Chapter 38

At ten the next morning it was Les who was helping me out of the back of the taxi.

"Beautiful, you'd look sexy in a cloth sack"

I looked down at what I was wearing definitely not feeling sexy at all. I had plain black shoes on with a low heel, thick black stockings, a pleated plaid skirt that went below my knee and some sort of blouse that went up to my neck. All of that underneath a plain black woolen coat. I'd managed to plaster my hair to my head so none of my curls showed and then pulled it into a bun at the back of my head. To finish off the look I had powdered my face to an inch of its life and wore black rimmed glasses. I felt that I looked like my mother, not a pretty sight.

As Les passed me a walking stick, I was close to hitting him with it as I saw him trying to hide the smile on his face. Walking into the shop I had to admit that I was struck by the displays that I saw. I didn't think that I'd seen so much expensive jewelry all in one place before. It was arranged according to the type of stone being used so of course I was drawn to the sapphires. It made me wonder if the pieces that Gaia had given to me were real.

"Yes, they're all real Babe"

I knew the jewels in front of me were real, but I wasn't thinking about what was here in the shop.

"I was thinking about the jewelry that Gaia gave to me"

"So was I"

I turned, I'm sure surprise showing on my face because I had no idea that Carlos had got around to having them looked at.

"Come on, Mr Friedman is downstairs waiting for us"

As we moved away from the glass cases I noticed the woman behind the counter watching us so made sure that I kept to my role of an older woman.

"Mr Friedman asked me to escort Mrs. Pardo downstairs so she could see her jewelry"

Was the explanation that Carlos gave to her as we walked past her and through the door.

"Who is she?"

I wasn't sure that Carlos knew who she was but there was something about her that had my spidey senses tingling. As we went down the stairs, I was wracking my brains trying to figure out why she had that effect on me.

"Ah, Mr Manoso. I have those records that you asked for. There was only one case of jewelry in the shop, all of the others were wanted for the weekend"

I peeked around Carlos as Mr Freidman showed him the information, surprised at whose name I was reading.

"Gloria Juniak? Joe Juniak's wife?"

"Err, yes, the governor's wife"

I knew Gloria, I had done for years. She'd been born and raised in the Burg and had married Joe after dating him in high school. He'd started off life as a policeman and worked his way up into the role that he had now, yet he always had time to stop and talk.

"What did she leave here?"

Mr Freidman turned the page over to reveal a photograph of a necklace filled with emeralds and the matching bracelet and earrings.

"She asked for them to be cleaned for an event the following weekend"

Looking at the size of the emeralds they certainly looked to be expensive and would probably be worth stealing.

"Where would they have been kept over the weekend?"

"Inside the vault but I checked everything out and nothing was missing, Mrs. Juniak collected them the following week"

While the two men walked into the vault I stayed outside and looked around. The area was well lit with worktables covered in green felt with only trays containing tools laid out on the surfaces. The place was really tidy which I suppose was necessary to ensure the integrity of the work that was done here. I stepped into the corner away from the brightness of the lights so that I could see what was above me, and that was when I heard footsteps on the stairs. I was really hoping that I was well hidden in the shadows as the woman from upstairs appeared. I watched her carefully as her eyes went to a section of the ceiling above the stairs and then as she heard voices coming from the vault. I knew that I couldn't move without being seen and was hoping that she wasn't going to walk into the vault, if she did then she would know that I wasn't inside.

That she turned around and went back up the stairs surprised and also confused me. What was she up to because her behavior seemed a little odd to me. I stepped out from the corner as I saw Mr Freidman walk out of the vault so decided to ask him a few questions. I had no idea what Carlos had told him about me.

"Who is allowed down here?"

"My wife helps me in the afternoons which allows me the time to meet clients with special requests. I work down here in the morning and if neither of us are down here then the door is locked"

"Didn't Clive Robinson manage to open the door into the vault?"

I could tell that Mr Freidman was embarrassed about that as he tried to come up with an explanation.

"I don't know for sure, maybe he managed to get a mold of the key and had one cut. Your man had the locks changed and a touch pad added so that it couldn't happen again"

Which meant that no one could have been down here since the break in. I needed to tell Carlos about the woman but to do that I wanted Mr Freidman out of the way.

"I thought I heard your assistant shouting for you while you were in the vault"

I smiled sweetly as I told Mr Freidman that little fib, but it worked a treat and the man was soon leaving us alone.

"The vault is immaculate inside with no places to hide anything. What have you seen Babe?

"The woman from the shop came part way down the stairs but she was looking at a section in the ceiling, just there, where the light fixture is, above the seventh step up"

I pointed to where I meant and watched as Carlos pulled out a flashlight and went up the steps. He was tall enough to be able to reach the ceiling and began to look around the light fitting. I was curious as he started to twist away the mounting that was against the ceiling and as it slid down the cable.

"Hold the flashlight"

I was right below him and took the flashlight as he used both hands not surprised when he carefully pulled down a black cloth. As he handed me the cloth, I could feel something inside it, then as he stood by my side, he carefully unfolded the cloth while I shone the light onto it. Surprise, surprise, we were looking at jewelry that was identical to Gloria Juniak's.

"Good call Babe. Keep these in your bag"

I opened my bag where he slipped the jewelry inside and then waited as he reached up and replaced the cloth back where he found it and refixed the mounting back in place. I wanted to ask if he was going to tell Mr Freidman but a finger across my lips told me not to say a word.

I was grateful that we were let out through the back door because I didn't want to be seen by that woman again. I had no idea how she was involved but since she knew of the hiding spot then she must have been. Les was waiting for us outside so we were soon driving away from the area, which I had to admit had me breathing easier.

"How will we know if what we have are real or not?"

I asked as I held my bag to my chest as though I needed to guard it with my life.

"I know someone"

Was the only answer that I got because Carlos was engrossed in a conversation with Les. What I didn't expect was the route that Les was taking, then again maybe the backstreets would throw off the likelihood of us being followed. I had no idea though where we were when the taxi suddenly turned down an alley and came to a stop as a garage door opened. Once inside the garage lights lit up the area around us and I was looking out of the window at a selection of cars. To me it looked like a workshop where cars were repaired and seeing Louis stand up and come over to us I realized that maybe I was right.

"We use these cars for undercover work, so we'll swap out the taxi"

I heard from Ranger as he opened his door and then opened the door for me. I wasn't sure what was happening but was sure that Carlos had a plan. Maybe I should have realized where we were because I was led to an elevator that somehow felt familiar. Knowing that we were in Rangeman I stayed in the elevator and headed up to seven needing to use the bathroom and to clean off the gunk from my face. While I was there, I changed into cargos and a dark blue sweater before untangling my hair and pulling it back into a ponytail. I had a thick padded jacket, a bag with the phone in and the gun that Carlos had insisted that I took with me to the jewelers and a wooly hat for when we left again.

Once on five I went straight to Carlos's office, knocking softly before letting myself in. There was a man sat at the table with a magnifying glass looking at the jewelry that we'd found. The man ignored me but I couldn't help but feel that I'd seen him before, a man in his forties with slicked back hair and sharp features.

"These are fakes Ranger. Someone has done a very good job, but they've skimped on the clasps holding the main emerald in place and the color, it doesn't highlight the facets as a real emerald would"

He replaced the pieces back in the bag, tucked his magnifying glass in his pocket and stood up from the table facing Carlos who was stood in front of his desk. No words were spoken as Carlos handed him a bundle of notes before the man left the room. So now we knew that the jewelers was targeted for Gloria's emeralds but it also left a question about the woman. As I walked over to Carlos, he handed me a file that had the name of the store at the top. As I started to read through the pages, I realized that these were the searches that someone had done on the business and employees, so was looking for the face of the woman that I'd seen.

"She's not in there. I asked Freidman about her when we were inside the vault and was told that she's been helping out since the break in and they lost Robinson as an employee. According to Freidman her usual job is managing charity events for the rich and famous out of New York City"

A job like that would give her access to who was attending and no doubt she would assume that a lot of the women would want their jewelry to be perfect. Was that how the Lando brothers knew who to target?

"What's the agency that she works for?"

I watched as he smiled and pushed himself away from the desk and moved until he was directly in front of me. Just doing that had my heart beating faster and me automatically locking my arms around his neck and moving my mouth to his. His hands on my hips lifted me until I wrapped my legs around him, very aware of exactly how he was being affected as well. I could never get enough of him, the feel of his body pressed next to mine had a moan escape from my lips. Even I was aware of the sound of someone knocking on the door and it was him who moaned as he pulled away.

"You have no idea the effect that you have on me"

I was pretty sure that I did and knew that he was no less happy with the interruption than I was.

"Enter"

Was his next word as he dropped me to the floor and we turned to see who was there. It wasn't just Hector who walked in, it was Les, Tank and Bobby which had me worrying why they all felt that it was necessary to be here.

"A good result. I have a name for the owner of the company where that woman worked, Edgar Landon"

"They have a warehouse on the north side of Trenton, listed as a printing factory"

"And their finances are coming through as low budget"

To say that I was surprised that the guys were already onto that company was an understatement. Sheesh, they'd moved fast. Carlos just took it in his stride as though he that was exactly what he'd wanted so maybe he'd given one of them the heads up when we were at the store.

I listened as the guys gave their enthusiastic news and agreed that what they'd learnt seemed promising but was waiting for what they were going to suggest that we did now. What worried me was that there was no mention of the older brother, Eldrich. Maybe their personalities were similar now to how I remembered. Two brothers who were totally different, Edgar, the quieter one, the thinker and the planner whereas Eldrich had always been the one who was louder, rougher and had that cold look about him. It had me wondering which one of them I'd seen and had locked me up and it also had me remembering that he'd called me by my full name. That had never occurred to me before now.

"Let's get some teams watching the place. We need to establish if anyone is there or using it"

I was just hoping that they hadn't been tipped off by that woman at the jewelers because they could so easily disappear and never be found again. I sat on the couch as the men planned everything out, the teams that they would use and the rotas. I was at a loss as to what my role would be now, so I felt a bit redundant as I listened. Maybe I could look through the information again that had been collected but again I wasn't sure if I'd find anything more of importance. The search that I'd set up on family and properties would be finished but would probably be redundant now.

Feeling the mobile that Carlos had lent to me vibrating in my bag next to me I stood up and walked from the office to answer it somewhere quieter. The id on the screen said that it was my father so maybe I could fill him in on what we'd managed to find out.

"Ciao, Stefania"

I leant against the wall as the realization of whose voice I had heard hit me. How was Allegro calling me on this phone and why was it my father's id that had come up?

"I never expected that you would be so stubborn Stefania. You should have walked away when you had the chance"

She obviously hadn't taken the information that she'd found on me seriously because if she had then she would know that I would never walk away, and neither would Carlos.

"What do you want Allegro?"

Because I couldn't work out why she would be calling me if she didn't want to be found.

"Eddie and I want to walk away from this"

That surprised me because I hadn't considered that she was involved with him.

"I thought that you said that your romance was over, that your boyfriend saw you as some bimbo that he thought he could lure with his good looks"

"That relationship was just as I said, amica, but his younger brother, well he's different"

I could hear the change in Allegro's voice as she spoke about Edgar which implied to me that Allegro had met Eldrich first, and he hadn't treated her very well.

"What about his older brother, does he want to walk away as well?"

I don't know why said that, maybe to annoy her or to find out if the three of them were together.

"Well played, Stefania. I told Eldrich that you'd work it out. So let's cut the crap shall we. Yes, your father is okay, for now, but Eldrich isn't a patient man"

I heard the blood rushing through my ears at what she had said, understanding now why she had called but what she thought I could do to help them escape was lost on me. Whatever they wanted though I'd do it because I had to get my father away from them and to safety.

"What do you want?"

"A plane would be good"

I'm sure I laughed as she said that, more from nervousness and fear for my father.

"I don't have a plane or access to one"

"You are going to collect and bring something to us. It's a box, a very ornate box, that contains passports and money, oh and I want something that belongs to me"

"Why not collect it yourself"

I couldn't imagine where a box would be that they couldn't collect it themselves and how did they think that I would be able to.

"Okay, listen carefully. When Eldrich was arrested, he gave that uomo squallido a box to hold against his bail. That is what you need to collect and bring to me, oh, and I want the sapphire jewelry because those are mine. You'll be watched and if at any time a man in black is seen or I think that you're being followed then dear papa will start to feel some excruciating pain. That goes for those gorgeous men in black as well, especially that hunk Ranger, or else bang, bang no more. I'll call you when you have the box. Comprendere?"

"I don't"

I was going to say that I didn't have the sapphires, but the phone call was disconnected. I pushed the pad to call it back but the sound that came through sounded as though my father's phone had been turned off or maybe even destroyed. I stood motionless, still leant against the wall, not knowing what to do. Okay, I knew that I had to get that box because I had to do everything that I could to make sure that my father was rescued and not hurt. But I also knew that I had to move away from the corridor because if Carlos saw me now, he'd know that something was wrong. I wanted so much to tell him what had happened, but I was scared of what would happen to my father if they found out.

Once in the apartment all that I could do was to pace the room as all sorts of ideas went through my head. Every scenario that I came up with took me back to the same answer. I just couldn't do this on my own without help, yet if I mentioned the problem to any of the Rangemen then they were sure to tell Carlos. If I heard right, then if Allegro suspected that they knew, not only would they hurt my father, she'd go after the Rangemen and Carlos as well. There was only one option that I could go for.

I waited for an hour after Carlos and the teams had left the building, before I even considered making my escape. I debated what to wear and decided against combat trousers going with my normal look of jeans, sweater and a pair of boots. I didn't want anyone to think that I was preparing for doing anything, though that didn't stop me from adding some well hidden weapons. Hopefully no one would even think that I would be armed with anything other than what was in my bag. Carlos had spent his time with the men in the conference room going through maps and plans ensuring that every contingency was planned for. They had every piece of equipment checked and double checked including the comms that they'd be linked into through Rangeman. The only time that he dropped his guard was when he finally came to find me on seven. I think that he was so keyed up for what they were doing that he never noticed how nervous I was, or maybe he did and put it down to me being nervous about him. I knew that they'd used the usual Rangeman vehicles because I'd sat with Hal on five and watched as they'd left the garage. I hated to do it to Hal again, but I had to leave the building.

"I'm going to head upstairs Hal. I'll get nervous if I have to sit here just waiting"

"No problem, Steph. Do you need anything from me?"

I was looking at the screens as Hal asked me that, wondering how I could use the elevator without him realizing where I was going.

"No. While I'm here, take advantage and go get yourself something from the breakroom, I'll watch the screens for you"

It was the only plan that I could come up with, so I was hoping that the new guy watching his screens a few feet away wasn't watching what I was about to do. I'd worked here enough times in the past that I knew how to change which cameras were shown on the screens.

The elevator was out so I went with the stairs swapping out the lower level basement stairs for the ones between six and seven and then I swapped out the cameras in that back garage for ones at the rear of the front garage. I was just hoping that it would work and if Hal noticed then I'd already be on my way.