I still don't own anything, and I'm not making any money.
Thank you all for reading, and being so patient! And thank you Haleigh.l and Melody for proofreading for me, I greatly appreciate your work.
What Happens in Vegas
Chapter 20
She reached up and wrapped her arms around me and I awkwardly hugged her back. "It was nice to meet you, Abuela," I said.
"And you to. My Carlitos is a lucky man to have found you."
I didn't respond to that, but Abuela didn't seem to expect me to, because she released me to Gloria and Manuel to say their goodbyes. Gloria told me once again not to worry too much, but I could see her own worry and fear was there, only hers was controlled by years of experience.
Squaring my shoulders, I followed the guys out of the safe room and out of the house, determined to learn to be strong like her since this was the life I'd chosen… Even if Ranger didn't know that yet.
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I was in a daze the entire trip back to the RangeMan building, but as soon as we were parked, I was out of the Bronco. I ran across the garage and pushed the call button to the elevator before turning to glare at the guys for not hurrying as well. I wanted to get upstairs and start planning.
When they finally made it into the elevator, I jabbed the button for the fifth floor sharply and then started trying to pace. It turned out to be more than a little difficult in a small space filled with Merry Men but I was full of nervous energy.
After an eternity, the door opened with a ping and I darted out. Or at least I tried to. I made it about a foot before a dark arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me back against a large body.
"Easy, Bomber," I heard and felt Tank say. "Let's check in with control and see if anything's come up or changed, then we'll go from there."
"All right," I agreed and hurried to the control room, getting there only a few steps ahead of the guys.
"News?" Tank asked.
"Not much," said Cal, who was sitting at the monitor nearest the door. "Hal and Zero are on their way back from the site. They did a search, but didn't find anything of interest other than the darts they were shot with. They're bringing those back to be tested and we should have results in a few hours. Other than that, everything's been quiet."
"Good. Inform me if anything comes in."
"Yes, sir."
Tank turned around to look at Bobby and Lester next. He had the air of power and authority that Ranger usually generated; I could see why he was Ranger's second in command.
"Lester, I want all team leaders currently on site in Meeting Room Alpha in fifteen minutes. Bobby, have all employees contacted and put on call, tell them to be ready get here ASAP."
They gave him identical nods before sweeping away. I stood, slightly stunned by how quickly and efficiently things were getting moving. I'd never seen RangeMan mobilize, but then again, that was probably because they usually mobilized to search for me.
"Come on," Tank said to me. "Let's get down to the meeting room and get things set up."
I nodded and half walked, half jogged to keep up with Tank as he moved back to the elevator. We took it to the second floor, where I knew Ranger had conference rooms. The one Tank led me to was a large room with a dark wood table and cushiony black chairs. Heaving a sigh, I sank into one, feeling reality threaten to catch up with me for the first time.
"You have to think he'll be okay," Tank said, turning from the presentation equipment he'd been preparing and sinking into the chair next to me. "We don't do the really dangerous or international stuff any more. But when we did, he got into and out of bigger trouble than this."
I nodded, forcing myself to remember that Ranger was as close to a real life Batman as I was going to find. He wasn't really a superhero, but he was smart and skilled and could keep himself alive. I did my best not to remember the time I had almost seen him lose his life.
Thankfully, I didn't have long to think on that before the Rangemen began trickling into the conference room. I put my brave face on. Tank knew me well enough to know that there would be no fighting me, but I didn't want anyone else questioning my right to be a part of the search.
"Is everyone aware of the situation?" I heard Tank ask, snapping me from my thoughts once again.
I looked around the room and saw that the table had filled up with Rangemen, and they were all nodding. I guess news about Ranger had traveled fast.
"All right. We're assuming that Ranger has been taken by Blake Harper. Until confirmed, I want a team working on a list of other possible abductors."
I watched in amazement as three guys I didn't know instantly stood and quietly slipped from the room, obviously going to get to work on that.
"Now, let's review everything we have on Harper."
Lester stood to speak first. He went through, in fine detail, everything we knew on Harper to date. Most of it I was aware of, and some of it I wasn't. But somewhere along the line, I stopped paying attention. I was really beginning to remember why I hated these meetings. I was no good at sitting and planning, especially when I wanted to be out doing something.
Drifting back in for a minute, I heard Lester updating everyone on a meet that had been set up for tonight. Apparently, they'd found a dealer from Stark claiming to have seen Harper while everyone else was keeping quiet. They weren't sure where the lead was going, or even if they would get anything from it… especially now that Ranger had been taken and Harper would have likely moved. It was still worth checking out.
I was about to zone back out, since they were still discussing the reliability of the dealer instead of Ranger or Harper, when Tanks phone began to ring.
"Yo," he answered, before giving a neutral, "Okay." When he snapped his phone shut, I fixed him with an expectant look.
"Hal and Zero just got back," he announced. "I need to go talk to them. We're pretty much done here so everyone head out and get back to work. I want you to double or triple all efforts that were already being made to find Harper. All energy is going into finding Ranger. Pull in anyone you need."
The room emptied quickly and within a minute it was just Tank and I again.
"So what do I do?" I asked when he gave me a questioning look.
"It's going to be a long night. Why don't you head up to seven and try to get a nap in?"
"No," I said. I knew he was trying to help me, but there was no way I could sleep right now. "If I tried that, I'd start thinking and I don't think that's a good idea right now."
Tank studied me for a moment before saying, "Probably not. You're doing a great job holding it together. Ranger would be proud of you," he said gruffly. "If you want, you can go up to the control room and see if any of the guys need help."
"Okay," I said and followed Tank out of the meeting room and into the elevator.
In the break room, I found Cal, Junior and Vince bent over a map of Trenton, circling sections in different colors.
"Hey, guys," I greeted them, wedging myself between Junior and Cal to take a closer look. "Do you need any help?"
"Uh, no thanks, Bomber," Junior said, giving me an awkward one armed hug.
"Yeah, we should be good," Vince said.
"All right. I'll let you get back to work," I said.
Wandering around, I found a couple more clusters of Merry Men, all looking very busy, but none of them needed any help. And every time, I kept getting hugs and looks of pity. It was almost like they were afraid to have me around, afraid that I'd suddenly break down. What they didn't realize was that I wasn't going to break down. I'd decided during the meeting to be strong and so far I'd done well. I was going to be the kind of woman that could handle Ranger and he was going to have to learn to accept that.
After about the fifth time I got turned down, I gave up trying to be of any help. The Merry Men were not taking any chance of being stuck with an emotional female. Apparently that was one situation they weren't trained to handle.
Instead, I rambled around the fifth floor for about a quarter of an hour, not taking much in, before I found myself facing the door to Ranger's office. I placed one hand flat against it and another on the handle, but I didn't go in.
I turned to my left, and in a few steps was in front of Tank's office.
Poking my head in, I found him on the phone. I just about turned to leave, when I saw him hold up a finger telling me he'd only be a minute.
"Thank you," he was saying. "We'll keep you posted and let us know if anything comes up on your end."
When he hung up the phone, I dropped myself in a chair and gave him a questioning look.
"Detective Catori," he said by way of explanation.
Catori was a detective who had worked cases involving Harper a few times and had been keeping an eye out since he'd started missing parole meetings. With any luck he'd be able to help us turn something up.
"Has he found anything?"
"No, but now that I reported Ranger as a missing person and Harper's a suspect in a kidnapping, Catori won't have his hands tied so much by legal issues."
"That's good," I said before remembering why I'd come in here. "Do you have anything I can do? None of the guys seem to want me around."
"Bomber, it's not that they don't want you around. They just don't know what to do when they can see you're hurting.
"But,--" I said before Tank held up a hand.
"No 'buts.' You're doing great at staying strong, but we can see you're just hanging on. We big, tough army men aren't any good with emotional shit. Especially emotional women."
"I'll do my best not to get emotional, if you just find something for me to do," I said, with my best attempt at my usual attitude.
"I'm making calls now to a bunch of contacts we have on the streets, calling in favors. They're going to need to hear from me specifically. You could run some searches for me. I got some names from one of my calls, but I think the guy just wanted me off his back. They're still worth looking into."
"Sure," I said holding out my hand for the list. Tank didn't sound hopeful about this helping us, so the searches were basically only a step above busy work, but they needed to be done. And I wanted to do anything to help the process along.
In my cubicle, I booted up my computer and opened up the standard programs I'd become so familiar with. I put the first name in and immediately crossed it off the list. The guy had died three months ago. I was really hoping he didn't know where Ranger was.
The rest of the names on the list required some more work and I turned up what I thought could be some leads. That was something Tank would have to deal with, though. No way did I want to go talking to any of these guys.
Feeling like I had actually accomplished something, I printed off results for the last name on the list and added it to the file I'd made up. My stomach growled in protest as I left my cubicle in search of Tank and I checked the time. It was already past ten.
I couldn't believe that only a few hours ago Ranger and I had been having dinner with his parents and Abuela Rosa.
Pushing those thoughts away, I poked my head into Tank's office.
"All done," I said. "Have you found anything?"
"We haven't located him, but we have more information than we did a couple hours ago."
I did my best not to let my disappointment show and asked about the new info.
"Well, Lester went to meet his contact, but the guy didn't show. Either Harper got to him or he spooked. Either way, it means Harper's been making waves and we can use that to track him down."
"Have you had any luck so far?"
"Not yet. Lester just got back a little while ago and he's working on a team to decide where to look next. Your searches should help them out."
"Anything else?" I asked. I really hoped that one absent contact wasn't all we had.
"The results came back from the darts the guys picked up from the scene. They were hit with sodium thiopental"
"And?" I asked. I had no idea if that was supposed to mean something to me.
"It's a short-acting general anesthetic that can take affect in under a minute. It's also the first of a three drug sequence used in lethal injection."
"What?" I gasped. Ranger had been injected with something lethal?
"It's not the lethal part," Tank said quickly. "It's a sedative. The dose given in lethal injection is very high. So high that one dose would have been enough to easily take out three or four average RangeMan sized guys."
"What's that mean about finding Harper?" I asked. "He was in a New Jersey prison and Jersey doesn't use the death penalty."
"True. But a check to his prison records showed he had a breakdown while there. The prison hospital he was sent to was in Pennsylvania where they do use the death penalty. We're not saying that's how he came by the drugs, but I sent some guys to check it out."
"What are-" I started to ask another question, but my stomach growled loudly reminding me I was due for a snack.
"We don't really know much else, Bomber. Why don't you go upstairs, take a shower, order some dinner and get some sleep. Not much is happening and we're going to have a long day tomorrow. I promise to wake you if anything comes up."
I was about to protest but cut myself off with a yawn. Tank was right. I needed to get some sleep. Being strong was physically and emotionally draining. And I needed to stay strong for Ranger.
"Okay," I agreed. "But only if you promise to come get me."
"I promise. Now get going."
I didn't need much more convincing before I headed to the elevator and keyed my way to the seventh floor.
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A/N: Thanks again for reading, and please review, I appreciate any and all feedback!