Chapter 53

Never, no chance, I'll disappear first. All of those ideas went through my mind. I knew I was breathing hard and to be honest almost started to panic. As I controlled my breathing the panic seemed to calm down. Yeah weird, it was almost as though I knew it would be okay and that nothing bad would happen to me. Then I really did panic as I felt a tingle go down the back of my neck. Ranger, I hadn't even thought what Ranger would say or even do. He'd be so annoyed that I'd let this happen, so disappointed with me. That thought had my eyes water, but it had happened, so I'd just have to go with it.

I saw a figure jump up onto the end of the catwalk. He was lithe and strong, tall and well built. As he started to walk toward me, I took off at a run, jumping up at him as he approached, feeling strong arms holding me to him and relishing in the feel and smell of Ranger. I wasn't too sure when the kiss started, deep and passionate that had my body humming and small groans developing in my throat but the sound of cheers, whistling and hollering soon had me pulling back. Shit, I had totally forgotten that we had an audience.

"10,000 dollars, huh?"

"Worth every dollar Babe"

"Thank you for saving me, again"

"Every time"

I hadn't realized that the lights were slowly brightening or that Brenda was behind Ranger trying to push toward the back of the stage. Once back on the floor I grabbed hold of Ranger's hand and pulled him through the drapes to back stage with the intention of collecting my bag. We were surrounded by the models, all of them clapping, all of them, I'm pleased to say now dressed.

"Girl if you ever need a job you call me"

Came from the woman who had first approached me.

"You know I think that was way sexier than any of the stupid get ups we have to wear"

"Yeah, Doris how about a change of theme?"

I joined in as their laughter rang out seeing a lot of faces that were more intent on ogling Ranger, some even being men.

Having collected my bag and said goodbye and good luck to the models, we were soon outside the hotel. I wasn't surprised to see two black SUVs waiting for us and felt pleased and relieved as I climbed into the back with Ranger beside me. As I settled against Ranger and felt his arm around me the euphoria of having Ranger with me, safe and alive was all I needed at that moment. Tomorrow would be soon enough to find out what had happened to everyone after we left.

I woke up warm and happy. Something that comforted me, especially the feel of a hard warm body under me. The feel of movement through my hair had me tilting my head to look up into Rangers beautiful brown eyes, though as I turned, I watched as they almost turned black. Nibbling at the base of Ranger's neck was too irresistible to ignore so I indulged myself with continuing the nibbling and licking until his mouth was almost touching mine.

"Has your 24 hours started?"

I asked remembering that he'd won me at the auction.

"No. I have plans for that"

Of course, I was curious but at the moment I had plans of my own that I intended to make sure happened. Seeing as Ranger was already on his back, I took advantage of him by moving until I was straddling him. My mouth was started at his neck and was working along a collar bone when I felt his hands tracing circles around my breasts.

"No, no, no"

I whispered as my hands took hold of his wrists and settled them down by his side. Okay he could have overpowered me, but it seemed that he was quite enjoying the attention that my lips were giving him. As I worked my way down his chest, playing with his nipples it also gave me the opportunity to ensure that he hadn't been injured.

Each new bruise that I came to I licked gently before continuing my journey south. I could feel how turned on he was and to be honest it only had me wanting more. It was a heady feeling as I sank down on him, my mouth and tongue relishing in the feel. I'd never enjoyed doing this before and always avoided it but with Ranger it felt right. As I felt him writhing and his hips automatically pushing up, I knew he was close, and his final push had me swallowing his seed.

Licking away the liquid from my lips almost had me coming myself. I couldn't understand how turned on it made me feel or how totally in control I'd been over Ranger. As I sat up and looked down on his face, he was staring back at me, but the slight tilt of his mouth told me that I might be in trouble. I screamed as he suddenly flipped me onto my back and through my laughing only heard as he said.

"My turn"

After retreating from the bathroom, where we had to share a shower, I dressed in jeans and a sweater wondering what would be happening today. In some ways it felt strange not to have to think about any bad people who might be after us. I still had some questions that I wanted answers to but after that I had no idea what would happen. All that I knew was that I had to be with Ranger.

I looked up as the man himself came out of the bathroom and admired the view as he walked toward the closet with only a towel hanging low on his hips. Okay, I licked my lips at the vison of the skin across his abs and again at the sight of the muscles in his back rippling as he moved. Maybe a moan came from me because it didn't seem to matter that we'd just spent the last two hours experiencing orgasm after orgasm, I was ready for more. I was turning into a nymphomaniac and it was all his fault.

"Babe, we have a meeting in 20 minutes"

"I know"

Was twenty minutes long enough for what I wanted to happen? Probably not so resigned to that thought I went through to the kitchen. I poured out two mugs of coffee and settled in a seat at the breakfast bar, though for some reason the idea of drinking strong coffee didn't appeal. I picked at some fresh fruit that was set out in front of me and was moving a piece of strawberry around in my bowl when Ranger sat down next to me.

"Babe?"

"Sorry, I was miles away"

"Do want some of the pancakes that Ella left?"

My immediate reaction was why not? Then as I considered that I decided that I wasn't particularly hungry, or at least I didn't want to eat anything.

"No. Let's head downstairs, I'll pick something up from the breakroom"

Not the usual response from me but maybe it was due to this case being over and my nerves hadn't caught up yet.

I was glad that Ranger never said anything, he rarely did, instead he'd take everything in and then once he had all the pieces that he wanted he'd then ask his questions. Going down in the elevator I stepped back against Ranger, feeling his arms pull me against his chest. It felt good and natural, making me forget all about my issues with breakfast.

Ranger's hand stayed at my back as we walked into a conference, but the faces looking in my direction had me stopping quickly. Ranger never lost contact with me or bumped into me, instead he literally guided me to a chair at the head of the table. Sitting down I checked each man here to make sure that I wasn't being delusional. Okay, Tank, Les, Ram, Bobby and Hector were who I expected. It was the others that had me wondering why they were here.

"Babe, everyone wanted to give us their version of their story"

I just nodded my head knowing that this was what I wanted, I just hadn't expected it to come from them personally. Ranger nodded to Juan who was sat at the side of the table so I braced myself for what he would say, trying not to allow my distrust of him prejudice what I heard.

"Steph. I'm real glad that I met you. I couldn't tell you what I was doing because to be honest you sure as hell confused me and I found you really hard to work out"

I suppose that was what I'd aimed for at the time, because I never really trusted Juan.

"I knew Maia, had done for a while. We had a casual relationship that suited us both, we'd pick up when I was in town"

I remembered looking around Maia's home and the lack of anything belonging to Juan wondering at the time whether or not she was more committed than he was. For once it seems that I was wrong. Maybe it was only me who had fallen in love from what seemed like a casual relationship.

I tuned in back to what Juan was saying, sure that he knew what I was thinking. Good, maybe he'd reevaluate how he treated Maia. At the start of his next sentence, he turned to Ranger as though confirming with Ranger that he had asked for Juan's help.

"You'd called Ranger, asking for backup in Pnohm Penn, so I headed to the city thinking that I could hook up with Maia until you had definitive orders. She was distracted, which wasn't usual for her, but it turns out that her mother had been calling her nonstop for her to do something for her"

It was interesting to learn that Laia and her mother never got on, maybe we had more in common than I thought.

"Maia mentioned having to reconnect with some uncle that she had no interest in, so I assumed that was her mother's doing. It was after you'd returned from that FUBAR meeting and I went to see Maia that we both realized that she knew where the place was and what was supposed to be happening. To cut a long story short when I couldn't find you Ranger and then Stephanie here disappeared, I went back to Pnohm Penh and started to follow Pagna, something told me that she had more to do with it than first appeared. She made a visit to this place way out in the country near Siem Reap so I tried to find out what the hell was going on. The man in charge was real keen to hire me so I worked my way inside and discovered what the hell was going on"

"You were already at Ronteah"

I whispered very quietly, now understanding how he knew so much.

"Why didn't you get Ranger out?"

I glared at him as I said that instantly regretting the tone that I'd used because I think he would have done had he known.

"Didn't know. I think by then Coleman decided he wasn't important, so it never cropped up, I thought you were dead and to him you were. Hell, had I known he was there I would have got him out"

"Babe, it wasn't Juan's fault"

Looking at Ranger I could see that he'd made his peace with what had happened to him and I was sure that he would never hold a grudge against Juan for all of the what ifs that could have happened. I knew too well the futility of trying to fathom out the different outcomes of what ifs. Things happened and all we could do was move on from there and try not to make the same mistakes.

"After you left, by the way I had a hell of job finding my truck"

If he thought I was going to apologize for that then he'd be waiting a long time. I did what I had to do, it was as simple as that.

"I took Maia back to the capital and caught up with Coleman here in the States, it was only last night when Pagna turned up that I realized how much she was involved and then Ranger filled me in with the blanks about the rest"

"You knew Coleman had Ranger?"

I mean he could have helped him to escape or even tried to contact Tank, so why didn't he? As usual it was Ranger who noticed me tensing up and the accusation in my voice that I'd used, and it was him who answered my question.

"Babe, Juan made sure that I wasn't hurt and convinced Coleman that doing anything to me would only anger you. We needed to find out who was behind Coleman"

"Hell Stephanie, that man was actually afraid of what you might do"

I wasn't too sure how to take that, it hadn't been intentional but then again maybe what I'd managed to do at Ronteah helped with that image he had of me and he'd know not to mess with me. I suppose the reasons Ranger gave me were acceptable but until now I had never had a reason to trust Juan. As I sat back my eyes landed on Desilva and I saw him squirm in his seat, yeah, he had a lot of explaining to do.

"Desilva?"

I asked sounding like a schoolteacher demanding an explanation for their behavior.

"What I said was true. When Freya told me the story of her father's fixation on some program, well alarm bells rang for me. It was too close to an investigation we were doing on Hisence. The shit hit the fan when the agency heard that a special ops team had fucked up a pass over and that Manoso had been on the team and was killed. Well seeing as you were seen surveying Hisence and knew Manoso I put two and two together and came up with five. I'm sorry, though you really helped me out by identifying Roberts. It never occurred to me that we had a turn coat in the team"

"How were you there last night?"

That had been one of the things that had worried me, that the only reason Desilva was there was because he was working with his long lost father and Coleman.

"I was at the house waiting for Freya to come home when a call came in for her father. The nurses weren't sure what to do so I took the call and when I realized that it was Daraldson's sister I told her that I would be representing Daraldson, as his son. She definitely wasn't happy but seeing as Morelli informed me about the meeting as well I decided to turn up and introduce myself. Let's just say that she wasn't too happy about that, but seeing as Daraldson had already told Coleman that his brother had a son, she had to go along with it"

I watched as the expression on Desilva's face changed as though he needed to add something else to his story, something that he felt that I should know.

"I know you probably looked deeply into Daraldson's finances, just as I had done. After you disappeared from the house I went back to New York and confronted my mother. I thought, just like you that Daraldson was my father. He's not. Yes, my mother had an affair with him but she'd fallen in love with a cop who ended up being killed in a gun fright. She said that Daraldson would call every so often and take her out or buy her things, but she assured me that I wasn't related to Daraldson"

I sighed as the stories I'd been told began to take form in my head and to be honest I had no reason not to believe them. It seemed that Ranger was happy with what they were saying so eventually I would be as well.

"Troy's out of the country so he had nothing to do with this and we haven't been able to find that Jin fella"

I nodded my head toward Tank because he knew that I was suspicious of each of them.

"What happened last night after we left?"

Not really knowing who to direct my question to.

"I was the last to leave and could hear Coleman and Pagna screaming at each other.

Coleman lost a lot of money setting things up for what he saw as a very lucrative deal from that drive. I spoke with Freya and explained everything to her so maybe we can pick up from where we were. Her father died this morning, so she has enough to deal with at the moment"

I wasn't sure what else to ask, that perhaps everything had been explained, though I didn't think so, maybe odd things would pop up in my head later.

"Babe, is there anything else that you want to ask?"

"Yeah. Do you think Coleman or Pagna will cause me any problems?"

I watched as each of the men looked at each other and drew the conclusion that maybe they would. I mean Coleman would see me as destroying his factory in Cambodia and possibly for screwing up what he saw as a chance of a lifetime in acquiring a lot of power and wealth. No one came forward with an answer so I guessed that I would still need to be careful. That's when I suddenly thought about Narong and his family and how safe they might be especially if Pagna or Coleman held a grudge against him.

"Is Narong safe?"

"Coleman won't go after him or his family, because knows that the program doesn't exist as he expected. I think Narong quite enjoys it here in Trenton"

I looked at Ranger as he said that and saw a hint of a smile cross his lips. Oh god, please don't let my Grandma and Narong get too closely acquainted. Wiping that from my brain, I watched as Juan and Desilva stood up and shook hands with the men and then as both of them came toward me. I stood up not knowing what to do or say and was taken by surprise when Juan pulled me into a hug. His words were a whisper in my ear, and I think only intended for me to hear.

"You're one hell of a woman Stephanie. Looking at you and Ranger and what you have makes me think that maybe I need to find a woman of my own"

"Maybe you have Juan. Thank you for what you've done and I'm sorry that I didn't trust you enough. Oh, and send my thanks to Maia"

"Yeah, I'll do that. Maybe see you boys around"

I watched as Juan left the room and as Desilva hovered next to me. He leant forward, kissing my cheek softly before he left without saying a word.

I turned to the men still sat around me, the ones who I saw as my Merry Men, they had been there to support me when I needed it the most. Staying stood up they were obviously aware that I wanted to say something so stayed quiet allowing me to compose myself.

"I want to say how much I've appreciated all the help you've given me. I know I didn't make it easy, especially when I disappeared. You made everything happen and I'll always be in your debt, so thank you"

The silence that came didn't do my nerves any good, especially when Ranger took my hand in his and pulled me down into the chair. I hadn't expected a response and was taken unaware when Les spoke up.

"Beautiful, what you managed to do was fucking amazing. I was always worried that you'd land yourself so deep in trouble that we'd never get you out. Now though, I can better understand your thinking and can appreciate it better. You planned getting Ranger back and putting closure to that drive. We would never have come up with something like that, okay we filled in the details, but you made it work"
"Hear, hear"

Was what Tank said making me appreciate what Les had said all the more. Hector, well he winked at me because like me he knew that I had taken what he'd told me at the house to heart. It was Bobby who put the downer on the praise I'd been given, making me grimace slightly at that part of the plan that I hadn't shared with them.

"About that auction"

That had everyone but me smiling.

"Morelli, seemed he'd woken up for that. Man, he was bug eyed watching you and only got to 700 dollars before he had to pull out. When it reached 5,000 dollars, I thought he was going to have a heart attack"

That had me remembering how close that bid had come to winning.

"Who was it that bid 5,000 dollars?"

Did I just see Ranger give Les a glare? Had he been the one who'd taken it that high before Ranger had stepped in?

"Come on, no way was I going to let some sleazeball get their chance with Beautiful. I did it to make sure that she would be safe"

I squeezed Ranger's hand letting him know that I was happy with Les's explanation and that he should be as well. Ranger surprised me with his final words, in a good way, as he stood up pulling me with him.

"Steph and I are going to be off line"