Chapter 45
SPOV
Maybe it was seeing her with her arms around Ranger's neck. I wasn't sure if Ranger knew that I'd come back into the room, but Sophia, she had the gall to smile sweetly at me before turning to look at Ranger. I didn't know who to be the angriest with, Sophia for being so damn forward or Ranger for allowing her to do it.
At least Ranger made the effort to remove her hands, literally holding onto her wrists to extract her. She pouted, honest to god, her teeth came over her lower lips and she fanned her eyes at him. That's when Ranger saw me and his movement toward me was fast and direct, as though I could protect him from her, or he was feeling guilty for me watching that little performance.
"Carlos, I wanted to say how appreciative I was for you letting me stay here"
I bet. She had designs on my man which was causing me to think I might be turning green because I was so jealous.
"I didn't realize that you were here Steph, maybe I can help Carlos out"
She said while looking directly at his groin. I felt Ranger stiffen beside me as his arm came around my waist and was waiting for who would say something next.
"Sophia people I don't know that well call me Ranger and I have no desire for you to help us out with anything. Is that all you came up here to say?"
I was doing a happy dance inside hearing Ranger's response to her and was looking directly at Sophia now. She didn't seem affected by what he'd said though, instead she turned to the pot that was on the kitchen worktop and lifted the lid, smelling the contents before she replaced the it.
"I haven't eaten yet and that smells wonderful"
How did she make herself sound so sexy? And did she really think that she could just invite herself to eat with us. Okay, now I was getting mad and maybe this time it was me that stiffened up at how pushy she was.
"Sophia this is mine and Steph's private apartment and I don't appreciate you being here. If that's all you have to say, then I think that maybe you should leave"
I dared to look up into Ranger's face and could see the hardness in his eyes and expression, I was so thankful that Ranger had put her in her place.
"I wanted to tell you what I'd described to Isaac. He thought that maybe you'd want to do something about it"
I watched as Ranger removed his phone from his pocket and quickly read a message before putting it back again. Then he did the last thing that I expected him to do, he led me to the couch and sat us both down.
"Okay Sophia, you have ten minutes"
I watched as she contemplated where to sit, the way that Ranger was sat sideways on the couch and how I brought my legs up next to me meant that there was no room for her with us. Eventually she sat down in the chair opposite Ranger, perched on the edge of the chair so that she was directly in front of Ranger.
"That room. It had a lot of electronic equipment, you know, computers and things. Then there was a large board against the back wall. There were names and drawings on it, and dates. They had a meeting schedule on the back of the door and tonight was the last date written down. They tended to meet late at night, when the club was full, at least that's when I saw these men walk through and head downstairs"
Hearing what she was saying almost had me thinking that we needed to be there tonight, to at least see who turned up. Maybe even get close to the room so that Hector could possibly set up some sort of listening devise. Almost, but not quite.
"I could take you in, Carl, sorry Ranger, and you could have a look around"
I almost said something but then decided not to. I hated the idea that Ranger would go with her to that club but knew that if I said that then it would sound immature. I looked at Ranger to see if I could gage what he might say but he was looking intently at Sophia.
"How would you do that Sophia?"
I was aghast that he was even thinking about it. Was it just because I was feeling insanely jealous, or totally that I wasn't good enough for him? I looked again at Sophia and saw a beautiful woman. Her hair fell to her shoulders, shiny, blonde and straight with no hair out of place. Her makeup was professiona,l setting off her eyes against a perfect complexion and let's not forget the figure that her slinky dress clung to. I watched as she crossed her legs, the dress creeping up to reveal her legs and thought, yeah, I was no competition against a woman like this. I know by now my head was looking down at my hands on my knee. I didn't dare look at either Ranger or Sophia. That's when I started to feel, I suppose anxious, or even worried. I started to think that this idea of Sophia's was totally the wrong thing to do.
"I'll meet you inside the club of course, I know that you're a member"
"What about Steph?"
I looked up to see Sophia reaching out to place her hand on Ranger's knee.
"She wouldn't fit in, I mean look at her, she'd stand out too much. It'll be much better if there's just you and me"
Did Ranger just nod his head at her in agreement?
"What time do you suggest then Sophia?"
Ranger turned to face Sophia and I watched not believing what I was seeing. Ranger was holding his hand over hers as it rested on his knee and he was looking at her intently.
"The meetings usually start at midnight so if you arrive at 11.15 then we'll have time to blend in before they arrive"
I'd had enough of listening to this so I stood up and headed for the door, hoping that Ranger would say something or even come after me. That never happened and as I closed the door, I could see that Sophia was moving across to where I'd just been sat, smiling at me as she let me know exactly what was going to happen between them.
"Maybe we can get to know each a little better now that she's gone"
I didn't wait for the elevator, I wanted to get away from there as fast as I could. How could I have been so stupid to believe that someone like Ranger wouldn't get fed up of me, especially when a woman like Sophia turned up. The tears were streaming down my face as I ran down the steps, holding onto the rail for fear of falling. I had no idea where I was going but knew that I had to get out of the building.
I felt numb, as though my heart had been ripped apart and didn't care where I ended up. How could Ranger have done that to me, how could he have led me on as he did? I felt so stupid for thinking that he cared for me in a special way, that he actually loved me. He wouldn't flirt so outrageously with Sophia if he thought anything for me. Maybe that was it, I'd served a purpose, filled a need and been that woman with benefits and now he had another woman to scratch his itch. I was sure she would be far more experienced in bed than I was and could probably allow Ranger to do whatever he wanted with her.
I was gradually speeding up as I made my descent and had stumbled a couple of times but as I missed a step, I felt my ankle give way and was suddenly falling, unable to stop myself. I know I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable landing and pain.
It never came and instead I was suddenly being held by someone. I don't know if it was the feeling of someone holding me or that they were stopping me from escaping the building, but I instinctively started to push them away from me, squirming to get away.
"Estefania detener"
It wasn't Hector who was holding me because Hector was stood in front of me with his hands around my arms. I turned to see that it was Les who was holding me.
"Beautiful, it isn't what you think. We didn't have time to clue you in"
I know I was frowning as Les said that, but it didn't stop the tears from falling.
"He's, she's up there and, and . ."
"No. He's letting her think that she's in control"
"What! You weren't there"
"Estefania, look at me"
As Les released the hold that he had on me I sank down to the floor and ended up sat on a step. Hector still had hold of my arms and he was looking at me intently while Les sat one step up from me with his knees on either side of me.
"She's lying, un mentirosa. She's part of this and is trying to set Ranger up"
"But"
"He knows, I sent him a message when I knew she was on her way upstairs"
"He was just going along with what she was saying and doing"
I looked over to Les as he said that wondering why they would think that Sophia was a threat. I mean Isaac was a good friend to her, wasn't he? Had he told her that he was FBI or had something else come to light to throw suspicion on her? I really wanted to believe what Les and Hector were saying to me.
"How do you know?"
"It's my fault Estefania"
I looked back to Hector not knowing why he would be saying that.
"Remember that night when I helped you with that skip from the motel?"
I nodded my head wondering what the hell that had to do with this.
"You must have left your camera in the SUV. I didn't notice it and then that car went to the garage for its yearly check over. Someone brought the camera back here, but no one knew whose it was"
That had me frowning because I couldn't for the life of me see what my camera had to do with Sophia being upstairs with Ranger.
"Hector, what the hell has my camera got to do with Sophia"
"I show you"
Les helped me to my feet, though my damn ankle felt painful. Seeing me struggling he just picked me up and followed Hector back up the stairs. We came out on the fifth floor and went across to the conference room that we were using for our evidence. As Les sat me down on a chair Hector pointed to a screen so I started to look at it, well stare at it really, totally surprised at what I was seeing.
My mind went back to that night when Joe had tried to force my hand into marrying him and how I'd then seen him with Terri outside that motel. I hadn't realized that I was still pressing the button down after I'd taken the shots of Joe in front of that damn motel. The photos that Hector was showing us were when I was so shocked at what I was seeing that I hadn't even thought about the camera.
As I continued to watch I knew that there could be several of Joe with Terry and was surprised when they didn't appear. I turned to look at Hector, but he only winked at me before nodding his head back to the screen.
"This is the reason they were interested in you Estefania"
Hector had magnified and enhanced the next series of photographs showing clearly the faces of the people outside the motel. With an arm around a woman's shoulder was the man we knew as Alan Andrews, and he was smiling down at Sophia. I turned hearing the door open and watched as Isaac came into the room. His eyes were scanning the photos on the screen which had me wondering how he was feeling about this and was glad when he started to fill us in with what Sophia had said to him.
"When I went to see her and she started to talk to me, well there were things that she said that just didn't make sense. I think she was telling the truth about Morelli, but I think she thought that he was more than a police officer"
"Did you tell her you were FBI?"
Yeah that was a question that I was keen to hear the answer to now we knew that Sophia wasn't who we thought she was.
"No. Like I said some of the things she said seemed too much of a coincidence. I think her intention was to lead Morelli into a trap""
"Like Ranger?"
His only response was to nod his head at me, but it had me thinking of Shane.
"Do you think that Shane saw or heard something?"
"Possibly"
"Estefania, look at this photo"
I looked back to the screen to see an older man in front of a room with Tasha. But why would they all meet there when they could have met at the club.
"Why there?"
"It's anonymous. No one would give any of them a second look and there are probably rooms with adjoining doors for families"
"Who is he?"
I thought I already knew but wanted to hear it confirmed by one of the others. It was Les who answered me, probably because he'd actually met him when he was doing work for the government.
"Edward Calhoun, the man himself"
As Hector moved to the next photo, I recognized the face of Keith Randall. I couldn't believe that the camera had caught all of this. When I'd first looked through the photos, I'd almost deleted the random ones.
"Are those all of them?"
I looked from Isaac to Hector and watched as Hector nodded his head. I was so pleased that Hector hadn't brought up any of the photos of Joe.
"What now?"
"We wait until Sophia leaves the building and we talk to Ranger"
I nodded my head to show that I understood, but I wanted to be on my own and somewhere quiet. I slowly got to my feet, picking up my camera, and working through the pain coming from my ankle tried to walk from the room.
"I'll wait in Ranger's office"
No one stopped me or followed me and once there I wanted to know more about Sophia. I knew that the search on her didn't come up with anything suspicious so used the program that I'd used at Leo's. The one that searched any and everywhere for a photo of her. Once I set that running, I curled up on the couch with the blanket around me.
I couldn't help it; my mind was taking me to places that had me feeling so anxious. All I could think about was that woman being upstairs in the apartment with Ranger. Would Ranger actually have sex with her to keep up appearances, would he kiss her and touch her as he had been doing with me before she had arrived. Would the bedroom smell like sex or would she seduce him in the lounge?
She was an escort and would know every trick in the book in the art of seduction. Could I hate him if he had given in to her in order to give the impression that he believed her. I knew I couldn't hate him, but I also knew that our time together would never be the same if he did. That brought on a fresh bout of tears running down my cheeks and I must have cried myself to sleep.
