Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
Shadow Puppets
Chapter 2
Ranger didn't see Stephanie for the next few days. He suspected that she was avoiding him to keep the peace with her asshole boyfriend and his crazy grandma. Probably for the best anyway. Give them a chance to get back into their whole insane on again off again thing. If he saw her he'd probably give into temptation again, and since Abruzzi, Morelli knew a little too much about him for comfort. Under normal circumstances, Morelli had too much to lose if he tried to use the information. No point in making him crazy enough to upset the balance.
o0o o0o o0o
A week after Morelli's discovery, it all went to hell anyway.
Stephanie's car went off the grid and the guys called him as soon as it happened, the way they normally did. He took off straight away to the spot where they had lost contact and found Stephanie sitting on the curb at a safe distance watching the paint bubble where flames were licking up the side of her car. As he joined her the seats caught and the interior started to burn merrily as well.
He sat on the curb next to her without saying anything.
"It's actually kind of pretty," she said to him without taking her eyes off the flames. "Hard to look away from."
"I know." God knows, he hadn't managed it yet. "What happened?"
She shrugged. "Smoke just started pouring out from under the hood. Must have been something wrong with the car."
She looked tired and drawn. "I'd only had this one a month. My insurance company wouldn't even provide me with full coverage. I guess that's what you get when you spend under five hundred bucks on a car."
"Why don't you just let me give you a car, Babe?"
"I don't want the responsibility. Besides, Morelli would blow a gasket. He's barely talking to me as it is." She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling herself inwards into a tight ball of misery washed with flickering orange light from the flames and red and blue from the emergency vehicles.
"You happy, Steph?"
Shit, where did that come from? That wasn't maintaining the balance and letting her make her own decisions.
"Oh yeah, never better. Why wouldn't I be, right? He's a good guy. All a girl could want. I guess I'm just tired. Killing cars takes it out of you." She leaned her head against his shoulder looking for comfort and he slung an arm around her.
That was how Morelli found them.
"You just can't stay away from her, can you, Manoso?"
Fuck.
"Well, congratulations. You pulled it off. I'm done with finding you sniffing around her every time I turn around. You've poisoned her so badly with all your 'help' that we don't stand a chance any more. I just hope you had a plan and you didn't break us up for nothing. Goodbye, Steph." He tossed a key to the tarmac at her feet.
"Looks like I screwed up again," Stephanie murmured tiredly without lifting her head. "It's usually something I do that starts it."
"Wrong. I think that one's on my tab."
"Makes no difference, results the same. He didn't shout much, though, considering he just gave me back the key to my apartment. Hardly any entertainment value at all."
"Babe."
"Give me a ride home?"
"Any time. Come on." He got to his feet and extended a hand to pull her up. "Meet me for lunch tomorrow?"
"Why not? Word will go around anyway. Might as well give them their money's worth. You'll need to pick me up though. I don't think this," she waved at the burning shell of her car, "is taking me anywhere."
o0o o0o o0o
When they got out of the Turbo in the restaurant parking lot, the white-haired old lady that Ranger had ignored the week before was standing by the entrance. Stephanie recognised her, and paled. "Oh Jesus, it's Grandma Bella."
"Morelli's grandma, I take it?"
She nodded frantically. "We have to leave. Now."
"She can't be worse than your grandma, Babe."
"She's way worse. She has the Eye."
"She has two."
"No, not that kind. I mean the Eye. She can curse people."
"You telling me you believe in curses, Stephanie?" he asked doubtfully.
"Whatever. Can we just leave?"
He shrugged. "If you want."
They got back into the car and pulled out of the parking lot again. Ranger noticed another old woman step out of the shadows to stand next to Bella as they drove past. She was similarly dressed in a faded black dress, but she was much taller than Bella, around six feet tall. The rock-hard bun on the back of her head was steel gray instead of white and her eyes were a piercing shade of blue. Both women's eyes followed the Turbo closely until it was out of sight.
"Omigod, Grandma Bella. Grandma Bella's after me. I'm in so much trouble. What am I going to do? Joe set Grandma Bella on me."
Stephanie's panicky babbling while he was driving was starting to drill through Ranger's skull. "She's just an old lady, Steph."
"She's not. There's a reason why people are scared of Grandma Bella."
"I'm not."
"Maybe you should be. Don't they have voodoo where you come from?"
"Newark? Not so much, and you're thinking of Haiti."
"Oh God, what am I going to do? Grandma Bella wants vengeance. There must be something we can do to stop her."
"I have a better idea."
"What?"
"I take your mind off Grandma Bella."
"How?"
"I guarantee you'll like it." He'd make sure of it. Morelli's loss was definitely going to be his gain. First step: throwing Stephanie on his bed and reminding her of what she'd been missing.
o0o o0o o0o
A couple of hours later, he flopped back onto the bed beside her, naked and sweaty, and listened smugly as her gasps gradually settled into normal breathing again.
"So, still worried about her?"
"About who?" Stephanie murmured, eyes closed.
"No-one."
o0o o0o o0o
A slight sound in his bedroom woke him, and he rolled over to find Stephanie up and next to the bed pulling on her panties. "Where you going, Babe?"
"Home to change. I promised that I'd have dinner with my parents tonight. Want to come?"
"Your grandma going to be there?"
"Probably."
"Pass."
"Coward," she accused.
No, he'd just exceeded his quota of crazy old ladies for the week already, but he wasn't going to mention that and set her off again. "Guilty. Next time."
She stopped dressing and turned to him, doing a bad job of concealing the hope on her face. "Next time?"
You need to work on that gameface, Babe. "Yeah. Now get out of here before I decide to drag you back into bed and keep you there." And please don't ask any serious questions. Let me work into this relationship thing gradually.
Thankfully she didn't ask any more questions, just stuffed her bra into her pocket and pulled her tee-shirt over her head. To his mind, tragically ruining the view.
She leaned over the bed to kiss him goodbye and he seized the opportunity to grab her tee-shirt and pull her over so that she fell on top of him. Her bare breasts under the tee-shirt plastered against his chest as he dragged her in for a deep kiss.
"Have fun. I'll see you tomorrow," he said as he let her up again.
"Where do you want to meet?" she asked.
"I'll find you. Here, take the Turbo to get to your parents." He took the keys from the bedside table and tossed them to her.
She caught the keys and shot him a brilliant smile before leaving.
He rolled out of bed and padded over to the shower. Time to get back to work.
o0o o0o o0o
He worked late catching up on the paperwork in his fifth floor office, trying to clear the decks a little. If he was honest, he hated the paperwork side of running a company and got out on the street every chance he got. That meant there was always a pile of paper demanding his attention, and usually his business manager trying to hunt him down as well. Occasionally he had to let him find him, otherwise the stacks of paper reached dangerous heights and he had to do paperwork for days without coming up for air.
A post-coital afternoon nap with Stephanie turned out to have been a wonderful thing for his concentration, though, because he managed to finish everything outstanding in one ten-hour hit. When he had signed the last document waiting for him he finally hit the couch in the office.
He ended up sleeping there so often that Ella had started leaving a pillow and a blanket folded up in the room for him. He pulled them out now and got comfortable. Just a quick nap, then he could reward himself for his hard work tonight by luring Stephanie back to bed again tomorrow. Maybe they could pick up a couple of skips together first then spend the rest of the day in bed. That would actually be pretty close to his definition of a perfect day. Something to look forward to.