Chapter Six
"Who?" He asked his face lit up with relief.
"Dillon Ruddick." I closed my eyes, my brain insisting on him being the only logical person.
"Your super?"
Nodding, I opened my eyes as he stood and held out his hand for mine. He had grabbed his laptop and notebook, tucking it under his free arm.
"We need to talk to Ranger." He pulled me to my feet and we both rushed down the stairs, the frantic pace causing men in black to rush from various rooms of the house.
"What's going on?" Tank panted, his eyes frantically searching ours.
"Stephanie thinks she may know where some of the photos came from." Les was almost bouncing with nervous energy.
"It's not just one person." I jumped in before anyone could ask any questions. "The video of the Turbo had to be from Dickie. The pictures from inside my apartment span months; Dickie would have definitely have been cause for my neighbors to say something."
"There's no way that whoever planted a camera in her apartment had them streaming to another location, our hardware would have caught it. You know as well as I do, Tank, that her apartment is swept more than enough to prove that."
"My neighbors wouldn't just let anyone wander around my apartment without me finding out about it, especially if it was as often as Lester thinks it would have to be." We were rushing through, not allowing anyone to ask questions. "There is only one person I can think of that has that much access to my apartment that would be able to not only install them, but maintain them."
"Dillion." Ranger growled, his eyes narrowing. He pulled out his phone. "Bring me Dillion, and any tech you find in his apartment."
"There's more." Lester was vibrating with nervous energy. "Steph watched the video. We went over the pictures and not only did she find out the general area where they were shot, but there is so many details we missed."
Ranger took my elbow, tilting his head for everyone to follow him into the living room. Lester rushed forward, pushing past Hector who had set up a table in the far corner. He had hung a large screen projecting the multiple monitors he would normally have at his Rangeman office.
"What the fuck, Santos?" He growled, standing over Les as he grabbed the HDMI cable from the Hector's laptop and plugged in his own.
"Chill, Brother. Steph has found shit."
This seemed to calm Hector a bit as he helped Lester set it up so that the laptop screen projected onto the wall. The beginning scene of the video flickered on it as Lester flipped off the lights.
"Why are we watching this?" Ranger growled, hands on his hips next to me.
"I need you guys to look at the things she found and see what we can gather from it as a group. You know as well as I do that the more eyes the better." Lester turned back to the Hector who was manning the laptop, pulling out a small flashlight to read from his notebook. "Go to the first scene Hector, and pause it."
I heard Ranger growl as the scene lit up the room. Cal and Hector looked nervously at Ranger and then at me.
"How is this going to help?" Ranger growled again, closing his eyes and pressing the heels of his hands against them.
"Well, number one…" Lester pointed up at the screen. "We know where this was shot, or at least the general location. These stacks can only been seen from the West side of the button factory. Based on the distance between the stacks and the window the apartment has to be about 200 meters from them. Also based on the height of the window and the angle, I know that it has to be on the fourth floor."
"There is only one apartment building with more than four floors within that radius and in that direction. I can't tell exactly which apartment, without taking more measurements, but we know where the video was made."
"Holy shit." Cal gasped, running his hand over his bald head. "How could we have missed that?"
"Probably because of the action on the screen." I laughed, stepping toward the screen and tapping on it. "These are obviously not you and Hector. For one, you can see the tattoo on this man's head flickering and not adjusting properly as he moves. Hector put it in motion."
"As for this man." I moved and pointed at the other man on the screen. "His tattoos are distinctive and even more importantly they are definitely not Hector's. This one here." I pointed toward a grouping of symbols spread across the man's side. "Has to mean something. They look like gang tats or some sort of group."
"Those are Blue Zephyrs' tags." Tank scooted forward, squinting at the scene. Hector paused it. "They died out years ago, if this man is still alive he has to be one of the few left. He can't be that hard to find."
"That's not all!" I jumped behind Hector and pointed toward a point in the video where Lester and I had one of the biggest breakthroughs.
"Damn this girl IS fucking Sherlock!" Turner exclaimed, slapping his hand on his knee. "It's like watching fucking CSI."
A smack sounded in the room as Carter slapped the back of his head in true "Gibbs" style. We all chuckled until the video began again on the screen. This was incredibly brutal to watch. It was some sort of gang bang involving a large group of the Rangeman crew. Drugs, guns and money scattered around the room and everyone in the scene was participating.
"Damn!" Turner exclaimed, quickly silenced by another well placed smack from Carter.
"This one." I took a deep breath. "Besides being fucked up." A murmur of affirmation wafted through the room. "it shows a lot more information then I think the creator wanted it to."
"I want you to look really closely right here." Lester pointed at a table in the corner of the room across from the camera view. On it was a picture frame with a Leave it Beaver type family portrait in it. The people in the frame weren't what were important, as it looked to be the generic stock photo used in packaging. "Right here is a red light. Anyone want to tell me what that red light is?"
"It's the fucking camera!?" Ranger almost shouted, rushing toward the screen. "Zoom in, Hector, maybe we can see a face."
"On it." Hector began tapping away, the image temporarily flickering off the screen .
"She saw it, but we couldn't get close enough on the laptop to see who it was." Lester smiled, proud of our contributions.
"Got it." Hector exclaimed, tapping the keys which pulled the zoomed in image on the screen. After a few more taps the image came into focus. "Oh shit."
"Oh shit!" Les turned, his face paling.
"Sweets!" I shouted, the face of my friend Sally Sweets filling the screen. His large frame and choice of clothing and hairstyles set him apart from most people. "He couldn't have." I felt my knees buckle.
Ranger caught me before I hit the floor. The men all stared, mouths agape. Only Carter, Turner, Jaxson and Ryan stood with a confused expression on their face.
"Find him, now." Ranger ordered, and the men scattered. He turned to me, his arms wrapped around his waist. "I don't want to go back to Trenton until we have to, Babe. It's taking every ounce of control to not get in a vehicle and drive there like a bat out of hell."
"He wouldn't do this. He couldn't do this, would he?" I whispered, the barrage of questions and fear of those questions being right making my head ache. "Why would he do this?"
"I don't know, Babe. I don't know." Taking me into his arms bridal style he passed Carter and the boys who were standing mouth opened. I curled into his hold, taking in his scent. Taking the stairs two at a time he stopped at the bedroom door. "Babe?"
I twisted the knob and he pushed it open, kicking it closed as he strode to the bed. Depositing me gently on the mattress, he flipped off my shoes and quickly took off his boots before crawling in next to me and pulling me against him. We held onto one another as if letting go meant drowning. Silent tears rolled down my face as he pressed gentle kisses along my chin as he whispered.
"Babe, I wish I could take all this away. I hate that I let this happen." His voice was so soft, his emotions peeking into his tone making it husky. He sighed, changing to Spanish as he kissed away the tears falling down my cheeks.
I felt so overwhelmed, so confused. I hated feeling like the victim, and that someone could have so much power over me. I hated that Ranger and his men were hurting because someone wanted to hurt me. My sadness and self-pity was slowing evolving into a deep seated rage. My tears dried and my jaw clenched thinking about all the people this asshole has hurt. All the lives they have ruined; and for what? To embarrass me? Ensure that Joe and my mother continue to be disappointed with me? Show the 'Burg that I am not worth the hype? They had to know that something like this wouldn't push Ranger and his men out of my lives, but pull us closer together. They are men of honor and loyalty.
"I want them dead." My voice was so harsh and cold that it surprised even myself. Ranger stopped and leaned back looking at me. "I want them dead. I want them to hurt and I don't want it to be easy."
"Steph?"
I sat up, peeling myself from his arms, but maintaining contact from our hips down.
"Ranger, I want to kill whoever did this. They hurt you. They hurt the men that I honestly consider my brothers. What kind of punishment would they get from the law?" I snarled the last part causing Ranger to wince at the harshness. "They won't see jail time. They probably won't even be charged with anything. This bullshit will forever follow all of us because some asshole wanted to come after me. What kind of coward does this shit?!"
"Steph, I get what you're saying. The moment I saw this I wanted blood. We will find who did this, but I can't let you…I know you have killed before. I know you understand what it entails, but I can't let you do that. You don't deserve to carry that." He cupped my face in his hand, turning me slightly so that I could look into his eyes. "Whoever did this will NOT go unpunished. If I have to keep them locked in the holding cells at Haywood, torturing them until the end of time, I would. I would do anything for you."
"I know." I sagged in defeat, my anger dissipating at Ranger's confession. Words hung over our heads. Words I have wanted to say, and have been praying for him to say for years. But this wasn't the time. This was not going to be the thing that gives us our someday.
Our breath combined as we sat forehead to forehead. His calm passed through me and I felt his shoulders relax. My mind ran through the things that I had seen today. The images disturbing and embarrassing. One, in particular, stood out. One haunted me.
"I hate that you had to see that." I whispered, remembering the aftermath of my attack two years ago. The rage that oozed from him was tangible; the hurt took my breath away. I had sought counseling, via a therapist Rangeman had on retainer. Ranger and Hal had even joined in some of the sessions and I know that I was as recovered as anyone could be after something like that.
"I know." His whispered, his thumb stroking my chin softly. "I have failed you so many times. After what happened, I had created this image of what must have happened. It was nothing compared to the fear and hurt that showed in that image."
"It was one of the worst experiences in my life." I swallowed hard. "The worst was watching you offer your life for mine. The nightmares from the assault stopped after a while with counseling, but that image...that feeling has never left me."
"Babe." He looked into my eyes, his blank face completely gone and guilt etching his features. "I would do it again in a heartbeat. I accepted that my life was worthless without you in it. It was selfish of me to make a decision like that, but I can't even imagine…"
I pressed my lips to his, interrupting him. The kiss wasn't heated and didn't send me into a hormonal tizzy like his kisses usually did. It felt as if my very soul lightened. We poured all those unspoken words and emotions into the kiss, clutching one another tightly. Breaking this kiss, he smiled and tucked a girl behind my ear.
"You did a good job today." His eyes focused on my lips. "I have always been proud of you, but this is more than I thought anyone could manage, let alone find the things you did."
"I still don't think it's just one person, or if it is I don't think the others knew they were contributing to this." I sighed. "Did I do this? I mean, do I do something that causes people to want to hurt me like this? Am I a bad person?"
"God, no." His eyes closed as he shook his head. "You are so beautiful, so smart and funny. You have this way to you that makes people want to be near you. When they realize that they can't have you they turn to this kind of shit. This is not something you did. I love who you are. I love that you are loving and kind."
"I love who you are, too." I smiled, amused how we both found a way around saying those three words without qualifiers.
There was a knock on the door.
"Enter." Ranger spoke but never looked away from me. Tank walked in a smile on his face.
"Boss, we have them all in custody and we found quite a bit of information." His smile was contagious as I matched his smile, looking back at Ranger.
"So soon?" Ranger turned now to look at Tank with his eyebrow quirked.
"You have been up here for six hours, Ranger." He chuckled and my mouth fell open. "Come downstairs. I think we have an idea of what happened, but we want all eyes on it. Then we can have some food and figure out our next step." He motioned his head toward me and winked.