I haven't update coz I got kidnapped by the alien called homework…
I rekon you've waited long enough for another chapter so I gave you a long one
Disclaimer: I don't actually own the characters but the forged papers are pretty good
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Steph's POV
Steph woke up slowly; she blinked sleep from her eyes and stretched, letting out a bit yawn. She looked at the time, 8:30, somehow she had managed to sleep for 22 hours after reading the letter from Ranger.
The letter from Ranger, dragging herself out of bed and into the lounge area, Steph re-read the letter. She put the letter aside to look at the picture again, to see him, to have something tangible to hold, something not just a memory, it was . Twenty minutes later she was heading out the door when her mobile rang.
"'ello?"
"Miss Rodriguez?"
"Uh…" then se remember that this was her alias from the pervious night, "Yer, who's this?"
"Oh, my apologies, this is Alexi Dominov, we met at my club the other night."
"Uh, yer, sure, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get my number?"
"Again, my apologies, from the list, I'm sorry if it is unethical, but …"
"No, no, not at all, thanks for the dance the other night," Steph figured that if she had to pretend to like the guy, now was a good time to start as any.
"No problem, actually if you have made no plans for you evening, I was wondering if you would like to come to my club?"
Well, the buys did say that she would have to build a relationship; Steph just didn't think it would be this soon, "Sure, that would be fine, I guess I'll see you tonight then, Mr Dominov?"
"Please, call me Alexi, Miss Rodriguez,"
"Well, Alexi, I guess you should call me Steph,"
"Tonight, then Steph. I apologise, but I must go. Good bye," disconnect.
Steph closed her phone and shuddered, he might have good manners but he was still a murdering bastard. She walked down the lift and took it directly to the conference room, wanting to fill Tank and the others in on the phone call.
Steph opened the door and was met with several grim faces. The boys were in a meeting with some suits. "Sorry to interrupt Tank, but I just received a phone call –"
"Excuse me," she was cut off by one of the suits, "this is a private meeting and I don't believe that you have clearance to attend."
This comment got him a scowl from Lester and Bobby, Tank opened his mouth but Steph beat him to it, "Like I'm said, I'm sorry to interrupt but this really cannot wait, sir."
Not wanting to deal with the suit further, she marched over Tank and whispered to him, "Dominvo called, he wants me to meet him at the club again."
"Tonight?" Steph nodded confirmation, "Fine, this gives you another opportunity to make it into the VIP area."
She nodded in agreement, it would be risky but if they actually pulled this off and Steph got close to Dominvo, they could manage to bust a major drug ring and bring down a major arms dealer.
Just a she went to walk away, Tank called out to her, "Steph, you should probably stay for the remainder of this meeting, we could use your help."
She was surprised, but Steph rook a seat next to Bobby, who silently handed over a file. "She doesn't have clearance!" The suit who had yelled at her before was obviously still a bit upset.
"Actually, she does, now sit down and shut up before we decide to take this matter into our own hands and bugger the law," Steph hadn't expected Bobby to be that supportive but she welcomed it all the same.
Tank looked at her, making sure that she was ok with staying; Steph nodded and look at him as if to say 'continue?'
"So, as I was saying, Ranger needs to be extracted with a minimum amount of fuss, preferably at night, but not while the group is at the base.
"You all know that they are situated in a remote area, the desert around the camp is particularly flat, meaning that the direct approach won't work."
Steph thought about what he said, she was all jumpy at the mention of Rangers name but she had to be professional, looking at this in an objective manner.
Analysing the situation in her head, Steph looked at the displays around the room. She hadn't noticed them when she first walked in, but there were satellite images of desert, and then a camp, showing high security and a militarily arranged network of buildings.
"Tank, how many men does this base hold?"
"About 500"
"And how long have they been stationed there?"
"Roughly six months," by Stephs reckoning that made it four months longer then Ranger had been away.
"And how do you suppose they cope for six months without their girlfriends and wives?"
Tank looked at her, "Well…um, they….just …do?"
"No, Tank, they have whores, and what information do you reckon I could get if I was in there, constantly?"
"Steph, you aren't suggesting that you actually…"
"No, Lester, I'm not suggesting anything, I'm saying that if you could arrange for me to 'be of service' to the man that has Ranger we could actually get him out."
The boys just looked at her, the suits snickered but Steph was totally serious, if it meant that she had to fuck half the men at the base to get Ranger out, she would.
"You would need training, at least a month with the Feds. We would need to have you stationed at the …place where they get these…women from," She was amazed that Tank was taking her seriously; she had expected to have to fight him on this one.
"Ok, meeting dismissed, gentlemen, it was a pleasure to meet you once again, we will contact you within a week to discuss this matter further, in the mean time it would be appreciated of you could …research the background for this project," one of the men nodded and they left.
Tank, Lester and Bobby turned to Steph, "Are you serious about this, you would do this for the mission?" asked Lester.
"I'm not doing it for the mission; I'm doing it for Ranger."
"You love him," it wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"Yer, I love him, but then I guess you guys already knew that, huh?"
They smiled at her gently, knowing that this was as good as an admission that she would do anything to have Ranger back.
"Just one question, Ranger was supposed to be in some third world jungle, how come he's being held in a dessert complex, a bazillion kilometres from anywhere?"
Tank knelt down in front of her, taking her hands in his, "Steph, the packet that Ranger somehow got out to us, it was written a long time before it arrived, the op got fucked up so bad that no one in the team knew which side anyone else, it was worse then double crossing, there was some serious shit that went down OS Bomber.
"The messenger that managed to get the packet to us warned me that he was no longer apart of the SEAL op, that he was considered a rouge agent. Then, this morning, we received a phone call, someone with information regarding Rangers present situation. You have to trust us on this one Steph, something went down, we don't know what or why, but Ranger is being held in this complex."
Steph nodded, trying not show to much emotion, she really didn't need to be crying in front of the guys now. "I have to …go, I'll make sure that you get a copy of the phone call from Dominov."
Steph pulled her hands from Tanks and left the conference room; she went to the gym and changed into something light before warming up. Then she got serious, if she was to rescue Ranger then she had to be in peak condition, and that meant exercising and eating properly.
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Bobby's POV, back in the conference room
Bobby watched Steph leave, his heart almost breaking for the woman who was willing to do anything to see Ranger again.
He turned to Tank and Lester, "She needs to talk, we can't actually do anything to help her psychologically."
"I hear you; this whole thing is so FUCKED UP!" It wasn't often that Lester was so emotional, but Bobby couldn't actually blame him. Steph was a sister to them, someone they protected because they loved, not because they were paid.
Knowing that Steph needed to work off her emotions, Bobby made his excuses to the boys and left. He checked into the control room and got Steph position, she was in the gym.
He made his way there and got changed, then went to find Steph. She was practicing her karate, street fighting but formal karate.
Bobby broke her spell, "Steph!" She cut a look at him, but Bobby was unswayed, instead he tossed her a pair of gloves, "You wanna spar?"
Steph pulled the gloves on and bowed to Bobby who returned it; they touched gloves and moved away from each other.
As they began to circle, Bobby almost felt irritation and anger radiating off Steph, he looked more closely at her, focusing on her eyes.
He saw them sparkling with unshed tears and Bobby wondered if their sparring match was a good idea, with Steph so emotional he didn't want her losing control and hurting him.
While he was wrapped in thought, Steph lashed out with her front hand and followed it with a spinning kick, aimed at his head. Bobby instinctively moved his hands up, just as she wanted him to do. Stopping her kick short of his hands, Steph dropped low and aimed another kick at his kidneys.
The kick scored but before Bobby could react Steph was behind him, kicking him behind the knees and causing him to drop forward.
Once he was flat on his face, she pulled his arm across his back and applied a figure-four lock, if Bobby tried to pull his arm away, Steph could snap his wrist.
Keeping his arm in the lock, she put her knee to the small of his back and dug it in. "Steph, I surrender."
Bobby told himself that he was just being nice, that Steph didn't actually just "kill" him in less then 30 seconds; but not a minuter later when he was down again, Bobby actually had to admit that Steph was actually better then he was.
After she had worked off some of her anger, Steph left, leaving Bobby looking up at Tank. "You know, Bobby that you just got beat by a girl."
"Yer, Tank, I'm aware of that, and so are my muscles, if you will excuse me, I need a shower," but Tank persisted and followed him into the locker room.
"Bobby, seriously, I'm worried about her, she's not quite… she's different."
"No shit man, but like I said, this whole thing is so fucked up and if she was the same I would be even more worried then I am now."
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Rangers POV, in the complex
Ranger was confused. There were thoughts going around in his head, nothing made sense, Hang on, everything makes sense to you man. But then he realised that wasn't true.
Since the op left, hell, since he had left Trenton, he had been confused. Steph wasn't the same after breaking up with Morelli, she wasn't upset, but then again, she wasn't over-the-moon happy either.
So Ranger had pulled back, not wanting to be her rebound fuck. He loved her, wanted to be there for her, but he didn't want to be used by her. Then there was the mess in Miami, even before he left there was a mountain of shit that needed to be sorted through and that had made him a bastard for a few weeks.
"Mr Manoso, have you thought about what I said?"
How can I think when you've got me so full of drugs? "I'm not going to tell you."
The man in the door laughed, "Mr Manoso, you and I both know that this would be easier if you gave me the information I want."
"Yes, I might be, but I don't want you to have it."
"Ah, this stubbornness must go, I really must have this information." With a nod from the man, several other came forward from the shadows, a needle was injected into Ranger and he began to feel pain, then slowly it faded into nothing…not unconsciousness but not awareness.
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Stephs POV
Steph cradles her head in her hands, unable to think of anything but Ranger. She missed him. She reached for the photo he had sent her and looked at him, again, for the 10th time that day.
Unable to hold them back she cried, big heaving sobs, desperate for his touch, his voice; but all she had was memories.
In the control room the boys all froze when they first heard the sobs coming from Stephs cubby. They looked at each other, none of them trying to hide the looks of naked panic that were on each of their faces. Not one of them wanted to deal with a crying woman; that was just scary; it was a job that deserved combat pay.
Finally, after a few minutes Lester ventured in to her cubby. He saw the photo and recognised Ranger. Then it hit him, Steph wasn't being hormonal or even irrational, she just missed him.
Except there was nothing 'just' about her tears, they were coming think and fast and Steph doubted they would ever stop.
"Steph, honey, it's gonna be ok, u gotta believe that, yer?"
"Les, you don't understand, I love him and I never told him, I thought that I would have forever and now…"
Lester scoped Steph up and carried her through the control room to the lift. He punched in the number for Steph's apartment and just held her while she cried.
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So that's chapter 4, I hope you like it, tell if u think the rating needs to change or wateva, u can flame but try n b sublt bout it.
BTW, im aussie so I REFUSE to use the words "cell phone" it will be known as a mobile, moby or simply phone.
Also, a figure-four wrist lock is a lock using both ur hands and the victims wrist, ive seen someone break a wrist using this, so I no first hand that its real.
also also, I still have no idea were this is going to again, tell me wat should happen!
izi xoxo