Disclaimer: I love the Stephanie Plum series, but I don't own them and I don't make anything off of them.
Warning: Those that like the Cupcake ending will not be happy with this story. Not much physical harm comes to Morelli, but his ego definitely gets beaten to a pulp. Not sure if this is a HEA story at this point, but let me know if you have any suggestions. This is my first FanFiction attempt and I Promise to complete it. I am having a lot of fun with the story so far. Thank you in advance for reading and please let me know what you think.
Thank you to suedesigns101 for reading this ahead of time and giving me the encouragement I needed to get up the nerve to post the story. I truly appreciate it.
A big thank you to those who have reviewed my story as well and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing what you think should happen next.
New Job, New Problems
I had really enjoyed my time with my guys. It had been a long time since all of us had been together. Well, almost all of us anyway. I woke up early to get prepared for the day ahead. I did my morning workout, which these days, includes a ten mile run on the beach. It helps to clear my head and get me centered for what is to come. I return to the mansion and head straight to my room to shower and get dressed before breakfast. I head downstairs and am greeted warmly by the chef as well as, Adrian, Alexander, Tony and his bodyguards all sitting at the table waiting for me.
"Good morning my lady, you certainly must have had a good time last night. You didn't even come see me when you got home?" smiles Adrian as he hugs me and kisses my lips lightly.
"Good morning Adrian, Tony, Alexander." giving Tony and Alexander a kiss on the cheek as I go by to get to my seat at the table. "I did have a very good night actually. The guys acted as if I had never left. Well, almost anyway." All three of them look at me waiting to explain. "I told them what happened at the PD yesterday and it surprised the hell out of them. They were actually pissed that Morelli even tried to put a finger on me and then were upset at first that no one defended me." That got me a round of snickers from my tablemates. "When I explained that I didn't need to be defended at first they were surprised, but I think that they were even more surprised that I hadn't been arrested. I had to explain some of the reason for that, but they don't have all the details yet. I didn't think that Shorty's, even though it is Rangeman territory was the most secure place to have that discussion, and I wasn't ready to spill all the beans yet. There were a few guys that were there that know the whole story, but they won't say anything until the time is right." They all nodded at that.
"Well, are you ready to deal with this situation this morning?" asked Tony. "We have a fun evening planned and I know that Marissa would like to go to the Spa with you this afternoon. She was very excited when I told her what we would be doing this evening. And she had a hard time trying to stop laughing when I explained what took place and what was said at the PD yesterday. She shares you sick sense of humor Bella."
"Glad to hear it. Even though I went to the Spa the other day I will never turn down an opportunity to get a massage. I never know when the next opportunity will come up so I may as well take advantage."
Some light conversation continued through breakfast and then we are ready to go. Adrian headed towards the library for some reading, but not before kissing me and giving me a pat on the butt, while Tony, Alexander and I go off to deal with a small problem named "Boots".
The three of us travel in one car driven by Alexander's driver to a remote section of an Industrial area just outside of Trenton. When the car drives through the open roll up doors we are greeted by Harry the Hammer, Vito Grizolli, Jeffrey Masterson (Arms Dealer from the Miami Area) and Juan Jalisco (Drug Cartel from New York). We exit and the car pulls away and the roll up doors come down to avoid prying eyes.
All of the men shake hands while I receive hugs and kisses to the head by way of greeting. Once everyone has said hello we travel to a back corner of the warehouse and take the stairs down to the bowels of the building. Once at the bottom of the stairs we continue to the end of the dark hallway and stop in front of a closed door. I use the key that was given to me by the guard standing at the door, unlock and push it open and then everyone files in. In a metal chair centered in the room placed over a rather large blue tarp is non-other than "Boots" looking a little worse for wear. A look of pure fear crosses his face momentarily, to quickly be replaced by a hard mask to hide his emotions. I honestly don't think it was that hard, compared to others that I have seen, especially among the Merry Men, but this man didn't have to take the number of lives that they did.
"Boots, you know why we are here?" I ask as the door closes behind all of us. I get no response. So I back hand him, but not using all the force I have, just enough to get his attention.
"Let's try this again Boots. Do you know why we are here?" I ask again.
With a look of pure hatred he stares at me and responds, "I know that I am here for attacking someone outside my own territory. And the funny thing is that she looked just like you, bitch." That earned him a series of punches from me to the face, gut and side of the head. He was knocked unconscious with only three hits.
I turned my back to him while waiting for him to wake back up. "Three punches, that's all it took." I smile at Tony and joke "This tough guy has been working for you? Are you sure he's been trained? That was too easy, honestly."
"Well, he is usually the one doing the hurting, not being hurt. Besides he doesn't have the heart of a lion like you do. Why don't you splash some water on his face, I have a feeling if he went out that easily he will take too long to wake up on his own." Tony says with humor.
"True true, but still I would think since he thinks that women are so far inferior to him that he would be able to withstand a bit more from me. I wasn't even using all my strength on him. I was trying to make it last longer." The guys all laugh at that and I grab a bucket of water from the other side of the room and splash some on Boots.
"Have a nice nap Boots? Do you remember falling asleep?" I thought rubbing it in would help to break him quickly. He wasn't much of a challenge anyway. "You see, one of your mistakes was that you chose to come to Trenton. The second was that you chose to attack a defenseless woman that did nothing to you. And third was that you chose to challenge me and the Heads of all the Families. Not a very smart move on your part Boots. What did you think you were going to prove by attacking someone that had nothing to do with us? I can't imagine that it was to scare me off, because if it was, you should have come after me yourself, not brought someone else into this. Were you afraid of me Boots?"
"Screw you. I'm not afraid of you. You're just a bitch that has wormed your way into the beds of all the men present in this room except mine. I don't have to explain myself to you. You are nothing but a whore that is only good for one thing." seethes Boots.
"See, now I know you're a stupid man. You just insulted the Head of the Families present in this room by insinuating that they share a woman. You also called them stupid for letting a woman do their jobs. Only a fool would dare to take that stance. But we already have determined that you're a fool haven't we Boots. See only a man concerned about the size of his dick would be worried about having a woman running him or his business. So, you must have a very small one to have to go to these lengths to prove what a man you are. You chose my home town, you chose someone who looked like me to attack because you couldn't get to me. That shows me that not only do you have a little dick, but that you are a coward." I look him straight in the eye while speaking. I can feel the tension radiating off of the men behind me in the room so I decided to knock Boots out with a series of punches, breaking his nose, cracking his ribs and possibly breaking his jaw with a round house kick to the head.
"Any of you want to take a punch at him to let some of the tension loose?" I ask the group behind me.
"I would love to, but I would probably break my hand." says Harry. I nod at him in understanding. The man is in his sixties and not in the best of shape. I would say he has not had to throw a punch since he was in his early twenties.
"No need to get a work out on this one. I would much rather spend my time and energy on the dance floor with my wife this evening." says Tony. I smile at him in response. "I will however talk to him when we wake him back up this next time."
"I am actually enjoying watching you work him. If we don't put him out of his misery soon you may wear yourself out from smart mouth comments. This has actually been a good morning outside of being disrespected. Are you alright with it?" asked Jeffrey. "He said some pretty nasty things about you Sweetheart."
"Nothing I haven't heard from the Plums or Morelli. Remember what I told you use what they say against them in the interrogation. If they say it about you it usually means they have a problem themselves. I would prove my point about his small dick but I'm really not interested in seeing it myself. It probably has some kind of disease." That got the group laughing. "Vito would you like a go?"
"No need for that, you are handling it perfectly my dear. I am proud of you. Do you want to keep working him, or are you finished? I don't want to rush your fun." Vito smiles.
"I honestly don't enjoy getting my hands dirty anymore. But you have made my week with your work Sweets." says Juan.
I turn to Alexander who shakes his head no with a broad smile. "Okay then. Lets wake him up and you can talk to him Tony." I grab the bucket of water and toss it all on him and he comes to with a start. Groaning in pain as he raises his head, guess I hurt his neck when I kicked him, too bad for him. "Boots would you like to say anything to the Families that you have insulted?" I ask him. I see him try to open his mouth but the only thing that comes out is another groan, ah I was right broken jaw, well I guess he doesn't get any last words.
Tony steps closer to Boots to speak and I step back to stand just behind and to the left of him. "Boots you have dishonored my Family with your actions, and then you dishonor me with the words that you have spoken today. Things are changing for the better in our Organization and it saddens me that you were unable to see this as a positive step. The old ways will not work in this changing world. Your actions have caused other problems that we must work to fix and today should help with most of them. Your elimination will serve as a warning that actions, such as these, will not be tolerated. I will personally make sure that the word gets out of what you tried to accomplish and failure as a warning to others of what is to come if they do not step into line." Tony pauses to look Boots straight in the eye, "All of your liquid assets will be turned over to the young woman that you assaulted to help her recover and get the therapy she will need. Not one of the Families here in this room, or any that were unable to attend today condone your behavior towards women. This is also something that will be made known. Women are to be treasured and cared for, not abused physically and emotionally, and then thrown away. You will be spending your eternity in hell for what you have done." With that Tony takes out his 9mm and shoots Boots dead center in the heart.
Not one of the men in the room flinches at the shot, or is surprised by the actions. We all stand there for a few minutes just looking at the man who tried to ruin all of our hard work over the last two years. I move over to Boots body to check for his pulse and find none. With that done the cuffs are removed from his wrists, shackles from his ankles and his body is pushed to the floor so the chair can be removed. The guard from outside the room helps me to wrap the body in the tarp. Once we complete the wrapping the guard picks up the body and removes it from the room to be disposed of at a local construction site where we managed to arrange the pouring of the concrete basement of a new parking garage being built. The rest of us say our goodbyes and leave the building just as we came.
The ride back to Deal was quiet as we each thought about what occurred this morning. Knowing that other than finishing up with making it a well known fact of what would happen if anyone thought of pulling a stunt like this again, as well as making sure Boots victim was taken care of, since we take care of our own, we would not discuss this again.
When we reached the house we all went our separate ways. I went to my room and changed into work out clothes to go to the beach for another run so I could clear my head. The work this morning was never my favorite part of the job, but it had to be done to keep the population as a whole safe. The last two years of work to calm the waters between the Families across the United States alone could have been compromised by the actions of one person. My job has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination. I have had to fight battles both verbally and physically the entire time, but have always come out on top, sometimes because of my name and others because of being the better opponent. I have known a great deal of these people for more than two years and quickly earned their loyalty and respect, but their underlings did not necessarily always have warm fuzzy feelings for me. However in the two years that I have been doing this job the underlings have gradually accepted my role, as they have seen less and less deaths from territory disputes and disrespect between the Families. My position as the Liaison between all of the Families, whether they are Arms Dealers, Crime Families, or Drug Cartels, has also cut down on the interference from the governments in certain countries. The US Government approached me almost at the beginning of this job and asked for my assistance when I was available with the International Cartels when they heard what the plan was for the US Families. At first we turned them down, because we needed to establish the ground work here. But the success that we had within the first six months and the amount of lives that had been saved had the government knocking on my door again and basically begging for my help.
I took two days to think about it before I approached the Heads of the Families I deal with in a conference call. It was decided that as long as the US was the main business and set firmly that it would help our own business if the International Cartels were not at war with each other and fighting for dominance or a foot hold in the US. So the last year had been spent trying to get the Central and South American Cartels organized and calmed. I had already been to Europe and Russia and dealt with the Organizations there since our own Families had connections there and they accepted me in short order. It took longer than in the US, but that was understandable since they were not always comfortable working with someone from outside their own country. It took time to gain their trust, but most of the unrest has been settled for the time being. Some areas I still speak with weekly on the phone, but will only be traveling down there if something is completely FUBAR for right now. The only areas that I refuse to work are the Middle East and China, and all Governments of the countries that I was working in were included in the details to prevent any legal problems. I made sure that those details were written into the contract. Trenton is where I need to be for the time being.
I was able to make some really good friends while out of the country and look forward to being able to visit them with out working, but at this time that won't be possible. As I finish my second run of the day I feel more relaxed and centered than when I started. I look up to the patio to see Adrian watching me as I run up the steps. When I reach him he stands and envelopes me in a big hug to just hold me tight to him.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
"Yeah I'm fine. I just needed to clear my head a bit." I state into his chest.
"Is there anything I can get you? Are you sure you're up for tonight?" he asks in an empathetic voice.
I smile up at him and kiss his lips. "You can come up and help me get ready for our night out if you like. Pick out an outfit you'd like for me to wear. I'll leave it up to your imagination and my closet. I figure with your imagination it may take you a while to make up your mind. Just keep in mind we will be with Tony and Marissa this evening, not to mention who ever else will be at the restaurant." At that he gives me a wicked smile and we head upstairs to figure out our clothes for the evening before I get ready to leave for the spa.