Chapter 22

I was both emotionally and physically drained. Ella brought me a special treat for dessert. "How did you know I was craving pineapple upside down cake?" I asked around a bite.

"Because I know you hija," she said as she patted my hand.

She made me spicy sausage Alfredo for dinner. Carlos had grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and plain rice. Kind of boring but he maintains his body is a temple.

He'll indulge once in a while. Both of his parents are diabetic, so I could understand why he was following such a strict diet. My family doesn't have a history of diabetes. I figured as long as I don't eat as many sweets as I used to, I should be fine.

"Maybe I shouldn't be eating this," I told Carlos while pointing at my cake. "Bobby's doing a glucose test on me tomorrow." He raised an eyebrow. "My sugar levels are fine. He just wants to make sure it stays that way."

"Okay." We rinsed off the dishes and loaded the dishwasher. I traded shifts with Binkie. He worked my research and monitor shifts. I'll be working his monitor shift and completing the searches he didn't complete.

Carlos spent his day with me, so he needed to get caught up on his emails and paperwork. He led me to the monitors and gave me a kiss before going to his office.

"How are you feeling?" Zip asked me. He was working the monitor shift with me. I took over for Zero.

"Pretty good. After I got past the morning sickness phase, it's been smooth sailing," I replied.

"You're what… twenty one weeks?" he asked.

"Close, twenty four. Only sixteen weeks left," I replied. "Probably sooner. Multiples rarely make it to full term."

"When's Val due?" he asked.

"A week after me," I answered. "We got pregnant around the same time."

"But you'll probably have them a month earlier," he wisely stated.

"If that happens, they'll be born on my birthday."

"Manny's birthday too," he unnecessarily reminded me.

"Yup. I would love to share my birthday with these guys."

He laughed and pointed to the monitors. It was so boring watching them, but it was a necessary job. We had to ensure our accounts were secure. I used the phone to place a call. "Sector 3, dispatch. Strange activity happening outside Stronach's warehouse. Back of building. Proceed with caution," I stated over the intercom system.

Manny, Hal and Junior ran onto the floor to grab their weapons. They were running down the steps within minutes. From the time I sent the dispatch to the time they arrived was almost 9 minutes. I was impressed with the team.

Zip watched the other accounts while I recorded the activity at the warehouse. Manny carefully approached from the north. Hal approached from the south. Junior was watching the main entrance. I noticed someone sneaking up behind Manny. "Turn around Manny," I whispered to the screen. "Come on brother, you need to turn around," I said slightly louder.

He touched his shoulder before swinging his gun around. I had the audio on loud enough for us to hear. "Hands up over your head," Manny stated. Junior maintained his position, but Hal quickly moved along the back of the building, heading towards Manny.

Hal suddenly reached into a spot beside him and pushed someone to the ground. A second Rangeman SUV arrived. Tank, Lester and Cal exited to help secure the building. Tank was halfway around the building before he turned and ran towards the main entrance, joining Cal and Junior. Manny, Lester and Hal dragged four men to the waiting SUV.

They secured them and waited for the police to collect the extras they found. Tank and the others found another four men. There was too many for the men to handle. Rangeman protocol stated we could only detain the men until the authorities arrive. We'll send them the footage from their body and building security cams.

Eddie, Big Dog, Carl and Robin arrived driving police vans. Big Dog and Carl transferred the men from the SUV into their van with assistance from Manny and Lester. Tank and Junior helped Carl and Robin load their van. We would later discover these young men were pulling a prank. Kevin Stronach was putting Saran Wrap on all the toilet seats. His buddy was spraying the ceramic floors with cooking spray. The final man mixed kitty litter in with the coffee grounds.

Carlos watched copies of the videos we sent to the TPD. He shook his head at their stupidity. Wrapping the toilet would get people's shoes wet. But spraying the floors with an aerosol oil was dangerous. Someone could slip on the floor and hit their head on the sink or toilet, potentially killing them. "Nobody messes with the coffee," he barked.

"Did they find all the contaminated coffee?" I asked. With this particular case, it would be best to throw out their entire stock. I'm not sure how they would recover their loss.

"Probably not," he replied.

"We should recommend CCTV inside the warehouse. They could monitor it internally," I suggested. He raised an eyebrow. "After I saw the footage from Junior's body cam, I checked the account and noticed they had minimal coverage on their warehouse. If they had more cameras around the perimeter, we would have noticed the window they used to access the warehouse. Why didn't their alarm system sound?"

"Disabled using the fob," he answered.

"If they had a fob, why break into the warehouse through a window?" I wondered. It didn't make any sense. In the camera view, the rear door wasn't monitored by Rangeman cameras, but the front is. It was bothering me since it didn't seem logical. I sat on my husband's lap and retrieved the camera footage. "Carlos, this camera angle seems off. Do we have older footage?"

He opened his email and sent a message to Hector. A few minutes a link was sent to his email. Ranger clicked on the link to bring up the camera angle. I noticed it was off by a few degrees. When I replayed the footage prior to dispatching the men, I realized what triggered me to pay attention to the account. "This camera angle changed as I was watching the monitor." I rewound the footage and played it slower for Ranger to see.

Ranger sent a few men out to the warehouse to gather measurements. We watched the video feed as Hector and Binkie arrived to check the angles and distance. Hector looked into the camera and shook his head. The camera was not in its installed position. They selected this particular camera since it would capture the image of the person using the back door. I used the notepad Ranger passed me to make notes for the account.

Ways to improve security at Stronach warehouse. Install small hidden camera above back door, front door and all windows. Automatic recording if someone enters the building. Use new Rangeman fobs requiring thumb print to use. Thumb print only programmable by Rangeman and user specific. Record fob serial number and match with user's thumb print.

"All excellent suggestions," Carlos said while reading my notes.

"Do you think he'll go for it?" I asked.

"Not sure. If you're the one pitching the sale? Most likely," he added. "Are you finished your shift?"

"Just the monitor portion. I'm supposed to be doing searches," I replied.

"I know what you could search," he said with a husky voice. I shifted to look into his eyes. They were dark with desire.

"Are you willing to play?" I asked. He lifted me into his arms and told the men not to disturb us.

I giggled as he held me in his arms until we arrived in our apartment. He was kissing me until we entered our bedroom. Carlos laid me on the bed and removed my boots. My remaining clothes quickly followed. After he stripped, he crawled up the bed and kissed my stomach.

Speaking Spanish, he told our children how much he loves them and how much he loves me. Rici and Kenni were moving as their papa talked to them. I felt him smile when they kicked the spot where he placed kisses.

"Can you feel them moving?" I wondered.

"I can. When I kiss you here," he placed a kiss where our son is located. "He kicks back and when I kiss you up here," he kissed our daughter's location, "she kicks back. It's like they're telling me they love me too."

"Of course they love their papa," I stated. "You're going to be an excellent father."

"You're already an amazing mother," he reciprocated. After a few more kisses to my abdomen, he lifted me onto his lap.

He deepened the kiss and shifted me so I was sitting across his lap. With a slight shift, he turned me until I was facing away from him. I felt him lift me onto his erection. It felt deeper in this position. He wrapped his arms around me, placing his hands on my breasts. His fingers rolled my nipples as I felt the orgasm build from my chest down to where we were connected. I shook as he continued to pinch my nipples and suck the spot beneath my ear.

Another orgasm built until I shattered against him again, pulling him with me. "Steph," he groaned. Our soulmate marks weren't touching directly, but I still felt our connection through my back.

"It keeps getting better," I stated.

"More intense," he agreed.

He tucked me in bed beside him. My back was against his chest. His hand was placed firmly on my belly. By morning, I'll be laying on the other side of him with my leg over his hip and my belly pressed into his side.

It wasn't advisable to sleep on my right side while pregnant. Carlos must move me to his other side when he feels me rolling over. I waited until he fell asleep before rolling over to face him. As he slept, he moved me to his other side so I could place my leg over his hip. It was a more comfortable way for me to sleep. We really should start off in this position.

I listened to his even breaths and fell asleep. My dreams were about two young children playing on the beach at Point Pleasant. A beautiful young girl with blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes was running down the beach, holding hands with a boy around the same age. He had dark curly hair and blue eyes. Something about him looked familiar.

The girl seemed to be looking at me. When I lifted my hand to wave, she smiled and beaconed me to follow them. Something about this beautiful woman was familiar. I took a closer look at the boy and realized he was familiar too, but I couldn't quite place him. A woman further down the beach called out, "Henrik, time to come home.""

"Coming anya," he shouted. He turned to the young girl and asked, "Will you be here tomorrow?"

"For a few hours, father has to work," she said with sadness. The woman down the beach called again. "You should go Henrik, your mother will get mad if you take too much longer." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before running towards his mother.

I followed the young girl to her very familiar looking beach house. She led me around the back and patted the seat next to her on the back steps. "I just met him last week. It's the first time his family used the house. He's my romantic soulmate. I'm only thirteen. How old are you?" she asked.

"Thirty. I'll be thirty one on October twelfth," I answered. She nodded knowingly.

"I'm Edna, what is your name?"

"My grandma's name is Edna. I'm Stephanie," I replied.

"Nice to meet you Stephanie. You have a beautiful name. You've met your soulmate," she stated.

"I have. We're expecting twins in four months," I explained as I rubbed my belly.

"A boy and a girl," she said with a smile. "Rici and Kenni."

"How did you…" I started.

"It's me little one," she confessed.

"Grandma?" I was stunned. How could I be seeing her? She's gone.

"Little one, I needed to see you one last time. Follow me, I need to show you," she grabbed my hand and led me to the shed.

"Is this your beach house?" I asked when I recognized the old shed.

"Yes. You need to remember this. The guest house was built on this location. I had the back corner lined up exactly. Measure from this corner, four feet away from the corner then another two feet towards the back. I've buried a lined wooden box around two feet down. Dig up the box. In it you'll find rings and a bank account number belonging to Pilar. Give them to Manny. She wanted him to have them. You should also find nine envelopes with initials and dates. Each group of initials represent one of my great grandchildren and the date is when you should open the envelope. Instructions are inside. Please keep these locked away in your safe until the time arrives to open them," she told me the purpose of her visit.

"How did you know Pilar?" I asked so I could tell Manny.

"I was visiting your uncle, my brother, in the hospital. Pilar knew she wasn't going to survive, so she gave me her rings and private account information for her son. She said if her child doesn't survive, to give them to her husband Frank Plum," grandma answered.

"But you didn't give them to daddy," I said confused.

"I could see her adult son and knew I had to wait until you brought him back home," she answered while cupping my face. "Only you would be able to bring him back to your father. If I tried, it would have been disastrous. It had to be you, little one."

"Can I tell Valerie?" I wondered.

"No, you can only tell your husband," she replied. "I have always known from the time I was born what would happen."

"If you knew, then why didn't you change your will in time?" I had to ask.

"Little one, I may have known what would happen to others, but I never knew what would happen to me until it was too late," she answered. "Your intuition comes from your father, but your ability to see some events in the future, are from me."

"Why me and not Val?" I asked.

"It's passed down through the second daughter," she explained.

"So if I have another daughter, she will inherit my ability?" Grandma nodded. "What happened to my uncle?" I wondered.

"My brother didn't make it. You will have a second daughter. She's going to be stunning just like her momma. I have to leave you now. When you're at your greatest need, I'll come back to guide you. You must take Carlos to collect the items soon. I love you little one."

"I love you too grandma," I said. I felt her kiss my forehead before I woke up, sitting straight up in bed.

"Babe, are you okay?" he asked, his voice scratchy from sleep.

"I'm fine Carlos. We need to get something from the beach house immediately," I said as I carefully climbed out of bed. "We need a shovel."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't question what I asked him to do. My husband helped me dress before contacting Lester and Manny. I smiled when he selected my brother as one of our guards.

We met in the garage a few minutes later. Neither Lester nor Manny questioned what we were doing. As we drove to Point Pleasant, I told Les and Manny about the house I inherited. They were excited to see the place.

"Guys, we'll have plenty of time for a tour," I said as we walked through the house towards the backyard.

Les and Manny stood guard, their backs to us. Carlos carried the shovel and dug in the area I measured out. "I hope the contents didn't get wet," I mumbled.

"It's a good thing we didn't use a metal detector," Carlos joked when he opened the wooden box.

"Why?"

"The box inside is made from lead." Carlos retrieved the contents wrapped in plastic and dropped the empty box back into the hole. I wanted to wait until we got back home to tell Carlos everything.