I don't own anything and I'm not making any money. Also, a big thanks to Haleigh.l for her help editing, I really appreciate it. And thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing!

What Happens in Vegas

Chapter 23

"Now what?" I asked.

"We drop the note off. It's unlikely, but Harper may be watching your apartment, so you should be the one to actually drop the note off."

I tried to quirk an eyebrow at that and failed. Tank just smirked before explaining.

"We don't want to alert him. But don't think for a second I won't be watching you. You'll be wearing a mike, earpiece, tracking device and panic button."

"Overkill much?"

"Nope. I fully intend to get Ranger back tonight. I don't want to bring him back just to have him kill me for getting you hurt."

oOoOoOoOo

I rolled my eyes at Tank. He was wiring me with more electronics than an entertainment center but I wasn't going to hold us up by arguing. "When are we going?"

"It's a little after eight, so we should get moving soon. I sent some guys to get in position around your apartment, but out of sight. You'll drive one of Ranger's cars over as soon as I hear from them."

"Then what?"

"Leave the note somewhere obvious. Then lay low for about half an hour. If you leave immediately it will look suspicious, might provoke him to attack. Wait and make it look like you're going on an ice cream run."

"Then?"

"Then we watch and wait."

I rolled my eyes again. Everyone at RangeMan knew that waiting was not my strong suit. I was just about to smack Tank for looking amused when his phone rang.

I tried listening in, but he has the same phone skills as Ranger. All I got was 'Yo,' and 'be there in twenty.'

"What's up?" I asked when he'd flipped his phone shut and clipped it back to his belt.

"The guys are in position. We're moving out."

I turned towards the elevator, ready to head to the garage, but Tank grabbed me by the back of my shirt.

"Not so fast. We still need to get you wired."

I followed Tank to a supply closet off of the control room and waited impatiently while he gathered what he needed. After a minute, he turned around and held out a supply of gadgets.

I grabbed the panic button first and activated it before slipping it onto my pocket. Next I took the wire and turned my back to Tank while I slipped it under my shirt and clipped it to my bra. When I turned around, I just stared at the tracker and ear piece. I'd never used those.

"The tracker's activated remotely from the control center," Tank said, after I had continued staring for a long minute. "And the ear piece is already set to the frequency we'll be using; all you have to do is turn it on. You'll begin hearing when we start transmitting."

"Okay," I said sticking the tracker in my pocket with the panic button and then picking up the ear piece. I turned it over in my hand for a minute and then found the small button to turn it on. Giving it a last look, I pushed it into my ear and was surprised that I could barely feel it.

"One more thing," Tank said and held out a Glock like the one I'd used while working for RangeMan.

I knew there would be no arguing, so I took it and gingerly dropped it in my bag.

Tank gave me a nod and left the closet, heading for the elevator. I caught up while he was waiting for the car, and then we made our way down to the garage silently.

In the garage, though, I looked around a bit awkwardly.

"Um, which car do I take?" I asked.

"Which do you want?"

"You're sure I have to take one of Ranger's cars?"

"Bombshell," Tank said in what may have been exasperation before heading to the key cabinet on the wall.

When he came back to where I was, he picked up my hand and dropped a set of keys in it before pointing to the Turbo.

And my eyes went wide. "I can't drive the Turbo! What if something happens to it?"

"I don't think Ranger will mind if we get him back. Now get going."

I had another moment of internal debate before I gave in and got in the car. I wanted to find Ranger and I figured this fell under his 'cars aren't important, people are' theory.

That settled, I turned over the engine and listened to it purr to life. I love this car.

The trip across town to my apartment went more quickly than I would have liked. Before I knew it, I was pulling into my lot and because I was driving Ranger's car I got a parking space right by the door. Life isn't fair.

I shut off the engine and moved to open the door but couldn't do it. I suddenly felt tendrils of fear curling in my stomach. What if Harper was upstairs waiting for me? What if he'd left Ranger for dead now that he was focusing on me… or worse left him in my apartment? It was that thought that finally made me move. I needed to do this to get to Ranger.

I took the elevator so I couldn't chicken out and turn around. When the doors opened I took the handful of steps to my apartment hesitantly, reminding myself that they guys were only a button push away. I got the door unlocked and carefully pulled out the gun Tank had given me before pushing it open.

By the time I'd cleared my apartment, I felt a little silly about my SWAT impression. Every room had been empty and not a dust bunny had been disturbed. I was just glad no one saw me and I'd have to hope the guys couldn't tell what I was doing by the sound.

"Everything clear?" I suddenly heard through my ear piece, making me jump.

"Shit! Les, don't do that to me!"

"Sorry, Bomber. So, is everything clear?"

"Yeah. I'm just going to leave the note on the table, watch some Ghostbusters and I'll be out in a bit."

"All right. Remember, we're out here if you need us."

"Thanks."

I felt a little awkward ending our conversation and moving around my apartment, knowing that the guys were still in my head, but I didn't really know what to talk about. Giving my head a shake, I pulled the letter I'd written to Harper out of my bag and tossed it on the table where he'd be sure to see it. Just in case, though, I pulled a tablet and marker from my junk drawer and wrote 'HARPER' in bold letters with an arrow pointing at the note.

That done, I settled into my couch and started Ghostbusters. I heard a few groans come over my ear piece, but I tuned them out as I got into the movie. I actually managed to watch the whole thing without getting freaked out, but once it was over I realized I wanted out of my apartment.

I glanced at the clock in my kitchen and saw that it was about quarter after ten… dangerously close to Harper's midnight meeting time. The idea that he could be watching had me spooked.

Somehow, I managed to get my bag and calmly make my way out to the Turbo before driving away. I did notice that my speed increased as I got closer and closer to RangeMan and I didn't relax until I saw the gate slide closed behind me.

"Great job, little girl," Tank said, wrapping me in a hug as I climbed out of the car. "You managed to hang in there for good amount of time."

"Ghostbusters has always been my denial movie," I said with a weak laugh.

It must not have fooled Tank because he squeezed me a bit tighter for a minute before walking me to the elevator. "I have orders to send you to Ella when you get back. I think she made you comfort food."

I smiled at that. I could use some sugar and Ella care.

Tank dropped me off on the sixth floor and moments after I knocked on the apartment door, Ella had it open.

"Welcome back, dear. I hear you may be getting Ranger back."

"I hope so," I said as Ella led me into the kitchen and sat me at the table.

"And are you going to tell him how you feel?"

I felt my eyes go wide. I'd been so focused on getting Ranger back and dealing with my clarified feelings that I hadn't even thought about telling him about them.

Ella just laughed when she noticed the look on my face. "Don't worry about it now. There will be plenty of time for that later."

"Uh, yeah," was my brilliant response.

After that, we chatted about nonsensical things and I realized that Ella had all of the RangeMan gossip imaginable. She told me all about Hal's sister's new baby and that the minor system crash we'd had the other day was really caused by a spilled drink in the control room. She was telling me all about the girl Lester had been out with three times (a long term commitment for him) when my cell rang with Tank's name on the caller ID.

"What happened?" I asked, skipping a greeting.

"Harper showed."

I felt my breath catch and flicked my eyes to the clock. It was only twenty after eleven. "And?" I asked.

"He's sitting in white Saturn outside your building. You want to get down to control? We're going to get in position."

"Yeah. See you in a minute," I said and hung up.

"Harper's at my building," I told Ella.

"Then your plan is working," she said and hugged me again before herding me out the door. "Good luck."

"Thanks," I said over my shoulder as I headed for the elevator.

The trip down one floor was one of the longest in my life and for once I was wishing I'd taken the stairs. When the doors finally opened I flew out of them and into the control room before skidding to a halt in front of Tank.

"You have Harper?"

"Yeah. He's under surveillance. Let's get you geared up and go join the guys watching him."

I quickly put the equipment I'd worn at my apartment back on, as well as a vest, and tried not to focus in on the fluttery feelings in my stomach. I was terrified and excited all at the same time. Ranger had only been gone a little over twenty four hours, but that was a lot of time for nervous energy to build up. And now it was trying to get out.

"Who's watching my apartment?" I asked Tank, trying to distract myself from my nerves as we headed down to the garage.

"Bobby and Lester in one Explorer and Junior and Vince in another."

"And what will we be doing?"

"They're watching him sit in his car right now. We'll go park in the alley across from your lot where we'll be in good position to follow him if he leaves."

By the time he was done answering, we were loading into the Explorer and I knew that was the end of the conversation. Tank was in his zone.

The trip to my apartment took forever. And we didn't even hit any red lights. I'd tipped my head back and closed my eyes, trying to find my own zone but was about to give it up as hopeless when I felt the SUV come to a stop and the engine shut off.

Snapping my eyes open, I realized we were parked across from my apartment building, hidden in the shadows of another building.

I was about to ask a question when I heard a voice over my earpiece for the first time. "He's on the move," Lester said.

I scanned my lot, and sure enough, I saw a shadowy figure creeping towards the front door. It was only quarter of twelve, so I guess he got impatient or was planning on surprising me.

We waited for about ten minutes, during which I grew increasingly tense, before Harper came storming out of my apartment building.

"Guess he got the message," I heard Vince say over the mike.

"Bombshell and I will follow him," Tank said in response. "Lester, Bobby, I want you to follow us at an safe distance. Drop back if we approach a rural area. Vince, Junior, you watch our GPS signal and follow ten minutes behind."

"Yes, sir," I heard chorus through my ear piece.

And then Tank was turning over the engine of the SUV and we were pulling out after Harper. Traffic wasn't light, but we still had to stay a safe distance behind Harper's vehicle and I felt my stomach drop every time he went around a corner. We were so close to finding Ranger. I'd go crazy if we lost him now.

Tank's tailing skills were thankfully far superior to mine, though, and we didn't lose Harper as we followed him out of Trenton and into suburbia. Just when I was completely lost among all the cookie cutter houses, we came to a stop.

Harper was pulling into the garage of a beige house across the street and about four houses down from where we were parked. I immediately reached for my door handle, ready to go in guns blazing. But the door wouldn't open so I rounded on Tank.

"You safety locked me in?" I said, guessing that he's engaged the child safety locks.

"Hell yeah. We've come too far for me to risk letting you get hurt now. We need to wait for the rest of the team."

"But Ranger," I said before Tank pressed a finger to my lips silencing me.

"Has been in there for over twenty four hours now and we want to extract him in a way likely to succeed. To do that, we need a team."

"Well, where are they then?"

"Bobby and Lester are parked a block over and should be making their way to us on foot," Tank said.

"ETA thirty seconds, man," Bobby's voice said through my ear piece. I kept forgetting they could hear me.

"And Vince and Junior should be arriving soon and walking to us also."

"We're about two minutes out," Junior said.

"Good," Tank said and then started doing something with the SUV's navigation system so I assumed the conversation was done for now.

It probably was only half a minute before Bobby and Lester opened the back doors and climbed in. When no one said anything, I started to get antsy.

"Well? Aren't you guys going to start planning or something?"

"No," Lester said. But before I could blow up he continued. "We're waiting for the rest of the team. We'll do some recon, and then make a plan."

"Fine," I huffed. Logically I understood that they knew more about this stuff than I did, but emotionally I just wanted to go in and get Ranger out.

I waited, and waited, and waited some more, for about four minutes until Junior and Vince showed up. Since six of us wouldn't fit in the Explorer, we climbed out and stood in a huddle behind it, out of view of the house.

"So, recon," I said before clapping my hands and turning to head for the house.

But Tank snagged me by the back of my vest. He was getting a bit annoying with that little habit.

"Not quite," he said. "Bobby, Vince, check the perimeter. Look for activity, try to find out where Harper is and where Ranger is. Lester, go check for a security system and disable anything you find."

They silently blended into the night and I tuned to Tank. "And what are we doing?"

"We're waiting. Then we're going to come up with a plan."

I started out leaning against the Explorer. Then I slid down to sit on the ground. And then, I got up, bounced on the soles of my feet and decided to use the time to stretch and loosen up. Tank wasn't talking and I needed to do something to get out of my head. In there, all I could do was picture Ranger, trapped in that house with an irate Harper. It was killing me thinking what could be happening to him during the half hour we'd been waiting. I was just about to bring that up to Tank when the guys got back.

"So?" Tank asked.

"No visible activity. House appears to be mostly uninhabited other than the kitchen, which is a mess. Ranger may be on the second floor or in the basement. Harper should be assumed to be with him. No sound was coming from the house," Bobby reported.

"There was a simple burglar alarm. I disabled it and then found the electric box. It's all set up so I can have the power shut off in seconds if we need," Lester said.

"Good," Tank said. "Did you get any ideas as to how we should go in?"

"Quietly. Through the front," Bobby said. "It's empty, obviously unused. We can slip in and secure rooms as we go."

"All right. Vince, you cover the back of the house. Lester, take care of the power once we're inside and signal. Bobby, you and Junior go in first. Clear the front room and then Bomber and I will come in. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," they chorused and then Tank leveled me with a glare.

"You are going to stick by my side. Have your gun out and listen to me without hesitation."

I don't do well with orders, so I tried to lift an eyebrow. Tank just kept glaring and I eventually gave in.

"Sure."

"Good. Everyone get in position. We go on my signal."

oOoOoOoOo

A/N: Sorry that this took so long again. If it's any consolation, I promise that they'll get to Ranger next chapter! Please review and tell me what you think!