Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
Trial no.10
"We're back!" Connie called as she and Hal walked into the control room. "Guys?"
The control room was like a morgue. Cal and Woody nodded to them from the monitors without speaking. There would normally be a couple of other people around doing various things, but this time no-one else was in the control room at all.
Connie looked at Hal with concern and he shrugged and held his hands out to his sides.
"I don't know any more than you."
They went to the break room and found Zero looking in the refrigerator.
"Zero, what's going on, man?" Hal asked.
Zero looked grim. "Something went down, but no-one's talking. Steph isn't in the building any more. I've only seen her for a couple of minutes, when she was reporting in on her current skips, and she barely said two words to anyone. Ranger looks ready to kill someone and Tank's not saying anything. If you guys aren't on duty I'd get the hell out of here if I were you."
"Thanks."
They left him to his food and went to find Tank.
o0o0o0o0o
They found Tank in the gym lifting free weights, his face grim with concentration.
He looked up when he saw them but didn't stop. "Warren back in the system?"
"Got the body receipt right here," Hal answered. "What's going on, Tank?"
"Nothing." The big man's face was impassive. "Connie, you're cleared to leave the building and go back to the bonds office until further notice. We'll be in touch at some point about your last job. Hal, you start surveillance with Eddie tomorrow, late shift. The assignment details are in your email."
"But–" Connie started, stopping when Hal shook his head slightly at her.
"Understood." He jerked his head for her to follow him out of the gym.
"Go home," he said when they were outside in the corridor. "I don't know what's going on, but you're better off not here. I'll come over when I can."
"Do you want to stay with me?"
He looked regretful. "Better not until we know what's got the guys so jumpy."
"I saw Steph in the police station dropping off a skip. Something was really wrong, but she wasn't talking about it either."
"She's probably the only one that can tell us. I can guarantee nobody will want to be on Ranger's radar at all, let alone ask him about it."
o0o0o0o0o
Connie called Stephanie in the morning.
"Steph, are you busy? I need to talk to you about the Atlanta trip," she lied.
Stephanie's voice sounded subdued when she answered. "Sure. Whatever you need."
"Want to come round my house tonight? We can celebrate my freedom at the same time. Have a mini housewarming now I'm allowed home."
"Yeah," Stephanie said dully. "Let's do that. Eight o'clock?"
"See you then."
o0o0o0o0o
It was a strange evening. Stephanie said all the right words in all the right places, but she seemed slightly distracted, not quite focused on the conversation.
Connie had opted to keep the alcohol flowing freely in the hope that Stephanie would eventually loosen up and start talking, and they were coming to the end of their second bottle of wine. Of course, there was a downside to that strategy. While Stephanie gradually started to relax and act more like her normal self, Connie was soon three sheets to the wind and almost forgot that there was a strategy at all.
"Why me?" she railed, waving her glass wildly in the air. The white wine in it came dangerously close to leaving the glass and flying over the back of the couch. "Why me? That's all I want to know. It's not a hard question. Why me?"
"You sound like my mother."
"Okay, that's it, give me your gun. I have to shoot myself." Connie picked up her purse and started scrabbling inside it.
Stephanie took the purse from her and kicked it around the far side of the couch where Connie couldn't reach. "It's just a coincidence. You're thinking about this too much."
"No, it can't be. I've spent most of my life being normal. Okay, nearly normal; I can't help who I'm related to. The occasional date, no-one special, no-one you'd look twice at. Then, suddenly, here they come. One human mountain after another! Do I give off mountain pheromones? Do I have a tattoo on my forehead that says 'The bigger they are the better I like them'? There must be something! Why the sudden continental drift in my direction?"
"Try to think of it as flattering. I mean, that last one really fell for you, hard. I saw her saying goodbye at the station. That was hearts and flowers and Cupid's arrow sticking square out of her ass."
Connie took a large slug of her wine. "Yeah well, Cupid's not the only one that can shoot straight. If I ever get my hands on Cupid, he's a dead man."
As soon as she said 'dead man', shutters slammed down on Stephanie's face, and she was right back to being silent and uncommunicative.
Connie sighed. "Damn it, Steph, What's wrong? Just tell me. I told you about George, which I still might regret. Please, talk to me?"
Stephanie just looked miserable. "I don't think I can. Lula already told me I have no business talking about it. I think I have to deal with this one on my own."
"Can't I help without knowing the details? I know it's bad. The whole of RangeMan is hiding from Ranger right now."
Stephanie looked like she might cry. "Lula said that I should ask you about your dad and Tony."
Connie winced. "Don't ask me for information. I can't talk about them. I won't."
"Not that. As I said, Lula already read me the riot act on that." Stephanie took a deep breath. "How do you do it? How do you deal with knowing such terrible things about someone that you don't know what to think any more? Because I'm lost." Her voice started to tremble. "I'm so badly lost that I feel like maybe I'll never get back again."
Connie put her glass down and pulled Stephanie into a hug. She could feel Stephanie shaking slightly. "It's simple," she said softly. "Not easy, but simple. I love them. Whatever they are."
Stephanie started to sob quietly, and Connie felt her own eyes start to fill with tears. "Shit, you're going to make me cry too."
"Sorry," Stephanie whispered.
"Shh. It'll be okay. It has to be, in the end."
o0o0o0o0o
Connie settled back into the bonds office routine for the second time. She grudgingly admitted to herself that Ranger's temp had done a good job of managing the office in her absence, but she still feel the need to re-claim her territory and promptly reorganized the store room. It took her nearly a week, but now it was immaculately organized from top to bottom. There was something deeply satisfying about pulling everything out and starting from scratch.
Vinnie was quiet, and seemed content to ignore the fact that she had ever been away. Connie was quite happy with that. It saved her from having to explain anything she didn't want to.
The temp seemed to have done a good job on Lula too. The heaps of files that usually sat on top of the filing cabinets were conspicuously absent, although Lula still had her usual 'we'll see' attitude to timekeeping. It was already ten o'clock and she still hadn't arrived. After all, some things needed to stay the same.
Just as Connie was thinking about calling Lula to tell her to swing by the Tasty Pastry on her way in, she walked in through the back door. She jerked her head at Vinnie's door. "He in?"
Connie shook her head wordlessly.
"Good." Lula flung herself down on the couch. "'Cause I reckon I know what's tearin' Steph to pieces."
"Go on."
"I saw Jackie last night. Word is that nobody's seen or heard from Gerard for about a week. A lot of the girls are celebratin' where his brother can't hear. Nobody knows anything for sure, but a few people puttin' two and two together and comin' up with Ranger."
Connie sucked in a sharp breath. "Shit. That makes a whole lot of sense. It would explain why Tank let me go home as soon as we got back from Atlanta."
"So my next question is, why is Steph so cut up this time? It ain't no different to Abruzzi, and she bounced right back from that one."
"I'm wondering if she saw it, but then I can't believe that Ranger would have let her get that close."
Lula snorted. "Oh yeah, 'cause she does what he tells her to do every damn time she finds trouble."
Connie nodded thoughtfully. "Hard to witness a murder and not be changed by it."
"I just know she ain't right. She's workin', but she ain't our Steph."
o0o0o0o0o
Stephanie was picking up a mid-range skip. Gary Dawson had been charged with assault and rape, and if Ranger knew she had the file he would have either taken it off her there and then or assigned at least two men to go with her.
She hadn't bothered mentioning to anyone that she had upgraded the value of the skips she was picking up. She collected all the files and passed the high bonds on to Tank, so it was a simple matter to just not hand over some of the mid-range files. No-one asked and she didn't tell.
She'd had a tip that Gary was holed up at his girlfriend's, assuming that no-one would think of looking for him there. She couldn't quite work out how it was that so many of them did the exact same thing, each of them thinking that they'd found the perfect hiding place. They did it so frequently that the girlfriend's was usually one of the first places she tried.
Poor, stupid Gary hadn't even given any thought to what his girlfriend might think about him being charged with a sex crime; she'd jumped at the chance to text Stephanie the next time he came round.
So here she was, looking at a tatty first floor apartment with all the curtains drawn despite it being late morning. She rang the bell and waited.
Gary's girlfriend opened the door and let her in silently. She indicated the bedroom with a jerk of her head and stepped back into the kitchen out of the way.
Stephanie walked quietly into the bedroom, and wrinkled her nose at the smell of stale air and unwashed bedding. Gary was snoring in the middle of the bed.
She smiled. Sometimes it was almost too easy. She moved to the side of the bed with her stun gun out and tapped him gently on the shoulder. "Gary."
His eyes snapped open and she hit him with the stun gun before he had a chance to move. He slumped back onto the bed.
"Too easy." Stephanie pulled out her cuffs and busied herself cuffing him while he was unconscious. Once he was secured, she took a moment to open a window and let some fresh air in before settling down to wait for him to wake up.
o0o0o0o0o
When Gary came round with a groan, Stephanie was sitting in a chair beside the bed waiting for him. She gave him a wide grin.
"Good morning, Gary. Time to go back to jail."
He flailed his arms a little as he encountered the cuffs and slumped on the bed with another pathetic groan.
"Yeah, sorry about that. The dizziness and the heaves will wear off in a while. They just keep you nice and weak while I help you to the car." She let him thrash helplessly a couple more times before continuing, "It's not nice feeling weak and helpless, is it, Gary? You might want to think about that on your way back to jail. Now, let's go, shall we?"
She got to her feet and helped him swing his shaking legs to the floor before grabbing his shoulder and walking him slowly out to the SUV.
o0o0o0o0o
When Stephanie went into the office to make her report, Tank was waiting for her.
"I need to talk to you in my office, Bombshell."
"Why? Is there a problem with my work?"
"No."
"Then why do you need to talk to me?" She took a step toward the door.
"I talked to Lula. You're avoiding her."
"Been busy," she answered calmly.
"She's worried about you. We all are."
"Then relax. I'm fine." She started to walk away from him.
"I'm not done."
She heaved a sigh of irritation and stopped again. "What else?"
"You need to go see Ranger."
"He could have called me."
"He did. You didn't answer."
"I was–"
"Not important," he interrupted. "Connie's last job is up soon. If you still want to be involved, go see him. He's in the apartment."
o0o0o0o0o
Stephanie tapped at the door before walking quietly into the seventh floor apartment. "Ranger?"
The apartment was silent and still. She poked her head into the small room he sometimes used as an office. It was empty and the laptop was missing.
Wondering if Tank had made a mistake, she went into the living room and kitchen in turn. She had her hand on the bedroom door when she heard Ranger's voice inside.
"Steph?"
She pushed the door all the way open to find him sitting up in bed, hair down and looking thoroughly sleep mussed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Tank sent me up, said you needed to talk to me about Connie's last job."
Ranger muttered something under his breath.
"What?"
"I said, sometimes I wonder whose side Tank's on. I did want to talk to you, but it could have waited."
"So what are you doing in bed in the middle of the day?"
"Catching up on the sleep I didn't get last night. One of the accounts had a break-in."
He threw the duvet aside and got out of bed stiffly. Stephanie realized four things: one, that the silk boxers he wore before had just been for her benefit; two, that he wasn't remotely shy about being naked in front of her; three, that he had no reason to be, and he still took her breath away; and four, that he had a large, livid, horizontal mark across his midriff.
"Jesus! When did you get hurt?"
Before she realized what she was doing she was across the room and touching the angry mark softly with her fingertips.
"The break-in had a little excitement."
She was still carefully tracing the path of the injury. "What did they hit you with?"
"Steel bar. Steph, if you want me to keep my distance you need to back up now. I'm only human."
She looked down and saw the effect that she was having on him. She didn't answer, just kept stroking, tracing around the definition of his abdominal muscles now as well as along the path of the injury.
"Babe."
"I'm trying."
"Last chance."
She felt pinned under his intense gaze. She told her legs to move, but they weren't listening.
When she didn't move, he took her hand and used it to pull her slowly into him. She didn't fight it, just let herself be drawn in until she was crushed against him and encircled by his arms. She could feel his arousal pressing against her.
"I missed you," she whispered.
He responded by kissing her hard, demanding and gaining access to her mouth. She leaned into him allowing him to plunder her mouth with his tongue. She was caught in a rising tide of passion that didn't give a damn about long term commitments or declarations of love.
She felt him steer her backwards towards the bed that he had just left until she could feel the edge of the mattress against the back of her legs. He lowered her to the bed, pressing urgent kisses to her face and neck while reaching under her black RangeMan shirt to stroke her breasts and belly with strong, gentle hands.
His cell phone started vibrating on the bedside table, buzzing its way across the smooth surface until it fell to the carpet. They both ignored it, letting it go to voicemail. Within a few seconds the phone in the apartment started ringing instead. It rang about ten times before stopping, only to start ringing again.
Stephanie felt a warm breath against the soft skin of her belly as Ranger uttered a curse. He jumped up and walked out of the bedroom to answer the apartment phone that was still ringing insistently somewhere else in the apartment.
"Yo."
Stephanie caught occasional snatches of the conversation but couldn't follow it, and now that she was alone in his bedroom she was suddenly full of doubts. This was as much a bad idea as it had ever been. He still felt as magical as he always did, but there was still no promise of a future there, just passion that rendered her mindless as soon as he touched her. And it still wasn't enough.
She sat up, feeling foolish still lying on her back in an empty room, and got up off the bed. As she got to the door she met Ranger coming back.
"We have a situation. We need Connie tonight instead of Saturday the way we intended."
He grabbed a pair of pants out of his closet and pulled them on before leading the way back to the living room and sitting on the couch. He raised his eyebrows as she sat in the chair opposite instead of next to him, but didn't comment.
"That was Tank on the phone. We had a major takedown planned for Saturday night; a high ranking gang member by the name of Otis Sanborn. We've just received information that he's planning to run at any time, so it has to be tonight instead.
It's on Stark, and we need a lookout at the front of the building to warn us if reinforcements arrive that might mean we'd have to fight our way out with him. The best cover that won't arouse suspicion would be a hooker on the corner outside."
"You want her to pretend to be a hooker and hang around outside?"
"Yeah."
"That's dangerous territory."
"It's unavoidable. She'll be wired and we won't be far away at any time. We'll pick her up and take her with us as we leave the location. I need you to help her get prepared. We'll meet here at 22:00."
"I'm on it. I'll see you at 10." Stephanie jumped up and left the apartment. She wouldn't have much time to make the arrangements.
o0o0o0o0o
She burst into the bonds office just before Connie closed it up. "Is Lula still here?"
"Sure am." Lula came out of the tiny bathroom.
"We need to talk, all three of us. Connie, can you lock up so that we don't get disturbed?"
"Sure." Connie got up and locked both doors. "What's the big emergency?"
"Your last job for RangeMan is tonight; it just got brought forward from the weekend. And it's bad."
Connie visibly shivered as she sat down in her chair. "What is it?"
"You're going to have to act as a lookout for a takedown tonight. It's in a building on Stark and you're going to have to pose as a hooker outside while they go in. You'll be wired so you'll be able to warn them if reinforcements arrive."
Lula whistled. "That ain't no place for her. Hell, I wouldn't wanna be there at night and I've been in the business. Girls get hurt real regular down there."
"That's what I was scared of. I think we should all do it together. More safety in numbers."
"Would you?" Connie said in a small voice.
"Course," Lula said firmly. "Try keepin' me away. Only problem is, three girls on one corner ain't gonna look right. How 'bout I ask Jackie to come with me and we take the next corner."
"Will she do it?" Stephanie asked.
"She will." Lula's face was grim. "She owes me for a few things, and I'm gonna collect. I won't bring her into RangeMan, though. We'll meet you on Stark. Now, the first thing is to get you two into the right kind of clothes. I always knew my sense of style would win in the end."
o0o0o0o0o
Connie felt even more conspicuous walking into the RangeMan control room than she had the first time for the Domino's job. Lula had crammed her into a tiny spandex skirt and a halter top that was seriously struggling to contain her breasts. She didn't dare lean forward too far. The skirt was so short that she was sure she could feel the wind whistling around her privates, and she was wearing a thick layer of make up that felt like it had been applied with a trowel.
She shot an envious look at Stephanie. As usual, the taller woman was carrying her equally ridiculous costume off with confidence and style. She looked fantastic, even dressed up as a low price hooker.
Everything ran smoothly until Ranger came out of his office to do the briefing. He stopped dead when he saw Stephanie in her costume. When the men started to look around he carried on with the briefing, but he didn't take his eyes off Stephanie the whole time. Finally he dismissed the team to go down to the SUVs.
As Stephanie and Connie turned to follow them down, Ranger grabbed Stephanie's wrist and dragged her away towards his office. She tottered along behind him on her high heels, protesting.
Connie watched in confusion as the door to his office slammed shut behind them, leaving her alone in the control room apart from the men on monitor duty.
"Connie!" Tank was standing at the door to the stairs waiting for her.
"But Steph–"
"Isn't part of this job. Come on. We'll wait for Ranger downstairs."
She followed him out, casting anxious looks at Ranger's office door the whole way.
o0o0o0o0o
"What do you think you're doing?" Ranger asked as soon as the office door was closed.
"I'm going with her."
"No, you're not."
"I have to. It's not safe. You said that you wouldn't put her in danger for nothing. When's the last time you saw a woman standing on her own on Stark Street? They get hurt, Ranger."
"Which is exactly why you're not going. She'll be wired and there'll be a team there."
"In the building. Not with her. And, it'll look more realistic if there are two of us there."
"No. You don't do the jobs with her, remember?"
Stephanie was blazing with anger. "Yeah? Well fuck you, Ranger, and fuck your deals! Even hookers get safety in numbers when they stand on street corners! She's my friend and I'm going with her."
"I don't want you there."
"She needs me!"
"So do–" he started to shout, before stopping and turning away to the blank wall of his office. When he turned back to her his face was as blank as the wall and his voice was icy. "So, if she needs you so much, go. Get out of here, now."
o0o0o0o0o
Connie was shocked when Stephanie joined her on the street corner, her puffy eyes obvious even in the poor light from the streetlamp.
"What are you doing here? Tank said you're not working this job."
"The hell I'm not."
"But Ranger–"
"The hell with Ranger too. You're my friend."
"So's he."
Stephanie's voice was bitter. "Friends understand each other. Friends support each other when there's something that they have to do. And friends don't try to control each other."
Connie put her hand on Stephanie's arm. "Friends make up after fights too."
"Maybe friends do, but I don't know what he is."
"You sure about that?"
"I don't want to talk about this any more. We have work to do. Can we see Lula and Jackie from here?"
"Watching the other corner of the building. Look to your right."
o0o0o0o0o
Ranger was calm on the outside as they went into the building, but inside he was seething with rage. Fortunately his team were all experienced and trusted, and if they picked up on his fury they knew better than to let it affect the operation.
They quietly broke into the supposedly abandoned building through a rear fire door and stole though the darkened corridors until they located the room where Sanborn was holed up.
The skip had no idea that they were coming, and when half a dozen armed men burst into his hiding place, neither he nor his men managed to get to their weapons in time to pose a threat. It was a textbook operation.
They cuffed Sanborn and relieved the other men of all weapons and phones before securing them in another room. Ranger would let someone know where they were, once he and his men were well clear of the area and the skip handed over to the police.
They were marching him out of the building when Ranger heard a strangled cry across the street. He spun towards the sound.
Felton Ramsay was on Stephanie's street corner, laughing as he held Stephanie with one of his arms wrapped around her neck while she dangled helplessly. She was clawing frantically at the arm as he tightened his grip, cutting off her air supply just enough to weaken her.
Ranger started to move, but Ramsay produced a vicious looking blade and pressed it to her stomach hard enough to pierce her skin. A small rivulet of blood trickled down the section of bare skin between the halter top and the tiny skirt she wore. All the time he watched Ranger with a gleeful expression.
"Ah, ah! No closer." He shook Stephanie like a doll and she whimpered as she watched Ranger with wide, terrified eyes. "So pretty. Fancy thinking she could pass for a Stark whore. How badly do you want her back, Manoso?"
Ranger cut his eyes to the side. Tank was there with his gun in his hand and his eyes fixed on the pair.
"I have a shot," he murmured, not taking his eyes off Stephanie.
"She's too close, don't risk her."
His other men were even further back. Lula was running from the next corner, but was way too far away to be of any use. No-one could reach her. All they had was Tank's half chance at a shot that might hit Stephanie.
Ramsay smiled widely. "Oh, this is fun. Whatever happened to the Ranger that cut down everything in his path and made Stark Street tremble? To the bastard that killed my brother in cold blood. You've gone soft, Cuban. You're done. I think I'm just going to take my new toy home with me and unwrap her. You can have her back when I've finished playing." He gave Stephanie another shake. "Say bye-bye, little one."
"We have to stop him, Rangeman." Tank was still covering them, trying to get a clear shot at Ramsay.
"She's still in the way. Fuck. All right, if he gets to the car take the shot. He mustn't get her into the car."
Ramsay backed away towards his car, still smiling widely, still with the blade pressed to her stomach. They were running out of chances to stop him.
Suddenly a shot rang out, and blood and grey matter exploded from the side of his head, spattering Stephanie from head to foot where she dangled in front of him. His body spun away with the force of the shot and she dropped to the sidewalk in a crumpled heap.
Ranger was moving before she even hit the ground. He scooped her up and held her to his chest, where she flung her arms and legs around him and clung to him trembling like a frightened child.
He turned slowly towards the direction that the shot had come from. Connie was standing about twenty yards away, white-faced and with her gun still trained in their direction. As he watched, she lowered it with shaking hands but she made no other movement.
He walked over to her with Stephanie still in his arms and took the gun from Connie's nerveless fingers.
She opened her mouth, then closed it again without speaking and sank down slowly to sit shaking on the curb.
Hearing Tank walk up to join him. Ranger handed the gun to him with his eyes still fixed on Connie. "Clean this mess up."
He spun on his heel and carried Stephanie to the SUV. He put her in the passenger seat, got in the other side and took off with a screech of tires."
o0o0o0o0o
Connie climbed into her cold bed shaking uncontrollably with shock. Ranger's eyes had been wild, blazing. In all the years she'd known him she'd never seen him so close to losing control. It had felt like being in a cage with a trapped wolf.
Tank had been calm as he took her home, but he'd hardly said a word to her. She had no idea how bad this was.
She heard a stair creak and reached for her gun. When she realized that she didn't have a gun any more, panic rose in her throat. She hadn't been without a gun for as long as she could remember. Not having one made her feel vulnerable, helpless. She huddled under the duvet and tried to tell herself that Tank wouldn't have taken her home if something was planned. It wouldn't make sense. She knew that, but her heart was still racing in terror. Fear of the unknown beat logic hands down without the comforting weight of her gun in her hand.
"It's only me."
She sobbed with relief as she heard a familiar voice in her bedroom. The bed dipped and strong arms wrapped around her as Hal spooned her back into his warm body.
"I never shot anybody for real before," she whispered.
"I know. Sleep now."
She did.