. .oOo.

Chapter 10

Arriving early to work, Stephanie pulled her car into her regular spot and headed to the elevator. From somewhere deep in her shoulder bag she could feel the buzz of a new text just seconds before the notification ring sounded. With one hand she dug around feeling for her phone as the elevator took her to the fifth floor. Finally she found it and pulled it out. A double tap with her finger turned on the screen and displayed Ranger's name as the person who had sent the message. She swiped it open and looked down at the words.

The doors opened and she stepped out slowly. Her hand trembled, and Stephanie nearly dropped her phone. Her heart was racing, and she had to sit down before her legs wouldn't hold her up anymore. Stephanie stumbled over to the first chair that she could see and dropped into it. She was staring at the phone still cradled in her hand, for a long time. And now she was finding it difficult to catch her breath. But breathing was not what she was thinking about.

Reading Ranger's words seemed to have released all of the anxiety, all of the tension that had been building up inside of her for weeks now. The relief nearly made her cry. Tears did fill her eyes, and yet she felt like shouting for joy at the same time.

Suddenly realizing that she was not alone, Stephanie stood shakily. Doing her best to smile, she nodded a shy hello to the guys who were watching her so intently as she hurried down the hallway. It only took her another minute or so to reach her cubicle where she knew she would have a bit of privacy.

Sitting down again, she took another look at the message. Still a man of few words, Ranger had managed to say everything that she had wanted to hear for so long.

"Miss you!

Can't wait to see you again!

Wait for me.

R"

It was easy to read a million things into those few words, but Stephanie took them to mean exactly what they said. Her eyes sparkled with tears of joy, relief. Still trying to catch her breath, she couldn't help but smile. She knew it was a big goofy smile, but she didn't care. Ranger wanted to be with her. Any doubts that she'd had eroded away leaving her deliriously happy.

"See you when you get back," she wrote her reply and sent it immediately. There was so much more she wanted to say, but she didn't want to seem too overly eager. Even if she totally was. Reluctantly she tucked the phone into her pocket. Finally letting go of all of the anxiety, that had plagued her for weeks, made her feel as if a huge weight had been lifted.

She had been so worried all of this time. Afraid that she had ruined any chance that she might have had be close to the one, and only, man who had ever made her feel real. Her heart had belonged to Ranger since the first moment she had seen him. She knew that now, and she would always wonder why it had taken so long for her to realize it, and to decide to fight for the chance to be with him.

Settling down enough to get any work done was not easy, but eventually Stephanie managed to start on the list of searches that Rodriguez had left for her. Showing incredible restraint, she only pulled out her phone, to re-read Ranger's message, about three times an hour.

Resisting the urge to send him a stream of messages of her own, only lasted until noon. Stephanie had sent three short messages and was working on the fourth when she heard a disturbance on the comm floor. Hurriedly, she finished and sent the last one as she made her way toward the noises.

All of the guys were in motion when she got to the main desk. Most of them were running toward the stairwell, their guns out and at the ready. Something was definitely wrong. Before she could grab anyone and ask what was going on, the elevator opened and Cal stepped out, accompanied by a man she had never seen before. They moved quickly down the hall toward Ranger's office. Lester joined them and motioned for Stephanie to come along too.

Getting close to a full blown panic mode, she rushed to catch up with them. Her heart was pounding again. Fear that she couldn't name came flooding into her mind, and she wished that Ranger were here now. She always felt so safe when he was with her. How often had she recognized that fact?

For the first time in weeks, she allowed herself to picture how it would be to wrap her arms around him. Imagined how it would feel to be held in his arms again. The realization that this was no fantasy, not just a hope anymore, calmed her immediately.

A warmth started in her heart, spreading quickly throughout her body. Everything was going to be okay. She knew Ranger would be back with her. It would happen soon, and she couldn't wait. This new found tranquility helped her to manage her worries about whatever what happening here right now. With it she moved down the hall. Ranger wanted to be with her. She could handle anything.

. .oOo.

The sound of a car door closing woke Ranger from his deep sleep. Another slam, and then another alerted him, and all of the men in the bunk house, that they were not alone. They were all sitting up, hands on their weapons when the door at the far end of the building opened.

Bright sunlight flooded in, obscuring the figure of the person who walked through the door. Ranger stood and moved quickly toward it, he felt the team fall in behind him. It had been a long time since they had had to watch each others backs, it was a good feeling to have them stand with him again.

"Uh," a hesitant voice said, obviously a bit intimidated with twelve large men looming over her. "I was asked to let you know that we brought in lunch, it's being set up in the other building."

The tension in the room vanished immediately. Ranger now recognized the person standing there as the woman that Tank had been eying in the ranger's office when they had first arrived. He started to take a step closer, to thank her for informing them, when Tank moved swiftly past him to do the honors.

Ranger watched, quite entertained to see his friend flirting with her. All charming, he leaned over her and smiled. When he offered her his arm and actually escorted her out of the room, Ranger nearly lost it. Tank was smitten, and everyone could see it.

"Don't think I've ever seen Tank that whipped," Bobby said, as he came up to stand next to Ranger. "I think it's about damned time, if you ask me," he said, using exactly the words that Tank himself had used when talking about Ranger and Stephanie.

Not needing to be asked twice, the men filed out of the bunk house and headed over to eat. The rest had done them all a great deal of good. And now they really were hungry. Putting their weapons away and laughing about the way they still had what it takes to deal with any perceived threat, it didn't take long for the team to make their way to the improvised mess hall.

Some of their chatter died when they saw Kinkaid standing there with the park rangers. Though he did not say a word, they knew by looking at him that their time here was over. Instinctively they watched as he sat down at a table. When he picked up his fork and started eating, they all relaxed a little. At least now they knew that there would be enough time for lunch before they left.

. .oOo.

Cal closed the door after she entered, and Stephanie looked at the men standing there. Pulling chairs from the front of Ranger's desk, they sat down. Cal and Stephanie took the couch and as soon as they were seated, the man started talking.

"I thank you for saving me," he said, the sincerity in his face was evident. "I didn't mean for this to happen," he spread his hands open in front of him, revealing the zip drive he had been clutching tightly. "It was only a matter of time, I knew they would find me, but I hoped I had enough time to get this to Mr. Manoso before they killed me."

He handed it over to Lester who got up and moved around to sit in Ranger's chair as he accessed his computer. Stephanie could still feel her heart racing, her mind full of questions. Who was trying to kill this poor man? What could be so important that they would actually want him dead? And why had he come here with it?

"I'm glad you called," Cal said, leaning forward as he addressed Aban. "Ranger, um, Mr. Manoso is not back yet but like I said on the phone, we can help you, and we can keep you safe. Lets see what you've got and go from there." Both Cal and Aban turned their attention to Lester.

As she glanced over at Lester too, Stephanie knew that he was running security and anti virus checks on the drive, it was standard operating procedure before allowing anything into the system. And it would take a few minutes to get it cleared before any of her questions could be asked and hopefully answered. All of their attention had been on Lester for a few minutes, until the man turned to Stephanie and extended his hand.

"We have not met," he said, a small, shy smile appearing on his face. "I am Aban Lufti."

Stephanie shook his hand, "Stephanie Plum," she said, noticing the tight lines around his eyes and mouth. She could tell that he was tired and scared. What had happened to him, she wondered, and what had be been apologizing for? She was sure it had something to do with the way the guys had been armed and were hurrying down the stairs when she got here.

She remembered how serious they had looked, rushing out with their guns at the ready. The fear she had felt earlier came back in to her chest, and she gasped at the pressure. What was happening downstairs right now? Were the guys fighting the people that had been threatening this man, Aban? Stephanie was getting a headache from all the questions and worries racing through her mind.

Lester and Cal did not seem too upset about the other guys, and Stephanie still wasn't sure if she was okay with that, but she figured that she could wait for them to explain things to her when they were ready. Fortunately, her attention was quickly drawn to another matter.

"Steph," Lester said, "Can you come and take a look at this?"

Mumbling a few words to excuse herself, Stephanie stood and walked around the desk to stand behind Lester. He had a file open and was slowly scrolling down as she watched. He knew that she would know what he needed her to with it. As soon as she touched his shoulder, Lester got up and let her take over.

She took a few minutes, navigating through the highly organized information in the various files. Then Stephanie looked up and smiled at Aban. "You did all this?" she asked. He slowly nodded, looking relieved that they seemed to understand. "Wow,"she said.

Turning her attention back to the computer, Stephanie clicked through file after file. Ranger needed to see this. What they knew about Davron's activities was only the tip of the iceberg. What Aban had documented here almost made her cringe. He had taken a huge risk even keeping records like this.

Times and places and names were all here. He had even managed to take some pretty good pictures, since they were probably only taken with the camera on his phone. If any of these people knew what he had, it was no question that his life was in danger.

"I hate to ask," Stephanie said, turning to Aban. "But why did you bring this here?"

Cal and Lester exchanged looks, they had been over this not long ago, after Aban's phone call. Aban nodded at her as he scooted to sit on the edge of his chair and leaned toward her. He had expected this question. Had himself been wondering about it. More times than he could count, he had agonized over it. There was only one answer, and he gave it as clearly as he could, once again feeling certain and so relieved.

"In the moment before he died, it was the chef that told me to find Mr. Manoso, to tell him what I know," he said. And then, bowing his head slightly, he added, "And to tell him that he was sorry."

There was so much more she would want to know, and she would ask him later. Right now, her heart was breaking for Ranger. After everything Ben had done, Davron knew that it was Ranger who could put things right again. She couldn't imagine how Ranger was going to feel when he heard those words.

Her eyes were drawn to the computer when a picture came onto the screen. Stephanie stopped scrolling and stared at the photo. She had seen this man before. She took a moment to read the lines below the photo.

The words identified the man as Vasya Kostenka. Famous playboy and successful entrepreneur. And another one of Chef Ben Davron's contacts. Stephanie understood immediately that he was one of the players in Chef's game of secrets.

It wasn't hard to remember where she had seen this man's picture, he was famous and his picture was all over the place. And, as of this morning, he was missing. She had caught the news report, on the radio in her car, on her way in this morning. This was all getting to be too crazy.

The guys just nodded when she mentioned seeing Kostenka. So she kept scrolling slowly, there were pages and pages of photos that Aban had taken, all of them identified with dates and as many names as possible. Behind her, a gasp stopped her. Lester leaned over her shoulder, and she heard another sharp intake of breath.

"Oh shit," Lester said, the words whooshing out of his lungs. As what he saw literally knocked the breath right out of him.

"Damn, Cal," he said looking up. His eyes found Cal's and held them as he said, "You need to see this."

Stephanie and Aban watched as Cal circled the desk and stared at the screen. "Is that?" he started to say. "No, it can't be."

Simultaneously Lester and Cal turned and looked closely at the photo that was hanging on the wall. It showed a younger Ranger, with Tank and Bobby. They were surrounded by ten more men, all in combat fatigues, all holding huge weapons.

Ben Davron was there, and so was Nick Ellis. "Isle" The nickname that Ellis had gone by was spoken by Cal first. Lester echoed it in a voice that was now filled with all kinds of emotions, rage being chief among them.

Stephanie already had her phone in her hands when Cal nearly shouted, "We need to let Ranger know, now!"

. .oOo.

Ranger almost couldn't eat. Knowing that they would be leaving soon filled him with anticipation of getting back to see Stephanie. Suddenly a thought hit him and he pulled out his phone, turning it on with an urgency that would have surprised anyone who may have noticed.

Immediately the ping of a text notification rang out. Then another and another, and another. Ranger broke a smile as he saw who all of the messages were from. He quickly read through them, realizing that she had sent them only moments after he had shut his phone off before he left to get some sleep.

It did all kinds of crazy things to his heart to know that she had responded so quickly. To know that she was as anxious to be with him again as he was to see her. Setting the phone on the table, Ranger forced himself to eat the meal that had been provided, even though he was no longer thinking about food.

He glanced around the room, finally letting his eyes settle on Tank. At a nearby table, his friend was seated opposite of the beautiful woman that he was so obviously taken with. They were smiling, laughing, completely absorbed in each other. Ranger felt a smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

There would be no teasing Tank about the way he was reacting to Miss Alkins. In his heart, Ranger knew that when you find the right person, there is no point in holding back. How could he not appreciate what Tank was feeling, Ranger thought, when he was going through the same thing himself.

A buzzing on the table brought him out of his musing. Ranger looked down, Stephanie's name came up on the small screen. Another smile was appearing on his lips and in his eyes. He quickly opened the text and the smile faded. Ranger stood and walked directly over to the general. Kinkaid looked up and waited.

"Sir," Ranger said in a low voice. "We need to get back as soon as possible." He handed over the phone and Kinkaid read Stephanie's message. Nodding he gave the phone back and stood.

"We are out of here in thirty," he said, his loud voice echoing in the hall. "Finish up, then gather your gear and meet out by the vans."

. .oOo.