Chapter 69

RPOV

I wasn't as late to bed as I expected but found Steph fast asleep. She'd been sleeping well recently without dreams or nightmares. I was pleased that she seemed to be coping with all of the events that had befallen her over the last few weeks. She had shown just how strong and resilient she was. Tank had asked me how she'd been coping, I'm not sure if he'd been worried about her.

As the time on my watch reached 0600hrs I decided I really needed to get back into my morning routine and daily workouts. Tomorrow I would try to resume my normal 0500hrs regime. I carefully moved from the bed and picked up some gym gear before changing in the bathroom and then headed down to the gym. Being an hour later than normal there were a few more men in here than usual.

I started on the treadmill, building up to a fast speed but keeping an eye on a couple of the new guys I'd had words with Tank about. The workouts they were doing seemed slow, they weren't pushing themselves very hard. I saw Jones turn and look toward the door and saw a grin cross his face, what the hell was that about? Then I could see who his attention was on. Steph had stepped into the gym and was using one of the mats to warm up on. She was wearing black leggings and a fitted T-shirt with what appeared to be new trainers. As she finished her routine Jones walked over to her and started a conversation. Whatever he was saying had her annoyed, her eyes changed color and her cheeks reddened. Then Jones stood on the mat as though he was about to challenge her. She nodded her head and took up a ready stance just as he charged for her.

I nearly shouted out for Jones to back off when I watched in fascination as she sidestepped him and brought her elbow out making contact with the back of his neck. With his forward momentum and the blow from her elbow he went down, down hard. He quickly got up and grabbed hold of her from behind, not a good move on his part. Steph relaxed and so did he. Her arms came up as her head went back and then she turned and kneed him in the groin. Of course, he fell to his knees trying to relieve the pain he felt and that's when her fist landed a punch on the side of his nose.

She was more than annoyed now and I was thankful when Santos took her by her shoulders and pulled her back and spoke to her. She nodded to him and then followed him to the punching bag. Good, he'd show her some better ways to punch and kick, and she'd get rid of the pent-up anger inside of her. As my run came to a stop I went behind the bag and held it while she laid into it.

"You did good Babe"
"He pissed me off"
"I could see that. What did he say to you?"
"You don't want to know"
"You're wrong there, I do"
"Okay. He told me I was a fraud and the only reason that man Barnet was found was because you did it for me. He said I was obviously a good lay and if he did my research work for me then I'd owe him the same reward"

I was furious, how dare he say that to Steph. Hell, even if she hadn't been my wife, I would never accept that from one of my men. The fact that she was my wife made me start seeing red and I made to head toward him. I felt her hand on my arm as I walked past her. Her hand travelling up to my shoulder and back down.

"No, that's not needed. I defended myself and beat him up"
I hesitated as her touch started to make me think more clearly. She was right, she fought the fight and won, but he'd be fired within the next hour and his things would be cleared from the building. As I placed my hand on hers, I noticed she was wearing fingerless leather gloves and looked up into her face. She smiled back at me and suddenly the rage started to recede back inside of me.

"Ella left them for me"

"I won't have anyone speak to you like that"
"I know but beating the shit out of him won't stop him from being an asshole"
"You're right. Firing him might though"

Jones has disappeared from the gym, but then so had Santos, making me wonder if he would find Tank and tell him what had happened. I needed to shower and change quickly so as to be sure Jones was spoken to before he went out on duty. Steph and I returned to the apartment and whilst I showered and dressed, she sorted out something for breakfast.

"Babe I'll need to head down to five"
"No problem, I'll see you down there"

"Are you planning on staying here in the building?"

"Yes. If anything comes up, I'll let you know"

Once on five I sought out Tank. He was standing in the monitoring room watching the screens that gave images from inside the building. That had me curious, wondering what he was looking for.

"Tank?"
"Santos told me about Jones. I'm watching what he's up to"
"Where is he?"
"Apartment on four"
"Send a couple of men down for him, I want him in my office"
"You want his file?"
"It wouldn't hurt"
Five minutes later Woody and Miguel escorted Jones into my room. I'd purposely removed the chair from in front of my desk so that he would have to stand. Almost immediately Tank came in with the file and then found a chair to bring next to my desk. Jones was beginning to look uncomfortable as Tank stared at him and I started to look through his most recent reviews. Being satisfied that I was now acquainted with his record I sat back in my chair and looked at him.

"Jones your work ethos is totally unacceptable, what do you have to say?"
"I do what I'm asked to do"
"You are still under probation and the latest review isn't up to standard"

"I don't know what you mean"
"I'll spell it out then. Physical fitness, below standard. Surveillance duties lack detail in your reports. Patrol shows you missing certain properties and unnecessary stops. Searches are inaccurate. With all these things there has been no improvement even after being told you needed to step up your performance"

"I do what every man here does and just as well"
I raised an eyebrow at his response, only one other man was working at the low level he was.

"Your comment to Miss Plum this morning was totally out of line"

"So that's what this is about, I only told her the truth"
"Sexual harassment. Miss Plum is an employee here and the work she does is a far higher caliber than yours"
"You're talking about Barnet aren't you. No way could she have found him on her own"
"That's where you're wrong. Not only did she research the right person, she found his location and took him down"
"Yeah right, with help. Because there's no way she could do it. She's coddled by every man here"

I felt rather than saw Tank tense beside me, it took a lot to annoy him, for him to feel the need to interject into a conversation, but as he lent forward staring at Jones I waited for him to talk.

"She's worth ten of you Jones. You're lazy, sloppy and insubordinate. I haven't seen anything of the man we interviewed. Miss Plum, she doesn't have any of the training you had, yet she outperforms you all round"
I listened to what Tank had to say. Okay maybe he exaggerated some areas. I mean come on, I'd done surveillance with her and she couldn't sit still for more than an hour. I knew of one man who allowed her sleep when she was on monitor duty. Jones didn't like being compared to Steph. Was it Steph personally or did he dislike women in the workplace? Whichever it was he was going.

"Jones I'm ceasing your employment from Rangeman. You have failed to reach the standards expected within your probationary period as I've just outlined. Rangeman will pay the agreed amount for severing your employment. You'll be escorted to the apartment you've been using to collect your things. All equipment that belongs to Rangeman should be logged in with Tank"

Even though Tank had stood up Jones just stood there looking at me.

"You're firing me?"
"You were warned, you were given every opportunity and time to raise your standards. So yes, you're fired. Dismissed"

At last he got the message and left the room though I'm sure he wasn't pleased to see his escort waiting for him. I hadn't had to fire anyone from Trenton before, Miami and Boston had lost men but usually they'd conceded that they weren't cut out for the work. I felt uneasy as the door closed behind him.

"What do you think?"
"Hell Ranger we've never had to fire someone before"
"I know, I was just thinking that. I have an uneasy feeling about him"
"Would he detect someone tailing him?"
"Not according to how he's performed here, but who knows. He could be cleverer than he showed us"

"I don't like his attitude toward Steph"

"No one does, we saw everything that went down in the gym"
"I'll make sure she has trackers and a panic button on her if she goes out"
"Tell her why, she'll cooperate better"

"I know"

"The other two we talked about seem to have taken the hint. Their performance is improving"
"Good, keep an eye on them. How are we doing with recruiting?"
"Little Girl has the files, so we'll see what she finds"
"Did you include?"
"Of course I did. It'll sure be interesting when she gets to that one"
He was smiling as he left my office, I'm sure because he knew it would be me who would have to answer Steph's questions. I returned to the work that I still had to get caught up on and some that I needed to do since getting married. My lawyer was due later this afternoon so the work for him needed to take precedence. I was surprised Steph hadn't been to see me, it was way after lunchtime, and I wasn't sure if she'd even stopped working to eat. I was ready to meet with my lawyer when he arrived and was collecting the paperwork together when I sensed that Steph was close. The light knock on the door indicated she was here to see me at last. She walked into the room and stood in front of my desk, something was on her mind and I needed to reasure her about her father working here.

"Hey, do you have a minute?"
"Sure Babe, you look tired, have you been working all this time?"
"Yes. I couldn't stop once I got started especially when I realized who was involved. Were you going to tell me?"
Yeah, Tank was right when he thought she'd come to me because I could see she wasn't very pleased.

"Is this about your father?"
"Yes"
"After that night when he helped us, I actually thought about the men we have working here. Most are fresh out of the service and similar in age. I set up Rangeman to help ex-soldiers find a purpose in the civilian world. It can be hard to adapt. Your father made me realize that it isn't just men my age or younger who struggle and maybe we should look to extend our sources of employees. Babe your father came and spoke with Tank"
"He wants to work here?"
"Yes. He and the others know they're not physically capable of everything we do but there are parts of our work that would be suitable"

I pushed my chair back from my desk, pleased when Steph walked over to me and sat on my knee. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed having her close to me. As she gently kissed my cheek and rested her head against my shoulder I'm sure she felt the same.

"I remember when I met him that night, he said how he felt he'd become dull and dowdy and that being part of what we did made him remember how he was in the army"

"He told Tank he needed to do more, be productive and needed"
"So this isn't anything to do with me?"
"No, I think it will be brilliant for him"
"Hell, can you imagine what my mother will say?"
"Maybe your father will find himself, like you, maybe he wants to fly and this could be his opportunity"
"I wonder if she'll refer to him as a thug as well?"
"She'll need to change her attitude because I don't think Frank will back down on this"
"The search that came through told me so much I didn't know. Why wouldn't he tell me about his time in the army?"
"Sometimes it's because of bad memories or sometimes other people don't see it as important and don't want to hear about it"
"Do you think my Mum was party to that, you know trying to get him to be someone he wasn't?"
"Maybe. She has very strong ideas on how a Burg husband should behave and conform"

"Like how she could treat me?"
"Exactly"

"Well you'll be pleased to know there were only two applicants who falsified information. They had a few skeletons hiding"
"Good, let Tank have the files back with your searches"
"Okay"
"Babe, that man this morning, Jones. I fired him, but he's a surly character and I don't trust him. Be careful if you have to go out. Would you please wear the trackers and a panic button?"
"You think he might try to get to me?"
"I don't know"
"I'll be careful. I have to go out to the engravers later"
"Engraver?"

"Yeah, he's providing the plaque for me to go with the portrait of Saint Stephanie as a tribute to the donations from the Buckley family"
"That was quick"
"I called him this morning and he said he was really quiet so would get it done today"
"I have a meeting soon, would you take someone with you?"
"If that would make you feel better"
"Thanks Babe"
I made sure that before she left she knew exactly how I felt, my mouth came over hers pleased as she reciprocated the kiss, deepening it until I knew we had to stop what we were doing. The way she was moving on my knee was making me uncomfortable.

"I have a meeting Babe, an important meeting"
"Mmm. Wouldn't want you to be late"

She pulled away from me, a smile on her face, knowing exactly the state I was in. I watched as she walked from the office, she was wearing her Rangeman uniform and if it wasn't for the fact that she was barefooted she looked badass. I felt my phone vibrate with a message from reception, to say my visitor was here to meet with me, so adjusting myself I followed her from my office to meet with my lawyer.