Ranger set Stephanie gently on the ground beside him. The inside of the door they had just come through had a sturdy handle in the center. Ranger braced his legs apart and used both hands and considerable upper body strength to heave the door shut. A moment later she heard a click and assumed the door had an automatic locking mechanism. Taking the LED light back from Stephanie, Ranger shined it around so that she could see they were in a narrow chamber, the walls of which were cement blocks. It felt eerily tomb-like. She turned and saw that there was another door opposite the one they had just come through. It was made of steel and full sized. He pointed the key-fob again and the second door clicked open. Ranger reached inside and flipped a switch. Turning back to her, he said, "Wait here."
She was about to argue but he was gone, leaving her in the chamber alone. "Wait here?" she whispered to herself. Where the hell was she going to go? And did he really think this … whatever this was had been breached?
Moments later he returned and tugged her through the doorway. She took two steps in and froze. Eyes wide, she looked around the room, not comprehending what she was seeing. They had crawled into what she though was a sewer and now she was standing in … an apartment?
After securing the door behind them, Ranger walked through the front room and disappeared down a short hall, leaving her alone once again. The room was open with a den to the right and a kitchen table and four chairs to the left. She moved into the den area. There was a sofa, chair and coffee table, two end tables and two lamps. Attractive, serviceable, but nothing like the quality of furniture he had in his Haywood apartment. There was a decent sized flat screen TV suspended on the far wall and beneath it was a cabinet that housed a stereo, video games and movies. She turned toward the dining area and realized that two of the walls were actually floor to ceiling built-in locking cabinets. There was a doorway off the dining area, and she moved forward and stepped into a galley kitchen, complete with refrigerator, stove, microwave and sink. So far, the place was actually nicer than her apartment, if you discounted the lack of windows.
From behind her, Ranger said, "I need to make some calls. I'll have to wait until the park closes to get our things and return the car. Just … make yourself comfortable."
She turned around. "What is this place?"
Ranger had been walking away from her and at her question he stopped and turned. "It's a bunker."
"Ranger, this is not a bunker. This is an apartment."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"How did you get everything down here? The refrigerator wouldn't fit through that hole. And the sofa?"
He smiled faintly and said, "There's a queen size bed in the bedroom."
"There's a bedroom?"
"Two bedrooms. One is a makeshift communications center but it has a daybed in case…"
"Julie?"
He nodded.
"Have you ever had to bring her here?"
"No."
"Have you ever brought anyone here?"
"No."
She chewed on her nail. "Where are we?"
"The building above us is a public school."
"You have a bunker under a public school? Are you insane?"
He folded his arms across his chest. "Are you going to ask me that every day?"
"Will the answer ever change?"
She knew she was trying his patience by the set of his jaw and the tightness around his mouth. He said, "If you put a bunker in the middle of nowhere, secure communications are limited if not impossible. And the amenities are rather primitive. No plumbing, no sewer, and no electricity outside a generator. Additionally, there would be no traffic patterns to blend with."
"So…"
He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, pulling out the tie. "Steph, I need to make some calls."
"You said you would explain everything."
Heaving out a sigh, he leaned against the wall and said, "I utilize the school's power, water and sewage system, heat and air conditioning. I have an air filtration system. I can access the Internet by using a booster and piggybacking on the surrounding wireless connections. I have a satellite phone."
"Can you use a satellite phone underground?"
"With an outside aerial."
"So you steal utilities from the school?"
His face went blank again. "I suppose I do when I use the bunker. Steph, it's not like I'm raising a family down here. I have access to what I need to survive for a short period of time. I own property in this district and pay taxes that support the school. I am also an anonymous benefactor who contributed to the building of this school; I am simply getting value for my money."
She frowned. "Do newer schools even have basements?"
"Not generally."
Stephanie said nothing, just leveled a look at Ranger that said she expected him to elaborate.
"This one does. They just don't know it."
"God, Ranger would you stop being so cryptic?"
He nailed her with a glare, indicating he wasn't happy explaining himself. Pushing off the wall, he walked into the den and sat down on the couch. Following him, she took a seat in the adjacent chair.
"The school was built about two years ago. I have other places I can go, but they're not this secure. In the last few years, it became apparent I had a need for something like this. My choices were under factories, office buildings and schools. Office buildings could work, but it would be difficult to set up unnoticed. The only way I could get around that would be to buy a building or have one built. No matter the choice, the most secure is always new construction."
"But you own several buildings."
"Already constructed. And that might be the first place people look. Factories are good, but so many of them run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in a good economy. Harder to get in and out of unnoticed. In an economy like we have now, factories are either vacant or running at half capacity. That makes any vehicle or person entering and exiting harder to camouflage."
"But a school?"
"Reasonably easy access at night, closed three months in the summer, holiday weeks and weekends."
"I would never think-"
"Exactly."
"How did you pull this off?"
His mouth smiled wryly but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm close with the contractor."
"If the school has no basement, wouldn't somebody notice this when they poured the foundation?"
"Sure."
"Ranger."
His response was clipped, impatient, and bordering on angry. "Stephanie, anything can be done if you have enough money and know the right people."
He stood, thinking the conversation was over.
"Well you certainly have enough money."
He stiffened. "You'd prefer it if I lived on a cop's salary?"
She rolled her eyes.
He said nothing for a minute. "Is my money an issue for you? Steph, I'm not going to apologize to you for being successful. I'll admit that I've enjoyed the things that come with it: the penthouse, the cars, the clothes, and the lifestyle. But it was never my primary reason for accumulating wealth."
"Then what was your reason?"
He sat back on the couch and looked her at her with flat, black eyes. "Throughout my military career and other … endeavors, I've made a lot of enemies. You know that. Security doesn't come cheap, Stephanie. And I don't just mean my own. There's my family, the Martines, and sometimes even you. Owning multiple safe houses can be pricey. Keeping them safe is even pricier. Having the right friends can cost a pretty penny. I can't afford not to be wealthy. I'd already be dead if I wasn't."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "So you're telling me that you became a business mogul to finance your own safety?"
"And the safety of my loved ones. It certainly wasn't to impress women."
She scoffed, "Like you need to flash your money to get a woman. You could probably get any woman you want."
He stared at her intently. "You would think."
"Why are you telling me these things? You never tell me anything."
"I tell you as much as I can."
"Which is next to nothing."
Ranger leaned forward, elbows on knees and rubbed at his eyes. "I've always offered you as much information as you needed to know at any given point in time."
"I get why you don't divulge the locations of your safe houses, and okay, I'm sure you can't tell me about any of your missions. But I've known you three years. You've always portrayed yourself as a mercenary, Mr. Opportunity, Mr. Anything for a Buck."
"It suited my purposes."
"So why divulge all this top secret information now?"
"What have I divulged? Do you know what city you're in, or state?"
"No. But I know that your bunker is under a school, you pulled some morally gray strings to have it built, you-"
"Babe, if my enemy got a hold of you now, they'd already know the bunker is under a school and I'm sure they could give two shits less how I had it built or how I illegally obtained cable TV, let alone how I got the sofa down here. And unless you plan on telling your fiancé-"
"He's not my fiancé. He's probably not my anything after the stunt you pulled."
He stood up abruptly and stalked over to her chair. Leaning down with his hands braced on the arms, he gritted out, "That stunt I pulled bought me time to keep you safe. Don't think for one minute I enjoyed collecting you from his bed."
"But you didn't have to-"
"Didn't have to what?" he shouted. Stephanie flinched at the booming sound. Lowering his voice a decibel, he continued, "Tell him the truth? Don't you think you owe him at least that? What kind of fucked up relationship do you two have? You're on again; you're off again. Do you two keep a calendar or a scorecard? Do you actually enjoy the dysfunction? I think you do. Hell, you and I were practically dry humping in the alley twelve hours before I pulled my stunt. You think that's fair to him?"
"You're the last person who should be giving advice about relationships."
He stood and looked down at her. "You keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better. I prefer to live in reality. Both of our lives have come to a screeching halt because of our non-existent relationship. Seems everyone in the world can see it but you."
