Chapter 7
A month sped past. As I was completing a standard search, I uncovered information about our most recent FTA. Cameron Doyle used his credit card at a popular club in Manhattan. His bond is at the lower end of Rangeman's mid-range skips we capture for my cousin Vinnie, which is one of the reasons it was assigned to me. When I investigated further, I noticed his old college roommate works on Wall Street. His friend, Brandon Masters, rented him a room at Park Central Hotel. It was registered in Brandon's name, but my spidey sense was telling me Cameron was staying there. If we wanted to capture him, we needed go tonight. I grabbed my phone to place the necessary call.
"Yo," he answered.
"Hey Ranger. I just found Cameron Doyle. A distraction will work best to capture him, but I've got some bad news." I waited for him to ask.
"Spill," he demanded.
"We need to do the distraction tonight. He'll be at club called The Wave in Manhattan."
"Who do you need on your team?" he asked. I was happy he didn't say no. Organizing a distraction within 4 hours was not ideal, but still doable.
"Ram, Cal, Hal, Hector, Zero, Manny and Zip. We work well together. You can add anyone else you feel will fit my team," I quickly stated my preference. Manny was currently my field partner. I refused to do any distractions without him on my team.
"Done. Since it's out of state, Bobby and I will round out the team. Grab your notes. We'll plan the distraction as we drive to New York. Gather your team. Be in the garage in 30 minutes." He hung up.
I created a group text message to my ideal team. 'Leaving in 30 for distraction in NY. Will plan en route.'
'HUA,' was texted back from everyone except Hector. He replied, 'Si.' I gathered my paperwork and created copies. Ella brought me an outfit for the distraction. It was a tight, short gorgeous blue dress with spaghetti straps and cut low in front to show ample cleavage. She included 4 inch matching heels, strapless bra and tiny thong. I quickly ran to the washroom to change my lingerie.
Ella passed a makeup bag to Hector and said, "To cover her soul marks." She was such a thoughtful woman.
"Thank you for thinking of everything Ella." I gave her a hug and kissed her cheek.
"Hija, the makeup won't easily rub off when you apply the setting powder. Bobby and Hector know how it works. I put special cleaning cloths in the bag if you don't have immediate access to soap and water." I gave her another hug.
Hector and I took the elevator to the parking garage. We were going to use 2 of the SUVs. I noticed Ram loading several suitcases into the back. He closed the trunk and grabbed the garment bag from my hands. He carefully hung it from the bungee cord he attached to the passenger seat headrest. "Thanks Ram. I was afraid you'd store it in the trunk."
"This gives you quick and easy access. I imagine you'll need to change in the car." I quickly gave him a hug as we awaited our seating arrangements.
The remaining team arrived carrying their own duffle bags for our trip. Zip remembered to grab the mics and ear sets. Ranger ran through a quick inventory to ensure we had everything.
"Ram, you drive Steph, Hector, Hal and Bobby. Cal, you're driving me, Zero, Zip and Manny. We'll review the file once we hit the highway." Everyone nodded and got into their assigned cars. The men insisted I sit in front with Ram.
When we turned onto the highway, I called Ranger's phone. "Yo. You're on speakerphone Babe."
"Ditto Batman," I replied. I started rattling off statistics for our FTA. "Cameron Doyle is 6'3" tall, 225 lbs. Caucasian with black hair and blue eyes. He's a former bodybuilder. Wanted for 5 counts of rape and aggravated assault. He often carries at least 3 knives. His latest victim had brown hair, blue eyes and physically fit. She's currently in a coma in critical care."
Ranger picked up the next steps, "He will be at The Wave tonight at a reserved table located close to the bar. I already contacted the club owner. He promised to allow Zip to work as a bartender. Hector and Cal, guard the back door. Ram and Manny, guard the front. The owner said there's a side entrance used by employees. Hal, guard the door with me. Which leaves Bobby and Zero inside to guard Stephanie. Any questions?"
I listened as each man expressed their concern for my safety. It was too late to add more men to the team. The Rangeman jet was flying from Miami to New York. Even if we could have men waiting at the airport, they wouldn't get here in time to help. Why did the club have 3 points of entry? If it was like most clubs in Trenton, there would only be 2 entrances, giving me an extra 2 men inside for protection. I ran through the plan in my head several times.
We found a parking garage a block away from the club. The men exited my SUV to allow me to change in private. After I was dressed, I waved for Hector and Bobby to help. Bobby carefully applied makeup to my arms and legs as Hector covered my upper back. They applied the setting powder to prevent it from wiping off on my clothes. We placed our mics and ear sets, setting them to the same frequency and turning them on.
I waited for the men to get into position before walking the last half a block to the club. My left arm was looped through Bobby's as I held tight onto Zero's left hand. I was pretending to go clubbing with my good friend, Bobby and my boyfriend, Zero. Bobby was going to sit at the bar and pretend to pick up one of the bar flies. Zero was supposed to cause me to get jealous by shamelessly flirting with other women. I was going to pretend to be drunk and 'accidentally' bump into our skip. If everything goes according to plan, Cameron will lead me out the back door to the club's parking lot.
Cameron arrived as Zero began to flirt with an attractive brunette. Bobby was flirting with the brunette's attractive and sexy red haired friend. Something seemed vaguely familiar about her. She caught my eye a few times. I downed my virgin 'gin and tonic' and bumped into my skip, tripping over his feet. He gently helped me regain my balance before tightly grabbing my arm and pulling me through the back door.
I quickly looked around for Hector and Cal. Neither man was at their post. "I see you found a hot one," a man stated, talking to Cameron.
"She's extremely drunk too. I doubt she'll put up much of a fight," Cameron replied. I managed to get a good look at Cameron's companion. His best friend Brandon Masters was his accomplice tonight. I attempted to free myself from Cameron's grip. He quickly punched me in the jaw. As I collapsed to the ground, I heard a ripping sound followed by a loud roar. A huge green creature punched Cameron and Brandon, knocking them out immediately.
The huge green created slowly approached me and held out his large hand. "Hulk help pretty girl."
Without thinking, I asked, "Are you the jolly green giant?" I heard my teammates' laughter through my ear piece. The large green creature started shrinking, then collapsed to the ground. I moved closer to him and said, "I wasn't sure if I should laugh or scream."
He looked into my eyes and said, "The big guy just wanted to say hi." A huge smile spread across my face. This man was Bruce Banner. He was another of my platonic soulmates along with the Hulk.
"You're Dr Bruce Banner. I'm Stephanie Plum," I introduced myself.
A man suddenly appeared behind me and said, "Pleased to meet you Ma'am." I was stunned. This gorgeous man was my romantic soulmate.
After seriously checking him out, I replied, "You're sexier than Batman." Several people gasped when I said those words.
My teammates quickly surrounded me. The attractive red haired woman approached me. I instantly recognized her as being the Black Widow. As she checked my face, I said, "Wow! You're sexier in person."
She laughed, looked around at the group surrounding us. Settling her attention back on me she asked, "Which one of these idiots brought you here?"
Falcon landed beside me, startling me. I looked into his face. He noticed me looking at him and said, "It wasn't me." A guilty look was plastered on his face.
I laughed and replied, "Probably not, but you're still looking guilty."
"I'm Natasha Rominoff, Falcon is Sam Wilson and you probably already know Captain America is Steve Rogers. We need to see your words," she quickly added after her introduction.
"Hi. I'm Stephanie Plum. I really would love to show you the words, but in this dress, I would be exposing more than I want to in public. Is there somewhere more private we could go?"
"Angel, are you alright?" Cal groggily asked, interrupting my conversation with Natasha.
"I'm okay. What happened to you and Hector?" I demanded. I held up a finger to Natasha, indicating I needed to hear Cal's explanation.
He pointed to Brandon and said, "That guy hit Hector in the shoulder with a fast acting tranquilizer dart. When I checked to see if he was alright, I was zapped by a 'Good Samaritan' who thought he was protecting Hector from being mugged." I quickly suppressed my laugh.
Ranger and Hal restrained Cameron and Brandon. They would drop Brandon at the NYPD along with the video of his involvement with kidnapping and aggravated assault. Tank and Vince will wait at the airport to escort Cameron back to Trenton.
I started shaking, feeling the effects of my adrenaline wearing off. Since Ranger wasn't around to embrace me, Steve pulled me close to his chest and held me. I quickly recovered and moved to step away from Steve. He tightened his embrace and whispered, "Give me a few minutes. It took a long time to find you and I'm not ready to let you go. Do you trust me?"
"Absolutely. What did you have in mind?"
"Come back to the Avengers tower with me. Your friends can come with us." I nodded in agreement.
Ram passed me the small bag he was thoughtful enough to bring with him to the club. "Thank you Ram. I'm going to need this."
"No problem Steph. We'll meet you there," he promised.
I laced my fingers through Steve's as we walked to the car. Steve pulled me into the backseat with him. Natasha slipped in beside me. Sam decided to drive and Bruce took the passenger seat. I was still wearing my mic so the team was still connected to me.
"My team needs to know where to go," I told Steve. He quickly recited the address. I reached into my top to remove my mic when I received confirmation from the Merry Men. "Did you tell them to expect us?" I asked Steve.
"They already know. JARVIS informed the team," he answered. "We're going to my floor before we meet the rest of the team. I need to see my words on you Stephanie."
"Me too," Natasha, Sam and Bruce said at the same time. Sam parked the car and we quickly took the elevator to Steve's floor before we saw anyone else.
"Do you have clothes I can borrow?" I asked Steve. He grabbed a T-shirt and shorts with a tie string at the waist. Steve directed me to the bathroom to change.
Before I could enter the bathroom, a robot like creature pulled me back. As I screamed, he quickly lifted his face mask. "You scared me. I thought you were part of the robot apocalypse," I shakily said.
"Nope. Just a man who likes his toys," he replied. We wore matching expressions of shock.
Another man approached us. He had dark brown hair and warm brown eyes. I noticed him looking at my skimpy outfit. When he raised an eyebrow, I said, "My distraction outfit."
With a laugh, he retorted, "Is that what they're calling it now?" I thought he was funny, so I started laughing. He watched as I grabbed the tube of toothpaste and opened it.
"I need to change so back off," I said as I used the toothpaste as a weapon.
When the man with light brown hair and hazel eyes approached me, I instinctively squeezed the toothpaste tube. Unfortunately, the previous guy was in the way and received a face full of toothpaste. "Bullseye! Nice shot gorgeous."
I quickly checked out the attractive man. He was muscular, but shorter and less filled out than Steve. I replied, "You're not so bad yourself."
"I'm Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye. The guy in the red suit is Iron Man, Tony Stark and the guy wearing mint toothpaste is Rodney the Iron Patriot," Clint introduced the remaining team members. "We need to see our writing," he insisted.
"Ya, I'm working on that. I need to clean off the makeup covering most of your soul marks. If you could give me around 20 minutes, I'll be able to show you the marks." They moved away from the bathroom door to get comfortable in the living room.
I attempted to use the makeup remover wipes Ella provided to clean off my abdomen, but couldn't reach my upper back. After a few minutes of frustration, I decided to take a shower. I found a wash cloth and towel neatly folded in the linen tower. Steve's shower was huge with multiple shower heads. I quickly stripped off my clothes and hopped into the shower, carefully keeping my hair dry. It wouldn't surprise me if they could hear Steve's shower running. I managed to wash off all the makeup covering my soulmate marks.
Someone lightly knocked on the door as I wrapped myself in a towel. "Is just me Steph," Natasha said. "I have some items you need." When I opened the door a crack, she pushed a small bag into my hand. The bag contained a new bra and panty set.
"Thank you, Nat. I was wondering what I was going to wear."
"Are you nearly finished?" she asked.
"Yes. I'll be out in less than 5 minutes. I just need to quickly dress." I could hear a throaty groan coming from the other room. It sounded like Steve. Huh... he must be imagining me naked. If he thinks that was difficult to handle, wait until he sees me wearing his clothes. I exited the bathroom and walked into the living room. As predicted, Steve groaned as his eyes darkened. He absolutely loved seeing me wearing his clothes.
"We need to see the writing Steph," he growled.
"Okay. Natasha, Sam, Bruce and your writing are close together. You may as well gather around to see them at the same time." I lifted my shirt up to my bra line.
"That's my writing," Natasha said as she traced her words.
"These are mine and the other guy's writing," Bruce gently touched the bottom writing that was slightly tinted green.
"Here's mine," Sam touched his writing between Natasha and Bruce's words.
Steve moved closer to me, pressing a kiss on the words tucked close to my bra. "This is my writing. You are definitely my romantic soulmate." He lifted his shirt to show my writing matching the location of mine. I gently stroked them before he pulled his shirt back down.
Natasha bared her back where my words were written. Bruce had my words scrawled between his shoulder blades. Sam showed me the words on his lower back. I quickly confirmed my writing when I noticed the others twitching in excitement to see their writing.
Tony, Clint and Rodney all removed their shirts to show my writing on their shoulder. "That's my writing," I confirmed. I twisted around to show them the back of my right leg.
"This one's mine," announced Tony as he lightly grazed the words spiralling down my upper right leg.
"Mine starts where Tony's ends and wraps down your thigh," Rodney added.
"My writing begins here and wraps around your knee," stated Clint.
"I'm Stephanie Plum. Please call me Steph. Okay, now that we confirmed our status and introduced ourselves, I'm starving. Where does a girl need to go to get some food around here?" I joked. My stomach chose that exact moment to growl.
I was surprised we could all fit into the elevator. JARVIS announced, "Mr Rogers, your guests have arrived."
"Thank you JARVIS. Guide them to the common room and order some pizza," Steve answered.
"Mr Stark already placed your order. It should arrive momentarily," JARVIS announced.