Chapter 19

SPOV

As I woke, I was surprised to see the fire burning brightly making me think that maybe I hadn't been asleep that long. Ranger's head was just in front of me and I could see that he was sat on the floor working on his laptop. His head was so close I almost reached out to touch the silky hair as it fell down to his shoulder. I must have made a sound because his face was suddenly looking at me.

"Don't stop working because of me"

I said feeling guilty that he was spending time here with me instead of being at Rangeman.

"What if I said that I wanted to stop working?"

I saw the way that he gave me a half smile as though teasing me, reminding me of the times that I'd tried my best to get him to relax and leave his work for another day. For once I didn't know what to say, so didn't say anything, feeling a little embarrassed as he continued to look at me.

"It's a report from Hector, basically saying that he has nothing to report"

I was silent again probably trying to digest the fact that Ranger had given me information on what he was doing. He never did that.

"Hector's working with a couple of employees who are used to working surveillance and enjoy some of the equipment Hector's letting them use"

"Oh"

Now I was really confused with where Ranger was taking this, then again, I had no idea what Ranger had uncovered while I'd been missing.

"We've brought down two employees from Boston, Jayce and Tali. You met Tali at the zoo. She's good at her job but very overpowering and tries to dictate how things should happen, which is why she works out of Boston and not here at Trenton"

I wasn't too sure why he was telling me that but from how he spoke it didn't sound as though he had much time for her. Had that been what I'd heard outside of that room at Rangeman, Tali trying to dictate what should happen or had she been genuinely concerned that I should be at a safe house for Rangeman's protection as much as mine?

"What happened at the station Babe?"

I stared back at Ranger as I tried to remember. There were odd flashes of memory that came to me but to be honest there didn't seem to be a coherent memory.

"I, I don't know. I knew I had to go there and to be honest I was scared about what would happen but from stepping foot inside, it all seems so blurred"

"You were panicked Babe. Hanley thought that you'd gone into shock"

"Hanley?"

I had no recollection of anyone with that name, was he a police officer?

"He's your lawyer, he was with you at the station and then again when you went in front of the judge"

Maybe he was the quiet spoken man, the one who had seemed so kind to me. But if I'd been in court then did that mean that I'd been charged? I started to shake as the enormity of what had happened struck me. Did that mean that I was out on bail? But who would pay that and how much would it have been?

"Babe, it's okay. Hanley is very good at his job. The court date is set for four weeks time and by then we'll have cleared your name"

That just made things worse, I mean, I had no money. What I had would barely cover the rent on my apartment.

"But I can't afford a lawyer and oh god, the bail money"

"Babe, it's dealt with"

This was way beyond anything that Ranger had done for me before, okay his Porsche that got blown up and flattened might have been in the same league as far as cost was concerned. I'd have to pay him back, even if it was small amounts at a time. But then the rest of his words came back to me, court date, what if I ended up in prison? As my breathing increased, I felt my head being pushed down and a slow circling movement over my back.

"Breathe Babe, breathe in as slowly, deeply and gently as you can, through your nose. Breathe out slowly, deeply and gently through your mouth"

Yeah right, that was easier said than done and it didn't seem to be stopping the little black dots from appearing in front of my eyes.

"Count from one to five on each in-breath and each out-breath, close your eyes and focus on your breathing"

My eyes were already closed but instead of focusing on my breathing I focused on the sound of Ranger's voice as he counted from one to five over and over again. It actually worked and the dizziness that had threatened to take over slowly subsided from my head until I felt that I was breathing normally. I lifted my head back up and knew that I had to get a control of myself. What the hell was I doing? I'd been responsible for walking into that police station so now I had to make sure that spending any time in prison never happened.

"Babe, what were you thinking that made that happen?"

"That I could end up in prison"

The small laugh emanating from his chest made me sit up and turn to look at Ranger. What did he find so funny?

"Not going to happen Babe. If Hanley can't get the charges withdrawn, then I'll take us somewhere where no one would ever find us"

Replying to that was a nonstarter as I looked into his face. He wasn't smiling anymore, and the intensity of his look had me wonder if he was actually telling me the truth. He must have a lot of faith in Hanley to tell me that he would make us both disappear. It also meant that I had to get my head in gear and start to fight for my innocence as well.

"I need to get back to what I was trying to do before, I'm sure somewhere in all the stuff I have there's a key to unlocking all this trouble that seems to be happening"

"There's my Babe, I wondered how long you'd stay hidden away for"

I lifted my arm and mock punched him on his arm, probably hurting myself more than him but it did bring a small smile to my face. I had to get my priorities right. Get rid of the problems that were in my life first and then decide what to do.

"Ranger, what evidence do the police have that have them convinced that it was me who shot Charlie?"

"The bullet pulled out of Charlie matches your gun which had your fingerprints on it"

"My gun?"

How was my gun involved, hell I never carried my gun. Had someone broken into my apartment and stolen it?

"It's in my cookie jar"

"It was found in your bag in the house"

I just shook my head as he said that, it couldn't have been, I'd know if my gun had been in my bag because it would have been me that would have put it there and I never ever carried my gun, I hated it.

"How?"

Was all I managed to whisper. No wonder the police had focused on me for shooting Charlie, hell it was an open and shut case as far as they were concerned.

"Babe. Brown can prove that it wasn't you who shot him from how the bullets hit him. Hanley is working on showing that the evidence is circumstantial"

Maybe that could work but I wasn't going to count on it.

"Charlie?"

I asked, because Charlie would be able to tell the police exactly who had shot at him.

"He's still in a coma. He's in a private hospital under guard"

I could see that the real killer would be worried about Charlie recovering so was thankful for Ranger protecting him. It still didn't explain how my gun ended up shooting Charlie though.

"Babe, talk me through what happened, what Charlie told you"

I knew this was going to be hard to do, I mean could I have done anything differently, would Ranger see me as being stupid? Taking a deep breath, I embarked on my story, hoping that Ranger would let me finish before saying anything.

It took an age to recount everything, trying to ensure that I didn't leave anything out and that I had things in the right order. By the end I felt drained of energy and very tearful, so much had happened and to be honest I did skirt over a few details. Especially when I was approached by that woman. I didn't want to say how she made me feel, that I took an instant dislike to her because I was as jealous as hell.

I waited, expecting Ranger to say something, even tell me how stupid I'd been especially as I'd admitted to him that I saw him at that warehouse. I felt him move me around on his knee until I was straddled across his legs and then as his hands rested gently on my cheeks. Okay, be prepared because this is when he's going to lecture me, tell me what I should have done and how my actions could have made things worse. I was still looking down at his chest, afraid of looking into his face.

"Babe. I am totally in awe of what you did especially given the circumstances that you were in"

I looked up quickly then, just to be sure that I wasn't hearing things, the serious look on his face substantiating what he'd said.

"You blow me away Babe. You did what you could to keep you and Mylo safe and you still managed to pursue what Charlie had started"

"I didn't do wrong?"

I asked frowning back at him.

"No. Somehow you've started to fill in the missing pieces that we've come across. The one piece of information that I have, that you had somehow figured out, was how we were being drawn in. That inside man, he used our equipment on several buildings and rumors were being spread that we were protecting them and the people in them"

"The warehouse?"

"I refused to provide their security. We have a hell of a lot of information to unravel Babe and more to find"

That had me remembering what was said at that meeting, would Ranger let me finish this, let me work with him in sorting this out. Afterall it wasn't just about what was happening with Rangeman it was also personal to me.

"Will you let me work with you, you know look through the information and find out more?"

"I'm not going to block you out of this. You'll have provided most of it anyway, besides you have a better understanding of what's going on"

I let out a breath that I was holding as he told me that and rested my head against his chest.

RPOV

Steph was totally worn out as she lay her head against my chest. I wasn't surprised. Her account of what had happened to her after finding Charlie Watson was very emotional highlighting the fear that she had been surrounded with. I was disappointed that she hadn't alerted me to her presence at the warehouse but understood why she hadn't.

Had it been me I would have assumed the worst, that Rangeman was involved. I suppose going to Ramos was logical in a totally illogical way, but that was how Steph processed things. Her being there had changed the way I saw the dynamics of how the mob bosses were reacting though. The end result for them would be to annihilate the competition and take over their business and contacts, absorbing this new organization in with their current enterprises.

The only thing that was beginning to worry me was Manning. Steph's freedom could depend on us bringing him in and getting him to admit who had shot Watson, not something that I could see him doing voluntarily. Maybe we needed to stir things up a bit by bringing him into Rangeman? The information that Steph had was going to be crucial if we were going to identify who the players were, then maybe it might be necessary to bring in the cooperation of one of the alphabet agencies. They had the manpower, and I was sure they'd have an inkling of what was going on. I'd have to think about that carefully first. Something that Steph had said in her letter was niggling at the back of my mind. I carefully leant forward and snagged her letter from the pocket of my laptop case and reread it.

The clues that my FTA left for me, well they worry me with the extent of the insidious activities that may be happening, but my feeling is that there as an agenda that is yet to become clear.

I've had many arguments with myself over contacting you and to start with I didn't want to drag you yet again into my problems. Now I think that maybe you are already unwittingly involved, please be careful because I think that you are being used, drawn in, to suit someone else's needs.

Charlie wrote this to me and I'm thinking that he was very astute with what he was thinking.

The spider's web. The network spread by a spider. Tangles of silken threads of a spiderweb usually covered with accumulated dirt. Something that entangles, obscures, or confuses. Threads woven into the fabric of the society around us.

I'd never really seen that serious side to Steph before. Yes, she had an innate ability of following clues but usually she did that one step at a time before using that intuition of hers to bring everything together and go after the bad guy. That was usually when she got herself into trouble, not really appreciating the danger that she was putting herself in.

Now though I was looking at that intuition of hers reaching greater depths. An agenda that was yet to be uncovered, why would she feel that and not just see this as one more power crazed man trying to get control of illegal activities? And that was why I was reticent of taking any of this outside of Rangeman.

Morelli was an idiot for not seeing how special she was, for trying to suffocate her in a life that she would hate. I ran my hand down the curls of her hair to the side of her face. The swelling had just about all gone and the bruising was turning yellow allowing the natural color of her skin to shine through. I hadn't asked her about the other injuries but had observed them when I bathed her and watched as she moved around. Her ankle seemed to be the only injury that was still giving her some trouble.

A look at the time and I knew that Steph would be asleep for the rest of the night. I very carefully got to my feet with her cradled in my arms and took her through to the bedroom. Removing her jeans and bra I pulled the covers over her, not really wanting to leave her on her own. I turned off the stove, knowing the meal would be okay to freeze and with my laptop went back to the bedroom to continue working through the emails that had accumulated while Steph had been talking.

Tomorrow Ella was bringing Mylo here which I was sure would cheer Steph up. Yeah, she was getting back to her old self, gaining the confidence that had been bled from her. I'd do what it took to continue that progress and support her to fly.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that Steph woke early, what did surprise me though was that she'd woken before me and somehow managed to slip out of the bedroom without me waking up. I almost panicked as I moved out of the bedroom, so afraid that she wouldn't be here, then stopped at the end of the short hallway and just watched as she leant over the kitchen counter trying to figure out how the coffee machine worked. I noted that she'd found the cannister with the coffee inside and had two mugs out along with a new pack of sugar. I smiled as her words came to me, obviously intended for the machine.

"Come on give me a hand here. You've got coffee inside the cone, water inside the jug and I've switched you on"

I moved across the floor feeling her jump slightly as my arms went either side of her to rest on the counter.

"He's a bit temperamental, for some reason he needs to be told how strong the coffee needs to be"

I turned the knob on the side to set the level at medium and leant closer to Steph, my lips skimming down her neck to her shoulder. I felt her shudder as she stepped back into me, her head to the side inviting me to continue. As my mouth moved across her shoulder my hands released from the counter and came to her stomach, underneath the T-shirt that she was wearing, skimming her skin as I moved up toward her pert breasts.

As she turned toward me, I lifted her on to the counter my mouth now taking over from where my hands had been. Stood between her legs I was very conscious of the effect that being so close to her was having on me and took a sharp intake of breath as her hand slipped inside the silk boxers and was suddenly around me, teasing me.

A loud beeping sound had her stopping all movement and her eyes popping open in surprise. I instantly lifted her down from the counter and was pushing her through to the bedroom knowing exactly what the beeping was about.

"We have visitors"

Was all I said as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I reached the front door and turned off the alarm just as it started to open and saw Ella beaming at me.

"Sorry, we're a bit early but Mylo was impatient to get here"

I stepped to the side as Ella shood Mylo into the house in front of her and then watched as his pace picked up speed. Steph was stood there, a smile across her face and her arms wide open as he threw himself at her. Thank goodness the couch was behind her to break her fall, because I noticed her grimace as she landed with Mylo holding on to her.

"He's pleased to see her"

"How's Beautiful?"

Came from behind me and turning I watched as Santos came through the door carrying a large box. I wasn't sure why he was here, because it hadn't been part of the plan for today.

"A lot better"

And once again I was cursing for agreeing to have visitors when all that I wanted was to have Steph to myself. I hoped my explanation of who Tali was had squashed any fears that Steph had for thinking that Tali's opinion was taken seriously by me but there was so much more that I'd wanted to say to her. I took a deep breath, one step at a time, let's get through the day and then this evening I could continue slowly letting her know my feelings. After all actions were always better than words, weren't they?