Chapter 21

Stephanie's POV

Ranger stepped forward. Although there was no change to his facial features, I got the distinct impression he wasn't happy. "Stalker? I made a reference to you having dealings with stalkers. Not once in that conversation did you mention you still had one."

Lula opened her mouth to say something, but one look from Ranger had her looking to the sky as if she were seeking divine intervention.

His gaze returned to me, and I knew there wasn't going to be anything to save me from having to talk. The growling of my stomach deflected the tension just a bit, as Ranger turned to Hector and in rapid-fire Spanish, he told him, "Grab something for the ladies, and bring it to the conference room."

Hector hesitated for a fraction of a second, then nodded and replied, "We haven't checked out the equipment in there yet. That's on the agenda for this afternoon."

Ranger nodded. His hand descended on my back as he indicated I should precede them into the room. For a minute, when Lula went to follow, I thought he was going to tell her not to come. He glanced at me for a split second, then allowed her to follow without comment—as if he'd seen something in my expression that told him I needed her with us for this.

The conference room was much like you would expect—a table with several chairs set around it, as well as a whiteboard mounted on the wall and a laptop on the table. One wall was mostly window; however, the lighting in the room was muted with the venetian blinds closed. There was a small alcove that held a mini fridge, sink, counter, and coffee maker. Everything you would need for a business meeting. The chairs were much like the ones at the desks out on the main floor—in other words, adequate for use but lacking in comfort.

We took our seats, and I found myself between Ranger and Uncle Terry. There was silence for several seconds as everyone sat staring at me. My stomach chose that moment to let itself be known once again. I could feel the heat in my cheeks as smiles appeared on the others' faces.

Ranger looked to Uncle Terry and asked, "Would you like something to drink, Mr. Akron?"

Uncle Terry nodded as he said, "I'd appreciate some coffee if you have it."

Lester stood and moved over to the alcove. He measured out the grounds and poured water into the machine to start it brewing. While he waited for it to finish, he took out several cups from the cupboard before turning to ask, "Is there anyone who wants something different? There's other drinks in the fridge."

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and gently bit down on it as I debated whether to stick with the coffee or ask for a Coke.

Lula grimaced. "No coffee for me. That shit goes right through me, and I don't got time to be hauling ass to the bathroom every five minutes. I'll take a Coke, and bring one for Stephanie too, why don't ya."

Lester's eyes widened as he looked at me.

I smiled as I said, "Yes, please."

Nodding, he opened the fridge and grabbed two Cokes before turning to pour the now brewed coffee into cups and placing the beverages on a tray to carry over to the table. He was just setting the platter down when the most delicious smells made their way into the conference room.

I lifted my nose to take a whiff and closed my eyes as I absorbed the aroma.

Lula started sniffing as she looked around. "I smell meatball subs…pizza…Italian sub…and…" She lifted her nose a little higher and took a bigger whiff before, eyes widening, she broke out in a huge smile. "Tarametsue!" She turned to Tank and glared. "I hope whoever is bringing that food brought enough of that for everyone and didn't get stingy like some people I could mention."

Tank glared right back at her but remained silent.

We didn't have to wait long because the door opened and Hector walked in with a large box filled with lots of brown sacks. He set the box on the table, and when Lula went to reach for a bag, he held up a hand and said, "You wait."

She sat back with a pout on her face.

My mouth watered as I watched Hector unpack everything. There was a large container that he took over to the counter in the alcove, and when he came back, he was carrying plates, knives, forks, and spoons. Once he had everything uncovered, he looked at me and smiled. "Estefanía goes first."

I went to stand, but he held up a hand. "You tell me, I fix."

Smiling, I told him, "It all looks so good. I don't know if I can choose."

He grinned, then proceeded to place a small portion of each dish on my plate before setting it before me, along with utensils.

My eyes widened at the amount of food on my plate. It was like going to a buffet and piling your plate as high as possible without everything falling off. Hector managed to make it so that nothing was overlapping though. My stomach let out another growl.

The corner of Ranger's mouth twitched. "Better start eating, Babe. Wouldn't want the beast getting any angrier."

I rolled my eyes at him and then stuck my tongue out. The heated look he sent my way told me if we'd been alone, he would've been reacting in a whole other manner. I quickly looked at my plate and reached for the quarter of a meatball sub that was on my plate. I took a big bite and closed my eyes in pleasure as the wonderful flavors hit my taste buds. A moan escaped before I could stop it.

Lula reached for a plate and said, "Let me get me some of that."

This time, Hector didn't comment, so she loaded her plate.

Once Uncle Terry had filled his plate and started eating, I turned to him and asked, "What happened to Mr. Dillard?"

He had a fierce look on his face. "He's no longer working for my company. There were a total of five people who needed to be replaced. It was easy enough. General Cooperman has three sons who were all looking for work. One call, and he sent them over, along with a couple of their friends."

I frowned. "Wasn't he in the unit with you and Daddy?"

He nodded. "That's right." He grinned. "And I know damn well they don't have a problem working with people of any color, since they are a mix of several races. Chance is Comanche, French Creole, and Cuban, and his lovely wife is black with German, Dutch, English, Italian, and Norse."

I shook my head. "It's hard to believe the boys are that old already."

He chuckled. "They turned nineteen on their last birthday." Turning to the others, he continued, "Justin, James, and Jeremy are the general's three sons. He also has three daughters—Kandy, Kaddie, and Kourtney, who also just celebrated their nineteenth birthday. Diane Cooperman only had one pregnancy, and she has six children as a result. They didn't want to take the chance of a repeat performance."

Lester's eyes widened. "Can't argue with that logic."

I took a drink of Coke to wash down the food that I had just swallowed before asking, "You won't have any negative effects from what Mr. Dillard was doing, will you?"

He shook his head. "Don't worry about me, princess. I'm rock solid. There will be a write up in the paper later today. I'm guessing that our orders will be picking back up in the very near future."

Hector brought out the container he'd put on the counter, and sure enough, the thing was filled with tiramisu. He gave me a generous portion before dividing the rest between the others.

Ranger was the only one to pass on the treat. I finished mine and looked over to see his still sitting there. I looked up at him and asked, "Aren't you eating yours? It's really delicious."

His lip curled slightly in a small smile. Reaching out, he pushed the dish so that it was sitting in front of me as he said, "Go for it."

I grinned. I didn't need any second bidding to dig into the dessert. My eyes were closed as I savored the flavor when I heard Lula squeak. Opening my eyes, I turned to look at her.

She smacked Tank's forearm with the back of her hand and said, "You're fallin' down on the taking notes front. I don't see you pushing your dessert my way."

Tank glared. "This is my dessert, woman, and there ain't no way you are getting any of it. You got your own."

She pouted like she had when Hector had made her wait before filling her plate.

Just then the door opened, and Red stepped in. She took in the spread on the table, and her eyes went to Lester. "You're just racking up the demerits. I didn't get a call telling me there was spaghetti in the building. I had to sniff it out. There better be enough for me to have some, and if that's the last of the tiramisu, you'll be sharing yours."

Lester's eyes widened as he looked frantically at the container of spaghetti before he relaxed. "There's plenty, Red. Come on over and join us."

She placed a generous helping of spaghetti on her plate and then scraped the rest of the tiramisu onto a smaller plate, setting it beside the spaghetti. Moving over to the fridge, she grabbed a container of iced tea and poured some into a glass before joining us.

When Lula saw Red scraping the last of the dessert onto her plate, she gave the dish a wistful look before letting her gaze move to the rest of the food and settling on another portion of Italian sub.

I had to agree with her choice. Of all the food, I'd most enjoyed the portion of Italian sub that I'd had. Italian bread sliced in half to make an open-faced sandwich, Italian hamburger, Italian beef, sliced tomato, pickle, sliced banana peppers, and meatballs, all on one side of the sandwich, covered with sauce and then mozzarella cheese. The meatball sub had always been my favorite…until I got one taste of that magnificent creation. Now I was hooked. Unfortunately, I was stuffed.

Reaching for my Coke, I took another drink as I looked around the conference-room table. The others were finishing up as Red was digging into her meal.

I was hoping I would have a delay in the conversation that I knew was coming, but Ranger dashed my hopes when he said, "All right. We've eaten. Now it's time to face the music. I need you to tell me all about this stalker."

Red's head lifted as her eyes widened. "Stalker? Who has a stalker?"

I let out a forced breath. "The real reason that Lula and I left Trenton was because I had a stalker."

"No shit?!" Her eyes narrowed. "Stephanie… I didn't hear your last name. You wouldn't happen to be Stephanie Plum, would you?"

I nodded. "One and the same."

"Holy crap! You burned down the funeral home! Wasn't there something about a circus too? Three mob bosses brought a circus to Trenton to cover up a major operation, and the whole thing went up in smoke when two of the spectators got into a knock-down, drag-out fight. Weren't you one of the ones who got in the fight?"

My cheeks heated and I lowered my eyes. I couldn't help peeking at Ranger to see how he was taking the news.

His eyes were narrowed in thought, but he didn't seem overly upset. The corner of his mouth started to lift. "RangeMan was in on the sting operation. Whoever started the fight did us a huge favor in distracting everyone's attention so we could move in and take down the parties involved."

I grimaced, then said weakly, "It wasn't my fault."

Red grinned. "What happened?"

Lula spoke up. "Joyce Barnyard's what happened. That horny bitch sat down and started spouting her mouth off about what a catch her new boyfriend was and how great he was an' all."

Lester looked puzzled. "Why would that matter?"

Lifting my shoulder in a shrug, I said, "Because the day before, her boyfriend was my fiancé. I decided to surprise him and showed up at his place. Only thing is, I was the one to get the surprise when I walked in and he was doing her on the dining-room table. I left my keys and walked out."

Red looked hot. "Good for you! Low life didn't deserve you. I hope you gave it to the skank."

I winced. "Well, by the time we were done rolling around, she was nearly naked and a good chunk of her hair was missing. I got a couple of bruises and a scratch or two, but that's about it."

Lula shook her head. "You should have listened to yourself on that one. After what he did to you on the first day of kindergarten, he didn't deserve no second chances. You're too soft sometimes, always thinking the best of people."

Red frowned. "What do you mean, what he did the first day of kindergarten?"

Lula looked over to where Red was sitting. "School had just got out for the day, and as I was heading toward the sidewalk to walk home, I seen this older boy run up to Stephanie and knock her down. She was trying to get out from under him, but he was about twice her size. When he tore her dress, I got mad and stomped over to give that bully a fist full of reasons to leave her alone. See, at lunchtime that day, some of the girls in our class was giving me a hard time and telling me I was too fat ta sit with them. Stephanie smiled and called out to me, asking me to sit with her. She was so nice ta me, it made up for those other girls. Anyway, I grabbed that third-grade boy, Dickie Orr, by the hair and pulled him off her and beat the holy crap outta him. Then I walked Stephanie home." She turned to me and said, "The look on your daddy's face was one I'll never forget."

A low growl from down the table had me looking in that direction to see Hector's eyes glinting. My eyes widened as the fact Lula gave the boy's name registered, and I hurried to say, "Daddy made sure Dickie regretted his actions."

I jumped as Red slammed her hand on the table. The look in her eyes promised murder. "If the asshole's still breathing, it wouldn't have been enough." She turned to Lester. "Anybody does something like that to Ava, and you'll have to bail me out of jail on a murder charge."

Lester shook his head. "I'd be right in there with you."

Ranger's hand descended on my forearm.

I looked up at him, and even though his look seemed relaxed, I felt the tension emanating from him as he asked, "Let's get back to the stalker."

I shrugged. "I don't know who it was. Everywhere I went, it seemed like there were notes that they were going to make me pay and how they were going to make sure no one else could have me. Daddy thought it might be Dickie and caught him outside the police station when he was leaving after seeing a client." I grimaced. "Dickie has seen the error of his younger ways and is now an upstanding lawyer in the community." I smiled. "Although he no longer has any hope of running for public office because the whole town knows what he did—the Joyce thing really blew up in his face. Anyway, after talking to him at length, Daddy said that Dickie didn't have what it takes to actually be a stalker. Although, he didn't rule out his hiring someone."

Lula grinned. "Your daddy's idea of talking to him was the same as mine when we was in kindergarten."

Uncle Terry nodded. There was a smile on his face as he said, "Frank never was one to suffer fools in silence. Of course, we both hated that you were hurt by what Dickie did. It was the happiest day of both of our lives when you broke it off with him."

Turning to look at him, I said, "I know you don't believe me any more than Daddy did, but I really wasn't hurt by what Dickie did. I was relieved not to have to marry him."

Uncle Terry's eyes narrowed. "So you really were just marrying him to make your mother happy?"

Uh-oh! I sat frozen for several seconds, trying to figure a way out of this. If I told the truth, then Uncle Terry would be on the phone the second he left here, calling Daddy to tell him they'd been right about my affections not being the reason I was engaged with the weasel and it was Mother's harping that had worn me down in the end. Of course, once he told Daddy that, then Mother would be in for a lecture about interfering in my life once again, and then ten seconds after that lecture ended, she'd be on the phone to me, lecturing me. I let out a deep sigh. I loved my mother, and I know there wasn't a mean bone in her body. She just wanted very badly to see me married with a family of my own. She didn't see how I could be happy living a life where the man wasn't the center of my universe and I put my ambitions behind me and spend my life taking care of a husband and giving her grandchildren.

A muscle clenched in Ranger's jaw. "Back to the stalker…"

I smiled at him. Although I didn't want to talk about that either, it was the lesser of two evils. "Between Daddy and Joe Morelli—my brother-in-law—they ruled out all the likely suspects. Dickie, Vito Grizzoli, Harry the Hammer, Eddie Abruzzi, and Benito Ramirez." I lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

There was absolute silence for several heartbeats before Ranger's eyes narrowed on me and he asked, "Why those particular suspects?"

"Vito, Harry, Abruzzi, and Ramirez were all involved with the circus. Each of them lost a fortune. Then of course there was the BMW dealership that Abruzzi owned and the laundry service that Vito owned."

Ranger grabbed a pad and pen and placed it before me. "Write down anyone who might have even the slightest reason to come after you."

My eyes widened. "That's quite a list."

He nodded to the pad. "Don't leave anyone out."

My bottom lip made its way back between my teeth. "That's just it. I've already done a search into all of their backgrounds, and it just doesn't feel like one of them is responsible."

"Give us access to those files so we can do some looking as well. Until we determine if there is a legitimate threat, you'll need someone with you wherever you go."

Lula muttered, "Uh-oh."

Tank frowned. "Why uh-oh?"

Uncle Terry started chuckling.

Everyone looked in his direction.

"It's been nice knowing you, Manoso."

Ranger raised an eyebrow.

I smiled sweetly. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I've been doing it for twenty-nine years and see no reason to hand control over now."

Ranger smiled. "Twenty-nine, Babe?"

I rolled my eyes. "All right. Thirty. Happy now?"

He chuckled. "You still have control for now, as long as there are no incidents and the danger level is low, but if that changes at any time, I'll reassess and take the necessary actions to ensure your safety."

My eyes narrowed. "So as long as there are no incidents, we continue with the status quo, except that I'll have someone following me around?"

His head moved in the smallest of nods. "Correct."

I gave a single nod of my head. "I can live with that."

"I know that you've already looked into the potential suspects, so if you could let us have copies of that information, I'd appreciate it."

One again, I nodded. "I can give you a file on everything that I've done. A second pair of eyes wouldn't hurt."

Ranger asked, "Has anything happened since you've been in Miami to make you think that your stalker has followed you?"

I glanced over at Lula. She got that bulldog look on her face and crossed her arms over her chest. I knew that if I wasn't forthcoming, she would rat me out. I looked back at Ranger and said, "Three nights before you and Tank showed up, there was an attempted break-in. When we looked at the video surveillance, nothing showed up. I back-traced the breach to Newark."

There was an odd look on Ranger's face, as if a piece of a puzzle had just fit into place.

When he didn't comment, I added, "I don't know if it was the stalker or if it was something to do with the situation here."

He nodded. "All right. We'll look into all of it. For now, we'll be on alert." He turned to Uncle Terry. "I assure you, General, we'll take very good care of Stephanie."

"Good to hear. I'll call her daddy and tell him what's going on."

I winced before asking, "Can you emphasize that I'm doing great and everything is under control?"

Uncle Terry laughed.

Lester shook his head. "Don't be afraid of your daddy, Beautiful. We'll protect you."

My eyes widened. "Do you know who my dad is?"

Lester shrugged. "I'm sure Mr. Plum is a reasonable person. He sounds like a good dad. Just looking out for his little girl."

Uncle Terry nodded. "That's him in a nutshell. But just so you boys have an idea of who you'll be dealing with if anything happens to his pumpkin, General Frank Plum will have your heads on a platter."

A low whistle came from Tank's direction.

I looked over to him, and his eyes were gleaming at me. "Damn, we're getting slow. We should have put it together when his name was mentioned. Little girl, that just changed the playing field." He looked around the table.

Following his example, I looked around at the knowing expressions on the others' faces and knew that Daddy's reputation had preceded him and these guys knew exactly who he was. I turned to Ranger, and there was a smile on his face.

He leaned in and whispered, "I hope you like shadows, Babe. It looks like you're going to have more people watching over you than you bargained for."