Disclaimer: Everything familiar belongs to JE and the creators of Criminal Minds.

Warning: Adult language, adult situations

Chapter 63: Wednesday, August 31st, 0800-1200

MDPD

Prentiss' POV

My team and I are still in awe of how well the takedown went yesterday. We managed to capture Richard Orr and Theresa Gilman without a single shot fired, without anyone getting hurt. It was also a lucky coincidence that we captured two low-level bangers who broke into Marco's home. That gave us the information that we needed to find Cobra, aka Manuel Gallego.

Between Hector and Garcia, we were able to hack into Orr's cell phone, and we continued to send messages to Cobra, pretending to be Orr. Tara helped with the language needed to imitate his style. Originally, Cobra wanted to have a team break into Manoso's grandmother's home, but we changed that plan. Instead, we told him the best shot at getting to Stephanie and hurting her was outside of Rangeman Headquarters. We insisted that both Ranger and Stephanie would feel a false sense of security outside of their buildings, which was monitored and staffed by their people. All that they needed to do was create a distraction to get everyone out of the building, but nothing too obvious that red flags would get sent up.

It was decided to stage a minor fender bender in front of the building, timing it with the arrival of Ranger and Stephanie at the building. If they were to witness the accident, we were confident that they would get out of the vehicles to attend to the victims, making sure they were okay and offering their assistance. While helping the victims, Cobra could take out Stephanie from the roof across the street. He took the bait; hook, line, and sinker.

We shared our plan with Stephanie and Ranger, and they decided to arrive here at 0900 this morning. We made sure that the Rangeman mole knew of their plans, by having Lester inform Marco in the control room where a lot of the men could hear. Within minutes, he had his phone out and was texting Cobra. As planned, the staged accident occurred, but instead of Stephanie and Ranger getting out of the car to help, Ranger was pulling a gun on Cobra from atop the roof. Lester was driving Ranger's Porsche. With his tinted windows, it's impossible to see who the occupants are, so Cobra assumed that it was Stephanie and Ranger. Once he had a shot lined up, Ranger moved in. At that moment, Lester stepped out of the car, and Cobra realized the trap was set. Ranger cuffed him, and along with Marco, dragged him down the stairs of the building and into one of his holding cells in Rangeman. Alvez and Simmons were backing Ranger up, but let him take the lead, after all, it was Stephanie who was being threatened on his watch and his daughter who was brutally assaulted.

Once we had Cobra in custody, it was time to unveil the Rangeman Mole. Boy, were we surprised when we discovered his identity. For the last week or so, we were told that the mole was a man named Jaime Silvio. That he joined forces to help his daughter get out of debt from when she and her husband used Discreet Adoption Services to try and adopt a child of their own. However, we discovered that all that information was fake. It was a setup and a damned good one at that. Garcia was embarrassed that she didn't realize that all the information that she was reading was only created about two months ago.

Stephanie immediately saw through the deception and knew that the information was false. It was through additional research that she completed that Ranger determined the mole to be Jimmy Scottie. It turns out that Jimmy is a distant cousin to both Dickie and Terry. He discovered his connection to his cousins a few years back and joined on to help them as an enforcer. When Terry and Dickie decided to clean house in Miami, they hit a snag when they determined that their targets all had a Rangeman security system. They didn't have a crew who could break the security codes. They realized that they needed an inside guy at Rangeman.

Scottie spent eight years in the Air Force, flying into war zones and out. He had the military background that Rangeman looks for, and the intelligence to pass their tests, both physical and psychological. He got the job; worked hard to excel and learn the ropes as quickly as possible. He was placed on the installation team almost immediately, having an aptitude for electronics. It was from that role that he was able to develop a system to circumvent the security alerts. He was never high enough in the ranks to know who Ranger's daughter was or where she lived. Ranger keeps her location a well-guarded secret that only his most trusted men to know. The Core Team in Miami always knows her location, along with her four-man bodyguard rotation. They all signed a confidentiality clause, which forbade them from sharing her residence with anyone unless she was in dire need.

His background information was made up of half-truths and half lies. He legally changed his name about four years ago to a more ethnically neutral name. His given name was Vincenzo Scutto. Stephanie dug up his original birth certificate and determined within minutes that most of his Rangeman file was falsified information. Hector managed to trace back the evidence on Silvio to Scottie. It was Ranger who decided to keep Silvio in the spotlight, allowing Scottie to believe that we didn't suspect him. At first, we were annoyed that Ranger played us, purposely holding back information from us. However, the more we thought about it, the more we knew that it was the right move.

Finally, it's time to question our unsubs. Alvez and I head down to talk to Cobra, while Rossi and Simmons are going to talk to Scottie. We wait outside the holding cell, noticing that it is the same set up as the one that housed Dickie. We observe Cobra for a few minutes before entering. Cobra seems to be in his zone, calm, cool, and collected. He doesn't yet know that Dickie named him directly, nor that we were the ones texting him to kill Stephanie. We look at each other and decide it's time to go in.

Gallego is smart. He claims that he doesn't speak English, only Spanish. Little does he know; I can understand him completely. Alvez can also, but he's not as intimidating as I am. I'm trying to make sure he knows that Alvez is more dangerous physically, but I'm also no one that should be messed with at any given time.

"Manuel Gallego, I'm Agent Prentiss, and this is Agent Alvez with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. We have a few questions for you." I state to him, in English, working on throwing him off.

"No hablo inglés, chica." He responds. (I don't speak English, girl).

Alvez responds in Spanish. "Her name is Agent Prentiss, not "chica." I'm Agent Alvez. We are from the FBI and have a few questions for you, Gallego."

**From this point on until further notice, all conversation is in Spanish.**

"I have nothing to say to you. I have no idea why you arrested me. I was only sitting on the roof of my cousin's building."

"With a long-range scope, ready to take aim at Stephanie Plum," Alvez responds.

"Who's Stephanie? Oh, yeah, she's the puta who drags Manoso around by his cock." He says smugly before adding, "I have a young kid staying at my house. I don't leave my weapon behind. Too dangerous. Can't risk my nephew getting a hold of it, now can I?" he asks.

"We have your phone here with text messages from a Shark telling you to shoot Stephanie Plum, and if you can, take out Ranger Manoso as well. Do you deny that?"

"I'd like to speak to my lawyer now," Gallego answers with the first smart thing he said so far.

"Well, we can get your attorney, but that means that we will be talking to Shark and Viper until your attorney arrives. We can offer them the deal we were going to offer you." Alvez states as we get ready to leave.

I answer Alvez, watching as Gallego looks at me strangely when he realizes I'm fluent in Spanish. "I don't think the Director will be happy with us offering the two masterminds' full immunity to the kidnapping charges or the conspiracy charges."

I notice the moment Gallego decides to turn on his accomplices. Now, we both rise and walk towards the door.

"Wait. I have information for you." He answers, not wanting us to give the 'deal' to Dickie or Terry. Alvez and I glance at each other before turning around to sit across from Gallego again.

"What do you want me to tell you?"

"Everything," I answer.

He sighs, then begins, "My brother got caught up in Terry's family about five years ago. We grew up in Philly. My cousin got a job working at the Trenton courthouse as a bailiff. About six months into his job, he got talked into helping an inmate escape. He did. It turns out that the person he helped escape wronged Vito Grizoli by divorcing his niece, Terry. Grizoli's henchmen approached my cousin and told him that he either agrees to help out the Grizoli's or he could swim with the fish in the Delaware River. He opted to help the Grizolis. Then, two years ago, he asked me to help take out a guy here in Miami. I got him information and a crew, but I didn't take part. Terry took notice of my assistance and contacted me shortly after. I became an enforcer for her. Mostly, I reminded people that Terry was backing them, and they needed to respect her. In the last six weeks or so, she's been determined to take out a large group of people who she said knew too much. I eventually figured out what her business was. She's cleaning the house, ready to make a clean cut and leave the country.

"When I discovered that two of my crew were raping Ranger's kid, I knew we were in trouble. I spent the last week and a half on damage control, trying to keep myself alive. I ordered my men to keep Manoso's kid alive. Killing her would have sealed my deal and the lives of my crew. I knew Manoso would find out who we were, what we did, and would seek vengeance. Dickie, or Shark as I call him, is obsessed with the Plum woman. He said she's his ex-wife and she ruined his career and life. I have one of those, so I sympathize with him. He offered me a cool two mil for the woman, and an additional four if I took at Manoso. I should be on a plane to some tropical island right now."

** All conversation back in English. **

Alvez and I spend the next two hours questioning him, discovering more names. We quickly put a report together, and I decide I need to let MDPD know, so they can round up the perps. When we leave the room, we head to the conference room Manoso dedicated to us to debrief with Rossi and Simmons on their take on Scotti. He was motivated by family loyalty and greed. He was threatened with a court martial after he was discovered raping a few young girls while on a mission. Ranger was his commanding officer and reported him. He agreed to leave the Air Force in exchange for an honorable discharge. Ranger doesn't oversee the hirings in the other branches, only those who are hired in Trenton. He leaves the decisions for employment up to the heads of each office. Marco would have no way of knowing that Ranger wasn't happy with Scotti's performance. Besides, when he was in the Air Force, he was still going by his given name, not his current one.

Once Julie was hurt Scotti knew all bets were off. He created the false trail for Silvio, using him as insurance. He never counted on Stephanie Plum, knowing that the evidence was too perfect. He wasn't in good condition, a few broken bones and two black eyes. He may have broken ribs. Officially, he fell down a flight of stairs. Unofficially, Rangeman got a little revenge.

"You do know it may be hard for us to justify his injuries to our supervisors," I tell Ranger.

"You're lucky that we are in Miami and not Trenton. My men there are even more loyal to me, and Stephanie. Scotti would probably be six feet under in who knows how many shallow graves in the Pine Barrens by now."

"I want to let you know that we have enough information to lock up Terry and Dickie for the rest of their natural lives. The others will also be held for a long time. Thanks to your resources and help, we got a bunch of nasty criminals off the streets. Thank you for all you have done. We are only going to encroach on your hospitality a little longer. We want to interview Terry Gilman. We don't need to get any information from her, as we have enough evidence to support her as the mastermind, but we would like to hear the story from her perspective. I want to understand why she is set on destroying Stephanie because from what I gathered in a short time knowing her, she's a special woman." I tell Ranger.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you took the time to come down to Miami to help me find those responsible for hurting my little girl. Take all the time you need. If you are still here tomorrow night, I'd like to invite you to a new Cuban inspired club here in Miami. I know you came here straight from another case, and I would like to provide you with a little break before your next one." Ranger tells me, inviting my team to spend the night out with him and his team.

"We'd appreciate that. Thank you, Lt. Col."

"It's my pleasure." He responds.

TNTCE

A/N: I'm back! I have the next two chapters ready to go, and I'm writing Chapter 66 as this is posting. I'm sorry for the delay, but R/L has been crazy. Only another two weeks before my final grades are due for my students, so I have a few final assignments to grade asap. I hope to be able to resume my previous posting schedule until I finish this story. Thank you all for patiently waiting for me to resume posting.

Also, a special shout out to Susan, who went above and beyond edited these chapters while suffering from a migraine so I could get this out to you today. I double checked everything and it seems fine, but if we missed anything, I apologize. Happy reading!