One more chappie before the CRUUUUISE! Ah...ha. That was fun. So anywho hee'ya eez Chapter Five...

I took the stairs two at a time, the adrenaline pumping in my veins. I crashed through the fifth-story stairwell door and stumbled into the control room.

Everyone looked up at me and Ranger raised an eyebrow. "Summer called me." I managed to squeeze out.

Ranger grabbed me and led me over to a chair. "What did he say?"

I relayed the message. Ranger stood up and started doing what he did best. "He told you to go alone but that's the last thing you'll be," Ranger said to me, "You'll be wearing a wire, but can't hide it under your shirt. It has to go somewhere Summer won't think of." I nodded. Ranger brought up a map of the streets around Mike's Auto on the computer. "Tank and I will be in an SUV one street over. Jordan and Dale will be one street over in the opposite direction." He looked at me. "Did Summer say if he wanted the money in cash?"

I shook my head. "He didn't say anything about that." Ranger nodded. "That means he wants cash."

Holy crap. Eight hundred thousand in cash? That's a shitload of money. Where were we going to get that? Am I supposed to donate any money? Was it going to be in briefcase or a bag? What if he finds out I'm not alone? Was Jamie alive?

The next few hours flew by in a blur of color. Ranger held an emergency meeting in the conference room and they planned out what they were going to do that night. I was so stressed out I barely listened. All I knew was that I was going to drive the Porsche to Mike's Auto at twelve-thirty with a briefcase full of cash. I was going see Jamie unharmed before I handed the briefcase over and then Ranger and Co. were going to crash the party. That was the part that made me most uneasy. This was my baby sister we were talking about. Summer told me to come alone, and dangnabbit I wanted to do anything he said just so Jamie wasn't hurt. But I Ranger was a professional and I trusted the hell out of him so I guess I would have to live with it.

I was back in my and Ranger's apartment eating a late lunch when Ranger walked in. He looked at me and the line of his mouth tightened.

"You're looking a little stressed there, Babe," he said.

Ha. I was BEYOND stressed. I was this close to a nervous breakdown. I just shrugged, knowing that if I spoke my voice would be all high a squeaky.

"Do you want to go pick Jazz up from school? That might help get your mind off of everything."

I sighed. "Sure, but I'll probably get lost again."

-----------------------------------------------------------

I took the SUV this time, because the Porsche was in use. I parking in front of the school and waited for the bell to ring. Five minutes later a tsunami of kids poured out of the school, and I saw Jazz among them. She saw the SUV and grinned, making her way through the crowd. She was almost to the car when she was snagged from behind by her backpack by a bigger kid. He was the typical bully. Big, fat, stupid-looking, with a small pack of cronies who'll do anything he says. Jazz was fighting pretty well by the time I made my way through the mass of high-schoolers and middle-schoolers. The big bully had Jazz's backpack turned upside-down and was dumping stuff onto the ground. He only looked a couple years older than her, but she was fighting hard as his cronies held her back.

"This is what happens when you annoy me, Williams," the kid said to Jazz.

She spat in his face. "Oh you're so tough, you can beat up a backpack! You're just a coward! If your stupid monkey-slaves weren't here I would be pounding you into the ground!" I didn't doubt it one bit.

The kid wiped the spit off his face. "You're gonna get it if you don't watch yourself," he started to reach for her and I figured it was time for Wonder Woman to intervene.

"Hey kid, just give her back her backpack," I said.

He looked at me and laughed. "Make me," he said. He must have been in 8th grade. Stupid kid.Jazz took this moment of distraction to stomp on her captor's feet and launch herself at the kid. They toppled over together and the cronies just stood around not knowing what to do. I pushed my way through the kids and got a hold of Jazz's shirt and hauled her up. The big kid and his cronies decided that this wasn't fun anymore so they threw glares at me and Jazz and wandered away. Jazz had done a decent amount of damage to the leader kid. Scratch on his cheek, beginnings of a black eye.

"Nice," I said, helping Jazz pick up a bunch of fallen papers. She grinned at me. "Thanks. Tank taught me how to punch."

Jazz followed me back to the car. "So have you found Jamie yet?" she asked, climbing into the front seat.

"Eh…no, well, sortof."

Jazz looked at me. "Well?"

"Well…it's sortof a ransom kinda thing now. We're getting her back tonight." Hopefully. No need to scare anyone…myself mainly.

"Ransom? How much?" asked Jazz, not looking the least bit worried.

"Eight hundred thousand," I said.

"Wow. Jamie'll be happy."

We were stopped at a light and I turned to Jazz, raising an eyebrow.

Jazz laughed at me. "She'll be happy that she's worth 800,000. The last time she was ransomed it was only 50,000."

"When was the last time she was ransomed?" I asked.

Jazz shrugged. "I couple years ago I guess. Dad told me about it."

"When your mom showed up yesterday at the school she called you Jazz Williams. Ranger calls you Jazz Manoso. Which one is it?" I asked.

"My mom changed her last name back to Willliams when she and my dad got divorced. I'm registered as Williams but I like Manoso better. So Dad calls me Manoso and so does the rest of his family. I'm a Manoso at heart."

----------------------------------------------------

I stopped at McDonald's before heading back to the office. Jazz and I took the elevator to the fourth floor and hung out in the apartment for a while. Ranger joined us around 4:30.

"Jazz beat a kid up," I said to Ranger. Jazz looked like a puppy who got caughtchewing up a chair. Probably was scared Ranger would be mad. Ranger looked down at her on the couch.

"Did he deserve it?"

"Yesterday he gave my best friend a swirly and today he dumped all my papers on the ground." (AN: just in case you don't know, a swirly is when you stick someone's head down the toilet and flush :-D…not much fun, let me tell you)

Ranger nodded. "Good for you."

Jazz grinned at him.

"Now go do your homework. And think up a good alibi. Your mother will have heard about this by now and she'll be on my back so I need an excuse." Jazz grinned wider and stood up with a salute, "Aye-aye, captain!" she said and disappeared into the kitchen with her backpack.

"Do we have a plan for tonight?" I asked Ranger. We had already gone over this, but Ranger knew how spaced out and stressed I was so he repeated it for me.

"Tank, Jordan, Dale, and I are leaving at ten to get in our places early. You leave here at eleven thirty. You want to get to Mike's Auto before Summer does. He'll probably know you're not alone and do something stupid, so you want to be careful."

Oh boy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few hours were more nerve-wracking than the first time I rear-ended someone and had to pay for the damage. Jazz did her homework, Ranger did whatever the hell he does; and I paced, watched TV, paced some more, took a shower, made a sandwich, paced some more, watched a little more TV, and was back to pacing when Ranger, Tank, Dale, and Jordan sauntered into the apartment. Ranger was holding a black briefcase. The money. Crap. I still needed to ask him how much I should contribute.

"Nervous, Babe?" Ranger asked me.

"Not in the least," I said, a tad squeakily, "why do you ask?"

Jordan grinned, Tank looked like he was considering thinking about smiling, Dale looked like he didn't understand a word of English, and Ranger just looked amused.

"You're going to wear a hole in the carpet if you keep pacing like that," said Ranger.

I sent him a half-hearted glare and sunk onto the couch. Ranger sat down next to me and slung an arm around my shoulders. "She'll be fine."

I nodded. My heart was tap dancing in my chest and there was an annoying lump in my throat. Ranger squeezed my shoulder, "We're leaving now. Just one more hour and you'll be on your way. Don't work yourself into a frenzy, Babe, I've done this before. Jamie was caught by a couple mob guys and she was ransomed. She didn't really know what was going on, they had spiked all her drinks and were playing strip poker by the time the drop-off was made." I managed a smile.It's just like Jamie to make friends with her captors, that's for sure. Rangertook a small key out of his pocket and pressed it into my hand. "The key to the briefcase," he said. I looked at him.

"I want to help pay some of this," I said. Originally I was just going to ask him how much he wanted, but I knew he wouldn't accept. Ranger stared at me for a beat.

"We'll discuss that afterward," he said. Ranger stood up, kissed me on the forehead, and left with Jordan, Tank, and Dale at his heels.

I went into the kitchen and sat down next to Jazz at the kitchen table. "How's life?" I asked her.

She was bent over a piece of paper with a bunch of math problems in it. She shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

God what I would give to be in sixth grade again. "How's middle school treatin' ya?"

Another shrug. "It's okay. It's kinda fun with high-schoolers but there are a lot of bullies." She rolled her eyes. "Like the one you saw today, they all think they can pick on me 'cause I'm small." I had to laugh at that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour later I was all wired up and on my way to Mike's Auto. I did a wire check and Ranger called me back and said he could smell the smoke burning all the way from where he was so stop thinking so much. I managed a weak smile and disconnected.

I was about to turn left onto the street where Mike's Auto was when my cell phone chirped. Miami traffic was really irritating me so I groped around in my bag for my phone and answered it without looking at the read-out.

"Shit Stephanie TURN AROUND! Don't go anywhere NEAR Mike's Auto you hear me? TURN THE FUCK AROUND!" yelled Jamie.

What the fuck? My brain went blank and I pulled a U-Turn in the middle of the busy street—miraculously without crashing. Jamie had hung up so I followed suit. I had no idea what was going on and I knew Ranger would be wondering as well from hearing all the horns blaring. As if on cue my phone chirped again.

"Get lost?" Ranger asked.

"I…uh…Jamie…er…um…" I said.

"What's wrong?" His voice was tight.

"Uh…nothing…erm…God, just hang on a second!" I yelled and threw the phone onto the seat next to me while I maneuvered into a parking lot. Once parked, I picked the phone back up again and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to register what just happened.

So I'm leaving this Thursday and won't be back untill next year! (aaahahahahaha) But I'll be writing a'pleanty on zee boat...that is if I'm not basking in the sun, chasing after hot guys, eating, sleeping, realxing...you know the drill (wink)

--Bowlingforshrimp