Disclaimer: Everyone belongs to Janet Evanovich except the ones that are mine, and I'm just playing.
Warnings: All 12 books,
A/N: Special thanks to Karen and Luisa and Lindsay and Lisa for editing, support, friendship, suggestions, translations, and general ass kicking.
Thank you to all of you wonderful readers and reviewers. Please keep the reviews and comments coming, you have no idea how much they're appreciated!!!
Don't forget to read Kashy's "Keep The Faith" … you don't want to miss it! Read and review it please, you'll be glad you did!
The Name Of The Game!
By Stayce (XJerseyGirl)
Chapter 25: Trouble!
Steph leaned over and gave Tank a quick kiss before she slid into the back booth at Pino's. Her timing was perfect and she sat down just as the waitress brought the pitcher of beer and two icy mugs that Tank had asked for, and then took their food order. He filled her glass and slid it across the table to her. Steph raised it in salute before she gulped down half of it and leaned back in the booth with her eyes closed.
She licked her lips and sighed, "God! That tastes good!" She held her mug in both hands and smiled at him. "Thanks Tank, this is just what I needed."
"Get tired of all that fancy food, did ya?" Tank asked with a grin.
She snorted. "Don't go there Tank. I ate my way from one end of Europe to the other and back again and I loved every single mouthful! I'm surprised I don't look like a beached whale!" She looked down at herself, "I don't … do I?" She looked at him in panic.
He chuckled, "No Bombshell, you look gorgeous." He shook his head indulgently.
The waitress reappeared and placed their extra-large supreme pizza on the table with a stack of extra napkins.
Stephanie's eyes fluttered shut again as she inhaled the delicious aroma. They both picked up pieces of the steaming pie and as she folded hers, she sighed, "Come to mama!" and stuffed a huge bite into her mouth. "Oh my God! There's no place like home!" she said around the food in her mouth.
"Okay Dorothy, what did you do with Toto and the ruby slippers?" Tank asked with a laugh.
"Go ahead, make fun. But five weeks is a long time to be away from home. Maybe not for you! You guys go off to save the world for months at a time, but this is me we're talking about. Living out of a suitcase even when you have somebody to unpack it and then pack it back up again, never sleeping in the same bed for more than a night or all those trips to the airport, even if it was on a private plane and yo…"
Tank looked down into the beer as he swirled it around in his mug. His thoughts turned to all those missions when they had been gone for months at a time, living in the same clothes for weeks, sleeping on the ground, in caves, in bombed out buildings … running through the jungles or mountains or villages, eating anything they could get their hands on, hungry most of the time, one step ahead of whatever bunch of guys wanted them dead this time. Now they would sit around and reminisce about those missions, "Do you remember when you and Lester" or "How about the time …" as if they were the good old days.
But by unspoken agreement, no one ever talked about their Lazarus mission, only that they had been called for one. These were the ones that they weren't supposed to come back from, these were the suicide missions. Their friends stood behind them and took care of their families and loved ones, like he and Bobby would look after Steph for Ranger.
He and Bobby had already been called for their Lazarus missions. He had been sent to Africa, to a country so poor that most of the warring tribes didn't even have guns, so they hacked each other to pieces with machetes. His purpose for going to that genocide devastated hell hole was to facilitate the escape of a tribal leader being held by the opposing faction. Halfway through his mission, the political climate changed, and he was pulled out. Two-thirds of his team had died for no reason, for nothing at all, and he still wore the scars, on his body and on his soul. He was one of the lucky ones, he came home.
Tank didn't know where Bobby had been sent or why, but he had been gone for eight months and just showed up for work one morning like he hadn't missed a day. He came back a changed man, though. It was almost a whole year before anybody saw Bobby smile.
Ranger was the last of their unit to be called. It had been so long, they all thought that he had been forgotten, so it came as kind of a shock when he got that phone call. Just the voice that said, "Lazarus." That one word was all it took. He wondered if Ranger was still alive or if he was lying in some unmarked grave or held prisoner in some hell hole on the other side of the world. Unless he walked in the door, they would never know what happened to him.
They had all been so young when they signed up for the Lazarus Team, they were so filled with bravado and that overwhelming sense of immortality that only the very young and very stupid have. Only two of the twenty-nine members who had been assigned missions had survived, Bobby and himself. He could only pray that Ranger would beat the odds too.
"Tank?" Stephanie's voice was soft, concerned. "Tank?" She reached across the table and touched his hand.
He startled and snapped his eyes up to hers, "I'm sorry Bombshell, I guess I was lost in thought. So, tell me all about your trip." He said with a forced smile and wrapped his fingers around hers.
Steph sat and studied him for several long seconds. "Those weren't very happy thoughts, were they?" He just smiled and gave a little shake of his head. Her eyes widened, all of a sudden she knew what he had been thinking about. "You were thinking about Ranger, weren't you?"
"Your spidey sense been upgraded to mind reading too?" he teased a little sadly.
She looked away, out the window at the falling darkness. "I think about him every day, Tank. I still have a tough time reminding myself that even if he was alive, we wouldn't be together." She gave a rueful laugh and shrugged her shoulders, "The fact that he didn't love me anymore keeps escaping me."
The big man leaned down and kissed her hand. If you only knew, Steph, if you only knew, he thought sadly.
He decided he'd better change the subject before they both started crying in their beer. "So what's going on with the Ramos Family? The word on the street is that there's gonna be a wedding. You guys set the date yet?" He gave her an evil grin.
Steph turned her head slowly to face him and she narrowed her eyes. The glare she shot him would have made a lesser man shudder, "You better be kidding, Tank. I don't see anything funny in this at all. I'm going to dinner with Niko on Friday and we're gonna settle this once and for all."
"You're absolutely right Steph. This is a weighty subject and should be given the thought and attention that it deserves," he said apologetically as he reached across the table and took her hand. "Just remember that if you ever need help, I'll be glad to be your flower girl." He laughed and ducked as Steph threw a pizza crust at him.
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Ramon Escobar leaned back in the leather barber chair with his eyes closed, trying to relax, while the barber removed the heated towel from his face. Sleep had been illusive this last week and Ranger was feeling the stress of living Ramon's life. This would be the make or break part of the mission, and he had to admit that he was concerned.
He had been on more missions then he could count, in what seemed to be the worst hell holes on the face of the Earth. He had been in jungles, mountains, deserts … cold, wet, hungry, exhausted … but he had been in his element, calm and in control. Now here he was, sitting in a private barber shop in a mansion that was nothing short of palatial, surrounded by a hand-picked gang, and for the first time in his life, Ranger was worried about his ability to carry out a mission.
It had all started insignificantly enough. A minor league crook with a Federal rap hanging over his head, tried to use a piece of information as a bargaining chip to get a lighter sentence. He had heard, he told the Feds, that the Russian mob in New York was trying to get their hands on weapons grade plutonium for some nutcase right here in the good old US of A. He was going to build homemade nuclear bombs and sell them to the highest bidder. Ranger could only imagine the reaction that little bomb got, no pun intended.
The Feds had worked this case for almost two years. Hundreds of agents had put in thousands of hours investigating leads, tracking down informants, and going undercover in an effort to gather information with nothing concrete to show for it. Then, after all the waiting, all the wire taps, all the undercover operations, all of the agents planted in gangs and in prisons all over the country, after all the false leads and disappointments, finally, finally, the contact they had been waiting for had been made. And now it was all in Ranger's hands.
Ramon was a 'facilitator,' he made things happen. He called himself an 'Acquisitions Expert' and his tax return stated that he was in 'Transportation'. The irony made Ranger smile. Ramon thought of himself as a sort of criminal Make-A-Wish Foundation, although there was nothing charitable about it. Name it and you could have it, as long as you could afford it.
What disgusted Ranger the most, was that Ramon had no conscience and would do any job for anyone who had the money.
The Feds had allowed Ramon to operate from prison hoping that his reputation for 'moving merchandise' would lure the Russians into making contact with him. And finally, that's just what they did. Even though he was inside the walls of a Federal penitentiary, Ramon was still able to arrange for Russian 'brides' to be brought into the country for the Red Mafia's prostitution rings. He had brokered arms deals to bring weapons from Eastern Europe to Central American rebels and had delivered huge loads of Colombian drugs right into the middle of The Port of Authority of NY-NJ without so much as having a drug sniffing dog sneeze. Each deal was bigger, more dangerous, and more lucrative than the last, and each deal solidified their trust in him.
This time it was different, though. This time, the Russians refused to deal with any of Ramon's representatives, saying that this was too important to negotiate with middle-men. They wanted to meet, face to face, but only with Ramon.
The Feds knew that he couldn't be trusted; there was nothing that they could offer him to buy his loyalty. Every Federal agency involved in this mission from the CIA to the FBI to ATF to Homeland Security worked to come up with a viable plan. In the end, the only thing that might have a chance of succeeding was to replace Ramon with a look-alike. So here he sat, Carlos Manoso, wearing another man's face, living another man's life. Shit!
Ranger had never thought of himself as an actor, but that's exactly what he was now, and he better be a damned good one. He had worked with acting coaches and behavioral psychologists for months learning Ramon's gestures, his facial expressions, his reactions. He had to be conscious of every word he spoke, getting the voice right every time. He was a man who lived a life of moderation, and now he had learned to yell, to be violent, to appear to lose control, things totally alien to his own nature. And so far, he had managed to fool everyone.
Ranger knew that he would have to do more than look like Ramon from this point on. Even if the man was a lunatic, Ramon was a shrewd businessman. He was intelligent and resourceful, with a huge network of contacts he could tap in to.
He was careful never to get his hands dirty, never to leave a trail that could be followed back to himself. Ranger would have to play this game exactly the same way Ramon would, cunning and street smart and looking out for number one.
He couldn't appear anxious or impatient or too eager for fear of spooking these guys. These were the little fish who would lead the Feds to the big catch. They wanted to find the source who would be supplying the plutonium and the purchaser, who apparently had no problem with nuclear devices being detonated all over America. It was a chilling thought that any terrorist who had the money could change our way of life … forever.
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Stephanie snapped her phone shut and slipped it into her little satin clutch before rethinking her choice of handbag. This one was just going be too small, she thought, and went back into her closet to get a larger one. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was just a tiny bit nervous about having dinner with Niko tonight. After that whole fiasco in Deal, with the shootout and all, she was still a little leery about what Niko may have come up with as a solution to her problem.
He had dangled that quick fix in front of her like a carrot in front of a donkey to get her to agree to dinner and dancing this evening. They had compromised. She had agreed to the date, but she was going drive her own car and meet him there. Not that she didn't trust him, of course. "Of course," he had replied with a laugh.
Granted, Alexander wanted to insure her silence about the Ramos Family business, but she was pretty sure she made it clear that silent was the only thing she wouldn't be if they tried to force her into marriage. Yes, she liked Niko, a lot, but not enough to chance finding herself abandoned on a Greek island with a flock of little old ladies dressed in black for the rest of her life. Nope, she needed a better solution than that one.
She had called Tank to let him know what restaurant they were going to, and that she'd have her own car so she could leave if things got uncomfortable. Still, she dumped her big purse out on her bed, rooted through the pile of stuff and grabbed her little personal stun gun, tossing it into the black satin drawstring pouch she'd be carrying tonight.
She added her lip gloss and driver's license and cell phone. She threw in some money and a couple of Kleenex and went to check her hair in the mirror. She had gotten highlights put in her hair in Germany … maybe it was Italy, or Portugal … someplace, anyway, she got highlights and they made her curls look bright and shiny. When she tossed her head, they fell to her shoulders in that slightly mussed, sexy look that men seemed to like so much. She dabbed some perfume on her neck and into her cleavage, and deemed herself good to go.
She hesitated as she passed her bed, grabbed the mini pepper spray and added it to her purse before she gave a final twirl in front of the full length mirror. She had to admit that she was pleased with what she saw there. She still sported that great tan that she had worked so hard to acquire on the beaches of France and Italy and Spain. Well, that is if you considered it hard work to just lie there and bake in the sun while a steady stream of handsome young men volunteered to apply suntan lotion. Yup, that had been hard work alright, she thought with a wistful smile.
She really wasn't going for sexy tonight, more like chic but whatever it had turned out to be, she thought she looked pretty damned good. She wore a simple black silk dress with a swirly skirt just made for dancing, that she had picked up in France. It was the most expensive piece of clothing that she had ever bought in her whole life, but it was a magic dress. It made her boobs look bigger and her waist look smaller and her legs look longer, so she figured that it was worth every penny … franc … Euro, whatever, it was worth it. The restaurant they were going to tonight was one of her favorites and had a dance floor with a wonderful band, so she was pretty sure she'd be putting the dress to good use.
Her hand on the bedroom doorknob, Steph glanced toward her bed with a sigh, and went back and picked up the gun. She looked down at it in her hand and gave some real thought to wearing her thigh holster and the little Berretta Cheetah, but rolled her eyes and decided that was a bit much, even for her, so she just put the gun back on her bed.
She actually felt a little guilty that she had considered bringing a gun, and she made it all the way over to the door again before she hurried back to the bed and stuffed the gun in her purse. At this rate, she thought, she might as well be wearing her utility belt with cuffs and Mag light and everything!
Steph could smell dinner cooking and she stuck her head into the kitchen, looking for Hal, but the room was empty. She dropped a grape and a carrot into Rex's cage and he did a flying dismount from his exercise wheel to stuff them into his cheeks. He gifted her with a whisker twitch before he scurried into his soup can, apparently forgiving her for abandoning him while she was in Europe. "Night Baby, don't wait up, Mom's gonna be late," she whispered to him. He wiggled his furry little butt in response.
She giggled when she found out where Hal was. He and Connie were on the couch in the living room, making out like a couple of teenagers.
Steph looked at the floor while she cleared her throat. "Hi guys! Just passing through!" She said with a laugh. She shielded her eyes as she headed for the door. Hal and Connie sat up quickly, adjusting their clothes.
"Oh Jeez, Steph! I keep forgetting that you're home!" Hal mumbled, his face bright red with embarrassment. Connie just leaned her head against him and laughed, soft and sexy.
"You two just go back to what you were doing! I'm gonna be late, so don't worry about me." She gave them a wave and as she walked out the door she heard Hal say to Connie, "Come here you sweet little thing!" Connie just said, "Ummmmmm!"
Steph pulled her wrap around her shoulders and was half-way down the front steps when she saw Niko leaning against his Aston Martin, his ankles crossed and his arms folded over his chest. As soon as he saw her, he broke into his devastating smile, making her heart stutter in her chest.
Oh, this is SO not good, she thought as he walked toward her. Her mouth went dry as she watched his long, lanky stride. If she had been horny before, now she was in serious need of several earth shattering orgasms, like right now, and she was sure that the man standing in front of her could do the job. She sincerely hoped that he didn't suggest skipping dinner and going somewhere else because she didn't think that the word 'no' was in her vocabulary.
She stopped on the bottom step and Niko walked up to her, put his hands around her waist and pulled her flush against his body. "Jesus, I missed you Stephanie," and he fused his mouth to hers. The kiss was hot and deep and carried a clear message between them. He slid his hands up her back and she angled her head so that they could deepen the kiss. When they finally broke apart, they were both breathless. He nuzzled her face, rubbing his cheek against hers, "You feel so good," he whispered against her ear and a shiver flashed through her body as his teeth grazed her earlobe.
She turned her face to find his mouth again and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him. She whimpered as their tongues dueled for control of the kiss and when she moved against him, she felt his body respond to hers. From out of the dark a voice barked sternly, "Hey you two! Get a room!" Old Mr. Jacoby from two doors down chuckled as he walked past with his dog and called back over his shoulder, "You're giving me flashbacks! Mona might get lucky tonight!" His laughter receded into the dark.
It took everything she had in her to put her hands on Niko's chest and push him away. She knew that if she didn't put some space between them, she'd throw him down on the sidewalk and ride him like a racehorse. Certainly not something she'd want Mr. Jacoby to see. She couldn't very well drag him back into the house either, not with Hal and Connie on the couch in the living room. So she extricated herself from his arms and stepped down to the sidewalk.
She turned back and looked up at him, smiling, "I missed you too."
"Yeah, I can tell. That's why you're trying to give me a heart attack." He reached for her again, but she danced away from him toward her SUV.
Steph raised her hand and wagged a finger at him. "Nuh-unh! No more of that stuff. You're trying to fog my brain and make me forget why I agreed to meet you for dinner." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Hey, what are you doing here anyway? I thought we agreed that I'd meet you at the restaurant."
He held up both hands in an 'I surrender' gesture. "Okay, you're absolutely right, I promised no pressure. But I finished my rounds early and I couldn't wait to see you. And … to my credit, I didn't call you or ring your doorbell, I just waited out here." He smiled at her innocently. "I don't suppose that I can persuade you to ride with me, can I?"
"NO, Dr. Ramos! We had a deal and we're gonna stick to it! Both of us. You won't pressure and I won't run!" She beeped the locks on her vehicle and climbed in as he walked to his car. She powered down the window and called over to him, "How long were you waiting anyway?"
He stopped halfway into the Aston Martin and smiled, "Almost an hour," he called with a shrug.
Stephanie smiled to herself as she started her SUV and pulled away from the curb, following Niko to the restaurant. Almost immediately, she realized that there was a dark car following her. She tried losing it at a traffic light, timing it so that they would be caught by the red light, but the car blew through the light and trailed her by about half a block. She picked up speed, and so did they.
Stephanie squealed into the parking lot and practically threw herself out of her car, running toward Niko. "Hurry up and get inside! There's a car following me!" She grabbed his arm, dragging him toward the front entrance of the restaurant.
He put his arm around her and pulled her to his chest. "Steph, Steph! It's okay. I'm sorry, I should have remembered. They're my bodyguards. Ever since that night in Deal, Uncle Alexander has them following me everywhere. I'm so used to them now that I forgot all about them. I'm sorry they frightened you."
Steph wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes, leaning her head on his shoulder. He rocked her gently from side to side and she took a deep breath and blew it out as her heart rate returned to normal. He tipped her chin up so that he could look into her eyes, "I really am sorry, Steph." She just nodded in relief and he dropped a kiss onto her forehead. "Are you sure that you're okay?"
"Yeah, but I think we're even in the heart attack department now!" and she gave him a weak smile.
The walked slowly to the entrance and a pretty hostess opened the door and greeted them. They were escorted to one of the private dining rooms and the young woman pushed open the double doors and stepped aside to let them enter, then closed the doors behind them.
It took a few seconds for it to register in Steph's brain that she was facing a large group of men who were standing in a circle. In the center of the circle stood Alexander Ramos. She realized that she recognized some of the men, Stavros and Panos and Costas and others from Alexander's compound, some of them she knew from the Greek restaurant in Long Branch, some were Alexander's friends. She took a step back and tried to pull away from Niko but he held onto her arm. "This isn't what you think Steph, I swear," he whispered to her.
She shot him a glare and hissed, "You know what I think? I think that I'm gonna wind up on an island somewhere surrounded by little old ladies dressed in black. I have friends you know, friends who'll come looking for me."
"This is the perfect solution to the problem and it'll make everybody happy. Please, just go along with it and everything will be fine, I promise. This will only take a minute and I'll explain everything. Please Stephanie, trust me."
Shit! She thought. She'd heard that 'trust me' line before and she knew just how empty and hollow trust could be. She was about to bolt when the doors opened and Niko's two body guards stepped into the room behind them. There was no escape. She squared her shoulders and looked at him. "It looks like I don't have any choice but to do what you want me to do. But let me tell you, trust has nothing to do with it." Niko gave a single nod, "Good," was all he said.
He escorted her over to the circle which opened to allow them to enter, and Niko stood with her in front of Alexander who picked up a Bible from a small table in front of him. Alexander took her right hand and placed it on the book and spoke to her in Greek. Niko leaned in and whispered, "Answer 'Ne'," and she wondered what she was agreeing to.
Niko produced a small knife and cut a small slit in his own thumb, squeezing it until there was a large drop of blood on his finger. He handed the knife to Stephanie who swallowed hard, and did the same thing. Alexander pressed their thumbs together and held them in place for a few seconds when he raised their joined hands up high and announced, "Estafania Ramos!"
When he let go of her hand, the room erupted in cheers and the men crowded around her, smiling, laughing and kissing her on both cheeks. Champagne corks popped and the room was filled with a stream of waiters carrying trays of food and wine.
A little dazed, she looked at Niko. "Stephanie RAMOS? What the hell just happened here? What was this all about?"
He handed her a glass of champagne and she took a big gulp. "I guess the easiest way to explain it so that you'll understand is that you just became a 'Made Man' in the Ramos Family." If there hadn't been a chair behind her, she would have landed on the floor on her ass.
"Made as in MAFIA 'Made'?" She squeaked. "As in member? As in 'paisano' member?"
"Yeah, that would be you. The first female member of the Ramos 'Family'," he said as she slugged down the rest of her champagne and held out her glass for more.
"Are you …?" she pointed at him a little shakily.
Niko just raised his eyebrows and shrugged ruefully, "Yeah, that would be me, too." Niko snagged a pair of champagne glasses from a passing waiter and handed one to Steph who pretty much inhaled it and licked her lips.
"So, explain to me how this solves the problem. Don't you have to kill somebody to be a 'made … Oh!" She grabbed his glass and drained it, too. She supposed that the guy she shot in Deal qualified her.
"The Family Council voted to make you a member of the Family and you just swore a blood oath to protect and serve like a good soldier. He held up his thumb, "Ramos blood flows through your veins," he said dramatically and received a loopy grin from Stephanie. He grabbed her hand as she reached for another glass off a passing tray. "I think you better have some food, Sweetheart!" and waved over a waiter.
Hours of food and drink and dancing later, Niko poured Steph into his Aston Martin and drove her home. She had been quite a hit at the restaurant, especially when he asked her for her car keys so that one of his bodyguards could drive her vehicle home for her. She had rooted around in her purse, trying to find them, and had attracted smiles from the crowd as she took out first her lip gloss and tissues and then her cell phone. Her purse-size defense spray earned her laughter from the group and they howled when she put her mini stun gun on the table. But when she pulled her Beretta out of her bag and brandished it in the air, the whole group hit the floor, much to Steph's confusion.
She had a lot of trouble getting out of the low car and standing on her feet, and she decided that it was her shoes that were conspiring against her. Niko wound up slinging her over his shoulder and carrying her up the stairs to her front door.
She felt great and knew exactly what was responsible for her wonderful mood … "Red, Red wiiiiiine," she sang as she hung upside down, over his shoulder, "la-la-la youuuuuu, la-la-la- dooooooo … red, red wiiiiiiiiiine!" She wiggled on his shoulder and slapped him on the butt in time with the music she heard in her head. He laughed all the way up the stairs.
"You know you hava grade ass? Yaever look add it inna mirr?" She reached down and squeezed his cheeks with both hands. "Graaade ass! Morelli usta have the bess ass in Trenon. Bu I havnent seen hizass inna loooong time. Tooooo bad, soooooosad! Red wed wiiiiiiiiiine…."
He deposited her on her bed and helped her off with her shoes and dress, kissed her on the cheek, and told her he'd call later on. She grabbed his tie and hauled him down to her mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck. He couldn't resist kissing her, she tasted of wine and strawberries and she was delicious. And she was deliciously drunk so he unwound her arms and laid her back on the bed.
She might feel great now, he thought, but Oh Man! What a head she was going to have when she woke up. He couldn't help but smile as he pulled the covers over her and slipped out of her room, hearing her humming, 'Red, Red Wine.'
Stephanie threw back the covers and fell out of bed, for some strange reason her legs just wouldn't cooperate. She finally made it into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge and she smiled as she took the half full bottle of wine off the shelf. She closed the refrigerator door and slid down it to the floor. Getting the cork out was a challenge and she fought with it for a minute. Finally, she just sank her teeth into the cork, twisting the bottle and pulling hard.
When the cork finally popped out her head slammed back into the edge of refrigerator door so hard that she saw stars. She didn't mind and just took a long pull from the bottle. "Red, red wiiiiiine," she sang, thinking that she had a really good voice and couldn't figure out why everybody always laughed when she sang. She noticed that Rex had stopped running in his wheel to watch her. "Ooooh, Wexy!" She stage whispered, "You like my sigin toooooo!" And she giggled as she yawned and fell asleep on the kitchen floor, right where Hal and Connie found her in the morning.
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Roberts deposited Ramon's bags outside the front door so that the chauffeur could put them the trunk of the limo before Ramon left the house. When Senor Escobar was ready to leave, he wanted to walk out the door and get in the car and go. He didn't want to wait for anyone or anything and Roberts made very sure Senor Escobar never had to wait.
Ramon and Che were in the office, working out their final plans for their first face to face with the Russians. Problems had arisen with this initial meeting and had wound up in a standoff. The Russians had refused to come to Ramon's compound, and Ramon had refused to go to Brighton Beach. Both sides had compromised and now, they would meet in neutral territory in New York City, in public places that could be secured so that neither side would have an unfair advantage.
The Feds had made all of the arrangements for Ramon, and for once had been smart about it. A suite at the St. Regis, dinner reservations at the Four Seasons, everything was in place to impress Ramon's success on this bunch of thugs. In Ranger's opinion this gang was only about one step above Stark Street gang bangers. They had nothing to lose, and that made them dangerous.
Ranger had been outfitted with the latest in spy gadgets, from cameras to microphones to GPS trackers that looked like they came out of a James Bond movie. Every security measure possible had been taken, not to insure his safety, but to insure that the information that he gathered wouldn't be lost. From day one, Ranger knew that as long as the intel was collected, Ramon was expendable. Ranger had to watch his own back because if anything went wrong, no one would be coming to rescue him.
Roberts held the front door open as Ramon walked out to the limo. On the far side of the driveway, in front of the garages, Tony and Paco were busy washing cars, scrubbing tires with toothbrushes, and polishing chrome. They stopped what they were doing when they saw him, staring at Ramon like he was a celebrity. Tony looked at Paco and leaned over the hood of the car they were working on, "We have to come up with something that's gonna make him notice us. 'Cause if we don't we're gonna be washin' cars forever. We gotta show him what we can do!"
Paco nodded in agreement and they watched as Ramon's limo pulled down the driveway and through the gates.
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Two days after Stephanie's run in with red, red wine, she and Niko decided to spend a day down the Shore. She was still pretty uncomfortable at the thought of going back to the house in Deal, considering what had happened the last time she was there. So today, they were going to spend the afternoon on his sailboat that he kept at the Shark River Marina in Belmar.
She loved going out on his boat, it was fun and relaxing and Niko was wonderful company. The thought of spending the day watching him, bare-chested, working the sails or behind the wheel, made the heat pool low in her belly. One of these days, she decided, she was actually going to get him in the sack. She smiled at herself in the mirror as she pulled her hair up into a pony tail and swiped on some mascara.
She had a few errands to run so instead of wearing her bathing suit and cover up, she quickly dressed in a sleeveless white shirt over a red tank top and a short denim wrap skirt. She threw her bikini and towel in her canvas bag and she was good to go.
Steph was going to bring a picnic basket and decided to pack it with all the things Niko liked. She started at People's Bakery for a loaf of fresh bread, and then ran to Tasty Pastry for cannoli. She picked up a bottle of Limoncello and some club soda at the liquor store and then took off for Giovichinni's on Hamilton.
She parked in the tiny back lot at the Meat Market and slipped in the back door, put her basket over her arm and took her number at the Deli Counter. Giovichinni's had all kinds of Italian goodies and by the time she was through, her basket was full. It was true, she thought, you should never go grocery shopping hungry. She had gotten ham and salami and a couple of different cheeses, marinated artichokes and fresh mozzarella, ripe plum tomatoes and crusty Italian bread, pasta salad and grilled chicken and fresh fruit. By the time she was finished, there was enough to feed a small army but the salt air always sparked their appetites. And just in case they decided to spend the night on the boat, Stephanie wanted to be prepared.
Juggling her grocery bags and purse, she opened the back door with her hip and went out to her SUV loading everything into the front passenger seat. The parking lot was so tight that only one person at a time could fit between cars and Steph had to wait for the passenger to get out of the van parked next to her.
He looked at her and frowned, "I think you're getting a flat," he said and pointed at her front tire, stepping out from between the vehicles so that she could see. She made a face, this was so not what she needed this morning, and she blew out a deep sigh as she leaned down to look at the tire.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone reach out of the sliding door on the van and a hand was clamped over her mouth. Before she even had a chance to react, she felt cold metal touch the nape of her neck and heard the telltale sound of a stun gun. She fell into the big black void that opened up in front of her, thinking that she wouldn't be going sailing today.
Ranger and Stephanie had been friends and lovers and partners.
He had been gone three months, three weeks, two days, nine hours, and sixteen minutes.
TBC …
A/N: Just when it looked like things might start running smoothly for Steph … So who do you think has her? And why? And most importantly … Who's gonna save her this time?
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