J: Once again all you JE fanatics have blown me away with your reception to my story, you have no idea how happy it makes me! I'm going to save you all my soppy feelings and get right to business :)
THANKS TO: Mandyh, Sbabe, Dawn276, Cookie105, Barb4psu, Babesrus, Gavri, Masterb2(X2), Trhodes9, Anna1991, Jkgk, Financebabe, Dkz27, MIBbabe, BatmanBabe-21, Deviates322, and Bookaddictinfla.
J: One more thing before we start, just wanted to share with you guys my favourite review I got. This was from Babesrus "Burg inventiveness versus military cunning." This is EXACTLY what I am doing, I sat there smiling and giggling at this review for ages!
Disclaimer: I do not own any JE characters.
Chapter Three
One thing that I often forget but should really remember is that the guys are a lot more vocal once they get off duty and into Shorty's. I was reminded of this from the roar of voices that called out to me when I walked through the door. Smiling at the guys I went over to the table that they always managed to have to themselves. There was Lester, Tank, Bobby, Hal, Cal, and Hector. I expected all of them except Hector. I liked Hector just as much as I liked the others but he wasn't often seen with the regular group in public.
The table that I considered to be Rangeman property was one of those large booths with a cushioned bench halfway around the table. There was plenty of room for me to join them but my friends wouldn't be able to fit, "Hope you don't mind but I invited some friends to this strategy meeting. We're going to need another table."
Since the boys had already gotten one beer into them they readily agreed to drag another table over to theirs. Just as Cal pushed the table against theirs I heard the other half of the party arrive, "When you said some Rangemen would be here I didn't think you meant all of them."
Lula, Connie, Mary Lou and Valerie stood behind me eying the Merry Men like they were Christmas and Easter presents all pushed together under one tree.
Greetings and introductions went over well considering the nature of the two sides. Lula didn't hold back and openly called Tank "Honey Bear" earning him a good ribbing from Bobby. Lester told Valerie and Mary Lou that he'd found heaven only to find it tainted by marriage. Connie swooped in with the "girls" to point out that she was happily divorced, earning her the spot where Cal had been sitting next to Lester.
I took the spot at the end of the booth so I had Valerie sitting on my left and Hector sitting at my right. Drinks were ordered and the meeting got started.
"Alright so what's this all about?" Lula sat across from me next to Tank.
"The day after tomorrow is Ranger's birthday. These lovely gentlemen persuaded me to play a game of Hide-n-Seek that covers all of Trenton." Out of habit and imagination Connie and Lula fanned themselves.
"So you called us out here to brag about your upcoming birthday activity with one of the hottest men alive?" Mary Lou's voice was teasing obviously trying to get a reaction out of the boys. Which it did judging by the beat red blush on Hal's face and look of mock hurt from Lester.
Fighting off a snicker to keep from embarrassing poor Hal any further I answered, "No. I called you all out here tonight to see if you'd be interested in helping me. Since it's going to be on a Wednesday I figured you house wives would want to get some freedom while the kids are in school."
"I could definitely go for a free day. I'll get Snuggums to babysit the girls." There was a collective eye roll from the girls at Val's nickname for Albert. The guys were smart and didn't ask.
"How exactly do you want us to help?" Connie had a similar but different situation then Valerie and Mary Lou. Connie's job was to play bodyguard for Vinnie at the office, she also was expected to bond out the unfortunates that didn't want to stay in jail until their court date.
"I was hoping to get you to run diversions and surveillance on Ranger." Ranger had the Merry Men and I had the Jersey Women.
Mary Lou snapped her fingers, "I get it, one of us stalks Ranger as he tries to find you and if he gets too close we call in backup to let you run away."
"Oh let me tail Ranger, I'm a sneaky woman, he won't spot me until your skinny ass is halfway across Trenton." Lula's enthusiasm to tail Ranger was met by a wall of silence. Out of all the people present Lula was the most likely to be spotted in a heart beat.
It was Tank that saved the day, "It would be smarter to rotate surveillance shifts. Ranger will expect to see the same car following him if it goes on longer than an hour."
Connie leaned forward to point at Tank, "You basically just said Steph is going to get caught in an hour."
"No I think she'll last longer than that." Tank was getting a squinty glare from Connie, Valerie and myself.
Bobby got a sly smile on his face as he pulled out a small notebook, "How long are you willing to bet on?"
I crossed my arms and gave Bobby an incredulous look, "You're going to start a betting pool on this? I'm already insulted by your betting on my cars' life span."
Bobby ducked his head a little in shame but he didn't stop smiling, "How about you get some of the winnings win or lose?"
Free money was always nice but this felt like being bought entertainment, no offense to Lula's old profession but I knew I was above that. "How about a better idea? If I last past noon I get 25 percent of the pool, if I make it to the end of the day I win all the money."
The Merry Men exchanged a group glance, meaning they'd probably had this betting pool going already, then turned back to me, "You got a deal."
If the thought of Ranger hunting me down wasn't enough motivation then the winnings would keep me on my toes for sure.
"Hey now I want in on this. If we're gonna be part of this game us ladies should get a chance to win some money." Lula pulled out her red leather purse and pulled out a 100, "I bet your ass my girl can last until two o'clock."
There was a scramble as all my other friends pulled out their purses and wallets. With each bill and wager of time I added all the earnings up in my mind. After Tank pulled out two hundred and wagered my capture at five I gave up from the headache that disagreed with me doing so much math.
Bobby had kept up with the bets by scribbling each one down into the tiny notebook. Once he put in Tank's bet he gave a low whistle, "If you win Bombshell your days of bounty hunting are over."
'No more P.O.S cars? No more long showers washing garbage out of my hair? No more nagging from my mother to get a job at the button factory?' "Ranger is never going to catch me." Filled to the brim with hope of a padded bank account I chugged back my bottle of beer.
"Easy there Beautiful, don't go planning your trip to paradise just yet. We need to go over the rules." Lester reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper with words written in black magic marker.
The paper was handed down the table until it was given to me. Looking down the list of rules I felt the beer I'd just chugged churn in my stomach. "What are the rules?" Since Mary Lou and Lula sat further down she and Lula couldn't see the writing. Keeping my voice calm I read out the rules.
1. No leaving Trenton.
2. The game starts at 6am.
3. The game ends at 9pm.
4. To be the Winner you must be on the 5th floor of the RangeMan building by 9pm.
5. No stun guns, tranquilizers or handcuffs.
6. No police involvement.
7. If injured the hospital or RangeMan infirmary is considered a time out/safe zone.
8. No hiding in one location for more than an hour, Rule 7 being the exception.
9. No use of any guns ex. paintball guns.
10. With the exception of Rule 7, hiding in RangeMan before 9pm declares a forfeit.
J: I'd love to know what you think about these rules, as well I am aware that I had Hector, Cal and Hal present but didn't have them participate in any real way. This is due to my lack of experience in writing large group dialogues. I'll see what I can do next chapter but no promises. I would also like some feed back on how I did with Lula, Connie, Mary Lou and Valerie.
Here's a nice quote for all you babes to mull over until the next chapter.
" If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one, because if you really loved the first one you wouldn't have fallen for the second." - Johnny Depp