Thanks to Susan who proofed this chapter, all remaining mistakes are mine. :)

Chapter 6

Having been gone for more than three months he drank in the sight of polluted Trenton, the traffic on Hamilton was heavy for the time of day, but he was almost there where he wanted to be. Ten more minutes and he was home. Then a truck was blocking his way, the driver was unloading his goods in front of a hardware store. He took a deep breath and waited patiently for the man to get that truck out of his way. Then he caught sight of a beautiful woman who strutted confidently alongside of said truck to get to her car, as it seemed.

Out of nowhere, there was a tingle in his neck, as if a low voltage of electricity ran through it, awakening all his nerve ends. The moment he felt it, he noticed the woman looked around as if she sought something, or someone, the fingers of her right hand soothing her neck muscles. Her gaze locked on his dark tinted windows for a second, he knew she could not see him, yet he felt exposed. Bizarre!

This enchanting creature had long brown straight hair in a high ponytail; her form fitting black skirt was short but classy, hugging her perfect ass, her legs were long, well formed and her black pumps high. Her tight baby blue blouse showed small, but in his opinion, very adequate breasts and the color of her blouse matched her exquisite eyes. He felt his cock stir, which was something he had not felt for long time just checking out a woman.

When he saw the rock on her left hand ring finger, he had a strange feeling of gloom. Plus her face was eerie familiar but he could not place her at all, but knew he had met her before. He perceived a box from the Tasty Pastry in her hand, when she beeped her car open. A new Mercedes sport, convertible, he sighed, must be the wife of a wealthy man. Again, he felt the nagging feeling of sadness when she eased out of her parking spot and drove off. He did not do sad; life was too short for negative feelings. Could destiny be telling him something he needed to know? First boredom, now sadness, these were feelings and emotions, he was not accustomed to, moreover, he was not planning to become accustomed to them either. Determined to forget the woman and the unwanted feelings he let out a breath of relief when he could move again.

When he saw his building on Haywood, he felt better already. He let himself into the building and parked. When he arrived on five, Tank spotted him directly, "Hey Boss man, good to have you back." Tank spoke with more enthusiasm than he had heard from him in a long time.

"Yeah it is good to be back, this is the last time I have to do this. Hell man, I almost killed myself from boredom." Ranger relayed with a chuckle.

Tank sniggered good humored, "Good to hear you will not be going in the wind anymore. The paperwork was getting too much for me alone. I'm glad to leave it to you again."

"Ha ha, so what gives?" Ranger inquired grinning.

"We have to talk," Tank only said before he indicated to him to follow him to his office.

When they were in his office Tank closed the door and started to speak about what Mrs. Taylor wanted, and that he had promised to accommodate her.

Hawk had told him, his wife was going to operate the Bonds office, but had said nothing about teaching her the ropes of bounty hunting. He had known of Hawk and Luca Mazur by reputation, but had never dealt with them in person. Their reputation was good and some of RangeMan's men had a contract with them for special missions, when they needed their special skills on occasion. He had known that before he hired them and when it did not interfere with the agenda of RangeMan they accepted that as a given. Tank and he had only ever worked for the government instead of the private company LHR was. Tank had first met them in person over the contract negotiations for Plum's Bonds Office, for whom they did the apprehension of their skips, while he had only talked to them on the phone. He had decided to continue their association with Plum's bonds office, but if they had to teach Mrs. Taylor the ropes, or worse, let her do a distraction, he did not know if that was wise. The woman must at least be fifty, now if she would be like the woman he saw earlier, he even would want to be the skip for her to apprehend.

"Fuck, Tank, how old is that woman, and is she capable of coming with us when we go after a skip. How could you concede to this? Hawk is going to kill us both when he finds out."

Tank gave him a rare enigmatic smile, "That is what I thought, but you could not be farther from the truth. She called him and made me ask him… he is on board with her. He also offered to find somebody else if I did not 'dare' to take her. The only reservation he has is that she'd be careful."

"Okay, but do you think she can do it, you know how dangerous it can be. As for the distraction, what do you think will happen when we send in an old woman? That's not going to work is it?"

Now Tank looked contrite, "I don't know boss, how about I call her and you talk some sense into her? I did not get anywhere with her yesterday, but with your looks you ought to have more success. You know women always drool and swoon when they see you." He could not have a travesty of a distraction; it would hurt RangeMan's reputation. So it was up to him now to talk some sense into that woman, what she wanted was not going to happen.

Wanting to rip the band aid off before he chickened out, he said. "Okay you call her; I will meet with her in my office when she gets here. I am not going to fuck up my reputation for nobody, you hear." With that, he stalked out of Tank's office for his own.

/

Tank thought about what he was doing but could not resist, this was going to be great. Seeing her at work, goading him on to make a fool of himself had been so refreshing, so out of the norm, it had him feeling alive again. Hearing Ranger say he had been bored out of his mind and the assuming he did, had made him decide that Ranger needed a bit of Mrs. Taylor's medicine. It had helped him to see again that sometimes what you saw, was not always what you thought it was.

"Hi Stephanie, when you have time will you come to Haywood, Ranger AKA Carlos Mañoso our boss came home and wants to talk about the stuff we spoke of yesterday. Do you mind?" He asked her when he got a hold of her in her office.

"Tell me Tank, is he as prejudiced as you where?" She asked while grinning deviously. He snickered and replied.

"I think so, he is afraid a fifty year old woman can't do distractions. He thinks you are Hawks age, and is anxious for his badass reputation. Please do me a favor and make his life difficult, he says he is bored and I know you can help him there."

She giggled, "But of course, it will be my pleasure. I will be there at lunchtime, if you have time, we can grab a bite when I am done, okay?" She had no idea what a stressful day she had in her future, and food would be the last thing on her mind in the end of it.

"That will be my pleasure, if I had had no time I would make it. Thanks and see you in a bit, Stephanie."

/

Before she went to Haywood she had to do some shopping, memories of past times filled her. Her mouth watered with the thought of a Giovichinni's roast beef sandwich, should she? Yes, she should just because she could now. A sandwich was not enough so she could eat more with Tank in an hour and a half. Thinking about the meeting she was to have, she was not aware of her surroundings, when she entered the shop. She advanced to the counter deep in thought, when the voice of her mother disturbed that.

"Well, well, look who we have here?" the bitch said.

She decided to do a Joe Morelli on her mother. What an evil shrew that woman was, even if she would not see her ever again it would be too soon. "Excuse me? Do I know you?" She asked in her most deadly voice, her face blank, and her eyes ice-cold.

"Of course you do, I am your mother." She snarled offended.

To her great satisfaction, Stephanie detected fear in the bitch's eyes when she just stared at her for a few beats. "My mother? I don't have a mother since I was sixteen or even before. My biological parents threw me out of their house because I made a mistake and since then I am a very happy woman. I do not miss them at all; they are dead to me so to speak. And I advise you to leave me alone or just ignore me." She deadpanned. How dare that woman call herself her mother? Stinking Bitch!

To her absolute shock, Mrs. Giovichinni, interfered, "Look Helen Plum, if you have a problem with this lovely woman I suggest you do it elsewhere, I will not let you insult her in my shop. Am I clear?"

Helen sputtered, "But this is my daughter Stephanie, can't you see that."

The woman responded with venom, which was unusual in the 'Burg', between housewife and shop owner. Among the housewife's it was common, they were all vipers.

"Yes I can see that, she grew up to be a beautiful young woman. You should be proud of her, and ashamed of yourself. This is long due but now I will tell you what I thought of your actions all those years ago. You are a hypocrite Helen, remember Ed Crandle?"

Her mother went white around the nose, her fear now shown boldly.

"Now Helen, do you?" When no answer came, she continued unmercifully, and Steph was spellbound. "Well I do, he was my boyfriend, and he took your virginity when you were seventeen. He cheated on me, with you. Do you remember now? Are you ashamed now, you two-faced mother from hell?"

Did she imagine she saw steam come out of Rebecca Giovichinni ears from ire, and the woman-exhaled fire from her mouth if she was not mistaken. This proved, that 'Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.' She saw her always-formidable mother shrink a few inches; then the bitch looked around skittish before she bolted out of the shop door and hopefully out of her life permanently.

Before she could say anything, Rebecca Giovichinni came around the counter and took her hands in hers. "I am so sorry Stephanie that I waited so long to expose her, but you were gone so quickly after that incident I didn't think it would matter anymore. However, when I saw how she wanted to hurt you again just now, I couldn't hold my tongue. I hate that bitch you know."

She laughed somewhat embarrassed, to the woman and responded. "Welcome to the club."

Another woman cleared her throat, "can I join too?" a shy voice asked.

As all this unfolded she had had not looked around to see who was there, first she had been irritated with her mother, then Mrs. Giovichinni had had her spellbound with her unexpected ire toward Mrs. Plum as she would call the witch from now on. Now Mrs. Plum's childhood friend Mrs. Thelma Klapp wanted to join their, Hate, Helen Plum club. Had hell frozen over?

She stared at Mrs. Klapp, with a she was sure, shocked expression, before she could answer. "Everybody who feels the need is welcome in that club, as long as you do not expect me to attend meetings that is. I want nothing to do with Mrs. or Mr. Plum anymore, I hope you understand."

"Yes dear we do," Mrs. Klapp said. "Don't you worry about her anymore Sweetie, Rebecca, and I will keep her humble from now on! I have always been afraid of her, but no more." she watched the two women in consternation all her appetite gone. She had never realized she had been afraid of that monster too. However, as Mrs. Klapp said, no more. She needed to get out of there and think.

"Thank you Mrs. Klapp and you especially Mrs. Giovichinni, but I need to go, I have an appointment, and I am running late now."

"Can I get you what you came in for, Stephanie?" Mrs. Giovichinni asked kindly.

"No thanks, but seeing Mrs. Plum has taken away any desire for something to eat, I will be back another time, okay?"

"Of course Honey, we understand."

She took her leave and drove around in a daze for a while, her equilibrium shot to hell. She thought about calling Hawk, Luca, or granny, but decided against it. She wanted to be on her own, than she will have to fix things on her own, including the difficult ones. She couldn't continue to run to them every time she felt shitty. She reminded herself she was a grown woman in charge of her own life, like a mantra. Until she realized she had to get going to Haywood or otherwise she would be too late, and as this was business, she went. Squaring her shoulders, she decided that she might feel better if she played a bit with Mr. Mañoso. She did not think her day could get more complicated, boy was she wrong.

As she had done the last time, she parked her car in front of the building and entered the front entrance. The same man from the day before greeted her, but now with a genuine smile. "Mrs. Taylor, Tank has told me to expect you and to send you up to the fifth floor. Go ahead the elevator is waiting for you."

"Thank you." Shaking off the last of her gloomy thoughts, she smiled in return and went up to five, where Tank awaited her and brought her to Mr. Mañoso's office. She supposed Tank was also aware of all the surveillance cameras she had seen around the parts of the building she had been in, many people forgot that after a period of time. Because he acted all business, which made her smile inside, he was in character, playing his part. She loved that, it made life so much more fun. He knocked and she heard a brisk "Enter." Tank grinned mischievously before he let her into his boss's office, and closed the door on her.

The man she saw when she came into that office, took her breath away, and she almost passed out. She just stood there, stupidly. Not in a million years had she expected to find Ricardo there. He was the first to come out of his shock-induced stupor, "Stephanie? Babe?" is all he uttered while he appeared selfsame shaken.

"Ricardo?" was all she could manage. All the tricks of the trade, had left her, no words would come. She did not know how long they stood there staring at each other, before he came forward invading her personal space, although he did not touch her, he stated softly, disappointment evidently in his voice.

"Now I have finally found you, you are married."

"We're separated." She breathed, being as eloquent as ever with him around.

Leaning forward he whispered in her ear and she almost swooned. "Are you now... what does that mean for us?"

She managed a, "Is there a chance of us?"

The intensely scrutinizing dark brown seductive pools where back, and pinned her in place, he searched her face as if looking for an answer, before he disclosed. "I want to be with you, Babe. I have been looking for you since we last saw each other. The question here is do you want us to be together?"

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