Sacrifices

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.

A/N: First thanks for sticking with the story, I know my updates have been very sporadic, for that I'm sorry. But, my son is going through a lot right now, and unfortunately there isn't a real quick fix to the issue. So he's of course coming first right now. "Let's just say, that whoever penned the phrase that "sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me", should be shot.

Some good news is that cheerleading practice is over and the football season's in the playoff section. I keep asking if cheering for the other team to win, makes me a bad mommy. LOL.

Anyways, thanks again for the support ladies, you all are the best. To Jenrar, Babe you rock, thanks for everything. To Angie and Jennifer, *big hugs*

Steph's POV

We had just reached the door, when the lights went on and shots were fired. Ranger shoved me out the door, and we took off running towards the SUV. He peeled out of the parking lot and drove. He kept checking the rearview mirror, looking for a tail.

"That was … " I had a hard time finding the right word. "Strange."

Ranger glanced over at me, quirking his eyebrow. "Strange isn't the word I would have used to describe that situation!"

"It wasn't one of Adara's guards and the guy definitely wasn't a cop, so who was shooting at us? And … more importantly why?"

"Babe, did you see what he looked like?"

"I only got a glimpse as you were shoving me out the door. He was Caucasian, about Ram's size."

"I don't know if I should be upset that this guy was shooting at us, and instead of running, you turned to see what he looked like, or that you are familiar enough with Ram's physique to use it as a basis of comparison."

"Well, Tank's around 6'5'', 320 pounds. Lester's about 5'11'', close to 180 pounds. Bobby's like 6'1'' feet and 190 pounds."

Ranger looked at me incredulously.

"What? I'm a woman. You are all sexy men. I'm going to notice these things." I blushed a little.

"What are Hal's stats?" Ranger asked dryly.

"A smidge under 6'4'', 220," I rattled off.

He pulled the car over in an empty lot and glared at me. "You are paying entirely too much attention to my men."

"It's not my fault that you have a gorgeous clause in your application process."

He shook his head and said, "Babe!" in exasperation.

I shrugged my shoulders. It was the truth, and we both knew it.

He pulled the SUV back out into traffic, and we headed back to town, stopping near the hotel at all night cafe.

After a quick meal, we headed back to the hotel to go over what we'd found at Naughty and Nice. We walked into our room, and Ranger immediately pulled his gun and shielded me behind his body.

"What the hell are you doing here, Zek?" Ranger growled.

Zek? Who the hell is he? I wondered as I tried to assess the situation.

"Just seeing how things were going," Zek icily replied.

I peeked over Ranger's shoulder and shivered as I recognized the man staring back at me. It was the guy who'd shot at us.

Ranger must have felt my shiver, giving him all the information he needed. "So if you're just checking in, why shoot at us?"

"Checking out how your latest piece of ass acts under pressure," he sneered.

I was trying hard not to let his remark upset me, but I couldn't help but start to wonder if what he was saying was true.

"Considering how busy you've kept me the last five years, it's kind of obvious that she's the only woman in my life and has been for a long time."

Ranger's words calmed me completely, and I took a tentative step out from behind Ranger. This man was obviously Ranger's handler, and just from the few words he'd said, I disliked him already.

"How about you put that," Zek pointed to the gun aimed between his eyes, "thing away. Jesus, son, you act like you don't trust me or something." He grinned at Ranger.

Ranger slowly lowered his weapon, but didn't put it away. "You told me when the General offered me this mission, I was on my own. Why are you here—checking up on me—now?"

"I changed my mind. I decided that you were right, and after all you've done for your country, you deserve to be released of your contract early, if you so choose."

"Bullshit! Now what's the real answer?" Ranger growled.

"Son, you've got to start to trust people at some point. I came to help you." Zek looked heartbroken by Ranger's lack of trust. "Honestly, I didn't think you could get the information without help. I didn't know you'd brought in some help of your own."

"Based on our last conversation and your threats to my men, your sudden change of mind is a little hard to believe." Ranger moved to the door and opened it. "Now, if you don't mind, it's been a long night, and we'd like to get some sleep."

Zek stood up and walked to the door. "You know you need me. You just need some time to admit it to yourself." With that, he was gone.

"Ran … " I started to speak, but Ranger placed his finger over my lips to silence me. He pulled a suitcase out of the closet, grabbed a radio frequency scanner, and swept the room, finding three bugs and destroying them.

He pulled two empty suitcases from the closet and started packing up our stuff.

I tried to quirk my eyebrow at him.

"Zek's up to something, and I don't want him knowing where we are."

"But he found us this time. What's to keep him from doing it again?" I asked.

I saw the slightest flair of anger. "He won't find us again. I promise you that."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to sound like I didn't trust you."

His eyes softened, and he pulled me to him. "I know you trust me, Babe. Let's just get our stuff together and get out of here."

I nodded my head and started to help him pack up our stuff.

As we were packing, Ranger found a tracker planted in the weapons case. After that discovery, we started searching for more. I found one underneath the collar of a shirt, while Ranger started going through the box of his own trackers he'd brought with him.

He picked up a tracker out of the box and placed it on the bed. "That sneaky … " he started to hiss.

"What?"

"This one's on." A look of confusion must have been evident on my face, because he went on to explain, "We didn't turn it on. He did." He picked Zek's tracker up off the bed and tossed it to me and then tossed me one of ours. "Pop quiz. What differences do you see?"

I almost felt like tossing them back and telling him to take a hike, but honestly, I was curious to see if I could do this. Turning the tiny trackers over in my fingers, I realized they looked identical on the outside, but the weight was off. Zek's tracker definitely felt a little heavier.

"Weight? His seems to weigh more." I looked up at Ranger and could see the corners of his mouth twitch upward a bit. I motioned to the bag of trackers. "Let me see."

He handed me the bag, and I looked inside. I noticed that all of the trackers in the bag were marked with a miniscule number seven. Zek's tracker was not.

"Ours have a miniature seven marked on them. His doesn't."

"Good job, Babe. All our trackers always have a single digit number on them. The number will vary from time to time, but I like to have a way to identify them as ours."

"Aren't you afraid that someone will trace it back to you?"

"No, we do it in house. There's always a chance that someone in the company would let it slip, but it's highly unlikely anyone would ever be that stupid."

I walked over to an empty drawer in the dresser, threw the tracker in it, and slid the door shut, before reaching into the last drawer and taking out the last stack of clothes to be searched for trackers and refolded. Ranger walked into the bathroom to finish up in there.

As I reached the bottom of the stack, I noticed something odd with the button on one of his pairs of cargos. "Ranger? What's this?"

He walked back into the room and gave me a strange look. "Pants, Babe."

"I know its pants, smartass. I'm talking about the button. See?" I asked as handed over the pants.

"Shit! I can't believe him." He popped the button off the cargos and showed it to me. It was a miniature tracker made into a button. "I never would have seen that, Steph."

"I'm a girl; I notice these things," I said with a shrug.

Ranger quickly walked the bags out to our SUV, coming back inside to do one final sweep of the room. Once satisfied we hadn't left anything except the planted trackers, he walked over to the window. Scanning the exterior, he moved to the door and motioned for me to him.

Pulling me close, his hands skimmed down my back, feeling the gun. "Proud of you," he whispered, before kissing me soundly.

We walked out of the room and towards our waiting SUV. Ranger pulled onto the interstate a few minutes later, and I was asleep in an instant. I barely registered Ranger pulling into a parking lot and going inside to check in. I had just dosed back off, when my door swung open.

I let out a tiny scream.

"Shhh, Babe. I've got you."

Ranger picked me up bridal style and carried me into the room, laying me on the bed.

"I'll be back in just a minute with our bags, Babe. Go back to sleep."

I closed my eyes and listened as the door closed quietly, and waited nervously until I heard him come back in less than a minute later.

"Ranger?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, Babe, it's me."

I could hear him clicking the locks, and then the whispers of his clothes as he undressed, before climbing into bed beside me.

By the time he'd pulled me to him, tucking my face into his chest, I was nearly back to dream land.

TBC …

A/N: Well what do you think Zek's up too? Is he really planning to help Ranger or is he up to something?

Please review, they always make me smile. And sneak peeks will go to those who do.