Shorty's Night...
Stephanie Plum-Manoso was happy.
Her life was wonderfully simple and full of love. Work was great, her marriage strong and satisfying and all her friends were happy, Hector in particular. So it was with a heart full of cheer that she went about confirming with none other than Shorty himself the monthly Rangeman get together. As she typed an inner-office email reminding the men of the evening plans, Steph giddily reminded herself that tonight would be a special one. On a few rare occasions, one of the men brought a girl to a Shorty's night or out with a smaller group, but none of the relationships stuck. Tonight, however, Vaughn was coming and she couldn't be happier about the prospect of seeing how he and Hector interacted.
She skipped merrily to Ranger's office and paused at the doorway, leaning on the frame and admiring how her husband made something as mundane as a phone call look so…sexy. She waited until he hung up to pounce on his lap and say, excitedly, "Are you ready for Shorty's?"
Ranger chuckled; being around Stephanie soothed him like nothing ever had. She made him believe, for small snippets of time, that he maybe deserved some of the happiness she made him feel.
"Ready when you are, Babe."
"Everyone else will be there in two hours, but I want to get there a little early. I really want to be there when Hec arrives so he doesn't feel awkward." She shared.
Ranger nodded and nuzzled her neck. "You know, we can get a lot accomplished in two hours."
Gia pulled up outside a run-down building in a sketchy part of Trenton and slowed, hesitating.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" She asked uncertainly.
"I know it doesn't look…inviting, but the pizza is really great." Hector reassured her while stepping out of the car swiftly and opening her door. His eyes scanned the lot, assessing any hidden potential danger. Satisfied, he offered Giana his hand and helped her straighten. The boots she wore added a couple of inches to her 5'7" frame and a little extra sway to her step. Vaughn met them on the opposite side of the car and they all entered the restaurant together.
After taking a moment to let their eyes adjust to the dim lighting, Hector pulled Vaughn's arm toward the back of the dining area. As they rounded the corner, they were met with a rousing burst of laughter that ended rather abruptly as the handful of Rangemen noticed the trio. Stephanie jumped up from her perch on Ranger's lap and hurried to greet them, then ushered them to sit down at the tables. After a round of introductions, the focus turned to Giana.
"So you're new to Trenton." Zero prodded, sipping his draft beer.
"I am. I started last week at the VA rehab center off Quakerbridge and Stephanie was nice enough to help me find a house a couple of weeks ago, which, by the way, "she turned to Steph and continued, "I got! They accepted my offer." She turned back to Zero, though all the men were listening, and continued. "I'm due to close in 3 weeks, so in the meantime I'm staying with an old friend in Newark. I actually invited him here tonight, he's meeting us in a bit; funniest thing, he says he knows a few of the guys at Rangeman!" She finished with a smile at the thought of the happy coincidence.
Les and Bobby raised their beers in acknowledgement. "We know Mark. He's a buddy of ours." At Ranger's raised brow, Les elaborated. "Mark Tatum. Guy who owns The Landing Strip."
Giana smiled. "Small world! I can't believe you guys know Tate, he's been my friend since we were in, what? Third grade?"
"Isn't that when you beat up Big Delores for pulling down his shorts at recess?" Vaughn asked with a smile.
The comment earned another round of laughter from the men and Gia simply smiled at the memory and nodded. "Poor Tate. That kid was either born near a power plant or raised on Creatine. She was bigger than our teacher by age 9; he didn't stand a chance."
As the conversation veered towards their own first fights, the Merry Men became distracted and Les heard opportunity knocking. He leaned closer to Giana and smiled with all the charm he could muster.
"'Tate', huh?" He asked while smiling genially. He had been indecisive on how to proceed with her until he saw her. His mind was made up the moment she smiled shyly at the table he sat near; he needed to talk to her, to make some connection. A lasting impression, a one-liner that could become a shared inside joke...he wasn't sure where this was headed but he knew that forgetting about her was no longer an option for him.
Gia returned his smile and nodded. "I was surprised that he knew you guys. He had a lot of stories he shared almost no details about, so I'm guessing you met him at his club."
Vince overheard her barb and took advantage of Lester's momentary surprise to launch his own bid for her attention.
"Les's home away from home! What do you think you average, Santos? Two, three trips a month? He's left a trail of broken hearts at the club, that's for sure!"
There was absolutely no coming back from that comment, nothing that sprang into Lester's mind that wouldn't sound defensive. Bobby noted the Cockblock Heard From Space and shared a dark look with Les; they would be having a conversation with Vince later.
Giana's smile was slightly uncomfortable, and thankfully they were interrupted by the arrival of the source of their conversation.
"Holy shit, I thought I was going to have to give a blood sample before the guy behind the counter would let me back here!" Mark's voice shattered the lingering tension and he was greeted by everyone present, introduced to Stephanie and Ranger, and placed a chaste kiss on Gia's temple.
Lester, attempting to regain some of the footing lost by Vince's comment (fucking prick, Les thought), ribbed Mark.
"We were just listening to a riveting story about you and a girl named Big Delores." He said with sarcastic cheekiness, playfully batting his eyelashes at Mark. This earned him another laugh and the guys teasing Mark about offering Big Delores a job at his club. Lester did his best to hide the fact that he was straining to hear what Stephanie leaned over to tell Giana.
"Don't listen to Vince. Sometimes the guys like to tease each other and it goes beyond good taste. Les is a good man." Stephanie was speaking softly to Gia, and Les was momentarily overcome by her ability to see the best in all the Rangemen. In a secret corner of his heart that he couldn't yet admit existed, Lester Santos hoped desperately that he could live up to Stephanie's perception of him someday.
Cal, having been brought up south of the Mason-Dixon Line and therefore
ever-attentive to social propriety, asked all the right questions to draw Giana and Vaughn into the conversation. Lester found out that they had a younger brother, Richard, whom they affectionately referred to as 'Ditch' because, as Gia put it, "What kid wants to be referred to as 'Dick'?" She also thought 'Richie' sounded pretentious, so they combined the two. Their father, an Army man, passed away just two years after he retired from active duty in a hit-and-run accident, and from the way she talked about Lt. Sean McGovern, Lester gathered that she'd been very close with her father. She and Vaughn had been named after their father's best friend, a man credited with having saved his life while they were in an active war zone, named Giovanni. Their mother, Charlene had a sister who was childless and a 'committed cougar', according to Vaughn, and a brother who'd married an Indian woman and had two children, a boy and a girl.
"So after Uncle Carl died, his wife, Veenum, took the kids back to India. They've got dual citizenship, so they're back in the states for college now. Diya is enrolled at Ole Miss studying agriculture and Dev is at NYU studying finance. It's nice to finally be close to him; we don't have any other cousins." Vaughn finished.
Steph turned to Giana and good-naturedly teased, "Is this cousin how you met the financier ex?" Lester's ears perked up at the mention of an ex.
Gia rolled her eyes. "Ugh, don't remind me. I'm pretty much a tool magnet so I'm taking a sabbatical from men."
Vaughn muttered, "Crazy talk." While glancing appreciatively at Hector. Hector smiled back and refocused his attention on his coworkers. It had not escaped his notice that several of the men were doing their utmost to grab Gia's attention and openly checking her out as she and Steph rose to excuse themselves to the restroom, so he waited for them to leave before addressing the table in Spanish.
"She is off limits." He said, meeting each man's eyes in turn. "She's a personal friend, and any of you who think you're going after her to sample the goods is going to drop it right now. Find another woman to be your whore."
Waiting for an acknowledgment that the message had been received, he turned his head back towards Vaughn. His eyes met Ranger's, briefly, and Ranger gave a single nod of agreement. A casual fling with Vaughn's sister would result in Hector killing one of his employees, an incident he'd like to avoid. The tense silence that enveloped the table was broken by Mark.
"Well, I'm not sure what you said but it's about as comfortable as a colonic right about now. Wanna go shoot some darts?" he asked, stretching and standing to make his way to Shorty's dart board. Hector rose and followed him to give the weight of his warning time to sink in. He was lethal and not one man in the company would ignore his edict. He was sure that by the late morning meeting, the word would have been received by each Rangeman-Trenton employee.
Vaughn joined Hector and Tate by the dartboard. "What was that?" He asked Hec quietly. The atmosphere had changed when Hector started speaking Spanish, an occurrence that normally only happened when Hec was in the throes of lovemaking. Hector merely shook his head and murmured, "Later." to Vaughn.
As the evening came to an end and goodbyes were made, the men were mindful that Hector was paying close attention to them. They shook hands with the McGoverns, much to Steph's amusement, and left in twos and threes. Stephanie made tentative plans to help Gia unpack after her Pod was deposited at her new house in three weeks time, and Hector volunteered to help as well. Leaving her keys with her brother, Gia followed Mark to his car and they headed back to Newark.
The next morning at Rangeman, Les began his warm-up stretches in the gym. Bobby joined him, wordlessly, and they went through their routine. When Vince entered the gym, Bobby smirked. He knew what was coming.
"Vince! Mats, now!" Lester barked. Vince cringed and, with a sigh, headed toward the area the men sparred in. Les allowed him a few minutes to warm up, then entered the ring. Motioning Vince to enter with a roll of his head, Les danced on his toes in anticipation. The rest of the employees watched curiously; Les, being a member of the Core Team, was at such an advantage over the other men in terms of self-defense that he rarely sparred for fun. When an employee got called to the mats by Tank, Ranger, Les, or Bobby, it was almost always as punishment for an infraction. The men in the gym wondered, collectively, what had been Vince's transgression.
Les darted in, tapping Vince's kidney before dancing out of reach. Vince gasped and circled, trying to buy time for the deep, dull ache to fade. They continued on like this for several minutes, Les biding his time and landing three hits for every blow Vince landed.
"What, no smart-ass remarks today, man?" Les taunted. His face was a mask, emotionless and stagnant, but his eyes blazed with fury and his voice was tight, restrained. "You sure had a lot to say last night." A well-placed kick to the knee caused Vince to crumple, and Les held out a hand to help him up. He was in no hurry to end this session.
"Jaw tired, Vince?" Lester's voice mocked him as he landed a quick series of three punches on Vince's chest. Vince blocked the last punch and returned one of his own, clocking Lester's jaw. Les's head snapped away, then rolled toward Vince with a sick grin. "Oh, shit." Was all Vince had time to think before Lester knocked him unconscious with one well-aimed punch.
Giving a nod to Bobby as he assessed Vince, Lester hopped out of the ring and headed for the doors to exit the gym. He needed to run, needed to be outside to clear his head. Vince's remark, while uncalled for, had caused a burning, white-hot anger in Lester that he wasn't comfortable with. He wanted to believe it was anger at Vince for outing his personal business but suspected at least part of the feeling was shame. Equally as disquieting was the mandate Hector laid down. Les wasn't entirely sure he'd been prepared to pursue anything with Giana; she wasn't a woman you enjoyed for an evening and left behind, of that he was certain. Having that option taken away from him, however, relieved and vexed him equally. Lester let the rhythm of his sneakers pounding on the sidewalk lull him into a state of hypnotic relaxation and decided with some finality that while Hector's edict was serious, if he really wanted to persist with getting closer to Giana, Hec would eventually come around. They'd been through too much together to let a woman get between them.