Chapter 16

I spent the evening packing any clothes that I would need, not a lot because I was only using a small bag so as not to get anyone asking me what I was doing. I tidied the place and moved things around in the closet, making sure that there was some space for the person who I hoped would be staying here. As I looked around the apartment, I was still pleased with the changes I'd made, hell it seemed so long ago now when I'd bought the things to make it look better.

You might be asking how I was feeling now that I'd made a decision, and in some ways, I'd probably been avoiding thinking about it too much. Was I regretting what I was planning? No. In some ways leaving Trenton felt right. Maybe I'd done some growing up over the past week and if nothing else I knew it was time for me to move away from this life that I'd been stuck in. I had regrets knowing that I'd miss my friends but as I'd said to Joe they'd still be here if I decided to come back, or circumstances allowed it.

I was feeling guilty hoping that those friends would forgive me for what I was embarking on, that the men at Rangeman would be able to just let me go. I only hoped that my plan for my apartment and especially Rex would work out. It felt as though I was abandoning him and maybe I was, but I was sure if he knew the true reason for me leaving then he'd understand. I spent some time talking to him, explaining things to him and as he disappeared back into his soup can I was sure he was wishing me luck.

The following morning, I made sure that everywhere was tidy, removing the photos from the frames to take with me. I had my laptop, camera, phone and enough clothes to sleep in and change into, before making for the door to meet my Rangeman de jour before they came up stairs. I was sat on the step as the black SUV drove into the parking lot and pulled up in front of me. I was almost grateful that it was Ram with me today and not one of the core team. I stood up and opened the back door to put my bag inside before getting into the passenger seat. I noticed that Ram was looking at it and knew that he'd be asking me about it.

"What's the bag for Steph?"

"We're going to the train station so I can give some old clothes to Eula"

"She the old lady that hangs out there?"

"Yeah. I picked her up last week, no, the week before and she wasn't doing so well"

As Ram pulled out onto the street, I was so relieved that he thought my story was believable. Next, I would have to ensure that he didn't insist on coming into the station with me. Ram was quiet as he drove, forever looking in his mirrors and the cars as they passed us. It made me wonder whether Rangeman had worked out who was following Lester and me and who they were following. Seeing as I'd had no recurrence of the problem since then, I was assuming that it was Lester that they were following. Ram found a place to park outside of the side entrance to the station. I got out and opened the back door of the car and lifted out my bag, only to see Ram getting out as well.

"Ram"

"What's up Steph?"

"I really need to be on my own to see Eula"

"Why's that?"

"She's not keen on strangers and she's too proud to be seen accepting something, please Ram"

Okay, so maybe I turned on the charm a bit as I looked at him but seeing as he backed off and returned to the car I didn't care. I checked that no one seemed to be paying any attention to me, walking around looking for Eula. I was so relieved that she was on this side of the tracks, maybe further down than usual but at least I didn't have to go underneath and through that tunnel. I sat down next to her, waiting for her to notice me.

"Why are you here, I aint got no court date"

"I know Eula. I wanted to ask if you'd do me a very big favor"

She turned to look at me when I said that, staring at me almost scrutinizing my face.

"I heard what happened girl. I sure am sorry"

I assumed that she was talking about Ranger but instead of replying I just looked down at my hands laid on my knee.

"You were his woman, everyone could see that. We didn't need anyone putting that out on the streets"

I knew that's what some of the people down on Stark Street thought, but I was sure it was because Ranger put out the word as a way to keep me safe. What did she mean everyone could see it, see what? I wasn't going to ask so instead turned to look at her as she asked her question.

"What do you need, girl, it must be mighty important for you to be asking me?"

I looked at Eula, wondering if I had the nerve to go through with this, what if she said no or got nasty with me for asking.

"Look, I can see that look in your eyes. Go ahead and ask"

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath before looking directly at Eula.

"Eula would you look after my apartment for me and make sure my pet hamster Rex is okay"

"You mean call in every day?"

"I thought maybe you could stay there. The rent's paid and the bills are taken care of. There's even food in the fridge and the freezer"

"How do you know I wouldn't just wreck the place?"

I felt embarrassed about what I'd done in delving into Eula's past, but maybe it was time for her to find herself again as well.

"I know you Eula, I know how proud you were of your work. You gave everything of yourself to those you worked for. It's time to find yourself and who you are Eula"

I didn't dare look at Eula after I said that, waiting for her to start shouting at me or just walk away. That she didn't had me looking up to meet her eyes looking at me.

"I'll do it. Not for me, I'm too old to go back. But you, I can see it in your eyes. You need to find something so go, find what you need, and I'll look after the hamster and your apartment"

I was almost crying with relief as she said that and pressed an envelope into her hands.

"The address and keys are in here. If you need any help call the number and ask for Tank. Thank you, Eula"

I stood up before she could say anymore and with my bag walked toward the lockers.

I had a key in my pocket and a train ticket for the next day as I walked back out to find Ram. He saw me straight away and opened the door for me before getting inside beside me.

"Everything go okay with Eula?"

"Yeah, it did"

"Where to now?"

"Rangeman"

I saw a shocked expression cross his face, who could blame him, I suppose that was the last place that he expected me to go.

I wasn't too sure how to go about being inside the Rangeman building but once on five it was easier than I thought it would be. I spent time in the control room with Manny and Cal and chatted in the breakroom with Hal and Binkie. Woody stopped me on the corridor and Slick joined in. I noticed there were people missing though as I spent more time there and ever curious, I wanted to know where they were.

"Where's Tank, Lester and Bobby?"

"They're in this meeting downstairs, some high level stuff that's going on"

"What do you mean Woody, high level?"

"I'd say FBI from the suits that they're wearing"

"Really?"

"Yeah, they turned up just before you got here. I think Tank was surprised"

I didn't know what to make of that and maybe I was overthinking things. I knew that Rangeman took on contracts with some of the alphabet agencies, so it was probably something like that.

I watched as the guys said their goodbyes and then turned to the elevator. Once inside I used my key fob to go up to Ranger's apartment. Once inside I locked the door and went to the closet and opened the vault. From inside the box that Ranger had left for me I took out his letter and read it. I wanted to keep it with me, but knew that would be a stupid move, I didn't want to lose it or for it to get destroyed, besides I remembered every word that had been written. I would never forget what Ranger had said to me in that letter. I removed the three envelopes and put them onto the floor and placed the letter and package that Ranger had sent to me inside. Looking at the hard drive I found a different place to hide it so hopefully even if someone managed to get into the vault, they wouldn't find it. I felt that this would be the safest place to leave them.

As I closed the vault a feeling of dread came over me, I wasn't too sure if it was nerves at what I was planning to do or if it was because I felt I was closing a door on Ranger. I left the bedroom with everything I needed in my bag and went through to the office that Ranger had next door. As I looked at the desk, I supposed it was as Ranger had left it. Everything was tidy with nothing out of place, Ella must have cleaned in here because there wasn't any dust. I sat down on the soft leather chair and looked at the objects laid out on the top. A metal holder held pencils, all sharpened of course with another holder filled with pens. There was a stapler and hole puncher sat together and in front of me a large white paper pad that had nothing written on it.

There were three drawers at the side that I slid open and looked through, making me feel like a thief in the night, a feeling of guilt that I was prying into a place that I had no right to. It was as though Ranger had cleared anything important from them leaving new notepads and blank forms that he used for new clients. The bottom drawer held a small case that I recognized as Ranger's lock picking set so I placed it on the desk thinking that it might come in handy for me to take, not that I knew how to use it.

The last thing to look at was Ranger's laptop sat on top of the desk. Opening it up and powering it on I waited for the inevitable page to appear demanding a password. As I thought through all the possible combinations, he might use I rolled the chair forward to get closer to the desk. That's when my foot hit something underneath the desk. I moved the chair back to see what it was, recognizing the large black box as a shredding machine. On my hands and knees, I pulled the heavy box out doubting that Ranger would have left anything inside. He was too anal about covering his tracks but if I didn't look inside then it would eat away at me as somewhere that I hadn't checked out. The lid was very heavy with the blades and motor, but I eventually lifted it away and placed the lid on the floor.

The inside of it was absolutely empty and clean. I was disappointed even though I knew it would be empty, so went to replace the lid back onto the top. As I lifted it up, I noticed the edge of a piece of paper that was stuck between the blades. Turning the lid over, it wasn't visible from the top, so I went to work trying to pry the paper out. It was amazing just how useful Ranger's lock picks were as I gently pushed it through the blades and felt a satisfied feeling when I had it in my hand. It had obviously been part of a larger piece of paper and what I held had been damaged but there was definitely something written on it. The first part looked like squiggles with the center part looking like an S and two circles next to it. If there had been anything else there it was gone now and the only letters that I did recognize were an O, maybe a T or L and an A. It wasn't much to go on but my spidey sense was telling me that this was important.

I put the shredder back together and refocused on the laptop in front of me, the box for the password mocking me. I tried the code for the vault, Ranger's then my birthday and then the date that we had met in the diner. I used the numbers to start with and then changed to writing out the month, I hit the jackpot with the date that we'd first met surprised that Ranger would remember or even consider it important.

Once I was into the screen, I found myself looking at myself. A photograph that looked quite old, judging by the clothes I was wearing. I knew I had to ignore the emotions that were simmering to the surface. Shit, why had we danced around each other, why had Ranger made the decision that a relationship with me wasn't practical or possible. If what Eula had said, then everyone who'd seen us together would have known that there was more than just friendship between us.

I opened files to find them empty, it looked as though Ranger had deleted everything from the hard drive before he left. Out of curiosity I clicked onto the icon labelled cameras and found myself looking at a screen showing images from every camera in the building. I could see the guys at the monitors and as they went into and out of the breakroom. An empty elevator and hallways with closed doors. The garage as a car pulled in and Miguel and a Rangeman I didn't know get out.

What caught my attention though was a door opening and Tank coming out. From his posture of being stood upright with his chest pushed forward I'd say he was pissed off about something. I double clicked on the image to enlarge it as four men in suits followed him onto the corridor. These must be the FBI suits that Woody had mentioned. I watched the faces of the men, two of them were standing back whilst it seemed the other two were right in front of Tank with faces like thunder. Tank kept shaking his head which only seemed to get the FBI men more animated until they turned to the two suits behind them and spoke. I watched as three suits started to move away so curious as to where they were going went back to the screen with all the camera images on. I caught an image of one of them on the stairwell, watching as he passed the doors that opened onto each floor. Lester was suddenly running behind him as though to catch himup and that's when I panicked.

I closed the lid of the laptop and made sure everything was as it was when I came into the office, and the small piece of paper was in my hand. I grabbed my bag from the floor and made for the closet. I'd left my jacket on the floor of the closet but now picked it up and in the dark opened the wall panel and vault. The clothes on the rails were pulled back to cover any signs of there being anything of importance in the closet. I just hoped that if I went inside and closed the door then I wouldn't get locked inside. Once inside I pulled the panel closed and pushed the vault door shut. Of course, the lights went out plunging me into blackness as I slid down to the floor, clutching my bag in front of me.

I was surprised that I heard anything from inside the vault, but then I heard the door to the apartment slamming into the wall. As though someone had maybe kicked it which could be a possibility seeing as I had locked it. After that the sounds were muted and it was hard to work out what was going on. I closed my eyes as the darkness seemed to be closing in on me and that dreaded feeling came over me, the dread of being trapped inside somewhere dark and small. I slowly counted, trying to control my breathing, but it wasn't helping very much. I jumped when a crashing sound came to me, a sound that seemed to be close by.

I think I stopped breathing altogether so afraid that the noise of the air rushing in and out of my lungs would be heard. As I slowly breathed out, I couldn't hear anything else and knew I wouldn't last much longer in here without hyperventilating.

In the end I had to have some light to see with so took my phone from my bag and used it to look around me. It did make me feel a bit better and a look at the time showed that I'd been inside the vault for 40 minutes. Surely there wouldn't be anyone still in Ranger's apartment would there? Why would the FBI be wanting to come up here anyway?

Standing up I tucked the scrap of paper into one of the envelopes in my bag and left my bag on the floor. I was so grateful that there was a handle on the inside of the vault door so as slowly as I could pulled it down, stopping suddenly as a clunking sound seemed to ring out around the room. Not hearing anything else I pushed the door open and then listened for any sounds. It was deathly quiet, giving me hope that whoever had been here had left.

Pushing the panel open I stepped out into the closet to find things strewn all over the floor. Trousers, jackets, shoes and suits, everything had been thrown onto the floor. The bedroom wasn't much better with drawers pulled out and emptied, sheets pulled from the bed and left creased up in a bundle on the top. I walked through to the office to find the same, except Ranger's laptop was missing. I wasn't so sure I wanted to go any further and find the same destruction in the rest of the apartment. It seemed obvious now that those men were after something that they felt Tank or Ranger had hidden. At the back of my mind, I was almost certain that the hard drive was the culprit, making me wonder what was so important about it. At least they hadn't found the vault.

I went back to the vault for my bag and ensured everything I needed was inside. I still had my phone because I had one phone call to make before I powered it down. Once I'd done that, I locked up the phone and laptop inside the vault. I really didn't want to leave where I was, worried in case those men were still here. I was almost sure that no one would know I was up here. The men would assume that I'd left the building and Tank, Bobby and Lester wouldn't know that I'd come here. Feeling hungry though I did go through to the kitchen.

I found some bread, peanut butter and a jar of olives on the floor scattered amongst everything else. Hell, even boxes of cereals had been emptied out. Ranger's apartment looked like mine did after someone had broken in, right down to the cushions from the couch spilling out their foam filling.

I went back into the bedroom with my sandwich and placed it on the cabinet next to the bed. Then I made the bed with the creased sheets, glad that at least they hadn't destroyed all of the pillows. Once my sandwich was gone, I undressed to my panties and bra finding one of Ranger's T-shirts to sleep in.

I had some of the paper from Ranger's desk with me and wrote out four identical letters. I knew it was a cowards way out, but I hoped the people reading these would understand and forgive me. There was no way I could face them in person and tell them that I was leaving town. I would break down if they started to ask questions and that was the last thing that I needed right now.

I laid down in the bed, under the sheets and pulled a pillow to me, hugging it tightly to me knowing that I desperately needed to feel someone close to me.

Dreams have never usually been a friend to me, and I wasn't too sure that the one I had last night had been either. Dreams usually terrified me, reliving things that had happened to me or as nightmares changing the outcome into something that scared me to death. As I awoke from the dream that I'd been having I felt extremely embarrassed at how much it had affected me. Between my thighs was damp a clear indication of how much I'd been affected. I knew I'd spent time reliving happy memories with Ranger yesterday but the erotic dream of having him touching, caressing and kissing me all over had literally sent me over the edge with a climax so strong I could still feel the aftershocks rippling through me. I had moved a lot during the night, the covers now around my waist, with me now laid with the pillow underneath me and Ranger's T-shirt close to my face. Maybe there had still been the slight fragrance that always seemed to be around him, that intoxicating smell of Ranger and Bulgari.

I quickly took my clothes and used the shower in the bathroom and pulled my wet hair back into a ponytail. A look in the mirror showed that I was still pale but at least the dark circles under my eyes were receding. I didn't have time to hang around amazed at how late I'd slept, so checking that I had everything with me left the apartment. I left a letter, my wallet, any trackers and my fob on the kitchen counter hoping that would deter anyone from searching for me.

I travelled down in the elevator praying it wouldn't stop at any of the floors and that no one on monitor duty would think twice about seeing me. As long as I avoided Tank, Lester and Bobby I was sure that I'd get out of the building without anyone stopping me. It did make me wonder if anyone knew that I'd spent the night here. I suppose when Lester had followed that FBI agent then he would have seen an empty apartment as well. Once in the lobby I walked past the reception desk without even looking to see who was manning it and was out onto the street straight away.

I pulled the hood of my jacket up, over the hat I was wearing over my hair, against the cold biting wind as I walked down the street and found the taxi I was looking for. Once inside the car started to move forward.

"Where to Pumpkin?"

"Can you maybe drive around a bit just to make sure no one is following me"

"Sure. Haven't you told them what you're doing?"

"No. I didn't think I'd be strong enough to stop them talking me into changing my mind. I left a letter. Would you deliver these for me?"

I placed three letters in the center console as my Dad nodded his head. There was a letter for Mar Lou, Lula and Connie. I'd added to Connie for her to tell Vinnie that I was quitting.

"Do you want me to talk to them?"

I thought about that and decided it was probably a good idea for my Dad to just reiterate what I'd said in the letters, at least then maybe they wouldn't try and find me.

"Yeah I think that would be a good idea. Maybe if you talked to Tank, Bobby or Les"

"What about Rex, I could pick him up?"

"He'll be okay. I've got a friend living there and looking after the place"

"Do you want me to call and check that everything is okay?"

Did I? I suppose it would be better if I knew my Dad had spoken to Eula and then that way it would legitimize having Eula in my apartment.

"You could do. Her name's Eula, she's quite old but I'm sure she'll be polite to you"

"I'll let Dillon know and then he doesn't think that you have a squatter"

Yeah, maybe I should have thought about doing that myself and almost smiled at what Dillon might say if he saw her.

"I'll tell Tank as well"

"Thanks. I should have told people, but I never thought"

"You've had too much on your mind Pumpkin. Leave everything with me, I'll make sure they understand"

I felt so stupid now as I realized what I'd forgotten. I'd been so focused on the bigger picture that I'd totally overlooked the smaller details. I was beginning to think that I wasn't any good at this, at planning things out.

"What time's your train?"

I looked across as my Dad spoke his voice stopping me mid thought.

"Another four hours"

I know it was a long time away, but I really didn't want to be in the Rangeman building any longer than necessary.

"We'll go to your favorite place then to put in the time"

So here I was sat huddled up on the beach watching the waves as they crashed onto the shore. The wind was strong, blowing my hair all over the place. I pulled the hat I was wearing further down on my head in an attempt to save my ears from freezing off. I could feel the freezing mist from the sea on my face and the wet from the sand through my jeans, but I didn't care. I didn't care that it was so cold or that the moisture on my face was turning to ice, because that's how I felt inside. That's how I had to be in order to keep my composure, to steel myself for the plans that I was going to follow through on.