AN: I am sorry for being gone for so long! Between getting sick, birthdays, Canadian Thanksgiving, and the Apple Update from hell (I am still trying to sort out all my various devices. I THINK I have everything finally working) I just haven't been able to post. I will try to update more, but who knows what's going to happen with my computer this week? Thanks to all of you who have reviewed. And thanks to my Beta Di for reading through the absolutely massive chunk of text I sent her, most of which was written on various cough medications. Thank her for making everything make sense!
The commotion, as it turns out, was Ram disarming Jeanne Ellen Burrows in the control room and she was less than happy about it. She was dressed in head-to-toe black leather, her hair was dyed black and she looked fierce… in every sense of the word. "Well I'm assuming your name isn't Julie Newmar, though it would make my day if it was."
I snorted. "I like you," I whispered to Julio.
"Feelings mutual, Babe." I spluttered with laughter. His Ranger was dead on. He winked and turned back to burrows.
"I need to speak to Ranger and they won't let me," she said a touch petulantly. "It's important and about the case we're working on."
"Great." Julio said brightly, he was very chipper. Lester was fun, at times hilariously inappropriate, and usually easy going when he wasn't on the job; but I wouldn't say he was ever chipper. And Ranger? Well I don't think the term 'chipper' and 'Ranger' even belonged on the same planet. So it was a little weird for both Jeanne and I to see someone who looked so much like the both of them be just that. And I got the distinct impression he was doing it on purpose to weird us out, "I'll take you to him but you can't be armed. There was an incident last night and we're on lockdown."
"That's all anyone had to say." She said after Ram let her go.
"Yo, Tank! We're going upstairs. Floor's yours."
"You been here for fifteen minutes, flirted with Bomber and you're shirking your responsibilities already?" Tank called from his office.
"Wouldn't want you to get bored Big Guy. Besides I want to get a look at my girl myself before I really dive into seeing how badly you guys fucked things up around here," he called back and winked at me.
"For that New York gets the next batch or recruits," Tank muttered and Julio chuckled.
"Shall we, ladies." He opened the door, "Babe, Ms. Newmar, after you."
Jeanne Ellen's glare could have melted stone and he acted completely oblivious. "Ranger might kill you for calling me 'Babe'. Just a word of caution."
"He's a lot of fun to bait, but he'd never hurt me; and our grandmother would have his hide if he killed me." And that's when I realized what it was about Julio that was dangerous. He liked fucking with people for sport. Part of me wanted to see him and Tink in action together but I was afraid of what the collateral damage would be like.
We took the stairs to the next floor and Julio let us into the apartment. I was about to question how he had a fob to open the apartment and then I remembered that Bobby's fob let him into any room in Rangeman except for Hector's lair in case of a medical emergency so it stood to reason Julio's would do the same. "Jesus, this place is huge," he muttered.
"It's got the same footprint as seven; it's just taller and lighter so it looks bigger." The colors Ella chose for this place were just as soothing as the ones on seven, but she chose cool colors making the open concept place feel light and airy. The carpet was white and luxurious, the furniture was all oversized and sumptuous. Their large sectional was the darkest piece of furniture in the room, a dove grey, and the most comfortable piece of furniture in the world. It sat 12 regular-sized people or 6 Rangemen and Meagan and felt like you were squishing down into a mountain of pillows. I have never successfully watched a full movie while sitting on it. I always pass out within minutes. The other seating options were a bunch of giant throw pillows she kept in a long trunk under the window. It wasn't unusual to find half of Rangeman watching any major sporting event sprawled out all around her living room on the massive pillows. The sofa often held me, Ranger, Tank, Lester, Bobby and Meagan. Though, on the rare occasions Ella and Luis joined us, Bobby and Lester would commandeer two pillows.
We walked through the courageously white (given the number of men that tracked through) apartment to the bedroom where we found Meagan in the middle of the bed looking over crime scene photos with Bobby who was seated to her right. His legs were stretched out on the bed and his back rested against the wing-backed headboard. To her left Lester was seated in an almost identical pose to Bobby, though he had a laptop opened on his knees and was going through several heavily redacted documents on his computer while making notes in a notebook on the night stand. Joe was in a white club chair with his feet propped up on the bed; he too had crime scene notes on his lap. Ranger was leaning against the window ledge using his phone. The room was quiet except for the rustle of pictures.
"This is a familiar sight with a new face," Julio said by way of greeting.
The atmosphere in the room shifted immediately. Lester tossed his laptop onto the bed and jumped up to hug his older brother hello, Ranger crossed the room to do the same, and Joe got to his feet to introduce himself. Hector hadn't moved, but he looked up from his computer, smirked his greeting at Julio and then went back to whatever he was doing. "Mind if I borrow your seat, Hermanito?" Julio asked as he was dropping onto the bed beside Meagan. He folded Meagan into one of those hugs that you just know is good. The kind that envelop the whole body and are completely warm and soothing. He held her just a second longer than was necessary and then pulled away, "How are you, Amada?"
"Tired, could sleep more, but otherwise fine. Feels like a Benny. Bobby thinks Ativan."
"Bobby's the man." Julio replied, "He's right. They gave you as much as they gave Ric. You're going to probably have some interesting side effects but you'll be fine."
"Great. Rebound insomnia here I come."
"Would I let you suffer, Amada? Honestly," he scoffed and then hugged her again. He released her and got off the bed and leaned against the dresser where Hector was still working. He deliberately jostled the computer earning him a snort of either amusement or irritation from Hector. It was hard to say which. "What are we working on?"
"Latest victim. We're going to watch the video of our escape in a minute." Ranger then acknowledged Jeanne for the first time and all but barked at her when they made eye contact, "I ordered you to report in last night. You better have a damned good reason for showing up more than 12 hours late."
Jeanne looked momentarily nonplussed and then covered it with a sneer. "You first. I came here to report in, was disarmed and now I see Tink in bed surrounded by a guard that the Secret Service would think twice about pissing off. What the fuck is going on?"
"Last night Ranger and Tink were abducted and woke up in Boston. They escaped and came back here," Bobby said.
"What?!" she gasped incredulously, "How the hell did they manage that?"
"Well, Carlos and I are fairly resourceful when we need to be and we were pissed about being kidnapped. Also, not to mention, if a Maximum security Swiss Prison couldn't keep me locked up for more than an hour, I couldn't let an amateur just keep me locked in his basement; it would be terrible for my reputation." Joe snickered at the foot of the bed and we all looked at him in question.
"What? She told me about the Swiss Prison on a stakeout. It was pretty funny."
"I meant, how did they capture you?"
"You'll see." Meagan said simply, "Why are you late? I might be hooked up to an IV but I can still easily kick your ass and I'm somewhat lacking in the patience department today. I'm not interested in you dicking us around because Ranger is in a bit of a mood and you don't like him giving you orders."
"I've had an interesting 24 hours," Jeanne said.
—
24 hours earlier.
Following Terri was about as exciting as watching paint dry, Jeanne decided as she pulled into the lot outside of the Tastey Pastry. Terri's interest in the bakery lay in the coffee there-in. It seemed like it was the day for running errands and although it was somewhat surprising, even Mafia Barbie had to do mundane things like pick up her dry cleaning. She had yet to stop anywhere for more than five minutes time before jogging back to her BMW and moving on to the next stop on her to-do list. It was now finally time to approach her as she was leaning on the side of her car sipping her coffee and checking emails on her phone.
Jeanne got out of the black Jag XJS she was driving and sidled up to the shorter blonde. "We need to talk."
"Figured. You've been following me all day."
"Think I would be driving the Jag if I wanted to be inconspicuous? I'm under orders to follow you. Do you have a minute?"
"Does it have anything to do with why the cheating bastard, Morelli has dropped off of the face of the planet?"
"It does." Jeanne paused, "The feds and Rangeman are working together to track a Human Trafficker who sidelines as a Serial Killer. Morelli was working undercover as the boyfriend of the suspect's daughter. He's been there for months trying to find anything concrete, the suspect is definitely into something shady and Morelli felt like he was onto something when you blew his cover for him and if our Suspect does turn out to be the killer, you are his type and most certainly on his radar now." Terri took the potential threat to her life in stride, not really a stranger to threats given the Family business.
"Since when do you work for the Feds?" she wanted to know.
"I became more open minded about working for the Feds when I found out that Morelli's new partner was the Pixie."
Terri's reaction to this information was amusing to watch; the normally cool blonde took a deep breath and very calmly cursed for a solid minute then heaved her coffee cup into the side of the Tasty Pastry. "That would have been more satisfying if paper shattered." She observed before she collected herself again.
"You have a history?" Burrows asked.
"Not personally. I have never met her, no this is a Family thing." She groused, "Let's just say we owe her a few favors and leave it there. Out of curiosity does Ranger agree with her assessment of the situation?"
"Ranger asked me to come work for him as a favor until this case is over. At first I thought he wanted me to be a decoy for Tink but he just wanted inconspicuous female muscle on you. He trained me because of her and if they're both concerned, so am I."
"Just how fucked am I exactly?"
"You're not. That's why I'm on you. For today at least, I plan to keep my distance, try to pick up any tails you might have. To that end I need to know if you have any additional protection I should know about so I don't waste my time tracking plates I don't need to."
"No tail. I carry a panic button that sends an alert to Uncle Vito's men if I'm in trouble. Response time is about five minutes."
"Good. If something happens, hit the button; I could use the back up. You should continue to go about your business as usual. I just wanted to give you a heads up that I would be watching your back."
"Fine. Am I keeping this information to myself?"
"Yes, for now. We're almost positive we know who this is. The FBI and Rangeman are on it. They'll have answers soon. In the meantime, I'm to make sure you keep to your normal routine and keep you safe. I'll be maintaining a low profile and won't comment on anything I hear during your meetings. Just don't try to duck me and we'll be fine."
"And how much is your silence going to cost me?"
"Nothing. Ranger is paying me well above my usual rate so that I keep my mouth shut."
Terri regarded Jeanne carefully, looking for deception and finding none. "How do you feel about working for him now that he's married to Plum?"
"Ranger and I were over a long time ago, Terri; and the only thing we ever had going for us was phenomenal sex. I could never be what he was looking for and he has all of the emotional availability of a toaster oven. We're colleagues and competitors and nothing more."
"So not even a little jealous of Plum?"
"No reason to be."
"Good, I don't want your focus divided because this is some weird attempt to get back into his bed. Plum is finally out of my way and I have no desire for her to go running back to Morelli again."
Burrows rolled her eyes. The woman she was protecting was pathetic. Honestly pathetic. How many times did she have to be dumped by the guy? Was his dick candy flavored and gold plated? Did he have a tongue like lizard? Unlimited staying power? What was the appeal? Yes, he was good looking and had a nice ass but that was hardly enough to earn this kind of obsession. As far as she could tell Morelli had never treated Terri right and yet she was always coming back for more.
"I'm perfectly aware of how pathetic that sounded," Terri said. "I'll thank you for keeping your opinions to yourself." Jeanne Ellen shrugged and then walked back to her car. She waited for Terri to pull out of the lot and followed at a distance. The woman was busy that was for sure. After a while, Burrows started to suspect that the many errands were cover for other business. She never spent more than ten minutes at each location and with the exception of when she spent 20 minutes inside a lingerie boutique and another 30 in the grocery store, she never brought anything out of the stores she went into. Either she was the world's worst shopper or she was conducting business. It didn't really matter and Jeanne Ellen didn't really care. It wasn't her job to care.
Tomorrow she'd have Terri wear a wire so she could hear what went on inside the buildings but she highly doubted that anything would happen in broad daylight. The women had all been attacked in their homes, at night. When Terri was finished her running around for the day, they were going to have to discuss sleeping arrangements.
Jeanne Ellen was sitting on a park bench under a burnt out street light watching the parking lot of the Bingo Hall that was currently occupied by both Vito and Terri. With all of her uncle's protection inside, Terri would be safe as long as she stayed in the building and Burrows was using the opportunity to recharge. Terri's car was quite a distance away but she'd planted a tracker on it and she could have a better vantage point of the lot from where she was sitting.
At 2202 the door to the Bingo Hall opened and Gillman finally went towards her car. Burrows took the opportunity to send her a quick text telling her that they were tempting fate by being out so late. Terri leaned up against her car and responded that she agreed. She had just unlocked her car when a small black Toyota hatchback with no plates pulled into the lot and screeched to a stop beside the BMW. Two figures, dressed in all black complete with ski masks, jumped out of the Toyota. One put Terri in a headlock while the other injected her with something. They opened the back door to the BMW and tossed Terri inside. Once Terri was out of the way and Jeanne had a clear shot she took it hitting one of the assailants in the right bicep. Both of the kidnappers reacted to the shot by scrambling back into the Toyota, as she took more shots at them. She didn't score another hit on the kidnappers but she did manage to shoot out one of the cars side mirrors. She kept shooting until her clip was empty and then half ran, half slid down the steep embankment to the lot.
As Burrows sprinted towards Gillman's car, she heard the crunching sound of glass breaking beneath her boot. She'd stepped on the syringe. She cursed herself for potentially destroying the evidence as she wrenched to car door open to see if Terri was still alive. She was, very much so, her pupils dilated with terror as she lay paralyzed in the back of her car.
"It's alright," she assured her. "The drug wears off in about ten minutes. They took off. I'm going to take you back to…" She didn't get to say much else as she was zapped with a stun gun and hauled into the back of a van.
When she became aware again she was lying on a padded bench in Vito Grizolli's kitchen and her head was killing her. She sat up and immediately heard the distinctive click of rounds being chambered. She opened her eyes and saw no less than four guns pointed at her.
"You have some explaining to do," Vito said as he motioned for the weapons to be lowered. "If I don't like the explanation, you'll disappear."
She spent the next six hours in the kitchen going over everything she was privy to, answering the same questions repeatedly until Vito was satisfied.
"And you're saying Ranger hired you?" he asked for the fifteenth time.
"Yes, he and the Pixie have…"
"The Pixie? You didn't mention this before." A slow smile crept onto his face.
"I told you Ranger and his partner. That would be Meagan Santos AKA Tink or the Pixie."
"She goes by many more names than that," he chuckled. "I need to make some phone calls to verify your story. You will eat, you will sleep and then I will have more questions. Terri, take her to a room." He waved them both away dismissively and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Terri was quiet as she led Jeanne through the long corridors of the house. "Are you all right?" Burrows asked.
"Yeah. Fine. I just need to sleep." Terri rubbed the back of her neck and rolled her shoulders to releave some tension, "You're lucky that drug wore off fast or you'd be dead. The gunshots brought my uncle and his cronies running."
"You have to go into hiding."
"Vito is working on it, but I'm not interested. I want to bring this bastard down," she snapped. "I'll go into hiding at Rangeman where I can actually be useful and you are going to talk Vito into agreeing with that arrangement." She ushered Burrows into a neat, if spartan, bedroom and locked her inside. As far as jail cells went, it wasn't complete shit. She'd certainly been in worse.
It was almost noon the next day when they finally came to retrieve her from the room. She was asked all the same questions yet again and finally Vito seemed satisfied.
"I don't like that the Pixie is working for the FBI; I'm worried this is a way to get information out of Terri regarding the family business." he said after a particularly prolonged silence.
"It's not. Read the papers. These murders are real."
"No doubt they are. It makes a convenient cover for scaring my princess into coming forward."
She was about to raise further protest when he held up his hand for silence, "I have spoken to my cousin in Italy. He says to trust the Pixie, he says that while she works for the government, she doesn't necessarily subscribe the their beliefs. So, for now, I will trust her, but I need to speak to her in person. You will set up a meeting between her and Ranger, and myself. If I find out that you have been lying to me and that you can't be trusted or that you were behind what happened to my little Angel, then you are going to find your life coming to an abrupt and undignified end."
"I understand." She took a deep breath, "What happened to the BMW? I shot one of the kidnappers and there might be spatter. We need the DNA that…"
"The car," He cut her off, "is being detailed as we speak. I can't allow that car to be taken as evidence that could be used against us. I'm sorry, Miss Burrows, but that's the way it has to be. Besides the blood of one of his henchmen isn't going to help you much. Now go. One of my men is going to drop you off at your car. You'll find it untouched."
She wasn't stupid. The first thing she did when she got to the car was sweep it for bugs and trackers. She found one she was sure belonged to Rangeman but disabled it anyway. There was a bug under the driver's seat and she promptly switched it off and put it into an evidence bag. Next she grabbed a camera, some evidence tags and some more bags from the trunk of her car. She was working for Rangeman and they were authorized to gather evidence. Slipping on a pair of gloves, she went down to the lot and bagged the glass and plastic from the mirror she shot out, photographed and bagged the remains of the syringe and the dirt around it in case they could test it for whatever drug that had been used on Terri. Then, finally, as luck and a bright sunny day would have it, she saw a few spots of blood on the ground. She photographed them then bagged the dirt as well. If she had any more luck, the bullet would have been a through and through and maybe, just maybe, she would find it. If she did, they could probably pull DNA from it. It took her an hour but she found the slug and bagged it, too, then drove straight to Rangeman.
RSRSRSRSRS
When she finished recounting the events of the night, Burrows sat on the edge of the dresser next to Julio. "Did you hit your head?" he asked her gently. She shook her head.
"I'm fine. Hungry and I have a headache but I'm fine."
"Bobby?" Julio asked and Bobby tossed him a penlight which he promptly shone into Jeanne Ellen's eyes. She glared at him. "Got anything interesting in that bag, Bobby?"
"If by interesting you mean anything stronger than Ibuprofen? The answer is no. The good stuff is in the Infirmary," Bobby replied.
"We'll hook you up later," Julio said with a wink. "Right now what you need is a warm bed and I know the perfect headache remedy. It's all natural and you'll feel like a million bucks afterwards. I promise." His voice was warm and a slight flush to her cheeks was the only reaction she had to his subtly seductive voice.
Hector rolled his eyes dramatically and 'accidentally' elbowed Julio in the ribs rather hard. Obviously Julio and his brother shared ideas on the best way to cure a woman's headache as Lester's smirk was almost identical to the one Julio was sporting.
"Can it, primo," Ranger said almost indulgently.
"What? I was talking peppermint tea and lavender oil." Julio attempted to look innocent. He really tried hard but he failed absolutely miserably.
"Of course you were, Julio. Of course you were." Meagan muttered under her breath, "Can we watch the video yet Hec?"
He replied in Spanish and everyone made to adjourn to the living room. Meagan stood up and was immediately scooped up by Lester earning him a cocked eyebrow from his brother. "Glass in her feet."
"I'm fine. They don't even hurt much anymore, I'm capable of walking."
"Yeah but it's a good excuse to make them all jealous because I'm holding you. I mean these pajamas are phenomenal and I think Ella deserves a raise for finding them for you."
"I'll accept that reasoning" she grinned at him as he carried her out to the living room and sat in the corner of the massive sectional, He kicked his feet out and put them on the coffee table and she nestled under his arm like she did for almost every movie night I'd ever been to in this place. Bobby arranged the IV stand behind her and checked to make sure everything was working properly. When he was done, he tossed a throw over Meagan and she promptly drew her knees to her chest. Bobby vaulted over the back of the sofa and she stretched out draping her legs over Bobby's lap. He arranged the blanket around her legs and then rested his own feet on the coffee table. This too was part of the normal seating arrangements for movie night. It wasn't even unheard of for Bobby to absently massage Meagan's calves while watching the movie.
It wasn't my place to comment though I was dying of curiosity. I knew enough about Lester to know that he didn't share but he was far more understanding than Ranger. If the guys even looked at me funny, he got jealous. She cuddled Bobby if Lester wasn't available and Lester was completely cool with it. That was what you called trust.
Jeanne Ellen however had no compunction about commenting though (and by commenting I mean she raised an eyebrow at them) to which the three of them replied, "Just friends. Lester doesn't share." That earned a laugh from the rest of us.
"But you'd be open to it wouldn't you, Tink?" Burrows teased.
She considered Bobby for about ten seconds and then grinned, "Of course, I would be. Look at him? I'm not selfish though. I have Lester and it would be simply glutinous of me to keep Bobby too."
"Who says I'd have you?" Bobby teased, "You're rather irritating."
"You love me and you know it." She nudged him with her foot.
"Sometimes I wonder…" It could have degenerated from there, but Ranger folded his arms across his chest, The movement was smooth and very subtle, but to anyone who knew him it was a sign of annoyance and everyone shut up. Though Meagan did stick her tongue out at him in defiance and I swear he almost rolled his eyes at her.
Hector started speaking with Julio translating, "You were unconscious for several hours, since I doubt you want to watch hours of nothing, I edited most of that out. There were several cameras on you both at all times and I am just showing the best angles of each. If you see something you want a closer look at, I can probably get you a better angle."
"Thanks, Hec." Meagan said.
"It's driving me crazy. There is something wrong with this whole mess and I can't put my finger on what," I said. "I've watched it about a dozen times and I can't make it out."
I watched their reactions to watching themselves on camera. "Just like old times." Meagan said with an almost sad smile to Ranger. He barely nodded his head but didn't take his eyes off the screen. "Julio, would you go check on the kids working the counter later?"
"Of course, Amada," he replied.
The screen went blank as the video from the coffee shop ended and went to an empty cell. "I wish there was audio here," I said. "It would be nice to know what they say."
"Primo?" Ranger asked.
"Yup." Julio replied. He got up and stood closer to the 70-inch television. The door in the video opened and Ranger was dragged into the cell by two men. "He's a heavy fucker. How many hours do you think he spends in the gym?" Julio said. Of course, he could read lips. I mean why not? "I don't know. Probably a couple hours a day."
"Good guess," I teased and Ranger's lips tipped up even though he didn't actually smile. I was sitting to Lester's left on the sofa but Ranger was standing and leaning against the wall. Lester had his arm around the back of the sofa and his body heat was beckoning to me. It was chilly in the apartment so I shifted closer to him and he grabbed the back of my belt and dragged me the rest of the way over until my back was leaning up against his side and my legs were stretched out on the sofa. He then grabbed a throw off of the back of the sofa and tossed it over me.
Ranger raised an eyebrow at this quick little exchange, but didn't comment. "Lester's furnace-like qualities are one of the reasons I married him," Meagan observed and he dropped a kiss on the top of her forehead.
There was very little happening on screen. Ranger was lying in a heap on the floor and the room was empty. A few minutes later the door opened again. The two men who had dragged Ranger in and Anthony Beals entered the cell. Beals was cradling an unconscious Meagan in his arms.
"That's about the creepiest thing I think I've seen in a while," Meagan said.
"It gets weirder," I told her.
"Oy Spoilers!" Julio scolded. In the video the two men suspended two sets of shackles from hardware in the ceiling. Beals carried Meagan over to one set, his men attached them to her wrists and Beals released her, leaving her dangling from the ceiling, her feet not even close to touching the floor. Meagan frowned and both Bobby and Julio looked at her. Hanging like that for a protracted period of time should have caused damage to her joints.
"Just keep watching. I'm fine."
The men in the video started speaking again, "They are just cursing because Ranger is heavy," Julio said. They hung Ranger from the ceiling and Beals made sure his feet were flat, supporting his own body weight. "I don't want her injured more than necessary. We can't leave her like this. Cuff her to a chair."
The two men left and Beals stood alone in the room with Meagan and Ranger. He walked over to Ranger and examined him carefully. "Is there an angle where we can see what he's saying?" Julio asked. The screen seemed to spin so we could get a view of Beals. Hector backed up the video to where Beals started speaking, "You haven't changed," he said. He reached out and placed a palm flat on Ranger's chest and looked at him almost reverently. Then he let his hand drop and walked over to Meagan. Hector adjusted the angles again, Beals was about to open his mouth again but snapped it shut when the door opened behind him. The three of them carefully took Meagan down from the restraints and placed her gently in the chair. "I want the cuffs tight; she can slip them otherwise," Beals said. "I don't want them marking her skin though. She's delicate."
This drew an amused snort from every man in the room.
"Hey!" Meagan laughed, "I can be delicate!"
"Sure, Gorgeous," Lester and Bobby said in indulgent unison.
Video Meagan was finally fully restrained and Beals was left alone in the room with them again. He walked over to Meagan and carefully pulled the tie out of her hair. He pulled the mass of blonde to the side and cut a small lock of her hair away. He carefully placed the lock in a plastic bag and then bent so he could smell her hair. Real Meagan had gone really still watching this. If I were watching someone do that to me, I'd have a serious case of the heebie jeebies. It was hard to say what Meagan was feeling. Lester had tensed behind me; he wasn't happy, that was obvious. Beals didn't say anything more and left. The video shifted to an hour later and the three men returned.
"I know why you want her, but who's the dude?" One of the men asked.
"Her husband." Beals replied, "Do not underestimate him. Don't underestimate either of them. I have to go back to New Jersey and I'll return in the morning. If they wake up before then, I want you to dose them again."
"We got her twice. Is that gonna be a good idea, Sir?" one of the men asked.
"She'll be fine," Beals said.
"She'll be dead," Bobby muttered and gave her knee a squeeze like he was just double checking that she was still there. He did that a lot actually. She responded by leaning forward and giving his hand an affectionate squeeze.
Beals walked out of the room leaving the two men alone with Meagan and Ranger. They were staring at Meagan in a way that would have made me uncomfortable even if I didn't already know what was about to happen. Hector's jaw was tight. He'd seen this part a few times, too.
"Think they're real?" One of the men muttered "They are too perfect to be real."
"Only one way to find out," the other replied with a smirk. He crouched down in front of Meagan and squeezed one of her breasts, "They're real. Damn." He let her go then ran his hands up the insides of her thighs. "Think the boss will let us have a go when he's done with her?"
"I doubt it and if he catches you feeling up the goods before he gets back, he'll kill you."
"I say we have a little fun with her when she wakes up. If we dress her when we're done with her, he won't know. Any bruises could be from when we grabbed them."
"Fine, but don't mark her face or he'll be pissed."
"Until later, Beautiful." He stroked her cheek and walked out of the room. I glanced nervously at Meagan and Ranger. They were both smiling scary smiles. These guys were already dead and I got the feeling that they didn't really feel all that bad about it now.
The video skipped ahead again to when Ranger and Meagan woke up, "And I have no idea what they are saying because they aren't speaking any of the three languages I know." Julio said with a laugh.
"I was cursing in Finnish." Meagan said. We watched her get Ranger's belt off. Julio and Ranger looked mildly disturbed. Bobby, Hector and Joe had a glazed look in their eyes and Lester looked smug.
"She can work buttons like that, too." Lester grinned.
"Didn't need to know that, Primo," Ranger said. "I didn't even want to know she could do that with a belt."
"I just gotta ask though, Meagan," I put in. "Were you a pole dancer at some point because damn your thighs are strong."
"Desserts," everyone but Meagan and Jeanne Ellen said.
"It's a long story that involves a lot of alcohol and a dare. Joe's already heard it." Meagan explained, "Let's just say it's why Lester owed me that body shot when they invaded ladies' night."
Julio burst out laughing. We all looked at him, "She just told Ranger to stop being decorative." Even Ranger chuckled with the rest of us. She did something when she crouched over the body of the man who had groped her and all of the men yelled, "Whoa!" in disturbed appreciation.
"Ahh Justice." Meagan smirked.
"What did you do there?" I asked.
"She cut off his thumb," Julio said.
"And I'm gonna puke."
"Ranger said you'd say that when you saw that," Meagan said.
"Why.. Why… Why did you cut his thumb off?" I moaned.
"To unlock his phone." Meagan shrugged like it was no big thing.
"She should have taken his whole fucking hand," Lester growled.
"Yeah, but that would have been messy and it wouldn't have fit in my pocket."
We watched the rest of the video in silence. The only part of their escape that wasn't on video was the time they spent in the room that I assumed was the shrine to them, a fact they confirmed.
When it was over, Hector turned off the television.
"So now what?" Jeanne Ellen asked.
"Now Ranger and I comb through 11 years of our military records to see how we know Beals. Then Joe and I report in to the FBI and tell them that this is now a jurisdictional nightmare and Ranger and I may have to throw our weight around a bit to keep the lead in the investigations."
I had an idea now that I knew what they had been saying in the video, "You and Lester moved in together right after you met right?"
"Yes." Meagan adjusted so she could look at me, "What has that beautiful mind of yours figured out?"
It was said without a trace of irony and from someone as brilliant as Meagan it felt damned good to hear her say that.
"Well, he called Ranger your husband. I may be biased; but while there is a definite strong family resemblance between the Santos boys and Ranger and Marco, I don't think there's any way they could mistake one for the other. Maybe it's a girl thing; but even if they weren't all different heights, skin tones and builds, their eyes alone are all very distinctive. I haven't met Marco, but I'd bet money on him having eyes as striking as these three."
"Like melted milk chocolate," Meagan said; "but I honestly don't know if a guy would notice something like that." She nudged Bobby with her toe.
"Yeah, it's the first thing you notice when you see the four of them together," Bobby said, "mostly because of the way girls walk into walls around them."
"You're hardly hard on the eyes, B," Meagan said. "You've caused many girls to make asses of themselves, myself included, and I should be immune." She tipped her head back to look up at Lester, "What color were your grandfather's eyes?"
"Ric got Abuelo's eyes, though his eyes never went hard like Ric's do, and he was always smiling."
"Your point, Babe? I'm assuming you have one," Ranger interjected.
"My point is this you aren't identical, not even close, and Beals had a shrine to the two of you. He knows who you are assuming he saw the papers leading up to and after the reception so there's no way he mistakes you for Lester. Why then would he say that you were her husband?"
"Excellent question," Meagan said.
"So it's got me thinking, If he met you two, he must have seen your chemistry and I'm guessing that before she met Lester there was probably a little bit of unexplored sexual tension?"
"I'm not dead," Meagan said.
"He probably saw that and assumed, as close as you were, that you were more than just partners, and I'm guessing after you met Lester that tension was no longer there?"
"Actually as hard as this is going to be to believe, it was just after she met Bobby," Ranger said.
Startled, I turned to look at Meagan.
"Look at him!" She said defensively, "Ranger is like my brother, having a sexual attraction to him was disturbing. Then Bobby comes along and he's got the second best set of abs I've ever seen in my life. It was a relief, really, to not find Carlos the most attractive man around. Then Lester showed up and, well, he does have the best abs I've ever seen on a man and he's even hotter than Bobby. What's a girl to do?"
"I'm not sure how I feel about the turn this conversation has taken," Bobby said philosophically.
"I dunno if this is good or bad for you, man," Lester agreed. "I just know that it's going very well for me." His smile was still somewhat smug.
"How do you think I feel?" Julio interrupted, "She's never even looked at me as more than a big brother. Back when we were all still going to school she'd kiss these two idiots," referring to Hector and Ranger. "Never even looked at me twice and I'm better looking than either of them. It's sad really to be relegated to the big brother role…"
"Oh, shut up!" She laughed, "We met when I was 12 and I had a huge crush on you and you know it. I was just 12 and you were 18 and you still only saw me as a 12-year-old until I was 22 and you walked in on Lester and I going at it like rabbits against his bookshelf."
"She might have a point."
"Speaking of points, Plum here was about to make one," Burrows interrupted.
"My point is, I think that if he picked up on sexual tension between the two of you, then it was probably before you met Lester. You enlisted when you were 18, met up with Ranger when you were 20 and met Lester when you were 22, so that means you only have two years of military records to comb through."
"I'm sitting here wondering how you guys ever get anything done around here," Joe spoke up for the first time. He was seriously amused at Ranger's complete lack of control over the people in the room. It was the fact that it was basically all family in the room. If we'd been in a conference room, they wouldn't have been so unprofessional.
"That took an exceptionally long time for you to get to that point. We have other concerns here, like Terri. We need her in this building and Vito wants a meeting. Not to mention, what do we do about Beals now? We can't send Cupcake back there. Not to mention that the Director is going to go completely out of his tree when he finds out that we have no evidence from the kidnapping and that not one of those men in the coffee shop has a single connection to Beals that we can find."
"Contact Vito and tell him that Ranger and I need to speak to him immediately," Meagan said to Burrows, "and then go get some sleep. You look like you need it." Burrows made the call, set the appointment up for an hour later and left.
As soon as she was gone, I asked Hector to start the video over again from the point where Meagan and Ranger woke up. I watched it through twice more.
"What." Joe asked, "you have that 'Dog with a Bone' look again."
"It's too easy," I blurted out what had been in my head for so long but felt stupid coming out of my mouth; but once I said it I couldn't have stopped my mouth from speaking if I had tried, "Think about it! He sends like twenty guys crashing into a Starbucks to grab you, loads you up with a shit load of drugs for transportation and tells his men not to underestimate you two. Yet he leaves only 8 men to guard you? There were at least four cameras in that cell and nobody saw Meagan climb Mount Rangemore but you met almost no resistance getting out of there. Every time you came across someone they were shocked to see you. Someone should have raised an alarm somewhere, but it didn't happen. Why?"
"She's hurting my ego, Carlos. Like really hurting it because she's completely right and we should have realized that. Yes, we have mad skills and no doubt we'd have gotten out no problem, but it was a little easy. I mean the man told them I could get out of cuffs. He obviously knew it was a stupid restraint to use on me so why would he?"
"Hermana, how long would the shackles have taken?"
"I dunno? I was kind of groggy, maybe fifteen minutes long enough for someone to notice if they were watch a rotating security feed."
"So why go through all that trouble to grab you if he was only going to let you go," I asked.
"I'm feeling so much less cool now. I mean at least it looked good," she muttered and I felt Lester shake with muted laughter behind me. Her grousing was rather adorable.
"It was still impressive, Tink." Bobby said, "I doubt I could have climbed Ranger like that." Ranger shuddered at the thought and we all laughed.
"Maybe it was a trial run?" Joe suggested, "Maybe it was to see what you were capable of."
Meagan looked at Lester's watch, "So the options are that he was stupid and underestimated us or for reasons passing all understanding he went through a lot of trouble to capture us only to let us go. Excellent." She unclipped the IV from her arm much to the protests of both Julio and Bobby. She waved them off and untangled herself from Lester and Bobby and got off the sofa. "I need to get dressed. I have to meet with a mob boss and I doubt he'll pay much attention to me in these clothes." Bobby and Julio were about to protest again so she assured them, "I'll leave the catheter in and you can pump me full of more fluids and whatever the hell else you think I need after I meet with Vito."
She left the room and came back ten minutes later dressed in a very nice pant suit and very soft black flats, "Yo pattern boy," she said.
"She means me," Julio said sotto voce. "What's up, Amada?"
"Go through everything. Find a pattern to the assaults. Help us nail this bastard."
"Already been through a lot of it. There's something with the addresses."
"Get Stephanie to help you." Ranger said, "She's good at spotting things we miss."
"Joey? You're with me. When we're done meeting with Vito we need to go speak to the Director," Meagan said and with that the party broke up.
AN: I have been trying to post this all week for you! My hope it works this time!
