A/N: Thank you all for the continued support! Now please enjoy the hell Bobby has put me through!
Bobby POV
Hector pulled the phone back from his ear and hit a button. Bomber's voice came out in perfect Spanish, perfectly emotionless. I stood perfectly still in shock.
"Hector has a tracker on me. He may activate it once you have all been cleared from the scene and are able to slip the surveillance that's been on you the last three months. It's just the DEA and ICE. Two men on each of you, four on Manoso. Tell the cops the truth as you saw and heard it this afternoon. Meeting me is risking everything. Make that choice before you go to Hector once the police release you. Death is highly likely. But survival, makes you untouchable. Your choices. Your instincts. Call me before you leave the grid to let me know ETA and troop status, Hec." She took a deep breath and then said the words that sent us all to her side later that night. "No matter what, I love you all."
My eyes met Ranger's and then Hector's. I knew I would be going. She was family.
We stood in a silent circle, Hector's phone still held out in the middle. We were all in unspoken agreement. Whatever had happened and wherever this was taking us, we were hers.
The peace was broken by a stampede of cops pouring out of their blue and whites and racing up to the house. As one, we moved away from the door to gather in front of the picture window that looked out onto the porch. I turned and looked through the window into the living room, getting my first unobstructed view of the destruction.
There was glass all over the floor, picture frames and knick-knacks and lamps all lay broken. The coffee table was in two pieces. It's clear the chair and the couch were shoved out of the way.
In the center of the broken mess lay the body of Joseph Morelli. His chest was covered in deep red, blood having soaked through his shirt and pooling underneath him. His shirt was shoved up under his arms, a giant sucking chest wound just under his ribs. There were also two cuts on his face, giving him a permanent smile. I don't think anyone had really noticed that yet. The sucking chest wound was distracting.
The uniform cops who were exiting the house were all green around the gills. I could see them shooting us dark looks, like we were the ones who killed him. I will admit that every Rangeman has wanted to kill him at one point or another, but none of us had actually done it.
Eddie Gazzarra walked over and stood in front of Ranger. He gave us all an assessing look, before focusing back on our leader. "We need to separate you and take your statements." He looked a little scared, but determined. But he didn't look sick or sad. "I'll take Ranger and Tank. Robin will take Cal and Lester. Carl will take Bobby. Marty will take Hector, he speaks Spanish."
With that, he turned and walked down to the sidewalk, Tank and Ranger following. Robin led Lester and Cal down into the yard. Marty took Hector about three feet from me and began asking questions. Carl just looked at me. He didn't look sick or sad either.
"Start from the top."
I told him about the meeting at Rangeman, Tank's mysterious call, the audio bug playing the abuse for the control room to hear, and speeding here when we though the useless cop would rape Bomber.
"When was the last time you talked to Steph?" he asked. He was genuinely curious and that sent up a red flag. He hadn't talked to her recently. Although that makes sense; he was one of the ringleaders with the betting.
"Been a few months." I wasn't getting any more specific than that. It wasn't relevant to this specific case.
"Has she been training at Rangeman?"
"No." I was not voicing my suspicions that she had been training with a specific ass-hat Rangeman who pretended to only speak Spanish behind our backs. He asked where, he didn't ask with whom.
"You're a medic, right?"
I nodded. I wasn't giving anything away.
"You seen the body?"
"Through the window."
"How much blood would be on the person who did that?"
"They'd be covered in it. Looks like arteries were severed and they'd have to be in extremely close quarters."
"So it was none of you, because you're all clean?"
"Carl, if one of us had done that, he'd be messier."
"Have you talked to Steph since she left the scene?"
"No." Truth. I didn't do any talking.
"You're good to go, come down to the station at some point in the next few days to sign your statement. Call me if you think of anything else."
I shook his hand and joined Cal and Tank at one of our Explorers. I watched as Ranger shook hands with Eddie and joined us. Lester and Hector kept exchanging glances.
Lester was so busy eye-fucking Hector, I don't think he even noticed Robin. Unusual. He usually flirts with anything female.
Hector was carefully reigning in his anger and his lust for Les and not a small amount of pride. He was speaking slowly and getting frustrated with Marty. Marty had his hands close to his cuffs. The tattoos made him nervous and there are a few unsolved homicides matching this one in Newark, New York, Philly and Baltimore in the last six months. There are also two unsolved cases from six years ago that match this one. Marty is a neutral party, no declared loyalties to Morelli or Rangeman or Steph, but he's been a cop too long to just trust the word of a non-English speaker with banger tats.
We had been working on those unsolved homicides as a favor to a friend at the Baltimore PD. When we turned back a profile, the FBI contracted us to help with the case. We've gotten nowhere. And now that I think I know who's been responsible for them, I can see why. She's too damn smart, always has been. And we didn't even consider a female suspect. All the victims had been at least six feet tall and muscular. We didn't think a female could overpower them. There was no evidence of drugs or sexual activity, so we ruled the ladies out. Now I know better.
The truth is, now that I know she did this to Morelli and have connected it in my brain to the other cases, I'm a little frightened of Bomber. I know I'll be going with the guys tonight. I know I'd follow her into hell, but I don't think I'll be able to turn my back on her until I know what exactly has been going on.
Lester shook hands with Robin and started walking our way. Hector stiffened and backed up a step, as if he'd been slapped. Even though Lester's back was to him, Les stopped in his tracks and slowly turned his head. Robin dodged out of the way just in time for Lester to stride past her and take up a stance behind Hector.
Everyone standing in the immediate area heard what he said next.
"Leave Hector alone. He was with me and Tank when that dirty cop was killed. He told you what he knows. Back the hell off. He's not a banger, Gobel."
"How do I know any of you are telling the truth?" Marty shot back.
"You don't." With that, he used a hand on Hector's shoulder to steer him away from the uniform and back to us. "Let's move before I lose my temper."
Hector had a smile on his face I'd never seen before. It was actually really scary. He looked a little like Bomber did when we used to show up at her scenes.
With a nod from Ranger, we loaded into the vehicles we came in and peeled out of there.
I was sitting next to Ranger. Cal was in the back. I thought we were going to have a silent ride back, time to sort this out in our heads. But Ranger has been acting odd for the last half a year. I should have known he would want to talk.
"Those other cases." His voice was quiet, but I knew he was asking if anyone else had made the connection. I didn't know he had gotten that good of a look at the body.
"Yeah," Cal said. He was just as quiet. "Could be she copy-catted."
"No," I said. "The wound placement wasn't leaked to the public."
We sat in silence for a minute. Ranger broke it again.
"Hector."
That's all he needed to say. Hector had been a shit for not talking to us about Steph.
"He trained her," I offered.
"Not all of that was him. There's someone else," Cal said.
We resumed the quiet for a minute.
"She's not Steph anymore." Ranger sounded heartbroken.
"She never was what she appeared to be, Ranger. You have to know that." Cal was now asking for an ass-kicking. He was implying that she was either hiding something from all of us; or she had been lying to us from the very beginning.
"Cal," I warned. I could feel the tension start to leak out of Ranger.
"I meant," he plowed on, "that she didn't know it was there. I've seen it, we've all seen it. She's still Steph, she's just more now. She's working a plan and we need to leave the emotions at the door, just like any other case. Hector trusts that she's not drowning. I trust Hector."
I saw Ranger nod out of the corner of my eye as we pulled back into Haywood.
We moved up to the fifth floor, using the conference room off Ranger's office. We asked Ram, Junior and Manny to join us.
"First order of business," Tank began. We all stared at him for a beat, confused that he would take the lead like that when Ranger was sitting next to him. "How did we not know the core team was being tailed by DEA and ICE?"
"It's part of the raid. Standard surveillance hoping we'll slip up."
"You knew?" Lester asked. He was starting to look less lustful and more pissed.
"Suspicions," was all Hector would say.
"Decoy or disable?" Cal asked.
"Disable. Ram and Manny." Ranger's first contribution. Hopefully he'd be able to focus on this after the mess his head has been in since hearing her fight with Morelli. Bomber's always been able to screw his concentration.
"What do you know, Hec?" Lester asked.
"She tell. You trust her. She know you angry. I know you angry. We protect Rangeman this way. Human traffickers. "
We all sat in silence for a few minutes contemplating that. Why she didn't come to us, I planned to find out. Human traffickers are nasty people to mess with and she's just the kind they like to grab if they're selling women.
"Tank, brief everyone. We leave at 2300. Pack light, but for a week at least." With that, Ranger stalked from the office.
Tank went through everything we knew again and Hector threw in the bit about Bomber having all sorts of video and audio in Italian to back what's happening. He wasn't clear on the chain of command and how this was playing out legally, but he was clear that she's been prepping for this for over a year and now it's time to bring us in.
We all set out to pack up, making sure Hal and Erik were set to run 12 hour shifts for the next week. Ram and Manny set a plan in place to disable our tails. Junior worked with Hector to get the tech we would need. The last thing we did while waiting for Ranger in the garage was disable any trackers on our persons and the vehicles we were taking.
Ranger came striding out of the stairwell, his usual calm and collected self, at least on the surface. We could all see he was a mass of nervous energy beneath that. She had called him Manoso on the phone, and that did not escape our notice.
"You've made the decision to move forward, of your own free will. Thank you. Protect our Bombshell. Aide her operation. You are all curious. You will be fully briefed on-site. Chain of command stands. She is your CO for the duration of this operation. Move out."
We moved, more than a little confused as to where that had come from. We trusted Ranger. He was the type of leader to be first in and last out. And he'd earned the right for his word to be taken as law.
The satisfied smirk on Hector's face was freaking me out. Mostly because he'd been wearing it all damn day. He needed to stop looking at Lester that way. Scary. I needed a little distance from them. Les seemed to know more than he was letting on too; he was wearing the same damn smirk. Those two needed to be separated. They're too devious for their own good.
I was feeling pretty good about trusting my brothers, Bomber and the direction this all seemed to be heading, Hector and Lester's obvious conspiracy aside, but my instincts have led me wrong before where women are concerned. Caution is my primary concern here. She's my sister, but I haven't seen or spoken to her in half a year. That time can change a lot of things. Living like she has, isolated, could change her. Living with the knowledge, the darkness this operation is exposing her to, makes her dangerous and unpredictable.
Steph is an undeniable force of nature. If she had learned to harness any of that, I have a right to be a little terrified. I would trust her for now, because everyone else did. But my gut said not to give her my back. I'm covered in scars, but the skin on my back is flawless, because you don't get scarred if you leave that unprotected, you just get dead.
