Chapter 15

Joe's POV

I looked around the cargo area of the SUV. There was a substantial amount of blood. Plus some of Steph's hair. Anyone who saw it would assume that there had been a struggle back there.

My original plan had been to cut Stephanie's arm or leg, but in the end I couldn't do it. Instead I used a hypodermic needle to draw out several vials of blood which I spread around the cargo area. I still had a hairbrush of Steph's at my house, so it was easy to pull out several strands and add those to the back as well.

Smirking to myself, I unlocked the box around the dashcam and downloaded the footage of us, wiping the computer until it was blank. I turned the camera off so that I could drive down by the river, reactivating it once it had been abandoned by an empty warehouse. I placed an anonymous call into TPD and hung up, smiling at how well my plan was progressing. It was time to retrieve my truck and head back with my Cupcake.

Ranger's POV

I hadn't wanted to leave Stephanie this morning, but after her nap she assured me that she was fine. I waited until she had gotten started on some of the longer, more intensive searches we needed run, and then I headed out to meet with a new client. If it wasn't such a big account, I would have cancelled, but this contract alone would bring in over $2 million for RangeMan in the next several years.

The meeting went well, and the client signed, so I left feeling pleased. I climbed into the Turbo and rolled my neck and shoulders, willing myself to relax and find my zone. I smirked as I thought about how much Steph hated my silent driving behavior. I didn't do it to annoy her, even though she was pretty cute when she was annoyed. My lips twitched at the thought of her pursed lips and flashing blue eyes.

The reason I slipped into my zone was to center myself. It gave me a chance to evaluate what was important in my life and how to deal with the situations I was facing. Sometimes work things. Sometimes personal things. Today it was personal.

The past two weeks had been torturous. Even though Steph hadn't filed charges against me, the Burg had. Not only had they pressed charges, they had all taken me to trial, found me guilty, and sentenced me to a lifetime of dirty looks and snide comments. I didn't care. The opinion of a few people from Trenton, New Jersey didn't bother me. What bothered me was that Stephanie cared. I had told her over and over to let it go, to forget about it, but she was determined to prove my innocence to all of her hateful neighbors.

She and Lester had scoured the area for any sign of proof. Some of my guys had even illegally hacked into police cameras. I didn't care that it was illegal. I just didn't want anyone getting arrested to clear my more than murky name.

The final blow had been dinner at her parents' house. I think Steph had expected her family to believe everything she told them about Joe and I without question. Needless to say, they hadn't.

When we first arrived, her Grandma Mazur had dragged her upstairs under the pretext of checking out her newest "going to a funeral" pantsuit. Stephanie had trotted after her, completely oblivious, but I knew what her grandmother was doing. She wanted to ask Stephanie what was going on, and she didn't want to do it in front of me. I was fine with that. Not offended in the least. If Stephanie were being abused, I would hope that her family would care enough to step in and find out what was going on. I only hoped, for Steph's sake more than mine, that her family did just that.

About ten minutes later, Stephanie slunk back downstairs. She walked straight over to me and grabbed my hand, giving it a hard squeeze. Her grandmother eyed me warily as we all walked into the dining room.

I leaned down and whispered into her ear. "Everything OK, Babe?"

She just bit her lip and nodded a reply.

Dinner at the Plum's house was very close to the fifth circle of hell. On any given night, you could be shot, set on fire, vomited on, or grabbed by a little old lady. It was kind of like playing Russian Roulette. You closed your eyes, pulled the trigger, and hoped you were alive at the end of the meal.

Valerie's family hadn't come that night because as Mrs. Plum put it, "Valerie and Albert hadn't wanted to expose the girls to our unhealthy relationship." I quirked an eyebrow at that, but inside I was snorting in amusement. Granted, the Plum family wasn't as dysfunctional as some families I knew, but come on! Valerie's mother was a closet alcoholic with OCD cleaning tendencies, her father was a spineless mute, and Grandma Mazur was an 80 year old Playboy Bunny wannabe. Valerie had gotten pregnant out of wedlock to a Jewish Pillsbury Doughboy who could barely keep his law practice thriving. And her daughter thought she was a horse. A friggin' HORSE for chrissake! I was feeling pretty good about our relationship in comparison.

Stephanie told them all what had happened with Morelli. Her grandmother seemed inclined to believe it, which relieved me. I didn't care if she thought I was innocent or guilty. I just wanted her to believe in her granddaughter enough to trust what she told her. Her father, of course, said nothing. He just sat and shoveled in forkful after forkful. Occasionally he would grunt, but I couldn't be sure if he was reacting to what Steph was saying or just eating too fast.

Mrs. Plum had refused to buy any of the story. It seemed she had gotten a first hand account from none other than Joseph Morelli himself. That he had the nerve to try to turn Stephanie's mother against her infuriated me. Did the man have absolutely no boundaries at all? No moral compass? Evidently not.

Dinner had ended early, when Mrs. Plum suggested that Stephanie take out a restraining order against me and move in with Joe so that he could keep her safe. Steph had stood up so fast that her chair tipped over. "Carlos has never laid a hand on me!" she had hissed.

Mrs. Plum had stood up, too, her finger shaking in Stephanie's face. "Neither has Joe!" she screeched.

"That's a lie!" Stephanie screamed. "He fingered me when I was 6, raped me when I was 16, and now he's physically assaulted me twice. You know the reputation the Morelli men have. Why is it so hard for you to believe that he would do this?"

Her mother glared at me.

Stephanie's eyes opened wide in amazement. "It's because Carlos isn't Burg, isn't it? Because little Joey from the neighborhood said the outsider did it, and that's easier to believe."

Her mother denied the accusation, but the red blush that had spread across her face told the real story.

"We're leaving." Stephanie announced. "We won't be back until you can accept that what I told you is true. Carlos would never treat me that way. Joe is the one who assaulted me."

I shook my head as I pulled into the parking garage on Haywood. Stephanie hadn't talked to her family since that night.

I headed up to five and poked my head into my office. I expected to see Steph sitting on my couch working, but the room was empty. I looked around for Lester. "Where's Steph?" I asked him.

"She got a call from a business owner on Market. She found something on her security footage, and Steph went to pick up the tape." Lester glanced down at his watch and frowned. "She should have been back by now, though."

I clenched my fists. "Who went with her?" I asked quietly.

Lester paled. "No one."

"And why the hell not?" I bit out.

Lester sighed and scrubbed his hands across his face. "She said the lady asked her not to bring any of the big scary guys dressed in black. It's a bridal shop, and she said we scared some of her clients last time."

"Too damn bad." I growled. "You should have gone with her anyhow."

I stalked over to the monitors. Cal looked up and flinched at the expression on my face. "Pull up Steph's trackers." I said in a deathly calm voice.

Cal nodded and started clicking keys. He frowned.

"Report." I ordered coldly.

Cal swallowed. "Her SUV is at an abandoned warehouse by the river. But her personal trackers are all over the place. One shows her at the bridal shop on Market. Another on Stark Street. And the last at Morelli's house."

I let out a roar and cleared Cal's desk with one swipe of my arm. Cal jumped up just in time to avoid getting scalded by his huge travel mug of coffee.

Lester swore under his breath and pulled out his phone. "I'm sending out an alert right now, Boss."

"I want teams searching every one of those locations. Now!" I roared when Hal hesitated.

Hal nodded and picked up the phone, assigning teams to each location.

I buried my face in my hands. Shit! I knew something like this was going to happen! Fucking Morelli! Why couldn't anything ever be simple with Steph and me? I let out a frustrated sigh.

Steph's POV

I was still handcuffed to the grab bar in my RangeMan SUV, and I watched in horror as Joe drew vial after vial of blood out of my arm. I wanted to jerk my arm away, but he threatened to let the needle break off in my arm or puncture the vein if I didn't hold still. After drawing about five vials, Joe squirted it all over the cargo area. He pulled out the hairbrush I had left at his house and pulled out several pieces of hair, adding them to the bloody mess in the back.

I knew that anyone who saw that would assume I was either dead or badly injured. I was assuming that was the plan. Joe confirmed my assumption when he called in his anonymous tip to TPD. I wanted to scream when I heard him tell dispatch that I had been murdered and the car had been dumped by an abandoned warehouse. He gave a description of Ranger as the murderer and his Turbo as the getaway car. I bit on the gag he had tied around my mouth, trying to chew through it or pull it loose any way I could.

It didn't matter. Nothing worked. Joe hung up the phone and turned around to grin at me. He uncuffed me, pulled me out of the SUV, and drug me over to his truck, recuffing me in the small back seat. He pulled off my gag before he climbed into the driver's seat, and I started talking immediately.

"Where are you taking me? What's going on?"

Joe just smiled at me. "We're going away together, Cupcake. A friend of mine has a rustic log cabin in Montana. We're leaving as soon as I pack us some bags. I just had to get Ranger out of the way before we left."

"What do you mean 'get him out of the way?' " I asked, panicked.

Joe smirked. "With the evidence they already have at TPD, the blood left in the SUV, and my anonymous tip, Ranger is going to be charged with at least assault. When you disappear, it'll be upped to murder. Easy."

I glared at Joe. "You don't think anyone's going to notice if you and I both disappear at the same time?"

He looked up at the rearview mirror, kind of startled as if he hadn't thought about that prospect. Dumb ass!

Joe's forehead wrinkled as he thought through what this might mean for his plan. I kept talking, hoping I could confuse him enough to buy me some time. If I stayed in the Trenton area, I knew that the Merry Men would find me. If Joe drove us out to Montana like he had planned, my odds narrowed considerably.

"Carlos will notice for sure if you're gone. He'll send all of the guys out looking for you. And when they find you, they'll find me!"

Joe exhaled loudly and pounded his fist on the steering wheel. "Damn it!" he muttered. "Fine! Change of plans. I'll wait until Manoso is officially charged, then I'll request some time off. Say this whole mess with you has got me distraught, and I need a vacation. Once I'm out in Montana, I'll tell them it's so much more peaceful. No bad memories out there, and I'm going to stay. That ought to keep everybody happy."

I nodded. Probably. And with any luck at all, it would give the guys enough time to find me.

We drove to a falling down building on Stark Street, and Joe unloaded me from his truck. He shoved me up the stairs and into an old one bedroom apartment. The whole building smelled like piss, and this apartment was no exception. The floor was filthy, and a huge roach lay dead by the door. I shivered, repulsed. "Thanks for sparing no expense, Joe!" I snapped at him.

He slapped me and said, "I think I liked you better when you had the gag on," and then proceeded to tie it back around my mouth.

He led me back to the bedroom and opened a closet, shoving me inside.

"I have to grab some of our stuff from the house. I'll be back soon, Cupcake." He brushed a kiss over my forehead and then wedged the closet door shut.

I sat and banged my head against the wall. Come on, Carlos! I silently prayed. I'm putting up the Bat symbol!

Ranger's POV

Bobby and Vince called in first with a report from the warehouse. Yes, her car was there. No, Stephanie wasn't there. The TPD had gotten an anonymous tip about the car, and they were already on the scene when the guys arrived. The back hatch had been up, and Bobby reluctantly told me that the carpet was soaked with blood. My stomach clenched at that news. Someone had hurt my Babe. When I found them, they were going to die.

I couldn't even let myself think of the possibility that Steph had been killed. She had to be OK! But who would do this to her? Of course, my mind went immediately to Morelli, but then Ram and Slick called from Morelli's house. They had found Steph's tracker- a pen. But no Steph. And no one was sure where this particular tracker had been this morning. Was this an old tracker that had been at Morelli's for a while? Or had Stephanie been there today?

Joe had been home when the guys stopped, and he was none too pleased at having a team of RangeMen show up on his doorstep. I ordered Ram and Slick to tail Morelli for now. Until we knew where Steph was. They were only too happy to comply.

Tank and Hector had stopped at the bridal shop. The woman there refused to talk to them, shooing them out of her store before they scared away all of her brides. She did say that Stephanie had been there earlier today but was already gone. The guys found her purse in the rear parking lot of the store. Her tracker- a tube of lipstick- was still inside.

That left just one tracker unaccounted for. The apartment building on Stark Street. Lester and Junior had taken that one. I was trying not to be impatient with them. I knew it was taking so long because they were being thorough. There were probably 15 apartments in that building, and they had to search each one. Although that sounds easy, it's not. There are lots of hiding spots in an apartment.

While we were waiting for word from the last team, Woody buzzed from the front desk. Cal answered it and looked over at me, eyebrows raised.

I raised one back and waited to see what was going on.

"Uh, Rangeman, TPD is here with a warrant for your arrest."

I bowed my head. Of course they were. Unfuckingbelievable.

TBC