Chapter 14

The goosebump on my arms subsided, the queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach went away, but the sadness from losing my truck stuck with me. Yeah, I know Ranger will replace her, but I lost the one thing that for years made me happy. Working on her had become my outlet, using my hands to bring her to fruition had become my therapy during the long months of recovery from my attack. She was the one thing I knew I could count on, she never let me down. And now, sadly, she was nothing but a burnt out shell.

Ranger had the surveilance tapes from outside the transport facility in Newark sent to him this morning. And upon review, he and Tank found that two individuals had planted a bomb just after my truck was unloaded from the cargo plane. It had only taken seconds to install. "These men are proficient in bombs." Tank observed. "They were able to gain access to the restricted loading area, and they used untracable plasique." Ranger frowned.

"They're playing for keeps." He stated in a steely tone. Ranger had been pushed about as far as he was going to go. He was now pissed, and I did not envy the person who he targeted to unleash his wrath upon.

We shuffled out of the conference room and down to the gym. Ranger had finished his mat time with Binky around 5:30 AM, and had sent word for me to meet him in the conference room immediately. I had dressed and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. Now, that the meeting was over, Ranger was hell bent on teaching me how to take care of myself. I walked into the gym to see all the guys standing around waiting, walking up to Bobby, I asked, "What's going on?"

"Training for you." He smiled and ushered me to the middle of the mats, right in front of Ranger. I felt embarassed and wanted to cower.

"Sassy. Your training begins today." I looked around at the guys, they were all looking like they were taking this as seriously as Ranger was. Steph had worked her way to the front of the group and smiled and me, giving me a thumbs up. "I want to see how proficient you are in defending yourself." He walked around me in a large circle as he talked, as if sizing me up. I stood there shifting from one foot to the other. "I want you to understand, if at any time you feel threatened, just say stop and the exercise will cease immediately. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir." I knew this was the time to step up and learn what this men had to teach me.

"I want you to spar with Hector. Pull your punches. Escape his holds, put him on the ground, if you can." Hector walked up and I think I almost cried. He was scary looking with all his tattoos, but the look of care and concern in his eyes instantly put me at ease.

I held my hand out to him, "Hola, Hector. Como esta?" His face chaged from scary and intimidating to a warm smile.

"Bien, Sassy. E tu?"

"Asi, asi." He grinned and patted my hand with his. "Vamos a hacer esto." (Let's do this.) I nodded and shook his hand. I stepped back and took up a defensive pose, standing on the balls of my feet, hands in a boxers position. Hector came at me trying to sweep my feet out from under me, and I jumped up enough to catch him off guard and brought my foot down on his chest gently. He smiled and tapped my foot. I released him and we resumed our spar. He walked around me putting me into a bear hug from behind, pinning my arms to my side. I twisted in his arms, brought my knee up to his groin gently and held it. He made a face and let me go, I them gently stomped on the top of his foot and brought my fist to his gut. He tapped out and we resumed.

We sparred for a good 30 minutes before Ranger stopped us. We were both dripping sweat and I think I had accidentally hurt Hector more times than I'd like to admit. He had the beginings of a nice shiner forming over his left eye where I had inadvertantly elbowed him when I had tried to escape a hold he had my in. I walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek as I hugged him. A collective gasp came from the guys as Hector kissed my cheek in return. "Gracias, Amiga."

"Gracias, Amigo." I smiled at Steph, who was beaming.

"You did great. Better than I did when Ranger and Les first taught me." She playfully punched my arm and I giggled.

"I want to curl up in bed and sleep for the rest of the day." I said flopping down onto the mat.

"You have 20 minutes to collect you sidearm and head down to the range." Ranger instructed, his voice all business.

"Yes, Sir." I hopped to my feet and headed up to the apartment to retreive my Glock and a bottle of water. I downed the water as I walked down the stairs tp the garage level. Both Cal and Bobby were waiting for me at the door, they shielded me with their bodies on the walk across the open garage to the secured range. They ushered me in through the door and closed it behind me. Waiting on me were both Ranger and Ram.

"Target practice. Accuracy, speed and correct form." Ranger informed Ram. He nodded and took my by the arm leading me down the range a bit to an alley that was set up with all kinds of paper targets.

"Sassy, For right now I want you to warm up. Blow through a box and then we'll talk." He handed me a box of bullets and turned away. I pulled my gun out and checked it over carefully making sure it was in working condition. After tugging on the ear protection and safety glasses, I opened the box and loaded the magazine of the Glock. I set it down onto the ledge and held my hands up. I turned to Ram and nodded. He gave me one in return and both Ram and Ranger watched me blow away the little paper men.

Firing the last of my bullets, I flicked the safety on and ejected the magazine. I checked to make sure I hadn't counted wrong and made sure I didn't have one in the chamber. Seeing none, I set them down on the ledge and waited for Ram. He hit the retrieval button for the targets and waited patiently. I watched the tattered paper make it's way up the alley to us. I was smiling, most of my shots had centered around the head, chest and groin of the target. Ram smiled and turned the target to Ranger. He raised an eyebrow and gave an almost smile.

The rest of the morning was spent inside the range, Ranger had left after about an hour and left me in Ram's confident hands. I had just finished my range practice for the day when I sat down on a chair to collect myself a little bit. I wished Les were here to see me, he would be so proud. I sniffled at the thought and a lone tear escaped, rolling down my cheek. Ram was instantly at my side, kneeling at my feet. "Sweetheart, are you okay?" He wrapped me in his massive arms, I leaned against his broad chest. Unable to hold back the tears, I let them fall silently. He held me like that for what seemed like hours, his shirt was soaked from my tears, my eyes red and puffy.

Pulling back a little, I stammered, "I'm sorry, Ram. I didn't meant to cry. It's just..."

He cut me off, gently. "You miss him. Sweetheart, it's alright. We miss him too. He'll be back before we know it. He's really good at what he does. Nobody is better." He kissed the top of my head and helped me to my feet. I wrapped my arms around his middle and squeezed him in a modified bearhug.

"Thank, Ram." I released him and he walked me to the door. Outside waiting was Hal, and the two of them walked me back to the stairs.

The next two weks were pretty much the same. Gym first thing in the mornings, range time until lunch, searches with Steph until my shift was over and then I was left to my own devices for the rest of the night. Sunday nights became ladies night. Steph, Lula and Connie came over and we hung out watching tv, movies or talking. Greg went back to Boston after a week to pack up and move his things to Trenton. He came back after a week and moved into the apartment a couple of doors down. Ram, Cal, Hal and Bobby spent their free time with me, keeping me busy. To break the monotony, Ram began to take me up to the roof for fresh air and a change in scenery. We spent hours up there playing cards and just chatting about life. He always had a funny story about Lester, making me laugh. It was nice to hear background on Les, it made me fell like was getting to know him, even though he was a world away.

One morning, sometime in the middle of the third week Lester was gone, Tank called me into his office. Standing in front of his door was daunting, he was a beast of a man, and I really hadn't had time to get to know him yet. I knocked and a curt "Enter" was issued. I walked in to find Steph sitting on the couch, Tank at his desk and Ranger leaning against the wall, arms and ankles crossed. I began to get nervous, what was I doing here? Did I do something wrong?"

"Sassy. Sit down." I seated myself next to Steph and began to wring my hands. She reached out and stilled them, looking into my eyes. She was giving me her best blank face as were the others and my heart sunk.

"Is something wrong?" My sixth sense wasn't picking anything up, so it couldn't be too bad, I thought. "Am I in trouble?"

Ranger laughed softly. "No. Sassy. We have something for you." He held out his hand to reveal a stack of papers. Taking them from him, I looked from them to his face, confusion eveident on my face. "It's your contract with Rangeman. The salary is generous, benifits, 401K, housing stipend and moving expenses are included." He smiled and nodded to the papers. "Sign and you're officially an employee of Rangeman Inc." Steph handed me a pen and watched me flip through the pages.

I noticed that Ranger's replacement of my truck had been added into the employer requirements, and I grinned. I signed the documents with a flourish and handed them back to him. He dropped them onto Tank's desk and became serious once more. "There's just one more thing." He turned to the door and opened it, motioning for someone outside the room to enter. A man wearing BDU's, Bates boots and a wicked lopsided grin walked in. I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was real. I stood on shaky legs, walked over to the man, held my hand out to caress his face and promptly passed out.

A few minutes later, I awoke to find Bobby, Steph and Ranger hovering over me. I waved them off. "Oh, god! I just had the strangest dream." I sat up and held my hand to my head.

"Take it easy, Sassy. Let's get you on your feet." Bobby raised me up and I stood on shakey legs. I gruff laugh behind me made me stop and stand still.

"Baby?" I spun around and looked into the eyes of the man who made my heart leap out of my chest. Lester was standing there in his BDU, hands on his hips grinning. I launched myself forward into his arms, crashing my lips into his. I was swooning from the touch and smell of him. I couldn't get enough, our lips sought each other, as if to tell our brains that this moment in time was real. I pulled back slightly to look into his eyes.

"Lester. Oh, God! You're home." I buried my face into his chest. He lifted me up and I wrapped my legs sround his waist. My arms clung to his neck and he chuckled.

"Oh, yeah. I'm home." I cried and released all the tension I had held in for so long. My body was wracked with sobs as he held me, soothing me. His hands smoothed my hair and ran down my back, holding me fiercely to him. Everyone around us, began to move away and go on to their assigned jobs, leaving the two of us alone.

Between sobs I choked out, "Are you really here?"

"I'm home, Baby. I'm done." I nodded and held his face in my hands to get a good look at him. He was slightly thinner, his jaw covered in a weeks worth of growth and his eys shone like diamonds. I kissed the tip of his nose and laughed, giddy with the sight of him.

"God. I missed you so much. Let's get you cleaned up and fed." I wriggled out of his arms to stand. Grabbing his hand, I led him to Ranger's office and knocked.

"Enter."

I opened the door and smiled at Ranger, "Um, we're offline for a few days. Is that okay Bossman?"

"Granted." He grinned and tossed Lester a small package before we left and headed to the elevator.

Once inside, Les turned me in his arms to look at me. "Bossman?" He grinned, "So, I take it you decided to sign with us, huh?"

"Yeah. I just signed the contract when you walked in." I admitted and hugged him close. I couldn't get enough of him. His touch and his smell was intoxicating. I was living high on a drug called Lester Santos.

"Good. I hoped you would." He kissed the top of my head and gave a tired sigh.

We exited the elevator and headed to his apartment. Letting us in I led him to the bathroom. He remained quiet, letting me take the lead. I gently disrobed him. Dropping his clothes to the floor and placing his weapons on the counter. He stood there in front of my in all his glory as I took the sight of him in. I turned him slowly, checking him for wounds. I found a small puncture wound on his side almost healed and a mass of bruises along his ribcage. "Les, are you alright?" I gingerly touched them, my fingertips barely making contact with his skin.

"I'm alright, Baby. It's nothing. Got into a little fight with an insurgent, I survived." I looked into his eyes, fully understanding that the foe had not. I turned the water on and dropped my clothes onto the floor. His eyebrow raised and he chuckled, "My own personal shower girl?"

I giggled and dragged both of us under the warm spray of water. He groaned at the feeling of the cascading water. "It's been a while?" I asked as I lathered up a washcloth and began to wash him.

"Almost a week." I wrinkled my nose and rolled my eyes. I soaped him all over and then began to wash his hair. He closed his eyes and savored the feeling of my fingers massaging his scalp. I finished and shoved him under the spray to rinse, as I quickly washed myself. I was attempting to wash my hair when I felt his fingers running aong the back of my neck. His hands began to roam and I relished the feeling of his skin against mine. After I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair he pounced. He crushed his lips against mine, pushing me up against the cool tile wall. I clung to him, my legs wrapping around his waist. He dropped his head to my shoulder and bit hard, marking me for all to see. I growled and nipped playfully at his earlobe.

I could feel that he was rock hard as his tip rubbed against my wet entrance. He pulled back long enough to look into my eyes searching for approval. "Lester!" He slammed into me hard, pulling me down onto his huge shaft. I screamed his name and clawed at his back. He pounded into me, eyes squeezed shut, groaning at the feel of how tight I was. I came in the matter of a few seconds, screaming again, soaring with the pleasure. He let me down and turned me, now I was standing bent at the waist with Les probing at my entrance with his still hard erection. I eased myself back onto his tip, he groaned and lurched forward seating himself fully in me. I gasped and braced myself against the wall with my hands. His erratic and powerful thrusts sent us over the edge after he began to bottom out against my cervix. I felt him tighten and shudder just before he came and it sent me over the edge once more. I screamed, my body contracting, milking his huge cock as he spilled his seed into me. He jerked every time he spurt more of his cum into me, and I could feel the warm sensation from it deep within me.

I stood up and wrapped my arms around him, claiming his lips as mine. We kissed, sucks, nibbled and searched each other's bodies until the water ran cold. We shiverd as we exited the shower and wrapped ourselves in towels. "Les, I'll be right back." I left him in the bedroom and retreived two bottled of water from the fridge. When I returned I found Les laying across the bed, passed out. His towel was still around his waist, little droplets of water still clung to the ends of his hair. I pulled a blanket over him after I tugged his towel off. After dressing, I walked out of the room and dialed Pino's.

The smell of fresh pizza brought Les out of his slumber an hour later. I was sitting crosslegged on the couch munching on a slice when he walked into the room complettely naked. Unashamed, he waltzed over grabbed a slice and slid onto the couch next to me. My eyes must have bugged out of my head, because he chuckled. "You don't have a problem with me being naked do you?"

"Oh, hell no! You can be naked for as long as you want." I teased and kissed his bare chest. His abs rippled under the touch of my lips, so I traced the outlines of them with my fingertip. He caught me wrist in his hand, holding it still.

"Baby. Anymore of that and I won't finish my slice." I giggled and looked down at his crotch to see Little Lester coming back to life. I leaned over into his lap and blew a warm stream of air over his tip. He laid his head back and sighed. Using the tip of my tongue, I licked the dark tip of his shaft, he jumped slightly from the sensation. A husky laugh came from his lips, "Baby. Don't start what you can't finish." He warned. I smiled and licked him again, swirling the tip before I pulled back slightly.

The look of desire and lust filled his face. I lowered my head and took his tip into my mouth, sucking lightly and swirling his tip with my tongue. He groaned and leaned back in the couch. Nipping him sent a visible shudder through him and I giggled. He placed his hand on my back and rubbed lazy circles. I took him fully into my mouth, relaxing my jaw and allowed him to slip deep down my throat. I swallowed and he nearly came unglued. "Oh, god, Baby." I began to suck him as my head bobbed up and down, swirling my tongue around him. His hands soon found their way into my hair and were guiding me in the rhythm that he needed. I cupped his balls with one hand, massaging them gently, as my other hand pinched one of his nipples. He jerked once and came in my mouth, shooting his seed down my throat. I swallowed a few times, letting my throat milk him. He groaned and shuddered, in complete exstacy. I sat up and watched his face. The glazed look in his eyes was soon replaced by one of wanton lust.

Les rolled me onto my back, stripping me of my clothes. As I lay there naked, he spent time to explore my body, observing it. Les slipped to his knees in front of me, He hooked his arms under my knees and brought them up, opening my legs to him. He licked his lips, "I've wanted to drink from you from the begining." He snaked out his tongue and touched the tip of my clit, sending shockwaves through me body. He grinned and then drew his finger up and down my wet slit, groaning when he realized how wet I was already. He gripped my legs with his arms and held me still as his assault on me began. His tongue flicked across my clit once more and I arched off of the bed. He inserted his tongue into my wet center, lapping at the moisture, sending me through the roof. I panted with need, my body on fire.

I throbbed with the need for release, "Les, please. I want to cum. Make me cum!" I begged, clawing at the couch with my hands. He growled and resumed licking, sucking and nibbling me into a frenzy. He repeatedly ran his tongue up and down, back and forth over my clit pushing me closer and closer to the edge. He inserted a finger into my center, curling it in a come here motion, as he nibbled my clit. I arched my back, screamed and came in his mouth. His hands held me still, as he continually ran his tongue over my clit, dipping it onto my now dripping center. The rhythmic contractions drew his finger deeper and deeper into me, at that moment he knew I was ready for him. He raised up onto his knees, pulled me to the edge of the couch and impaled himself in me. I clawed at his back, trying to pull him in deeper. I needed to feel him inside me. He pulled back and slammed into me again, shiething himself fully. I gasped at the sensation and watched as his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Oh, god Baby. You're so tight. Your tight little pussy feel so good." He groaned as his body found it's rhythm. Lester thrust into me and found home. "God Baby! Make me cum in you. Make me yours. GOD! I've missed you!" His tempo sped up, his grip tightened and I matched him thrust for thrust. I could feel myself tightening around him. The feeling of him driving deep and withdrawing made my head spin. I wanted to hold on until he was ready, I forced control over myself. His sack tightened and I knew it wouldn't be long. His thrusts became frantic, and just as he thrust hard for the last time, I lost the battle of wills with my control and I flew over the edge. Lights exploded behind my eyelids, wave after wave of pleasure washed over me, as I felt myself contracting around his hard shaft. My muscles twitched, stripping him of every last drop of him, as he dropped over the edge and came. A loud animalistic growl burst from his throat and he buried his face into my neck. We held still for over 20 minutes as we came back to earth.

Les picked me up and carried me to the bed. He gently laid me down and slid in next to me. I felt like a pile of goo and I'm pretty sure he did as well. We fell asleep in each other's arms, careful not to break the contact we so desperately needed from each other.