Chapter 7

Stephanie Williams stood, stretched and froze as she saw her reflection in the mirror. The sunlight was coming through the window at just the perfect angle to highlight the strands of gray showing at her crown. Over the years her hair had become more and more unruly as it morphed from the warm chestnut of her youth to the dull gray of her later years. At sixty she was almost completely gray, but due to the competency of her hairdresser not many people realized it. The gray that was showing now was a reminder it was time for another appointment. Her curls were corkscrewed unevenly around her face. Not only did she need color, she needed a cut! She rummaged in the top drawer of her desk for a ponytail holder and scooped the tangled mess back off her face into a more contained style.

She moved out from behind her desk to take a quick full-body self-perusal in the mirror. Her mother had been right about the Hungarian genes, but Stephanie was a fighter and she'd fought off the sudden change in metabolism. She smiled, remembering her mother's dire warnings. And then unbidden Ranger's words came back to her. "That stuff'll kill ya, Babe." But it hadn't.

She wasn't the one who had died. It had been him. How many times had she told him, "Don't get killed," before he'd left on one of his secretive missions? And then…he was killed. And in a twist of fate that had been more painful than she could have even imagined, he'd died when she needed him the most. Right after Joe.

A young man with an unruly mop of his own poked his head through the door. She mentally shook off the past and turned her attention toward her employee.

"Hey boss, there's a dude waiting to see you in the weight room. Some kind of salesman." He pushed his hand across his forehead and dislodged a tangle of curls. She grinned at him and went back to her desk where she found another hair band.

"Here you go, Paul." She handed him the band and laughed out loud when he scowled. "Pull your hair back," she told him. "I don't care how you wear it when you're not working, but it looks more professional when it's contained."

Paul pointedly looked at her messy ponytail, but he must have thought better about it because he pulled his hair back without comment. She'd always known he was a smart kid.

"What do you want me to do with the dude?" he asked.

"Bring him to the office," Stephanie said. "I wasn't expecting him for another hour. He's the company rep for Elite Fitness equipment."

"Cool. What are we buying?"

"I'm not sure I'm buying anything, but he has a new line of adjustable free weights. I'm going to look at them."

Paul flexed his biceps. "If you need a weight tester, I'm your man." As he left Stephanie marveled at how much he reminded her of her old friend, Mooner, sans drugs of course. Paul was way too serious about his physical conditioning to use any type of drug, but he had Mooner's laid back attitude toward life. She let her mind trail back again. What had happened to Mooner? Had his habits gotten the best of him? Maybe he'd cleaned up his act and was happily living in suburbia somewhere. She doubted it and then filed it away as just another question she'd never have the answer to. Once again, she pulled herself back to the present as the sales rep entered her office.

Later, after she completed her end of the day paperwork she pushed back from her desk and reclined slightly in her Aeron chair. She had a decision to make. A year ago, when her partner, Nora, had retired, she'd bought out her share of the business. Now she was thinking of expanding to a third site. She was doing the preliminary work-up before she contacted her accountant, and that was the real reason she had been talking with the sales rep. Outfitting a new gym was an expensive proposition.

She'd enjoyed the partnership with Nora Nowlin. Nora had been one of the first people she'd met when she'd moved to Brunswick. Their acquaintance was established when they met at a YMCA play group, her first social outing of her new life. Their friendship grew from that time. Stephanie had been desperately lonely, and although she couldn't tell the entire story, she had told Nora a believable story rooted in the truth of her husband's death.

Eventually, when Cally was school age, Stephanie had felt the need to look for a job. The money from the WITSEC program had been generous for the first few years and she'd saved most of it. The money wouldn't last forever though, and she found she wanted to work. It was time to fully participate in life again, for herself and for Cally.

Nora was an aerobics instructor at a nearby gym, and when they needed a receptionist, she'd encouraged Stephanie to apply. Three years later Nora and Stephanie had become business partners when they bought the gym. They rebranded the business giving it a name that had been Stephanie's idea and she had embraced the opportunity for a new and meaningful life.

Antiope Fitness Center had been a success. After a few years the opportunity for expansion had come and they'd opened a second gym. Now, with thoughts of further expansion on her mind, Stephanie made one quick turn through her facility before she left for home. Paul was scheduled to close the gym later that evening. She knew she was lucky to have such loyal employees. In fact, her employees were the real reason she was thinking of growing the business when she was so near retirement age.

When Cally had started college and informed her mother that she wanted to be a physical therapist, Stephanie had been thrilled. The gyms were full-service and there would be a place for Cally when she became licensed. Eventually, Stephanie assumed, Cally would take over the entire operation, as none of Nora's children were interested. Stephanie was proud of the legacy she'd be able to leave her daughter.

That had been the plan. Stephanie rolled her eyes at her own foolishness. She'd been naïve to think that Cally would quietly fall into the life she had planned for her. She should have known better. Stephanie's mother had had a plan for her, and that hadn't worked out. Stephanie had a better understanding of her mother now. Unexpectedly she was fighting off tears. A wave of intense grief swept through her. What she wouldn't give for one more chance to hug her mother. Stephanie knew she'd made the right choice to leave and she didn't regret it, but still after all these years, it was hard sometimes.

It was almost unbelievable that Cally would fall in love with a man from the one place where Stephanie could not return. But it had happened. Ben was a great guy, and physically, very much like Joe, which had been a little shock to Stephanie. Cally didn't remember her father, and Stephanie had never shared anything of importance about him…until she had to.

She'd felt betrayed when Cally had steadfastly refused to change her plans. Cally asserted that there was no way she would be connected with Stephanie Morelli. The world thought Stephanie and her infant daughter had died. Cally would be safe, even in New Jersey.

Stephanie had grudgingly agreed, but there had been a constraint on their relationship since that time. Stephanie would not go back to New Jersey, partly because of the safety factor, and mostly because when she made the decision to walk away from everyone important to her, the decision had been made with finality.

When Grandma Mazur died, Brian Gregg, her WITSEC contact, had called with the news. It was one of the conditions she'd made with him, that she be informed of any deaths of her family members. She'd had an intense desire to go back. To attend the funeral in disguise. But when she suggested it to Brian he'd asked, "Are you willing to put your daughter's life at risk?" She hadn't been and so she quietly mourned her grandmother and tried to keep her morose mood hidden from her young daughter.

The situation was repeated twice more, when Brian had called to inform her of her mother's death and then a few short months later of her father's death. Those were the hardest times she had since her old life had come crashing down around her.

She thanked God she had been able to contact her Grandma at the time of Joe's death. While she grieved her lost family members, she at least had the consolation of knowing that her grandmother had shared the news with her mother and father. Even though they would never see one another again, they knew Stephanie and her daughter were alive and healthy, living a remote and anonymous life.

When Cally called, grief-stricken by her husband's death and in need of her mother, Stephanie had no choice but to refuse her daughter's request to come to New Jersey for the funeral. She couldn't risk throwing away everything and endangering both her and Cally by coming back. It might be safe, but then again it might not. And she couldn't take that risk. Cally said that she understood, and after the funeral she'd come home to spend time with her mother, but their relationship, once so close, was now strained.

"Hey, Boss," Paul called. "Are you all right?"

Stephanie turned to see her employee looking at her with concern and she realized she'd been standing in one spot while her mind had been years and miles away. "Yeah," she said. "I was just wool-gathering."

"I thought maybe you were watching TV. That guy is awesome."

Stephanie looked at the wall mounted TV in front of the treadmills. From Paul's perspective it probably had looked like she was mesmerized by the program, and when she saw what the program was she snorted. It was a rerun of an old cable show about bounty hunters. The woman was a bleached blonde body-double for her old pal Lula. That show had always irritated her. Her bounty hunting experience would have made a far better show. Who would have ever thought she'd miss those days?

Who would have ever thought she'd end up owning multiple gyms, be certified to teach several exercise modalities, and had even become a student of the martial arts herself? She was probably much better qualified to be a bounty hunter now than she had been then, but she knew she'd never go back to that profession.

She realized Paul was frowning and she had once again regressed to the past. That wasn't normal behavior for her. She rarely thought of what had been, preferring instead to concentrate on what she had, and the life she'd built for herself.

"Don't mind me, Paul," she told him. "My mind has been occupied by the business today. I was lost in thought. Good thing you called out to me or I might have still been standing here at closing time."

"Uh," he hesitated. "Is there trouble with the business?" She'd recently promoted him to the assistant-manager position at this branch, so she decided to share her news with him.

"No! No trouble. Just the opposite. I'm considering expanding. I've heard recently that there is going to be a building available near the Marina. I'm gathering information to see if it's feasible to expand. That's why I've been a little preoccupied."

"Wow," Paul said. "Three Antiope Fitness Centers? That would be awesome."

"It might be," Stephanie agreed. "And if it works out, there might be a promotion for you. If you'd be interested. It would be a lot more responsibility than you have now."

"Cool beans," Paul said, and once again she thought of Mooner. To be fair, Paul didn't resemble Mooner physically. It was just his relaxed attitude. The clients of Antiope loved him. He was smart, if a little undermotivated, but she thought he'd be able to do the job she had in mind for him should an expansion really happen.

She checked the time on her wristwatch. "I'm leaving now. Call if you need anything."

"It'll be fine," Paul said. "There are a couple of reservations for the mat room, but no classes tonight. Just the regular gym rats."

He gave her a casual wave as she turned toward the front door. She walked out into the sunshine of the late afternoon. Her shadow was long as she walked toward her car. In her peripheral vision she noticed another shadow. She stopped and stared at it and as she stopped the shadow stopped moving, too. There was something familiar about that shadow. She swung around to confront its owner, but the sidewalk was empty.

Her heart was beating double-time. She walked to the edge of the building and looked down the alley that separated the gym from the coffee shop. It was empty. Did she imagine that shadow? She must have. Her gym was in a nice safe area and it was still daylight. She was in no danger. And yet her old spidey-sense had come to life. The shadow had been one of a huge hulking man whose head had been smooth and hairless. When she'd spun around, she'd fully intended to see Tank standing behind her.

What was wrong with her? She didn't spend her days thinking of her old life. She rarely thought of it at all, any longer. Maybe she was feeling guilty because she hadn't talked to Cally recently. Maybe thoughts of Cally in Jersey were conjuring up images from her past. It was time to call her daughter and bridge the gap that had formed.

She turned and walked to the lot on the other side of the building, keeping an eye out for the shadow-man. At the far end two of her regulars were standing next to their cars. They gave her a friendly wave which she returned. She got into her black Porsche Turbo and drove from the lot. She had a craving for fast food which she decided to indulge. And then she'd call her daughter.