Disclaimer: I own no one except Will and Peter. And Ben Stelia.
bowlingforshrimp: I'd sort of planned those scenes before figuring out all the details, so I wanted to keep them (once they were in my head), so I had Tank leave it on the counter as he was leaving. At least, I think he did. Maybe I forgot to write that, and only thought about it. If so, sorry. And I know he wouldn't actually leave it but...yeah.
Chapter 8
Ranger's POV
Tank was dead. Or, he would be if Stephanie wasn't ok.
As soon as he'd told me Stephanie was in trouble, I'd gotten into my car and started for Trenton at about twice the speed limit. When he'd informed me that she'd been kidnapped, I'd nearly become a highway statistic. Luckily, I recovered myself before the Porsche and the car next to me collided. I was just now parking at Rangeman (not very well, more like pulling into the general vicinity of a parking spot, putting the car into park, turning it off, and jumping out), and I still hadn't stopped yelling at Tank. The elevator opened as I ran towards it and Tank was there. I hung up the phone and he did the same, and then I started my monologue in person.
"How much of an idiot are you, Tank! How many times have I said 'be aware of your surroundings'? Definitely enough that you guys tease me about it. So, how is it not drilled into your head yet? How could you let yourself get distracted? If Stephanie is hurt, you're a dead man!" Ok, so, basically, I'd just been repeating this, with some variation, for the past half hour, but I was panicking. I figure I have a right to be repetitive and yell at the person responsible.
Tank was silent, as he'd been the whole time I'd yelled at him earlier.
I took a deep breath and tried to think straight. The truth is when Stephanie is in trouble, thinking straight isn't always easy. "Ok, sorry. Let's focus. What have you guys done so far?"
Tank looked relieved that I'd stopped yelling at him. "We're checking Stephanie's skips for the past year, as well as getting a copy of the Macy's security tape. The problem is, we have no leads, so we don't know what to use as the basis for elimination. She's brought in a lot of skips, and we can't just go check all of them."
The elevator stopped and we got out. I led the way to the conference room, where everyone was waiting for me. "Alright. Check my skips too. Cross-reference both of our skip lists with all the nearby florists. Look for any large orders of roses in the past few days. And let me see the pictures she got."
Everyone got up. Tank handed me the photos and everyone else left to go do as I'd said. I looked them through. Stephanie on the distraction job. Stephanie all wet with a white t-shirt, also wet, on (I tried to be completely objective while looking at this picture and ignore my body's reaction). Stephanie wrapped in a towel. Stephanie smiling after blowing up Morelli's truck.
I looked at Tank. "We're looking for someone who could have taken a picture at the bar without noticing, so probably someone with access to a second story room across the street. Also, look for any skips with a body of water in their yard who she picked up in the last few days. Our target also has access to a room somewhere bordering that skip's property. The towel picture won't tell us much, except that it's someone who can get into her apartment. However, that doesn't narrow the list at all, in fact, it sort of broadens it. This last one probably won't help much, either, because anyone could have been in the crowd that I'm sure gathered when Stephanie blew up two more cars." I looked at the notes for a moment and then thought of something. "Oh, and go through all the distraction tapes we have from the last year. If anyone calls Stephanie gorgeous more than once, or uses it as a name, they are probably our most likely suspects."
I went to my computer and started looking, going through the security feeds from Macy's. All I could see was that it was a man, and I'd already guessed that. Any shots from the back were useless because he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. The front ones were useless as well, because he was wearing the hood and sunglasses. I could see his lips moving, so I knew that he spoke to Stephanie just before he stun gunned her. However, I couldn't see what he said. I groaned in frustration. I hated this. This was worse than the Stiva incident. At least then, we'd had a pretty good idea of what we were looking for. For all I knew, she could be dead right now, and I didn't even know who it was. That thought was too painful to think about, so I wasn't all that angry when my phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"What?" I snarled. I'm rather surprised really. But hey, if there was ever a situation that was worth snarling into the phone for, this was it.
"Ric, where are you?"
Oh great. The feds. I'd been working on a case with them, but Stephanie was definitely more important. "Something came up." Then I hung up. I wasn't going to waste my time with them when who-knows-what was happening to Stephanie. I jumped out of my seat and went to talk to Tank.
"Anything yet?"
His head whipped around as I spoke and then he shook his head. Even as he did so, Lester came running in.
"Ok, we have two possibilities, based on the 'gorgeous' in the distraction tapes, thing. Of course, the guy might not even be your skip." I glared at him, tacitly telling him to shut up and get on with it. "Anyway, based on that, it's either Peter Atolo or Ben Stelia."
"Good. Do we have a possibility for where the wet t-shirt picture was taken from?"
Lester shook his head. Based on the way his eyes darkened, I was guessing he'd seen the picture and had basically the same reaction to it as I had. Even though she was fully dressed, it was practically porn.
I glared at him. "Lester! Focus! Go work on that."
I went back to my computer and started two searches at the same time. I looked for any buildings across the street from the bar where we'd worked distraction a few days ago that Atolo or Stelia could gain access to. Within five minutes, Atolo was now my prime suspect. His brother owned the building right across the street from the bar.
Bobby came in moments after I'd made this discovery. "Either this guy has a gigantic rose garden, or he's using false names."
"Is Peter Atolo on any of the lists?" At my question, Bobby quickly scanned the lists and then nodded. Gotcha!
A quick computer search and a ten minute drive later (this being a ten minute drive while driving as fast as possible without losing control of the vehicles, not a ten minute drive following the law), we were outside the most likely place for Atolo to have brought Stephanie.
We were all wearing bulletproof vests and had guns, flashlights, handcuffs, and walkie talkies. We covered all the entrances and exits and then, at my signal, entered any way possible, including windows (unless a room could be entered by either an outside door or a window. Then we took the door, because there was no point in getting cut up for no reason). A quick search of the house showed us two things. Firstly, no one was here, though, if the blood on one of the beds and a table in the same room was any indication, someone had been here. The second was that in the room with blood, there was a secret passage. I quickly ran down the passage and came to a set of stairs, which I climbed. I emerged into an open space rather close to our cars.
I did a quick 360, checking the area, and my breath caught as I saw him. Peter Atolo was running away from me, trying to drag Stephanie, who was cuffed and trying to resist, towards his car, which was hidden by a copse of trees and thus, we hadn't noticed it.
I quickly informed my men that I'd found them, then I drew my gun and aimed. Atolo was too far away, however. I started running. Stephanie looked over her shoulder, spotted me, and renewed her efforts to break away. A knife flashed, Stephanie cried out, and I somehow managed to speed up as I saw the bastard cut her chest. Not deep, and not in a fatal spot (a small cut just below her collarbone, as far as I could see), but enough that, if I hadn't wanted to kill him before, I would now.
Atolo finally saw me but I was already on him. I tackled him, pulling him away from Stephanie and knocking him to the ground in the process. I took advantage of the surprise that froze him for a moment, and took the opportunity to flip him onto his back and plant my knee in the small of his back. I cuffed one wrist but he recovered as I was trying to get the other, and pulled it out of reach. I dug my knee into his back and he winced. I leaned forward ('accidentally' putting all my weight on my knee in his back during the process), and grabbed his arm. I pulled it back and cuffed it with the other hand.
Tank arrived just then, so I got off Atolo and went to Stephanie, quickly getting the cuffs off her with a lockpick.
As soon as she was free, I wrapped my arms around her (careful to avoid both the cut I'd just seen get made and the other cuts I'd noticed while uncuffing her), and pulled her tight against my body. She was stiff for a millisecond and then melted against me, her arms going around my waist and holding on just as tight. I buried my face in her hair, almost, but not quite, crying. I'd come so close to losing her. Not that I'd ever do it, but I was beginning to see all the pros of trying to domesticate her, like Morelli had done. Thinking about him made me tighten my arms around Stephanie more (if that was possible) which, unfortunately, also apparently crushed her completely, because she winced and let out a tiny whimper of pain. Immediately I loosened up.
"Sorry, Babe."
As though by speaking, I'd ruined the moment, she suddenly stiffened, pulled back, glared at me and then, to my complete surprise, punched me in the face. Judging by the quick intakes of breath from all my men (who were now standing around watching me) it was a surprise to them too.
"Yeah, you should be sorry! You always leave! And you never tell me where you're going! And, because you were gone, I got kidnapped by a stalker. Every time I stopped paying attention to him, he cut me. And, of course, I did that a lot, so I got hurt a lot. And then he was going to rape me, and he'd just cuffed me to the bed when you guys came in. So then, he freaked out and made me put on one of his shirts and then dragged me out some passageway. And that whole, sending me back to Morelli thing! You're a complete idiot, Ranger! If you weren't none of this would have happened."
Her mind was jumping around between various transgressions I'd done, aparrantly, because I didn't see how the Morelli thing was related to her stalker. Nor did I see how her getting kidnapped was my fault. I did, however, know that I was getting mad. I can't remember a single time I've ever actually been mad at her, but it was definitely happening now. I think some of the anger was actually her fault, and a lot of it was just anger at Morelli and Atolo that I was using on her. Not fair at all, but, since she had just scared me half to death with a stupid action, I figured I didn't have to be fair. "Babe, none of this is my fault! Yes, I brought him into your life by having you do distraction, but then I offered Tank's help if anything happened. But noooo! For some stupid reason, you felt the need to ignore your stalker. And then, when you finally do admit you need some help, you stick around for a day and a half and then decide you should just leave. And even after Tank stun guns you once, you don't take the hint and think 'hmm, maybe there's a good reason for me being told to stay here.' No, you just try again. Why do you think I have you stun gunned when you try to leave? Some sadistic pleasure in knowing you got electrocuted because I ordered someone to do it? If I was a sadist, I'd have done tons of things differently. Some masculine chauvinistic thing that I like knowing I can make you do what I want? If I just liked being stronger than you, all I'd have to do is this."
I grabbed her and pulled her against me, kissing her hard. I'm not really sure what the point of the kiss was to begin with. Sort of half-claiming, half-'I'm so glad you're alive, but it's hard to believe'. It ended up as a sort of half-desperate, half-'I love you so much, and you totally scared the crap out of me' sort of kiss.
When I finally pulled back, instead of pulling away from me, she wrapped her arms around my waist again and rested her head against my chest. "I love you, too."
Holy crap, where had that come from? I stared at her in amazement. "Wh-what?" Wow…I just stumbled over a word. I haven't done that since third grade. All the anger had been let out from the combination of my rant and the kiss, so now I was left just totally shocked.
She lifted her head off my chest and looked up at me, a soft smile on her lips. "I said, I love you, too." Had I turned into Stephanie and said something out loud? What was going on? The smile got a bit bigger. "No, you didn't say anything, I just knew."
Man... Her ESP was better than mine right now. Then her words sunk in and I felt a huge smile spreading across my face before I could do anything about it. "I love you, Babe."
Seeing as how she'd already done her part, only in reverse order, I kissed her again. This one was a lot softer and nicer and more of an 'I love you' kiss than an 'I'm freaked out/I'm going to kill you if you ever put me through anything like this again' kiss, like the last had been.
"Awwww!" As I heard all my men sat it at once, I jerked up. I was surprised for a moment (that sound wasn't the type of sound you expected from this group), until I saw all their grins and realized they were teasing me. I noticed then that Atolo was still lying face-down on the ground. Clearly, everyone agreed with me in thinking he could just lie in the dirt for a while.
I figured now would be as good a time as any to apologize for being a complete idiot in the past. Of course, we had a huge audience, but whatever. "Babe, you're right. I am a complete idiot. I'm sorry for" aware of our audience, I tried to phrase it so no one else would have any idea what I was talking about "what I did after the debt. Actually, I'm sort of sorry I even ever started that thing. It was enjoyable, yes, but not very nice to you. And I'm sorry for not talking to you that much. I'll try to do it when I can, but I can't always tell you where I'm going."
Stephanie smiled. "It's alright. I forgive you. Don't do it again, though."
Any response I might have made was cut off by the sound of a bunch of cop cars pulling up, sirens blaring. Apparently, the police had been called, which sort of surprised me, especially since I hadn't told anyone to call them. Although, I hadn't told anyone not to call them either. Of course, I guess that having them come pick him up would also let them see Stephanie and the house and all that, letting them build a solid case.
My eyes narrowed as I saw Morelli step out of a car. I couldn't remember, at the moment, if he'd have been called here or if he was just here to check on Stephanie. Whatever the case, I didn't really care. Turned towards the cops and slipped an arm around Stephanie's waist (she'd jumped away when my men had so kindly ruined the moment), and glared at Morelli. His step faltered (based on his gaze being fixed on Stephanie, I'd say he wasn't here on duty), and then he stopped. He flicked his eyes to me, then back to Stephanie.
Despite the fact that I was pretty sure I'd have a black eye from her tomorrow, I have to say, I was very proud of her as I saw Morelli's face. Stephanie glared at him for a moment, then her eyes widened and she looked up at me with a gasp.
"I punched you!" Apparently, this was news for her.
"I noticed." I said dryly.
She probably would have replied, but Morelli spoke up, ignoring the exchange between me and Stephanie.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about. If you got a normal job, things like this wouldn't happen." He looked at her arm, which was covered from mid-forearm down in blood. "And you wouldn't always have cars exploding—"
Stephanie interrupted. "Firstly, the last time a car exploded, I found it quite satisfying. Secondly, you have no reason to tell me this, seeing as how I dumped you. And thirdly, I already got my daily dose of 'angry male yelling at me' from Ranger."
Morelli looked surprised. I was guessing it was about me yelling at her. He just stood there, completely surprised, for a few seconds, then the other cops came in and took Atolo. I gestured to our cars and the men started that way. Morelli finally accepted that Stephanie and he were over (I had to restrain the urge to cheer at this) and turned, going back to his car, though he didn't look all that happy.
"Shall we?" Stephanie nodded, and, still with our arms around each other, we walked towards the cars.
On the ride over, Tank had been in the passenger seat of the SUV I was driving. Now that Stephanie was here, he was in the back seat. He didn't look all that happy about it, but accepted it. That could be partly because of my 'If you hadn't gotten distracted by Lula, Stephanie wouldn't have been kidnapped, so we wouldn't even be here, so you wouldn't be in the backseat, so don't whine about it' look. Of course, that's a lot to smash into one look, so I'm not sure he got the entire message. He did, at least, get the 'sit down and shut up' message.
As we drove, I glanced at Stephanie. "Where do you want to go? You're apartment or mine?"
She shrugged. "I don't care. Somewhere with a bed."
I glared at Tank in the rearview mirror, because he'd laughed when she said it and was now grinning in a way that said he had no doubt what we'd be doing. "She just got kidnapped, you idiot. She's tired."
She grinned. "Well, that too. I have various other injuries besides this arm that you have to tend to."
I gave her a wolf smile. "I'd be only too happy to oblige."
She looked like she was trying to decide if she should reply and, if so, what with, when Tank cleared his throat.
"Uh, guys. I'm still here. I may be in the backseat, but I'm still in the vehicle."
Stephanie smiled at me. "Think he could fit in someone else's trunk?"
I just grinned, knowing she was almost definitely kidding."Babe."
A/N: The end. I hope you guys liked it. Sorry for thesemi-sucky ending.I'm terrible at endings. And yes, I know Stephanie was very out of character, since she always backs down from teasing, especially of the sexual nature but…meh -shrug-. Please review. This might have a sequel, but I have no ideas for one yet. So…yeah. I hope you liked this. Also, I know that it's ooc for Ranger to get mad at Stephanie and yell at her, but it always sort of annoys me that he doesn't really show his emotions and I can imagine him being very mad over this scenario...so yeah. I may have messed up everyone's characters in this chapter, and if so, I'm sorry.
rinskigoddess: I considered having Stephanie escape on her own, but I decided to have Ranger do the whole running to the rescue thing. So, I hope you liked it as I wrote it :)
I hope everyone liked it, btw. I'm not trying to exclude people...
Oh, and yet another thing. I know Stephanie would almost definitely never punch Ranger, and I'm not suddenly a Ranger hater or anything, but I'm always thinking that one of these days someone needs to punch him in the face, cause he's a complete and utter idiot many many times. Grr. So yeah... And this is probably my last little A/N.