CHAPTER 10
**They aren't mine…JE is a genius, I just appreciate.
Steph POV
My eyes fluttered open to the sound of constant beeping. Crap, I thought. That's right I'm in the hospital. I looked around the room and there, sitting in a faux leather hospital chair next to my bed, his hands steepled in front of him as Ranger.
"Morning Babe." His voice almost purred, thick with sincerity. "How are you feeling?"
I did a quick evaluation of my body, gently stretching muscles. "Not the best, but much better. How long was I asleep?"
"You have been out for about 60 hours." He ran his fingers through his hair and grasped my hand in his, gently kissing the palm of my hand. He smiled seeing the gawking look on my face. "It's not that long. Your body was traumatized and needed rest to heal."
"Have you been here the whole time?" I asked. He shifted his eyes to the other side of the room. There was a small cot, and a black duffle bag. I smiled.
"I told you, I'm not leaving your side." He smiled again and stood up, sitting down on the side of the bed. "Would you like something to eat, Babe?"
My stomached growled as a response, which made both of us laugh.
"I guess that I do." I smiled, feeling a blush come over my face. He stood and walked to the door, calling to a nurse that I was ready to eat.
"They will bring you in something in a moment." He sat back down, reaching for the small table next to the bed and handing me a styrophome cup filled with ice water. I took a long drink as he brought the straw to my lips.
"Wow. It's still cold." I said, taking another long drink.
"Lester has been bringing in a new cup every two hours just in case you woke up." He smiled, setting it aside when I was finished. "He has been upset that he hasn't been able to flirt with you in almost 3 days."
A nurse came through the door, carrying a tray with food. She set it on a rolling table and slid it over my lap.
"We are glad to see you awake, Ms. Plum." She smiled, pulling out a chart and quickly taking notes from the machine I was attached to, checked the IV bag and then did a quick vitals check on me. "The Doctor is going to be in this after noon, but if you need anything before then make sure that you call for me. Are you pain levels under control?" I nodded, staring at the mystery covered plates. "Ok. You eat up." With that she left.
Ranger lifted the plate covers to reveal oatmeal with strawberries, toast with peanut butter and a cup of milk. I dug in, eating every bite. Ranger just watched with a small smile on his face. When I was done Ranger pushed the rolling table back to where it had been and sat down again on the side of the bed.
"Babe." He sighed. Oh crap, I thought. I don't like that tone. "Stephanie I need to ask you some questions, and I would like you to be honest with me."
"Ranger.."
"Steph, please I need to know." He interrupted, sounding exasperated.
"Okay. I will try." I mumbled, finding great interest in my fingernails. Wow, they really looked horrible. I wonder if Lula's lady would have time to fit me in soon.
"Babe, your nails are beautiful." He sighed.
"Crap, outside voice huh?" I took a deep breath. "Okay. Shoot."
"I want to know what is going on. I know where you have been, and I know who is behind it. And I want to know why you won't let me help you." He stared into my eyes, refusing to let me look away.
"You…you…know…how? But.." I stuttered.
"Babe, you never bothered to take off your trackers." He smiled. I groaned and swore under my breath.
"I can't fucking do anything right." I groaned, covering my face with my hands. Ranger put my hands down and cupped my face in his hands. I could feel tears getting ready to fall.
"Tell me." His eyes burning through me, not in anger but overwhelming concern and frustration. "And don't even think about lying to me again. I am not in the mood."
"You know who it is, you know where I was. What else do you really need? I am sure that you already have them in some torture chamber in the basement of Rangeman." I spat out, tears still streaming down my face.
"I want to know why Morelli is pimping you out to his friends. I want to know why you were stripping. I want to know why the fuck you didn't come to me. Shit, Stephanie, I have enough money to pay them off easily. Why would you allow them to do this to you? And why the fuck would you think that I wouldn't have a problem with you doing this?" He wasn't yelling, but the volume made my stomach turn to ice. His eyes burned with pain. "This bullshit excuse about Dougie isn't going to cut it."
"I..I.." my voice quivered. I was honestly afraid of him at this moment. Not that he would hurt me physically, but that he was going to see me for who I had become. I closed my eyes, and quickly spoke. "This is the only way that they would let them pay back the money. "
"What does that mean?" He growled. "Open your eyes!"
"They wanted me to whore myself to them. I refused at first, and agreed to strip. It was the thing I knew I could keep myself in denial about. Then, they started forcing me to do Private showings at Joe's. It was usually his friends, or some of the family. I would dance, and sometimes Joe would have me do things while they watched. I had only had to actually touch a few of them, but it wasn't penetration until last night." I was hiccupping as I spoke, my sobbing barely making it audible.
Ranger closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then cracked his neck before opening them again. "They made you give them sexual favors to pay off your debt." The Icy tone was even colder. I nodded, feeling myself shake. I curled myself into a ball as much as I could.
"I'm so sorry. I can't have this lead back to you. I can't. I can't survive another night like last night, them knowing that I had seen you. I don't want.."
Ranger stood quickly, his chair slamming to the floor causing me to jump and scream.
"They did this to you because of me!" He roared, his chest heaving, his entire body shaking with anger. The door blurst open Tank, Lester and Cal rushing through with guns raised.
"What the…" Lester said, holstering his gun and rushing to my side. "Carlos, you need to calm the fuck down!"
I was sobbing openly at this point, gasping for air as each sob ripped through my body. Lester rubbed my back. "Jesus, Beautiful, please calm down. Take a deep breath okay?" I did, trying to calm my breathing so I wouldn't pass out.
"Ranger!" Tank barked, grabbing Ranger by the shoulders. Ranger stopped staring at me and turned an icy gaze on Tank.
"Track them down." His voice no longer even sounded like his. It was without any emotion and filled with so much anger. "I want them in the interrogation room by the end of the night."
"Boss?" Tank looked from me to him.
"Tank, I said NOW!" His voice echoed off the bare hospital walls making all of us jump. Everyone but Lester, who just bowed his head and swore. Tank and Cal rushed out, and I could hear them running full sprint down the hall. Ranger turned back to look at me, I once again curled into a ball, hiding my face in my knees. Les stood, his hands clenched tightly into fists at his side.
"Carlos." Les said calmly. "You need to calm down." He put his hand on Ranger's shoulder.
"Fuck you Les!" He growled, pushing Les' hand away with a smack. Les just shook his head. The before I knew what was going on, Ranger was on the floor with Les holding him down by his throat.
"I said, YOU NEED TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN." Les punctuated each word as his hand tightened around Ranger's throat. Ranger pushed back against Les, but he didn't move. "You know I can keep you here all night if I have to. I will not let you upset Beautiful anymore. If you can't handle this, then you need to leave. You are doing her no good being an ass." Les' voice was calm, but firm. I watched as Ranger closed his eyes and began taking some deep breaths. Soon he stopped shaking. "Are you good now?" Ranger nodded slightly, as Les still had his throat tightly against the floor. "Good. Now get up and we will figure out what is going on."
Ranger stood and took another deep breath. He finally looked back at me, this time really noticing my emotional state. His face immediately showed his regret.
"Fuck, Steph." He said, falling to his knees next to my bed, he placed his hand on my knee . "I am sorry that I did this. I don't know if I can live with the fact that they did this to you because of me. I swear I will spend the rest of my life making this up to you. There is no way I can ask for your forgiveness, but please…Dios, Stephanie please don't be afraid of me."
I pulled on his arm, bringing him back to the standing position before he crawled into the bed next to me, embracing me and whispering in my ear in Spanish.
"Wait." Les said, shaking his head. "What?"
Ranger stopped whispering and turned to look at him. "They did this to her because I took her from that strip club. They did this because of me." His voice cracked as he spoke.
"Those fucking bastards!" Les leaned on the bed, running his hands through his hair. No one spoke for a few minutes.
"Ranger?" I asked, my voice scratchy from tears. He turned placed his hand on my cheek and kissed my nose. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"My love, anything. Anything on this earth I will do." He pushed aside my hair.
"I need my family safe. And Marylou's family." I said, he nodded after each one. "And…I need you to make sure that Julie is safe." This brought a startled look on his face.
"Julie?" He asked pulling back slightly so that he could see my face.
"They have someone working on your team in Miami. They have shown me pictures of her, and telling me what they are going to do." I shivered remembering the horrible ways that they were going to hurt her. Before Ranger could say a thing, Les flipped open his phone and made a phone call.
"Julie needs to be removed. Don't let any of her handlers know. This has to stay in the family. I will have a helicopter meet you in our secondary location. Do NOT leave her with anyone unless they have our blood running thru their veins. Do you understand?" He sighed. "Thanks mom."
"There's more." I told Ranger. He and Les both looked at me. "Rangeman is being monitored. They have live feeds of the place. They have infiltrated your business Ranger. I know his voice, but I don't know who it is, or what he looks like. I do know that he was hired sometime in the last six months."
"Fuck." Les said, once again pulling out his phone. "Junior, man. I need you to lock down Rangeman. All personnel need to come in. Tell them that it's just a drill. Then, I want you to put everyone that as hired in the past year in holding. DO NOT tell them why. DO NOT let anyone, but the core team, leave the building. I don't care if it bursts into flames. I will be there in a bit."
"We need to get you out of here as soon as possible." Ranger said, standing and opening the door to the hallway. If they were able to infiltrate my business and my family there is no way to know how deep this goes. We are going to move your family, and Marylou and her family. Is there anyone else that they have threatened you with?"
I nodded, another tear sliding down my cheek. "You. All of you. But mostly you. They even brought up Lula and Connie." I hiccupped again, trying desperately to get myself under control.
"Les, call Tio Maggio. We are going to need the big guns for this one. We are going to have to remove everyone and put them into a safe house that isn't in Rangeman records. I have a feeling that everything in that building has been compromised."
"Are you thinking about the Villa?" Les said, bringing out his phone again. Ranger nodded, finally getting the attention of the nurse.
"She needs to leave now. Get the Doctor here now to release her. We are leaving in 20 mins." The nurse looked flabbergasted. "Now." She jumped and ran down the hallway. He flipped open his phone and dialed quickly. "Bobby, Get your supplies ready for Transport. Keep it on the DL. We need the Armored SUV, fully stocked. Don't let anyone see you, and for god sakes, please make sure that you get Ella."
"Okay." Les said, closing his phone again. "We have transportation pulled for everyone, Julies is already enroute to the Villa, and we will have the jet available in 45 mins. How do we want to handle the Plums, and Marylou's family? I doubt that they will come willingly. Lula is easy, Tank will get her, and Woody is picking up Connie as we speak."
Ranger turned to me. "Do we have your permission to take your family forcefully if we need to?"
"Let me call my dad and Marylou. They can get the rest of the family on board." I said. He handed me his phone and I called my father first.
"Hello." My dad's voice rang through the phone.
"Daddy?" I said, trying to cover the fact that I as crying.
"Sugar, what's wrong?" his "daddy" voice pulled at my heart. "What's going on?"
"Daddy, Ranger's men are going to come and pick you, mom and Grandma up. They are also going to go and pick up Val, Albert and the girls. Make them understand that this isn't negotiable. There has been a threat to your lives, and it's all my fault. I'm so sorry Daddy."
I heard him sigh through the phone. "It won't be easy, but I will make sure they are ready. When are they going to be here?"
I turned to Ranger. "When will he be expecting your men?"
"25 mins." Ranger said, as he pulled out some clothes from his duffel bag for me.
"25 minutes Daddy. I'm so sorry."
"Sugar, nothing to be sorry for. I love you. We will be ready." He said goodbye and hung up.
I sighed and dialed my best friend's number. She answered, kids screaming in the background. "HELLO!?"
"MaryLou? I need you to listen to me okay?"
"Shut up you guys!" She yelled. I heard her shuffling down the hallway and closing a door. " Okay Steph, what's up?"
"You need to pack your bags. Get the kids together. Rangeman is coming to get you guys and bring you someplace safe. Someone is trying to hurt you, and my family."
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
"Marylou?" I as starting to panic.
"OK. When will they be here?" she said, I heard the door open thru the phone and her running up the stairs.
"25 minutes."
"Shit. Okay. I can do that. We will be ready. I love you Steph. Make sure they keep you safe."
"I love you too." I hung up the phone as she began barking orders to her children.
"They will be ready, Ranger." I handed him back his cell phone.
"Good. Now let's get you dressed." He held up some clothes and came towards me just as Lester left the room.
**okay..so this chapter was a lot of stuff crammed in..Hopefully you could follow okay.**
Thanks for all the reviews! I know that this story was abandoned a bit, but it has always been one of my favorite. Please let me know what you think. Reviews make me write faster.