What's this? A 3rd chapter? Enjoy!

Rachel's POV

Oh my God, the man walking towards me looks like he's half dead. He's staring at me and making me uncomfortable. I watched him lose his footing with his crutch and drop some ice on the carpet. Something about him was familiar so I took a closer look.

My eyes widened when I recognised him. "Carlos? Oh my god, you're alive."

I couldn't believe it. The man in front of me was my ex-husband, but he is seriously injured. I watched him sway on his feet and I immediately reached out to help him stay on his feet.

"Where are you staying Carlos?"

I heard a raspy voice that sounded nothing like the man I remembered said, "The first room on the right."

He held out a key card and I took it and helped him into the room. Once inside, Carlos collapsed onto the bed with the bucket of ice clasped in his left arm. He immediately pulled a glass towards him and filled it with ice and a mini bottle of vodka from the mini bar. He took a deep drink and sighed with relief.

I could see that he was in pain. He had a nasty looking burn on the side of his face. The only thing I could think of was that the burn would leave a scar that would disfigure his once handsome face. Any thoughts of working things out with him were pushed from my mind. I didn't think I could look at that scar for the rest of my life, no matter how much money he had.

"Carlos, they told me you were dead. What happened?"

Carlos looked at me and coughed before speaking quietly. "The building exploded around me. Several of my men were killed, but I managed to crawl out of the rubble. I came here because I don't know who to trust anymore. I knew you would help me, I knew I could trust you no matter what. You're the only one I can trust."

I groaned inwardly. How could I help Carlos? I should call Tim and tell him that Carlos is here. It would surely be the death of him, but at least I would be able to get my hands on his money. I looked at Carlos and asked, "Have you at least seen a doctor?"

He nodded and said, "I paid a man to tend to my injuries."

I hated his lack of explanation so I said, "Are you OK to be left alone? I have to go home so Ron and the kids don't worry."

He nodded and said, "I'm fine to be alone for a while. I just need help bathing and to have the dressings on my more serious wounds changed."

I grimaced at this. I am not a very good nurse. Cuts and bruises gross me out. I would just going to agree to his request and get the hell out of here. I needed to think. Do I call Tim? I don't hate Carlos, so I don't want him to suffer, but I also don't want to have to take care of him.

I looked at Carlos and said, "I'll come back in the morning once the kids are at school and Ron has gone to work. Take care of yourself Carlos and I'll see you tomorrow."

Carlos nodded and just sat there and watched me walk out of the room. I got down to the lobby and pulled out my phone. I dialled Tim's number but didn't get an answer. I decided that I'd call back rather than leave a message. Tim might even call me if he saw that he missed my call. I walked to my car and put on my game face so that I could go home to my family. Ron had no idea that I was cheating on him and he never would.

Ranger's POV

I watched Rachel's reaction to my physical appearance. Even though I knew it was temporary, it bothered me. I was used to getting a more positive reaction from the women in my life. I tried to push that idea that Rachel found me repulsive to the back of my mind.

Hector set my phone up so I could clone another phone when it was in close proximity. I had to enable the app without Rachel noticing. The easiest way was to talk about my injuries. She couldn't bear to look at me and kept her eyes firmly on the floor.

I managed to clone Rachel's phone before she left the room. She also agreed to come back the following morning to help me with my injuries. The only thing I wasn't sure about was whether or not she'd call West and tell him my whereabouts. I guess we'd have to wait and see.

As soon as we got confirmation that Rachel had left the hotel, we heard her dial the phone. She was calling West. I don't know why I was surprised? I was hoping that she'd keep my location a secret, but I suppose she's not the woman I thought I knew. When Rachel hung up after getting West's voice mail, I wasn't sure whether I was disappointed or relieved. Either way, we'd still confront her in the morning when she returns. Hopefully by then we'd have the information we need from West.

Tank's POV

As soon as we got confirmation of Rachel's exit and failed call, we entered West's room. He was in the shower when we went in so it was easy to take him by surprise. Lester, Ram, Hal and I sat in various chairs around the room and simply waited for West to finish his shower.

We didn't have to wait very long. West came into the room with a towel wrapped around his body and a second towel around his shoulder. He was so immersed in his own thoughts that it took him a few moments before he noticed that he was not alone. As soon as he laid eyes on Hal, he visibly paled.

He swallowed and asked Hal, "Who the hell are you and what do you want?"

Hal just stood there and smiled at West. He turned and looked at the other men in the room. He paused at Lester. He recognised him but couldn't place him. Then he looked at me and his eyes went wide. He clearly knew who I was.

"What are you doing here?"

"We came to get some information."

"If you want to talk to me, you can make an appointment with my secretary."

I looked over at Lester and the other two guys. Each of them was slowly moving forward, closing in on West. I smiled at him and said, "I don't think an appointment is necessary. We're here now so you might as well tell us what we want to know."

I saw West look around him and swallow. I watched him as he tried to figure out how to get out of this situation. Finally he signed and asked, "What do you want to know?"

"What do you know about Carlos Manoso's recent troubles?"

West snickered and said, "Troubles? Do you mean his arrest and subsequent death when he tried to escape?"

Now it was my turn to snicker. "Ranger wasn't arrested and we both know it. You and General Matthews set him up and I'm here to find out why."

West's facial expressions were easy to read. He pretty much confirmed what we already knew. He and the General were working together. I got impatient with West's lack of response so I asked another question.

"What do you have on the General? Did you blackmail him with a bank account in his wife's name? Why did he play along with you and pretend to arrest Ranger?"

It was obvious that this question annoyed West but he continued to ignore our questions. My next question clearly angered him, but once again, he remained silent.

"We have proof that your company owned the building where Ranger was illegally held prisoner. The fact that it exploded only adds more evidence of your corruption."

We were getting nowhere with these questions so we needed to bring in the big guns. We knew that West believed that Ranger was dead, so if he walked in here alive and well, he might give something away out of shock. I simply looked at West and said, "I think a haunting is in order."

Ranger understood my meaning and moments later, there was a knock at the door. West looked at me and I nodded towards the door and said, "I think that's for you."

West walked towards the door slowly and said, "Who is it?"

"Room Service," came the reply.

West tentatively opened the door and was pushed back inside. He hadn't even had time to register who was pushing him before he was flat on his back on the bed. Ranger had his hands around West's throat and was choking him.

I stepped forward and pulled Ranger away from West. If I hadn't done that, we'd have lost our only lead. West scooted to the head of the bed away from Ranger. He sat there, catatonically staring at Ranger. After a few minutes of massaging his neck, West cracked.

"How are you not dead? That building where you were being kept blew up. We set it up that way on purpose."

Ranger moved closer to West. He was only inches away when he spoke so quietly that it was hard to hear him. "Who is 'we'? Who set it up?"

West was clearly afraid of Ranger. Ranger can be one scary guy, especially when he's angry. West looked like he wasn't going to answer, so Ranger pulled a knife from behind his back and said, "If you don't tell me who you are working with and why, I'll cut you up one piece at a time."

West was terrified but he didn't say a word. Finally, Ranger snapped. He walked over to West and knocked him out with a single blow to the side of the head. Ranger looked back at me and said, "I think we need to move him. Get Bobby to sedate him and then get him back to the safe house."

I nodded and started ordering the men around. I called Bobby over the comms and had him come to the room and sedate West. We gathered all of his clothing and belongings and were out of there in less than 30 minutes.

Lula's POV

We watched and listened to the interrogation from the suite next door. I saw the pain on Stephanie's face as Tank tried to get some information from West. Maybe intimidation wasn't the right way to go. I was glad when Tank called in Ranger, until he cold cocked West that is. We had to rush around and pull out of there and go back to the safe house with West in tow. Ranger would have to come back in the morning to confront Rachel, but we could worry about that later.

Stephanie was jittery the whole time we were packing up. Something was bothering her. I turned to her once we had the swat equipment all packed away and said, "Is your spidey sense telling you something?"

She nodded and said, "When Tank mentioned the bank account, I saw West flinch. There's something there but I don't know what exactly."

"Trust your instincts Steph. Tell Ranger as soon as you see him. Maybe they can ask some more questions relating to that and you can figure out what is causing your spidey sense to go off. Better yet, ask to talk to the man yourself."

When we got down to the parking garage, I was lucky enough to sit on one side of West. Tank was on the other so he could keep an eye on him. We didn't expect him to wake on the journey because Bobby gave him a sedative, but it was always possible.

West must have a fast metabolism because we were five minutes out when he started to come around. He saw me and tried to hit me. I grabbed his arm and said, "I wouldn't hit me if I were you. I'm a pacifist, so if you try that again, I'm gonna pass my fist right into your already sore face."

West paled a bit at my comment and I laughed. Tank also boomed with laughter. Instead of calming West down, Tank's laughter actually scared him. West looked around and asked, "Where the hell are you taking me?"

I grinned at the weasel of a man and said, "We're taking you somewhere where nobody will hear you scream."

West became still and silent with that comment. He looked around trying to figure out where he was, so I decided to put him back to sleep with a quick jab of my stun gun. As soon as West slumped over, Tank leaned forward across West and kissed me. This wasn't a gentle kiss. This was a kiss that would lead to something if we weren't in a car filled with other people.

I pulled away and smiled shyly at Tank. He grinned back and said, "The way you just handled him was hilarious Lula. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you there."

"No worries Tank. Although, I wouldn't mind picking up where we left off at a later time." I said as I grinned up at him.

Stephanie's POV

I explained my spidey sense alert to Ranger on the drive back to the safe house. When we arrived and West was securely shackled in the basement safe room, we pulled out all of the information we had about the bank account and the surveillance footage. I read the file about three times but nothing jumped out at me. Finally, I focused my attention on the surveillance footage and pushed the file I had been reading away from me.

On my fifth time through the footage, something caught my eye. I watched it again and then called Ranger. As soon as Ranger arrived, I told him to watch the footage. I kept playing it until he finally saw what I had seen. Ranger pulled out a file, looked at a picture and confirmed our suspicions.

Armed with the laptop, the photo and the file, Ranger walked out of the room. He looked over his shoulder and said, "Are you coming Babe? You found this so you get to ask the questions."

I walked over to Ranger and pulled him aside away from all the eyes that had been watching us. "Ranger, I don't think that's a good idea. I'm bound to screw up and cause more problems than help."

Ranger put his hand to my face and quietly asked, "Why do you think you'd screw up? Your skills were how we got this information. Or are you just scared."

I sighed and said, "I am scared. I'm well versed in all of the things that could go wrong in there. I don't want to screw up and miss any information that we need."

"I'll be right there beside you Babe. We'll get the information we need."

I finally relented and followed Ranger down into the basement. I knew that there was sound and audio being fed upstairs, and that calmed my nerves a little. Everything said and done in this room would be recorded and later used as needed. I walked into the room and sat at the table across from West. Ranger remained standing with his arms crossed against his chest. He was an intimidating figure, even to me.

I arranged the laptop and closed files on the desk and then sat there and stared at Tim West for about 5 minutes. I wanted to see if he'd say anything. Eventually, West sighed and said, "Has the mighty Ranger Manoso started to resort to using the silent treatment for interrogations? He said this while smiling at Ranger. I slapped the table and got his attention and said, "This is my interrogation, not Ranger's. Besides, you broke first so apparently staying silent worked."

I took a breath and opened the file in front of me. I looked down at the photos and said, "Why did you use Rachel to open a bank account in Mrs. Matthew's name?"

West laughed and said, "She was gullible and easily manipulated. I needed a woman to impersonate the General's wife and using Ranger's ex was just too good to pass up. Besides, Rachel is a great lay." He looked at Ranger, winked and said, "But you already know that, don't you?"

Ranger kept his blank face in place, so I played along with West's attitude and asked, "How long have you been sleeping with Rachel?"

"About 8 months now."

I looked at the photos in front of me, but they were tilted away from West so that he couldn't see. My next question was, "Why did you use Rachel to fraudulently open a bank account in Mrs. Matthew's name?"

West grinned and said, "The General refused to go along with my plan. That was until I had something to use against him. Once we had that account set up in Gina's name, he was at our mercy. If his bosses heard about the bank account, the General would have lost his job and likely ended up in prison."

I doubted if West realised that he just gave us a useful titbit of information. He just inadvertently had given away a huge piece of information. I gathered up my files and walked towards the exit. Ranger looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I didn't say anything, I simply nodded at the door. I opened the door and walked out knowing Ranger would follow.

Once we were out in the hall, Ranger pushed me up against the wall and kissed me. He pulled back a few minutes later and said, "You were amazing in there Babe, but I don't' understand why you stopped."

I smiled up at Ranger and said, "I need to run a search before I continue my questions. West let something slip that makes me suspicious. I'll run my search and once I get the results, I'll continue my interrogation."

Ranger nodded, kissed me once more and then took my hand and led me to our room. He smiled at me and said, "I'll leave you here to run the search. Come find me when you're done and you can share your findings with me."

Tomorrow's submission(s) will be interesting.. What do you think Steph saw on the surveillance footage and what did West do that tipped her off? The answers will come tomorrow. Thanks for your feedback and reading.