Steph's POV
When Emma hangs up on me, I slide down the wall I have been holding onto while talking to her and bury my head between my legs. Relief and fear of what they may have done to her washes through me all at once. I have done this and I will never forgive myself for it.
"Steph?" Bobby questions. I run my hands over my face, before taking a deep breath and looking at him, while he takes a seat on the ground in front of me. "We need to talk about Emma." I don't like the look on his face and I instantly get scared again.
"What did they do to her?" I whisper while new tears pool in my eyes. She was a little withdrawn when talking to me at first, but she seemed perfectly fine a few minutes into the call. But then again, she could just be pushing it deep down.
"I don't know. Cal called me and asked me to look into female Doctors." He explains. "He said there isn't a hair out of place, but we do not know what they otherwise did to her." Bobby doesn't need to spell it out for my head to fill with a million scenarios. "I could do it. I am a doctor with a minor in psychology, but I think Emma might be more comfortable with a female... given the situation."
I just nod "Whatever you think it's best. Whatever it takes or costs, I just want to make sure she is okay."
"I will try to talk to her when she gets here, to see if she needs any immediate medical attention, okay?" I only nod. I am not capable of more than that. "You made a mistake Steph, don't be too hard on yourself."
"Mhh" I reply. "But that mistake nearly cost me my daughter."
"You are a good mother from what I can tell. There are worse ones out there, believe me." Something on Bobby's face tells me that he is speaking from personal experience. "You gotta forgive yourself."
"That might take a while."
"And that is okay too." Bobby says and stands. "They should be here any minute with pancakes, let's set the table." He holds out his hand and only after a moment of hesitation I take it.
Ten minutes later, Ranger walks through the door with Emma on his back and two huge take out bags in his hand. I rush over to take either of his hand, but he only shakes his head and walks into the kitchen, where he places the bags on the counter and plops Emma right next to it.
"Mom, he bought everything on the menu." Emma smiles at Ranger as if he is her hero. I step forward while Bobby takes the food and hug my daughter really tight to me. "Mom….I am hungry." She whines, making me laugh. Of course she is. After all she has my metabolism and can eat whatever she wants.
"Alright my little food monster, let's get you fed." I withdraw from her and help her down. Bobby holds a chair out for her and then continues to help her stack her plate high with pancakes and pours plenty of maple syrup on top of it. She isn't going to be able to sleep from the sugar high tonight.
Just then Lester exclaims "Finally! Food!" and jumps up from the couch, where he has been laying, playing on his phone. On his way into the kitchen he slaps Hector, who has been fixed to his laptop ever since he got back, on the back of his head Gibbs style. Hector jerks his head up, shoots Lester a glare and curses in Spanish. Lester replies in the same language, before motioning to the kitchen, while Tank just shakes his head and mumbles something about kids. Their whole interaction makes me smile.
"You must be hungry too" Ranger says in a low tone so close, that I can feel his breath on my ear. Which in turn makes the hairs on my arms stand up, my heart miss a beat and parts further south of my belly button tingle. As if knowing the effect he has on me, he steps in front of me with a smile on his lips. "Come on, before Lester eats it all."
"Hey pendejo, I heard that" The man in question shoots back, obviously not wanting to swear in front of Emma.
"What does pen...pentecho mean?" Emma looks at Lester with curiosity.
"It is Pen-de-jo" Ranger explains and takes a seat opposite of her, while shooting a glare at his friend. "And it means 'I love you'" His answer has Hector snort and Tank, who has just taken a sip of his coffee, cough so much that Bobby has to slap him on the back.
"No" Emma shakes her head and I suppress a grin, while stacking my own plate high with pancakes. I had to settle for a seat next to Ranger and Hector, since Bobby and Lester have taken up the space right next to my daughter. "That means I love you. So what does Pendejo mean?" This time she nails the word. My daughter is way too smart for her five years of age. She has been watching Mexican cartoons on YouTube, so she knows a little bit of the language.
Everyone laughs at the face Ranger makes, before Bobby says "It means stupid. But Lester meant it as a term of endearment."
"How can that be a term of endearment?" Emma probes, while digging into her pancakes.
"Well it all depends on the situation, body language and the tone it is said in." Bobby explains further.
"So I could call you an asshole…."
"EMMA" I exclaim in horror. "We talked about this." I shoot her my jersey glare.
"I was just trying to give an example." Emma pouts and I harden my glare. "Okay, I am sorry...but if I call you a pendejo…" She obviously thought she could get away with it, if it is in another language, but when I harden my face even more, which promises consequences later, she amends "...when I call you the A-word and use it in a nice tone it could be a term of endearment?"
"Yes, but we don't use that word" I tell Emma, not leaving it up to the men to correct her. I can tell that all of them are barely keeping their smiles in check. In fact, Lester is looking everywhere but us and Tank is pushing a giant bite of pancake in his mouth to hide his grin. From the corner of my eye, I can see Ranger watching me with laughter in his eyes, so all I can do is look down onto my food and continue eating.
A little while later, I lean back completely sated from the food and watch the interactions around me. It has been a while since I had so many people, who I am not related, share a meal with me. In Mount Baker I don't have many friends. I live on the mountain and only make it into town for work. For the most part I only see tourists in the shop and the regular hunters are not very sociable. So that leaves Lucas and Rene as my only close friends. It sucks that they had to leave right after the funeral.
All men around this table, including Bobby and Ranger, may look like hard men, but if you watch them interact with each other, you can tell there is nothing but love between them. Even Hector, who with his stern face and tear drop tattoo might keep people at bay. But if you took the time and looked beyond that, you would see that he is a good looking man who seems to, when he lets down his guard around these guys, have nothing but mischief in his eyes. I think he understands English just fine, judging by how his cheek muscles twitched earlier.
I doubt they just show anyone this side of themselves and I feel honoured that they decided to let their guard down around me and Emma, despite not knowing us. "What are you smiling about?" Ranger asks low enough just for me to hear it, while everyone else is debating whether Mulan or Elsa is the best Disney princess.
"I like this" I say and then it hits me why we are all here and the smile slips from my face. How could I forget for just a moment what happened merely a few hours ago.
"Come on, I have to talk to you." Ranger stands and holds out his hand for me to take. I slip my hand in his and turn to Emma "I will just be in the other room, shout if you need anything."
I only get a nod, before Emma retorts to Tank "But Mulan can kick ass. She leaves, joins the military and learns to fight. Now tell me what Elsa can do apart from make ice?" Emma crosses her arms in defiance, which has me smiling and silently wishing the guys luck with that one. She has had the same argument with Rene and Lucas multiple times.
Ranger chuckles and mumbles "That one is trouble", while pulling me a out of the kitchen. Once in the bedroom, he closes the door behind me and motions for me to sit down. I get comfortable, mentally preparing for what he is about to tell me.
"I will tell you as much as I can, in order not to make you complicit." Ranger starts and takes a seat too. "Turns out your late husband did not owe the Bikers anything. He knew the feds were coming for him in and in order to protect you he paid off all of his debts with the underbelly of the city."
"That is not what I thought you were going to say." I admit. "But why did they come for Emma?"
"Mark Johnson has a gambling problem and put you up as collateral or to be specific the money you have inherited." When I look at him confused, he explains "He lost a lot of money to some very bad people in this city. In order to get them off his back, he went to the Club asking for money. Johnson told them your husband was dying soon. He knew of the money and that it would be left to you. Since you heard the rumours of money owed, he assumed you would just pay it without questioning it."
"Holy crap" I have no other words. "What the actual fuck?"
"Quick, The Breeds President, did not instruct them to take your daughter. The two men who approached you have a nasty drug problem and thought they could make a quick buck. They asked for more money than what the Club was actually owed."
"You got them right?" I ask, afraid they will come after us.
"Yes" Ranger nods.
"I am surprised the cops haven't come to take my statement." I tell him. "I mean isn't that procedure?"
He just shrugs, telling me that those two will not get to see the inside of a prison cell and I am not sure how I feel about that. "They will not bother you again" I stare at him for the longest time, before something clicks in my head and I just nod. I am okay with that. They kidnapped my daughter and did god knows what. They can rot in hell.
"What about Mark?" It makes me sick to think how nice he was, how caring he seemed. A thought enters my mind and I ask "Do you think he had Dickie killed?"
Ranger's POV
That is one thing I haven't thought about, but she has a point. "It is a possibility and it would be something we could look into, but that would mean exhuming the body. It also would mean that Johnson paid of a lot of people to pull this off. It would be corruption from the Warden to the guards and the medical staff." A lot of money would have gone out of this pocket to make that happen, how he would have had that I do not know. It is a lot of unknowns, which I cannot wait to dig into.
"I know you already have done more than enough, but if you can tell me how we can get that bastard to pay, that would be great." Steph says with a hardness to her voice that's a little scary, even to me.
"I have to go now, but if you come by Rangemen tomorrow morning, we can talk about all of that." I tell her and stand "I would come here, but you never know who is listening...I will leave a couple of my guys here to keep an eye on you. Just in case. They can take you and Emma to Rangemen tomorrow morning for breakfast."
She is about decline that, but I just level her with a look that conveys that I will not take 'no' for an answer. In return Steph just sighs, making me smile. I won. "Just no barks or twigs."
"Why would you think I would serve that for breakfast?" I raise an eyebrow at her with an amused grin on my face. This ought to be good.
"Well you…." She gestures up and down my body and blushes. "You are well...someone only looks like that if they are on a constant diet."
"Mhh are you sure?" I ask, dropping my tone a few octaves, which makes her blush even more. "I have seen you eat like a baby dinosaur and you definitely do not look like it." I run my eyes from her sock clad feet, up her jean covered legs, along her torso, which is clad into a tight tank top, to her beautiful face with those kissable lips. She is sexy as hell, even in her dishevelled state.
Her blush deepens, but manages to quip back "Has no one ever told you that it is rude to comment on a woman's eating habits?"
I cannot help but let out a laugh. "I will see you for breakfast" I say with a wink and leave the room, before I sit back down and talk to her all morning.