Ranger shook his head. "No Az, I want you or Rav to do it. I want one of my A-team with her and the other guys are too close to her."
I thought about the possible meanings behind his words. "What you mean is she needs a bodyguard because she's had several credible death threats in the last few days and she's going after a skip she has no business going after. And you want that bodyguard to be somebody who won't let her get away with her usual shit, which most of the guys do."
"You or Rav."
My turn to shake my head. "Not Rav. That would not be a good idea."
Ranger raised an eyebrow but I didn't elaborate. He didn't know about that particular bit of Rav's history and I wasn't going to read him in. If Rav wanted Ranger to know, he'd say so. Given that bit of his history though, assigning Rav to bodyguard a woman, especially a difficult one, all day would be a guaranteed disaster. Rav tolerated women but, in general, he didn't have much use for them and prolonged exposure to one, dealing with temper tantrums and pouting, would most likely end up with him cuffing and gagging her, taking down the skip himself, and declaring his job over and done. Not the ideal outcome. At least if I did it, the result might be different. It might not be, but there was at least a chance I wouldn't reduce her to tears or truss her up like a goose ready for the oven.
"If I do it, it's my way. My rules. She obeys them, or I will take matters into my own hands." I told Ranger. I wanted no misunderstanding that I could—and would—do whatever it took to get through the day with both of us alive and the skip collared.
Ranger's body posture relaxed and I knew that's what he'd wanted to hear, the stance he'd been hoping I would take.
I wasn't sure what was going on between Ranger and Stephanie—it wasn't my business—but it was generally acknowledged that she was his woman, although they weren't living together and didn't even see each other all the time. Whatever it was, she was important to him but for some reason, he was unwilling, or unable, to take a hard line with her and insist on certain behaviors. I had no such problem.
"She's probably going to be in here, bitching, the minute I tell her how things are going to work."
"Probably," he agreed, "but I'm not going to be here. She's going to have to deal with you on her own. Good experience for her. I've given orders she's not to leave the building without you, so she's not going to have a choice."
x0x0x0x
"Better you than me." Rav shook his head when I told him what I'd agreed to do today. "She can be funny and entertaining, but that woman is a magnet for trouble, and that rat of hers has more common sense."
I had to laugh. "You have a point although she's not as bad as that."
"Near enough that I don't want to deal with her."
"Rav, you dealing with any woman more than you absolutely have to is a miracle."
He stepped closer, hands on my hips pulling me to him, and kissed me. One of his amazing, electric kisses that always made me want to strip us and spend the next day doing nothing but exploring his body and satisfying us both, over and over.
"Not fair," I sighed when we broke apart. "Teasing is definitely not fair."
"Not teasing." He brushed his lips across mine. "A promise. Get through the day and get home. We'll lock the door, turn off the phones, and crawl into bed for at least a day. And in the morning, I want you to do that slow, quiet thing you do to me."
"Deal." With that for motivation, I was even more determined that Stephanie was not going to pull one of her infamous stunts and turn the day into a clusterfuck that would take hours to untangle and could well require a visit to the hospital and police statements.
x0x0x0x0x
"Hey, Az." Stephanie breezed in forty minutes after she said she'd be ready to go. "Sorry I'm late."
She looked and sounded about as contrite as the government is efficient. The day was not starting well. Can't say I was surprised.
"Let's get going." She reached for the elevator call button.
I intercepted her hand. "Not just yet. We need to get a few things straight before we head out."
Stephanie frowned.
"Ranger assigned me to keep you safe today. I have a few rules we're going to follow to accomplish that. They are not negotiable. Most important, you will do what I tell you, when I tell you, without hesitation or argument. You will carry a gun—loaded—and a stun gun—charged. Your phone will be fully charged. All three will be where you can get to them easily, not in that suitcase you have hanging on your shoulder."
Steph narrowed her eyes, a favorite tactic of hers to indicate she was working herself up to a temper tantrum. I paid about as much attention as I would to a child and continued to explain the facts of life in a day with me as her bodyguard.
"If you argue with me or do not follow my orders, I will handcuff you, toss you into the back of the SUV, drive back here, carry your immature ass into the break room, and cuff you to the refrigerator just like Mal did to Rav. I will also threaten to shoot anyone who lets you loose. Since I'm the best shot in the crew and the guys know I don't make idle threats, no one will help you until Ranger shows up. You act like a child, I'll treat you like one."
By this time, she was furious, her face flushed bright red, hands clenched into fists, body tense. I'm sure she wanted to scream at me, but I'd pushed her so far beyond angry that she couldn't say anything. Again, I ignored her and continued.
"I work for Ric because it suits me and because I respect him; I am not afraid of him. He gave me this assignment and I handle it my way. If he's not okay with that then he can fire me, and I walk away and I'm fine with that. I do not think you're cute or sexy. I think you're a spoiled, self-centered, dangerous child. None of your typical female crap is going to make any impression on me."
I could almost see steam coming out of her ears. Good. Maybe she had a little more backbone than I thought. At least she wasn't crying.
"By agreeing to be your bodyguard today, I agreed to put your life before mine—as long as you listen to me and do what I tell you is in your best interest. The minute you go off script and pull your usual I-don't-have-to-listen-to-you-I-can-handle-myself crap when it's obvious that you can't, the job parameters change. I will not risk my life to save yours because you're too damn stubborn and hard-headed to listen to me."
I counted to ten. She didn't say a word. Her face was still flushed dark red, her eyes narrowed, the skin around them white with anger.
"Do you understand what I've just told you?"
"I understand you're an asshole who thinks he can order me around!" she snapped.
"Correction, I'm the asshole who will order you around when it's necessary to protect you."
She looked toward Ranger's office.
"Not in today," I told her. "Neither is Tank."
She whipped out her phone and dialed. It obviously went to voicemail because she left a terse message. "Call me."
Yeah, I figured Ranger would ignore that one until tonight. And if he didn't, if he interfered with what I was doing, then he inherited my job—immediately. Part of me hoped he did interfere; there were other things I'd rather be doing.
Next, she looked around the control room, probably hoping to spot one of the guys who usually backed her up. I had to hand it to Ranger; he'd set this up perfectly. None of the guys on duty in the control room were the ones she usually counted on for help. And none of them would meet her eyes; they were all concentrating on something else intently. Ranger had obviously given them instructions and, while they might adore and be infatuated with her, Ranger was their boss.
"So, are we agreed?" I asked. "If not, I have useful things I could be doing today."
I could tell that stung her pride; I'd meant it to.
"Fine," she snapped. "Go do your useful things. I don't want to be tripping over you and putting up with your macho bullshit all day anyway. I'll go by myself."
She reached again for the elevator call button and once again I intercepted her hand. "Not happening. Ranger's order—to everyone—is that you do not leave this building without me today. Any man that helps you get around that order, intentionally or not, is terminated immediately; no discussion, no appeal. So, you either leave with me or you don't leave. Your choice."
x0x0x0x
It had taken another twenty minutes of refusing to give in even a little bit before Stephanie realized I wasn't going to relent and there wasn't any way she was leaving the building without me before she gave in and agreed to my terms. I had no illusion she meant to abide by them, but she agreed to them which gave me all I needed to be able to enforce them without her having any right to complain or bitch at me. Then we had to find her gun and get bullets for it. And get her a new stun gun since the charge in hers was dead. At least her phone was good to go. Then came the search for her utility belt. After what seemed like two years to me, we were out the door and parked in the next block away from the building where her skip was reportedly crashing with his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son.
She'd protested when I chained the rear fire door shut, wrapped another chain around the bottom fire escape ladder section so it wouldn't lower, and moved the trash dumpster far enough down the alley that no one could jump down onto it without risking serious injury.
"What if the building catches on fire?" she demanded again.
"It will take me about twenty seconds to get there and cut the chains, which I will do if we have to leave, if we take Alonzo down, or if the building catches fire, explodes, or starts to fall down."
"But why do it and risk people's lives?"
"I'm not risking the life of anyone in the building. I'm increasing the odds that Alonzo can't sneak out the back and that we'll catch him, making this a short day for us both. If one of the guys were here, it wouldn't be necessary; they could cover the back."
Her mouth dropped open and she turned to look at me. "And you think I can't!"
"I know you can't do it safely and adequately."
She started sputtering but I cut her off.
"Stephanie, how much hand-to-hand training do you have? None, because you have consistently refused it. How good a shot are you? Miserable, because you have refused to learn. Are you in good enough shape that you can run a mile, through alleys and over fences, and take down a grown man? You wouldn't make it a block because you refuse to do anything to improve your physical condition. Are you in any way qualified to cover my back? No. Do I trust you to do that? No. This is the approach I would take if I were working this alone, which is basically what I'm doing."
She crossed her arms over her chest and flopped back in her seat.
At least she was quiet. I hoped she was thinking about what I said. Yeah, I'd meant the words to hurt. Ranger and the guys had been sugar-coating things for her for a long time and nothing had sunk in. Time for direct and brutal which, I was certain, was the reason Ranger had put me with her today.
Silence reined for almost thirty minutes. According to what the guys said, that might be a new record for her.
"Why do you hate me?" she asked finally.
"I don't hate you, Stephanie, but I have a job to do keeping you safe. If that means hurting your feelings by telling you some hard truths you don't like, then so be it. You can cry when you get home. This is a job, not playtime for amateurs. You want me to be nicer to you? Try earning some respect; suck it up, get in shape, and learn how to do the job."
x0x0x0x
The next silence lasted almost an hour. She fidgeted, but not too bad. I could live with that. Sitting immobile for long stretches was difficult. For most people, it took a lot of experience to get comfortable with the not moving and the silence. Only a few of us took to it naturally.
"Why not just go in after him? You know, knock on the door and announce ourselves?"
Since she asked a good question, albeit one she should have asked hours ago about something she should have been able to figure out on her own, I gave her an explanation instead of just an answer.
"Because intel says Alonzo is staying with his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son. That's two innocents that are likely to become victims if he feels trapped or threatened in any way. He has a reputation for being quick to shoot. You want to take the chance of having their blood on your head if he goes nuts and bullets start flying? What if some neighbor steps into the hall to take out their trash or go visit their family and walks into a bullet?"
"But most of the people I go after aren't violent!" she protested.
"Alonzo is and you knew it when you insisted on taking the file."
"But—"
"No buts. No excuses. Neither one fixes bullet holes or resurrects the dead. Hope for the best all you want but you better damn well be prepared for the worst."
She was still mulling that over ten minutes later when Alonzo swaggered out the front door, talking on his cell phone. Stephanie reached for the door handle, but I grabbed the back of her collar to stop her and shrugged out of my black leather jacket, shoving it toward her.
"Here, drape this over your shoulders and hold it closed it front," I instructed as I ditched my own utility belt, transferring my primary sidearm to the paddle holster at the small of my back. Between it, my backup handgun, and two knives I was more than adequately armed.
"What?" she was trying to watch Alonzo and look at me at the same time.
"Drape the jacket over your shoulders." Sliding out of the SUV, I moved quickly around the back, opened her door, and helped her out. "Hold it closed in front so it hides your utility belt, but you can still reach your weapons," I repeated. A quick sideways glance assured me that Alonzo was still loitering outside the front entry, talking on his phone.
Slinging an arm around her shoulders, I pulled her against me and guided her across the street. "Look up at me," I instructed, bending so that I looked down at her. "Laugh. Smile. Flirt. We're a couple walking down the street. Just make sure you don't put your arm around me where you could interfere with me reaching my weapons."
I gave her full marks. She didn't hesitate, didn't ask questions. She flashed me a brilliant smile, laughed loudly, and gave me a swift kiss on the cheek.
By that time, we were within half a block of Alonzo. Still on the phone, he glanced at us then away, apparently dismissing us just like I wanted.
"Doing great, keep it up," I said softly.
"I'm imagining stunning your ass for how mean you've been today," she replied just as softly and then laughed. "It's got some great visuals."
We were close enough for Alonzo to hear us and I slipped into full distraction mode. "Come on, baby. It'll be great sex, just the three of us. You, me, and Rex. We'll have all night. No one will ever know."
Her laughter that time was genuine and she missed a step, stumbling, eyes bright with mirth and excitement.
Perfect. I reached out with one hand, as if to catch her, when in reality I was shoving her away from me and into Alonzo while I shifted my weight and stepped to the side. With a small scream, Stephanie fell against Alonzo, grabbing at his arms to try and catch herself. He dropped his phone, cursed, and tried to fend her off. As he did, I stepped behind him and used a leg sweep to take him down. He landed on the sidewalk. I landed with a knee in his back, all my weight dropping on him like a rock, driving the air out of his lungs, and had him cuffed in less than five seconds.
"Here," I pulled the padlock key for the door chains from my pocket and handed it to her. "Meet you at the corner. You have one minute, so move."
Amazingly, she took off running without protest or question. Maybe there was hope for her after all.
By the time I had Alonzo on his feet and convinced him, via a few well-placed body shots, to shut up and co-operate and move to the corner, Stephanie was back. She held up the chains triumphantly, smiling.
I nodded. Not bad, although she should have been watching the street and keeping her hands free, not congratulating herself.
"So," she said, breathing heavily. "Maybe I'm not totally worthless, that wouldn't have worked with one of the guys." She really needed to get in shape.
"Yes, it would have. Rav and I have done that same thing a number of times."
"But… you're both…"
"Right. We're both guys. We both have cocks. In gay bars, it works because of that. Other places, it works because people are fascinated or appalled. Sometimes we do drunk instead of amorous. Either way, people hesitate and that's all you need if you know what you're doing." I shoved Alonzo toward the side street we had to cross.
x0x0x0x
We were halfway back to the SUV when two figures dressed in navy blue sweats with hoods pulled up ran up to the SUV. One of them threw a brick through the driver's side window, which immediately set off an alarm, and the other tossed a firebomb inside. They both took off like rabbits.
Flame blossomed inside the SUV. Steph started to run toward it when I grabbed the back of her collar and shoved her and Alonzo into the nearest doorway and down to their knees.
"Gun!" I snapped at her. When she just stared at me stupidly, I reached over, grabbed her gun and shoved it in her hand. My phone started ringing. I put Alonzo face down on the cement and jerked her hand so that her gun was touching the back of his head. "If he moves, shoot him," I ordered as I pulled out my phone and answered it and drew my own weapon from my back-waistband holster, eyes scanning for any movement.
"Yeah, SUV just got firebombed. Need backup and a new ride.
"We're fine for now but I don't know for how long. Not sure if something else is out there, waiting."
I placed the phone, on speaker, down on the cement so I had both hands free while keeping the communication open with the guys in the control room, and kept scanning, looking for any movement, anything out of place, anything threatening. I heard sirens in the distance, then movement behind me.
Steph shoved her gun back in its holster, turned, shouted at me to watch Alonzo, and started running toward the burning SUV. She made it three steps before I caught her, swung her around, and tossed her none too gently back into the doorway. Alonzo took advantage of the distraction to struggle up and try to take off in the other direction. Hampered by having his hands cuffed behind his back, he only took one step before I grabbed him and slung him—far harder—back to the dirty concrete floor of the doorway. A well-placed rabbit punch left him semi-conscious and I turned my attention back to scanning the streets for further trouble.
"If you're not going to help at least don't add to the problem," I growled at Stephanie
Lester and Breeze arrived before the sirens. They wasted no time throwing Alonzo in the back of their SUV. I hauled Stephanie to her feet and shoved her onto the floor of the back seat, diving in after her. Lester gunned the SUV and took off while I was still closing the back door.
Stephanie was cursing and struggling beneath me, so after we'd gone around a few corners and I felt the chance of further trouble was pretty much gone, I slid onto one of the back seats and pulled her up into the other one.
She brushed her hair back out of her eyes where it had come loose from her ponytail, blew out a breath, and aimed a sideways swing of her arm at me. "Bastard!"
I deflected the punch and waited.
She flung my jacket at me and vented for several minutes, calling me an impressive number of derogatory names and promising all sorts of dire retribution for man-handling her. Finally, as we approached the police station, she wound down. "How dare you?!" she was still seething but was seemingly running out of words—or possibly out of breath.
I waited until Lester parked the SUV, then pulled the apprehension authorization out of my jacket and handed it to him. He and Breeze hauled a groggy Alonzo out of the back and half-marched, half-drug him toward the rear door of the police station.
"If I would get any enjoyment out of it, I'd pull your pants down, turn you over my knee, and spank your ass until its fiery red and you damn well learn to listen," I told her.
"You arrogant prick!" Stephanie hissed as she reached for the door handle
"Wait," I ordered.
Shooting me a venomous glare, she ignored me and tried to open the door. When it wouldn't open, she screamed and slammed her hand against the glass.
"Enough!" I grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face me. "Shut up and listen!" I gave her shoulders a shake for emphasis.
I half-expected her to continue her tantrum but she folded her arms across her chest, leaned back against the door, and glared at me. "So, talk," she demanded.
"Right now, you have a choice. You can sit there like an adult and we can discuss what just happened—and how to prevent it happening again—or I can unlock the door and you can get out and have a screaming meltdown in the parking lot, which will undoubtedly result in you being the subject of the gossip-mill you profess to hate so much for the next few days. Decide."
Stephanie's glare didn't diminish but neither did she demand I let her out of the SUV.
"Tell me why you disobeyed my order."
"Your order! What— You arrogant—"
"Enough." I interrupted her. I don't enjoy pointless discussions at any time; I absolutely wasn't going to engage in a pointless pissing match with a child. "I told you to watch Alonzo so I could watch for anybody else coming at us until backup got there. You decided to abandon that and run straight toward danger."
Her glare disappeared, replaced by open-mouthed astonishment. "You did not! All you said—"
"I said, 'If he moves, shoot him.' Those were your orders. In what way were they unclear?"
"But you didn't explain—"
"Stephanie, when I have the lead, I will never explain an order. Not to you, not to any of the other guys, not to anyone. A crisis situation is not the time for a debate or a vote. It is life or death."
"Crisis? It wasn't a crisis! A couple of kids firebombed my car again is all. It's happened to me a lot."
"You received two death threats in the last week. Threats so credible that Ranger decided it was too dangerous for you to leave the building without a bodyguard. Did it occur to you that firebomb might have been bait? That its sole purpose may have been to get you to do exactly what you started to do—run out into open so someone could take a shot at you or attack you?"
She paled, started to say something but stopped before uttering the first word and simply shook her head.
"Stephanie, like it or not, you don't have the training or instincts that I do. You don't immediately perceive and evaluate threats, then formulate and prioritize ways to eliminate the threat or, if necessary, escape a situation. Every team, and that includes a team of two, has to have a single direction, a single goal. I am in charge and that team is my responsibility, and I will do anything I have to do to keep every person on it safe. That is why you follow my lead, my orders. That is why any man at RangeMan follows my orders without question or hesitation if I am in charge. Every person on the team has to be one hundred percent committed or the team, and everybody on it, is at risk."
She paled even further, her normally fair skin turning chalky white, and her head dropped back against the window.
For a moment I thought I had pushed her too hard, that she might cry and, as much as I disliked dealing with her erratic behavior and arguing, I wanted to deal with tears far less. I loathe dealing with tears.
"You're right," she said softly.
What? Had I heard her correctly or was this a switch in tactics to distract me and make me think she would change her behavior?
Slowly, she breathed out. "I asked Lester about…" She took a deep breath. "About why all you badass, alpha-male guys follow Ranger like you do. Why nobody ever questions him. He said some of the same stuff you just did about a team needing a single direction, and the leader doing what they need to do to keep people safe, and commitment." A third deep breath. "I'm not much of a team player, never have been. I just don't—"
The door locks clicked open, and Lester and Breeze slid into the SUV.
"Steph," Lester handed the body slip for Alonzo back to her.
She looked at it for a moment, then handed it to me. "You did all the work—and probably saved my life."
"No," I disagreed. "I did my job. Besides, you did great taking Alonzo down. Starting from when you went to unlock the chains, you have a lot of work to do if you want to get any better. If you keep on like you're going, you'll wind up dead."
xxxx So, the same thanks continue to apply ... it means the world to us that you take the time to read and review. There are some additional outtakes being built ... have a great week!