The Men of Rangeman
M rating
Thank you once again Margaret for reading ahead as my Beta. :) I much appreciate :)
This takes place in current time. Books 1 through 19 may be referenced. The people you recognize belong to JE :)
Chapter 28
Slick's POV
After I dropped Michelle off at the South Miami station I headed over to Rangeman to see what I could contribute. Junior was almost as good as Ranger when it came to finding the tiniest of clues, but I was very well read. Together we usually were able to put a spin on anything that our researchers came up with.
I'd heard that Ranger and Steph had begun a search last night and I was anxious to see what Stephanie found. Her uncanny ability to enter the strangest of criteria amazed me. It was usually better when she explained her thinking in person, but I'd heard her and Ranger were spending time with his daughter and grandmother today and were unavailable. I'd just have to guess what she used for a search.
My phone buzzed as I entered the building. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Michelle. Her text made my heart beat just a little faster.
'Missing you. Waiting for Darcy to get her things together.' her text said.
'I 3 u,' followed. (FF won't let me use the symbol-supposed to be 'heart')
'I 3 u 2,' I texted back. 'Having a hard time being without u :('
'Sweet. Love u.'
Shit. I really did love her.
'Same baby. Can't wait to see u,' I replied.
'I have plans for later.'
'Tell me.'
'I think it's illegal in Florida.'
'Baby?'
'Mmm.'
Shit. She was getting my dick into a state. And I was at work. Jesus, I could only imagine what Michelle was thinking.
'Call me when ur done and I'll pick u up. I love u baby.'
'Mmm,' she texted again.
'Ur killing me.'
'Mmm. Darcy's here. Gotta go. Bye.'
I was smiling as I put my phone back into my pocket and walked over to the elevator. The doors opened and Bobby came out.
"That's some shit-eating grin Slick," he said in lieu of hello.
"Hey man, when did you get in? Are you here for the McCall case?"
"Les and I were on a 6:30 flight. Ranger called last night to ask for our help."
"Yeah. Junior and I have been recruited too. Listen, I want you and Santos to meet Michelle. Are you going to be around for a while?"
"Michelle? Is that the reason for the smile on your face? She the woman Junior mentioned?"
"Is he talking about me again?"
"Only good, man. I was on my way to get some coffee—we were just waiting for you to show up. Want anything before Ernesto takes us through the findings?"
"I'm good, but I'll come with you."
While we walked around the corner to the deli, I told Bobby a little bit about Michelle. I couldn't get her out of my mind and talking about her seemed to help.
"She was really good with that kid after we found her and it didn't matter to her that she was cut and bleeding, she was determined to pull the chicken wire away and free the girl," I babbled.
"I hope you cleaned up her wounds and made sure she got a tetanus shot," he said, the medic in him coming out.
"I did and she'd had a shot recently. She's from New Jersey," I added. I don't know why, maybe to make sense of the recent tetanus shot.
"You seem to really like her. You intend to continue this relationship back home?"
"I intend to never let her out of my sight."
"That's a pretty heavy commitment to someone you've just met."
"Yeah, it is. Isn't it?"
We placed our order for coffee: four black, no sugar. When they arrived, we each took two and carried them back to Rangeman.
After we settled in and the guys had a few sips of their coffee, Ernesto got started.
"Steph and Ranger ran a search last night with what we knew: Obviously a Florida man. Black beard. Goes by the name of Moe. Not enough of a criteria for a decent search and they got thousands of matches. Then Steph had the brilliant idea that maybe Moe was short for something. With that black beard that was continually mentioned by the kid, Steph thought it might not be Moe, spelled M-O-E but M-O, Mo. So she cross-referenced all the Mohammad's with a criminal record and the list is now down to a little under forty. We still can't say for certain that he's a Mo not a Moe, but from what I hear, Steph is right more often than not. And on that note, here are your marching orders. About ten names apiece. I'd feel better if you worked in pairs, but that's up to you. Steph and Ranger will be here around 6 tonight and can continue to run searches and hopefully narrow down that list even more; but I thought we should get started in the meantime."
"I got a text from Steph last night," Lester said, breaking the tension a little, "she invited me to lunch with her, Tank, Ranger and Ranger's daughter and grandmother. I have my suspicions concerning why, but whatever it is I'll be out of commission for a few hours this afternoon."
"What are you thinking?" Bobby asked him.
"Honestly?"
Bobby nodded and I found myself nodding too. So was Junior.
"I think they have some big announcement to make. We know they came down here to work on their relationship more than to apprehend criminals, so my guess is they've worked it out. I think she's going to be moving into Rangeman."
"Thank God," Junior said.
"What do you mean by that?" I found myself asking.
"I thought for a minute you were going to say that they found themselves in a similar situation to me and Bonnie. Listen, I wasn't going to share this, but Bonnie's pregnant. She flew down last night so we could talk about options. If it's at all possible, can I do the computer leg-work end of this first so Bonnie and I can talk?"
I was glad Junior manned up. I didn't want to be covering for him. The way I saw it, Bobby and I could team up today since Santos and Junior both had prior commitments. They could work together later. And someone really did need to run background searches on the names that Steph came up with. Might as well be Junior.
I was mentally sending out the idea when Ernesto spoke.
"Looks like we need to switch some teams around. Bobby, you and Slick can get started with door-to-doors on the top ten names. Junior, take the next fifteen and run background checks. Santos and I can work together on the remaining ones until he has to leave and I'll see you back here at six."
"I'll be at my hotel if you need me," Junior said, taking one of the printouts from Ernesto and getting up. "Thanks for working with me on this."
"Junior, wait," I said getting up and following him out of the conference room. "You going to be ok?" I asked once we got out of earshot. We'd worked together for so long we were like brothers.
"Yeah. Bonnie and I didn't talk last night, but we spoke non-verbally, if you know what I mean. I should be able to live with whatever we both decide. And I do care for her; probably more than I let on."
"I would still consider that the last option man. No one likes to feel coerced into anything."
"I know. I'm good. I'll enter these names and addresses into the computer, then probably take that last batch too and I'll see you back here at six. Things ok with you?"
"Couldn't be better, man," I said thinking about last night with Michelle and smiling.
"You have a shit-eating grin on your face," Junior said, looking at me. "I can't believe life is that good?"
"That's what Bobby said too. And yes it is."
"She good?"
"I'd marry her tomorrow."
"You…what?"
"Yeah man, I would. We're good together and I love her."
"You love her?"
"Yes. And she loves me. I have never felt like this before. I'm happy."
"That's your sex hormones talking. And you're thinking with your dick."
"Wish that were the case. No I couldn't be more serious."
"I've thought about marrying Bonnie. And I'll bring it up after we talk about this pregnancy thing."
"Why? If you guys decide on abortion, you won't have to marry her?"
"I know, but we've been together for almost five years and I've been playing the avoidance game for the last three. Thinking about options just helped to bring my feelings to the surface and made me see how good we really are together."
"Junior, I've never even seen you put an arm around her. I think you have a lot of making up time to do before you ask her to marry you. She'll see right through that bullshit."
"That's just me. I'm not a touchy feely kind of guy, but I do have emotions."
"I think you need to think this through some more. You seem a little all over the place to me."
"Oh, as if you aren't?"
Lester's POV
Am I allowed to be shocked? According to some people, there is nothing in this world capable of fazing me one way or the other. But I must say that seeing Julie walk out of the bathroom corridor carrying a flower, followed by Tank then Ranger and Steph, shocked the shit out of me.
I knew they were working on their relationship and I suspected that during lunch they were going to let us know their plan to pursue a couple thing, but I never, never in a million years expected them to take this so far, so soon. No wonder Tank was uncharacteristically quiet when I arrived. I thought he was just being cautious in front of Ranger's grandmother, but now I see it was more than that. He had a secret.
Once Steph and Ranger broke apart after Mercedes gave them permission to kiss, I got up and hugged first Ranger and then Steph. I guess I hugged Steph a little too long for Ranger's taste.
"Get your hands off my wife Santos," he said giving me his black-eyed look. It's the look that was usually followed by some very well executed martial arts moves. Since I didn't feel like wearing ice packs for the next few days I quickly moved away from Steph and raised my arms in mock surrender.
"Down boy," I said. "I thought congratulations were in order. It's not every day that two of my best friends tie the knot."
"You can say your congratulations from the other side of the table Santos, my wife is off limits to you."
"Carlos," Stephanie said, looking over to her new husband, "Les didn't mean anything wrong by that. He's happy for us."
"He can be happy without having his hands on your ass."
"Dad. Vo-cab-u-lar-y," Julie said annunciating every syllable.
"Carlos, Julie, Lester…enough," Ranger's grandmother said probably thinking about the consequences of letting this continue.
"Great-gram-ma," Julie interrupted, "dad and Lester are just playing; everyone is happy for them, aren't we?" she asked looking over at Tank and myself for clarification.
"Of course we are; and boys will be boys," Tank said, rolling his eyes towards Ranger.
Thankfully our waiter came by before our need for a referee. We placed our lunch orders and I saw Ranger slip him his black Amex card. I guessed our boss was paying for lunch.
"So I heard you came up with about forty worthwhile names last night," I said to try to get back on Ranger's good side.
"Stephanie did. I had over a thousand. She's amazing," he said, pulling her to him and kissing the top of her head."
"I wish I could take credit for it," she mumbled, "but any one of you would have asked yourself the same question I asked me, 'is Moe his real name?' and then you'd come up with what I did. And I may still be wrong."
I felt like I needed to tell the story. "Junior was going to spend most of the day running background checks on your names. Bobby and Slick were going to start with a little door-to-door on the top hits and when I get back Ernesto and I will see where they've gotten and either run backgrounds or take the end of the list and hit the streets. If the 'Mo' angle is viable we should have something by tomorrow."
"Good," Ranger said, "we could use another feather in our cap. Governor Christie's office has been coming down hard on us to deliver on this one. I have a feeling there is probably more to this case than meets the eye for our communication to come directly from the governor. But I doubt we'll get to the bottom of it right now."
"I don't understand that one," Steph broke in. "If we are helping to solve his case why can't he give us the background information we need?"
"Babe, don't ask, don't tell."
"I thought that was for gays in the military?"
"You have a lot to learn," Tank mumbled to Steph under his breath.
"Caught that," she said, "If you can't explain, I'll force Carlos to."
"You can't force me to do anything I don't want to, but Tank, take that one for the table."
"Politics is like being in a big family with a lot of skeletons in the closet," he told her. "Maybe Uncle Mario was fooling around with the next door neighbor and the outcome was so obvious nine months later that both parties got divorced. And maybe Aunt Sally was so angry with Uncle Mario that she found the gun he kept hidden in the attic and…"
"Ok, ok, you make your point," Ranger's grandmother said, "I'm not sure this story is appropriate for little ears."
"My ears aren't little, and this was just starting to get good," Julie said. "You going to tell us more, Uncle Tank?"
"Uncle Tank," I said.
"That's what he told me to call him years ago," she said looking at me ready to pounce if I contradicted her choice of words again.
"Whoa little lady, don't get your…," then I checked my language. I was going to say 'tits in a whirl' but that was inappropriate for a budding thirteen year old. "…self all upset over a couple of words. I didn't mean anything by that. I was just questioning why Tank's an uncle and I'm not," I added, thinking on my feet.
"Oh," she smiled. "You want me to call you Uncle Lester?"
I nodded.
"Ok, Uncle Lester," she said smiling at me.
I looked over a Ranger and Steph. They were holding hands and he'd brought their conjoined hands to his face. He was kissing her fingers. Kind of weird if you asked me. This was a family gathering, wasn't that a little too intimate? As my eyes stayed with their target I saw him take her index finger into his mouth. I wished I didn't see that.
She shuddered and brought her hand to his upper leg. Like a deer in the headlights I couldn't look away as she stroked his thigh. I forced myself to turn my head once her hand went higher. I didn't want to see her fondling his family jewels.
Thankfully our food arrived at that point although I no longer had much of an appetite.
Ranger's phone rang while we were eating. He looked at the caller ID, touched Stephanie's arm and took the call in the vestibule.
He was gone for maybe five minutes, but when he came back there was a look on his face that said more than words.
He spoke softly to Stephanie, but both Tank and I heard every word.
"Babe, I have to go away for a few weeks. I can't get out of this one. We can take a corporate back to Trenton this afternoon. I'm being picked up at Rangeman in the morning."
"Carlos, it's our wedding night."
"I know Babe. We don't need to work anymore today. I intend to spend the next seven hours showing you just how much I love you. Then Tank's in charge."
"Tank is not in charge of my love life," she said adamantly, tears starting to well in her eyes.
"Steph," I said taking her other hand, "If you need me for anything, I'm here for you."
"Lester, you are such a sleaze," she said looking at me and then not caring that she couldn't hold back the tears any longer. "And as much as I appreciate the effort, I am not taking you up on that one."
"What are you guys talking about?" Julie asked, all ears.
"Julie, I have to go away for a few weeks," Ranger addressed her. "Steph and I are going to head back to Trenton after we drop you off at home and then I'm heading to the middle-east in the morning."
"Are you coming back?" she asked.
"Of course. I can't leave the women I care most about, now can I?"
Carlos' grandmother heard every word then spoke to the table in Spanish. I assumed she knew that Steph and Julie couldn't understand what she was saying.
"El momento no puede ser peor, Carlos. ¿De verdad creo que esto? Espero que no piense en dejar a su nueva novia la viuda? "
"Your timing couldn't be worse, Carlos. Did you really think this through? I hope you don't plan on leaving your new bride a widow?"
The conversation continued in Spanish.
"Abuela, que yo no tienen control sobre cuándo o dónde estoy llamado a deber. Yo sólo tengo 2 meses en mi contrato con el gobierno y yo esperaba que no se enviarán de nuevo. No tengo la intención de volver a firmar o dejar Stephanie y Julie. Yo le agradezco su preocupación, pero estaré de vuelta y me pondré en contacto con usted en un par de semanas."
"Abuela you know I have no control over when or where I'm called to duty. I only have 2-months left on my government contract and I was hoping I wouldn't be shipped out again. I have no intention of re-signing or leaving Stephanie and Julie. I appreciate your concern, but I'll be back and I'll call you in a few weeks."
"Babe, my grandmother is very concerned about your welfare," he turned and addressed Steph. "And I too would feel so much better if you moved into Rangeman while I'm gone. My men can help coordinate the move. Please?"
Stephanie looked like she didn't know what to say. She looked from Ranger to me, to Tank and then back to Ranger. Finally she put her napkin down on the table and ran towards the bathrooms.
Shit.
