Chapter 10

RPOV

I'd left Santos with Steph knowing how well they got on. Even I could see that Steph wasn't eating as well as she usually would. I didn't need him to point that out to me. As I walked down the stairs, I was thinking back to what had happened in the apartment when Steph had come out of the bathroom. I wasn't sure what I was thinking but I had felt the need to be close to her, to look after her. Shit, I probably should have just left her to get dressed by herself, because those feelings that I was trying so hard to keep in check were doing their best to come to the surface.

Don't get me wrong, I thought the world of Steph, no more than that, she was my world. And that was where the problems came. I was a mercenary, working shit jobs for the government. What I'd done would frighten most people away and I deserved that. I was a loner for a reason, the reason being survival and with the enemies I probably had it was difficult enough maintaining a secure life without dragging Steph into it.

I shook those thoughts from my head and once down in my office I decided that there would be people worried that they hadn't heard from Steph and they probably wouldn't realize that she'd been hurt. I had Steph's bag in the safe so retrieving her phone I was pleased to find a mobile number for Mr Plum. For some reason I didn't want to have to talk to Mrs. Plum, I got the feeling that she didn't really like me all that much.

"Frank Plum"

Yes, I'd used my own phone so that Mr Plum would now have my number.

"Mr Plum it's Carlos Manoso here"

"Who?"

"You may know me as Ranger, a friend of your daughters"

"What's happened, is she okay?"

I wasn't sure whether to be annoyed that he'd assumed the worst of Steph or not but pushed it to the side to get on with the reason for my conversation with him.

"Steph disappeared and was badly hurt"

"Shit, she can't get a break can she"

"She's doing okay now, but she seems more quiet than usual"

And that was what was worrying me the most. Normally when something had happened to Steph, she'd talk through what had happened and then seemed to bounce back to her normal self.

"She's had a hard time recently. What with that do with Gatling and then Morelli putting his shit on her. She sometimes gets like that, not very often but when she does it usually means something bad has happened"

In all the years that I'd known Steph she'd never exhibited that behavior with me. I was totally taken by surprise at what Mr Plum had said.

"How do I help?"

"Depends how bad it was. When she was a teenager, err, something happened. Her mother wouldn't listen to her and really doled out the punishment. Took me months to work it through with her and by then it was too late to do anything about it. I could talk to her, where is she?"

"Here at Rangeman"

"I don't mean to sound like I'm pushing, but the sooner she deals with whatever happened the better"

"Drive into the garage and I'll meet you down there"

As I ended the call my mind was trying to work out what could have happened to her as a teenager. I wasn't aware of there being anything where she was badly hurt. Something that I maybe needed to push Mr Plum on, though why I wanted to know was eluding me for the moment. I was just hoping that he came on his own.

As I wasn't too sure of how long Mr Plum was going to be so I left my office to go look for Tank. Something he'd said yesterday at the hospital was beginning to worry me. As he hadn't even been up to seven, I decided that it was going to have to be up to me to find him. I found him in the conference room that we'd set up as sit room when looking for Steph. He was just pinning up a photograph onto the board.

"Tank"

"Ranger"

"You said yesterday there was something I needed to know"

"Yeah. That man with Steph, the one we shot. Well he's under watch by Homeland"

"I take it they've been in touch?"

"Yes. They've taken over from the police. They're not sure how Jari, that's his name, was involved. He came to light a couple of years ago but then dropped from sight"

"Do they think that there's more going on than we know about"

"No. I got the feeling that they were looking at it as a one off incident, Jari hasn't been seen with anyone of concern"

I wasn't so sure about that. It just didn't make sense to me, that Jari would randomly kidnap Steph. Though because Tank hadn't been keeping as close an eye on Steph as I would have liked, maybe it was possible that he'd stalked her, why her though was anyone's guess at the moment. I nodded my head at Tank and was about to go into the monitoring room and inform the men of Mr Plum's arrival when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Seeing that it was Santos's id I started for the stairs as I answered.

"Something strange is happening with Steph, she's gone real quiet and seems to be having a panic attack"

I closed my phone as I reached the stairwell door that led onto seven and was soon squatted down in front of her. Santos was right, her breathing was fast, and her hands were shaking. I removed the bottle from her hands and lifted her, then sat down with her across my knee.

"Go down to the garage, Mr Plum's on his way. Bring him up here but ask him to wait until I calm her down"

"Do I tell him what's happened?"

"Yes"

The conversation with Steph gave me a lead to follow up on so leaving Steph with her father would give me time to do that. I'd mentioned to her father that I'd appreciate a couple of hours to follow up on something. He was all too pleased with that and even agreed to Ella providing them both with some snacks. I messaged Ella on my way down to the garage and was soon driving toward Steph's apartment building.

I pulled up and stopped as I entered the parking lot, noticing that Steph's car was still in the lot. On an impulse I messaged Ram and asked him to collect her car and take it the off site facility and run any and all forensics inside and out. I couldn't understand why that hadn't already been done, then again, I suppose that Tank wouldn't have seen the need to do that seeing as her car wasn't involved in her being kidnapped.

Parking by the front door I walked up the stairs and toward Steph's door. I stopped just outside when I heard sounds coming from the apartment next door. The door was open, so I quietly walked inside, seeing Dillon busily cleaning the carpets. As he turned, he stopped and looked at me a frown on his face.

"Have you found her?"

I wasn't too sure whether to tell him that Steph was safely tucked up at Rangeman but then thinking it through I didn't want people worrying unnecessarily.

"Yes. She's safe now"

"I'm sure glad about that, I was getting real worried about her"

I didn't want to impart any details so as I looked around the apartment, I was curious as to why Dillon was cleaning the place.

"New tenant Dillon?"

"Hopefully. The last one wasn't here a week before she up and left"

"What were her reasons for leaving?"

"No idea, she hadn't even paid the rent or a deposit. Hell, Ranger I didn't even meet her"

"That's not like you Dillon"

"I didn't even know she'd moved in until your people showed up to look for Steph. I came up to see if I could help and noticed the door to here was open"

"How did you know there was a woman staying here then?"

"That big black woman, she came storming up here demanding to talk to her. I have to say we did argue about it"

"Did she leave anything?"

"A mess. I just had this carpet to clean up for the next tenant coming in and found cosmetics in the bathroom and some clothing"

"Mind if I take a look?"

"Be my guest"

The layout was the same as Steph's apartment, so I started with the bathroom. In a black plastic bag were, as Dillon had said, cosmetics. The makeup didn't look to have been used very often and the bottles of shampoo and shower gel were still half full. The place smelt clean so I was sure there wouldn't be any prints to find. The bedroom had no furniture in it but again a bag that Dillon must have used for the clothes that she'd left. Looking through they were similar to the style that Steph would wear, jeans and T-shirts and again everything looked new.

Looking around I didn't find anything else so went back into the lounge. I was struck with how empty the place felt without any furniture, anyone living here would easily see something that they'd dropped and remove it. Hell, even the trash can was empty and had been cleaned out.

"The place was spotless Ranger, apart from those things that I told you about"

"I need to check in on Steph's apartment"

"The girls tidied it up. Three of them turned up yesterday and spent most of the day there. I let them in, I know how upset Steph can get when her apartment gets trashed. I didn't want her coming back to that"

I left Dillon with that thought on my mind. I knew she hated it as well and a vivid memory of finding her sofa outside in the hallway came to me. I picked the lock as I always had done and walked inside. It certainly smelt fresh from cleaning and I couldn't see anything that looked damaged, everything in its place. I opened the fridge and noticed some bottles of water inside, just two, so took them out, with the intention of having Ram check them out. Steph had been holding a bottle of water when she'd had her panic attack earlier, I wonder.

The freezer section held some ready meals, but no ice cream, and the cupboards had very little food inside. In the bedroom I opened the closet, surprised at how few clothes were hung up. Most of them looked like summer wear so maybe Steph had sorted through her clothes. The things I couldn't find were her laptop and camera, I'd have to check and see if someone from Rangeman had taken them. A look at my watch showed that I still had time to call in at the bonds office, maybe Connie would have more information.

It felt strange walking into the bonds office and only finding Connie sat at her desk. As I closed the door she stood up and came around her desk to stand in front of me.

"Where were you?"

"I only got back yesterday"

"You know she's missing then?"

"Yes"

"How did they let someone take her?"

"Connie, they had no idea that something was wrong"

"But you had someone with her"

I know my brow furrowed at that comment, Tank hadn't mentioned allocating anyone to help her.

"I know you did I saw the black SUV parked down from the office"

"Who was it, Connie?"

"He never got out of the car and Steph got in before it drove away"

"Connie, we didn't have a man with her"

"You must have"

There was no point in arguing with her as she seemed adamant about seeing one of my men with Steph. That was something I needed to check with Tank about.

"Why are you here?"

"Connie. Let me finish speaking. She's safe, we found her"

I watched as the expression on Connie's face changed from looking miserable to smiling. She still shocked me when she placed her hands on my shoulder and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you, Ranger. I've been so worried about her and thought that maybe Rangeman wouldn't be able to find her"

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, ever since that damn Gatling fiasco I knew she'd been doing her best to avoid your men"

"Why was she doing that?"

"I think what people said to her made her feel bad. Hell, Tank even came in here and threatened Vinnie and me that if Steph got hold of another file of Rangeman's there'd be hell to pay. Then she had to listen to what Morelli and her mother said. She seemed withdrawn, and I know she was finding it hard to make ends meet"

"Any skips outstanding?"

"Yeah, Sane Cooper, but I gave a copy of that file to your guys. She got Guillope and Singsong in, and I think that put a smile on her face"

"Did she have any problems with those?"

"No, Guillope took a bit of time but Singsong happened the same day"

"Connie, had she been ill, I mean I heard that she called in sick?"

Connie went back to her seat to continue our conversation.

"She came in the day before complaining of a headache so I gave her some painkillers and then that last morning she phoned in to say she wouldn't be in work because she felt ill"

"Her new neighbor?"

"She talked about her, Tasha"

"Did she say what this Tasha did?"

"Uber driver. We thought it was funny when Lula said it was something she could do"

"Thank you for taking care of her apartment"

"It seemed that was all we could do. Mary Lou was the one who suggested it"

"Steph will appreciate it"

"Can we see her?"

"I'll talk to her"

This was a side of Steph that I'd only caught a glimpse of before. I knew she'd get disillusioned sometimes when there wasn't much work around or if she'd had a particularly bad day catching skips. When I saw that happening to her, I would always talk her into coming into Rangeman to work. She was actually very good at doing searches and in some ways, I would have liked it if she worked for us more often. This sounded more than that, as though she were at the end of her tether and I was cursing that I hadn't been around to support her.

Once back at Rangeman I checked in at the conference room to see if her laptop and camera were there. Cal assured me that they hadn't been in her apartment so assumed that whoever had ransacked the place had taken them. It made me wonder what might be on them for that to happen. I gave the bottles of water to Cal and asked him to get them to Ram to check the contents.

Then I took the stairs back up to seven and as I entered the apartment, I could hear Steph laughing. That gave me hope that maybe her father had managed to discover what was making her so fragile. I was surprised to find Ella sat with them and walked to the fridge for a bottle of water. I looked at it and replaced it, filling up a glass from the sink instead.

As I wondered into the lounge Mr plum had stood up and was giving Steph a hug. It seemed to me that he was about to leave now that I was back.

"I've really enjoyed seeing you Pumpkin"

"Thanks Dad, for being here and talking"

"Ella, those cookies were amazing"

With that he walked toward me and nodded his head toward the door as though he wanted me to accompany him. I wasn't going to leave Steph on her own and was looking at Ella. Of course, she was one step ahead of me and immediately knew that I was hesitating to leave.

"Steph is helping me prepare some dinner for you"

I wasn't going to say anything, I actually thought that it was a brilliant idea. Ella was a very patient woman and she thought the world of Steph.

I walked back to Mr Plum, opening the door for him. We were both quiet as we waited for the elevator making me wonder if I'd misunderstood that he wanted some time with me. It wasn't until we were in the elevator that Mr Plum began to talk. I used my fob to block the cameras and turned to him to listen. He was stood facing the doors and didn't look at me as he spoke. It was as though he was talking to himself and I wasn't even there. Maybe he felt guilty for talking about Steph to me, hell he didn't really know me.

"She sounds down, as though what happened was her fault. I told her that it wasn't but with what Tank said to her and what Morelli told her it's going to be hard to build up her self confidence"

"What did Morelli say to her?"

"He called her stupid, reckless and selfish then lectured her on how she needed to stop doing a job that she had no skills for. Oh, and how she'd end up getting herself killed or worse still someone else"

How had I ever thought that Morelli was good for Steph. I thought that he was a decent man who loved Steph but my understanding of him now was that he was selfish. How could a man who loved a woman say that to her? He should be supporting her and helping her, picking her up when she was down not berating and belittling her.

"At least she had the sense to get rid of him, but hell to see him with that Gilman woman, well that aint good"

"I didn't know about that"

"It's going around the Burg, but no, I didn't know that Steph had seen them until she just told me now. That doesn't make anyone feel good about themselves especially after catching that Dick with someone else"

"Is that the main reason she's behaving as she is?"

"No. Something bad's happened, but she can't remember. She has a way of locking things away in her head, she calls it denial, but I know that it's her subconscious trying to protect her sanity"

"What happened when she was a teenager?"

Somehow, I needed to know, to understand what had happened that hurt her so badly. I wasn't optimistic that Mr Plum would divulge that information, I mean it had happened years ago before I even knew Steph.

"She'll have told people that Morelli took her virginity on the floor of the Tasty Pastry"

"Something like that"

"That it was consensual?"

I hit the emergency stop button on the panel knowing that we needed more time to talk.

"It wasn't?"

I didn't need an answer for me to suddenly understand what was being said.

"Her mother found out about it and she blamed Steph, called her a slut and then grounded her for the rest of the summer. I didn't find out the reason until a couple of months later and of course I got her mother's version to start with. I used to take Steph with me on a Saturday and that's when I saw her have her first panic attack. We were supposed to pick up some cake or something from the Tasty Pastry. She couldn't even get out of the car"

"He raped her"

It wasn't a question it was me clarifying in my own head what Mr Plum was saying.

"I did some asking around after that and found out that the bastard had written poems about her around town. It was there for anyone to read, what he'd done. The bastard wasn't around for me to do anything about it, he'd left the day after attacking Steph, for the navy. I spent a lot of time with Steph after that, talking to her, taking her to the club, rebuilding her confidence. I'm not sure to this day if she's ever faced what he did to her, but she can go inside the Tasty Pastry"

"So you think the panic attack that she had here was triggered by something"

I already knew the answer but seeing Mr Plum nod his head confirmed it for me. I was sure that what Steph was suffering from was very similar to PTSD and if that was the case then she'd need help to overcome it, I knew what it was like to be in a place like that.

"Mr Plum"

"Frank"

"Frank, I appreciate you coming here"
Frank turned and looked at me, a serious expression on his face and I suddenly felt very conscious of how that look was directed at me.

"Where do you stand Ranger?"

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it"

It was Frank who hit the button for the elevator to continue because I was still thinking about what he'd asked me and what he meant.

Entering the apartment, I could smell something cooking. I was almost apprehensive of what could have happened knowing how Steph had said that she was hopeless at cooking. What surprised me was seeing Ella sat at the breakfast bar drinking a glass of wine while Steph was stirring something in a pan. As the microwave pinged Ella got up and took out a plate, placing it on the table.

"The baked potatoes are ready, that should be done now. Here, use this dish to serve it from"

I watched as Steph used the large spatula to sweep what looked like chili into the bowl and then as Ella set the bowl on the breakfast bar Steph placed the pan back on the stove. I was about to move, but Ella beat me to it, and I smiled as she turned off the flame below the pan.

"Ranger, perfect timing"

"Thanks Ella"

"Don't thank me, Steph did everything, I just supervised"

I saw her wink at me as she picked up the pan and then left the apartment. I went to the breakfast bar where Steph was sat and sat down next to her.

"This smells good"

"Yeah well you'd better taste it first before you say anything else"

I served us both a baked potato and chili and picking up a fork started to eat the meal.

"Well?"

"It tastes good Babe"

"Honestly?"

"Honestly"

I wasn't lying either, it did taste good, as good as when Ella made it. I saw a smile creep across Steph's face pleased that she'd been successful at cooking.

"Babe, I thought you said you couldn't cook"

"Well, I never tried anything like this. My Mum would try and get me to do dinner, or at least help, but I just couldn't seem to do anything right. She said it was me, that I was useless and then she stopped me doing anything"

"Maybe Ella can show you some other recipes, this is as good as Ella's"

I watched as her cheeks turned pink and her head dropped. Why would she be embarrassed? Then it hit me, because she was so used to being criticized that having someone give her a compliment was something that she wasn't used to.

I told Steph to relax while I tidied away our dishes, surprised when I realized that she hadn't finished her meal. As I thought about it, I hadn't heard her appreciate her food since she'd been here, and I actually missed that. I collected a couple of glasses of water and then went through and sat with her on the couch. I sat leant against the armrest with my legs across the chairs, pulling Steph to sit between my legs and against my chest. I was flicking through the channels asking Steph what she wanted to watch and realized that she was fast asleep.

Just watching her had me thinking back to what Frank had asked me just before he left. Where did I stand? I wasn't too sure about the answer to that because to be honest it was something that I had constantly pushed to the back of my mind, yeah, I was good at denial as well.