CHAPTER 15

Steve and I only waited five minutes for Tasha to arrive. She passed me the sonogram in the protective case.

Raising her eyebrow, she placed it in my hand. "I'll explain it to you later Tasha. Thank you for bringing it to me."

She gave me a hug. "I'm here for you. When you're ready to talk, I'll listen."

"Thank you." I held Steve's hand as we walked to the Holiday Inn. We approached the front desk to receive access to Penthouse 2. "Mr Manoso is expecting us. My name is Samara and this is my husband Steve Rogers."

The concierge did a double take before leading us to the elevator. He rode in the elevator to the Penthouse suites and turned the key to open the door. Pointing to his left he said, "Penthouse 2 is through that door."

"Thank you for your assistance." He walked away without speaking further. Before I had a chance to knock on the door, it opened. "Hi Ranger."

"Babe. Steve." He opened the door wider and waved us into his suite. I waited for him to start speaking. His anger was radiating off his body.

After a few minutes of silence, I handed him the sonogram. "Here's the sonogram of your baby." He studied it carefully before scanning it onto his laptop. A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door.

Ranger said, "Enter." Lester, Tank and Bobby entered the room. Bobby was holding a larger print of the sonogram along with a few more prints. I reached out to grab the sonogram I gave Ranger. He reluctantly passed it back.

Bobby started to speak, "Ranger, I want to show you what a normal pregnancy sonogram looks like in the early weeks." He laid six different sonograms on the table. "These are sonograms for weeks five to ten of gestation. The closest to the fetus in Bomber's sonogram is seven weeks."

I interrupted, "It was actually six weeks Bobby."

He nodded at showed Ranger the six week gestation sonogram along side of my sonogram. "Do you see this area around this sonogram?" He pointed to the normal sonogram. Ranger nodded his head. "This is the uterus. Take a look at your baby's sonogram." He pointed out the narrow area around the fetus. "This is a fallopian tube. Your baby implanted outside of her uterus. If it was left to grow, it would have ruptured and potentially killed her. Her only option was to terminate the pregnancy." I was relieved Bobby was able to explain my predicament. Bobby asked me, "I assume part of your fallopian tube was removed?"

"Yes. The doctor informed me it will be more difficult to conceive."

Ranger's demeanour changed from anger to sorrow. "Babe. Why didn't you tell me?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because I had already left when I discovered I was pregnant. I knew you'd find out eventually, but I was hoping to be the one to tell you. Last night wasn't the time or place for this conversation."

"Why did you leave Trenton?" he asked.

I could feel Steve tense beside me. "It was time for me to leave. There was nothing left for me in Trenton."

"Why did you leave me? I asked you to stay."

"I'm sorry Ranger. You asked me to stay, but then you walked away. My heart broke when you left. I was tired of being the fool."

He wasn't sure what to say. "Babe. I was going to propose but you left before I had the chance."

I yelled, "Propose? Ya... right. After all the times you told me your love doesn't come with a ring? That your life doesn't lend to relationships? When I was your entertainment, a line in your budget? How do any of those words add up to a proposal? I can answer that for you... they DON'T. How dare tell me you wanted to marry me when all you did was pushed me away." I felt my anger leave. Sadly I said, "It's obviously too late. I'm a married woman. I have found my life partner in Steve. The only relationship I can offer you, is friendship. I want my best friend back." I was crying into Steve's shoulder. Whispering to Steve, "I'm sorry Honey. Please don't be mad at me. He had to know how he made me feel."

"Sweetheart, it needed to be said. He can't hurt you anymore," he whispered to me.

I looked into Steve's eyes and thought, 'You are my best friend, my lover, my partner. Wherever you go, I will follow. My heart only belongs to you.'

"Sweetheart?" he asked, confused.

I continued, 'Did you hear me? Am I actually speaking out loud?'

He said, "Yes Sweetheart, I can hear you... in my head. You did not say those words out loud." I kissed him passionately, ignoring the other men in the room.

We pulled apart when we heard Tank clear his throat and Lester's laughter as he said, "She still gets lost in the moment."

"Ranger, guys, please forgive me for leaving. I don't want to lose your friendship."

Ranger was the first to approach me. "Babe. I forgive you. Your happiness means more to me than anything else. I beg you to forgive me."

"I forgave you over a year ago Ranger. Bobby, Tank, Lester? Do you guys forgive me?"

They all answered, "There's nothing to forgive."

Tank added, "We have all been where you were two years ago. Luckily we found Ranger. I'm glad you found Steve." They all took turns hugging me.

"We need to head back Steve. I missed my training session with Wanda. She's going to be worried."

"Sweetheart, I messaged her to reschedule."

"You are a wonderful man," I said between kisses. "Ranger, are you and your team staying in Manhattan for long?"

He nodded, "Yes. We are planning to open a Rangeman office in New York."

I nodded and said, "Are you staying for another night? Steve and I would like you and your team to join us for dinner tonight."

"I will confer with my team and send you a message." We exchanged phone numbers before Steve and I left.

Our fingers were entwined as we walked home. "You are a very understanding man Steve. Most men would be very jealous when their partner talks to an ex-boyfriend."

"I was jealous at first. When you kept sending me your love vibes, I relaxed."

I was confused. "I only sent you my love vibes when I was crying."

"Sweetheart, you were sending them the entire time we were in Ranger's hotel room." Huh... I was't aware I was continuously reassuring him.

"What's the name of Ranger's company and what is Ranger's real name?" Steve asked.

"The company is called Rangeman LLC. Ranger's name is Ricardo Carlos Manoso. He's the CEO. Tank, Lester, Cal, Hal, Hector and Bobby are his partners. Ranger owns a 25% share, Tank, Lester, Cal, Hal, Hector and Bobby each own a 10% share. A private investor owns the remaining 15% share." I noticed an odd look pass over Steve's face. "Steve, by any chance are you the private investor?"

"Yes I am. Carlos is unaware of my identity. My investment is through a shell company. He has tried many times to discover my identity, but Tasha has helped me maintain my anonymity. I trust you to keep my secrets."

"I'll do anything for you." We traded stories about our adventures as we continued walking home.

We arrived home when I was approached by Robert Williams, head of security. "Samara, I would like you to look at some files and provide me with your opinion."

"Sure. Am I permitted to take the files to my suite?"

"I'm afraid not. You will need to view them in the secure office off the Control Room."

"When would you like me to view the files?"

"As soon as possible." I thought for a few minutes, curious why I was approached and not Steve. "Why did you ask me to view the files?"

He looked at his shoes before answering, "When we discovered who you are, I ran a thorough security check on you. The file indicated you worked part time at Rangeman as a researcher. I requested your employment records from Mr Manoso. His report states you were their top researcher. Mr Manoso was unable to find a replacement researcher with your skill level. Your results produced 100% capture rate for FTAs, 100% accuracy for detecting potential company threats, 100% accuracy for personnel concerns, 100% accuracy for assessing client security needs and 100% accuracy in locating security risks and missing persons. You were highly recommended to assist in my research. Frank also highly recommended you."

"He makes it sound as if I was better at my job than I actually was."

"Sweetheart, you're underestimating your talents. Are you forgetting about the map and Bucky's location? You pointed at the map and described the cottage where he was hidden."

"Steve, that was different. I could sense where he was."

"When you worked at Rangeman, how did you locate your FTAs or security threats?" he asked.

"I just knew where to look. My spidey-sense led me in the correct direction."

"Samara, that's all my team is asking you to do. Read our files and point us in the right direction," Robert said.

I followed Robert to the control room to view the files. Four documents were blueprints to various warehouses. The remaining documents appeared to be random people working for reputable companies within Newark. I involuntarily shivered. One of the blueprints was easily recognizable. It was the old office building for E E Martin. My spidey-sense was firing in maximum capacity. I quickly flipped through the photos, but couldn't locate the three people I was hoping to find. "JARVIS, have Robert come to this office immediately."

Robert gave me the files, but I had no means to do any research. He was panting when he came to the office. "Did you run here?"

"Yes. JARVIS made it sound important."

"It is very important. Is there a spare laptop I can use for research? Would I be able to recruit external help from Rangeman?"

"You can have external help only if they pass our security clearance. JARVIS is equipped to aid in your research."

"Oh. I've used JARVIS to help in the past, but I always had a laptop as well. I can have JARVIS do the facial recognition aspect of my research. No offence to JARVIS, but Rangeman's proprietary program is better for the type of research I have in mind."

"Alright. I'll have the IT department bring you a laptop. Let me know the ETA of your Rangeman help. I'll clear them through security."

I grabbed my phone to text Ranger. 'Need core team's help.'

'Babe.'

Grrr... he's back to one word answers. 'A project landed in my hands. I need access to your best search program.'

'Need help?'

'Yes. I found something in the files. Could really use a sounding board and another opinion.'

'Who do you need? I assume there will be background checks?'

'Anyone you can spare for the afternoon. You are correct, background checks will be done.'

Ranger arrived with his full entourage, each man wearing a visitors pass. Hector brought his laptop, containing the Rangeman programs, for me to use. Robert cleared the Rangeman team for the control room office. Steve kissed my cheek before leaving me to my research with the Rangeman team. "Thank you for coming to see me, Ranger. Due to the sensitivity of this information, it would be best if I only have Ranger and Tank review the documents. The rest of you are welcome to use the gym and cafeteria. If you need to shower or change, I can have extra clothes sent to my floor for your use. Oh, JARVIS, please grant Rangeman employees on site access to my floor."

"Yes Mrs Rogers."

I waited for the other men to leave the room. "Ranger, I've sorted the data into three piles. The largest stack are long shots and have no connections to the other two stacks. The medium sized stack are probable connections, which are loosely related to my smallest stack. This last stack of three sheets are ones that set off my spidey-sense." I went through the smallest stack with Ranger to point out the names and buildings which alerted my instincts. "Ranger, can you read through the long shots stack to see if I missed any probable connections? Tank, can you read through this stack?" I passed Tank the medium sized stack. "Here are some hi-lighters, Ranger, anything either of you want me to research in depth, hi-light in yellow. Anything you want me to consider researching, hi-lite in green. Tank, use orange for in depth review and blue for ones to consider. If find a page has no correlation to the smallest stack, Ranger, put a green dot on the page, Tank put a blue dot on the page. Once you've examined your assigned stack, swap then repeat the process."

Tank asked, "Why do Ranger and I have different coloured dots and hi-lights?"

Smiling I said, "Ranger uses his tactical experience to review possible connections, where you use your financial experience. Both of you have different approaches and areas of expertise. I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't utilize your skills. Also, it indicates that neither you nor Ranger found any tactical or financial relevance to the target data. If you disagree with any hi-lighted yellow or orange text, ignore it. I still want to review them. If you think one should have been hi-lighted as yellow or orange, put an X in your primary colour, and I'll do more in depth research for that text."

Ranger looked at me in awe. "Babe." As I waited for them to review the files, I used Hector's laptop to plug the names from the smallest stack into the program. I printed off my search results and waited for Ranger and Tank to finish reviewing their documents.