Thank you for all the reviews and thank you for sticking with me through this:) We're almost done with this story, and the trilogy. I see two to three more chapters max. It was a long ride, but I for one, want to move on to something else.

If you recognize them, they're not mine :)

And thank you Margaret for reading ahead as my beta once again.

Chapter 39—Heading home

Hector's POV

Hal sent me, Les, Bobby, Ranger and Tank a group text. "Bomb has been diffused."

I was waiting for those very words. I tentatively stepped between a pinpoint laser. Thank God nothing happened. After that I took off at a good clip towards the room where Steph had been held captive. Ranger was already in there. He'd given her his jacket and was holding her hand and talking softly to her while they waiting for Bobby to bring a stretcher. I felt like I was interrupting something intimate. I was about to turn around and walk out when I guess Steph caught sight of me.

"Please stay Hector."

"You sure Estefania?"

"Sí. I'm sure," she said. The little Spanish was an encouragement that she meant it. "Thank you. I know what you did," she continued.

I wasn't sure which part she knew. The good, the bad or the ugly.

"Sotolongo got Kraven. We have him shackled in Manny's truck. Someone thinks I should be the one to put him out of his misery but I have a better idea."

"Not me Hec, I'm not killing anyone."

"That wasn't what I had in mind but we'll talk about it as soon as we get you out of here."

It was at that point that Bobby came into the room. He had a backboard with him, the kind the NFL uses to secure players with possible broken vertabrae. He also had a number of blankets.

The three of us helped secure Steph to the board, tucked some blankets around her and Bobby and Ranger carried her out.

I'd finalized my plan and wanted to discuss it with everyone. It was something that needed to be taken care of before we left here and there were only three men I trusted to pull it off.

"Before we head back to the clinic, I'd like to get your ok on something," I said to Ranger as we put Steph into the back of Bobby's SUV. I'd noticed that the car was already running and the heat was on full-blast. I was hoping for five minutes with Les, Bobby and Ranger before they left.

"We need to get Steph checked out."

"I have a plan to dispose of the bodies and Kraven," I said taking the small window I'd been given to open up my dialogue. "I think we should load them all in the bomb room and figure out how to detonate it. It will look like they were building it when it went off. Probably all that will be left of any of them will be bits of teeth and bone so no one will know they were executed. I'm hoping Hal, Ramon or Reyes have the knowledge to make that happen."

"Governor Christie knew we were coming here," Ranger said. "I'd rather be honest and let him know we had to take lives to save one."

"And what about Kraven? You plan to hand him over to the Philly PD? You know he has the money to bond himself out. Since he likes torture so much, I thought this would be a very fitting ending for him."

It was the truth and Ranger knew it. I was a little surprised by his sudden erring on the side of caution. It's not like we hadn't done similar things before. And I was pretty sure the governor wouldn't delve too far into this. After all seven bangers were dead; we diffused a bomb and rescued the fair maiden. Ah, now I saw Ranger's dilemma. How could we have diffused the bomb and rescued the fair maiden if it went off with all of them in there?

"How about I make a call to see if Chris will turn a blind eye if we blow the place up?"

Hal, Reyes and Ramon were sitting on the bumper of Hal's truck, dousing themselves with water and drinking what was left of it. I hadn't yet relayed my plan to them to see if it was feasible.

"Two seconds to find out if it's even doable," I said running over to Hal.

All three nodded in agreement and Ramon said he wanted to be the one to set it since Hal and Reyes had the opportunity to diffuse it.

Ranger saw them nod, so he picked up his 'other' phone to call Christie. I knew it was a secure line and couldn't be traced. I also knew Christie had one.

"Do it," he said, nodding to the bodies after a quick call. "I told him we got Steph out but we had to kill a number of bangers and that the only way to safely diffuse the bomb is to detonate it. He laughed and said this place is on Tom Corbett's turf, do what we think is necessary."

I hoped Kraven was shitting his pants. He'd heard it all. He was going to be in pieces in just a few minutes.

"Ranger?" a female voice came weakly from Bobby's van. Steph. "I heard everything and as much as I don't want Kraven haunting my dreams being alive, I don't want him on my conscience."

"What would you rather we do?" Ranger asked her.

"I don't know. Maybe give him a chance. If he's not secured and can get out on his own after the explosion, I won't feel like we murdered him."

There was no way he was getting out on his own after the explosion and there was no way I was giving him a chance to get out before it. All I'd concede to do would be to give him a shot of something to knock him out so he wouldn't know what was happening. And he didn't even deserve that. Fucker.

"Estefania, how about we sedate him a bit and then leave him untied in there, would that work for you?" I asked her, looking at Bobby. I hoped he caught my drift.

"Yeah, I'd feel better about that."

"Brown, do you have anything in that bag of tricks of yours?" I asked him. He nodded then went into his van to prepare a syringe. I wasn't going to ask how much of a sedative he was going to give him but I wanted Steph to see Kraven walk in, assisted by us, but under his own power. If this needed to be a two-step process to knock him out, then so be it.

Bobby walked over to Manny's van, opened the back door and shot something into Kraven's neck. "This will work fast," he said, "let's unshackle him and I'll help you bring him in."

The other men were already bringing bodies into the warehouse and Cal and Ram were 'removing our presence' from the area. Ramon was pulling wire and explosives from the truck he shared with Hal. I guessed he was going to just set a bomb under the other bomb rather than risk re-rigging it.

Ramon was done fairly quickly and Hal and Reyes went inside to take a look at his handiwork and also make sure all our men were out of there and accounted for. A few minutes later they too came out and nodded the ok to us.

We'd need to leave the area so as not to get caught in any ricochet. We all knew that liquid nitrogen gas was the propellant of the Chongos bomb and that once it went off, the air would be deadly. We'd need to get at least a mile away before Ramon detonated. And hopefully whatever Bobby gave Kraven would still be working.

As if reading my mind Bobby walked up to me. "Don't worry, I gave him another shot; he's out."

"Thank you." My unsaid words were 'and thanks for playing along so we don't upset Estefania any more than she already has been'.

We left the area right after that. Bobby, Ranger and Steph headed towards the clinic. The rest of us followed Hal's truck out of the area and up a hill where we'd have a pretty good vantage point once Ramon detonated. It would be a good riddance as far as I was concerned. Wished I'd thought about it sooner and spit back at the bastard.

My cell buzzed as we were getting comfortable waiting for the fireworks. It was Ranger.

"Let me know when it's over and you know the drill. Separate directions."

"Yes boss," I said. Sometimes he was such a boss.

Right after that, Ramon detonated. Brick, mortar and pieces of who knows what penetrated the night sky along with smoke and spark. It was a good one.

We got the hell out of dodge as soon as it was safe to make it back down the hill. I headed north, I saw most of the others head east. I'd meet them back at Rangeman in a few hours; Argo, one of our pilots and the man I was currently fucking, had answered my text and was waiting for me.

Stephanie's POV

I couldn't believe I'd made it out of there. When Ranger told me he wasn't leaving me I imagined the worst — that we'd both die in that hellhole. I guessed we'd turned the tables on them; seven of the gang were dead and I was very much alive. There were a lot of things that were bothering me though and I needed some answers.

"Carlos?" I asked once I found my voice. "Kraven? What was he doing there?"

"We're pretty sure he paid Ling to take those pictures. I don't know how he knew the Chongos were in Trenton looking for me but I can only guess that once he got the entire picture he wanted in. He could go after you and Hector and the Chong brothers could try to kill me. I think he saw it as a win-win situation. But you don't have to worry about him anymore."

"Are there other Chongos that are going to come out of the woodwork?"

"We have one in custody and we've turned two over to the police. That makes ten in total and the leaders have been eliminated. I don't think we'll have to worry at the moment but the threat of others coming here from California is a strong one. Our Bay Area liaison will try to find out what he can."

"You have someone from California on the task force?"

"We have three; it's a big state with a lot of gang violence."

I thought about that for a moment. We'd have to be very careful with our whereabouts. Carlos and Rangeman would be on the Chongos radar. "Are they going to keep me at the clinic overnight? I think I'd be safer at Rangeman."

"I agree. We'd like to have them look you over. You were showing signs of hypothermia earlier and you're only three days out of your microsurgery procedure. I'd like them to check for internal bleeding too. We don't know how they got you to the warehouse."

"But then I can go home?"

"Bobby what do you think? Will you be able to put a trip to Belmar on your daily schedule to check on Steph?"

"How would you like a couple of guests for a few days? Ashley and I can stay in the apartment."

"You can stay at the house; we have no other visitors at the moment and I'd like to have a couple of men on site in case there's trouble. We'll give them the apartment. And probably Tank and Lula will stop by, but their lake house is only ten minutes away."

"In that case I'm available," he said grinning. We all knew staying at our beach house was like a mini vacation and somehow food would miraculously show up.

"Thank you."

"Yeah, thank you Bobby," I chimed in happy to not have to stay overnight at the clinic. Overnight, ha. It was probably about two am now. By Rangeman standards there were only three more hours to night. By Stephanie standards I was good for another eight, at least.

When we got to the clinic, a gurney and two technicians were waiting outside and helped me out of Bobby's SUV. Carlos held my hand as they brought me straight through to X-rays. Bobby followed behind us and I heard him introduce himself to the X-ray tech. I was pretty sure we wouldn't be waiting around all night for someone else to read them. Bobby knew what he was doing, and for me, the sooner we got out of there the better.

"Looking good Steph," Bobby called from the x-ray anteroom. "No internal bleeding and all your stitches are still in place."

"I can go home?"

"I asked Dr. Meyers to meet us here. He's going to check you over to make sure you are re-warming properly and that you haven't developed any frostbite."

"Frostbite? Bobby it's 70 degrees out."

"You weren't outside in the sun. You were lying on cold, damp cement and your core temperature dipped below 95º or you wouldn't have been shivering the way you were. I just want to get his agreement on this and then we can take you home. I promise."

Well if Bobby promised, I knew it was true. Like Carlos, Bobby never promises something he can't deliver on.