Disclaimer: Not mine and will return them shortly to JE

Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'm thrilled that so many of you are so involved in this story. We're through the angst for now and it's time to give Les and Steph some happy.

Fair warning...after my beta cleaned up this chapter, I went through and changed and added some things. Mistakes are all mine and since I updated this on my iPad, you can expect more than a few. Lol!

Chapter 26

SPOV

For the next two weeks, Les and I stayed locked up in our house. Yes, OUR house. He begged me to give him back the key that he so stupidly left for me to find, and I did without much hesitation. Les brought back his clothes that he packed that night, and he took the two weeks off work so that he could stay with me. We spent everyday together and Les was instrumental in keeping me calm and very happy.

Bobby came by everyday to check on me. He had originally arranged to stay with me at the house, but backed off when Les moved back in. He lectured us everyday about making sure I was calm and relaxed. I argued with him that Les' 'attention' was the perfect relaxant, but Bobby just glared. He didn't agree that Les' very thorough attention was good for me or the baby. Although, my blood pressure did stay normal that entire two weeks, so he couldn't complain too much.

My followup appointment with the doctor went perfect. He took me off complete bed rest and told me to just take it easy until the delivery. I could go back to work as long as I kept calm and didn't try to do too much. Since all I did was client meetings, I wasn't too worried about overworking myself. They weren't stressful at all.

Les returned to work the same day I did. He locked himself in his office his first day back to RangeMan to catch up on paperwork. I had meetings lined up all day offsite, so I grabbed Bobby and we headed out. I signed the three clients that I had meetings with, and Bobby and I returned to RangeMan to share the good news with the rest of the team.

When we pulled into the garage and parked, another RangeMan SUV followed us in and parked beside us. I climbed out of the SUV and met Bobby at the elevator. Whoever was in the other vehicle didn't get out right away, so I didn't think much about it. Bobby and I stepped into the elevator and I turned around laughing about something Bobby said when Mark's face appeared in the crack of the closing door.

His glare sent shivers down my spine. His normal smiling face was hard and his eyes were lifeless. Mark still scared me, but he'd been ordered to stay away from me if he wanted to keep his job. The core team still wanted to fire him, but I needed to keep him close until I figured everything out. You know, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I was doing just that.

The elevator opened on the fifth floor and I got swept away by a bunch of muscled men in black. I hadn't seen most of the guys that morning because they were all in a meeting with Ranger when Les and I got to the office, and Bobby and I left before it was over. I got several hugs and a crap ton of 'welcome backs' as I made my way around the floor. I loved my bunch of Merry Men.

Les' office door was still closed, so Bobby and I headed toward Ranger's. He and Tank were inside deep in discussion about something, but both smiled when we walked in.

"Good news." I smiled brightly back at my bosses and handed them three signed contracts. They read through the paperwork and both smiled at me again.

"Good job, Little Girl. I'm amazed that you got all three of these signed today. You just made RangeMan 4 million dollars." Tank hugged me and kissed my ridiculous curls.

"It was nothing. Every one of those clients practically begged me to let them sign. They've heard good things about the company, I didn't have much to do with it." I tried to diminish my role, but no one was having it.

"No, Babe. You have everything to do with it. Our new client numbers are up fifteen percent since you started handling the meetings. Our current clients have never been happier, and they are resigning their contracts left and right. RangeMan has a good reputation, but you're the icing on the cake. You do things that Les and Bobby could never do. I'm proud of you, Babe." Ranger pulled me into a hug and wiped a stray tear from my face. Stupid pregnancy hormones.

"Thank you for saying that. I really enjoy what I do. I'm glad that I'm making such a difference in the company." The guys all smiled at me again and I excused myself to find Les. I wanted to share my good news with him.

I knocked on his office door and didn't hear any movement behind it, so I tried the knob but found it locked. I knocked again and waited until Les opened it. He looked tired and frustrated. I walked into his office closing and locking the door behind me. Sitting on his desk in front of him, I ran my fingers through his hair and massaged his scalp. "Everything okay?"

He enjoyed my fingers rubbing his head for a few minutes before sighing and looking up at me. "Yeah. Just trying to get through all this crap. Most of this is forms for the government since I'm not re-signing my contract. They want me to fill out all this shit and jump through their hoops." I could see the frustration on his handsome face, so I tried to rub the tension lines away and he relaxed for a second, but tensed back up when his phone rang.

"Yo...yeah...Not going to happen...I'm swamped in paperwork...There's no one else?...okay...I'll suit up and be down in 10." He hung up and let out a long sigh.

"Guess that's my cue to let you get ready." I hopped off Les' desk but didn't get very far. He pulled me down into his lap and kissed me passionately before pulling away and resting his forehead against mine.

"I gotta go help with this takedown. Ranger needs me to be on the inside with him." I nodded and kissed him again.

"What time will you be home?" I knew takedowns had the potential to run late, but still wanted to know what time to expect him back.

"Not sure. It will probably be late. Don't wait up for me." He kissed me again and stood me up off his lap. I watched him walk to the small closet that he had in his office. He strapped on his bulletproof vest and numerous guns. He hid his three knifes in the various places on his body and clipped on his utility belt and attached the radio. God he never looked sexier than when he was decked out in urban commando gear.

"I know that look, and you need to put it away until later. I have to be in the garage in four minutes. That's not enough time, Beautiful." His eyes were sparkling and his voice was full of mischief. I could have him if I wanted to, but I didn't want to make him late. I simply walked over and placed a kiss on his lips.

"Be safe." He smiled and kissed me back and walked toward the door.

"I'll be safe. I want to know what dirty thoughts were going through your mind just now. I expect you to tell me when I get home later. I'll wake you up." I smiled and blew him a kiss as he walked through the office door toward the stairwell. I glanced around the quiet office and sighed. The papers on his desk were scattered and about to fall off, so I moved over to adjust them back into a somewhat organized pile. A colored picture caught my attention, so I pulled it out from under a stack of forms.

It was the picture that Mark sent him. I glared at the snapshot obviously taken with a cell phone and printed from a machine at Wal-Mart. Looking at it made me sick, but my instincts were screaming at me. Something in the picture didn't add up, but I wasn't seeing what it was. I sat down on the couch looking at the photo trying to wrap my brain about what I was seeing. Finally, it hit me.

Mark claimed that I took off my engagement ring and told him that I loved him, but in the picture you can clearly see the sparkle of my diamond still on my finger. Anger, like I'd never felt, consumed me and I knew what I had to do. I had to confront the lying asshole.

Storming out of Les' office, I looked around the control room for Mark, but I didn't see him at his cubicle or by the monitors. I walked toward Cal who was watching the live feeds. I knew he could tell me where the ass was.

"Hey Cal, I need your help." He turned and smiled at me, and I swear the tattoo on his forehead smiled, too.

"Whatcha need, Angel?" All of the guys were so willing to do whatever I asked. Scary.

"I need a location on the DB." 'DB' was code for douche bag. The guys started calling Mark that months before. No one besides Tank and Bobby knew exactly what happened between Mark and I in the beginning. They knew something went down and they all knew that it was bad enough for me to feel uncomfortable around him so they dubbed him DB. I just went with it.

It wasn't until Les' return that the whole truth came out and I was more than surprised how the guys rallied around me. I was so scared that they would look at me differently, but that wasn't the case. Instead, they became even more protective of me.

"Looks like he's in the gym. Why?" Cal looked at me cautiously.

"I need to talk to him and it needs to happen now." I stood to head toward the gym, but Cal's hand on my arm stopped my forward progress.

"Take someone with you, please. I don't trust him not to hurt you." The concern he had for me brought tears to my eyes and I couldn't find the words to use. I just nodded my head and decided to find Hector. I knew he could watch out for my safety and keep his distance, so I could talk to Mark one on one.

I headed to the second floor where Hector's office was and talked to him about what I wanted to do. He agreed to go to the gym with me and give me space to talk to Mark. My heart was beating and my nerves were going crazy with each step we took. I guess Hector felt my trepidations because he silently grabbed my hand and squeezed it in a show of support. I smiled, wanly, at him in thanks and opened the gym door.

Mark was lifting weights with his partner Rabbit spotting for him. Neither of them noticed Hector and I as we approached them. Hector faded into the shadows and I walked right up to the two men.

"I need to talk to Mark, would you mind leaving us alone Rabbit?" The young kid looked nervously to Mark and then back to me. Mark moved his head toward the gym door. Rabbit took one last look at me and headed out of the gym. Mark and I were alone, or so he thought.

"Did you finally come to your senses?" Mark sneered at me and I couldn't help my eyes narrowing at him.

"You might could say that, but not how you're thinking." I handed him the picture and watched a sick smile spread across his face.

"That was a good night. I wanted a memory. You look well satisfied." My lip turned up involuntarily in a sneer.

"I look passed out, but that's not what I have a problem with. Do you see something else wrong in this picture?" Mark raised an eyebrow and looked at me. He studied the picture for a second and then shrugged.

"See the problem with lies is that you have to remember them. It's hard to keep lies straight in your mind because your brain is constantly fighting with what really happened. See, you said that I came on to you. You said that I approached you and took off my engagement ring and told you that I wanted you, not Les. Right?" I paused and watched the thoughts run through his mind.

"See, you're having to go back and try to remember the lie that you told me." His face turned hard and cold and he glared at me.

"I didn't lie. It really happened that way. You're just scared to admit it." I smiled at him because I knew I had him.

"So, you're saying it happened just like I said?" He nodded and stood from the weight bench.

"Then tell me why my engagement ring is still on my finger in that picture." He glanced down at the photo and his eyes focused on the sparkle on my left hand. I saw his jaw tense and the photo crinkle as his grip tightened around it.

"That's what I thought. Thank you for proving that you're nothing but a liar. Nothing happened that night. You drugged me and staged this whole fucking thing. My question is why? Why would you do that to me?" I was beyond pissed and my voice rose as I talked to him so that by the end of my thought, I was screaming at him. He sneered at me again and took a step so that he was right in my face. His voice was low, so it wouldn't be picked up on the cameras. He was smart, but I was smarter. I had Hector outfit me with a mic and set it up to record the whole conversation.

"I did it because you are mine. Always have been and always will be. I know that you and Les are just a passing fling and you'll come to your senses eventually and come crawling back to me. I tried to hurry the process along, but it backfired on me." He grabbed me by the upper arms and I gently shook my head to tell Hector not to interfere. I needed more information out of him.

"What did you give me that night?" His grip tightened on my arms and I felt the anger boil inside him.

"Ketamine, GHB, and Rohypnol. Typical date rape drug cocktail. You were like putty in my hands after you took that last shot." He leaned forward and took a deep breath.

"You tasted good too, just like I remember." My stomach rolled thinking about what he did to me while I was passed out.

"Did you..." I swallowed, unable to ask the question, but he knew what I wanted to know.

"Nope. I like my women a bit more responsive than what you were. I did get a taste and do a little exploring. I wanted to get...reacquainted with your gorgeous body." He squeezed my arms harder and I let out a whimper.

"What about the ultrasound? How did you work that?" He smiled big and let up the grip on my arms.

"That was easy. The technician was an old girlfriend and I told her to change the date to what I wanted. I told her that you were trying to trap me into a relationship, but I really wanted her. She fell for it, of course, and the rest was easy. She even convinced your doc that his measurements were off. He about blew my whole plan apart." Mark looked thoughtful for a minute and then shook his head as he smirked at me again. "She's been a welcomed distraction in my bed while I wait for you, but I'm tired of waiting." He brought his mouth to my ear and licked the lobe. "Now, are you ready to be a good Tigress and come home to me?" He pulled away and the look in his eyes was cold, hard, and lifeless. I knew then that he was fucking crazy.

"Never!" His grip tightened again causing me to cry out in pain.

"Then I'll make sure that your baby dies before it takes its first breath. Don't test me on this, Steph. There are drugs that will take care of it or I could just shoot you in the stomach. Either way, the brat dies...Les blames you...you come to me. I will have you one way or the other." Tears were rolling down my face as I struggled in his grasp to protect my unborn baby. He laughed when realized what I was doing.

"Protect it all you want. Come home with me or it dies." I was scared for my baby and knew that I needed to get away from Mark before he did something to hurt me. I glanced to where I knew Hector was standing and nodded my head, telling him that it was time to play.

I didn't even see the punch that knocked Mark out. One second he was gripping my arms and the next minute he was out cold on the floor bleeding. Hector caught me before I went down with him, and I felt his strong arms circle around me as I melted into his embrace. I heard a commotion at the gym door and looked to see Les, Bobby, Tank and Ranger all come running in. I didn't expect them back so soon, so someone must have called them back from the takedown.

Les pulled me out of Hector's arms and into his own when he reached us. "Baby, look at me. Are you okay?" I looked at him trembling and nodded my head. I felt a blood pressure cuff tighten around my arm and glanced into the worried face of Bobby.

"Your BP is a little high, Steph. You need to calm down. Les, take her to the bench and sit with her. Do what you can to calm her down." Bobby's voice sounded frantic, so I allowed Les to guide me to the bench. He sat behind me and rubbed my shoulders as he whispered into my ear. I focused on the cadence of his deep voice and before I knew it, I was asleep.

I woke up on the couch in Ranger's office. He was behind his desk working, but when he saw my eyes open, he got up and squatted in front of me.

"How are you feeling, Babe?" He brushed some curls off of my face and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"I feel fine. Where is Les?" Not that Ranger wasn't nice to look at, but I wanted my fiancé. Ranger let out a deep breath and sat in one of the guest chairs across from the couch.

"He's down talking to Mark. We have him in a holding cell. Hector let us listen to the tape that you made. I must admit, that was some pretty good work. You got him to tell you everything." He smiled at me.

"I got lucky because he got cocky. He thought his voice wouldn't get picked up by the cameras in the gym." I shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

"You did good." He looked at me seriously again. "What would you like done with him?" I wanted him castrated and sent to prison, but I doubt that could happen.

"I just want him gone. Can he go work in another office or something?" Ranger smiled at me and shook his head.

"He no longer works for this company. I can't have a rapist working for me. I understand that you want him away from you, but do you want him to disappear..." He let the sentence hang that way. What was he saying? Disappear, as in permanently?

"I don't want anyone getting into trouble because they took care of my problem. Maybe you could just send him to Nigeria. I doubt he would survive there." I was only joking and I thought Ranger understood that when I heard him laugh.

"I never thought of sending him to a third world country. That's a perfect idea, but let's send him to Somalia. There's no way he'll make it out of there alive." Ranger stood up and patted my knee and then returned to his desk. He had a conversation on the phone with someone while I laid on the couch shocked. He wouldn't really send Mark to Somalia, would he?

Les walked into the office a few minutes later. He looked angry and his hands were bruised with open wounds oozing blood. I knew if his hands looked that bad, then Mark must look horrible.

"I'm so sorry that I wasn't here when you woke up, Baby. I was taking care of a problem." I rolled my eyes and smiled at him.

"How does that problem look?" I pointed to his hands so that he understood that I knew and I was okay with it. He returned my smile and placed a kiss on my lips.

"He looks unrecognizable." He bent to kiss me again, but the clearing of a throat interrupted us.

"You have your own office, Santos. Take your woman in there if you want to suck her face." We could both hear the teasing behind Ranger's words and it made us chuckle. Les wiggled his eyebrows at me before turning back to Ranger.

"Is everything set for the transport?" Ranger chuckled and I didn't see his head movement, but I assumed he nodded because Les smiled at him.

"Then I'm taking my woman home where I can suck on more than just her face." I laughed when I heard Ranger groan.

"You better let her rest. I don't want to get a call that your horny ass made her go into premature labor." Bobby spoke from the open doorway. I blushed thinking about how horny I felt and just what Les and I had planned for later.

"Yes, Dad! I'll keep her nice and relaxed." Les helped me sit up first and then we stood together. He pulled me into a hungry kiss complete with wandering hands and moans from both of us.

"Santos, not in my office! Go home!" Ranger was laughing again, but his voice was firm. Les pulled away and grabbed my hand.

"See you guys tomorrow." He looked back at me blushing and got a gleam in his eye. "Or maybe the next day." We walked down the hallway and heard the laughter coming from the office. Whatever Les had in store for me, I was more than ready.

We hopped into Les' Mustang and headed toward the house. On the way there, Les kept glancing at me. I knew he wanted to ask me something.

"What's on your mind, Sexy?" I placed my hand on his upper thigh and gave it a squeeze. He picked it up and kissed my palm then replaced it back on his leg.

"Why did you confront Mark?" I wondered if he was mad that I put myself and the baby in danger.

"I had to know the truth of what happened. I wanted to clear my name once and for all. I wanted you to be able to know the truth so that you would trust me again." He started to argue, but I silenced him by holding up my hand. "Listen, I know that you trust me and I know that you believed me when I said that nothing happened; but the doubt and the fears were still there. I could see them sometimes and I hated that you doubted me. I hated that I made you second guess my love, so I had to prove to myself and to you what I knew all along. Nothing happened." I looked at him trying to gauge his reaction.

"Thank you. Although, I didn't like that you put yourself in harm's way; I appreciate that you wanted to do it for me. I will always love you Steph and I don't doubt your love for me. But you were right. There were lingering doubts and I hated that, too. Thank you for getting rid of those for me." He kissed my hand again and we drove the rest of the way home in silence.

Les parked the car in the garage and sat in the seat after he turned it off. I stayed in the car with him waiting to see what he wanted to do.

After several silent minutes, Les turned and looked at me with a hopeful expression. "Let's get married this weekend Steph. I don't want to wait until the baby is born. Let's just have a small ceremony here or at the beach. Anywhere you want, but let's do it. I want to make you my wife." I was shocked at first, but decided to give it some serious thought. I came up with numerous reasons why getting married right then wouldn't work, but as I sat there and looked at the man I loved, all of those reasons disappeared and I knew what I wanted to do.

"Okay. Let's do it. Just you, me, and some of the guys. A justice of the peace at the courthouse is perfect for me." Les smiled and pulled me into a hug. He kissed my lips hungrily and by the time he pulled away, we were both breathing heavy.

"We've got a lot to plan out then, Beautiful. We need to get started...however..." He kissed my hand and sucked each finger into his hot mouth. "...tonight is just about us and I'm going to make sure you feel fully loved."

That statement alone ruined my panties and it was just the beginning. Les and I spent the entire night showing each other just how much we mean to the other one. I can't remember how many times I screamed Les' name or how much sleep we got that night, but it doesn't matter. All I can say is how loved and truly treasured I felt the entire night. It was a feeling that I prayed never went away.