Chapter 5

Ranger's POV

Jeanne Ellen and I got stuck in the hellhole of the Cortez camp. I had the urge to grab Jeanne and run. Something had happened, and neither Jeanne Ellen nor I could determine what had changed. The men ran around the camp shouting orders to eliminate anyone not directly related to Juan and Maribella Cortez.

"Let's go!" I ordered, grabbing Jeanne Ellen's arm.

She shook me off, snarling, "Stop overreacting, Marc." Even angry, Jeanne remembered to use our undercover names.

"Fine! Stay! I don't care what you do, but I'm leaving," I said before grabbing my duffle. I hooked the straps over my shoulder before leaving the shack. Leaving her behind went against all my instincts as a Ranger. I always made sure my men got out before me. Jeanne Ellen was screaming out the door, giving away my plan to escape into the woods. Realizing her mistake, she ran out the door to follow me as the guards opened fire. I felt the bullet rip through my shoulder, piercing through the Kevlar I always wore beneath my shirt.

As I fell from the impact, I saw a space beneath a fallen tree, large enough for me to hide. I crawled into the hole, happy to see it concealed me from the men in the dark. The scuffling of feet alerted me to their close proximity. I took deep, slow breaths to prevent them from uncovering my hideaway.

A few minutes later, I heard them return to the camp. All seemed quiet until Jeanne Ellen shouted, "Please, stop. I'll tell you whatever you want to know." Her screams got cut short seconds before I heard the gunshot. I would need to determine if she survived before returning home. Her family deserved closure if she died. Exhaustion took its toll on me. I could barely keep my eyes open.

To keep myself awake, thoughts wandered to Stephanie, Babe. She deserved better treatment than what I gave her. Babe, my love, my life, gone forever because I couldn't be honest with her. If Babe knew I was married, she never would have slept with me or agreed to the deal. All the times I covered my secret by saying my life didn't lend itself to relationships.

What have I done? Stephanie Plum is the only woman I have ever loved, and she is lost to me forever. I should never have made the deal before divorcing Jeanne Ellen. Tank had warned me that my arrogance would cost me everything. I'm lying in the ground, partially buried under a tree, dying. I fell asleep, willing god to have mercy on me and end my life.

I felt my satellite phone vibrate beneath my hip. Channelling all the strength I could muster, I reached into my pocket to answer the call. "Abort mission. I repeat, abort the mission. A rescue team will arrive soon. Go into the woods. We will find you in two hours," my handler said before disconnecting the call. I set my alarm to vibrate in one hour, fifty-five minutes when I would use my panic button to track my location. My rescuers wouldn't know to hack the device.

"Babe, I'm sorry," I whispered as I waited for the Rangers to rescue me. Marrying Jeanne Ellen Burrows to secure my cover was the biggest mistake of my life. I vowed to tell Stephanie she had a brother.

Lester's POV

My contract had ended over six months ago, but my handler still called me for assistance. It appears Ranger and Jeanne Ellen bit off more than they could chew. However, I wasn't surprised. Ranger usually ran his own intel before agreeing to an undercover mission, but he didn't this time. He probably felt returning to the Cortez camp would be like a walk in a park. It was a mission with a high probability of success. Jeanne Ellen never completed thorough searches. She was arrogant and felt her femininity would give her all the answers she needed. I was thankful that Ranger never hired her for Rangeman. He discussed it with Tank, Bobby and me, but we never wanted that woman working with the men. She was a piranha.

I was furious when I saw the expression on Stephanie's face the day she learned Ranger had married Jeanne Ellen. Tank was the only Rangeman employee to know Ranger was legally married to the slut. Bobby and I, as Rangeman co-owners, were supposed to know these details about the core team members. I was close to selling my shares to the company I helped build. Bobby and Tank talked me out of that decision.

Now I'm being asked to help save the asshole who broke Stephanie's heart and his fucking wife, Jeanne Ellen. I agreed, provided I got to select my team. General Palmer gave me carte blanc to complete my six-man group. "Marco Barker, Charlie Evans, Michael Ramsey, Tito Pattinson, and Zito Zeromsky," I said, hoping he'd grant my request.

"I can let you take Ram, Slick and Zero, but Barker and Evans had just returned from a mission a few days ago. You need to select another two men," Parker countered. Of course Barker and Evans just got back. It made me wonder if that's why Ranger and Jeanne Ellen's mission went south.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my spiked hair as I thought about who to add. "Robert Brown and Manuel Ramos," I stated. I was going to ask for Hawk, but if Charlie had just returned from a mission, it was likely that Hawk had too. Those two men were thicker than thieves. They ran missions together for the past five years. I hoped Bobby wouldn't get mad. He hasn't run a special op in over a year. Bobby was the first of us to refuse a new Ranger contract.

"Request granted. I'll fax over the contracts. Please, return them within fifteen minutes. Time is vital to Ranger's survival," Parker said.

As Parker faxed the paperwork, I had gathered my team. "Why am I going with you?" Bobby asked. "I'm needed here."

"I have a feeling Ranger got injured. We need your help as our medic," I replied. Bobby nodded and signed his agreement. I wasn't surprised when the others quickly followed without asking for more information. The Trenton Rangeman employees knew everything about Stephanie's escape from Trenton and who had triggered her flight. Without giving them an order, my team assembled on the roof. We waited for our helicopter to fly us to the airfield to catch our plane.

The flight on the Army cargo plane took a sombre tone. Each man said they listed Stephanie as their beneficiary if they died during our mission. I grimaced before saying, "I did too. If all of us die, Stephanie would have more money than she could spend."

"Why couldn't we have Marco Barker, Charlie Evans or Hawk?" Ram asked.

"They returned from a mission a few days ago," I replied. It went without saying that their contracts stipulated a mandatory two-week break between special ops deployments.

"I thought your contract ended," Zero added.

"It did. If the army asked me to lead the rescue team, the situation must be dire," I stated. The men nodded, understanding that we would play it by ear. We received authorization to eliminate any threat we may encounter.

"So… we're flying by the seat of our pants?" Manny asked.

"Yes," I replied. I could see Manny was excited by the news. Manny loved playing by his own rules. So did I, which is why I got assigned as the leader for this mission. It wasn't the first time we had got dropped into the centre of a war zone. My phone vibrated as we neared the drop location. "Yo."

"Les, it's Steph. Ranger is in the woods, hiding under a fallen tree," Stephanie said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Um. I had a dream. Ranger said, "Babe, I'm sorry," before closing his eyes. I think Jeanne is dead, but you'll have to check. Her family wants her body brought home," Stephanie answered.

"What direction from the camp?" I asked.

I heard her whispering to someone in the background before she replied, "Ten meters to the south."

"How?"

"Lester, I'll text you the coordinates. I can't tell you how I know. Please, Les. Ranger may have broken my heart, but he's still my friend. Always have someone watching your back," Stephanie said before hanging up. I received the message with the promised coordinates within a few seconds.

Bobby saw the message appear on my phone. "Excellent," Bobby said, sounding eerily like Mr. Burns on the Simpsons. Bobby must be binge-watching the Simpsons episodes during his downtime.

"We still need to locate Burrows. Stephanie said her family would want her body brought home," I said.

"Do you think she's dead?" Zero asked.

"If Stephanie thinks she's dead, Burrows is dead," I replied. I trusted Stephanie's instinct. Her spidey sense saved my life numerous times. Ignoring her would not bode well for this mission.

"I want to know how she got your sat number," Slick stated.

"Does she know Barker?" Zero asked.

"I don't know. Barker is Delta Force, so I doubt their paths would have crossed," Ram answered. I never thought to ask how Stephanie got the number. Only my army superiors had access to the information.

Stephanie's POV

I ended the call with Lester, hoping he wasn't angry at me for getting his satellite phone number from my Uncle Sam. Marco wrapped his arms around me when he saw me chewing on my lower lip. "Lester will understand, Steph," Marco said.

"He might. Uncle Sam said I had to relay the message myself. I do hope they arrive in time," I replied. "Ranger's going to be angry when he learns we hacked into his panic button. How did you know he'd have one?"

"Every mission since Ranger met you, he carried a panic button," he said. "I got the numbers from our Uncle Sam." Marco pulled me to the kitchen. He placed me in front of the counter and pulled a mixing bowl from the cupboard. "I know how to make you feel better." If anyone else had heard his words, they would assume it was something sexual. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Marco's my brother, not a love interest.

I wondered what he meant until he pulled flour, sugar, cocoa and baking powder from the cupboard. He went to the refrigerator to grab the milk, butter and eggs. I watched him pull the measuring spoons and cups from the drawer. Marco reached into the cupboard above my head to grab the hand mixer. "Isn't it too late to be baking a Chocolate cake?"

"With fudge icing. To answer your question, no, it is not too late," Marco replied.

A few hours later, the cake was baked, cooled and frosted. It was the best chocolate fudge cake I had ever tasted. "Oh my gosh. So good," I moaned.

"Better than Ella?" he asked.

"Yup. She's an amazing cook, but all of your cooking is better," I confessed. Marco took my compliment as the highest praise it was. He had heard from his Rangeman friends that Ella was a stellar cook.

"You're good for my ego, sis," Marco said as he messed up my hair.

"And you're bad for my waistline," I said as I grabbed another piece of cake. Marco laughed and grabbed a slice for himself. "Do you mind if I call Tank?"

"Nope," he replied as he gave me his phone.

I dialled the familiar number and waited for the answer. "Yo," Tank sleepily answered.

"Hey, Tank. I'm sorry for calling so late, but I'm feeling antsy," I confessed.

"Little girl, it's nice to hear your voice," Tank said, his voice sounding deeper. I felt my face flush from the sexy deep tone.

"You've got it bad," Marco whispered before giving me privacy. I did have it bad. My gentle giant never lied or misdirected me when I asked a question. I could always count on him to be honest.

Tank's POV

I heard a man whisper to Stephanie. His voice was familiar. It took me a few minutes to realize where I'd heard that voice before. Before I changed my mind, I asked, "Was that Barker?"

"Nope," Stephanie said. "Nobody by the name of Barker here." I could tell there was something she was neglecting to say.

Instead of calling her on the obvious misdirection, I asked, "Why are you antsy?"

"Oh my goodness. I'm sorry for calling so late, Tank. You probably have to work early in the morning," Stephanie replied.

"Little girl," I said, trying to interrupt her. Stephanie kept muttering about being a disrespectful friend by calling me at one am when I must have just got to sleep. "Stephanie!" I barked. She instantly stopped talking. "When I can't get settled for the night, I use the punching bag in the gym."

"Oh. Well, I had too much cake tonight," Stephanie confessed. I had to laugh.

"Why did you eat so much?" I wondered, hoping she'd give me more information.

"Duh! Because it was chocolate with fudge icing," she sarcastically replied. Stephanie muttered some more. I heard her say the cake was better than Ella's, and it was healthy.

"What's on your mind that's making you antsy, assuming it wasn't from overdosing on chocolate cake?" I asked, quickly changing tactics. I could hear Stephanie start and stop her conversation. It was as though she was having problems organizing her thoughts.

My patience paid off when she finally said, "I'm worried about Ranger."

"He's fine, Little girl. Ranger is fine. He's been gone this long before," I said. I didn't want to tell her that Santos gathered a team to rescue Ranger and Jeanne Ellen.

"Tank, don't patronize me," Stephanie snapped. "Ranger is not fine. He's in danger, and I think his wife is dead. I know they sent a team to rescue him. Who do you think gave his coordinates to Santos after hacking into his panic button? Shit."

I was dumbfounded how Stephanie knew so much about the mission to rescue Ranger. Her exclamation at the end indicated she gave away too much information. "Talk," I ordered. I had to find out how much Stephanie knew about the mission.

She exhaled and exchanged a muted conversation with someone on her end. "Tank, can I call you back? I have to get clearance before telling you anything else," Stephanie said. She hung up as soon as I told her yes.

Stephanie called back thirty minutes later. "Little girl, what is going on?" I asked.

The man replied, "My name is Marco Plum. You may have known me as Marco Barker. I'm Stephanie's twin brother." I think my jaw hit the floor as Marco and Stephanie told me about their activities during the past few months.