Chapter 41
I couldn't help it, I was so tired, and I could be stood up and slept. This jerk had locked me into a bedroom and left me. I'd tried all the doors, windows and looked for anything to help me get out, but there was nothing, the furniture was solid wood so I couldn't break it, there were bars on the window with shutters pulled closed outside and the only door was locked. There was a bed though and a bathroom, I used the bathroom and then with sheer exhaustion creeping through me I lay down in my thinking position, pillow over my head. I hoped Grandma was all right; she'd been so still laid on the bed, I nearly had a panic attack thinking she'd died, then that man had come in behind me with a knife. Yeah I knew enough to be able to disarm him, problem was he said if I tried anything his friend who was stood behind the door would finish Grandma off. What the hell was I supposed to do? So I went with him, all quiet like he asked, I couldn't think of any way to let Carlos know what had happened, I knew they'd somehow got to Ram, he was slouched over the wheel of his car, I hope he's okay. The man had blindfolded me once in the car, though he hadn't hurt me, I worked out that I was maybe forty minutes outside of Trenton, but somewhere really quiet. I'm sure the last section we travelled on was a gravel drive, so maybe a house in the country. God Carlos must be frantic by now. When I woke up I realized there was a cover over me, though I was still in my thinking position, I calmed myself and focused, just like Tobi had taught to do, yes, there was someone in the room watching me. I heard him move.
"Miss Plum or is it Mrs. Manoso?"
I decided I wasn't going to answer him, let him fill in the silence.
"I know you're awake, so you need to listen very carefully, then maybe, if I think you're telling me the truth I'll let you go"
Yeah right, like that was going to happen.
"You know something and have something that I need"
Really, heard that one before.
"All right I'll get to the point. A letter that has names on it from a dead man, Thomas Grossman, a series of documents left in an old safe in a bank and a priceless set of jewelry. Those are what I want"
Now what was so important about that letter and the names? I can see the attraction of the jewelry, worth millions, I think. And how did he expect me to get them?
"Shall we have this conversation, or are you going to ignore me?"
I suddenly felt the feeling of sickness come over me, oh no, I needed to throw up; I remembered where the bathroom was and rolled over to try to make a run for it. Unfortunately that man decided to try and stop me, well what can I say, he should have got out of the way, because two seconds later and I had thrown up right down his nice clean jacket, shirt and trousers, and yeah probably his shoes. Hey, I felt better and there was nothing on me. From the bit of light in the room I could tell he was, to say the least, shocked, then from his gruff response, disgusted. All right Stephanie, you have the advantage here, go for him. So that is exactly what I did, I used my fists on his face and head, then swung my body raising my leg to kick him in the stomach. He fell to the ground with a series of groans, I must admit I lost it a bit, how dare he just snatch me, how dare he hurt my Grandmother and how dare he cause Carlos to worry. By the time I slowed down he was out cold. I rifled through his pockets and found a gun and the keys to the door. Now what, if there was someone else in the house I didn't want them to know I'd knocked that man out. I snatched the sheets from the bed and started to wrap him up, making sure a bunch of material was in his mouth, once done I dragged him across the floor into the bathroom and quietly shut the door, with him inside. Now to get out of here, with the key in the lock I listened and focused, I couldn't sense anyone, so carefully unlocked the door and opened it by just a crack, enough to see through. All clear, so I opened the door and went out into a hallway, then carefully locked the door behind me. It seemed like a big house with lots of doors, but there was a stairway down to the lower floor. Keeping to the wall I snuck my way down, no other sounds came to me and I could see the front door ahead of me. Problem was if that was locked I could be trapped and that just wasn't going to happen, so instead I veered to the left into what must have been a dining room. There was talking now, only faint coming through a door, maybe a kitchen? So I headed in the other direction and came into a large sunroom, with big glass doors. The light was brighter here, the moon just peeking through the clouds, but enough to illuminate the bolts needed to open the door. OK, if the house was alarmed this would set them off so I needed to quickly open the doors and run like hell. I peered through the glass to decide where I needed to run and then counting down from three I dropped the bolt, opened the door and ran like hell toward the trees. Yeah you guessed, the alarm went off, wouldn't it would be sweet if Rangeman monitored it!
Chapter 42
I was still sat in the war room with machines humming and men working. The mood had become somber as one by one the addresses we'd looked at came back negative. Don was still busy with searches, but to be honest it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I was skimming through the file on Ben Grossman when a thought suddenly hit me, he'd said a man had visited his house and told him he had to scare or hurt Steph, we'd all just assumed the man was Langley, but what if the man was this last person, the son? I walked behind Don.
"Don it's a son, maybe fifty to sixty, lots of money, position of power"
"Cal go see Ben Grossman and take Daniel, get him to give Daniel a description of the man who visited him so Daniel can do an artist impression for us"
I looked up when Vince came in to speak with Tank, concerned he had bad news, Tank met my eye.
"No, nothing on Steph, the alarm just went off at that Senators house and he's a high profile client so I'll need to go"
"Who's that?"
"Senator Stephen Michaels"
Stephen Michaels, now why did that give me a feeling in the pit of my stomach? I remembered him at our visits, mid fifties, well dressed, well spoken and extremely pompous.
"I'll go, Santos, you're with me. Don every search you can on Senator Stephen Michaels"
I might be going out on a limb here, but I needed to trust my instincts, and my instincts were telling me he was the one. Tank gave me a look, as if to say "You sure?"
"I've got a gut feel about this"
"I'll send a team as backup to come in from the other direction, stay on the radio"
"Santos, you ready?"
"Ready to rock n roll"
We were both dressed in our gear, two guns and two knives and took one of the Cayenne SUVs from the garage. I drove in silence, quickly negotiating the quiet streets arriving at the gates of the Senators mansion. Using the over ride code on the gates we made our way down the drive toward the house. The lights were all on, and I could hear the peel of the alarms. Unspoken we separated; I went around the back as Santos began to inspect the front for evidence of a break-in. At the rear of the house I'm sure I saw movement out toward the wooded area, a gentleman was stood by the open doors of a conservatory, dressed in a dressing gown. Maybe I'd been wrong and he'd been asleep when someone tried to open those large glass doors. I approached the man, aware of my surroundings.
"Senator Michaels? Rangeman patrol, you're alarm triggered showing a break-in"
"Oh, it 's all a misunderstanding, one of my men decided to open the door to go for a smoke, he didn't realize it was alarmed"
At that moment Santos came around and stood next to me.
"Do you need us to reset the alarm?"
"No, no, Jackson's on it"
At that moment the sound stopped abruptly, I stepped closer to the Senator, and that's when it hit me, the sweet smell of someone having been sick. Now don't get me wrong, I don't in any way like that smell, but when you have a wife who still throws up in the confines of your bathroom, it's a smell I've become very sensitive to. He pulled his dressing gown tighter around himself, but not before I noticed he was still fully dressed underneath and if I wasn't mistaken he looked as though he had the beginning of bruises on his face.
"Well Mr. Michaels, we'll do a perimeter search just to make sure that the grounds are secure"
"No need, just a false alarm, err, thank you for responding so quickly"
I gave Santos a small nod and turned to leave, turning my mic and bud on.
"Tank, send a team to search the grounds, but be aware hostiles in the area"
As we approached the SUV I peeled away on foot into the garden area as Santos drove the car out of the gates, he'd park the car and double back.
"Got your back Ranger, car's outside, hidden, I'm about twenty foot behind you"
"I'm heading for the wooded area, you follow the perimeter and head in from there. I could feel Steph was near, I just hoped and prayed I found her before those henchmen did. The moon had now disappeared behind cloud and left the woods in total darkness, I moved carefully between the trees trying to pick out anything that might give me a clue. The grounds were large but eventually ended with a strong fence to prevent any intruders getting into the property. Up ahead, I'm sure I heard voices, and yes there were the beams of their flashlights, as I gained distance they obviously weren't bothered about being quiet.
"She's just ahead of us, in front of the fence, she can't go any further, you go to the left and I'll head her off from the right, use your light on her, then she'll be sure to know we're coming for her"
"The boss said he wants her alive"
"Yeah well, what the boss wants he don't always get, besides she'll be alive, just hurting some"
As I came closer to them beams of light illuminated my Babe, she was away from the wall, stood straight and tall with her eyes closed in a position of readiness, I was still too far away to take either man out and shooting wasn't an option with Steph so close to them.
"Santos, go for the one on the left, Stephs right"
"Roger"
As the man on her right approached her she launched herself, taking the guy by absolute surprise, she pivoted low to the ground and as her body spun brought her foot up onto his shoulder, knocking the torch out of his hand, and him to the ground. The torch went out, but when the other guy tried to illuminate her with his, she was gone. I heard scuffling from my left, Santos I hoped.
"Got him subdued and cuffed"
Good now where was my Babe. I didn't have time to think as another umph came through the air, she'd come up behind him and knocked him out cold, how the hell had she done that. I smiled as I started to walk toward her, my footsteps obviously loud enough to hear, but she didn't turn around.
"I knew you'd come for me"
Santos was to her before me and as he secured the second man she turned and started to walk toward me, then her smile froze and her gaze was on something behind me.
"You bitch, all you had to do was give me that stuff, now you'll suffer, you'll hand over where everything is or I'll shoot your dear husband in the back"
The Senator had come up behind me and I hadn't realized, shit, so much for being aware of my surroundings, I'd been too engrossed in making sure that Steph was safe. Steph stood still and looked beyond me to where Stephen Michaels obviously stood.
"Why, at least tell me why you're doing this?"
"I'm not giving away my secrets to someone like you"
She closed her eyes and seemed to ground herself, then raised her arm with a gun in her hand pointing toward me, where the hell had she got the gun? But that wasn't my biggest concern here.
"You going to shoot your own husband for me?"
Obviously she'd focused onto exactly where his voice had come from, she gave an infinitesimal nod of her toward her right, her eyes still closed, body in a shooting stance, was I supposed to move to my right or was she going to shoot to my right? As her finger pulled the trigger I dropped and rolled to my left, I swear I felt the air pressure increase as the bullet passed by my head, and then there was silence.
"Fuck, Beautiful, that was a hell of a shot"
She laughed; honest to god she laughed and came up to me holding her hand out to help me to my feet.
"Thank you"
"Babe, what for, you got your man?"
"For trusting me to take the shot"
I pulled her to me, savoring the feeling of her in my arms, then tried to kiss her with all the pent up emotion I had been feeling, but she pulled away.
"Babe?"
"I must smell and taste of sick"
"I don't care, you smell and feel like you, my Babe"
With that she closed the space between giving me a passionate kiss, a cough behind us had me turning to look at Santos.
"Err, what we going to do about him?"
Santos had his foot on Michael's chest and a gun pointed at his head, blood was pooling on his shoulder where the bullet had hit him.
"I want to talk with him, he owes me"
Steph had walked over to the man and was now bent down next to him.
"I want some answers"
He grunted, obviously deciding not to answer, that's when Steph pushed the muzzle of her gun into the shoulder wound hard enough for him to grimace, loudly.
"I can always put another bullet in here you know"
When had Steph become so forceful and strong?
"You put me and my baby at risk, so I will get my answers"
And there it was, her eyes shone with anger, her face was set as in stone, Mama bear had come to the surface and god help anyone who tried to threaten her. Michaels obviously saw the same look of absolute determination on her face and started talking, slowly and quietly at first but then took on an attitude of defiance, as though he had every right to behave the way he had. I spoke into my mic for Tank to pick up.
"Make sure you get a recording of this"
"It's that stupid bitches fault, father should have gotten rid of her at the start"
"You mean Elspeth?"
"Yes, he told me how whinny she became when she was little, so he arranged for someone to take her out of the country. He carried on working as part of the gendarmerie and built up a fortune from the loot he collected. When he came to America he was a very rich and successful businessman, easy for him to change his name. He married my mother, and even though he was older than her, I was born. Then that stupid half sister of mine cottoned on to who he was, he wouldn't acknowledge her and died soon after. She seemed to disappear and I didn't hear from her until about a year ago, she tried to blackmail me, me a Senator, so I decided to device a scheme to get back those documents"
Steph was now fully intrigued and I could see her putting the pieces together.
"What did you think were in the documents?"
"Details of what my father had done, the money he'd taken, it would have finished me if people found out. She found out about Grossman and then remembered about his visits to that bank, we put together a plan to have you release the documents so I'd leave with my name intact and she thought she'd take any money or valuables. You see my father always said there were pieces of jewelry worth millions that disappeared when Grossman went"
"Didn't go to plan did it Mr. Michaels?"
"No, she got too many people involved, that good for nothing son of hers and grandson, then using those biker thugs, it was doomed from the start"
"Why did she hate you?"
"Because father wouldn't acknowledge her as his daughter and she was jealous of me, I honestly thought she would give up my name when she was caught"
Steph signed and stood up.
"She felt betrayed by him"
Blue and white lights were flashing in the distance, the police had arrived and as if on queue Eddie and a plain clothed detective walked from the trees toward us.
"Steph, you OK?"
"Fine thanks Eddie, you need us to stay?"
"Nah, Tank transmitted everything through to us, so we're up to date. If you and Ranger can call into the station to sign statements in the next couple of days we should be good"
I shook hands with Eddie and with an arm around Steph we began to make our way back to the front entrance of the grounds.
"So. I'm gonna be an uncle then?"
Trust Santos to pick on that. Hearing no reply he decided to continue.
"Can't wait for a mini Ranger or Bombshell to hit the corridors, shit we won't know what's hit us"
Steph was tiring as we walked, so I swept her up into my arms, she smiled at me.
"It's OK, we need to tell people. Lester can you please keep it a secret until I've had my first appointment with the doctor?"
"No problem, for you Beautiful, anything"
Epilogue
I am sat quietly within the hustle and bustle all around me. I would say someone looking at me would think I was contemplating, and I suppose I was. There's nothing more soul baring than remembering things that have happened to you, how you spoke with someone, listened to another and I suppose reacted to a situation. Sudden noises had me looking up, I wasn't sitting with my back to the wall, but my viewpoint gave me a panorama of all that was happening around me. I focused beyond the small area I was in, to the movement of people beyond, so many people, all of them intent on where they were going, a single purpose in mind. Some were walking, others almost at a run, moving in all directions, yet seldom coming into contact with anyone else. There were colours from coats and scarfs, with every mode of fashion I had ever seen. Old people, with faces that could tell you a lifetime of stories, unseeing eyes, shuffling with their sticks and walkers. Young mothers with toddlers running to keep up, being held so tightly by their little hands. And the young business men and women, striding with a confidence of power, in their suits and shiny new shoes, heads held high and shoulders back, giving out an aura that had others moving out of their way. A rumble reverberated through the floor signaling the arrival of another train, then as if by magic a surge of people were leaving the hallway on their way home or back to work on the train that had just arrived. I returned my thoughts to the task at hand, and my mind to the thoughts I needed to organize. My life had changed in so many ways, I could never have envisaged, never have dreamed of how different my life had become and I would never return to the way I had once lived before. But that was not what I needed to think about, I had to concentrate, but I was having an internal fight with myself, do I or don't I? Am I important enough? Will anyone be interested? Will I upset or alienate others? Or will someone say "well done"? Someone had told me I needed to make the decision for me, for how I would feel. So here I go again a decision that I needed to make, that would allow me to move forward with a clear conscience, proud of who I was and where I had come from, perhaps also for those who were no longer here to make that decision. After the events unfolded following the demise of a very popular Senator Stephen Michaels I was inundated with letters, some with praise and admiration, others scorn, the aforementioned man was now serving a very long sentence in prison and if the General who came to see me had anything to do with it he'd never get released. Yes I'd met the General and he'd tried to intimidate me, no chance, he said he'd met his match in me and wished Carlos the best of luck, what was that all about? As my pregnancy continued I became so bored, cooped up and with no way to fly, though the sleepiness had lessened, I sometimes enjoyed the freedom to do as I wanted. No bounty hunting but lots of searches and Carlos even had me with him at client meetings; you know to give that female perspective. Well I was restless and still mulling over all the information I'd come across. Grandma hadn't truly recovered from her ordeal and was becoming weaker by the day, so I decided I wanted to write down a history of my family and yes just the Hungarian side, I didn't think of that woman as my mother any more and my father had moved away leaving a very bitchy sister. So I spent every afternoon I could sat in my old apartment and together, my Grandmother and I, wrote all her memories down and I added those fateful events that had turned my world inside out, recounting the action of a family at war with each other through their greed and hatred. I named names and places and what had happened me, right up to the eventual outcome of my happy ever after with the love of my life. Yes Carlos and I were even more in love than I thought possible, living between Rangeman and the beach house. I didn't use real names for my new best friends; theirs was a friendship that had grown, as I might add had Bobby's and Angels.
By the time I had completed the story my Grandmother simply gave up, she said it was time for her to join her parents and husband, I also think the actions of my mother weighed heavily on her. We did her proud though, with an open casket, where she looked peaceful and at rest, supplying lots of cookies for all the mourners who turned out. Not long after I received an invitation to allow my Great Grandfathers jewelry to be included in an exhibition dedicated to people whose skills and crafts had been lost during the war. No way was Carlos allowing me to travel, so eleven months later I found myself in the beautiful city of Budapest, my jewelry on display, and yes we had an army with us to ensure their protection and my safety. I'd brought my story with me, saved to a file on a USB, not sure exactly why, I'd talked a lot with Carlos as to what I should do with it.
A tingle on my neck had me looking up from the screen in front of me toward the doorway. My eyes looked into deep brown ones, a smile at the corners and a grin across his face. He walked with determination weaving through the desks and chairs to sit down next to me.
"How's it going Babe?"
"Just about there, I've uploaded the file and put in the addresses, just ready to hit the send button"
"Proud of you Babe"
Yes, and I was proud of myself as well, we'd come through so much together and I felt a peace wash across me. At that moment three more people surrounded us, waiting expectantly.
"Beautiful, you done yet, because I swear this little rascal is ready to run off"
I looked toward the bundle now being held tightly in Lester's arms, squirming to be let go of.
"Come here my little Tesoro"
Arms automatically came out toward me and I took my precious little bundle, dressed in blue and black, yeah I compromised on the black to stop Lester from whining. Carlos held tight to his small bundle, dressed similarly but with pink and black, she wasn't going to relinquish the hold of her father, because she knew too well how she could manipulate that father of hers. Yes two children, fraternal twins, and now ten months old, delightful and charming, yet imps at the same time. I nuzzled our son against my cheek, his dark, straight hair soft against my face and his darker skin contrasting against my hands. He was his mummy's boy, the looks of his father with those soft brown eyes but the character of me inside, he was the more outward going of the two, chattier and loved his food, but his protection for his sister was almost psychic, I swear they had a connection that only they knew about. His sister, now almost asleep was so different, she had my blue eyes, which is why I think Carlos was so enraptured by her, straight brown hair and skin the same tone as her brothers but lighter than their fathers. She had some of my qualities, she loved to sleep and I'm sure she had that spidey sense of mine, but beyond that she was her fathers daughter, quiet, thoughtful and loved to solve a puzzle.
"Babe, you going to hit send? Then we can get on our way back home"
I nodded, and started to type the introduction to go along with the attached file, then hit send, it going out to a variety of news papers, publishers and the internet at large.
"This story is for my children, Edina and Mikeás, as a testament to their heritage, and in memory of their ancestors who lived so bravely. For Edna Mazur, Mikeás and Helene Stefanie, Thomas and Rebeka Grossman, There must be justice even though the heavens fallFree your heart from hatred
Free your mind from worries
Live simply
Give more
Expect less