Sorry it took me so long to update, I hope you didn't forget me in the meantime. Thank you so very much for your reviews, I appreciate them so much!
Stayce, just add it to the tab. Ranger pays all bills…thank you so much!
Disclaimer: Teddy is mine, but just because he won't go away. Everything else belongs to JE
I borrowed the title from Bon Jovi because I love the song, but it kinda fits
Rating: I give it an R to be on the safe side...some violence
Living on a PrayerChapter 20
The phone slid out of my hand and landed on the floor with a small crash. I barely noticed. I just froze. If I hadn't been sitting down, I would have collapsed.
"Babe?" Ranger's voice sounded like it was coming from far away, not from right next to me. I couldn't breathe. Ranger tried to get me out of my paralysis by touching my shoulder, but his touch barely registered, I was completely numb.
"Stephanie, talk to me," Ranger said and cupped my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him. I believe he shook me gently, but I don't know for sure, maybe the world just bobbed up and down for a second. I wanted to tell him what had happened, but my mouth felt like it was glued shut. The next thing I knew, I was airborne. Ranger threw me over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and took me out of the conference room. I finally managed to gulp in some air and I meant to use it to protest, but my tongue refused to obey me just like the rest of my body.
I heard Ranger yell something and moments later, he stepped into the elevator, firmly holding on to me. I may have passed out or I just missed it, everything was kind of a blur, I just remember the sensation of sliding off of Ranger's body onto a hard surface. All of my senses came back with a flash when cold water hit my face, like I'd been running full speed towards a concrete wall and had finally hit it. I opened my mouth to scream, swallowed water, and coughed. I felt the cold water soak my body before I heard the sound of the running water and before I realized Ranger was holding me upright in the shower stall.
And finally, I was able to scream. Immediately, Ranger turned off the water. Now I noticed Tank standing right behind Ranger, handing him a towel. He disappeared after Ranger had wrapped the towel around me.
"Are you back?" Ranger asked, his eyes studying me. "I'm wet!" I said accusingly. Ranger's face lost some of its tension. "Sorry, Babe, I had to bring you around fast. Do you remember what happened?"
The phone call. Valerie. Teddy had Valerie! "Oh my God!" I gasped.
"What happened?" He repeated, "Can you tell me?"
I slumped back onto the tub's rim. "It was Teddy," I whispered. Ranger squatted down in front of me and lifted my face up to meet his eyes. "Start over," He said, "what was Teddy?"
I took a deep breath and swallowed to get rid of the lump in my throat. I knew how important it was for me to give Ranger as much detail as I could. "Teddy has Valerie," I started and Ranger sucked in some air. "He made Valerie call me to tell me to come over to her house."
"Anything else?" Ranger asked, taking his cell phone off his belt. I tried to remember if there was more, then I shook my head no. "I guess I passed out after that." I said. Ranger shook his head slightly. "More like checked out," He said and helped me up. I was beyond freaked out. Should I call mom to tell her? No, I decided, what good would it do to get my mom worried? Probably she would only point out that it was my fault, since Teddy was after me.
"Let's get you out of these wet clothes," Ranger said and started taking the towel off me. "I can manage, I think," I said and held on to the towel. "Can you get me something dry?"
I peeled off my wet clothes after Ranger left and put on his robe. I glanced at the mirror and wasn't surprised I looked like a wet, angry cat. "What the hell did you do this for?" I asked, gesturing at the shower when Ranger returned with a stack of clothes. "You were in shock. You didn't respond to anything else," He said matter-of-factly. "I needed a moment!" I said, glaring at him. I wasn't actually angry with him but the feeling of wet clothes on my skin had irritated me. "Okay," He said, running his hand over my cheek, "You have five minutes," then he turned and closed the door behind him.
I huffed and did damage control on my running mascara, carefully wiping it off the abrasions, then I towel-dried my hair and put on the black RangeMan shirt and cargos Ranger had given me. When I looked as good as it was going to get under the circumstances, I joined Ranger in the bedroom. "We're going downstairs to brief the team," He said and took my elbow.
Ranger talked to the control room on our way to the elevator. He ordered to inform everybody a meeting was in five minutes and to be ready to move out immediately.
"I'm going, too," I declared and because Ranger looked like he was going to argue I added "And don't try to stop me! She's my sister!"
He sent me a look, but didn't say anything. The elevator stopped on the fifth floor. "We need to brief the teams," Ranger said by way of explanation, "And we need to get suited up." I took that as his agreement for me to come along and followed him to the conference room. I felt my body stiffen at the sight of my cell phone on the table, but I willed myself to not think back to the phone call. I didn't know how I was going to make it through the briefing without thinking about anything else, but I had to try. Valerie's life could depend on it, I realized. I gasped when I realized I hadn't even thought about Albert and the kids. "What time is it?" I shrieked and all heads turned to me. Tank was the first to find his voice. "11:35." He said, efficient as always. "Thank God!" I sighed and sank down on a chair. "Mary Alice and Angie are still at school," I said when I noticed the raised eyebrows around me. Ranger put his hands on my shoulders from behind.
"Perp initiated contact with target at 10:25," He said and I realized the other Merry Men didn't have a clue what I'd been talking about and probably thought I'd finally gone crazy. "Actually, the call was made from Valerie Kloughn's phone, Steph's sister." I could see understanding register on the Merry Men's faces around me. "Perp appears to have taken Valerie hostage," Ranger continued, "The first team is to establish if they're held up at her place of residence."
Tank nodded. "Bobby and I are the first team." Ranger acknowledged this with a short nod. Junior entered the conference room and handed Ranger a stack of papers. Ranger glanced at the top one and then handed them out to Tank and Bobby. "This is her address and a photo with description. As Stephanie pointed out, two kids are still in school and should not be in the house. A third child, an infant girl, is unaccounted for." He turned to Cal and gave him a sheet of paper. "Go to their school and confirm their attendance." Cal nodded. Hal was next, Ranger gave him written instructions as well. "The husband has an office at a strip mall. Make sure he's there, and if he is, stay there. Do not make yourself known."
Once again I was amazed at how far ahead Ranger was thinking. I hadn't recovered from my panic yet, and he was already covering all the bases.
Finally, he looked at me. "Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked. I nodded, "She's my sister," I repeated. Ranger gave me a short nod. "We're gonna suit up next. Kevlar, guns, the works. You okay with that?" He asked. I was okay with anything that would free my sister and kill Teddy. "I'm ready," I said. Ranger made sure everyone knew what they were doing and adjourned the meeting.
We got up and Ranger led me to the 'storage room', as he called it. It was a locked closet with everything one would need to invade a small third world country. Ranger and the Merry Men all had their own equipment, so I wasn't quite sure what they would need so much back-up for, unless they were always prepared to outfit 'guest' Merry Men. I picked a bulletproof vest and a utility belt, but Ranger took the vest away again. "That won't fit you," he explained and handed me another. He was right about the size, it fit perfectly. Still, he made sure by securing the Velcro strips, then he chose a gun for me. "It's a Sig P220, a semi-automatic," He explained, "Think you'll be comfortable with it?" That was sort of a trick question. I wasn't really comfortable with any gun, but this one looked a lot like the one I was shooting at targets with the day before, so I nodded. "It'll do," I said and took the gun and the ammunition Ranger handed me.
Since we didn't know what would await us a Valerie's house, Ranger insisted on preparing for every possible scenario. I didn't know what half the gadgets and gizmos he carried were for. He stuck some in the pockets of his cargo pants, and clipped others to his belt. He had cuffs, guns, pepper spray and a dozen other things. Junior and Ram would be our touch point in the control room. They had everyone's location on their GPS tracker and they were responsible for contacting the authorities. A part of me wanted to call the cops right away, but I knew they would send blue-and-whites with sirens and strobe lights that would alarm Teddy.
Ranger handed me my cell phone and I clipped it to my belt. If Valerie called again, the control room would initiate a trace. I just hoped Teddy was holding Val at her house and not somewhere hidden. The call had come from Val's cell phone, so there was no telling where she actually was. I bit my lip all the way down to the garage.
Tank and Bobby where already on their way and I was hoping they'd update us before we got there. I climbed into the Cayenne next to Ranger and I expected him to go into his zone right away. He surprised me when he turned to me instead and took my hand. "You sure about this?" he asked. Again. This time, I actually rolled my eyes. "Yes, already! She's my sister and she's in danger. Wild horses and Brad Pitt couldn't keep me away!" Ranger nodded. "Just double-checking," Then, on an almost smile, he asked, "Brad Pitt, huh?" I glared at him, "Just drive." I was afraid I was going to divulge more information if I kept on babbling.
He started the car and put it in gear, immediately slipping into his zone. His cell phone was on speaker, clipped to the console. We could hear the radio conversation between the control room and the teams.
Valerie lived with Albert and the three kids in one half of a duplex, half a mile from my parents' house, in the Burg. It wasn't a long drive from Haywood, but today it seemed to take hours. I had seen what Teddy had done to Lester and Woody; I was in full panic mode when I thought about what he could do to Valerie. He couldn't know if The Merry Men meant anything to me, but since he'd apparently been watching me for years, he knew how important Val was to me.
Valerie and I weren't all that close, mostly because we had opposite opinions about pretty much everything, but she was my only sister. And she was the most vulnerable, alone in her house.
I jumped when Ranger's phone chirped. It was Cal, reporting that my two nieces were at school. "Stay on location," Ranger ordered and Cal confirmed. I relaxed the slightest bit; two out of five were safe. "Can you arrange for your mom to pick them up after school?" Ranger asked me. I bit my lip. Of course my mother would be more than happy to baby-sit the girls, but how could I ask her without telling her a reason. I'd have to come up with a good, plausible lie. "Babe?" Ranger asked. "I'm thinking!" I said. It was after noon, so she'd have to pick them up soon. I picked up my cell phone and dialed, I had an idea and hoped it would work.
"Mom? It's Stephanie, can you do me a favor?" I blurted out as soon as my mom picked up the phone. "We just started lunch, dear, do you want to come over?" She said.
"Uhm, no mom, I'm kind of busy right now…you see, Mary Lou and I are planning this shopping trip for Valerie as a surprise…" I was gripping the phone so hard that my knuckles stood out white.
"Oh?" My mother said. I hoped she didn't ask for details. "Yeah, only we need someone to watch the girls while we're gone. Do you think you can pick up Mary Alice and Angie at school?"
"I don't know…" Mom said, "Your father is out with the cab and I don't know when he'll be back. Why don't you just drop them off before you go out?" Damn! Think, Stephanie! I told myself. "Well, we were gonna surprise her, so I'll be picking Mare up and then drive over to Valerie's. Mare doesn't have much time either, her babysitter can't stay long…"
Ranger cut his eyes to me but didn't say anything. We were a block away from my Mom's house.
"Okay, I guess," My mom said and I had to stifle a sigh, "Will they be staying for dinner?"
"Yeah, probably, it may turn into girls' night. Thanks mom, I appreciate it" I said and hung up before she could ask me any more questions or change her mind. "Done!" I announced.
"You're a pretty good liar," Ranger said and I saw the corner of his mouth twitch. I was when I had to be. And with my mom, I had to frequently bend the truth a little, or more.
"We're in position," Tank said over the cell phone's speaker. I sucked in some air and waited for what he'd say next. "Mrs. Kloughn's car is in the driveway. A blue Ford Focus is parked in front of the house, running the plates now," He said.
"Where are you exactly?" Ranger asked. "The side street across from the house, getting ready to move in," Tank reported. "Wait for us to pull up behind you," Ranger said then he turned to me. "Call your sister," He said.
"What?" I shrieked, "What for?" Ranger took the corner and stopped behind Tank's SUV. "See if she answers. The control room will pick up the signal so we hopefully find out if she's inside," Ranger said and pushed a button on his cell phone to alert Junior.
Tank got out of the SUV's driver's side and nodded before he crossed the street and disappeared around the corner, probably to approach my sister's house without being seen. Bobby came on the line, "The Focus was reported stolen in Neptune today at 05:00." He reported. Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune was where Teddy was taken after the shooting. Ranger swore under his breath before he confirmed, "Have Junior tell the cops we found it." He said and put the phone down to focus on me again.
"What do you want me to say?" I asked, panicking. Ranger remained calm. "If she picks up, ask her how she is, if she's hurt, if the baby is with her," He said, "If Gardner answers…improvise." I grimaced. Ranger knew there was no sense in telling me what to say to Teddy, I'd be lucky if I could bring out anything. I took a deep breath and dialed. I couldn't see Valerie's house because Tank's SUV was blocking my view. Ranger turned off his cell phone's speaker when Junior confirmed he was ready. My hands were sweaty and my heart was racing as the phone rang. "Pick up, Val," I whispered, "Please pick up."
It rang four times and I was almost sure I'd get her voicemail when there was a click. I heard Valerie whimper. "H…he…hello?" She sounded like she had to force the word out. "Val, it's me, are you okay?" I asked and instinctively grabbed Ranger's hand for support. "Steph are you coming?" Val asked and I could tell she'd been crying. "I'm on my way," I said, "Are you at home?" I pressed the phone to my ear to hear every noise, I thought I could hear someone whisper. "Ye…Yes," Val finally sobbed.
"Val, it's okay, it's gonna be fine," I tried to soothe, "Is Lisa with you?" Valerie sobbed in response. "Tell her!" Teddy suddenly urged and my mouth went dry.
Ranger was listening to his own phone but kept eye contact with me. I bit my tongue so I wouldn't blurt out anything stupid. I had to calm Valerie down somehow. "Mom is picking up the girls from school," I told her, "They'll be safe." She sobbed again, but I knew it had been good news for her. "Tell her!" Teddy said and Valerie cried out. I grimaced as I was imagining what he was doing to her. "Please, Steph," Valerie brought out between sobs, "Please hurry over. He says he's gonna hurt me bad!" Then she yelped and the line went dead. Ranger reached over and took the phone out of my hand, then he wiped tears off my cheek with his thumb. I hadn't even realized I was crying. "I'm here, Babe," He said and pulled me closer, "We're gonna get her out of there!"
I really wanted to believe him, but I was so scared. I hadn't heard Lisa in the background, I prayed she'd just been sleeping and Val had sobbed at the mention of her name because she was scared for her. I held on to Ranger and refused to even think the other possibility.
Ranger's phone chirped and I felt him reach for it. "We're in position, awaiting go ahead," Tank said.
I pulled away from Ranger so see his reaction. "They can't go in there!" I almost screamed, "He could kill Val right away!" Ranger's face was unreadable. "Locate suspect and hostages," Ranger spoke into the phone.
"He's not going in," Ranger said to me, "They're getting everyone's location and we'll decide." I nodded and grabbed the door handle. "But I'm going in. He wants me. He's gonna let them go if he has me," I said. It was the only thing that made sense.
Ranger reached across me wordlessly and held the door shut. "I wouldn't count on it," He said, taking my hand off the handle. "What I do count on is he's sick. He might just decide that two is better than one." I opened my mouth to argue, but Ranger put his hand on my lips. "Listen to me, we'll get them out of there," He used his index finger to tilt my head up so I would look at him, "I know how important this is, trust me. We're gonna do whatever it takes. But you're not walking in there." He nodded in the direction of Valerie's house. His cell phone squawked but he ignored it for a moment, not breaking our eye contact. I finally sighed and nodded. When Ranger was sure I wouldn't just jump out of the car, he answered his phone.
I still wanted to run and free Val, but I knew I'd never make it to the house if Ranger didn't want me to. I made myself take a deep breath and waited for Ranger.
His cell phone chirped again, three times. "Tank has a visual," Ranger translated.
"And you have a better plan than me going in and offering to take Valerie's place?" I asked and I couldn't quite keep the sarcasm out of my voice. There was no reason for it, the waiting had just exhausted my patience. "You going in is not a plan, it's suicide," Ranger said dismissively. I glared at him and he put up his hands. "I'm just trying to tell you the truth here," He said, "You know I'm right. You can't trust him. Even if he told you he'd do the swap, he could turn on you." When I didn't respond, he put his hand under my chin and lifted my head up again. "You know I'm right," He repeated. "You may be right," I countered, pulling my head out of his grasp, "But you still don't have an alternative." I crossed my arms over my chest to emphasize my point. Ranger lowered his eyes and I knew I'd had him. I couldn't feel victorious though, because that still meant we had nothing. We both thought about that for a few minutes.
I started thinking of the ways Lula and I had managed to get into FTA's houses when they didn't willingly open the door to us. Okay, so we had never had to deal with a hostage situation, as Ranger called it, but my sister had been used to get to me before. Abruzzi had her kidnapped to get me to go with his goons. I had been scared for her then, but I had been furious with Abruzzi. And I realized as much as I feared something happening to Val or Baby Lisa, the biggest emotion in me was anger. I was beyond furious, I was livid. I wanted to scratch Teddy's eyes out and skin him alive. I wanted to hear him scream in pain and I wanted to hear him beg for his life. And then a light bulb went on over my head.
"I never knew you had this evil streak," Ranger interrupted my thoughts. Again, my feelings had obviously been displayed on my face. "Just thinking of ways to kill him," I admitted. Ranger raised an eyebrow in surprise. "That's my girl!" He said after a pause.
"I have an idea," I said, "Lula and I have this routine…" Ranger smiled but didn't say anything. "Can't we let one of your men dress up as a delivery guy?" Since he looked skeptical, I felt the need to explain further, "Pizza, or FedEx, or whatever, anything to get him to open the door!" I was gesturing wildly for emphasis. Ranger still didn't say anything, but he looked like he was at least entertaining the idea. "Maybe another guy could hide as back-up," I spun the plan further, "And eventually, one of them will have to open. If it's Val, we snag her, if it's Teddy, we shoot him!" I mostly liked the simplicity of my idea.
Ranger snorted, "I doubt it will be that easy, but I like the idea," He said. "Really?" I asked, unable to hide my surprise.
"Yes, really," He confirmed, smiling. "I hate to admit it, but between what you won't let us do and what I won't let you do, it's the best we got." He was right, I didn't' want Tank to storm the house and possibly hurt my sister. I mentally cracked my knuckles. We had a plan!
Ranger picked up his phone. "Bobby, take care of the neighbors as quietly and quickly as possible," He said. Right, I thought, the neighbors. Lula and I don't usually shoot anybody or do anything that would endanger the neighbors. I was glad Ranger was here to think of the details. Bobby confirmed and got out of the SUV moments later, Ranger was already on the phone with Junior, requesting more Merry Men.
He ended the call and turned to me. "Here's what we're going to do," He said and took a deep breath. "Manuel is going to be the FedEx man this morning," He smiled a little at that and I had to admit it was funny, "Junior is getting the uniform ready. Gardner doesn't know Manuel, he wasn't part of the team in Point Pleasant." I nodded. We really didn't know how well Teddy knew the Merry Men, but it couldn't hurt to be careful. "The tricky part is getting the back-up in place," Ranger continued. Valerie's house had a couple of hydrangea bushes in the tiny front yard, but unfortunately no hedge around it. There weren't any tall trees either, so the Merry Men had to become invisible on their own. I chewed on my lower lip trying to think up ways they could get as close as possible without being seen.
"Do you think we can pull it off?" I asked, locking eyes with Ranger. He almost-shrugged. "It's the best plan we have right now. Tank is still at the back entrance in case it doesn't work." It made me feel a little better to know that Tank was our back-up plan. "How do you know he's at the back door?" I asked. Ranger nodded at the phone, "His last message was two chirps each after a short pause," He said, "He can't risk being heard, so he uses RangeMan Morse." Right. I'd never be able to learn the meaning of a number of chirps.
The minutes ticked by as we were waiting for an update from Junior. I was chewing on my nails, ready to jump out of my skin. Ranger was completely calm. I vowed that when this was over, I was going to ask him for lessons on staying cool.
When my phone rang, I screamed and jumped in my seat. I almost dropped the phone when I tried to get it off my belt. 'Trenton Police,' the readout said, and my breath caught in my throat. I knew it couldn't be Morelli, but I remembered this readout from every time he'd called me from his office.
Ranger misunderstood my reaction and picked up his phone to call the control room. I put my hand on his arm to get his attention and shook my head as I pressed the button to ignore the call. "It wasn't him," I said softly, still trying to fight back the tears. My guess was that Stayce Krenzler was trying to get in touch with me again, but I couldn't talk to her just yet.
If reading the dispatch name upset me so much, I didn't want to know what would happen once I went back to my regular life again. Probably I should get a prescription for Valium.
I looked up and realized Ranger was still looking at me, waiting for an explanation. "Detective Krenzler," I said, waving it off. Ranger nodded and was about to respond when his cell phone rang again. He put it on speaker. "Talk," He instructed.
"Everyone's in place," Ram reported, "Awaiting orders." I chewed my lip nervously and looked at Ranger. "Move in!" He said and hung up. He took binoculars out of the glove compartment and opened his door. "Let's move to the front row," He said and indicated Tank's car.
I hesitated. Did I really want to watch? Our plans had a tendency to go horribly wrong lately and what if I was witnessing Valerie getting hurt, or worse?
Ranger stopped when he reached the SUV's rear bumper and turned to look at me, eyebrow raised. I sighed and opened my door to follow him. From Tank's car, we had a clear view of Valerie's front door, although we were partially hidden by a hedge on the corner across the street from her house and a stop sign. I knew the living room windows were facing the street, but you didn't have the right angle when you looked through them, Teddy would have a hard time spotting us. I shouldn't have been surprised, Tank had known what he was doing when he chose the spot.
A blue-and-white turned the corner and came to a stop right across the street from Valerie's house, a beat-up beige Crown Vic was right behind it. My heart skipped a beat and I sucked in some air. "Cops!" I almost screamed. Ranger didn't seem surprised. When I turned to him for an explanation, he did the almost-shrug. "It's a kidnapping, hard to keep the cops out of it. More likely though, one of the neighbors called to report suspicious activity," He said.
Mental head slap. This was the Burg! Of course someone had called to complain about unknown cars and men in black.
"We got company," Ranger said into his phone and Ram replied he was going to take care of it. "Ram is gonna call our activity in and ask for assistance," Ranger explained. "Meaning?"
"Meaning we're asking them to stay out of our way but stick around."
I squinted through the windshield to make out the cop in the blue-and-white. Ranger lifted the binoculars, "Officer Malone," He said. I didn't know him, but I thought he looked familiar.
Probably there was one or more plain-clothes cop in the Crown Vic. I saw the uniformed cop talk into his radio and he nodded.
A FedEx truck came down the street and stopped in front of Valerie's neighbor's side of the house. I cut my eyes to Ranger and he nodded, "We're rolling."
Instinctively, I grabbed Ranger's hand again and squeezed it. He handed me the binoculars but I shook my head, "I don't think I want to see the details," I said. He dropped them into my lap and put his free arm around me. "It's gonna be all right!" He said.
I held my breath as I watched Manuel hop out of the truck with a package under his arm. Ranger changed the channel on his cell phone and turned on the speaker.
"Approaching target," Manuel said. He had his back to us now as he turned from the sidewalk to Val's house. The control room confirmed they copied. My fingernails were digging into Ranger's palm, but he didn't pull his hand away. Two short chirps from the cell phone. "Tank copies," Ranger translated. I nodded numbly. Bobby confirmed he was at the neighbor's house, all people had been informed. Since I hadn't seen anybody leave, I assumed that meant everybody had been advised to stay inside.
I could hear the doorbell through Manuel's microphone and my heart sped up. I could see another Merry Man crouching by the FedEx truck, his gun at the ready.
"Freeze!" I heard Manuel shout and then a gunshot.
TBC
A/N: Who do you think fired the shot? What do you want to happen? Tell me what you want to happen in the next chapter, I'm looking forward to your suggestions!