Chapter 14
When we broke apart we were both grinning like idiots. I took a small step away from him and said, "I have decided, Ranger, that I'm not going to be like so many other women that have been through this and who break down and are never the same again. Breaking down won't help in the search for Siriano. I'm not pressing charges. I'm not keeping it a secret though. The damage to his ego and reputation will be so bad that jail would be a blessing to him. I want to take a shower and then I want to go start on the search for Ramirez; the sooner that he is caught, the better. The only thing that bothers me is how much Joe has changed. I always thought that he wouldn't ever be like his father. I guess that I was wrong." I hung my head, wondering if it was my fault that Joe had changed.
Ranger tipped my chin back up to look at him with concern in his eyes. He was shaking his head slowly, never allowing our eye contact to falter. "It's not your fault, Babe," he said, "Joe is a good guy, but he grew up without ever learning how to deal with stress or anger. He was drunk when he did this to you. My guess is that Siriano found him in a bar last night and that he had figured that Joe would want to get back at you. If Morelli was sober, he wouldn't have agreed to Ramirez's plan, but that wasn't the case. Ramirez probably doesn't care that Joe has been caught. He just wants to drive you crazy, scare you. Don't ever think that you asked for this. He made a mistake and you are not to blame."
I nodded and then Ranger's cell phone rang. He picked it up and had a short conversation with whoever was on the other line. I waited patiently and eagerly, hoping for news of Ramirez.
He finished his conversation and looked back down at me. "That was Tank. He said that he was just listening to the police scanner and a message was sent through about an apartment being firebombed. He didn't have anything more specific, but and apartment getting firebombed is a pretty rare occurrence, except for you. He said that he would go check out your building for you to see if it was yours. I had Lester and Hal pick up some stuff from your apartment earlier so that you could stay here for a while, so most of the stuff that would be destroyed would be stuff that wasn't of great emotional value to you. Rex is in my office along with your other stuff."
I breathed out a sigh of relief. When I heard the part about the apartment, my breath had caught in my throat. I was so scared for Rex that I almost didn't hear the rest. Luckily I was able to hold back my hysteria and managed to catch the end of his explanation. Now I was just hoping that my bathroom would be destroyed completely. Stupid yellow and green bathroom.
Ranger's cell phone rang again and he repeated the process of his actions only a few minutes previously. Once again, he hung up and turned to me, "Tank was right; it was your apartment. It's destroyed, even the bathroom which I'm sure will cheer you up," I grinned and muttered a relieved "Yes!" under my breath. The corners of his mouth tipped up in an almost smile. "Also, he said that you should probably call some people to let them know you're alive."
I nodded at this and thought. I need to call Mary Lou, Connie, Lula, and my mother. My mother first because I wanted to have her hear it from me first (not that that was very likely; the Burg sometimes seemed to know more about me than I did sometimes), then Connie so that I could catch Lula at the same time, then Mary Lou so that she could start spreading the truth around. Guess I better get started.
When I returned to the living room (I had gone to the bedroom to make the calls so that I could speak to them privately) Ranger was gone. He had left a note on the counter to let me know that he was at the gym. He was probably either beating the shit out of either his men or a punching bag. I decided to use that time to contact Tank to see what hadn't already been done to contribute to the search for Siriano so that I could find something useful to do.
Ten minutes later I had a list of family, friends, and neighbor, my cell phone, my .38, and a pad of paper sitting on the breakfast nook. Time to get to work.
About an hour and a half later, I had gone through the entire list of contacts and had gotten nothing. The problem was that everyone was terrified of the Ramirez family and the family itself was not at all keen to give away the location of their son. Great.
I looked up when I heard the sound of the locks on the door tumbling and grabbed my gun from the table. When the door opened, I realized that I had my gun trained on a very sweaty Ranger and quickly flicked on the safety and replaced it to its previous position on the table. Ranger was smiling at me.
"Glad to see that you are finally aware of your surroundings, Babe," he said still with a slight grin on his face.
"Siriano had better be afraid right about now. I am seriously pissed off right about now and I'm going nuts. He is making me live in fear, which just happens to be something I hate. A woman scorned…" I trailed off with a mischievous grin on my face.
Ranger tipped back his head and laughed at my threat. "Maybe I should thank him," he said, "I've been trying for years to get you to use your gun and he did it in two days."
I glared at him; but then laughed slightly, unable to hold it back any longer.
"Babe, I have some kind of bad kind of good news. Trenton PD was able to get some fingerprints off of the door on your apartment. They match to Ramirez. He is one of the top suspects in the firebombing. He is now wanted for attempted murder along with his original charges and the breakout. Everyone is now looking for him harder than before," he finished.
I nodded without any show of emotion on my face (that I was aware of anyway). I felt kind of relieved that the search for him was now a higher priority than before but now I knew that Ramirez really was out to get me.
Just then, my phone rang. I picked it up with a simple "Yo."
"Hello Stephanie," a menacing voice said.
"Who is this?"
"You know who this is Stephanie. This is the Man. You killed the Champ, now the Man is out to get you. I would watch your back, Stephanie. The Man is like a cat. He will find you and when he does, he will show you no mercy. Morelli was only a taste of what is to come."
"Ramirez?"
"Your mother is a pretty woman, Stephanie. Maybe the Man should show her too. Would you like that Stephanie? I would let you watch."
"You stay away from her you bastard. It's me you want. Leave everyone else out of this."
"Did you like what Morelli did to you? He didn't want to at first, but the Man persuaded him. He shouldn't have been drinking. It was easy for the Man to convince him."
"You were the one helping him, weren't you?"
"Tonight is your last chance Stephanie. If the Man doesn't have you by 3 a.m. your mother will suffer for you. Maybe your grandma too. Come alone. Don't alert anyone to this. If you try to pull anything, the Man will show no mercy. To you or those you love. 3 a.m. Stephanie."
There was the telltale click of a disconnect and my first thought was "Oh, Shit!"
Sorry for the delay. I had writers block.
Reviews are love. Constructive criticism appriciated.