Chapter 23

On January 11, 2008, Julie Ella Guzman-Manoso was born. She weighed 9 lbs and she's 20 inches long. Her head was covered in four inch long black hair and her eyes looked dark blue. Julie already resembled her daddy. Her skin tone was a few shades darker than mine. Carlos and I decided to hyphenate her last name to protect her identity. My Army name is Fanny Palmer and my legal name is Stephanie Michelle Manoso. None of my Army records contained my real name which would make it more difficult for my enemies to find me.

Speaking of enemies finding me... Morelli entered my hospital room to talk to me. I really didn't want him anywhere near me. "Leave!" I ordered.

He shook his head and asked again, "Where is my son?"

"I told you already. He died the day after he was born." The nurse brought my daughter into the room. It was time to nurse her. I carefully uncovered my breast to position her. Without realizing the side I was using, I placed her on my left breast. She was having difficulty latching on. I reached beneath the blanket to help her and asked the nurse to contact security.

Joe gasped when the blanket exposed the top of my breast. He was staring at the tattoo. "He's really gone?"

"Yes. Why didn't you believe me the other three times I told you? Did you need proof?" I pulled the blanket off my body to expose my flabby abdomen. "Is this what you wanted to see? The mark your buddy left as he raped me? Do you want to see the scars you left when you tore my asshole open? Is that what you want? Get the fuck out of my room!" I shouted.

The door banged open. My old friend Hector arrived with the hospital security. Morelli's face paled when he saw Hector. He gave a small apology before allowing security to escort him from the room.

None of my Army or Ranger friends visited me in the hospital. It was as though I was no longer part of their life since I left a few weeks earlier. Do they think I abandoned them? Are they being loyal to Carlos? Were they ever my friends? Unfortunately none of those questions would be answered.

I was released from the hospital a few days later. My six month maternity leave officially started. It challenging to take care of Julie by myself. I moved back to Newark after I was released from the hospital. Mama and Papa were helping me take care of Julie. My milk wouldn't let down so I switched to formula.

Julie was almost a month old when I learned Carlos was officially missing. He was captured during his team's extraction. The missing Ranger team was rescued and all his men were on the chopper while he watched their backs. Before he could leave the wooded area, a man got the jump on him. Tank, his second in command, ordered the chopper to leave without him. I was angry at first, but I eventually understood it was a risk the team was willing to take. Every night I prayed Carlos would return to me and Julie.

Mama and Papa moved to DC with me. They wanted to be close to their granddaughter. I would need help once I returned to work. My old team continued to avoid me. It was lonely living in the big house with my daughter and adoptive parents.

It's been six months since Carlos was captured. The specialists in DC were having a difficult time locating him. Several times I offered to assist, but they wanted me to concentrate on Julie until my maternity leave was up.

I was back to work for a week when I stumbled across my husband's location. One of the ground troop soldiers mentioned he overheard a Russian bragging about capturing a special operatives soldier. This soldier was handed over to a man with a skull and flower tattoo. Another soldier said the man has blond hair and pale blue eyes.

A vague description of the man last seen with him helped. The Russian has a telltale tattoo of a skull and flower on his neck. I cross referenced the tattoo with the description. A few men appeared on my search but not with both the tattoo and physical description. My clearance level was very high, so I could review old missions to find important information that slipped through the cracks.

One of the names I uncovered made my spidey sense tingle. Concentrating on this man led me in the right direction. I found the man who has my husband. He's known as Vlatko and he's a Russian SVR thug, which is the new KGB. Vlatko speaks with a British accent which makes it harder to find him. He's attractive and could easily blend in with the crowd. The mission wasn't clean at all. Carlos was point man for the ground troops unit. Many men on both sides were lost. None of Carlos' team was lost, but several soldiers from my basic training year were killed. Vlatko was a master of hiding in plain sight. Hal's Ranger team was deployed to rescue Carlos. It took a few weeks for them to locate him, but Vlatko once again, was nowhere to be found.

Carlos wouldn't be returning home for a few weeks. Vlatko was skilled at disembowelment. He stabbed Carlos with a knife in the abdomen, nearly performing an appendectomy. My husband managed to grab the knife and stab him in the eye.

When he returned home, I knew our marriage was over. I moved back to Fort Benning to live with Uncle Alex. Mama and Papa moved with me. With a very heavy heart, I filed for divorce. Carlos offered to pay support, but I wasn't interested. I wanted my husband, not his money. Money was not an issue for me. Our divorce was finalized a year later... at least I assumed it was.

Several years later...

Julie was turning four today. She looked just like her daddy. I showed her his picture often and told her what an amazing man he is. Julie never asked to see her dad. She was content hearing the stories about his bravery. I said he was like Batman and he had a very important job to keep us all safe.

General Rogers told me Carlos signed a new five year contract with the Rangers. He was taking on higher risk jobs with more earning potential. I decided to work on a short term contract basis. When they needed assistance filtering through intel, I was hired to lead them in the correct direction. My new contract would expire when Julie's nine. Luckily I never ran into my ex-husband when I was sent to DC. Every few months I left updated pictures of Julie to be sent to her father. At first I sent letters, but it was too difficult for me when he never wrote back.

I heard the men started calling him Ranger. He was the best of the best and our country needed him. Ranger never hooked up with random women, claiming he was still in love with his ex-wife. It hurt to hear he was still in love with me, but just didn't want me anymore. No doubt he was keeping me at a safe distance to protect me and his daughter. Vlatko was still at large and likely hunting down Carlos. I've dated a few men. Like Carlos, I didn't have sex with them. I'm still in love with Carlos. No other man could ever replace him.

Uncle Alex and I talked about my goals. Living in Georgia no longer felt like home. I needed to find a place for myself. My bank account has a sizeable balance and I recently invested in a company called Rangeman based in Miami. They recently opened a new location in Atlanta. It was a profitable investment. There wasn't a lot of information available on the company.

My financial advisor recommended investing in the company that provided retired military personnel with jobs. It sounded like the company Carlos was interested in starting. I was willing to do anything to help our brothers find gainful employment after being discharged. Investing in this company was a sound and solid investment, but I wanted to be an anonymous investor. I currently own twenty-five percent of Rangeman shares. The primary, unnamed, investor owned twenty-six percent of the shares. We discovered three other investors split the remaining forty-nine percent of the shares. I couldn't understand why I earned so many shares.

A week later, Julie and I moved to Trenton New Jersey. Mama and Papa moved to Miami a few months earlier. Yes... I moved back home. There was a huge chance of running into my incubator, BD and rapists. It was time for me to stop running. Jeanne Ellen was working as a Bail enforcement agent, BEA for Vincent Plum Bail bonds and Sebring Bail bonds. She was loving her job. We were sharing a four bedroom house on the opposite side of Trenton from the Burg. I enrolled Julie into a private school starting in September.

It didn't take long for the months to fly by. I heard rumour about Rangeman expanding into Trenton. My quarterly profit was significant and I reinvested the money into the company. If they were expanding this fast, I could receive a larger return on my investment. They were already accepting applications. I quickly compiled my resume and wrote a brief letter to state why I would be an asset to the company. It was placed in a letter sized envelope and mailed it to the Trenton PO Box.

September arrived too fast. I dropped Julie off at school and took lots of 'first day' pictures for Carlos. He was missing yet another milestone in her life. I sent a letter last February telling him where we were living and the school she'd be attending. As usual, I never received confirmation he received the letter and he never wrote back. Carlos obviously wasn't interested in knowing his daughter. It was his loss. Julie is a very loving and intelligent girl. I still haven't heard about my application to Rangeman. Maybe they didn't hire women. It wouldn't be the first time I was passed over a job opportunity because of my gender.

While Julie was in school, I worked with Jeanne Ellen to help her capture skips. We ran into old high school friends of mine, Mooner and Dougie. They were still getting high on a regular basis. It was almost comical. Jeanne often had difficulty bringing them back into the system, but I had no problems. Both men had a crush on me throughout high school and willingly followed me to the TPD. "I can't believe that worked," Jeanne Ellen commented.

"Of course it did. The Star Trek marathon was nearly over and My Little Pony was next. Mooner said My Little Pony was too much of a trip to watch," I explained while laughing.

"But we had to watch over an hour of Star Trek," she complained.

"It was a very small price to pay and I didn't want to waste more time. Julie needs to be picked up from school."

We arrived at the school in time to see a creepy looking man trying to coax Julie to follow him. "My puppy is really sick," the man was saying. "Can you hold him while I drive him to the vet?" I felt my stomach jump into my throat. There was no way I could get to her in time.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a man dressed in all black move around the panelled van. He quietly slipped into the back as I watched my daughter hop into the back seat of the van with a cute puppy. The man hopped in the driver's seat. Before he could close the door I heard my daughter yell, "Daddy!"

I took off towards the van. It couldn't be him. There's no way he could be here. He jumped from the van with our daughter carefully tucked into his chest. The tingling sensation in my neck was stronger than ever. After all these years, this man still makes my body crave him.

Another man detained the driver while a few more circled around me and Carlos. "Little Girl?" the tall muscular man I recognized as Tank asked. I looked around at the other men surrounding us. Ram, Cal, Hal, Lester, Bobby, Junior and Manny were easily recognizable. The other men I couldn't place a name to their handsome faces. Every one of them were more muscular than I remembered. It's possible they've built up more muscle mass over the years. Their facial expressions were more hardened than before. Military life changed many men over the years.

"Yes Tank, it's me. Why are you here?" I asked.

"To stop this pedophile from harming any more little girls." My face paled and I pulled Julie from her father's arms. I could have lost my baby today. The same thing I experienced at age sixteen could have happened to my innocent four year old.

"Baby, are you alright? Did that man hurt you?" I asked my daughter. I was trying very hard not to freak out.

"Nope. Daddy save me momma," she smiled at her dad as her little arms wrapped around my neck.

Ranger approached us as though he was afraid I'd take off with our daughter. "Little Babe, what's your name?"

"Julie Ella Guzman-Manoso," she proudly said. It sounded more like 'Jewie Ewwa, Gooman-Manso.' "Like daddy pick." I told her it was the name her Daddy picked.

"How did you know I was your daddy?" he asked.

"Momma told me. Me has pictures." She started rambling to her father. I let him hold her as she recounted the last few months. He looked pleased to hear I told her about him.

Several cops from the TPD arrived to take the man into custody. I noticed Morelli standing at the edge of the crowd staring at me. My cousin Shirley's husband, Eddie Gazarra approached me. "I need to take a statement from you Miss Plum." I bristled from the name.

"It's Guzman," I quickly corrected. Actually it was still Manoso, but Ranger didn't need to know that small detail. I recited everything I heard and saw. "If you write it out, I can stop by later to sign my statement," I offered.

"Okay. I'll see you around six?" Eddie asked looking between me and Ranger.

"Sure. Six works for me." I saw Ranger nod to say he'll be there as well.