Papi's Princess

by trbbk53

AU story: Stephanie's taken at a young age by a Venezuelan weapons dealer looking for revenge. Years later Stephanie is discovered by Ranger who is on a mission to take the Venezuelan down. Will he be able to save her and bring her home where she belongs? Babe HEA story.

14. Finally Meeting Diego

All the familiar characters belong to J.E. However the story line and original characters are mine. I don't own them and I'm not making any money from them, I'm just playing with them for a little bit.

Authors Note:

It was pretty much tied regarding the POV so I'm just going to continue the way that I am with the 3rd person.

Thank you all for your reviews, comments, favorites and follows. You have no idea how much I really do appreciate it.

Thank you also for hanging in there. I know that for the past couple of months RL has been crazy and I'm hoping that thing have calmed down. I'm already halfway through the next chapter so as soon as it's done I'll post that.

Although I don't know the real schedule for their soccer games, the University does have soccer team or as they call it a Futbol Club and if I read about it correctly I believe they play indoors and is played differently than a regular soccer game, but for this story line I'm going to pretend like it is.

Spanish conversations are italicized.

Universidad de los Andes –Merida Venezuela – Finally Meeting Diego

Carlos and Lester shook the coach's hand and thanked him for allowing them to try out when there were only a few weeks from their first game. They all heard the girls cheering for them and the coach then laughed and joked about them bringing their own cheerleaders. The guys laughed and mentioned that they were good friends.

Carlos looked at Lester and leaned his towards the girls. Lester understood that Carlos meant for him to go on and that he was going to talk to the girls real quick. So Lester headed to the locker room while Carlos ran over to the girls.

He wanted to ask them to wait until they were done changing so that they could talk some more, he was glad when they had agreed but when Estefania mentioned that she had something that she wanted to discuss with them, Carlos started to wonder what it could possibly be about.

He headed back into the locker room and told Lester and wonder for a quick moment if they could have possibly been found out and started to worry what would happen, Carlos was the voice of reason and told Lester that instead of driving themselves crazy they would just hurry up and get showered and dressed that way they could find out.

When they came out and walked over to them Estefania had smiled at Carlos and he felt something stir inside of him but wasn't ready to admit what it was.

She told them that she didn't want to talk to them there so she suggested going to L'Abadia, he was surprised because he had heard about how expensive it was and since they were pretending to be students they had to act like they didn't have a lot of money.

When she offered to pay for everything they both let out an internal sigh but figured they would try to make it look good by trying to argue with her. It was then that her friend Isabella stepped in and told them that what Estefania wants she always gets, so arguing would be pointless. Carlos and Lester at that point nodded their heads and just went along with it.

They walked into the busy restaurant and the boys wondered how long the wait would be when they saw everyone practically fall to Estefania's feet trying to please her they were shocked. Carlos and Lester looked at each other neither believing what they saw especially when the hostess came up and practically dragged them to a table seating them before anyone else. It was Isabella that spoke up again in a tone that let them know that this was normal because Estefania's father was powerful man and everywhere she went she was treated like royalty.

Carlos took notice to the tone in Isabella's voice, kind of like she enjoyed reaping the benefits but at the same time a little jealous of her. She didn't seem like that when they met her earlier so he wondered what would bring that out now.

Once they were seated at the table the waitress noticed Carlos and Lester but didn't pay attention to any one that they were sitting with and when she took Isabella's drink order she didn't bother to even look over in her direction, just kept her focus on the boys. That changed the second she heard Estefania voice, it had taken her a second for it to register who it was but when she did she quickly changed her focus and apologized to her for being rude and inconsiderate and begged her forgiveness. Carlos and Lester had to laugh at the waitress who quickly ran away to get their drinks.

Within a few minutes the waitress was back with their drinks and again was falling all over Estefania apologizing again and then asked if they were ready to order. Estefania just waved her hand like it was fine and proceeded to tell the waitress that she would be ordering for everyone. She proceeded to tell the waitress that they wanted to order one of everything that was on the menu. Carlos and Lester were surprised and started to argue, she started telling them about one of her most cherished memories from her childhood that she had. It was the first time she went to what is now her favorite restaurant.

She told them how it was couple of months after she had gone to live with her Papi and he wanted to take her out. They ended up going to the restaurant and he ordered everything on the menu because he wanted her to experience new things and to make sure that she knew everything they had to offer so the next time she went she could make an educated decision on what she liked and wanted to have again.

She then went on to tell them about the day that she met Isabella and Diego and how she had wanted to do the same thing for her friends and their families. She told her Papi her plan and of course he agreed because he never said no to her. So her Papi convinced both families to join them and when the waitress come up to the table Estefania was the one to order and ordered everything just like her Papi.

Carlos started thinking about what she had said and knew that she was about 4 when that happened because that was the age that Isabella had mentioned first meeting her. He quickly glanced at Lester and they both knew that the pieces were just falling into place and it wouldn't be long before they finally had all the answers. The big concern is what would happen once they had them. It was something that they would have to discuss later when they were alone.

They figured the best thing to do would be to play along so they laughed and agreed to let her have her way, as Isabella had pointed out she would find a way to get it anyway and apparently no one told her no or that she couldn't do anything.

After a little bit she mentioned that she had heard from her Papi and that he knew about them and that he wanted to meet them, they weren't sure what to say. When she had added the part where he was serious and if he didn't get to meet them that he would make it to where they wouldn't be able to see or talk to her they knew they would have to give in and meet him.

Then the food came and they agreed to table the conversation until after they had eaten. Once they had eaten all that they could handle, Estefania got up stating she had to go to the restroom and proceeded to drag Isabella with her. Carlos figured that she was probably given him and Lester a chance to talk alone.

After they had walked away Carlos looked at Lester and switched to English said "What do you think? If we want to continue to figure this whole thing out we're going to have to meet him."

Lester following Carlos' footsteps by speaking English said "Do you think we should stall and tell her that we'll let her know later after we think about it that way we can talk to the Cmdr and see what he thinks."

Carlos thought about it and said "I think that if she calls him tonight and tells him that we're thinking about it, he'll start to wonder about us and think we are hiding something and that there's a reason we don't want to meet him. Remember he's not a stupid man. He's the one who came up with the elaborate plan to "kill" her. We're going to have to say yes, we don't have a choice."

Then he continued saying "I think we do need to talk to the Cmdr about it, but we can't do that here with too many ears around. So for now we tell her that we agree to meet him and then later after we get home tonight we'll call him and see how he wants us to proceed."

They had just finished talking when the girls returned to the table and Carlos looked at Estefania and switching back to Spanish said "It would be honor to meet your Papi, especially since we absolutely want to remain your friends."

Estefania looked at him and smiled brightly.

He asked "I had a thought, does your Papi like soccer as well" She nodded her head and replied "Yes he does, that's who I learned to love it from. Before I came to the University, we would try and go to as many games as we could. Truthfully when I was talking to him I told him that I was watching you try out for the team and he told me to let him know if you two were any good."

Carlos got a smile on his face and said "Perfect, we have our first game in a few weeks. What if he comes to our game and watches us play? Then afterwards we can all go out to dinner and get the chance to know each other."

Estefania looked over at Isabella cringed a little and then said "I think that's a great idea. Although thinking about it now I'm pretty sure Diego will want to join us as well and we all know how his reaction was the first time he saw me talking to the two of you."

Lester at that point chimed in and said "Yeah he dragged you off like a cave man, but with that being said we know how to be nice when we need to be and if we have to learn to tolerate him and get him to like us, then that's what we'll do."

Carlos nodded his head in agreement.

Estefania said "I think it would be easier if we introduced him to you two before you meet my Papi. It would be too much on you if you met them at the same time. It will end up being way too intense and you might get scared away, especially with the way Diego has the tendency to be overprotective of me."

Carlos reached over and took Estefania's hands in his and looked her in the eyes and said "Trust me when I say we don't get scared easily, but if it would be easier on you if we met them separately then we'll agree to meeting Diego sooner. It's completely up to you."

She looked at the honesty in his eyes and smiled. With his hands still in hers, she said "Just understand that he's not going to like you, but it has nothing to do with you personally, but more about the fact that you two are men. He's never liked me being around other males before and even once threatened his own cousin for being too close to me. I'm not even sure of a way that you two could meet him and him not feeling "threatened" by you."

Carlos didn't really want to let go of her hands yet but he figured with what he was about to suggest that it would be for the best. So regretfully he let them go, sighed and then said "Would it make a difference that if we met him at either dinner or a club and if we have dates with us? He wouldn't think that we were after you if we had girls of our own and might be more relaxed."

Carlos noticed Estefania's face flashed a bit of jealousy but quickly recovered and straightened herself up and said "I think that might work, I'll talk to him and let him know. I think meeting at a club would be better as well. I'll set it up so we get in the VIP section. So do you think that this weekend would work for you?" Then she asked with a bit of attitude "Will you have enough time for you to get dates?"

They both laughed and said at the same time "That won't be a problem."

She glared at them and said with even more attitude "Fine, then it's settled. Diego, Izzy and I will meet you and your dates for the evening at El Hoyo Queque on Saturday at 8pm."

Carlos unsure of why all of sudden she had an attitude decided to give it right back to her and said "That works for us."

Since he didn't like the way she was being with them and decided it would be best to leave, so he continued before anyone else could by saying "I think that it's time for us to go now. So Estefania, thank you for a wonderful lunch and we'll see you on Saturday. Isabella, have a great rest of the day and we'll see you on Saturday as well." And with that Carlos grabbed Lester out of his chair and pulled him out of the restaurant.

As Carlos was dragging Lester out of the doors, Lester could hear Carlos mumbling. Lester started laughing in his head until he heard Carlos say "Who does she think she is?"

Lester put his feet down hard so Carlos had to stop suddenly. Carlos looked at him and screamed "What the hell is your problem." Lester stared him down and said "My problem, what's yours?"

Carlos took a long deep breath and said "She thinks she's so high and mighty and thinks that whatever she says people will just bend over for her and do it. Did you hear the attitude dripping from her just now? Can we get dates for Saturday, has she seen us. Yes, we can get fucking dates. Then when we tell her that, she decides to treat us like peasants and gets all demanding about where and what time we should meet, and how she'll put it all together and crap. How does she know that we didn't have any plans?"

Lester was still trying to hold in his laughter and simply replied "Because you told her that it worked for us, so why would she think anything else and besides even if it was a stupid question, she still had to make sure right?"

Carlos not wanting to be placated right now said "But you admit it was a stupid question and the attitude she gave was totally uncalled for, right?"

But before Lester could answer Carlos walked away from him and stomped down the street towards their house. When Lester had finally got up with him Carlos had unlocked the front door and was walking in.

Carlos still having an bit of an attitude in his voice said "We should call the Cmdr now and tell him this new development."

Lester knowing that Carlos was pissed said "Dude you are so not in any kind mood to talk to anyone right now, you need to go and find a way to clear you head."

Carlos yelled "Whatever!" but knowing he was right walked away and went into the garage where all of their work out equipment was and started to get some of his frustration out. He couldn't figure out why Estefania's attitude bothered him so much it did and it pissed him off.

He needed to get his emotions in check before he did something that he would regret. Especially since he was starting to think that he didn't want to deal with her any more and that they should just call the whole thing off and head back home, but he knew that the main and biggest reason that he wouldn't pack up and go home was because the Cmdr had asked him to do it as a favor to him and he couldn't just tell him no.

He finished working out and then headed to his room to take a shower. After he was done he headed into the living room where Lester was and said "Are you ready to call the Cmdr now or do you want me to do it alone?"

Lester said "Are you good?" Carlos replied "Yeah, I'm good now thanks. Asshole."

Lester just laughed and said "Then let's make that call."

Carlos picked up his Sat phone and dialed the Cmdr's number. He answered on the second ring and said "What do you have for me."

Carlos answered by saying "Sir, there's been a development and w need to know how you would like us to proceed."

The Cmdr impatiently said "Well tell me."

Carlos responded by telling him everything that had happened and how Estefania's father wanted to meet them and how they were going to the club this weekend to meet her overprotective boyfriend, including them needing to get dates.

The Cmdr said "We have enough time to send a couple of agents over, if you want to use them for dates. Do you want to do that?"

Lester spoke up at that point and said "No, we'll be fine. If we bring more people over it may be harder to keep our cover and besides whoever we bring would have to know all about the Jimenez's because she's known everywhere and sometimes you can't fake that first meeting."

The Cmdr agreed and then said very excitedly told them "Great work boys, I'll fax you a copy of what Osvaldo looks like so when you meet him, you'll be able to tell right away if it's him."

Carlos said "Thank you Cmdr, once we have a positive ID then we will let you know and then we can decide what needs to be done at that point."

The Cmdr replied "Perfect boys, I look forward to hearing from you in a few weeks." And then he hung up.

Lester looked at Carlos wiggled his eyebrows and said "I think we should go into the next town over and find a couple of hotties to take on Saturday. This way there is no chance that they know any of them personally and maybe we'll get lucky as well. I know it's been way to long for either of us."

Lester saying that got Carlos thinking about Estefania's reaction to them getting dates again. Thinking that maybe she was jealous and that's what was bothering her. At that moment he realized that she really had no reason to feel that way since she had a boyfriend. With that he looked at his cousin and said "Sounds perfect man. "

Lester smiled at him and gave him a fist bump, wiggled his eyebrows and said "Damn right it does." Carlos just laughed and nodded his head in agreement.

So the next night Carlos and Lester drove to over to El Vigia and walked into La Pampa Lounge.

They walked up to the bartender and ordered a couple of drinks, sitting down at the other end of the bar the guys noticed two very beautiful women checking them out. They were really good looking women so they started to walk over to them.

As soon as they were in front of them, the girls look up at them and started smiling and giggling both of them being a little tipsy. One of them had a very dark complexion with long black wavy hair and dark brown sultry eyes and the other one had medium length brown hair that had a little bit of curls at the end and deep green eyes.

Carlos smiled at them and said "Hi, my name is Carlos and this is my cousin Lester."

The long black haired one looked at him reached her hand out and said "Hi. I'm Genesis and this is my best friend Sharia. Nice to meet you."

Before Carlos could take her hand, Lester butted in and gave her his best smile took her hand and kissed it while saying "The pleasure is all mine." She looked into his eyes and blushed.

Seeing that Lester had staked his claim on Genesis, he took a quick look at Sharia and a quick thought flashed in his head that thank goodness that there was no resemblance to another brown haired woman he knew.

He gave his head a small shake to clear out his mind and then reached over and grabbed Sharia's hand and gave it a kiss just like Lester had done with Genesis.

After the introductions were done they decided to move to a table where is was more quieter so they could hold a conversation without having to yell over the noise. The guys started talking about themselves and telling the ladies that they were college students over at the University. The ladies told them that they didn't have a chance to go to University but that they were out tonight celebrating Sharia's job promotion.

Sharia told them they both work at the local airport and that she is now one of the Leads in the Ticket Customer Service Department. Genesis said she works in the same department as Sharia has a Customer Service Rep.

Lester asked with a big smile on his face "Well do you mind if we hang out with you for the remainder of the night to help you celebrate?"

Genesis looked over at Sharia and she nodded her head so Genesis said "We'd really like that. Do you have to be back to the University at a certain time?"

Carlos looked at the ladies and said "No we don't. We don't live on Campus we have our own house so we don't have to be back at a certain time. We just need to make sure that we get home in time to get up so we make it to our classes tomorrow."

Genesis and Sharia looked at each other and smiled, Sharia said "That's cool."

So they spent the rest of the night dancing and drinking and getting to know each other and celebrating.

When the bar closed down the guys started walking the ladies to their car.

Once they were at the back of the Sharia's car Carlos said "We had a great time tonight and we were wondering if you two aren't working if you would like to come with us on Saturday night, we're meeting some friends at El Hoyo Queque at 8pm and would really like it if you would join us."

Sharia looked over at Genesis and she gave a slight nod, so Sharia said "Although we do have to work on Saturday, we only work until 4pm so we'd love to go."

Lester threw his arm around Genesis shoulder walked her over to where the passenger door was and and pulled her closer to him and said "That's great! So do you want to meet us there or would you rather come to the house and then we all go together?"

Genesis said "I think it would be better for now if we met you at the clue." Then Lester leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Afterwards she just looked at him and gave him a shy smile.

While she was doing that Carlos lead Sharia to the driver's side door and leaned in gave her a small kiss on the lips and said "I can't wait to see you on Saturday. Thanks for agreeing to go with us to meet our friends."

Each couple exchanged phone numbers and then got into their cars and drove off.

Once they were on their way home Carlos said to Lester "I don't think that we should activity seek out Estefania for the rest of the week."

Lester wanting to call Carlos out said "That's a bunch a bullshit you're just pissed at her and that's why you don't want to see her."

Carlos knowing that he was partially right decided not to comment, so they spent the rest of the ride home not saying anything and in complete quiet.

Once they got home they each went their own rooms.

Carlos sitting on his bed started thinking about everything and tried keeping a level head about things. He started to feel bad about hitting on Sharia because he knew that he was attracted to Estefania but then rationalized to himself that it wasn't a good thing to think or feel that way for a couple of reasons. One because she's the reason he's on this mission and two she has a boyfriend.

o after a bit of internal debating he decided that he just needed to ignore his feelings for Estefania and only remain friends. So he picked up his phone and sent a text to Sharia.

He sent: Did you make it home safe?

She replied: Sure did. You?

He replied: Yep.

She replied: I'm really glad that I met you tonight.

He said: Me too.

She replied: You don't talk much do you.

He replied: Nope, I'm more of a action person.

She replied: Interesting, maybe one day you can show me just how much of an action guy you are.

He replied: Oh it will be a whole lot more than interesting when that happens.

She replied: Wow... kind of full of yourself aren't you?

He replied: Not full of myself just confident, there's a difference. And I've never heard any complaints.

She replied: Oh I bet you haven't. Well hate to cut this short but I have to go to sleep so I can get up in the morning for work.

He replied: OK. Have a great night.

She replied: You too.

He shut his phone off and then got ready for bed. Thinking about his conversation with Sharia he let a small smile cross his face and realized that he was looking forward to going to the club on Saturday and it wasn't because he was going to see Estefania.

The rest of the week flew by with Carlos and Lester going to school and soccer practice and texting and talking to Sharia and Genesis.

Finally Saturday came and the guys got ready to go to the club. They had decided that they would meet the girls at 7:45 in front of the club.

So when they saw them standing there they walked up and gave them a hug. Carlos threw his arm around Sharia shoulders and moved her towards the door, as Lester was doing the same with Genesis.

When they got to the door Carlos told the bouncer "We're guests of Estefania Jimenez."

The bouncer looked at them and said "Names". Lester said "Carlos and Lester and guests." The bouncer nodded his head and opened the door for them.

While they were walking through the door Sharia looked over at Genesis giving her a confusing look. Genesis just shrugged her shoulders.

Letting her curiosity getting the better of her, Sharia put her arm around Carlos's waist and said "How do you know Ms. Jimenez?"

Carlos looked at her and said "We ran to each other at school and we became friends with her and her best friend. We're actually here tonight so we can meet her boyfriend."

Sharia just nodded her head, she wasn't sure how to proceed from here, she had heard things about the Jimenez family and wasn't sure that she wanted to get involved with someone who was close with them. It was something she'd have to talk to Genesis later.

Once they had made it inside they were escorted upstairs to the VIP area. As soon as they get up there they noticed that Diego and Isabella were up there but they didn't see Estefania.

Isabella saw them come in and walked up to them and gave them each a hug. After hugging Lester he introduced Genesis and Sharia to her. Once the introductions were out of the way Carlos was getting ready to ask where Estefania was at when Diego walked over.

He reached his hand out to Carlos and said "I'm Diego, you must be Carlos." and then reached over to Lester to shake his hand and said "and you must be Lester."

When Carlos gave him a questioning face Diego smiled and said "Estefania described you guys to me." Before Diego could say anything else Carlos interrupted him and said "Speaking of which, where is Estefania? I don't see her. Is she here yet?"

Diego looked at him and said "She isn't here, she had an family emergency and had to leave."

Carlos and Lester quickly looked at each other. Then Carlos forgetting completely about Sharia and got in front of Isabella and said "I hope everything is OK. When will she be back?"

Not liking the way that Carlos just ignored his date to ask about Estefania Diego said in an annoyed voice "Don't know. She got a call from her dad on Thursday and took off with her bodyguards. When she takes off like this she doesn't tell us much and as far as when she'll be back don't have a clue."