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 29

Tank's POV

I was hoping for the day to end on a happy note. After all, Ranger and Steph were just married. A lot of us at Rangeman had government contracts and as long as we were under contract we were obligated to fulfill our assignments, no matter how bad the timing. And the timing for this couldn't have sucked more. I suspected their relationship was fragile to begin with and I didn't understand the need for the fast turn of events. But that was Ranger. Once he got an idea in his head, if he felt it was right, he was prepared to follow through on it. I got that.

I gave Steph a few minutes in the bathroom to get herself together before I tilted my head in Ranger's direction and gave him my pursed lipped, 'what are you going to do about this' look.

"Julie, do you want to see how Stephanie is doing?" he asked his daughter.

"I think you should be the one," she said. "If you didn't get that phone call, everyone would be happy right now."

"She's in the ladies room."

"So?"

Ranger excused himself from the table and made his way up the corridor we had so happily walked down, less than an hour before.

"Is there anything I can do?" Mercedes addressed Ranger's grandmother.

She'd been so quiet I forgot for a minute that she was still sitting with us.

"If they don't come back in ten minutes maybe you can head to the ladies room," I said to her, only partially in jest.

"They're outside; I just saw them get into their car," Ranger's abuela replied. "At least he got her out of the bathroom. That seems like a good sign to me."

"I'm going out," Julie said getting up and running towards the front door before either Santos or myself could stop her.

"Let her go," Ranger's grandmother said as I stood. "She loves the two of them. And If they'll let anyone else in right now, it will be Julie."

I nodded in agreement and since there was nothing else I could do at the moment, I went back to eating my lunch.

Santos' phone rang shortly after the lot of us decided that eating was better than sitting around waiting. He looked at his caller ID and smiled.

"Stephanie," he mouthed as he answered the call.

"Hey Beautiful, what's up?"

"Are you sure you and Ranger wouldn't rather be alone?"

"That's true. I'll be right out."

He looked around the table at all the open mouths waiting to hear what Stephanie had to say. After all, we only heard one-side of the conversation.

"She wants me to come to the car. Keep eating. I'll be back in a few," he told us, as he got up and headed towards the front door. Good thing the Cayenne was on the large side.

Mercedes looked at me and winked. "And I see your phone ringing in one, two three…"

Then it did just that.

The caller ID said it was Ranger.

"Yo," I answered. I just listened to what my long-time friend had to say and got up.

"Looks like they've moved the party to the SUV," I said. "Ranger wants me to come out for a minute, then he says we'll all come back inside and finish lunch. I'll be right back."

This was odd behavior if you asked me. Well not any odder than the two of them getting married so quickly in the first place. And I owed it to him to comply with his wishes. I got up and made my way out to the Cayenne.

Ranger and Bomber were sitting in the front. Lester and Julie were in the back. So I opened the rear passenger door and maneuvered my large frame inside, squeezing Julie between Santos and myself.

"Ok, what's going on?" I asked as I tried to fit my size sixteen's comfortably on the floor of the back seat.

"I'm sorry I freaked out," Bomber began. "Ranger hasn't been in the wind in a long time, so I assumed it was over."

"So did I Babe," he added.

"He explained to me that it's a time-consuming but simple mission and that he'll be back in about two to three weeks. In the meantime he wants me to attach my umbilical cord to the two of you."

"That's not physically possible," Lester pointed out, "but I think we understand our job…keep you safe at all costs."

I nodded. This was nothing that I didn't expect from Ranger.

"Santos," Ranger said, addressing him for the first time since I entered his vehicle, "can you be with Steph while she transitions herself back into Trenton? People are going to ask a lot of questions. From the rings on her finger to where I am. I don't want her to have to go through this alone. I know you two are good friends; I'm asking you to be a better one. Can you do this for me, please?"

"No prob boss, but I'm committed down here for the next few days. Governor Christie will have a shit fit if we don't put as many men as possible on this 'Moe' thing. Not that I want to tell you your job, but I think Hector would be the best man in New Jersey. He and Steph are tight. And if anyone says anything negative about her, he'll kill them."

"Yeah that's what I'm afraid of; his affinity runs deep."

"Carlos," Steph said, "I think Les is right, he has a job to complete here and Hector and I are good friends. You won't have to worry about me if Hector is watching over and you can just do your job in Kuwait or wherever it is and come back to me in one piece."

"Ok, I see your point and I agree that after Santos and Tank, Hector would be the next best man to have on board. Let's head back inside and I'll call him after we finish lunch. He really needs to hear this from me."

Santos and I unfolded ourselves from the back seat and then helped Julie down. Steph and Ranger seemed to have gotten a little sidetracked as I caught them in a kiss over the console. That was too uncomfortable a position for them to stay in for too long and this was their party anyway. I knew we'd see them back inside in a minute or two.

"I think we have everything under control," I said as I sat back down in my seat. "And Ranger and Steph should be in in a minute."

"They work it out?" Ranger's abuela asked me. "Looks that way, but ask them; here they come," I said nodding to the door. Ranger and Steph were walking in with their arms around each other and both had smiles on their faces. I could only imagine what he told her.

"I'm sorry everyone," Steph said as they took their seats from earlier. "My emotions have been running high and the news that Carlos had to leave for a few weeks, took its toll on me. I guess I plummeted. I think I'm ok now." She looked around at all the empty plates except for hers and Rangers then added, "Looks like you kept the party going Abuela. Carlos and I need to catch up and then we can order dessert. Shhh, don't tell anyone, but I think there's a cake in the back with white icing and roses."

I was glad she was back to her old self. She called the waiter over and asked him if he could reheat her lunch. "I'm not big on cold chicken, even if it was my fault," she said when the waiter took away her and Ranger's plates for a reheat.

"I need to excuse myself for a few more minutes," Ranger said, obviously taking in the time it would take to nuke their food. "I just have to make two quick calls, excuse me please."

"Hector?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes Babe and NetJets. I want to secure a plane for later this afternoon and I have no intention for us to fly commercial on our honeymoon."

"Honeymoon? I think that's a poor choice of word," Lester said, looking anything but humored by Ranger at the moment.

"Mile high club, Santos. I assume you're already a member."

"Little ears," Ranger's grandmother said looking at her grandson before bringing her hands to Julie's ears in case the conversation deteriorated.

It didn't. But Ranger once again stepped into to vestibule with his phone.

Slick's POV

Bobby and I were going door to door on the top 'Mo' hits and had already negated three of them when Bobby's phone rang. The call seemed to be from Tank and as hard as I tried to hear both sides of the conversation it was impossible.

"We were about to cross off number three; this Mo is a woman," Bobby told the caller. "Short for Monica. Somehow she got into the mix. She's very cute and was flirting with me, but no beard, so obviously she's not our man."

"Bobby, that Tank?" I asked.

He shushed me while he listened intently to what Tank had to say. I realized Bobby was part of the core team and even though he was my partner today there were things I was never going to be privy to. This seemed to be one of them. Bobby moved away from me and spoke in hushed tones.

"That's just the shit," I overheard before he hung up.

Whatever was 'just the shit' seemed to have put Bobby in a foul mood. Since we had to spend the remainder of the day together I thought I'd try to get him to talk.

"Anything you want to tell me?" I asked him.

"I'd love to get this off my chest, but I can't. Ranger is leaving on another op, Tank's in charge."

That never put him in a foul mood before; in fact usually the opposite was true. Bobby and most of the guys seemed to be more at ease when Tank took the helm.

My phone buzzed in my pocket before I could come up with another angle to get Bobby out of his funk. I looked at the caller ID. It was Michelle.

"Hi Baby," I said answering it.

"I'm finishing up here. It was tough. I saw some of the X-rays and CAT scans; that poor girl has been broken in places I didn't even know we had bones. God. She's got a long road to recovery in front of her, I'm afraid. Where are you?"

"I'm doing a door-to-door with Bobby. Are you still at the hospital?"

"Yeah but I'm with Laura. Detective O'Connor. She can give me a ride to Rangeman if that's better for you. I can introduce myself around."

"And who are you going to say you are?" I asked, feeling like giving her a hard time.

"Your woman."

"I like the sound of that. Bobby and I were going to break for lunch soon anyway. I'll pick you up at Rangeman and maybe the three of us can grab some lunch together."

"That would be great and I'd love to meet Bobby."

"Ok let me ask him. See you at Rangeman in about a half an hour?"

"Ok. Love you."

"I love you too Baby," I said then disconnected.

"I can't believe those words came out of your mouth Slick," Bobby said, grinning at me.

"Yeah, sometimes I can't either. Want to meet her? Come and have lunch with us."

"I wouldn't miss that for the world. Tank says she has advanced firearms accreditations."

"What?"

"Sorry. I thought you knew. Rangeman ran a search on her."

"Yeah, I figured you did. But tell me about those firearms."

"Maybe you should ask her. We assumed it was because her father and uncle are who they are that she felt she needed it. Yeah she's got training on an M16A2, a Saiga 12 and a 9mm sub among others. Looks like she really knows her shit when it comes to guns."

I stood there just looking at him. "My Michelle?"

"Sorry man, I thought you knew."

"Well I think this lunch is going to be more interesting than I expected it to be."

Bobby's POV

Shit. I shouldn't have opened my big mouth. If they got into a fight over this, it was going to be my fault. But then how would I have known she didn't tell him about her gun experience? And Junior kiddingly said it was the way she held the gun when they picked up the kid that really turned Slick on. Yeah of course it would've.

Well there was nothing I could do about it now.

"You sure you still want to do lunch? Maybe you and Michelle need to talk."

"Michelle and I can talk later. Obviously there's a reason she hasn't told me. But if you bring it up at lunch, it'll be interesting to see what she says."

"I'm not going to be your moderator. This is something for the two of you to talk about on your own. You can tell her I told you, but I don't think this is a topic for lunch. In fact I don't know if lunch is such a good idea now anyway…you're kind of loaded."

"Sorry that was a really shitty thing for me to say. Let's step back a few minutes and pretend this conversation didn't happen. Would you like to have lunch and meet Michelle?"

"No gun talk?"

"No gun talk."

"Sure."

We got into our Rangeman SUV and I drove us back to our Miami headquarters. I parked in the garage and we took the elevator up to one. Unlike Trenton, there were no stairs to or from the garage level, but there were stairs between floors. Go figure that one.

As soon as we came through the doors, Lynn smiled at Slick.

"Met your girlfriend. She's in with Ernesto right now."

"Thanks Lynn," he responded and we made our way towards the office of our Miami's second in command.

"Knock, knock," I faux-knocked on Ernesto's door.

Michelle turned around and her face lit up as soon as she saw Slick. Looked like they both had it bad.

"Shaun," she said getting up and walking towards us. She kissed Slick and then put her hand out to me.

"Bobby? Hi I'm Michelle Lore, um…Shaun's friend. I mean…um, Slick's friend."

"Woman. Baby, you said you were going to tell everyone you were my woman."

"Ok. I'm Shaun's woman. Oh that sounds so weird."

"It sure does," I said. "I forget he had a name besides Slick."

At least that broke the ice.