15.
I finished off the shot and slammed the empty glass on the table, making sure everyone noticed that I could keep up with them.
"Well fellas, I'd love to stay and chat but I'm broke."
"Oh no, you're not sneaking away so fast. It's still early." Lester teased. "And if money is your only problem, we could change the stakes."
"What? Like take shots?"
"That, or strip poker." I wouldn't mind seeing the guys in this room in various states of undress, but given my previous poker performance, I had to decline. I'd had enough strip poker experience in college to know that I would probably be the only one taking clothes off.
"Sounds fun, but I have a better idea. We could play truth poker."
"Truth poker?" Bobby sounded like he was regretting inviting me in the first place.
"Truth Poker. I know hardly anything about you, but you know lots of personal stuff about me. That hardly seems fair. Every hand I win, I get to ask you all a question and you have to answer honestly."
"And if you loose?" Tank asked.
"You can ask me a question."
"I have a better idea." Lester chimed in. "For every hand you loose, you have to spend an hour in the gym."
I mentally grimaced. I hated working out but it might be worth it to learn something about these mystery men. After all, I knew what nervous habits were giving away my hand. There's not much I could do about the eye twitch, but if I avoided playing with my hair I should be able to win some hands.
"You're on."
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I was up to three hours in the gym before my luck started to turn around. On the forth hand, I got a full house and luckily no one else had anything good.
I looked at my potential victims, deciding who to ask what first. Lester shifted in his seat and Tank was avoiding eye contact. Better to prolong the torture for them and go straight for Bobby.
"Bobby, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"
I watched as all the men relaxed a little. I liked Bobby, so I asked him an easy question. I hope the other guys didn't think I would be that easy on them.
"I wanted to be Michael Jordan." I watched Bobby as he spoke. He was tall and lean; he looked like a basketball player.
I decided to pick on Tank next so I could watch Lester squirm a few moments longer.
"I've been dying to ask, Tank. What is your real name?"
Bobby and Lester started laughing and Tank reached for another shot and spoke into the glass. The sound came out, "hmrf jasumer."
"What?" I asked.
"Michael Bolton, ok?" Tank slammed down the glass and we all started to laugh. "I was born before he was popular. How were my parents supposed to know?" We were still laughing, but Tank put his straight face back on. Better not to upset the big, scary man and move on.
Lester took a shot and eyed my full shot glass. I sighed and took another shot to keep up. "Who was your first kiss?" I asked Lester.
He laughed a nice deep throated laugh. "Kelly Kapowski in the first grade." He shook his head and smiled to himself. "God, I haven't thought about her in years. She was the only girl who was tough enough to beat me up."
I lost two hands and won the third.
I started with Tank this time. "How did you meet Ranger?"
"In the Army." Enough said. I'm sure there were going to be some national security issues if I pressed further.
Next was Bobby. "Why did you decide to work for Rangeman?"
"Lester and I met Ranger when we were in college. Ranger dropped out to go into the army, but we kept in touch. I had basketball scholarships, so when I injured my knee, I had to drop out. I was involved in some illegal activity and when Ranger found out, he offered me a position in his new company."
"Those were some rough times." Lester added.
I turned to Lester next. "What was your major in college?"
He laughed at the question. "Girls." He took another shot from the glass. "And computer science. I dropped out a little while after Ranger and Bobby and a few years later I was stealing people's credit card numbers off of the internet. I was one of the first skips Rangeman had to bring in and after they dragged my ass to jail, they offered me a job."
I'm not sure if I would have jumpstarted a business with a few Army guys, college dropouts, and ex-criminals but the combination worked for Rangeman.
Lester continued, "Ranger was smart to hire reformed criminals. Take me for example. I'm good at hacking into computer systems. I can look at the Rangeman computer system from a hacker's viewpoint and find out where the weaknesses are. Just like Bobby can look at a house and tell you where a burglar could slip in unnoticed."
That sounded like a good philosophy. I was up to five hours in the gym and learned as much about the Rangemen as I could handle for one night. I checked my watch and faked a yawn. "Well, I guess I'll be going now."
"Yeah, we should probably start cleaning up." Bobby said.
I grabbed my purse and headed for the door, digging for my keys.
"Not so fast, Stephanie." Tank grabbed my keys from me. "I'll take you home."
"Oh, that's okay." I reached for the door handle. "I'm fine. I only had a few drinks." I opened the door and walked straight into a rack of coats. I had opened the door to the closet instead of the front door. "On second thought…"
Tank put his arm around me and guided me out the front door. "Bye, guys. Thanks for inviting me." I called over my shoulder.
"Come back next week." Lester said.
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I smiled and gave the men a finger wave as Tank led me to the elevator. Once inside, I felt an unavoidable need to break the silence.
"So…" I said.
"So." He replied, keeping his eyes straight ahead.
Searching my mind for something to talk about, my favorite spandex wearing friend came to mind. "Lula and I are going out again this weekend. I think she'd really like it if you went dancing with us." Lula and I really didn't have plans, but I'm sure Lula would move mountains to get a date with Tank.
He shook his head and rubbed his forehead with his hand. "I'll think about it."
Score! I was giggling my way to the SUV when I was suddenly face to face with Ranger.
"Look Mike!" Ranger gave Tank an eyebrow raise. "It's Bruce Wayne himself." I searched his eyes for a moment, "Or is it Batman tonight?"
A hint of amusement spread over Ranger's face and he told Tank, "I'll take over from here." Tank nodded and was gone with the wind.
Ranger opened the door to his Porsche and I slid in, as gracefully as I could in my Jagerized state.
Ranger turned to me before he started the car. "Working late?"
"Poker game. The guys invited me for some male bonding." A belch slipped out and I immediately covered my mouth with my hand. "Excuse me, I think all of the testosterone around here is seeping in through my pores."
He looked like he was thinking about smiling and pulled the car onto the road. "You know Tank's real name."
"I found out lots of other interesting things tonight." I replied. "I've improved my interrogation methods."
"Apparently." He replied and slipped into his zone. I watched him while he drove. The streetlights cast moving shadows on his face, making the hard lines of his face look dull.
"You're staring." He said.
So? He was an amazing male specimen, he could be the inspiration to an entire generation of upcoming artists and sculptors. I faced forward and stared out of the windshield instead and he reached out and put his hand over mine.
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