If you recognize them, I can't take the credit. :) And a big thanks to Margaret once again for reading ahead and pointing out my typos. Thank you Maragret :)

Hopefully this chapter will explain Stephanie's bizarre dream and we'll get an insight into just how Hector thinks.

And thank you for all the reviews; they really do keep me going.

Chapter 18—Getting inside their heads

Ranger's POV

Well that wasn't the worst dream that had ever been relayed to me and I sincerely doubted that Stephanie told me all of it. The parts she mentioned were disturbing and I can only guess about the parts she didn't. No wonder she had to empty her stomach.

I had my own take on that dream and it had nothing to do with the Morelli brothers. Mickey Kraven was still on the loose and his method of retaliation was to brutally disfigure his 'enemies' using archaic devices, which led to a long, drawn out death. The profile was similar to her dream, although the death part hadn't come yet. I'd done research and I knew exactly which medieval tool could tear the flesh off a man's penis like she described. What I didn't know was how her mind was able to replicate it almost photographically. I was sure I never showed her and without a name for the tool, it usually didn't show up in a google. Crocodile shears.

It was bugging me that we hadn't zeroed in on Kraven's whereabouts yet. A part of me wanted to add more men to Erik's team and find the bastard already but I knew it wasn't a paying job, just a personal one, and I'd already given it more resources than necessary. There was a bounty on him but this time Vinnie did not write the bond so we couldn't even bring him in as a legitimate capture. At best we'd have to make him disappear when and if we found him.

I looked over at Stephanie. She'd calmed since her dream but she was still looking agitated. I wondered if she had picked up on something and was now mulling it around in her head.

"Babe, are you ok?"

"I'm fine Carlos. Are we almost there?"

She was not fine. "We have about another hour of driving ahead of us. Do you need to stop?"

"No. I'm ok. Do you think I was dreaming about something Kraven would do?"

There it was. "Yes. And I was just thinking about adding more men to the search to find him, although I can't justify the monetary outlay. Do you have any ideas?"

"At the moment no. Monetary outlay?"

Oh shit, I never want her to think of herself as a line item on any budget again.

"Sebring has the bond, not us."

"So we won't get a capture fee, but were still looking for him right?"

"Right. Erik and Eugene have a team on the case. We're scouring Bergen County in Jersey and Rockland County in New York. He has to be somewhere in either of the two counties just by the close proximity to venues he's visited. We'll get him eventually." I hoped I sounded surer than I was feeling at the moment. We'd been searching warehouse areas and other open spaces for over a week. And I really didn't want Steph thinking about that faux pas I blurted out.

"Babe can you google restaurants in Siesta Key and see if you can find us a nice place for dinner tonight?"

"Something dark and candle-lit," I added, hoping she'd get the hint that I wanted to set the mood to make love to her afterwards. Well I want to make love to her every waking moment of the day, but especially tonight. I needed to take away those demons that haunted her and my dick got hard just thinking about it.

She just looked over at me quizzically so I reached for her hand and brought it to my lap.

"Oh," she said and then she smiled at me as her hand skimmed my crotch.

"It's what you do to me Babe. I can't help it," I answered her honestly.

"Mmmm and you don't want to know what that does to me or we'll be pulling off the road for a short and sweet."

I wouldn't mind doing that but I knew she wasn't an exhibitionist and pulling over would put us into the line of sight of anyone driving by. It wasn't an option as far as I was concerned.

"We'll be at the hotel in less than an hour. I think we'll be much more comfortable there and I don't think you'll be in the mood anymore once we pull over and cars start slowing down to watch us."

She paused at that one. No, she wasn't an exhibitionist.

"Carlos, is there something wrong with me?"

"Babe?"

"You know…I was drawn to Anthony's tendons and gnarled flesh like a moth to a flame and now I was thinking about causing an accident on Alligator Alley."

"But you didn't. You have a healthy imagination. There's nothing wrong with that." And I was the recipient of whatever her mind could come up with. It was a win/win as far as I was concerned.

I'd taken myself out of pocket for the next few days, but if an emergency arose the guys knew they could still call me, so when my phone buzzed in my pants, I took it out and handed it to Steph. Although the Mercedes had Bluetooth I wanted whoever was calling to know that Stephanie was with me and to feel free to talk around her.

It was Hector.

Once they got pleasantries out of the way, I hit the hands-free button on my steering wheel so we could all talk freely.

"Boss have you checked your Rangeman emails lately?"

"I'm on vacation."

"We'll let me tell you what's sitting in your inbox..."

"Let me guess. More pictures from Kraven..."

"Correct. And these were meant for me."

I thought about Steph's dream. "Crocodile shears?" I asked. Hector knew exactly what they were created for.

Even though I couldn't see him I knew his face had distorted into a grimace.

"Yes. How..."

"Your partner had a dream."

"About me?"

"Not exactly. It was Anthony Morelli. He'd been treated to the crocodile shears."

"Fitting. Estefania definitely has a talent for the absurd. When did she have this dream?"

"About an hour and a half ago..."

"Just around the time the email was sent."

Shit.

"I know I can't order you to stay inside but can you at least take someone with you when you go out? And I'd like to have a discreet backup team follow you around. I'll ask Bobby to switch out Raphael so you two can be exclusive for a few days. Kraven wouldn't live to see another day if he messed with the two of you."

"Since I'm still healing, I'll pretend that's not an insult."

"It wasn't meant as one and I'd rather be safe than sorry. Deal with it Santiago."

Hector's POV

This was getting old and I didn't appreciate being the benefactor of Kraven's nightmare. Whatever we were doing to find him wasn't enough. I knew Ranger wouldn't take me up on my offer but I was ready to go door-to-door on my own and when I found that sadist, I'd use his fucking crocodile shears on him. Or maybe not. That was wasted effort when I could just blow his brains out. But in the meantime I needed to get back to Trenton and hopefully repair our relationship with the Latin Kings. It was the only way Tank and Brett would be allowed back in the foreseeable future.

No matter how hard I tried to get Kraven out of my mind, I couldn't. And it wasn't that I was fearful he'd get to me. I doubted that highly and I had already proven I wasn't going to sit back and let him hurt Steph or I. So why was I almost incapable of tuning him out? I wondered if it had to do with an idea that hit me in passing after my interview with Jace Williams yesterday.

I wondered what would happen if Steph and Jace worked on the Kraven angle together. Jace's comment about his own form of ESP was what set my mind racing. Steph's spidey sense would usually tell her when things felt off, but she was not always one to heed her own advice. If Jace had this too and we put them in a room together with a map of the warehouse areas in Bergen and Rockland counties, I wondered if one could set off the other. Neither were familiar with the areas and they'd be going by instinct alone. It was well worth a try, although one that would have to be delayed. Jason Williams was still on his honeymoon and Steph was on a short vacation with Ranger. I'd have to let this sit for at least a week, but I felt compelled to talk to Steph about it. So I did what I normally wouldn't do. I disturbed Ranger and Steph for the second time in a day. More specifically the second time in fifteen minutes.

"Yo."

I wasn't thinking, I mistakenly hit redial and now I had Ranger. "I meant to call Estefania."

He handed the phone over to her.

I told her what had been going through my mind and I felt her hesitating.

"Talk to me Chica. What's bothering you?"

"Well this may sound stupid..."

"Nothing you say is stupid. Trust your instincts."

"Ok. Um. Well. You know. It used to be that you guys trusted my spidey sense and we went with it. Jason Williams is an unknown. What if he cancels out any instincts I have? What if we don't get along? What if he was lying? What if..."

"Are you...jealous? Is that what's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Carlos asked me that too. I'm feeling something. Maybe it is jealousy. I don't know."

"There's nothing to be jealous about. And tink of this as a little experiment. If it doesn't work out, we don't have to do it again."

"Ok, I'll try. When do you want to do this?"

"Jason is going to start officially in two weeks but he said if we needed him he could probably work as a contract employee beginning next week. His ladder company knew he was interviewing with us and they were anticipating him getting the job. And he officially gave notice this morning."

"We'll be back in Trenton on Tuesday."

"I have aerial photographs, maps and blueprints. I'll talk to Jace and see if I can get him on board. I'll let you know what he says."

"Ok, but Hector?"

"¿Que?"

"Be careful. Kraven wants you as much as he wants me."

"I know. You tink I want to be a victim of his shears? I don't tink so," I told her and then laughed. He would never get me. My instincts were sharper than his.

I hung up with Steph and called Raphael. I was going to call 'the turd' but I wanted Rafe to be onboard with what I was going to tell him.

"Hola hermano. ¿Que tal?" Rafe answered in Spanish.

"Did you know that Ranger agreed to give some untraceables to Sotolongo?"

"Sí. And?"

"I'm sure this is something the LKNs don't know and wouldn't appreciate. The Marielitos aligned with them so in their minds they should be the ones handing over the firepower, right?"

"Sí, that makes sense."

"So don't you tink they're going to wonder where Sotolongo and his men got the weapons from, if not them?"

"I would and I'd be pissed to learn that they came from Ranger who says he's neutral."

"Exactly."

"So what do you plan to do?"

"We talk to Tater. We let him know about the upcoming war the Marielitos are expecting. Let him know they asked for guns..."

"Not a good idea..."

"Hear me out. We tell him that the Marielitos were not going to ask them for the weapons because this is their war and they wanted to fight it themselves. They will respect that. But if no one is talking, they will feel betrayed. We don't involve Rangeman. We are just a couple of ex-bangers who have some inside information."

Rafe didn't say anything.

"Rafe?"

"It could backfire and the Kings could come after us."

"It won't backfire. It would only turn ugly if they were kept in the dark only to find out later that the Marielitos got the untraceables from Ranger as part of a deal. We tell them first. Tater will be appreciative. And they still haven't named their new Inca. This could be a feather in Tater's cap if he's the one who brings the info in. Although I'm still in Pablo Vasquez' corner."

"So why are you telling Tater and not Vasquez then?"

"Because Tater isn't that smart. He won't dig deeper. He'll accept what we tell him at face value."

"Dig deeper?"

"Ranger is using the weapons as a payback for Sotolongo putting out the word that we had nothing to do with 'Nandez's death. And we didn't, that's not a lie but Vasquez would most likely dig deeper and learn that the guns were a form of payback. Then we'd be in the middle of a steaming heap. Trust me, Tater is the person to talk to."

"Ok. Do you want to call Tater or should we do this in person?"

"I tink I'd like to call him. I'm in Florida, so is Ranger, I hear things."

"So next steps?"

"He views us as a team. That's why I wanted to get you onboard before I did anyting. We call him together. Now is as good a time as any."