Ranger pushed my wheelchair into court. Kai, Grant, Eduardo, and my parents were following us, and we all seated ourselves in the area for the spectators. Lindsay and Angus and the children were looking after my grandmother. I thought, out of all of us, Lindsay and Angus were given the challenging job of the day.
My name is Stephanie Plum, and I am the Executive Vice-President of Research and Investigative Services for Rangeman. While we had fifty thousand security guards on staff around the world, they were a screen for what we really did. Our more secret functions were the design of high-end security systems, those that would be used for public spaces like the Louvre and the United Nations buildings; the provision of highly-trained bodyguards; the development of the best cybersecurity measures on two continents; the provision of military tactical teams and the provision of spies, both to support governmental bodies; and finally, my area – research. Through our secret work, we were a fundamental part of the security programs of many countries in North America and Europe. We were well-respected and excelled at what we did, and because of that we were well paid and were a multibillion-dollar company.
A few months before, we had been looking at buying the Castle Force company from Colin Stewart. He was a good man and we got along well with him, and we adopted him into our family just as much as he adopted us into his. Unfortunately, he was dying and, since he was wealthy and didn't care about money, he gave his company to Ranger. He gave me the castle that he had bought for his family fifty years before, and seventy-five billion pounds. He said that I was the closest thing to a daughter that he'd ever had, and he wanted to make sure that I understood how important I was to him, how much of a difference I had made to his life, and how happy I had made him. He had made me happy as well, and when he died, I was shattered. He was a good man and I greatly missed him.
When we came to Scotland to see Colin one last time and to formally take over the company, I was still recovering from a hysterectomy and a severe case of pneumonia. With all the work to take over Castle Force, I was exhausted and the pneumonia was coming back, and Kai ordered me off work before I became sicker. Kai was a Rangeman doctor and Julie's, my stepdaughter, boyfriend. He had accompanied us partly to keep an eye on me, and partly so that we wouldn't be separating Julie from Kai during her summer holidays from university. She found it hard enough being separated from Kai during the weeks when she was in college.
Kai put me on sick leave for a month, and over that month I started to recover and get my energy back. Four days before I was to return to work part-time, I was attending a friend's graduation where there was a terrorist bombing. I ran to the site of the blast, saw someone on the floor hidden behind some knocked-over chairs, ran across the flaming floor to save him, and dragged him out of the auditorium. The good part was that I saved his life. The bad part was that I severely burned my feet, from my toes to my knees, as well as managed to come down with a chemical pneumonia and tore a muscle in my abdomen. The pneumonia was almost gone now. The muscle tear would take months to recover from. But it was the burns on my legs that were the real problem.
This all happened five weeks ago. About a week after I had been burned, my sister had come over from New Jersey and tried to prove that I was making up the burns by kicking me hard in the legs. She cut my leg severely, since there was no skin to protect the flesh. The wound had to be stitched, but while the cut had knit, the burn's healing had been set back weeks.
I had severe second-degree burns and some third-degree burns as well. Traditionally, five weeks later, a lot of healing should have happened – and that was true of my right leg. We had been consulting with a burn specialist, and he thought that I might not even have to have any grafting done on my right leg. However, my left leg? Because of Val kicking me and my recovery being pushed back weeks, it looked like I was going to need grafting done. The whole idea gave me the willies and I was trying not to think about it.
Also, because of everything that happened, my levels of anxiety and depression were through the roof. I'd had to increase my dosage of antidepressants and talk with Eduardo and Kai and Grant, another doctor, extensively. Eduardo was a soldier on one of our military tactical teams, but he was also a Trauma Counsellor and regularly worked with people suffering from PTSD. He was a talented therapist, and I was grateful that he didn't mind talking to me. Grant was the doctor on the tactical team that was supporting us, and he had been helping Kai care for my medical needs. I basically had Kai or Grant or Eduardo with me at all times and although it was a bit of overkill having Grant and Kai and Eduardo there constantly to support me, I was grateful for their assistance and attributed my recovery to them. They wouldn't let me give up, they were always there to talk to, and they had become true partners in my medical care.
I couldn't do it without them. But in truth, despite their help, I was struggling. Four months before I was in the fire, Ranger had been shot. It was a flesh wound and it didn't slow him down much, but I found it upsetting. Ranger and I had a great relationship, and it hit me that he could die when he went on a mission. Luckily, he didn't go on them often, but it really knocked me for a loop. I struggled with that, and then I almost died, and then I almost died again, and then a good friend died, and then I was in the fire and was in unbelievable pain. I had lots to talk about with Eduardo. Between the flashbacks and the nightmares and the pain and the fear and the grief, life had become crushing.
Going into court was a big thing. Val had been charged when she kicked me. It was a little charge and was more the principle of the thing rather than anything else. However, it was a big step for me to stand up and say that I didn't deserve to be assaulted or treated without compassion. It was a big step to fight back and know that it was okay.
It wasn't something that came naturally to me. I had traditionally taken a lot of crap, and thought it was my role in life to endure. However, that endurance meant that I had been assaulted and attacked, screamed at and taken advantage of. When Ranger and I got together, he didn't feel that I should have to take it and gave me both the confidence and the support to fight back. It took me a while. At first, when something went wrong, I expected Ranger to blow up at me, but with Ranger's patient and steady support, I learned that he would never yell at me or hit me, no matter what I did. That was important, because yelling and hitting were what my first husband did.
So, over time, I started to stick up for myself. My grandmother caused problems and with Ranger's support I put my foot down and told her that it wasn't acceptable. She had been spreading lies about our youngest daughter, lies that would have hurt Alix, and that was one of the first times that I said 'enough' and wouldn't accept or excuse her behaviour.
The next person I put my foot down with was my sister. I had taken her abuse for a long time. However, with Ranger's support I reported her behavior to the police, and she was charged with assault. She was furious and our mother was frustrated, but I didn't back down.
Not only did Ranger support me, but so did Colin. In the six weeks that I had known him, I talked to him every day, and I found his quiet belief in me gave me the confidence I needed to stand up for myself. He had given me his castle, and he told me that, whenever my sister gave me a hard time I could think to myself that I was so well-loved that he had given me a fucking castle. And it worked. Colin's steady belief in me meant that, when Val had kicked me, we'd had her arrested for assault. From what I understood, Val had been shocked by that. My parents, however, had been shocked by Val's treatment of me and had supported me in my practice of tough love. Val had been shocked by that as well.
It was still a big step for me to take Val to court. To give me courage, I was wearing my Black Shadow dress and the coordinating blazer that Lindsay had commissioned for me. The Black Shadow dress was a dress made of the Black Shadow tartan, a tartan composed of two different intensities of black. It was a tartan that Colin had designed for himself, and it was a tartan that I was proud to wear. I was still wearing gauze bandages on my legs. I wasn't up to wearing my black tights yet, although Kai had gently put my adaptive Mary Janes on to protect my feet a bit. But it was the dress that was giving me the courage I needed. I could almost hear Colin whispering in my ear that Val was out of line, and I was within my rights to stand as a witness to her poor behavior.
I was back to working half days but I hadn't done any of the training of the Castle Force staff. I had left the other Gurus, my team, doing that while I was doing some of the relationship building with Hal and Ranger. We were some of the top people at Rangeman. When we took over Castle Force, Ranger switched from being the President to being the President and CEO, Tank switched from being the Executive Vice-President to being the Chief Operating Officer, and Hal became the Executive Vice-President of Operations. I became the Executive Vice-President of Research and Investigative Services. I was in charge of both the North American and European divisions. I only took the job when Ranger promised me time to still research. The only difference is that although I still researched issues that local staff were struggling with, I now researched both North American and European issues.
While we were establishing relationships with both the European staff as well as our new clients, we had spent time with the head of MI6, the Chief of the Inverness Police Force, and Lili and her team – the people in charge of the research department in our European division. We had also spent time with Jock, the spymaster. We'd had dinner parties that Ranger had cooked for, and we'd met people at their places of business. We'd had a good time and, as my pain had become better controlled, we'd been able to relax and enjoy the people that we met.
Court started, and about two minutes after everyone sat down, Val and her ex-husband Steve came running in. "I'm sorry", said Val as she wobbled her way down to the front. "We got a little lost. Carry on."
I looked up at Ranger and sighed. Val was plastered.
The trial happened quickly. Val was given community time and the command to join AA. I could tell that Val wasn't happy about what had happened. With her main defense of not knowing I was really hurt, she had honestly thought that she would get off without any penalty.
After the trial, Steve and Val approached the rest of us. Immediately, Kai, Grant and Eduardo stood in a protective stance in front of me, and I knew that Ranger was watching carefully behind me, ready to move my wheelchair out of there at lightning speed if needed. "Hi, Val", I said. "Hi, Steve."
"Hey, baby sis", said Steve. "How are you feeling now?"
"It's a slow grind towards health", I said. "However, I'm getting there."
"Glad to hear it." I just looked at him and waited. "Val told me that you are living in a castle."
"Yes."
"I've always been interested in castles. I'd love to see it sometime."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Maybe tomorrow?"
I smiled. "I'm sorry. I'll be working tomorrow."
"Are you back at work then?" said Val with a smile.
"For a couple of hours a day. I still have to spend most of the day sleeping so that my body has the energy to grow new skin."
"We could come on the weekend", said Steve.
"Thanks, but we are having a few people over on the weekend."
Steve sighed. "Steph, be reasonable. I'm trying to make a reconciliation here. Won't you do your part? I'm extending an olive branch."
"You're extending an olive branch by inviting yourself into my house?"
"Val is broken up about what has happened."
"Good, then she won't do it again."
"I want to start again. Let's let Val and I start off on a fresh slate."
"Let me take that under advisement."
"Steph, baby sis, we're family and I would hate to see you break up the family over a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?"
"She didn't understand that you were hurt."
"So I was wrapped up like a mummy, being carried around, being knocked out just so that I could deal with the pain, being hospitalized, having two doctors in my room pretty well constantly – and that was all for…what? What possible benefit would there be in pretending to be hurt?"
"You would get more attention. I know that you always had a problem with that when Val and I were dating."
"In your dreams. Is that why you hit on me?"
"That only happened twice."
"Yeah. The second time I nailed you and made sure that you never did it again."
"You had to. Dickie was coming."
"Dickie would have been excited and wanted to participate."
"Yeah, he was a good guy."
"You think? I don't. He is now in jail and will be for another year."
"We all get caught sometimes."
"I see. Are you on your way back to the States now?"
"We thought we'd hang out with you, spend some time re-establishing family ties."
"Not in this lifetime."
"What do you have against me?"
"I don't have anything against you, other than you are a slimy oversexed rat who likes to try to rape people. But I do have a lot against Val. She is an abusive self-entitled brat who believes the world should cater to her, who believes that she should not have to work for a living, and who believes that everyone else should bow to her magnificence. And you know what? Life doesn't work that way. So why don't you and Val leave, and when you have learned that lesson you can come back, and maybe, maybe, I'll have time for you again."
Steve stared at me for a couple of seconds as he regained his stance. "I don't remember you being so hard."
"I've grown up since I last saw you."
Steve smiled and ran his eyes up and down my body. "Hell yeah, you have."
I sighed.
Steve looked at me. "Steph, accept it. You don't speak for your whole family. We will become a part of your family again." He smiled. "I know you want me."
"Keep dreaming. It's not going to happen."
Steve smiled, and he reached out to touch me. Immediately, Eduardo pushed him back. Steve smiled again. "So much fire. I'll come when you don't have your goons around you." He turned and sauntered out of the courtroom, and he captured Val's hand as he walked away.
I rolled my eyes and did a full-body shiver. "Let's go home", I said.
