Chapter 27

"Found you"

I turned to see CJ stood at the doorway looking at Steph, annoyed that he had interrupted us, again.

"Elaina reminded me that I needed to check on those stitches"

I watched as Steph laid down on the couch, her head on my legs, and CJ inspected her stitches. To me the wound looked to be healing well.

"Doing good Steph. A few more days and I'll take those stitches out'

Steph pulled her sweater down and I helped her to sit back up. She was soon on her feet heading for the door.

"We missed lunch and I'm famished, I'll check in the kitchen to see what there is for dinner while I'm there"

"Babe, we have one extra for dinner"

I knew that would confuse or even maybe worry her but as I said "Santos" and her face lit up with a smile, I knew that she was happy that he would be here.

"I'll be through to help"

I called as she disappeared. I turned my attention to CJ as the thought from before came to my mind.

"CJ. You and Elaina. You haven't told her anything have you?"

Was he annoyed because I'd suggested that he might have or annoyed that I didn't trust him? I wasn't sure so just waited for him to reply to me.

"No, I wouldn't do that. I admit she's easy to be around. Why are you asking?"

"Something that Steph mentioned. Elaina took Steph to one of those holistic centers where they use the concept of achieving who you want to be and not who you are"

"So you're saying that Elaina is acting out an image of who she thinks she should be? Shit Ranger, that's a crazy idea"

Was he referring to what I'd suggested or this holistic therapy, I wasn't sure but now that I'd put my thoughts to CJ, I wanted him to be prewarned. Maybe we needed a deeper understanding of who Elaina was and look at what she'd been doing during her time at university.

Stepping into the kitchen Elaina was there with Steph looking through the fridge, pulling out some chicken and vegetables. I caught Steph cast a look at me before she started to wash and cut up the veg, all the time Elaina talking about what she was going to be doing. I'd wanted to help out with the meal, but it seemed that wasn't going to be happening, so I went downstairs to the den to look out for Santos arriving. As I saw his face at the camera by the gate, I quickly flipped the switch for the gate to open before heading upstairs to meet him.

The first thing that I noticed was that Santos looked tired, so I wasn't going to push him for any information just yet.

"You're just in time for dinner Santos"

Was how I greeted him as he placed a bag on the floor.

"Is Beautiful really here?"

I nodded my head, knowing that he would be pleased to see her but at the same time I wanted him to be aware that Elaina was also here and that they knew nothing about what we had been doing.

"Elaina is here as well. We started to hear their story first"

Yeah, Santos understood what I meant because his expression was somewhere between a frown and confusion. When he started to smile and moved past me quickly, I knew that Steph had appeared behind me.

"Beautiful, god, it's so good to see you"

I leant against the wall watching as Santos took Steph in his arms and hugged her tight. Maybe words were said between them, but they were too quiet to be heard. As she latched her arm through his to turn him toward the kitchen Elaina was stood watching them meaning that Steph had to introduce them.

"Ellie this is a good friend of mine, Lester Santos. He works with Ranger"

I watched as Santos held out his hand to Elaina while he still held Steph around her shoulder, maybe it was time for me to step in. Walking to the other side of Steph I was looking for a distraction and spied the large serving dish ready to be taken through to the dining room.

"Shall we eat before this gets cold"

I picked up the dish taking it through to the dining table pleased when the others followed me.

Steph had spent some time with Santos and Elaina, maybe telling him their story so far. At least I wouldn't have to waste valuable time doing that because I really needed to know what he'd found out while he was away. I'd told Ethan and CJ to meet with us down in the den as soon as the women had gone to bed. I was hoping that Steph wasn't going to be coming down to see me as she had done the night before but also that she wouldn't have any nightmares while I wasn't with her.

"Beautiful had quite a story to tell"

"Beautiful?"

Of course, Ethan wouldn't realize that a lot of my men had nicknames that they called Steph, from Bomber to Beautiful and I suppose Babe.

"Sorry, Steph. What she told me fits in with some of the things that I found out. I had the details of the girl that was with Morelli. Ram and the Doc used her skull to do a facial reconstruction, which I took down to Trenton to the camp by the river. There were several folk there that said that she looked like a girl called Alina, different hair style, Romanian"

So the girl had possibly been the body that Steph had been aware of in the warehouse. That meant that the person responsible for Morelli's death could have been ultimately Markovic.

"It doesn't make sense Ranger. Okay, using the girl as a distraction I can see, but how does Morelli and the man who paid him tie into Markovic and the organ thieves?

"Gregson said they had a mole in the FBI, maybe he was a bigger player than just giving out information"

I nodded my head at CJ's suggestion, at the moment it was the only thing that seemed to make sense.

"What else did you find out?"

Because I really hoped that Santos had found out more than that.

"Those names that you sent me, David Galbacci and Gareth Fernetti, they're names that Morelli used when he was undercover. I ran a search on the bank accounts and there's a lot of money in those accounts and he'd obviously been stashing money there for a while"

"No unusual deposits?"

I asked but knew what the answer would be. Morelli had taken cash from that FBI safehouse, he wasn't stupid enough to leave a paper trail to follow.

"No, just irregular cash payments. The car, well there were two of those, same year, model and color, reported stolen from around Trenton the week that rumors started up about Steph and Morelli leaving"

Everything seemed to be centered around Trenton.

"Markovic?"

Hoping maybe he'd had visitors or even left the house.

"I checked the camera feeds at the cabin and nothing. He hasn't left the property and other than that women, no one has visited. I chased up with her, she's a retired nurse who also orders the supplies that Markovic would need for dialysis, bags of dialysate, waste bags, connection devices"

I sat back in the chair trying to work out how we were going to resolve the job that we were doing. The job initially was to find Lainey and then the detonator, when that wasn't there, it was to find Markovic's daughter Elaina. Steph and Elaina had found the detonator but so far hadn't said where it was, and we had Elaina in a safe place. So why would I continue when our job was effectively finished? Why did I feel that there was more to this and that I wanted, no needed, to finish it?

Simple, because of Steph. I still wasn't sure what she'd got involved with and I had an awful feeling that whatever it was, was going to be important.

"We need to know what Elaina did with that laptop. Hasn't Steph said anything?"

When I thought about that I hadn't really had a lot of time to talk to Steph on my own. We'd always been interrupted, usually by CJ.

"No, she hasn't. CJ does Elaina normally remind you to check Steph's wound?"

"I suppose. I would have left it until the morning to check the stitches"

So for some reason Elaina was keeping tabs on how much time Steph was alone with me, now why would she do that especially when she knew that we slept in the same bed? Was Elaina trying to influence what Steph said? I couldn't imagine that Steph would take notice of her unless Steph had done something that she felt was really bad and Elaina was holding that over her.

"You know they're going to have to tell us what the hell they did with that laptop"

I raised my eyebrow as Santos said at that because it would have been logical to have said that today, instead our attention was drawn to the difficulty of finding a password before their story finished with them in Cyprus.

"Keep all of our information secure. I need someone to follow up on a couple of things"

"I'll do it"

Came immediately from CJ who to be honest might the best person for what I had in mind, at least he wouldn't become more embroiled with Elaina.

"Elaina, find out what she was like before she left for university and then see what you can dig up for when she was there. I also want you to find out about a retreat in Cyprus, Euphoria Retreat"

I saw the expression come to CJ's face, one of acceptance, as he probably remembered what I'd said to him earlier. With CJ doing this I knew he would be invested in finding out as much as he could. He would want to clear her and feel vindicated for being attracted to her or he would want to know everything about her before he made a colossal mistake. It would also be interesting to see if she tried to make a move on Santos with CJ gone.

"What are we going to do Ranger?"

I looked at Ethan as he asked that, various thoughts going through my head.

"Our job was to find the detonator and to secure Markovic's daughter. She's safe for the moment so I suggest we let them finish their story and then we start to ask the questions that we need answers to"

"Beautiful is being very quiet, something's bugging her"

I knew that but only time would break down the barrier that she'd erected and as I'd said to myself before, I was a very patient man.

It was late when I eventually went up to the bedroom and I was pleased that Elaina wasn't there watching over Steph. After showering I was more than ready to slip into the bed next to Steph. She was fast asleep as I moved over to her but as she had done the night before she moved until she was tucked against my side. It seemed as though I'd just fallen asleep when I was woken with her moving about and became aware of the low sound emanating from her. Her movements became more like thrashing, as though she was trying to keep someone away from her. I leant up and switched on the lamp positioned over the bed, my heart breaking at the tears rolling down her cheeks. Trying to calm her didn't seem to be working so I knew I needed to wake her. Sitting up I held her to me, using a voice that I thought was comforting.

"Babe, wake up. You're safe, you need to wake up"

When that didn't work the only option that I felt I had left was to hold her tight and kiss her like my life depended on it. Well, it was that or shake her hard and maybe slap her across her face. I didn't want to do that in case it frightened her but decided that I might have to use it as a backup plan. With one arm around her and the other holding her head I fused my mouth to hers. As her lips parted I was assaulting her mouth, the taste and the feel as I caressed having an immediate impact. Okay, not a wanted reaction from me, but I was immediately aware of her stilling, of her movement stopping and of her arms around my waist. I teased but remained nipping at her lips and watched as her eyes came open. Her breathing was still labored but the crying had stopped, and I was left looking into her beautiful blue eyes, which I have to say looked aroused yet shocked at the same time.

I let her pull herself away noticing a slight tremble to her hands but still needed to reassure myself that she was actually awake.

"Are you okay now?"

Yeah, the frown across her face told me that she had absolutely no idea why she'd woken up to me kissing her.

"You were having a nightmare and I couldn't wake you"

As though that was the most natural way in the world to waken her. I watched as she looked away from me and took in a shaky breath wishing that she would tell me what had caused it, to let me in.

"Sorry. I can't seem to stop them from coming"

"Tell me about them, maybe that will help"

I knew I was pushing her to talk and again watched as she thought what to say. At least she hadn't immediately said no.

"Something happened that scared me, really scared me"

Her voice was so soft, barely above a whisper as though she was scared to say it any louder. I held her face against my chest with my hand tangled through her hair, hair that was damp from the result of the nightmare. I waited, not wanting to push her anymore but desperate to know what had frightened her so much. I would do anything to ensure that whatever was scaring her never happened to her again.

"It was dark, and I was on my own. I felt so cold in the water. The silence was deafening and then . . ."

I felt her body tense as she seemed to be remembering what the nightmare was about but her stopping mid sentence had me concerned.

"Of course, nightmares play tricks with your memory"

And just like that her tone changed as if everything was okay, as if what she remembered from her nightmares were random memories. Like I believed that. I knew that Steph could struggle after she'd been involved with something where her life had been endangered. I wasn't aware of that happening until I got to know her better and until I took my time to ensure that she really was coping. Finding a man's body cut in half on your couch was the first time I realized just how much she internalized things. Yeah, she appeared to be alright, her denial keeping her from freaking out, but while she slept those memories came back with a vengeance. Falling into the Delaware, killing Clyde after being stalked by him and possibly after that whole incident with Scrogg. Usually though she worked through it quickly, bouncing back to her usual self and onto the next disaster.

I took a deep breath knowing that she wouldn't be saying anything else. Santos was right, something was bugging her, and it seemed that she still wasn't ready to say anything, which concerned me that maybe it was because it was me asking. I'd already told her about that last mission and the truth of what had happened. Did she think that I was hiding something else? As those thoughts had run through my mind, I'd felt her relax against me, her breathing slow and even, indicating that she'd fallen asleep. I laid back down with her across me and after being sure that she was settled followed her into sleep.

I wasn't sure what woke me, well yes, I was, it was Steph moving. She was moving away from me so without letting on that I was awake, I watched as she moved away from the bed and collected together some clothes before disappearing from the room. I was surprised that Steph was waking up so early and to be honest her heading down to the gym before me was disconcerting.

I quietly got dressed in some gym gear with the intention of following her down, after all I was awake now. The house was very quiet, and it made me realize how well fitted the wooden stairs were when they never groaned or creaked as I made my way downstairs. As I came to the half landing that was when I heard whispered voices, those of Steph and Elaina. I wanted to know what they were talking about but didn't want to get caught eavesdropping, because I knew that wouldn't help me to build up any trust with Steph.

Fortunately, the lounge door was next to the kitchen door, and it was open. I ducked into the lounge where I had a better chance of hearing anything, hiding behind the partially open door.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. He's fast asleep"

From that I was assuming that Elaina was asking Steph where I was, interesting, why would she want to know that?

"Steph, you have to be strong, I know you can do it"

"I won't lie to him Ellie"

There was a pause in the conversation as the fridge door opened and closed, before Elaina continued.

"He can't find out about the detonator"

"Why Ellie, after everything that we've been through and done, why do you need it?"

I could hear impatience in Steph's voice as though she was really struggling to understand why that was necessary. It was a few moments before Elaina answered and to me was as though she was reaching for an excuse.

"I told you, he works on getting people and things back for the government"

"Ellie, you're safe here with these guys. What are you not telling me?"

"Nothing. Remember what I told you, just trust me Steph, we have to keep hold of that device"

As the kitchen door opened, I backed into the lounge out of sight and heard as the two of them walked down the hallway to the internal stairs. They were heading down to the gym, but I was having second thoughts about that. I was annoyed with what I'd overheard and if I went down there now, I'd end up confronting one or both of them.

That wasn't a good idea and I needed to calm down and figure out what it was that I'd heard. Why did Elaina feel that she had to keep hold of that detonator? It just didn't make any sense. I suppose if she had it then no one could use it as a ransom demand, and that meant that Markovic wouldn't be able to get to it. Maybe that was what Raynor or even Gregson had wanted to happen. I'd find the detonator and they'd hand it over to Markovic. Had Correll told her that I worked on getting people and things back for the government? That had thoughts going through my mind that I didn't like. Did Elaina think that I would allow someone to hand her over to Markovic? That didn't feel right because I knew the government didn't agree to paying out ransoms, especially if they knew why Markovic wanted her, unless of course Markovic was holding back with those designs. That had another question come to me, who had actually sent the ransom demand to Markovic. Shit, could it be Raynor?

Somehow though it seemed that Elaina was convinced that what they had found in that mausoleum was the detonator. Why would she think that? How would she know that? Had she managed to access the program?

"You okay Ranger?"

I'd been so focused on trying to work things through that Santos had actually been able to find me.

"Yeah, just a lot of questions going through my head"

Santos already looked as though he'd been in the gym for a workout but to be honest, I wasn't ready to do that yet.

"I'm heading out for a run"

Was all that I said as I passed him and headed for the front door. I didn't care that it was raining slightly once I got outside. I needed to clear my head so set myself a fast pace. Of course, random thoughts came to my mind and one of them wouldn't leave me. Would Steph try and use me to get information on that damn detonator. Was that what she had meant when she'd said that I wouldn't like what I heard? It had never even occurred to me that Steph would betray me, I trusted her. Was I wrong to do that?

Coming back to the house I toed off my dirty trainers and went straight upstairs to shower and change. I was soaking wet from the rain and sweat from running so fast and was beginning to feel my skin and body cool down too quickly. The bedroom was empty as I walked in, so letting out a sigh of relief, I opened the door to the bathroom. Steph was in front of the mirror, brushing her hair as I walked in, and my eyes met hers in the reflection from the mirror.

It seemed the run hadn't calmed the turmoil that I'd been feeling from hearing that conversation because the next thing I did was almost certainly a reaction to seeing her. I turned her quickly and with my hands on her shoulders had her pushed up against the wall. Even the shock on her face didn't defuse how I was feeling.

"I trusted you, Stephanie. I'm not interested in where that device is as long as it doesn't fall into the wrong hands"

I knew my voice was laced with anger and that I'd probably frightened her, but I didn't care. I wanted her to know that I was aware of what her and Elaina had planned.

"I know"

Okay, that threw me and was not what I expected. Was she referring to knowing that I trusted her or that she knew that I didn't have the detonator?

"Babe, what the hell are you not telling me?"

I saw the sadness in her eyes and felt as her body slackened, her head looking at anywhere but at me. Hell, I was almost ready to shake an answer from her.

"I said that you wouldn't like what you heard, but it isn't what you think. I'm still trying to get my head around everything. Please Ranger, let this play out and then I'll tell you everything"

Her eyes came back to mine and in that instant, I relented and gave in. Resting my forehead against hers, all I could think of was that I'd do anything to make sure that she was safe, and more importantly, with me. I was going against every ounce of training and instinct but if I didn't want to push her away then I had to succumb to what she was asking.

"Please don't let on that you overheard me talking to Ellie this morning"

I raised an eyebrow on hearing that, I was pretty sure that they didn't know that I was there.

"I knew you were there, I felt you"

"Okay, but you know I hate not knowing what is going on"

After nodding her head Steph was walking past me out of the bathroom leaving me going around in circles with what she had said. The problem was I had absolutely no idea what to think now and to be honest if Steph had some sort of scheme happening, I wasn't too confident of whether she would be able to pull off something without my help. I had no choice, so I'd play her game for her, but only for so long. Maybe today we might find out more of what Steph and Elaina knew, or at least what they were prepared to tell us, because I was pretty sure that we weren't getting the full story.

An hour later I was sat back in the lounge, a room I was starting to dislike. Steph was sat with me and had acted as if nothing had been said between us. It was quite disconcerting to imagine that she was actually getting very good at compartmentalizing her emotions. Santos was downstairs on the monitors which left Ethan and Elaina sat in different chairs.

"Okay this is going to finish our story, so I'll be brief and quick. We decided to head back home, thinking that maybe we'd been away long enough. To do that we had to head to Istanbul for a direct flight"

I had to use every ounce of control to blank my emotions at hearing that and I was pretty sure that what was coming next wasn't going to be good.

"It seemed a waste to be in Istanbul and not take advantage of being there, so we planned on a couple of days sightseeing. I remembered that card that we'd found on Miro Savic so we decided to take a look at the place. It was a big space on several floors, with a basement that was closed to tourists. The place was full of stonework, you know statues and columns, so we couldn't work out what the hell Savic could have sold. It was interesting though and we spent so long looking around that we didn't realize the place was closing. We got locked inside and were scared that if we set off the alarms to get out someone would think that we'd broken in there. Steph suggested finding the alarm system and that maybe we could just turn it off, or something"

Even I would have needed some knowledge to do that so I was surprised that Steph would have suggested doing that, though I agreed with their logic.

"We ended up in the basement where there were loads of crates and Steph froze on me, staring at the crates. She insisted we got out of there as quickly as possible. I found the main control for the security system and just kinda pulled wires out. It was as we were about to head up the stairs that we smelt burning. The cupboard with the security system in was on fire. I don't know how, maybe one of the wires overheated, but we just ran. The side exit door opened without us hearing an alarm but then we heard explosions coming from inside. There was a crowd gathering as we walked around to the front of the building so thought that if we mingled with them no one would suspect us"

It was something that was so typical to Steph. Totally unintentional but the result was always the same. Hell, it was almost similar to what had happened to the funeral home. The explosions must have come from any weapons being held in those crates in the basement, but it seemed that they had got out unscathed.

"There were some men talking, saying that it was bound to happen sooner rather than later which had us curious. It seems the locals knew that weapons were often stored there and that the man who owned the place was a creative business man who dealt in arms. Of course, then we were thinking that maybe Savic had found something and sold it, something like Petco's prototype. To cut a long story short, we found out who the man was, Igor Pavkov, and that he had something big that he was selling. We managed to be part of the group of women that attended his boat party. I didn't want him selling Petco's prototype because I was sure it was really dangerous, so while Steph checked out exactly what it was, I sabotaged the boat"

Saying that she'd given us an account of a short story was an understatement. There were far too many holes in it for it to be plausible. Okay maybe they did find that warehouse and maybe with Steph's luck with things exploding I might believe what had happened. The rest though, no way was I buying into it. Maybe they could find Pavkov's name but the information that he was selling something big from his boat would take a lot to find out. You'd either have to know someone or know where to look. I looked at Elaina waiting for her to expand on what she'd said but as usual for her she was moving onto the next part of their story.

"We got a plane out a couple of days later. Steph got hurt but we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves in case someone tied us to that boat"

"Got hurt, how?"

Now knowing where she had been when she was injured didn't make it any easier to stay quiet.

"There was an explosion on the boat and Steph was caught by flying wreckage. I knew she was hurt bad, so I messaged a friend to meet us when we landed back in New York saying that we needed somewhere to stay. Lizbeth met us at the airport and took us to this house by the sea, we'd only just got there when that man Correll showed up, followed by you. He had Lizbeth drive us all down south to a friend's house who she said was out of town, only he wasn't, but he insisted we stayed there. Then we got out and were found by you"

As Elaina sat there, I was sure that she thought her glossing over the details wouldn't be questioned, but that was exactly what I was going to do.

"My turn, I need some answers Elaina"