Chapter 18
Once again, I woke up to quiet conversations and someone pulling up my shirt. "It's Annie, Stephanie. I'm just checking on the twins," she quickly said. "Carlos said you were moaning and clutching your stomach." I was trying to remember my dream, but it was just at the fringe of my memory. There wasn't enough of a string to pull to remember the dream. She felt my abdomen and smiled. Whatever concerned her yesterday wasn't a factor today.
"Are you taking another sonogram?" I asked.
"I would like to, but I don't have equipment with me," she replied.
"Rangeman ordered a portable machine, it should be arriving later today," Bobby informed us as he entered my bedroom. Why would they need a machine? "We can use it for other purposes besides checking the babies," he replied. I had a feeling he would be using the machine to check on the babies.
Once they were confident my babies were fine, they left us alone.
Carlos was being absolutely silly. "Stephanie, will you marry me?" he asked.
I couldn't help laughing, "We're already married. In fact we got married twice already. Once in secret before you left on a long mission. Again when Valerie married Vince. How many times do we need to get married?"
"The first time I just had to make you my wife," he answered.
"And the second time?" I prompted.
"So you could have the wedding in front of our family and friends."
"So… why are you asking me to marry you again?" I wondered.
"Because everyone loves a good party," he replied.
"Or you just want to prove to everyone that I'm your wife," I said through laughter.
"That too," he agreed before stripping me bare and pushing into me. Neither of us wanted to wait a second longer. He was surprisingly gentle, making sure he didn't aggravate my injury.
A few weeks later, I was cleared to resume my usual non-field related Rangeman duties. The stitches were removed a few days ago, but I still needed to be careful. Staring at a monitor all day was not my idea of fun. I was itching to get out, but it wasn't possible. Rangeman procedure specifically states a pregnant employee or a pregnant partner of a Rangeman employee will not be permitted in the field until 3 months after the birth of the child.
Valerie thought it was hilarious I was grounded. At least she thought it was hilarious until she discovered she was pregnant as well. Vince took it in stride. It didn't bother him to be stuck at the monitors.
Carlos was just as frustrated by his restrictions. "You made the rules," I reminded him. "If you expect the men to abide by them, you have to lead by example."
"Babe," he sighed. He knew I was right. Carlos held out his hand for me to take. I had just returned from my follow up appointment to check on the babies. Well… that and to ensure my ass was healing properly. Ranger had an important meeting and couldn't accompany me. Manny, Bobby or Lester were always available to tag along.
It was time for lunch and my stomach was growling. We decided to have lunch at Shorty's. Within 10 minutes, Valerie, Vince, Tank, Bobby, Manny and Lester joined us. Our lunch hour was loud, full of laughter and devoid of all Burg gossipers.
"She was trying too hard. Dad thought it was hilarious. He said it was the first time she spilled the gravy," Manny told us through laughter. Valerie and I joined in. Mom has never spilled anything. She was always so primp and proper; the perfect Burg wife. Missing the table completely while setting down the gravy was just too funny.
"Was there more in the kitchen?" Valerie asked.
"No. She used her largest gravy boat so she didn't have to make an extra… trip," his voice cracked as he said the last word.
Valerie and I were laughing so hard we had to excuse ourselves to use the washroom. "Oh my God!" Valerie exclaimed. "I wish I could have seen it. Missing the table because she tripped over her toe. We completely missed the look on her face by not going for dinner. I literally would pay anything to see it."
My phone chimed and I opened the attached video. The more I watched, the more I laughed. I sunk to the washroom floor to hold my knees as I laughed. Valerie grabbed my phone to watch the video. She started cracking up too. "Where's your phone?" I asked when my laughter finally subsided.
"Vince has it," she said as we heard laughter filter into the washroom. We washed our hands again before rejoining our group. Vince had Valerie's phone in the centre of the table, playing the video. Manny was almost falling off his chair.
"Edna caught everything at the perfect angle," Manny stated through laughs. "I asked her for a copy."
"You actually trust her with your cell number?" Valerie seemed surprised. We both know how much Grandma loves sending us videos. Manny has no idea he just signed up for hours of useless videos. She cracked up and said, "Expect a lot of videos."
His phone started chiming from messages. "You weren't joking," Manny laughed.
"How many did she send?" I asked.
"Twenty and counting," he replied. I started laughing.
"She must be playing catch up," Valerie laughed. Manny's phone was still chiming when we returned to Rangeman.
"You should give her a maximum number of videos per day," I suggested while stifling another laugh.
Grandma wasn't technically Manny's grandmother, but she treats him as though he is. She accepted everyone. I guess I'm like her in that sense. It takes more than blood for me to consider someone as my family. My Merry Men, platonic soulmate or not, are all my extended family members. Valerie is starting to get used to having the Merry Men around.
Mary Alice and Angie loved having so many uncles to watch over them. They drove the girls to and from school, volunteered to go on various field trips or other school activities. I overheard them planning training sessions for self defence and on the gun range. Valerie will not be happy they're learning to shoot a gun. "She already knows," Carlos whispered as his arms wrapped around me. I didn't realize I was speaking aloud. "Val and Vince argued at first, but she eventually came around. It's best for the girls to be comfortable around guns," he added.
"Was I talking aloud again?" I wondered.
"No Babe, you weren't. I just knew what you were thinking," he whispered. His hands moved down to my small baby bump. I could feel his growing erection press into my lower back. "Do you know what I'm thinking?"
"Yes. I've been cleared. Although it never stopped us before," I informed him. "We still need to be careful."
"Babe," he growled as he led me to our apartment. It didn't take long for him to get me undressed and enter me. I could tell he wanted to take his time, but my body couldn't wait. After a few minutes, I was already screaming his name. He drew a few more orgasms from me before he allowed himself to release. It was our most intense connection to date.
I was sprawled across his chest willing my breaths to return to normal. "That was…" I couldn't finish my thought.
"Absolutely incredible," he finished. "Every time is better than before." He started speaking in Spanish. "I love you more each day. You're my love, my life, my world." Before I could repeat the same words to him, he started singing to me. It took a few minutes to realize he was singing the song 'Never Thought' by Dan Hill. His amazing tenor voice filled the room. I felt myself melting into him.
"You have a beautiful voice," I said once he finished singing. "I didn't realize you could sing." We should hold a Karaoke night at Rangeman.
"Only for you Babe. Karaoke is out of the question," he said reading my thoughts.
We took a quick shower before returning to the control room offices. I sat at my desk to review the list of potential clients. A few made my spidey sense hum. I'll have to discuss them with Carlos after I finish digging up all the information. He always liked to know why a specific client shouldn't be protected by Rangeman.
I started running the searches for the companies I didn't have a reaction to. They were fairly straight forward. One marketing firm wanted me to investigate their personnel as well. The CEO outlined, 'If any of my employees would cause your branch to pass us over as a potential client, I would like to be informed immediately. The company we hired, TPIG, to complete background checks was recently involved in a lawsuit for falsifying information on their reports.'
Interesting… I needed to research this investigation company. Something about it seems very suspicious. A silly thought entered my head and I felt I needed to entertain the idea.
"What are you thinking?" Manny asked.
"Oh… umm… this investigation group called TPIG, Trenton Private Investigators Group. They started after Rangeman opened their Trenton branch. It seems strange they also have chapters in Miami, Boston and Atlanta; MPIG, BPIG and APIG," I stated while I clicked on a few search parameters to pull up the company profile.
When I gasped, Manny asked, "What did you find?"
"The other chapters opened within a few weeks of their Trenton shop. It's as though they opened to undermine our research department." I couldn't say the thought that popped into my head. It was completely inconceivable. Ranger was going to be extremely angry.
"We have a mole," Manny whispered my thought.
"We do. I'm not sure who to trust," I explained. "I need a private location."
Using my phone, I sent Carlos a message only he would understand. We met in our apartment a few minutes later. "What's so urgent?" he asked.
"We have a mole, or we had one, in Rangeman. Have you heard of TPIG?" He nodded. "They opened their Trenton chapter first. Within a few weeks, they opened ones in the cities of our other branches," I explained.
"What aren't you telling me?" he demanded.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Someone gave them a list of our clients. Specifically a list of every single client who asked us to complete background checks," I replied.
"Every Rangeman employee including contract workers has access to that information," he growled.
"Rangeman wide or branch specific?" I asked. He didn't have to answer, I saw the answer displayed on his face. "We'll need to change the protocol."
"Not until we capture this bastard. Do you have any suspects?" he wondered.
"I know every full and part time employee in this branch. None of them would be responsible. My bet is a contract worker," I answered. "I'll need to research all permanent staff to rule them out."
"Can we run searches without notifying the IT department?" he asked.
"Yes, but I'll need some help. I'm running a search on Manny, Binkie and Ram. When they clear, I can recruit them."
"Why Manny?" he wondered.
"I know he isn't responsible, but I still need to go through the process to clear him," I answered honestly. "Binkie and Ram are excellent assistants. Unfortunately all the men, with exception of Valerie, were researched by Silvio in Miami. I didn't think Silvio was responsible, but I also couldn't discount him either.
"Use the apartment. Link into my personal server," he stated.
"You have your own database?" I asked. He confirmed before saying it was necessary for this specific reason. "Amend and track changes?"
"Yes. My database tracks any modified data as a new record," he confirmed.
"Thanks. I'll need to modify the search parameters."
"Use this one," he said while pushing his secure laptop to me. I cringed when he entered his password for me to see. "My personal computer. I'll need to add you as a user." He set up a username for me. I laughed as I read, 12angrymenORbatman . Ranger passed me his laptop so I could set up my password. He looked away as I entered my password letter-number combination. It was funny he didn't hide his password from me, but he didn't want to see mine.
"A new laptop will arrive shortly. I want you to use it for the searches on the men. I trust you know how to link it to my personal database?" he asked.
"I know how to link it. Are you ordering me another laptop because I use my personal one for my courses?" I wondered.
"Yes. Your Rangeman issued laptop is monitored by the IT department. I want your course material kept separate from anything involving Rangeman," he answered.
"HUA," I said using the common phrase I hear from my Merry Men. Within 30 minutes, I had my brother cleared to help me. "Carlos, can you go over the search I ran on my brother? I want to make sure I didn't overlook anything."
He grabbed his laptop and searched through everything. "You didn't overlook anything. Run the others. I'll verify them too," he said as he returned his laptop.
I used my husband's personal computer to run the searches on the men and used my Rangeman one to research TPIG. Binkie and Ram will be using their Rangeman issued laptops to run the searches for the company required searches. Manny will be using my brand new personal laptop to run the searches on our men.
Neither Binkie nor Ram had anything concerning in their backgrounds. No abnormal deposits or withdrawals, no secret accounts. After I cleared them, I passed the laptop to Carlos to verify my results. When he was satisfied with the results, he sent the 3 men requests to report to his apartment.
Binkie was carrying my new laptop when he arrived. "I have a delivery for you Steph," Binkie announced when he saw me. Carlos removed the parcel from his hands and checked to see if the seal was broken. Confirming everything was intact, he opened the box so I could use my credentials to set up my new MacBook.
After I installed the Rangeman program from the flash drive Carlos gave me, I linked the laptop to Ranger's personal server. I used my administration account to set up a new user and username for Manny. Wonderwomanbrother was the username I selected. He laughed when I pushed the laptop towards him to create a password.
I explained the process and why it was necessary to work from my apartment. Ranger told them it was confidential and we were to only discuss our findings in private, in this apartment. They understood if they talked about their mission, they would be immediately terminated.
