Just trying to get back into some writing. Please R and R - Mcshnee
Kidnapped
Chapter 1
So my morning had started off ok, I had some bread in the house and even some peanut butter. I felt almost domesticated. It was after breakfast that things took a downward turn. In my defence, I hadn't had my morning coffee and I had a really long night staking out Julia Mancini's house the night before. So what I'm saying is, I wasn't fully with the program. And that's how I ended up being kidnapped again.
I was handcuffed but my kidnapper had been kind enough to put me in the backseat of the car. He had even put a seat belt on me. I was having difficulty dredging up fear. This wasn't my first rodeo. And besides not giving me a choice about where I was going, my kidnapper had been pretty polite. He wasn't into small talk, but he hadn't even given me a kidney jab when I had broken his nose. All in all, I had been in worse situations. And didn't that say it all.
The drive had been long, 45 minutes at least. I had been paying attention to the road signs. Ranger would be proud. We were in Newark. Upscale Newark. We drove into a gated community. My kidnapper entered the code (2419) and in we went down a long and winding road. We pulled up at a three storey mansion that had six black ford explorers parked outside. That's when I knew I was going to be ok. That's also when I started to feel a bit cross.
My kidnapper pulled up alongside the other explorers and parked. He hopped out and walked round the car. He unclicked the belt and easily hauled me out of the car. He knocked on the front door, which was promptly answered. He had one arm under my arm pit and was hauling me forward. We walked into a huge open plan lounge, kitchen diner. I mean huge. My whole flat could probably fit into it twice over. Clearly, the space needed to be large because there were Merry Men everywhere. Unlike my kidnapper, they all wore uniforms with Rangeman embroidered on. My kidnapper was all in black but no embroidery. He must be new.
Sat around the huge table was Ranger and what I'm guessing is his family. They all bore a strong resemblance to each other. This is not how I had envisioned meeting Ranger's family, and yes, I had daydreamed about meeting his family someday.
The busy room fell to absolute silence. "Howdy," I said with a smile. Normally I would do the finger wave but that was tough in cuffs.
Ranger looked up and met my eyes. He took in my appearance including the cuffs and his eyes narrowed.
"Why is Stephanie in handcuffs?" he sounded calm and measured. Oh boy. I'd heard that particular tone a time or two, and someone always got hurt afterwards.
My kidnapper blinked. "She didn't want to come." He explained.
Once I had realised that my kidnapper mastermind was probably Ranger, I had got a healthy dose of anger. He could have called! He could have asked! He could have sent a henchmen I knew or at least one with a brain. However, now I was looking at Ranger…new guy was going to get dead if I didn't do something.
"I asked to be cuffed." I interjected, elbowing the new guy. "I thought it would make you smile, you know, remind you of good times."
That got me an almost smile and Ranger's eyes warmed up. "Babe."
"undo the cuffs," I murmured to the idiot from the side of my mouth.
Galvanised into action he quickly unlocked the cuffs. I rubbed my wrists a little, glad to have the feeling back. Ranger's eyes narrowed again.
"You're fired." He said flatly to my kidnapper.
"Uh uh!" I admonished, "You can't fire him for kidnapping me. Really it was the worst kidnapping I have ever had. He was really polite, He didn't put me in the boot of the car, and he didn't even hit me back when I broke his nose. Come on Ranger, you can't fire him for doing his job. I bet you ordered him to "Bring me Stephanie Plum", well he has. You can't fire him because you didn't word your order carefully."
Ranger's head tilted, "This is my fault?"
Christ I had a death wish. "Yes," I said emphatically, "100% your fault."
I mimed making a call, "Babe, I need you to come to a safe house." I said in a lower gravelly voice that frankly sounded nothing like Ranger but made my point. I pitched my voice higher, " Sure Ranger tell me the address and I'm on my way."
Ranger gave the tiniest of head shakes. "Babe." He said. "We both know the conversation wouldn't have gone like that."
I crossed my arms under my chest, "well, how do you think it would have gone?"
He mimed making a call "Babe, I need you to come to a safe house." He put on a falsetto voice "fuck off Ranger." Then he raised one perfect eyebrow, daring me to contradict.
I couldn't argue with that. I shrugged, "I don't like safe houses."
"No shit." He said but his eyes had warmed up again and he was looking a combination of resigned and amused.
"So I guess we are both agreed the only way I would be in a safe house is if you kidnapped me. So really, you should be thanking Probation, not firing him."
Ranger looked at me for a long moment, then he shifted his gaze to probation. "Strike one. Get out of my sight before I fire you."
My kidnapper turned and fled. Sensible move.
The rest of the Rangemen relaxed. The tension in the room easing as everyone realised they weren't about to witness a murder.