Thank you for all the reviews and for taking the time to read my story. I appreciate each and every one. We are getting near the end of this tale and pretty soon you'll see what's going on with all of Rangeman's budding romances—and why I called this "The Magic Kingdom". Thanks again for all your patience; I know my chapters were very slow in coming.
Chapter 21
Magdalena's POV
"What? Do they think I don't notice?" I said to John after Tank and Lula reappeared from their 'walk'. "I was young once, too. First Ranger and Steph, then Lauren and Brett and now Tank and Tallulah. I just love that name; I don't know why on earth she would shorten it," I added, getting sidetracked for a second. "What is this place becoming? A hotel for lovey dovey teenagers?"
"I hate to tell you this," my husband of 35-years retorted, digging a fork into the tomato salad I had left on the counter, "but they are hardly teenagers. Ranger is the same age as our Lydia. Probably Tank, Lula and Steph are, too. I think Brett and Lauren are younger but I'm not good with this stuff. I think they are here because this place is a tropical paradise. And who wouldn't want to get engaged in paradise?"
"Engaged? Is that what you think is happening?"
"Well, we know Steph and Ranger are. They told us," he laughed, sneaking another forkful of tomatoes. "I happened to notice a ring on Lauren's finger earlier and I think I just caught a glint of something on Lula's. Yep, I'd say the lot of them are gearing up to get married. And if this threat still exists a couple of weeks from now, Father Xavier may get the opportunity of a lifetime."
I threw my potholder at him. "Shut up for once, John. I was being serious."
"So was I. Can't wait to hear what Gloria and Ricardo have to say about their baby tying the knot. This is like a soap opera. I wonder why you aren't more involved? You love those things. And don't you think I didn't notice that there are 3 bottles of champagne cooling in the fridge? Brett brought two and Lula and Tank another."
"What?" I questioned, opening up the refrigerator to take a look. "Holy Moley, you're right," I conceded, slapping my hand over my mouth with my outburst. God help me.
"And look what's on the dinner menu tonight," he continued. "Lobster. I would say that's an engagement-worthy fare."
"We get local lobsters all the time and I think the champagne's a coincidence," I told him but not 100% believing it myself. "Can you get the grill going?" I asked as I dropped one of the lobsters, head first, into the boiling water. People say they can hear them scream, but I've never heard anything. It's as humane a way to put food on the table as it is to sever their spines—which I just can't do. Five minutes each in the pot, cut them in half, remove the inedible parts, brush them with melted butter and then onto the grill to finish them up.
"The grill is ready. I put it on when I saw Tank and Lula coming up from the beach," my husband told me.
"Do you want to let everyone know dinner is minutes always? Or should we hold off on the grill until people start making appearances?"
My husband picked up his phone and sent a text to someone—probably Steph. He isn't one to go around waving the dinner bell.
"I think we'll be good," he told me with a big grin on his face.
Hector's POV
My brain was thinking in Spanish today—as it does when I have a lot to accomplish in a short period of time. I had gotten Petryaev to tell me why he was here—and yes, it was politically motivated—like I thought. Putin doesn't like looking bad. Petryaev was here to take out a possible Trump contender—Elizabeth Warren. I have never voted; and I don't take sides politically but the idea of killing someone because of their political views, especially a woman, goes against my grain. He's lucky I was feeling generous today or he'd be missing a few body parts. Instead, I decided to take him to meet the two people he wants to dispose of most, besides Ms. Warren, Tank and Ranger. So, I reserved a NetJets flight out of Mercer.
Brown and Santos helped me escort our 'guest' onto the plane without much fanfare. Bobby had given him quite an injection and strapped him onto a rolling gurney. Between Bobby's scrubs and Lester's suit we looked rather respectable as we made our way to the waiting plane.
Unfortunately Argo wasn't our pilot today but Captain Whelman was. At least he was a familiar face who had taken us to Puerto Rico a couple of times for extraditions. And on the surface, this looked similar although the last-minute exchange of Ramon and Manny for Lester and Bobby probably gave him some pause as they, like me, were head-to-toe in black giving us a sinister appearance. I'd arranged for a copter to pick us up at the St. Thomas airport. We'd used the hard-packed sand of Ranger's beach as a make-shift landing pad before and we'd do it again as there was no way I was taking Petryaev on the ferry with or without another injection.
You might wonder why I'd take Oleg 1,624 miles to visit my bosses when I could just as easily dispose of him here? Well the answer is simple, I wanted to see him piss his pants. I wanted to see him squirm and I wanted to see him beg for mercy. He also had no idea where we were going, if he was aware at all, between his punishment session with me and Bobby's syringe. And I liked the idea of him waking up looking into the blank faces of Ranger and Tank. Yeah, this was going to be good.
Of course, I called Ranger to let him know we were on our way. I'd never enter Ranger's private space without giving him fair warning, although he's told me on more than one occasion that it wasn't necessary. My call, aside from being a heads up, also gave me information that I wasn't yet aware of; because of storms in the area, Argo had spent the night on the estate. Ranger put him on and we made arrangements to fly back together later this evening. While I had visions of the plane on autopilot while Argo and I took in some recreational activities, I knew he was much too responsible a pilot, and a person, for that. I'd have to settle for dinner and a nightcap back at his place later.
When we landed in St. Thomas, Petryaev was still groggy. I had a feeling we had under thirty minutes before he was lucid and ornery again. Bobby had given me a full syringe of whatever it was he used to knock him out, but truth be known, I was squeamish about giving anyone an injection. Manny said he'd do it but since he and Ramon weren't making the last leg of the trip with me, I didn't want to wrangle Petryaev all by myself when he was dead weight. Although listening to him scream and curse me out in Russian didn't sit well with me either. In the end, I explained to my heli pilot that he'd just come out of a very painful surgery and I was transporting him home to rest. I didn't think an African-American pilot with the last name of Byrnes would understand Russian, but screaming is screaming and Oleg seemed to like using his voice as an intimidation factor.
Good thing Bobby's injection held. We landed on the beach with Petryaev just starting to come around. I had to laugh out loud as Tank and Ranger practically ripped the gurney off the copter with Petryaev still strapped to it. The force of bumping a number of times on the hardened sand had Oleg opening his eyes. Looking right into Ranger's, he closed them again, letting out an 'oh, shit' in heavily-accented English. Oh shit is right. This was going to be good.
I bid the pilot adiós as Ranger and Tank began wheeling Oleg down the beach in the opposite direction from Ranger's house. I made sure Byrnes took off again before I followed. We didn't need a nosy pilot interfering with personal business.
Ranger's POV
I learned about my sister's engagement at the dinner table last night. Obviously my father and mother knew what was happening but it was kept secret from myself and my four other siblings. I only learned that they'd been dating last year but, from the talk at the table, it seems like their relationship had been going on since I opened my business and asked my sister to be our part-time bookkeeper. That's going on 4 years now. I knew they were close but since Lauren had been spending an awful lot of time with one particular woman in high school, I assumed she was gay and never paid any attention to the budding romance that was happening under my eyes. Yes, I needed to be more aware of my surroundings.
When Brett and Lauren got up to get champagne from the refrigerator, the table received another piece of news—Tank had proposed to Lula on their walk earlier. She said 'yes' and was now sporting a king-sized rock on her finger. Not that Lauren's was shabby. If asked, I'd say the net value between the 3 rings was somewhere around a half-million. Lula mentioned that she had brought a bottle of champagne too and took off to the kitchen after Lauren and Brett to retrieve it and probably to share her news with them.
Once champagne flutes were passed around and we toasted to everyone's happiness, I noticed Brett looking over at Argo. If I didn't know better I'd think he wanted him to comment on the Rangeman news. I didn't expect a statement from him, one way or the other, since I knew he wasn't a big talker. It was one of the reasons we got along so well. If I was going to spend hours in the air, I'd rather not have to make small talk on top of it.
The looks between Argo and Brett seemed to turn into a staring match and I was about to break the tension and question what this was all about when Argo suddenly put down his napkin and stood.
"Ok, ok. You win, Brett. I...I have some news to share too. Deep breath, Argo. As you probably know, Hector and I have been dating for the last year..."
"Is that what you call it?" Steph whispered to me.
"...well, I too made a ring purchase today," he went on. "Two rings in fact. I don't know where this is going to go but Brett thinks all of you should know that I plan to give one of them to Hec."
"You and Hector are going to get married?" Steph blurted out. "I'm soooo happy for you."
"I don't know that we're going to get married, that's kind of up to Hec but I was hoping he'd wear one of them to show our commitment to each other. I'd rather this not be all over Rangeman, so can you keep this a secret for now? Just the..." he looked around before continuing. "...just the eleven of us know. God, that's more people than I wanted to share this with. I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Steph interrupted. "This is the best news I've heard all week. Well, besides Lauren and Lula's news. I'm sooo happy for everyone. This is just too unbelievable. You do realize we're going from zero marriages at Rangeman...to four. Un-fu...un-freaking believable. I'm sooooo freaking happy."
"I think this deserves another toast," I said pushing my chair back to stand. "Hell, ya," I said toasting the group and uncharacteristically laughing. The military among us would understand.