Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I profit from Janet's characters. I'm just borrowing them for a while and I promise that I'll return them when I am done, and hopefully both Steph and Lester will still be in one piece.
A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to update with another chapter but I've had a really busy life lately. Besides, I've been wracking my brain for ideas for payback. I have to admit, I gave in and asked my co-workers for good ideas, and I have to say... I work with a REALLY sick bunch of people! I mean you have to be nuts to work at the Post Office, but I had no idea how many sickos there were! LOL I dedicate this chapter to my sisters and brothers in crime. BTW, I will be trying a few of the pranks at work in the near future... so as Ranger says, "Be aware of your surroundings, Babe!"
Chapter 5:
SPOV
I knew Lester was still pissed at me when he didn't even return my phone calls this afternoon. We had lowered him to the ground still wrapped in duct tape and Lula's clothes, with not only a huge audience but with photographic evidence. Charlie Gomez, one of the CSI's for TPD, snapped a few shots of Les hanging, being lowered and standing waiting to be 'unwrapped'. He promised to send me copies via e-mail, and I had plans for them. Big plans. But that is for a later date.
My fingers flew over my phone's keyboard, typing a text to Les: Be afraid! Be very afraid! I'm not dun yet... its only the beginning!
Pressing send, I waited a moment before heading to the control room. Walking in, I found Bones and Chaz watching the monitors intently. "Hey, Bomber. Lester still pissed?" Bones asked, chuckling.
"Yep. He's still not answering my calls."
"Did you honestly expect him to be okay after that?" Chaz, asked, his eyes still trained on the huge banks of monitors laid out on front of him.
"Not really." I shrugged. "But he hasn't seen anything yet. That was just the begining." An evil little smile plastered across my face and I sighed. "I was wondering if you two would like to help me a little bit."
"I don't know, Bomber. Lester can still kick my ass on the mats." Chaz replied, leery of having a hand in my revenge plans.
"Puleese!" I groaned. "I've seen you on the mats. You kick ass." I planted my butt on the table behind the guys and proceeded to kick my feet back and forth gently. Thinking they would need a little incentive, I added, "I could make it worth your while."
Bones turned away from the monitors and stared me dead in the eyes. "What are we talking about?"
I rubbed my hands over my face and sucked in a deep breath. "Well, I could take your monitor or surveilance shifts for a week." I offered through gritted teeth. I hated to give so much, but I knew that the guys wouldn't cave if it were anything less.
Chaz quickly glanced at Bones, narrowing his eyes, deep in thought. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah." I sighed. "I need your help or I can't pull it off."
The wide grins that covered their faces told me all that I needed to know about their participation. "Bomber, you don't have to do my shifts. I'll help you, if it means you'll go with me to an alumni event next month." Bones gave me a panty melting smile.
My eyebrows raised in confusion. "Alumni event?"
"Yeah. I played football in high school, and they want me to play in the alumni game. I wasn't going to go, but if you go with me I'll call coach back and tell him I'll be there."
"What's the catch?" I asked, hands on my hips, brows furrowed.
"You have to wear my old jersey." His quick answer made me a nervous. "And you have to cheer for me." The smile across my face was something to behold.
"I can do that. You know I was a majorette in high school?" I asked, with a giggle.
"No." Chaz rolled his eyes. "Were you one of 'those girls'?"
"What do you mean 'one of those girls'?" I sounded a little pissy.
"You know: stuck up, bitchy, popular?" I rolled my eyes, putting his previous one to shame.
"Please! I wasn't all that popular. Besides, I was nice to people like I am now. Except Joyce. She's always been a bitch and a skank."
"Well, if you agree to help me with my group one night, I'll take that as full payment for my services." Chaz stated, still watching the monitors.
"What group?" I asked, trying not to sound too nervous.
"I work with teens at the local teen center, usually it's just chilling out with them, playing a little basketball or helping them with homework." I stared at the back of Chaz's head like he was an alien. I had no idea that he was so involved with the locals, let alone local teens.
"I had no idea." I stammered, a little overwhelmed. "You sure you can trust me with such fragile minds?"
"Bomber, there's nothing that will faze these kids. Not even you. Most of them have had a really hard life and it's nice to give something back. Besides, they really are good kids. Trust me." I sighed and figured since they didn't need their diapers changed and they could feed themselves, I could probably manage a group of teens for an afternoon.
"I guess. I'll have to clear my schedule for that afternoon with Ranger."
"Good. He thought you'd love to help." I could see the reflection of his smile in the inky blackness of one of the monitors.
"He did?" I squeaked. Damn! I wish I had talked to Ranger before I had opened my big mouth and offered to cover their shifts for these guys.
"Yeah. He asked both Bones and I to help you in anyway you needed. I won't really hold you to helping me if you're not up for it."
I shook my head and threw a wad of paper at his head. "Oh, no! I offered and now you're just going to have to suck it up and deal with not only the kids but me too."
"Alright, if you say so." I shook my head and groaned. How could I go back on my word? I had to help him, just like I had to go with Bones to his football game. Although I had a feeling I'd like the game better than an afternoon with moody semi-adults. Oh well.
"Alright, now that's settled, I need you expertise in something."
LPOV
After cleaning all the make up and hair gel off, and changing into some normal street clothes, I high tailed it out of the Haywood building. How was I ever going to face anyone in Trenton again? Holy shit! I really pissed Beautiful off this time. I am royally screwed. I knew better than to mess with her shoes, but it had been to much of a temptation for me. I wanted to top her little cake stunt and thought I had. Until today. Shit! I am soooo screwed!
Downing the last of the contraband doughnuts I procured from the Tasty Pastry, I felt a little better and a little guilty. Damn I was going to have to do an extra two miles and another hour of cardio to get rid of the extra calories from that awesome chocolate cake I just inhaled. I decided that I had better try and catch some sleep before I had to report for duty tonight. Pulling up into my assigned parking spot near the back wall, I parked my Mustang and beeped the alarm. What?! Like I trust Binkie or Scorch near my car. I tugged the car cover over my baby and headed into the stairwell to four.
My eyes drooped and finally closed as soon as I sighed and rolled over onto my back. I finally was going to get some much needed peace and quiet.
RPOV
I should have told Babe that I had asked a few of my men to help her in her revenge against Santos. But I know she'll forgive me once she loses herself in planning. She is so hot when she's so devious. Although, I pray that I'm never the target of her revenge in the future. She's a little scary.
The computer screen on my desk showed Babe and a small army of my men lugging supplies to the hallway on four. Lord! What in the hell is she doing?! I am going to have to call a professional clean up crew after this latest prank is pulled. I some of the bottled liquids she has in her hands will take a long time to clean up after they're done. A quiet groan broke the silence of my office and I had to roll my eyes. Santos has no idea what he's in for.
SPOV
Before entering Les's apartment on four, I motioned for Bobby and Ram to take point. Ram turned the key in the lock and slowly opened the door. The relative silence of the apartment was broken by the soft snoring coming from the bedroom. We donned our night vision goggles and crept into the apartment. Tank watched our six as Bobby and Ram crept into the bedroom, Bobby holding a syringe full of his customized sedative concoction. On the silent count of three, both Tank and Ram jumped onto Les holding him down as Bobby injecting him with the fast acting sedative. I watched in fascination as they worked in complete silence, only communicating with hand gestures or ESP. Les shouted something along the lines of "Oh, Shi..." Then the sedative kicked in and he was out like a light.
Bobby checked Les's vitals and gave the thumbs up. "He's out."
"Alright. Call in the rest of the troops." I giggled in glee. "Time for Les to get what he deserves."
A few moments later, Tank tapped me on the shoulder, "Babygirl, we're ready."
"Alright, Ram. Can I have you and Woody cover the floors in the hallway, the front room and the bedroom with the PVC plastic?" They nodded and began their work. "Hector can I have you and Grizz install the laser beams?"
"Si, Estephanie." Hector dragged Grizz over to his box of electrical wonder gadgets and set themselves to work.
"Tank. I need you, Bones, Chaz, Binkie, Hal, Cal, Vince and Diaz to get the cars all set up."
Tank and the boys saluted me with smirks on their faces and raced out of the apartment. My hands soon found themselves clasped together, and an evil grin spread across my face. Yes... Yes! My plan is coming together. He is so going to pay for taking my shoes. Honestly, I could care less about my shoes right now. I was just hell bent on exacting revenge on Lester in any way, shape or form I could manage at this point. He had pushed me beyond my carefully crafted wall of control. The beast was now loose and it would not go away voluntarily unless it's appetite for revenge was sated. Damn! I sounded like some feral animal. Or worse... like a really pissed off Ranger.
"Bobby." He turned to see me holding a wicked looking dog collar.
"What the hell is that?" He nearly shouted, eyes wide with fear.
"It's a shock collar." Seeing his distress, I added. "Don't worry. Hector rigged it so that it doesn't give that bad of a shock. Honest!" I held it up and grinned.
"Uh huh. Like I'd believe that." He rolled his eyes. "If that thing shocks him with anything more than what it was originally intended, I'm going to hold it to you and let 'er rip!"
I shook my head and grinned. "Nope!" The 'p' popped and I giggled. "I promise it's harmless. It's just going to piss him off." He sighed and held his hand out. "It has to be ratcheted onto his neck, otherwise he'll get it off."
"You're evil, sick and twisted, Bomber." He shook his head as it dropped into his hands. "Sick and twisted."
Work on the apartment finished as soon as the last laser was installed and the last linear foot of PVC plastic was laid onto the ground.. We switched our attention to the hallway and lined the floors with more plastic, securing it the to baseboards with duct tape. Bobby installed the collar onto Les's neck, while I handed out paint rollers and brushes to the guys.
"What are these for Bomber?" Grizz asked as he eyed the paint roller in his hands.
"For the dish soap." My eyes had a crazed look and Hector slowly began to smile before he burst out laughing. Grizz, Ram and Woody all looked at him like he had lost it, until he spoke to them rapidly in Spanish, explaining what I had planned. Ram's loud and gut busting laughter rang in the apartment, followed by both Grizz's and Woody's laughs.
"See. It's genius, right?" I asked, handing them bottles of the soap.
"Genius, Bomber." Ram choked out through his laughter.
We spent the next half hour covering all the plastic sheeting with the soap, careful not to miss a single spot. Bobby double checked the time Les had been under and gave me a countdown. "Bomber, he'll come to in about ten minutes."
"Good, we should be done by then. If not..." I held up my stun gun, "I'll stun him like I did Hal."
"Hey!" Hal protested with a hurt look on his face.
"No worries Hal. I stunned you because I really liked you and didn't want you getting into to trouble with Ranger." I pointed the stun gun towards the back bedroom, "Now, Les... he's gonna get it for being a monumental ass. There's a difference."
Hal grinned and elbowed Cal, "I told you she loved me." Cal rolled his eyes and proceeded to 'paint' the viscous liquid onto the plastic.
Just as we had finished putting the finishing touches to the very end of the plastic nearest the stairwell, Hector indicated that the motion sensors in Les's bedroom were showing he was coming to. So I donned a pair of recently purchased golf shoes with neat little spikes on the bottom and snuck my way towards Les's front door. A disembodied groan came from the bedroom and within a few seconds I heard a gruff voice ask, "What the fuck?!" The sound of grunting and growling as Les was attempting to pull off his new necklace made me giggle and I heard him freeze, listening for it. I giggled slightly louder this time and I heard him shout. "Beautiful! What the fuck have you done?"
Answering him, I taunted Les with my not so innocent voice, "What's the matter Les, don't like your new jewelry? While you're trying to get it off, I think I'm going to go out for a drive tonight. By the way Les, how fast have you ever driven your baby? Bet I can get her over 120 mph."
His low menacing growl made me pale instantly. "The fuck you will!"
"Watch me." I positioned myself directly in front of his open front door, keys dangling from the end of my finger. At the first sound of him rolling off his bed onto the floor, I almost couldn't contain my laughter. I heard him slip and heard a loud thud as his ass made contact with the floor. "What's the matter Les?"
"What the fuck is wrong with this floor?" He seethed, venom dripping from his words. "What did you do?"
"Oh, nothing." I giggled again and waited for the next faze to kick in.
I heard him try to advance on the slippery plastic and knew the instant he had tripped the first laser sensor. "OUCH! FUCK! What the hell was that?"
"Kind of a shocking situation don't you think Les?"
"OUCH! Fuck! I'm so going to kill you!" I watched as Les slid along the floor on his belly into the bedroom doorway, his face contorted in pain as I knew the shock collar was working overtime with the amount of laser sensors he was tripping. His head twisted around enough to lock eyes with me and I gave him a little finger wave.
"Bye." I shook his keys, rattling them in the air. Taking off running down the hallway, the spikes from the golf shoes I was wearing, ensured I had sure footing. I heard cursing and the sounds of Les trying desperately trying to get into the hallway to chase me. I flipped the shoes off my feet, slammed the stairwell door open and ran down the stairs barefoot.
Poor Les. He was convulsing like a epileptic as he worked his way to the door, the shocks from the modified collar doing it's job perfectly. Planting a foot against the frame, he propelled himself into the hallway, crashing into the opposite wall with a loud crunch and large dent in the drywall. "Leave Baby alone!" Rubbing his head where it had impacted the wall and dented it, Les groaned. "Shit! Ranger's going to kill me for busting up his walls."
I managed to slide down the last bannister in the stairwell and came crashing through the door into the garage flagging a waiting Sabo in Les's Baby. The garage gate was open, Sabo revved the engine a few times, a sick smile covered his face. He scooted over allowing me to slide into the drivers seat as we waited for Les to appear at the stairwell door.
Sure enough, a minute and a half later, Les appeared in nothing but a pair of Smurf boxers and dish soap residue. I waved and revved the engine, before flooring it out of the garage. I had managed to fishtail the car sideways before straightening out and rocketing out of the garage. Les's tortured howl sounded into the night before he raced over to the nearest SUV, retrieved the keys from the sun visor, started the SUV and hightailed it after his precious Baby.
I managed to keep Lester on my six for the duration of the chase, until Tank's diversion sidetracked his chase of me. Tank had hired a buddy of his to effectively block Lester from chasing me with a well timed move with his garbage truck. Les slammed on the brakes as he skid to a halt in one of the many narrow alleys near Rangeman. I snickered as I could hear the live feed from the SUV coming in loud and clear through the speaker Hector had installed for the prank. "FUCK! What'd she do? Pay off the garbage man too?"
"He's backing out of the alley. And headed our direction." Sabo relayed to me from his position in the front passenger seat. His laptop was tracking the latest coordinates for the SUV Les was driving so we could effectively dodge him if needed. "Bomber1 to Bomber2. Target headed your way. ETA 45 seconds."
"Copy that Bomber2. We're ready." Tank's rich bass filtered over the secured radio frequency we were using.
I drove Les's baby into the rundown warehouse district in the seedier part of town and careened the car into an old 'abandoned' warehouse near the setup scene. It looked old and abandoned but it was a ruse. The inside was one of Rangeman's hidden storage facilities. It housed everything from cars to boats to motor homes to large crates filled with heaven knows what. I turned the car off and ran out into my position lying on the pavement a safe distance away from the car. Chance slid the warehouse door closed just as we heard the SUV down the street.
"Eagle to Bomber2. We have target in sight. ETA 10 seconds." Ram's voice rattled over the radio.
"Copy that." Tank answered, "FIRE IN THE HOLE! FIRE IN THE HOLE! AND 3...2...1! IGNITION!" I heard the 'foomp' of the gasoline catching fire under the decoy car sitting in the middle of the road. In the matter of half a second, the car lifted up about six feet into the air and it exploded, flipping onto it's roof just as Les's SUV came careening around the side of the warehouse. He slammed on the brakes and slid to a stop mere feet from the wreckage of the car. The dark night sky was lit up like the day with the resulting mushroom cloud from the explosion. Les tore out of the SUV as I sat up and watched the decoy car burn into oblivion.
"Beautiful?! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Please tell me you're not hurt!" He flung his arms around me after giving me a quick visual inspection. "Thank God! I thought I had lost you for a second there." He glanced from me to his car and began to whine, "My car! My fucking CAR! Shit! MY CAR!"
I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on tight, squeezing him tight. "I'm so sorry Les. I didn't mean to hurt you." My sobs were overpowering any further words. Thankfully, Ranger and the guys pulled up seconds later and surrounded us in a tight circle. The look I gave Ranger made him still for a moment, throwing him off guard for a split second. I think I just scared Batman! What?! It can happen.
Recovering quickly, he stated in a warm voice, "Babe. You never disappoint." His gave shifted to Lester. "Santos. I think you're going to need another car soon. This one's toast." He jerked his thumb towards the burned out shell of the mustang behind us.
Les shook his head while he sighed loudly. "It's only a car. I can get a new one. I never wanted anything to happen to Beautiful." Les dropped a kiss to the top of my head and I began to sob frantically, pointing my finger to the warehouse. Ranger and Tank did their silent EPS thing and Tank hauled Les to his feet and in the process me as well. I lunged into Ranger waiting arms as Tank slapped his arm over Lester's shoulder.
"Santos. I think you and Babygirl need to stop this little prank war you two have going. Next time, someone is going to get hurt."
Lester hung his head. "I never meant for anyone to get hurt. I just wanted to play around a little with Beautiful. She's so gullible sometimes, and it's almost too easy."
As I heard those words, I was able to turn off the waterworks and turned in Ranger's arms. "I'm gullible?" The shock and hurt in my voice spun Les around like a top.
"Beautiful. It's not like that. I love you and you're just so cute when you fall for stupid little things. It makes you cuter." He tried to explain without upsetting me again.
A slow lecherous grin spread across my face. "So... you think I'm cute when I'm stupid?"
Les realized he had verbally backed himself into a corner, so, he tried to backtrack. "Uh... Beautiful... what I meant was... shit! Someone help me out here." Les began to search the faces of the men surrounding us for some type of assistance. Finding none he just closed his mouth and tried to look innocent.
"Lucky I turned the wheel when I did. I fell out of the drivers seat and away from the car before it crashed. Guess it was one of those stupid little things, huh Les?"
"Beauti..." I held up my hand, effectively silencing him.
"It doesn't matter anymore. This Prank War is over." I held out my hand trying to get him to commit to a truce. "Truce?"
He glowered at me for a second before capturing my hand in his and shaking it gently. "Truce."
Ranger spun around to the men surrounding us, "Put 'er out, pull out Baby and lets go home. Babe is tired and Les has a hell of scare."
Confused, Les turned to look at me while I had a huge grin plastered onto my face. "Joke's on you Les." His jaw dropped as the door for the warehouse slid open to reveal his Baby, safe and sound.
"What the...?" He scratched his head, totally baffled as to what was happening. He spun around and pointed to the burned out wreckage sitting in the middle of the street. "You mean that wasn't Baby?" He swung his eyes around to mind.
A giggle escaped my lips before I could answer. "Nope. That's a decoy, a shell of a car we found. Baby's perfectly fine."
The realization that he had been 'had' crept up on him like molasses in winter, but when he finally made the connection and his brain was back in working order all hell broke loose. Les lunged at me, hands ready to choke me senseless, until Tank restrained him. "SANTOS!" Tank barked, "Get it together man. It was only a prank!" Les shut his mouth and huffed and puffed through his anger.
"Lester..." I held up my hands showing him I meant no more harm. "I think you better let Tank drive you and Baby back to Rangeman, you look a little upset." I allowed Ranger to walk me back to his SUV, all the while trying desperately not to laugh out loud at Les's reaction.
Ranger helped me into the front passenger seat then jogged around the front only to angle into the drivers seat. Making our way back to Rangeman, I finally had the courage to ask, "Did you get the clearance from TFD for the explosion?"
"Tank did. Told them it was a Rangeman training exercise. They okayed it since Tank mentioned that we were trying to teach you how not to blow up your vehicles." He chuckled and wrapped his hand over mine on my knee.
My lower lip stuck out, pouting at his explanation. "Well you suck." I retorted in the best barb I could muster. Damn, sometime in the near future I'm going to have to learn to verbally spar like an adult. Maybe. Maybe not.
"Babe. You're pulling the tiger's tail." His eyes darkened and his grip on my hand increased slightly, making me shiver in delight. Damn, he looks hot. "And if I remember correctly, you were the one sucking last time." The instant blush that flushed over my face gave him the gratification that, yet again, he had bested me.
Trying to change the subject to preserve my sanity and to prevent me from jumping his bones in the SUV, I asked, "So, you think it was a success?"
"The prank or the sucking?" He teased.
"Carlos!" I hissed, clearly embarrassed. "The prank."
"Yes. He clearly was shocked and never expected you to pull off something this elaborate or devious." He pulled into the underground parking garage for Rangeman and pulled into his assigned spot next to the elevator. Turning in his seat after he killed the engine, "Babe. Promise me something..."
"Sure." I was trying to concentrate on a non existant piece of lint stuck to my cargo pants, to avoid his gaze.
"Never let me piss you off so badly you feel the need to retaliate against me like you did Santos." Meeting his stare, I grinned my evil little smile.
"Then don't piss me off Ricardo Carlos Manoso and you won't have to worry." I taunted.
"Babe."
"What?" I replied with a grin.
A/N: Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, my co-workers were the inspiration for the tidbits of information for this prank. They are some really evil and devious people. But I love 'em! Please review, I'd love to her what you think.