A/n: I'm leaving for vacation early in the morning so this is my last post for approximately a week. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'm shamelessly dropping the hint that I'd love to come back to lots of reviews/critiques. Take care!
Carlos Manoso was not having a good morning.
He began his day earlier than usual because his wife had had too much to drink last night and snored him out of their marital bed at the unholy hour of 4a.m.; not that he wasn't used to early mornings, but since he stopped taking dangerous missions after he married Stephanie they had become an anomaly.
He headed to the gym to find Santos already there, and by the looks of things he'd had an even earlier morning than Ranger. Since he wasn't in the habit of delving into his employees personal lives, he had no idea what was eating his cousin. He now surmised, rubbing the darkening bruise on his jaw, that it was serious. Lester had motioned to the sparring ring and given Ranger a run for his money. When the session ended, they were both dripping sweat and gasping in pain.
And now he had to go wake his wife up and break some awful news to her. He wished he could crawl back into bed beside her and ignore this most grisly chore, but he steeled himself and headed toward the elevator.
He entered the bedroom bearing gifts – not her usual hangover cure, but a steaming mug of coffee and a donut. He doubted she'd take the time to eat an entire order of fries this morning after he broke the news of Myra Costanza's death to her; after all, Stephanie had grown up alongside Carl and interacted almost daily with him during her bounty hunting days. She was sure to be affected by this, especially when the details of how they found her got out.
Setting the mug and pastry down on Stephanie's bedside table, he sat beside her and began rubbing slow circles on her back. He tucked her wild, curly hair behind her ear and kissed her temple. "Babe." He said softly. "Babe, I need you to wake up." She burrowed deeper into her pillow and growled at him; he smiled sadly and kissed her again.
"Stephanie, please, I need you to wake up now."
She sat upright, alarmed and squinting. For Ranger to use her name and say 'please' in one sentence was enough to make her forget how much she hated mornings.
"What is it? What's happened?" she asked, searching his brown eyes for a hint of the trouble coming.
"Your friend, Carl Costanza?" She nodded slowly in acknowledgment. "His wife, Myra was killed last night."
"Oh my God! Myra…geez, she was my age! What happened, was she in an accident?" Her face showed only concern and he braced himself to finish.
"No, Babe." He said gently, tucking an errant curl behind the same ear. "She wasn't in an accident. She was kidnapped and, as far as preliminaries show, she was strangled." He didn't break eye contact, waiting for her to nod so he could continue. "She was found…displayed, for lack of a better term, down in the bad part of Stark. Remember the court where the Slayers took you?"
Stephanie gulped down the bile rising in her throat, closed her eyes and whispered, "What did they do to her, Carlos?"
He threaded his fingers through hers and whispered, "I'd rather not tell you the details. Please, " he said as she opened her mouth to protest, "please, trust me. She was mutilated after she was strangled and arranged in a ritualistic manner. We think, and TPD agrees, it was the Korean gang members. Their first 'calling card'." He sneered as he spat out the last two words.
She sat silently for a moment, then sniffed before two fat tears slid down her cheeks. She huffed a sigh and made to stand up before wincing. Ranger gestured toward the coffee, which she lifted gratefully and took a long, slow sip.
"I've got to go over there…I grew up around Carl, he'll need help with the arrangements…" Ranger realized she was talking to herself, making a mental checklist to try and get through this by helping her friend out. He laid a hand on her arm to get her attention and said, "Babe, you're going to need to stay here today…there's more."
Downstairs
Detective Joe Morelli waited in Conference Room A inside Rangeman Headquarters. He sighed and scrubbed at his eyes; his morning had started with a 2am phone call from another homicide detective, asking him to come down to Stark. Joe was ashamed that he felt grateful to have been called down to deal with Myra's murder; several other officers had been tasked with notifying Crazy Carl that his wife had been murdered. For once, Joe was grateful to being assigned a crime scene.
Now he sat, waiting for Ranger to call his men into the conference room to dissect the murder and strategize. At least that's what Joe assumed would happen.
When Ranger stalked in looking pissed, followed by Stephanie, Hector, and the rest of the Core Team, Joe had a feeling this meeting was going to go to Hell pretty quickly. He wasn't disappointed.
"Detective Morelli." Ranger began coolly. "I believe, when Rangeman was contacted by your department, the agreement was that we would help with the investigative angle by using our contacts – namely, Hector Gutierrez would pass on any rival gang information the Maras wouldn't share with the cops. Is that right?"
Morelli had a feeling he knew where this was headed. He took a deep, shuddering breath, closed his eyes and nodded. "Yes. That was the agreement."
"Then why am I hearing about a motherfucking contract on Hector Gutierrez, Detective? And why am I also just now hearing that TPD was aware of said motherfucking contract?"
Joe opened his mouth to respond but before he had the chance, Stephanie was across the table. She got in a few good punches and her patented 'knee to the balls' move before Tank plucked her off a now groaning Morelli. She continued to screech obscenities at Joe, finding new and interesting ways to curse him and his mother for not drowning his sorry ass at birth like she should have.
Joe finally barked out, "I was under strict orders not to say anything! I swear, Cupcake, I wanted to tell you guys. I intended to after the meeting we had scheduled tomorrow, regardless of orders, but then Myra –" here Joe paused, choked up. Myra had been a close acquaintance, if not a friend, for years. He'd seen a lot of her in her comings and goings at the police station, bringing Carl lunches and dinners when he had to work late. She had been a kind, nice lady who didn't deserve to be flayed open for the public at large to ogle.
He took a fortifying breath and continued. "Then Myra was killed. That wasn't supposed to be the first hit; the first hit was supposed to be Gutierrez. Best we can figure, he's a prime target for a trophy because he's an ex-Mara and he's under Ranger's protection. Taking him out is spitting in the face of the two most feared and respected organizations on the east coast. We found that out four, five days ago now. It wasn't supposed to happen for a while!" He said loudly, panicked when Stephanie lunged for him again. "That's why they deemed it unnecessary to tell Rangeman yet. They wanted to keep it 'need to know' while they worked on their informants. They didn't want too many questions being asked, they were worried the KDC would be tipped off." He finished miserably. He knew that any future working relationships between TPD and Rangeman were as good as dead.
"So it was okay with you assholes to just let my partner dangle in the wind!? Does that sound accurate, detective?" Stephanie spat at him. "You know what, fuck you, Morelli. Forget you know me, and forget you know where Rangeman is. We're done, forever."
"And I'm sure it goes without saying, but your can shove your Task Force up your ass." Bobby said darkly.
"And be sure to tell them Rangeman said 'Fuck your mother'." Lester added. "Oh, and when Rangeman gets a handle on this – because we will – the media is going to find out all the details about TPD's fuckup. No one threatens our brother, detective."
Ranger nodded his assent and said, "I believe you know where the door is, Morelli." Joe stood silently and walked toward the exit, staring at the floor in front of him. He was met by Ram on the other side and escorted from the building.
Back inside the conference room, emotions ranged from fury to indignation – the blatant use of Hector as bait by the Task Force did not sit well with any of them. Stephanie needed contact and reassurance that he was really okay, so she sat, rubbing small circles on Hector's back.
Ranger exhaled and said, "This just went from a recon mission to a coup de main. These fucking amateurs are looking to make a name for themselves by taking out our brother." He nodded at Hector. "We're pooling resources, men. I'm pulling in contract workers for the day-to-day here. I've got RMNY and RM Miami investigating where they can – KDC is relatively new and so far, discreet, so we're having some trouble gathering intel. We're working at trying to gather any leads from the Sureños and any bangers who bled out, see if they've heard anything. Our contacts are better, our researches are smarter and our men are braver than anyone on that motherfucking Task Force. We're the Varsity team here. This isn't impossible, and now failure is not an option."
Stephanie raised a hand and, when Ranger nodded towards her, said, "Not that I don't appreciate it, but why am I here?"
He looked at her sternly and said, "You are, effectively, on lockdown. You're Hector's partner so there's a possibility you'd be targeted as well. I needed you to see the severity of the situation so you wouldn't fight me on this."
Hector patted her hand and said, "He's right, angelita. No way are you putting yourself in danger. You stay here, where you're safe."
"But who'll have your six?" Steph asked weakly, tears brimming. Hector smiled and kissed her temple.
"I'm gonna have to go underground for a little bit." He said. Ranger nodded gravely; shuttling Hec between Rangeman and the Maras would be problematic, but sitting inside Rangeman, while a safe option, wouldn't eliminate the threat. Hector had to get out and network.
"Promise me you'll be careful. Promise you'll be okay." She whispered, and he hugged her tightly instead of answering.
Releasing her, he looked at Ranger and said, "I need to go take care of some personal stuff before I go." At Ranger's nod, he stood to exit. He was stopped by each of the men, his hand shaken heartily and his back clapped affectionately.
Hector made his way to his second floor apartment and, steeling himself, dialed a number he hadn't used before. When a lilting feminine voice answered, he took a breath and said, "Charlene? I could use your help, if you're available."
Charlene McGovern hung up her phone and immediately called the airport; normally she'd make the five-plus hour drive to New Jersey, but Hector told her that time was of the essence. She could reach Newark by plane in an hour and a half, and luckily there was a flight leaving within the hour. She grabbed her emergency overnight bag and dashed out the door, calling Vaughn at home in the city to ask him to pick her up. He was surprised and asked if all was well; she chose to keep things light and deftly avoided answering him.
When she de-boarded her plane, her son was waiting for her at baggage claim. Holding her single carry-on out, he nodded and they quickly made their way to his car.
"Want to tell me what's going on?" Vaughn attempted nonchalance but the worry in his voice was clear to Charlene. She smiled and patted his cheek, and said, "I'm not exactly sure, sweet boy, but we need to get to your sister's in Trenton."
"Is she okay?!" For Gia to call their mother, who lived almost six hours away, instead of him worried him immediately.
"I'm sure she is; Hector's asked me to come. He said he had some news that might affect us." Vaughn didn't reply, but he did grip the wheel tighter and increase his speed until they were flying along 95 toward Trenton.
At Gia's….
When Vaughn and Charlene arrived at Giana's, the house was lit up from the inside and the porch light was a welcoming beacon. The pair quickly made their way inside and were about to knock when Hector opened the door and ushered them inside. After greeting each other, the McGoverns immediately perched silently on the couch, giving Hector the floor. He ran through a brief overview of the KDC's activity, the threat they imposed, and the recent murder of Myra Costanza. Then he dropped his head and took a mighty, clarifying breath before beginning the hard part.
"Because I'm an ex-gang member and because I work for Rangeman, I'm being targeted for the next trophy killing." Vaughn's jaw tightened visibly and the women gasped. "Because of my….sort of dual status, this new Korean gang is trying to show how tough they are by taking me out; it's like saying that neither my gang, nor Rangeman can protect me from them. Because of that, I'm going to have to go to ground and stay off the radar while we try to find out where they're operating out of."
Here he looked remorsefully at the family sitting across from him. "I am truly sorry I brought this to your doorstep. My company is going to post a guard with each of you. Rangeman will make sure you are all safe until this is over, and after that I won't contact any of you again."
Giana and Charlene looked at each other in alarm, and Vaughn sat as though stunned; he didn't even look like he was drawing breath, staring at Hector with his jaw clenched tightly. A look of pure anguish flashed across his face before he closed his eyes and slowly started to shake his head.
It was Charlene who finally broke the silence. "Here's what's going to happen – you will carefully and cautiously, and with plenty of help, figure out what you need to know to stop these people." She rose from her place on the couch and walked away from her children and toward Hector. She knelt between his feet and looked up at him, not breaking eye contact. "And when that is done, you will call us and we will rejoice and Praise God that you are safe. We will go, as a family, and take Benediction in thanks. There will be no more talk of removing yourself from our lives. None!" She said sharply when Hector opened his mouth to protest. She waited until he closed his mouth before taking his large hand between her two small ones before continuing in a low voice Hector knew was meant only for him.
"You are precious to my son, and you are precious to me. You don't go through hardships on your own any more; you endure them with the support of your family." She paused again, waiting for Hector to acknowledge her statement. He swallowed past the lump in his throat before nodding, slowly.
She wrapped her arms around him, tightly, and pretended not to notice the jittering breath he drew in. When she felt him nod slightly, she drew back and asked, "When do you leave?"
He looked at Vaughn, who had so far remained silent. He wore a look of pain on his face from Hector's earlier offer to leave him; the ease with which Hector could withdraw himself from Vaughn's life had upset him greatly. "Tonight." He whispered, his voice full of sorrow.
"Then Giana and I will go now, to the Church, and start a vigil." She declared. While Gia was busy hugging Hector and whispering words of encouragement to him, she stepped over to Vaughn and, in a low voice, said, "I know you're upset, but we can deal with that later. He needs reassurance right now, darling boy." With a final kiss on the cheek, Charlene and Giana headed toward Gia's church to pray for Hector's safety and left he and Vaughn to say a private farewell.
On a private boat, docked at a small marina just outside of Jersey City, a clandestine meeting with a sinister purpose was taking place. A man the others referred to as Heun spoke in broken, halting English.
"To take down Gutierrez is not enough. We take him out, fine, that sends a message, but we need to make him bleed first. You shoot a tiger perched in a tree, you take home a tiger skin. You shoot it face-to-face, you become a legend."
The four other men in attendance nodded in silent agreement.
"But how do we wound the tiger effectively? If we choose the wrong target, we piss him off and we look incompetent." Heun continued. More nods followed, and a photograph was produced and passed around.
"Gutierrez has no family. He only has Rangeman. To take out Manoso would surely wound him, but it is unlikely we will get the opportunity. You will remember, we learned that he is partnered with Manoso's woman. She is our trophy. We take her, we can take out two birds with one stone. We take their bitch and we will have the Maras and Manoso on their knees before us!" He finished triumphantly, amid cheers and laughs from the other men.
The Korean Dragon Crew had a plan – to take down an infamous rival gang member and the widely feared and legendary Ranger in one fell swoop. All they would need to do that was one small, brunette girl from Trenton, New Jersey.