Previous Chapter: I slid into the car and slammed the door. I peeled out of the parking lot watching Joe standing where I left him with his hands planted firmly on his hips.
Joe was right; I didn't know much about Ranger. For all I know, he could be a hired assassin. But what I did know was that Batman was a good guy and he always fought on the side of justice.
CHAPTER 10
Right on cue, a knock came from my door promptly at eight o'clock. I opened the door and stood faced to face with Ranger dressed in his usual S.W.A.T. like outfit which included all black gear from cargo pants, t-shirt, and combat boots.
"I thought you said that Tank was coming to pick me up," I grabbed my purse and keys off the side table next to the door.
"I thought this was a job best done myself," he eyed my dress appreciatively.
I recalled the comment I made to him when he asked me for help about my short slinky dress. I had followed through with my promise dressed in a short sleeveless black summer dress with a scoop neck and tulip hem that clung to my curves in all the right places coupled with a pair of five-inch black peep-toe pumps with silver metal stiletto heel.
I swung my hips out the door, "Come on, Batman. I'm ready to go kick some butt."
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We were joined by two black SUVs in the parking lot of FoxHound. Before stepping out of the car, Ranger slid his hand down my dress placing a wire beneath the clasp of my miracle bra. My body heat was kicked up a couple of notches from Ranger's hands millimeters away from the twins. He handed me a little device with a single button on it. I studied it in my hand.
"It's a panic button. Push it the minute you feel that you're in danger and we'll extract you."
I slipped it into my purse.
He pulled my face into his and gave me a sweet soft lingering kiss. "Are you sure you're ok to go through with this, Babe?"
I nodded my head and smiled, "Of course." For reasons beyond my understanding, my safety didn't matter when it came to being given the opportunity to help Ranger.
We stepped out of the car and were approached by three large men, one being Tank, the other two I didn't recognize. One guy had an eerie resemblance to Ranger, although his features were nowhere close to his with his blond hair and green eyes to Ranger's dark brown features, something about him just screamed Rangeresque. He was more slender than Ranger but still cut and obviously could hold his own but he didn't have the muscle mass Ranger adorned and he had kind eyes.
All of the men wore the same blank faces as Ranger except for Ranger's twin. His blank face slid into a smile the instant moment me laid his eyes on me. The other man had muscles in places I didn't know you could have muscles; his had an incredibly thick neck that made it look like his head was just attached to his shoulders.
Tank, I had the pleasure of meeting before during the Pinky situation. Tank was built, well, like a tank. Tall, big, solid, silent type. "We have two men stationed at the back door," Tank informed Ranger.
Ranger's twin's eyes were dancing as his eyes were planted on me.
"Santos," Ranger barked.
His twin snapped out of his daze, "Curtis is inside already, Boss. We believe he is armed and has two goons with him."
"Good," Ranger replied. "Gentlemen, this is Bond Enforcement Agent Alyssa Chau. She has agreed to work with us as the distraction on this extraction. Alyssa you've briefly met Tank" — Tank nodded his head — "Santos" — Ranger's twin flashed me a sexy grin — "And Hal" — he stood stiffly obviously very uncomfortable.
"The plan is for Ms. Chau to go in identify Curtis and have him follow her out of the bar," Tank instructed handing me a folder similar to the skip files from Connie at the Bonds office. "Our team will be outside to apprehend him the moment she steps out of the bar. The plan is to do this as quickly and safely as possible with minimal collateral damage." He turned to me and firmly and searched my face, "Babe, you still have the opportunity to step down if you're not comfortable."
"Are you kidding me? I'm ready to do this," I replied firmly trying to convince myself that the tingly unnerving sensation would go away the minute I stepped through those double doors to the bar.
He nodded, "Make sure to keep the panic button within reach and if you feel any sign of danger. Push it. We'll be listening from out here but we don't have eyes inside. There are too many regulars there and we can't risk having them recognize a Rangeman employee inside, so be careful. Push the panic button and shout for help if you need it."
The men gave me an affirmative head nod. I stared at the door as I could feel my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest. I know I want to do this for Ranger but according to the file Curtis was for beating his girlfriend and attempted to set her apartment on fire with her still in it. He was a dangerous man with known gang connections. I sucked in a deep breath and flung my arms around Tank's waist giving him a tight hug. He awkwardly patted me on the back.
I released my death grip around him and jumped up a few times and shook out the nervous tingles from my limbs. "Ok now I'm good," I flashed the big men a confident smile. "High five!" I shouted to Lester as I walked by him. He raised his hand up and I slapped it as I walked past him towards the door. "Let's do this!" I pumped my fist in the air as I reached the door and pushed it open.
I spotted Curtis right away. "I spot the target," I said quietly under my breath. He was sitting alone at a high top watching a pool game nursing a drink. His mind was obviously elsewhere but he had an intense hard look on his face. I made my way to an empty high top next to a pool table close to the entrance for an easy escape but still within Curtis' line of vision.
I pulled myself onto the stool and crossed my legs meticulously drawing attention from the men in the bar. The night was still young so the bar wasn't particularly crowded. The waiter approached me and placed a cocktail napkin down on the table. "What can I get for you?" he smiled.
I returned the smile, "I'll start with a coke with a cherry, please."
"Anything for a beautiful lady," he winked.
I scanned the bar quietly and spotted two angry men dressed in black suits on each corner of the room. I noticed slight bulges under their blazers which I am assuming was concealing their firearms. "I've spotted the two bodyguards," I muttered quietly.
I sat back in my seat as the waiter set my drink down in front of me. I smiled up at him, "Thank you."
"Please forgive me if I'm being too forward and believe me when I say I never do this. But I was hoping if you ever find yourself bored one evening you would think about giving me a call." He slid a cocktail napkin towards me with a phone number written on it.
"Oh," I blushed. "T-thank you—"
"—Mitch. Think about it," he smiled walking away.
I was shocked, this kind of thing didn't ever happen to me. This was more like a Misty Plum scenario but then again, I didn't make it a habit to hang out at bars either. What the hell, I might as well keep my options open while I'm exploring things with Joe. But this isn't a time for me to be looking at my dating options. Taking a sip of my drink, I looked back to where Curtis was before but he'd disappeared.
"Shit! I messed up already. I'm such a screw-up!" I quietly scolded myself.
"You're not fooling anyone," a low raspy voice said.
I looked up stunned to see Curtis had taken a seat across from me. "What do you mean by that and who would I be trying to fool?"
"Your cocktail," he answered picking up my drink and taking a sip. "Or lack thereof."
I gulped and quickly regained my composure by lacing my fingers around my glass pulling it out of Curtis's hands.
"I'm not trying to fool anybody. I like to make sure my head is straight. I've come here to relax and to escape from a hectic day at work. I like to think of myself as smart so I'm not going to put myself in a position to not have control over my judgment," I said curtly taking a sip of my drink and plopping the cherry into my mouth.
Curtis sat silently observing me.
"If you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you would remove yourself from my table. I don't take kindly to accusations and my intentions of coming here were to relax which you're quickly putting a damper on."
What the hell was I doing? Ranger was counting on me to talk this guy into leaving the bar with me so that they could extract him and here I am being…well…being — ME — indifferent and stand-offish. This was definitely not a time to be me. I thought walking into the bar I was going to be able to turn on the charm and ooze sweetness, but this was turning out harder than I thought.
His face softened slightly, "I apologize if I've offended you. I've just never seen you here before."
"I don't often go to bars but I desperately needed an escape," I quickly softened my tone trying desperately to recover the situation
"Well, most people come to bars as an escape but they escape their troubles by drowning them in alcohol and sin," he flashed me a smile.
"Well, then I suppose I got the bar part right but I'm not much of a drinker, so that's going to have to be as far as I go."
"Afraid to let loose or lose control?"
"Something like that," I trailed off staring at the pool tables trying to avoid eye contact. I've been told that before that I'm a terrible liar and my eyes always give everything away.
"You know playing pool is also a great way to get your mind off of things. You play?"
I shook my head.
"I can show you."
"I don't know if that's a good idea. I was hoping to just sit here alone and collect my thoughts." Retard! Why do you keep trying to push this idiot away?
He grinned a sinister smile, "Thinking too much is never the solution either. If you want a release, there are much better ways to release tension. I could help you with a few techniques myself. First, I'll show you how to use a pool stick. Second, I'll show you how to use another stick later tonight."
I mentally gagged. Apparently me pushing him away, made him even more interested in me. He stood up and grabbed my hand to lead me to the pool table. "There're no free tables," I protested.
"Trust me. I'll help you forget all about your day and a table is about to open up right now."
He made a hand gesture to the table next to our table and the men immediately stopped playing and put down their pool sticks and walked away. "I'll let you break," he said handing me a pool stick after racking the balls.
"Break?" I asked pretending to be ignorant.
He nodded, "Hit the white ball to break up the balls in the middle."
"Ok," I leaned over and struck the ball with minimal strength causing the balls to barely move.
Curtis chuckled.
"Sorry," I replied sheepishly.
"You'll learn," he shot two solids into the side pocket. "Now you want to try to get the striped balls into the pockets."
I leaned over the pool table dramatically to allow my dress to ride up slightly. I felt a chill run down my spine as Curtis leaned into me. His reeked of alcohol and stale cigarettes. I wanted to vomit.
"The trick is that you want to make sure you hold the stick at the right angle," he wrapped his arms around me to guide the stick. "You do know how to hold a stick don't you?" he whispered into my ear.
"I've been told on occasion that I'm pretty good with a stick," I replied coyly. With a quick fluid movement, the ball shot into the corner pocket after ricocheting off the side of the table. I feigned excitement spinning around to face Curtis. "That was amazing! It went in!" I clasped my hands.
"It definitely did. Give me some more time and I'll have you playing like a pro," he leaned into me pushing me up on the table. His hands slid up my thigh as he leaned into me for a kiss and plunged his pungent tongue down my throat.
I suddenly felt a pinch as I noticed Curtis had his hands up my skirt and slid right into my panties. Flames engulfed my body as I bit down on my lip to keep me from crying out. The last thing I wanted was for Ranger and his men to think something was wrong and come charging in to the bar. I kicked Curtis off of me causing him to land hard on the floor.
From the corner of my eyes I could see his two goons springing into action. I grabbed two of the pool balls and chucked them as hard as I could at the two men before they could reach for their guns. The two balls connected with their heads and sent them crashing to the ground.
"Ten points for Alyssa!" I silently patted myself on the back. Not only was I good with a stick but apparently I was good with balls too. Curtis was getting back onto his feet behind me so I grabbed the pool stick and swung it hard against the side of his arm shattering the stick into pieces. He stumbled sideways but before he could regain his balance I charged at him shoving him through the front doors.
I reached into my purse and pulled out the spring baton that Ranger had given me snapping it out. I twirled the baton in my hand and struck Curtis on the side of his neck making him stumble backwards. I then struck the back of his leg causing him to fall on his back on the sidewalk.
"You bitch!" he sputtered as he reached into his waistband for his gun.
"Oh you hurt my feelings, Curtis," I pouted stepping on his hand with my heel as he screamed in pain a. I reached down and pulled his gun from his holster and tossed it to the side. "Keep talking because I'm not finding any really good reasons to not put my heel into your throat," I smirked moving my heel to his throat.
"You're lucky your pussy smells sweet and I that like them feisty," he grinned wildly looking up my dress.
"Well, you better take a good long look because this is the last you'll see one for a while because where you're going, you'll get another type of feisty."
"This is police brutality," he snarled angrily.
"Oh, I'm not the police, sweetheart. But feel free to." I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and tossed it on his chest, "Here, you can even use my phone. Or if you would like I'd be happy to call them for you. I'd love for you to explain that a 5'3" female weighing at 110 lbs in a mini dress and five-inch heels just kicked your sorry ass and took out two of your armed goons. In fact, I'll even dial for you. How about it?" I smiled at him.
"Fucking whore," he spit at me.
I quickly dropped to my knees straddling his torso and drove my knuckles into his face which was followed by a loud nasty cracking sound. "I may be many things, Curtis. But I'm no whore."
"You fucking cunt! You broke my nose," He grabbed his face with both hands as blood spurted out of his nose.
I pulled my arm back to punch him again but was suddenly finding myself airborne. For a split second, I had forgotten that Ranger and his men were all outside waiting for me. My focus had been on Curtis the whole time to notice that all of the men including Ranger were standing around us taking in the scene unraveling around them.
Lester and Hal lifted Curtis to his feet while Tank was gripping his arm around my waist holding me tightly against his body.
"Wait until I get out of the slammer, bitch. I'm coming for you."
I kicked and clawed at him wildly trying to launch myself at him; however, with Tank holding me back, I hadn't accomplished much. The only satisfaction I got was during my kicking my pumps had flown off and one connected with his groin.
"Bitch," Curtis bellowed leaning forward.
"Hey, asshole! If you're going to intend on yelling at me and threatening to come after me, then fucking learn my name. The name calling is getting tiring. The name is Alyssa Chau and don't you forget it." I continued to squirm in Tank's arm, "Tank, put me down!"
"Are you going to calm down, Little Girl?"
I stilled myself and let my body slack against his and nodded. He loosened his grip on me and set me back down on the ground.
Someone stepped out of the bar, "Hey, the Manager sent me out here to find out who's going to pay for the damages in the bar."
Tank pulled out a business card and handed it to the man, "Send the bill to this address."
The man stepped up to me, "Um, miss, you left this inside the bar."
I looked up and realized the man was Mitch, my server. I smiled, "Thanks, Mitch," and took the napkin with his phone number. I straightened out my dress.
"Alyssa Chau, huh?" Curtis hooted.
"What's so fucking funny, asshole?" I shouted at him.
"You. You're practically a dead woman anyways. Didn't you know there's a contract on your head?" he snickered. "You sure have a lot of enemies, honey."
I blanched, "Contract?"
Ranger replaced Santos' position next to Curtis grabbing a handful of his shirt and slammed him against the side of the SUV. "Explain," he growled.
"Apparently, your girl, here, doesn't know how to keep her nose out of business that doesn't concern her. The Slayers have it out for her. Rumor has it they contracted a professional named Junkman from LA to take her out," he explained.
He turned his head back to me, "See you should've taken up my offer to let me take away all of your troubles. I could've shown you a good time with the last days of your life."
I clenched my fist ready to step up to Curtis, but Lester had his hand on my arm faster than I could react.
"Babe, what happened inside," Ranger catching my gaze with his deep brown eyes.
I tensed my whole body up, "Asshole, here, thought it would be ok to slide his hand into my panties and up my…"
"You men are lucky, she's got a sweet, nice, tight pussy. So you guys take turns?" he smirked.
Ranger's gaze never left me but his eyes did intensify and his jaw muscle flexed slightly. Ranger rarely wore his emotions on the surface. He was the definition of calm and collected but at this moment I could sense his fury.
"Santos, take her to the car."
I broke away from Ranger's gaze and stared down Curtis. "You should have that nose of yours taken care of, it's looking a little crooked," I leered.
"You're mighty confident for a dead girl walking," Curtis replied in a snarky tone.
I lunged at him but before I could reach him Lester threw me over his shoulder and hauled me off to Ranger's Turbo.
I heard a loud crack and Curtis shout, "You fucking broke my hand!"
I looked up and caught a quick glimpse of Curtis lying on the ground with Ranger hoover over him with an enraged look on his face. Lester set me down inside of the car and smiled wildly at me.
I gave him a dubious look, "What?"
"Beautiful, you are one wild firecracker," he chuckled. "Your nickname really does suit you. You are certainly a Bombshell in every sense of the word."
I scrunched my nose at the nickname. I was about to step into the car when a black town car pulled up behind us and a tall slender dark haired man with piercing blue eyes stepped.
"Ah, Ms. Chau, fancy running into you here," he stepped up to me and politely planted a kiss on my hand.
"Mr. Stratton, what a pleasure." Wesley Stratton, owner of Stratton Construction, my first high bond skip. I had forgotten how charming and handsome Stratton was as his intense blue eyes felt like they were boring straight into my soul.
"Wes, please," he corrected me holding his gaze on mine. "You look absolutely ravishing. Please don't tell me that you're leaving. Please stay and share a drink with me. I would love to make up for the last night that was cut short during our time together. I never got the chance to properly thank you for saving my life."
I blushed remembering the intensity of my last night with Stratton. I was trying to flush him out to gain information as to where his wife was in hopes to clear my name for Joyce's disappearance, and being the charmer that he is…he had successfully swept me off my feet. "I wish that I could, Wes, but I really have to get going."
"Ah, perhaps another time then, you know there's still an opening in my office if you ever decide to change your career path," he wrapped his hand behind my neck and kissed me lightly on the cheek.
The other door to his town car swung open as a large man stepped out ending a call on his cellphone. My heart stopped as I stiffened.
"Alyssa, this is my good friend, Benito Ramirez," Wesley smiled and waved at him. "Benny, this is the woman who saved my life, Alyssa Chau."
A maniacal grin spread across Ramirez's face as he stepped towards me, "Ms. Chau and I have already had the pleasure of being acquainted."
I took a step backwards and ran into a firm wall. I looked up at Santos who replaced his goofy smile with a hard glare as he wrapped his hands around my arms tightly.
"Well, what a small world," Wesley smiled. "Alyssa, you'll have to join me one night for one of Benny's matches."
I gave him a weak smile, "Thank you for the offer, Wes. I'm not feeling so well. I really should get going. It was really nice to see you again."
I scrambled for the door of the Porsche clumsily. Santos steadied me and helped lower me into the car. I leaned my head back and took a deep breath.
"Are you ok?" Santos asked looking down at me with concern.
"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks," I smiled back at him.
He flashed me a gorgeous smile before shutting the door. Of all places to run into Wesley and Ramirez, it had to be at this dump. I sat quietly staring out the window thinking about what Curtis said about the contract on my head. I don't recall having any run-ins with any gang members. All of the skips that I've been collecting lately were just drunk and disorderly idiots.
Minutes later Ranger slid quietly into the driver seat. He leaned over me buckling my seatbelt and slid his hand down my dress to remove the wire. His hand glided down my legs as he placed both of my shoes back on my feet quietly.
He pulled out the napkin with Mitch's number from my hands and crumpled it up and tossed it out the window. "Hey!" I shouted in protest. "I might've wanted to call him."
Ranger shot me a hard glare before turning over his engine. My heart stopped beating and I felt my life flash before my eyes. I closed my mouth and leaned back in the seat and realized I was sitting in a car with a dangerous man and I probably just pissed him off with my amateurish takedown of Curtis and embarrassed him in front of all his men.
I shut my eyes realizing that tomorrow I could be waking up in some third world country.
Hmm...Alyssa's not very good at distractions is she? Wonder if Ranger will ever use her again for one of his distractions or if he's going to give up on her. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. There will be some Ranger yumminess in the next. =)
