Part 1

RPOV

Chapter 1

I wiped my hands down my face feeling the growth of hair from the last few days and trying to invigorate some energy into how I was feeling. There was a feeling of relief with some anger mixed into it. I'd been away for seven weeks, that should only have been three, which was why I was annoyed, but at least I was on my way home. According to the powers to be three weeks should have been enough time to complete the mission and according to them it should have been straight forward. Problems had cropped up which was why it had extended to seven and all because of poor information and possibly bad luck.

All we had to do was to find the location of a criminal group responsible for kidnapping an American Ambassador's son and rescue the son. We had been sent down to Venezuela, a very large country in the throes of a crisis. All of it caused by political corruption, chronic shortages of food and medicine, high unemployment, and human rights violations. The rich were rich, and the poor were dying. Kidnapping had become rampant as a way to acquire money with ransoms being handed over, which only served to feed the growing problem. But taking an American Ambassadors son had needed a message sending and I was to be the one that had sent the message, that it wasn't acceptable, and that America wasn't going to bend to the demands of the kidnappers.

The problems had been compounded by the group constantly moving and our guys who provided us with the intel not being able to keep up. As a result, it seemed that we were always one step behind, finding an empty shelter with no boy and no kidnappers. That was until we decided to do our own planning, looking for patterns for where they might be. It paid off, the bad guys wouldn't be kidnapping anyone again and the boy, though traumatized, had been returned to his family. The bad luck, you might ask, being caught by a knife in the side which had extended my stay in Washington after the debriefing.

I was looking forward to getting back home to some sort of normality even though I knew my desk would probably be stacked with paperwork. My second in command, Tank did what he could, but being CEO of Rangeman Security there were areas that he would decide could wait until I returned. With the injury I wouldn't be able to do any work in the field anyway.

As I felt the helicopter hit the ground and the blades begin to slow down, I was quickly opening the door, at least being delayed and injured had the advantage of a faster and more comfortable mode of transport back home. As my feet hit the ground, I pulled my coat tighter across my chest to ward off the cold and damp that seemed to be hanging in the air. The clouds were dark and swirling up above me reminding me that autumn was definitely here. Heading over and past the hanger I looked ahead pleased to see Santos leant up against one of the black SUVs and that he was soon sat in the car with the engine running. Throwing my bag onto the backseat I quickly took the passenger seat welcoming the heat as it swirled throughout the car and gradually began to ease some warmth throughout my body. Santos engaged the car into drive, and we were soon on our way into Trenton.

"You doing okay Ranger?"

I looked across to Santos as he asked that but refrained from commenting. He of all people would know what it could be like on some of the missions. He'd been part of them as well until he'd decided not to renew his contract. Maybe it was a smart move on his part. For now, I wasn't interested in passing the time with idle chatter wanting to occupy my mind with something else, something to take my thoughts and feelings away from the memories of the past few weeks.

I powered up my phone that was sat in the console and input the passcode waiting for messages and emails to load.

"It's been fairly quiet, the usual call outs and some new clients. No new recruits or any emergencies"

Santos would know that I would be reading through the reports that Tank would upload onto the cloud, so ignoring him I opened up the page and started to read through them. By the time we were pulling into the Rangeman garage I had to agree with what Santos had said, though something was missing, but I couldn't work out exactly what it was. Grabbing my bag from the back seat I was soon walking away from the car and Santos.

"Give me an hour"

Was all I said as I headed for the elevator wanting to shower and change before I hit my office on five and got involved with the work waiting for me, work that would focus my mind. Once on seven and entering my apartment actually had me calming down. It was cool and quiet, and I was looking forward to the luxury of a proper shower, some clean clothes and a decent coffee. I stripped off my clothes as I walked through to the bathroom, swearing at the sight of the bandage on the side of my chest. Whilst the water heated up, I found what I needed in the cabinet underneath the sink. Applying a waterproof bandage to my wound I was soon stood underneath the hot water, soaking up the heat pounding down on me from the shower. Standing there with a hand against the wall I let my mind clear, pushing the memories of that last mission to the back of my head. Doing that was sometimes the only way to forget, forget the blood and the bodies and the faces of those that we'd killed. I needed a better way to forget and there was only one other thing that would help to clear my thoughts, calm the turmoil inside me and push those demons away. I needed the solace of watching Steph as she slept. I didn't know why doing that had such an effect on me, but it had almost become an addiction for me when I needed a balm to soothe my troubled mind.

It was as I was thinking of those memories and planning for a midnight visit to Steph's apartment that I suddenly realized what had been missing from the reports that I'd read. There had been no mention of Steph. Stephanie Plum, an extraordinary woman who had taken on the job of a Bounty Hunter. I'd met Steph a few years ago and I smiled as the memory came back to me. This blue eyed woman with curly, brunette hair dressed in a skirt and totally ill prepared for what she would need to do. Or so I thought. I wasn't sure to start with if it was luck or talent that made her successful, though she had a hell of a knack for getting herself into trouble. Trouble that I was all too willing to help her out with.

Leaving the shower, I shaved before dressing and then set about preparing a snack to eat with my coffee. I felt a growing unease spread through me, so I actually went down to five sooner than I'd said, because I wanted to find out what Steph had been up to. As I stepped out of the elevator onto five men passing greeted me with welcomes for being back. As I entered my office I wasn't at all surprised when Tank followed me in knowing that he would want to get me up to speed on what had been happening while I was away, even though his reports were pretty detailed.

"You doing okay Ranger?"

That question again, what was with these guys that they felt they needed to ask that? I had the same response for Tank as I'd had for Santos, so sitting down in the chair at my desk waited for him to start the conversation, after all it was him who had followed me in here.

"You read the report?"

"Yes. Seems that I didn't miss much"

I watched as Tank shook his head but then when he remained quiet, I had an awful feeling wash over me, that there was something he hadn't included in the report.

"Spit it out Tank"

"Steph, well it looks as though she's moved away with Morelli"

That had not been what I was expecting. Hell, when I left, she swore that she was done with him for good. Had she let him back into her life? I wasn't too sure what emotion came over me, anger for her doing that or a deep regret that I wouldn't see her again. That had me considering why I was feeling the way that I did. I had no claim to her even though maybe I had always wanted to. I was the one to keep her arms length in order to keep her safe from me. Safe from the darkness that was my life because I was sure that I didn't deserve someone like her, and I would never forgive myself if she was hurt because of me. That was when Tank's words replayed through my mind.

"You said it looks as though, what the hell does that mean?"

"There weren't many skips, so we didn't hear from her and then Morelli turned up here, maybe three weeks after you'd left, wanting to speak to you. A couple of weeks later it was all over the Burg that Morelli had transferred down to Atlanta and Steph had gone with him"

I didn't know what to say, somehow any words just stuck in my throat. I never realized until that moment that I would miss her so much, that I was hurting for her for up and leaving. I'd thought that we were good enough friends that she would have at least left a message for me, explaining what she was doing and why.

"I checked around Ranger. Even called at her apartment in case she'd left a message for us, or at least you. Her Grandmother was living there, looking after the rat, and to be honest I wasn't going to be staying around too long with her"

I leant back in my chair hearing what Tank was saying but for the life of me I was too preoccupied trying to reign in my emotions. Self preservation won out. She'd gone and there was nothing that I could do about it and to be honest if that was how she had wanted to end our friendship then so be it. I had my work and to some extent a life to get on with, so that's what I'd do, I'd move on.

"Anything else Tank"

I said with what I hoped was a calm voice when I really wanted to spit it out at him.

"No. Brown asked me to tell you that he'd check that wound this evening"

I knew that would be happening, it was SOP for anyone who was injured, including me. He'd probably already have the medical report by now and be aware that the knife wound had become infected and that I'd already completed the required antibiotic course.

Even before Tank had left the room, I was picking up papers from my inbox and starting to read through them, needing to focus my mind on anything else other than Steph. I was finding that so difficult to do. Every sound that came through my door had me looking up, a glimmer of hope that Tank had been joking with me or that I'd hear that soft knock that could only be Steph. The image of the way her eyes would light up and she would smile at me with a mischievous grin rewinding in my head. I blanked my mind to everything in order to concentrate on the papers in front of me. After three hours I had signed off on the requests from the other offices, having to read through their financial and yearly reviews of their targets and decided to call it a day. I really wasn't ready to go up to my apartment, not sure that I was ready for the solitude and memories of Steph to haunt me. I decided to take a look around the floor, see what the men were up to. I didn't want conversations, but I needed something to do. What should have been a brief call in at the monitoring room turned into more, as a break in occurred. I was close to running out of the building to help manage the situation when Santos held me back.

"Not cleared for the field Ranger"

Had been what he'd said to me with a smile on his face, and that had really pissed me off. After the problem had been resolved I knew that I needed to head up to seven, hoping that Ella had left something there for me for dinner. Instead, as I came out of the stairwell door, I was greeted by Brown who was stood outside my apartment, carrying his bag waiting for me at the door.

"You need to ease back into work Ranger, give that wound time to heal"

I opened the door and walked through to the lounge, removing my T-shirt over my head. I knew that action pulled on the stitches but there was no way I was allowing Brown to see that it still hurt. Standing in front of the kitchen worktop I tolerated him as he removed the bandage and started to touch around the area with his fingers. To me it seemed fine, I'd had worse and survived and in comparison, this was more of a nuisance than anything else.

"Slightly red and warm. Did you finish the antibiotic course?"

I nodded my head almost dreading what he was going to say next.

"I'll check on it again tomorrow, but I'd say a week before you can even think of going out in the field"

Yeah, that was what I was dreading and I'm sure seeing the tilt of his lips he knew that as well. I'd go stir crazy being confined to the building and was starting to think of things that would get me out for a few hours.

I could visit the bonds office to pick up the Rangeman files and catch up with Steph, went through my mind before I gave myself a mental head slap. She wasn't there, remember! That was the first time that I actually admitted to myself just how much I missed her, missed seeing her or getting that feeling when she was around. Damn it Steph, why the hell did you have to leave like you did?

I didn't catch Brown saying anything before he was walking out of the apartment, sure that he would be aware of the foul temper that was building up inside of me. Pulling my T-shirt back on I looked through the fridge to see what Ella had left for me, not really feeling that hungry but knowing that I needed to eat something. I was actually feeling tired and was sure I had the start of a headache so planned on an early night to catch up on some sleep.

I woke early and refreshed and as horny as hell. As I lay there trying to calm the erection that was poling the sheets, I couldn't understand why that had happened. I couldn't remember having any dreams, certainly none that were erotic. Maybe I needed to do something about it, head up to the city and find a woman that would help to scratch that itch.

Hell, I hadn't done that for a very long time and was asking myself why not. In the past it had been the first thing that I would seek out, a way of destressing after a mission, an anonymous face that I would fuck and then leave. So what had changed, I asked myself? One night with a curly haired brunette had happened. Shit, I'd never really thought about it before, how I'd become so dependent on those captured moments with Steph. I'd never felt the need to seek out female attention, not with her around. It wasn't just about the sex, though that was phenomenal with her, it was the effect that her just being close to me had. Being laid with her, her body curled up against mine, holding her had always been enough.

I sighed as Tank's words came back to me, she'd left Trenton with Morelli. Now was not the time to dwell on her because those feelings of contentment weren't going to be happening again. Maybe Santos would enjoy a night picking up a couple of women, it had been a long time since we'd done that, though I knew he still managed to continue his one night stands. Yeah, I'd ask him today, because I really needed to replace those memories of Steph with something else, be rid of the frustrations that were threatening to consume me.