Chapter 14
RPOV
As I'd walked away from Steph, I didn't know what to think, this morning it seemed we'd moved on and been able to go back to how we were, but now? Hell, I couldn't understand what had happened, why the change in atmosphere between us. I ran through the time I'd been with her trying to pinpoint when the change had happened.
She was fine at the bank, maybe a little distracted and I know I was getting agitated with Lula and how she treated Steph, but it was Steph who had calmed me down. That had never happened before, I couldn't remember any instance when another person's touch had taken the edge off my temper. I mean I knew she had the ability to calm me when I was anxious. Many times, just watching her sleep could do that especially if I was due out on a mission or came home from one.
The restaurant she seemed to like and then it struck me, she'd never asked who Nita was, was she annoyed at how I'd approached her and spoken with her. Could Steph actually be jealous? But it hadn't just been then, dam it, it was when I started to talk through how little she made when she took Lula. She thought I was demeaning her job and how she worked. That hadn't been my intention at all, I was worried about her, like I always was. I would need to make it up to her but honestly didn't know how without sounding condescending. Something I would need to think about very carefully, the relationship between us was very fragile at the moment, and did I say relationship? Shit, that was something to think about later.
Once in my office I immersed myself in the work I needed to do. I had to go through the monthly accounts from the other offices and then get them to the accountant. Thank goodness Declan up in Boston kept that office tight, though most of their work was through security. Miami was different, yes there was some very lucrative business down there with security, but we also worked a lot with the police and Homeland as it was a hub for where drugs were smuggled in and where a lot of the hard-core dealers based themselves. For that reason, Rangeman Miami was run on two levels of operation each with a good manager who would then forward their accounts to me.
With those complete I looked at my watch not realizing how late it was, by this time, 2330hrs, Steph should be asleep in bed, though which one was something I'd need to find out because I felt a need to have her close to me. Closing down the laptop and shutting up the office I headed to seven first in the hope that she'd be there. The apartment was dark and quiet when I reached it, so I quietly walked into the bedroom, I felt disappointment run through me when I found that the bed was empty, hell was she that upset about how today had ended? The walk down the stairs to four had me second-guessing myself, would she be there because she didn't want me near her? Dam it; that was where I was going so I went through the same sequence as before fully expecting to find her asleep in the bed. When I looked inside the bedroom and saw that again the bed was empty, I actually began to panic. Had she left the building without me knowing? Where the hell had she gone and didn't she realize the danger she could be in?
I called down to Binkie who I knew was on monitor duty.
"When did Steph leave?"
"She hasn't, no cars have left the garage"
"The lobby?"
"No, that new guy, Jones, reports in every hour and she hasn't left through there"
So where the hell was she? If she was with Santos, I'd definitely kill him, he knew I didn't want any of the men to approach her like that and that had me thinking again. Why the hell had I made that clear to the guys? Because I wanted it to be me who she would come to, and only me, so what did that say? Shit something else to think about later, but not now, now I really needed to know where she was.
I headed back for the monitoring room and much to Binkie's surprise started to play back the tapes from when we'd got back. I fast-forwarded as she sat in her cubbie watching as she got up to go to the printer and then saw her go into one of the conference rooms. It wasn't one we used a lot so there wouldn't be anything there. I watched as she came out and had a conversation with Tank, then as she went to the break room only to return to that conference room with a coffee in her hands. There was no movement after that, so I left Binkie and walked down to that door, opening it very quietly, after all I didn't want to barge in and scare her.
The room was in darkness, but I was sure I could see her silhouette at the table. As I walked in the lights came on and there she was, her head on her arms on the table, fast asleep. Hell, I had no idea for how long she'd been asleep for but smiled that I'd found her at last. I carefully pulled her back from the table and lifted her into my arms. She didn't wake as we moved to the elevator and I took her up to seven, or as I laid her on the bed, carefully removing her bra and jeans. Then after using the bathroom I slipped quietly into the bed next to her, feeling her body automatically move into mine. I didn't know what it was about having her next to me like this, but I liked it.
By 0700hrs I decided to move, I'd spent the last hour just watching Steph sleep. Normally she would move a lot in her sleep, but she'd been very still last night and it was only now that her movements became more obviously. She was definitely dreaming and from the frown on her face she was worrying about something. I stayed where I was and gently stroked my hand down her cheek, her skin was soft and smooth and I really wanted to touch other places, remembering how the curves of her body would feel. But I knew that was something I couldn't do; I needed to be sure of how she was emotionally before I even contemplated making a move on her.
Her eyes were moving under her lids and slowly her lids fluttered, a sure indication that she was waking up. I saw surprise in her eyes as she saw where she was so decided to let her know I was awake.
"Morning Babe"
"How am I here?"
"I found you asleep in one of the conference rooms"
"Hell, I only meant to rest my eyes while I was thinking"
"Are you mad at me for bringing you here?"
"I don't know, maybe confused"
"I like it when you're here when I wake up"
I saw her look at me with that frown on her face wondering what it was that she was thinking about.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Won't your girl-friend object?"
Wow, she said that with some feeling behind it and as she started to move away as if to get up, I held her back and turned her onto her side to look at me.
"What girlfriend?"
"The one yesterday"
"Yesterday?"
Was I missing something?
"From the restaurant, Nita"
"Hell Babe, she's not my girlfriend, is that what you thought?"
"But she knows you well and obviously the guys talk to her"
"Babe she's my younger sister and yes she knows Les and Tank, hell Les is part of the family so he's always there at family events"
"Oh"
I kissed the tip of her nose and lent back to take in her face, she was embarrassed at the mistake she'd made.
"Babe the only woman who has ever been in this bed is you and no I don't have a woman out there that I go to"
"I'm sorry, I just thought, I mean surely. Forget it"
What I'd just said was the truth and as she thought through what I'd said so did I. It suddenly hit me, shit she was the only woman I had slept with where I was still there in the morning, even that first night I'd spent with her. I'd been so panicked when I woke up, I'd left telling her to go back to Morelli. Don't get me wrong I had needs as any man would but found relief down in Miami. For some reason I didn't want any of the women around here or was I afraid that Steph would find out? I knew that those releases could be demanding especially if I was still wound up from a mission. That was one of the reasons I'd said to her I wasn't emotionally or sexually healthy. The women I found allowed me to be brutal with them and accepted, even enjoyed the rough sex. I could never allow myself to be like that with Steph. In fact, those times seemed an age ago now. That notion was ridiculous, I mean her and Morelli were in a physical relationship, so why did I relish the time she spent here? Hell, a lot of the times we didn't even have sex and I was content to just have her in my arms. I could have pushed her; I knew she'd been teetering on the edge and it wouldn't have taken much to push her over. But I never had, I suppose respecting the boundary she imposed and over time even the use of women for release had waned. I didn't know what to think of that internal revelation and to be honest wasn't prepared to analyze it now. Something to think about later and Steph's voice was filtering through.
"Tank asked that I meet up with him this morning, so I'd better get back to my work"
"Did you find something?"
"Yeah, but I need to get my head round it and put together some questions"
The moment had gone as I shifted my head back to the problems we currently had and watched as she got up from the bed, smiling as she looked down at herself realizing she was only wearing a T-shirt and panties. I pulled myself from the bed and sorted out a clean uniform as she headed into the shower, I didn't want to be here when she came out to change, yeah maybe the thought of that was a little too much for even my hormones this morning. Besides I knew she wasn't recovered yet and my injuries wouldn't cope with what I really wanted to do, that was assuming she'd let me near her now. Was I assuming too much, we'd had sex on occasion but what if that wasn't what she wanted, hell I hoped not.
Once dressed I found that Ella had left a tray of plates with breakfast on, she was obviously aware that Steph was up here after I found pancakes under one of the lids. I raised an eyebrow when I saw Steph come through the door, surprised at her choice of clothing, she was wearing a dark blue sweater along with a long grey skirt, it looked sexy as it clung to her hips and followed her contours to just above her knee. I especially liked it when the split at the front opened as she sat down revealing her long legs.
"So, I have an idea I want to follow up on"
Hell, how was it that I was so distracted this morning, only hearing the last part of her sentence.
"Talk it through at the meeting Babe, and once we know how it fits in with the information you have, we can plan it out"
No way was she leaving the building on her own, I'd make sure of that. I had to pull in all of my strength not to react to how she showed her appreciation of Ella's cooking, her moans reminding me of where Tank had planted that low blow.
"I absolutely adore Ella, how is it she knows exactly what to make for me?"
"She loves to cook for you Babe, it gives her an opportunity to try out different recipes"
"Well she can use me anytime as her tester"
"How long do you need this morning?"
"Maybe an hour"
"I'll tell the core team to meet with us in my office at 1000hrs"
"Could we meet in that room I was using?"
"Yeah, maybe if you want, I could ask Hector to set up a computer and printer in there for you, you'd have some privacy and more space to work than your cubbie"
"Won't that stop you from using the room?"
"No, to be honest we rarely use it"
The room was too small for many people to meet in and we tended to use the conference rooms behind the lobby if clients came to us, I didn't want any outsiders beyond the ground floor. Maybe for the future it would be an ideal room for Steph to use, yeah, I could see that working if she wanted to of course, now where had that thought come from.
An hour and a half later I walked into that conference room amazed at how it had been transformed. Hector had acted quickly after I'd messaged him and there was a desk now to one side with a computer and printer on it. He must have moved the round table over to one side to give more space to access the boards on the wall that were now being used by Steph. I walked behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist conscious of how her body moved back into mine.
"You've done a lot Babe in a short space of time"
I could see where she'd added notes in the margins and the areas of text she'd highlighted wondering why she'd used so many colors but then noticed that the colors ran across all of the pages spread in front of us. I heard the door open so turned and with a hand still around her guided Steph to the round table. Tank, Bobby and Santos sat down and were waiting patiently for the meeting to begin. Steph looked nervous as she shuffled papers in her hands and it was then that I realized she'd probably never had to present information to group of guys that looked like us, did we intimidate her that much?
"Okay I did as Ranger asked of me and did some research on the companies where you had problems, but, I, err, have some questions to ask you first.
That was what she was worried about, that maybe she'd picked up something we'd overlooked. To be honest with the mayhem caused that day she was probably on to something that we'd totally missed.
"Ranger who would you normally speak with when you had contact with Hastings?"
"Usually Ted Baxter, but I was told Ted was out of state and spoke with a man, a Mr Gauge, who was currently in charge"
"Well Ted Baxter isn't one of the names that came up as owning Hastings. The company changed drastically eighteen months ago and from what I could find there was a clear sweep of directors, Ted Baxter was there eighteen months ago but the names of the new board aren't there to find"
"So you're saying this Gauge lied to me about Ted Baxter?"
"I would say so. I ran a search of the three original men involved. One is now down in Florida another emigrated to Australia and according to what I found Ted Baxter died over a year ago"
I took a deep breath as I let that information sink in, hell how had I not known that? Simple, we had never really checked on the company since the contract was initiated. Any contact had been done via email.
"Ranger maybe, and I know it would involve a lot of work, but with big clients you should maybe have a regular search run on them"
Hell, she was right and much as I was annoyed that it was her who had suggested it, who had found a weakness in our operations I had to swallow my pride and admit the mistake.
"You're right, I suppose we got complacent, what else did you find out about them?"
"Well they've changed the thrust of the business, from manufacturing and sales into research and development making their money through patenting new systems"
"They should have informed us, that's part of the contract they have with us, to inform us of any changes"
The comment from Tank was exactly what I'd been thinking, damn, how had we missed that?
"I know Tank, the fact that they didn't want us anywhere near them was probably because we'd find out. No wonder they refused to keep us on board, I don't think we'd have been open to keeping them with that new line of work"
"Why not Ranger?"
I knew Steph wouldn't understand the complications involved when a company changed the focus of its business, but it was more complicated than that.
"Research and development is an area open to industrial espionage, it's a very difficult area to cover. Plus, we wouldn't know what they were developing so it then becomes difficult to ascertain the legalities of what they're doing"
I watched as the men agreed with me but obviously Steph hadn't recognized that as being a problem for us working with them as a client. Whatever was going through her head though she wasn't going to say because she changed the subject focusing in on the other two companies that had issues with alerts.
"Okay so the other two businesses. Safenet seems to be running the same, what exactly did they report as stolen?"
I knew that Santos had taken the lead with that company and he was the one who maintained contact with them.
"The discussion I had with the manager was that there was damage caused to one section of the production line where components were put together and that the sprinkler systems had turned on in one section of the sales area and damaged electronic equipment"
"Les did they say what specific product was targeted?"
"No"
"Okay I want to go on and when I've finished it may be easier for you to see where I'm going. The other company was Joules, they basically do electrical installations in homes and businesses. What did they report Tank?"
"Someone had switched on the automated recovery unit. Basically it's a robotic system that collects and delivers parts ready for a job, you know collects everything needed for the men to collect ready to go out with. The system collected so much stuff together a lot of the more sensitive stuff got damaged"
"Tank did they say what components got damaged?"
"No"
"Babe?"
"Hold on, I'm getting there, but I really need to know what those two companies had the most damage with"
"Why, what are you thinking?"
"Well when I eventually got into their financials Joules buy some of their components from Safenet"
"Beautiful are you saying that it was because of what they were selling that was the focus of the break-ins?"
"Yes, but the thing is I think I already know what it was, but I need to get into the places to confirm"
So that was the idea that she's said she needed to follow up on and why she was dressed as she was, but I still wasn't so sure where she was going with this.
"Babe tell us what this idea of yours is first"
"You'll probably think it's stupid which is why I want to check it out first and to be honest I know the idea is a bit out there"
I know all of us were giving her the look that said she was going to have to come up with something better and fill us in on where this was going because no way was she going to those businesses on her own. I watched as she looked at each one of us, her shoulders slumping and I knew we'd convinced her; okay maybe intimidated her into submission.
"All right, I give in, dam I wish they patented a system on how to be immune to you lot"
I smiled at that because I was sure she didn't intend to say the last part for us to hear.
"Buckley"
"Babe that's a random statement"
"Well everything has happened since him, so I put him at the center and looked for links to him. I think he bought something from each of those companies and didn't like what he bought"
"What did he buy?"
"Well I'm not positive but I got to thinking and I think he bought carbon monoxide detectors. The thing is the information in his financials only gives a reference number, I couldn't back track to the two companies because they sell so much all over the place that it became a nightmare to do, so I thought if I could just find out their referencing system I'd be able to check it against Buckley's"
"Bomber why that detector?"
"Because one of those detectors malfunctioned and his parents died"
"So you think Buckley broke into those places?"
"Tank it would make sense, as Steph said he maybe had a reason and think about it, he's a genius at computing, he could easily have sabotaged the security system"
"Ranger could the problem we had have come in through the connections we have with them, through our monitoring system programs?"
"Hell Santos I have no idea, Hector's the man to ask for that"
I sat back with one leg crossed over at my knee and thought through what Steph had suggested, it was certainly a good hypothesis, one we would never have thought about, but there were still some questions"
"Babe how does Hastings tie into this?"
"Funny you should ask that, because the name Gauge came up somewhere else. Gauge is one of the four men who's a director at Safenet"
