A/N: I know it's been a while but I did warn you that updates are sponteaneous.

"Did everything work out last night?" I asked, seeing Cayden only nod, which made me smile.

"Excellent," I only said, getting back to the E-Mail I was just typing and opening the money wire website a second later, getting the payment for last night's shipment in order. One of the reasons the cartels liked doing business with me was because I had a spotless reputation. I paid top dollar and always on time, but also expected top product and on-time delivery. Of course, with the DEA breathing down my neck and that Carlos Manoso on my heels things gotten a bit trickier. But it wasn't like I hadn't been here before.

"You can expect the delivery in the next few hours. They wanted to be extra careful this time around and rescheduled it a few hours apart and later than usual. They will also change the location, bringing it rather to one of the other restaurants, just to make sure no one has picked up on a pattern."

"Understandable."

I liked working with competent people who knew what they were doing. And who could adjust to new circumstances. Especially when a lot of money was at stake. And adjusting my people did just fine.

I had heard rumours about a possible leak within my network a few times before and they never had pan out. Thing is, most of the time people were just using scare tactics, trying to unnerve me and act reckless and impulsive. But two things that would get you killed, captured or drive you out of business sooner or later was acting reckless and impulsive. I was someone who was constantly watched and doing something impulsive meant that whatever I did would get picked up within seconds.

Often enough you'd be surprised how waiting something out could work in your favour. Of course, you needed to be careful and couldn't just ignore every story you ever heard, trusting the people around you to be loyal until death. Because, thing is, while people always had a price for which they sold you out, if you were in a business that promised a lot of money and power very, very fast, the stakes were higher – as was the price. But people were quicker to betray you. Sounds harsh, but it was the truth of the business and I had learned that lesson the hard way a long time ago. In a way I was surprised how very little disloyalty I actually experienced throughout the years and as a matter of fact, it was only a matter of time really. And that time apparently had come now.

I am not entirely sure how Manoso had managed to crack down my guy, but I was certain a lot of threats and quite a high dollar amount helped. Funnily, when looking at his file a few days back when it had first emerged I might have a problem, the guy Manoso had picked was the one guy I would have gone after as well, had I been after me. While he had been loyal and trustworthy throughout the years, he was technically speaking the weakest link. Supporting a family as well as having one of his own, Ramos had a lot of possible pressure points. Money was one way, but going after his family was probably way more effective. While I don't think Manoso would actually go after his family, he could probably paint a very vivid picture of things that could happen eventually when one of the 'bad' guys - read 'the competition' – got a hold of the information. Sometimes the possibility was scarier than the actual thing happening and I figured that would have been Manoso's best move.

I don't know what alerted anyone really to Ramos, but I'm glad whatever it was, that it did. Because I was about to receive an extremely large delivery and was not very interested in loosing my product. While that usually would be annoying, it was even more so, when it was worth 15 million dollars upwards.

There are a lot of ways to deal with a leak and most of them involve violence and most often ending someone's life. That was most likely the norm and would probably be done that way by almost everyone who was in my business. But… not by me. While it annoyed me, it wouldn't lure me into more criminal activity than I was already associated with. Though, it hadn't always been like that.

When I started out, in the very beginnings, I can't deny that I had people kill one or two guy for me, or even just hurt them really badly. The reason I had people for that was not because so I could wash my hands and conscience clean, but because I didn't have the scruples it would take to take a life and then just move on with life as if nothing ever happened. While having people who did that job for you was a little easier on the conscience it still didn't mean I was sleepy well at night. So I stopped that line of intimidation and found something more effective. Money. As mentioned before, everyone had a price. That fact was as true for turning someone as it was for guaranteeing loyalty. Well, to a certain degree anyway. Money though wasn't all it took. The way you took care of people and actually created a dynamic that resembled a family helped a lot, next to the monetary benefit.

Often enough I had found myself wondering the past few years whether I created my own kind of 'family' because mine was so… unavailable and screwed up. While my choice in career probably was something that factored into my strained relationship, it isn't like things hadn't been difficult and askew beforehand. My mother grew up in the 60s and applied rather old-fashioned views on life and family to everyone around her. Things didn't get easier or mixed up much by her environment, seeing that my parents lived on a part of Trenton which was known as the Burg and was as old-fashioned and principle-driven as my mother. For my mother life's purpose was simple. Find a husband, preferably rich so he could take care of his family, and start popping children. Sunday was Pot Roast; Friday was Meatloaf Day. Every single week since almost 50 years. Monday was either Spaghetti or Sandwich day, the rest of the week was depending on what was on offer.

My sister and me grew up with the principles enforced and would most likely have lived on, keeping the 'tradition' alive. And for the longest part I was very set on that path, but - and I could blame a guy for my turn – somewhere along the way I started questioning whether that really the way it was supposed to be. While I didn't dream of creating a Facebook 2.0. or be the next Bezos, I also figured life should offer more then a cycle of graduating High School, maybe get a college degree, find a guy and then have children. I mean, there are plenty of women who live a different kind of life and seem to be just as happy as my mother kept preaching we would be with her ideals. So, I guess, questioning my life choices which were technically made by my mother in a way was the first crack in the relationship with my family. And things went only south after that.

I hadn't spoken to anyone from my family for years. I had tried reaching out, but they weren't interested. Not that I really could blame them. Even if my mother wasn't having her old-fashioned views, it would have been a long stretch to expect acceptance.

So, since my family wanted no more contact, I created sort of my own. With people who were likeminded and also accepted me the way I was. Sure, I was the reason they got paid, so maybe their acceptance wasn't quite as voluntary and more like a bought loyalty, but I liked to think that most of the people on my payroll were at least not hating or disliking me.

I made a few calls in regards of Ramos and made sure he was kept out of the loop without noticing anything while I came up with a way on how to deal with what had been leaked. The easiest thing in the end was to move the date of the delivery to an earlier stage. It was tricky, because we didn't have much time and the paid-off people in place that would rubberstamp the shipment were as far as I know off work. It took a bit of work, money as well as sweettalking some people, but in the end it worked and we were set for three days before the initial date. I made sure Ramos was either off or tasked with someone that would have him at the other end of town. I bribed the administrator to leave the initial shipment details still in the log, to throw people off or not even give them reason to get suspicious and made sure that Ramos would get relieved of his duties the day the shipment was originally supposed to arrive. I'd give him one last paycheck as well as payoff and tell him to never come back and find a better life someplace else.

My operation was big and Ramon's job insignificant enough that he wasn't a vital member that we needed to run smooth and efficiently. So at least that was something I didn't need to look into as well. And I had a hundred guys on payroll who looked to further their careers and step up. So, replacing him wouldn't even take much effort.

I had just finished my email and coordinated the last details for delivery and distribution, getting ready for a few meetings I had throughout the day – this time for my legitimate business – when an idea struck me. I rummaged through my desk drawers, retrieved an envelope as well as a blank business card that I had ordered years ago and barely used, signed my name on it and placed it in the envelope along with something else that I retrieved from the shelve behind me. Closing the envelop I stuck a post-it note on the envelop and placed it on Cayden's desk, leaving for my meetings.

A few days later across town – Ranger's POV

I let out a frustrated sigh once I had hung up the phone. How the hell had that happen? We had a very trustworthy source that had tipped us off to an extremely large shipment arriving last night. So we got in place to incept and put at least a dent into Stephanie's Plum operation. I was almost certain I wouldn't be able to trace it back to her or somehow connect her to it, but at least I could fire her up a little and hope for a mistake she'd make.

After weeks of intensive research and coming up most of the time empty-handed we managed to find Ramos. Judging by his background and what out contacts mentioned he could be an easy target, seeing he had people depending on him and a family of his own. So money and a few very well-placed suggestions of things that could happen to these people if he stayed in that business much longer was all it took for him to break. For a while – well, until last night anyway – it seemed like a break, the biggest one any of us or the DEA had managed to get. And then nothing happened. No shipment and a lot of wasted manpower as well as resources. We had waited hours and only called things off earlier this morning, admitting that nothing would come in anymore and that we had been fooled. By who exactly I wasn't sure. It could have been Ramos, who was paid by Plum to give us wrong information. Or Plum could have gotten news about our sting op somehow. And since we had already precautionary alerted the DEA they were now up my ass because we couldn't deliver any results.

So, now we were back to square one it felt. And I was not entirely sure how long it would take us to find a new point to start from. Finding Ramos was already a lucky hit. One we would most likely not repeat anytime soon.

After the call with the DEA I got a call from of my man, telling me that Ramos was nowhere to be found and that his house had been cleaned out. Neighbours had told them that Ramos had mentioned relocation south, but had not left any more details. Oh, she was good. Not only fooling us, but also making sure we couldn't question Ramos for any more details. So, now we really were back to square one.

A knock on my door interrupted my train of thought and when I barked 'enter' I saw my cousin Lester in the door.

"This was just delivered for you," he said, holding up a plain envelope which had the RangeMan address written across its front, as well as my name and the words 'personal' and 'private'. Interesting. I hardly ever got personal mail, let alone addressed to the company.

I took the mail, opened the envelope and shock the content out of it, looking confused for a moment. The envelope included two things, a business card which looked blank at first. As well as a two black chess figures. The pawn as well as a bishop.

Taking the card, I could see her name handwritten across the front. Turning it around, it only read two words which seemed like a prompt.

Your move!

Guess she didn't see me as the white knight then and since I was still in the game, I could always prove her wrong.

post-AN: I wasn't entirely sure what incepting a shipment would classify as in regards of chess figures. Certainly not the queen or king, but since it's a big deal, I figured bishop would be okay. Either that or knight - later one would have provided a nice way of playing with words and meaning :)