Chapter 49

One month later

My shoulder was healing fine now and the damage to my lung that no one had said much about, well that was healing as well. I'd been a very good patient and took all of Bobby's advice seriously, after all I wasn't as young as I was and knew that I wouldn't be bouncing back from my injury quickly. Between resting, okay napping, I continued to spend a few hours doing work for Rangeman. Since Woody and Mannie had successfully found and picked up their FTA, then my searches also included doing that for the other men and their FTAs.

I eventually got back to that spreadsheet, the one that showed the expenditure for maintenance and fuel for the company cars and found some inconsistencies. It seemed that one of the contractors thought that it would be okay to fill up his car with fuel at the same time that he filled up a Rangeman SUV. Apparently he had his girlfriend drive his car to the garage. The second inconsistency was a little weird really, considering the men who worked for Rangeman. For some reason they all had a favorite car, the same one, so it ended up being used far more often than some of the other fleet cars. I left that one to Carlos to sort out.

You're obviously curious to know what happened to Morelli and I'll be honest I tried not to think of him too much. I refused to go and witness any court proceedings and fortunately Willoughby made sure that I wasn't needed as a witness. On Carlos's advice we did attend the court on the day that he was given his sentence. Having been found guilty of murder in the first degree, conspiring with the attempted murder of Carlos, my attempted murder and numerous other charges that came out when his house and work office were searched, he was handed out a life sentence without the possibility of parole. We were sat upstairs in the viewing area and left as soon as we heard the judgement.

Morelli's need for money came through the searches done by Willoughby, man he was like a dog with a bone in his efforts to bring Morelli down. It seemed that Morelli did have the traits of his father for gambling and drinking so owed a hell of lot of money to money sharks. He'd paid Crocker, though I never did find out what had happened to that money, and he'd taken out a loan against his house, the one that his Aunt Rose had left him. I assumed part of that was to pay whoever had taken on the contract to kill Carlos.

I had an idea about that one and I was damn sure that Carlos did as well. It was when I dropped in unexpectedly into Carlos's office that I was taken aback to see Mr Zeneman sat there.

"I understand that your status has changed since our last meeting. It's a pleasure to see you Mrs. Manoso"

I sat down as we had before when we'd met with this man, with me next to Carlos. I'd obviously come in part way through their conversation and it seemed that neither objected to me hearing what they were talking about. Let's be honest I was really curious as to why Zeneman was here.

"As I said, Carlos, I had his movements tracked. After our last conversation I spoke with Usman. He didn't appreciate being reminded of my explicit overwhelming rule, that no civilians were ever to be touched or harmed"

Wow, I didn't see that one coming. I mean I had always assumed that any mercenary group had no moral code but maybe, well definitely I was wrong about that.

"We can't afford to ever be seen harming civilians, Mrs. Manoso. The laws that govern our behavior have to be adhered to and Usman had decided that he didn't want to abide by them"

I hadn't wanted to show my surprise, but I suppose at hearing his reasons then he was right. Any group going into enemy territory would be accountable for what happened to civilians, probably other soldiers was another matter.

"He had used one of our alias IDs and yes as you suspected had travelled to Hawaii. I had my men bring him in and he had no remorse for what he had done. He arranged to take money from a man here in Trenton to kill you and after receiving the information of what you would be doing rigged one of the tanks to explode at a certain depth. I suppose the fact that he disliked you so much was an added incentive"

I squeezed Carlos's hand because I knew that he would find that hard to take on. That Carlos hadn't wanted to use one of the larger, newer tanks had probably saved his life. Okay, so the two men hadn't liked each other much but surely not to the point of committing murder?

"I arranged for him to be dropped off in Siberia, the warlord there owed me a favor and had room in one of his workcamps"

Did my mouth drop open at hearing what he had said? It sure did, because that was something that I never dreamed could happen let alone be organized by Zeneman for Usman.

"I owe you William"

Now what exactly would that entail, because I really didn't want Carlos to be doing any jobs out of the country for Zeneman's company.

"Accept it as my wedding gift, Carlos"

Before Carlos could even think of rejecting the offer I was on my feet and leant down to Zeneman and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you. That means so much to both of us"

If Carlos was annoyed or surprised then he never expressed either emotion, instead we were both escorting Zeneman down to the garage where his car was parked. I was even expecting Carlos to say something in the privacy of the elevator, oh yeah, I forgot about the surveillance cameras, so it was as the door shut behind us in the apartment that I was suddenly worried. With my back against the wall and his hands on either side of my head was when I expected a lecture that it wasn't my place to interfere with his meetings.

"Maybe I should take you with me when I have important clients because you totally had Zeneman at your fingertips"

Mmm, I could totally do that if I got the reward that he was giving me, a very deep passionate kiss that had my toes curling. As I came up for air I had to reluctantly put space between us because I had a very special person to meet today.

"Later Mr Manoso. Our guest will be here in five minutes"

Reluctantly Carlos stepped away from me because he knew how important this was to me.

"Is Gregory bringing her here?"

I nodded my head and had to smile at the ease with which Gregory had taken on board my idea. Yeah, I had really needed Gregory, not only because he was my sounding board and would give me an honest opinion if what I was wanting to do was the right thing, but he also gave me a starting point for the important search that was to follow.

"Babe, Gregory is on his way up"

I was nervous with second thoughts rushing through my head. Had I done the right thing, or would I be hated, what did I think might happen next? Maybe that didn't matter, I'd got this far hadn't I, so maybe after today I'd have a better idea. I looked up from where I was standing and saw Gregory walking into the apartment first, eager to see his companion. She was just as I'd seen her when we'd spoken on Facetime maybe not as tall as I'd imagined but definitely pretty with long blonde hair and brown eyes. I walked up to her offering her my hand but instead found myself being pulled into an embrace.

"Thank you for making this possible. I know at first that I wasn't particularly pleasant to you, but I suppose that I needed time to think through how I felt"

I knew how much me contacting her had been a bolt out of the blue for her but finding out that she was still single and had made something of her life, well I just knew that she had a strong character. I turned to Carlos as he came and stood next to me noting as Jay gave him the once over. Why was it that every woman who laid eyes on him felt the need to do that?

"Jay, this my husband, Carlos"

Well at least she just nodded her head at him instead of trying to hug him as well. I'd had Ella provide some coffee and cookies and as I sat down, I noticed that Carlos and Gregory had disappeared. Now it was time to really find out exactly how she felt.

"Have you emailed Xander yet?"

Because I wasn't stupid enough to invite Jay all the way to the States if they decided between them that they didn't want anything to do with each other.

"Yes. I think he spent some time tracing the email before he decided that I was who I said I was. He was so very nervous at first, I think because he felt so guilty for what had happened"

I knew that from my many conversations with Xander and maybe I was being, I don't know, maybe selfish, but I wanted him to be happy. To be able to move on from all of that guilt that he'd carried around for so long.

"Xander was carrying a lot of guilt for what happened because he saw it as being his fault"

"I know, but time heals as have my injuries"

I knew from Gregory that Jay had been in a coma from a serious head injury. She'd gone through months of treatment, physio and depression but she'd fought against all the odds so watching her now, I wouldn't have known.

"We've chatted regularly, and I feel that we're ready to meet in person. I do still love him, weird really after all this time"

I knew exactly what she meant because I know that it was the same for me. I fell in love with Carlos the moment I saw him in that diner, but just never realized it.

"Soulmate"

I said out loud which earned me a big smile. I left Jay alone in our apartment, why there you might ask, well it was very private, and it was neutral territory. Xander, well he wasn't stupid, I'm sure that he knew I was up to something when I asked him to meet me upstairs. As he came up in the elevator, I was going down the stairs with my fingers crossed. I was meeting with Gregory to discuss a proposition. It seemed that he wanted me to pick up work from him. Those jobs that seemed impossible to solve, similar the ones that I'd done for him before. I wasn't too sure that I'd be good enough, but Carlos was the one who talked me into it. There was also a role for Rangeman involved because some of those jobs could be here on the west coast and others might need a multi force approach.

As I walked into what had become my workspace, the conference room that I'd used before, I couldn't believe who was stood there.

"Jenson, wow, I never expected to see you"

I was soon being embraced in his strong arms and felt so happy that he was here. Obviously, Gregory had arranged this.

"I understand that I should call you Steph. You look good, Steph, so I assume that those troubles that you were running from have been put to sleep?"

I nodded my head and led Jenson over to the chairs and table taking a deep breath as we sat down. Jenson had literally saved my life, so I knew that he deserved to know the full story. Though there was one lose end to it which maybe Jenson could answer.

"What happened to Robert?"

Maybe it seemed a strange question to him but to complete my story I needed to know what had happened to him after that night that he'd taken me to that cabin in the woods.

"He came back from doing some research for a new article but seemed different. He said that someone had spoken to him about some of the articles that he'd written and that what he was doing was sanctimonious. That he was only ever interested in the story and not the people involved. I could understand that. I mean that whole deal with that toxic waste, he should have been looking for help to stop it, not waiting until the damn stuff was here and buried. Anyway, he's decided to write children's stories and he's good at that. His first book has been published and is doing well, and it means that he stays home with Anya and their son"

Wow that was not what I was expecting and what I wouldn't give to know who it was that had spoken to him. I knew that Lawrence had gone public with his family's story and he was quite a celebrity now, though I refused to watch the talk show. Afterall I already knew the story. At least he wouldn't be talking about me and to be honest that was a very big relief.

"Steph, I want to ask you a very big favor"

I frowned as Jenson asked me that because I would do anything that he asked of me because I owed him so much, though what he would want from me confused me.

"Would you look for my wife?"