CHAPTER 25
I woke again sometime in the early morning. Ric was sleeping soundly stretched out on his stomach, one arm still wrapped around my middle. The fact that even in a dead sleep he was still holding on to me sent tingles down my spine.
With the soft light of the (very) early morning sneaking through the crack in the curtain I could see the outline of our luggage, which we had dumped in one corner of the room. Me because I hate unpacking – packing I love, unpacking I hate, Him because no more than half an hour after we arrived home from the airport and the batphone started ringing.
Back from Italy no more than half an hour and already he was turning around and heading back to the airport.
There was some last minute meeting that he had to attend in Washington, some review committee for the urban assault training facility that we had been working on.
After the success of the first urban assault training programme that Ric had put together he was approached to design and oversee the construction of a second larger facility out in the desert somewhere. I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you – no seriously I signed some confidentiality -no disclosure-legallybinding-uncle sam will come and kick my butt If I spill the beans-document.
Okay, so it looked like Ric was going to be away for at least three months . Which I was not too happy about, especially considering that he had been back only a week when the deal came through.
Proving that he really is the opportunist that he claimed to be, he invited me to come along. Not just as his girlfriend (yep, he said it) but as an employee as well. He claimed that if he was going to design an urban training course to teach America's finest the art of urban warfare, then who better to have on his team than the bombshell bounty hunter famous for her ability to escape any situation.
So I packed my bags, diverted all my calls to my cellphone , sub leased my apartment to Lula who was actually looking for a place, Told Vinnie I was going on vacation and I that I'd call him when I got back, Dropped Rex off at Marylou's , and tried desperately to come up with a feasible lie to tell my mother.
In the end I couldn't think of one. So I went with an amended version of the truth. That I was going away on business. No not bounty hunter business exactly. I'll be working with Ranger.
It didn't go down so well.
To say the least.
Lets just say that the toilet paper was ironed that night.
I think that she relented when I may have inadvertently said something to the effect of needing to get away…to sort things out…to…
It was no fault of my own that she perhaps – perhaps took what I was saying to mean something along the lines of needing time away from home, away from certain people, maybe a certain someone.
Hey it wasn't my fault! I had a plane to catch.
I loved it! The work that is. It was a challenge, it was fun. Ranger even designed a training course that resembled Macy's shoe department.
We were finishing up at the UATF (urban assault training facility) having had a few of the top teams from the army, navy and the local SWAT come through and give it a thumbs up (after having had their butts kicked I like to add) when Ric was contacted by an old colleague who he worked with when he first started out chasing skips.
The difference between Ric and me: my first job was out of necessity, Ranger's first job was out of the country.
This friend of Ric's known only as Butch, needed help tracking down a high end skip. A woman named Veronica Pastrelli who was arrested for skimming money out of the office accounts, the fact that her husband owned the company and they were going through a very messy divorce only added to it. So far the courts had only been able to trace 12 million back to her.
The bail was set so high because she was considered to be a high flight risk.
As it turned out the judge was right, and Ms Pastrelli had skipped the country . Butch wanted Ranger to track her down and bring her back into the system. He was having an employee shortage and didn't have the manpower to send someone to Europe for a few weeks to find, and I quote "a bored housewife on one hell of a shopping spree"
So that's how Stephanie Michelle Plum at age 32 finally got to see Europe.
Ranger took the job on the condition that I would agree to accompany him. That sounded all right to me. So I packed my bags. Again
It took us a week to find Ms Pastrelli sunning her self in Capri. Once we had handed her over to the federal officers at the airport and signed all the papers we decided to stay a while.
For two glorious weeks Ric and I travelled around, first a quick trip to Paris, then we did the south of France, played blackjack in Monaco, Ric even took me to Switzerland to buy chocolate before we went back to Italy, to Rome for our flight home.
It was a whirlwind adventure.
Ric says we'll do it again soon, but do it properly.
Lying in bed curled around the most amazing man, staring at our unpackaged luggage reminiscing about the past few months of my life; I wonder what I did to get so lucky?
He really is the most amazing man. Who knew that the ghetto street talkin' thug that I first met was the same man who spoke five languages, had travelled the world extensively, has a stock broker, lawyer and an account on call 24hours a day, is a giant book worm and will read anything from comics to poetry to classic literature, is incredibly loyal to his friends and family, will go to extraordinary lengths for anybody if they ask him to, but is a very private person who closely guards his privacy and only lets a very select few people into his inner sanctum .
This kind, considerate, caring intelligent man, who was currently gently running his hand in soft circles across my stomach.
He may be a complete health freak, and he has no clue when it comes to food. But I love 'im anyway.
I think I may even be able to live with all that my body is a temple bullshit.
Hell. I have caught myself thinking on more than one occasion when he has used that line, that I may have found a religion that I could get into. Oh yeah I could definitely worship that temple.
