not walking away from this one."
"What's going on? Isn't it a personal issue between him and the Chief?"
"It's way bigger than that. He's going down in flames and you'd better get away from him if you down want to be dragged down with him. You should have known better than to get too involved with that guy. Go on a vacation or something. Get out of town."
"What's he being investigated for?"
He looks uncomfortable. He wants to say something, but he's not sure. I can't imagine him not wanting to tell me something bad about Ranger, it just doesn't make any sense.
"I can't tell you. In any case, you don't want to know. Take my advice, cut your losses and take off."
"He's offered me a good job, I want to know so I can make a decision. Nobody seems to want to say anything. Constanza told me to ask you."
"You don't get it, there might be no RangeMan for you to work for. The entire company is tied up in his reputation and if he goes down, it'll go down with him."
I guess that's why Ranger wants to distance himself and me to take over.
He lets out a heavy sigh.
"Look, it's complicated. I gotta go." He gets up to leave.
"I understand your falling for the flashy lifestyle," He continues, "so I forgive you. If you want to come back to me, you know where to find me. I'll try to protect you as much as I can."
What? I open my mouth to respond, but I just can't find the words.
"You forgive me?" I yell.
He walks out, closing the door behind him.
I'm now way beyond frustrated and totally lost. Nothing is making much sense. Ranger's clearly in trouble, but I can't seem to get a straight answer as to why.
As the week rolls on, I'm completely overwhelmed. Ranger is piling work on at a rapid pace and there's no letup on the police harassment. RangeMan has officially lost one large account, other clients are getting nervous; word is out that he's under investigation. I'm no closer to finding out what going on, no one wants to tell me. The stress is really getting to me; I don't know how much more I can take.
Connie calls wanting to know if I've given up working with them. I don't know what to tell her; I haven't made a decision. Lula calls later wanting my help with a skip. I tell her I just don't have the time. She's not happy, but that's life. I have way bigger problems right now.
Ranger is out of town and I'm on my own. The pressure has really gotten intense; I still don't know what the hell I'm doing, but I keep going because I'm afraid that if I stop I'm just going to run away and don't look back. I'm getting tension headaches and always anxious. Ranger couldn't have picked a worse time to leave.
On Friday, I decide I've had enough. Who the hell is this Chief anyway to think that he can control our lives like this? We're fighting to keep accounts when we should be getting new ones. I storm out of Ranger's office, ride the elevator to the garage, jump in the Explorer and race to the station.
I storm into the chief's office, demanding an answer.
"What's going on and why are you harassing RangeMan?" I ask him.
"So you're Stephanie Plum."
"Yes, and?"
"He hasn't told you. I don't blame him. I'd be ashamed too, if I did what he did."
"What could possibly justify what your doing? These are people's livelihoods you're playing around with, people's jobs."
"I'm going to tell you a little story and you tell me what you think. Years ago I knew a guy named Carlos Manoso. I met him through my brother who couldn't stop talking about him. He thought he was the coolest and smartest person he'd ever met and he wanted to be like him. I didn't trust him one bit especially because of the crowd he used to hang out with. When he went to college, the adulation turned to worship. We didn't know a lot of people who went to college, hell, we didn't know anybody who did. It was a very big deal. Carlos could do no wrong. I tried to warn my brother to stay away from him but he just blocked me out.
One day I get a call from my brother in jail. He'd followed Carlos and got involved in some shady deal that went bad. Being a cop, I pulled every string I could to get him out; I hired a lawyer even though I couldn't really afford it. But I couldn't help him, nobody could; he'd been caught red-handed. My brother was right about one thing; Carlos was smart. He'd set up everything so he wasn't at risk. My brother was naïve and trusting, so even though other guys were involved, he was the only one that they actually held on to. What did Carlos do? Not only did he abandon him, but he threatened - no promised that if he mentioned his name at trial, he was going to pay someone in jail to kill him, he wouldn't live to see the next morning. So he didn't have a choice, he took the fall; he testified that it was all his idea and got six years. He wasn't tough like Carlos and his buddies, they descended on him in prison. Without Carlos there to protect him, he was beaten to within an inch of his life, he was stabbed. I don't even want to talk about some of the things that happened to him in that hell-hole. He lost six years of his life serving time for Carlos, who just happily walked away and went on to live his life. He left prison a broken man."
He rises out of his chair, violent anger in his eyes, veins standing up in his neck. He pounds a fist on the desk.
"He destroyed my brother's life and I plan to return the favour," he shouts, "I am going to nail him to the wall with the Abruzzi murder. As long as there is a breath left in my body, Carlos Manoso is going to prison."
My mouth drops open. I can already feel the tears stinging my eyes. The sheer horror of the situation hits me like a freight train. No wonder nobody wanted to tell me. Ranger is going to prison for trying to protect me from Abruzzi.