DANGEROUS MERGERS
Chapter Five
The sound of gunfire echoed in the far distant corners of Stephanie's blurred consciousness. Was someone shooting at her? Should she run for cover? Why wasn't her body and mind working together? Where the hell was the bathroom?
"Estate quieta. Acuéstate." (Keep still. Lie back)
"Ranger?" Her voice sounded dry and brittle. She swallowed, hoping to moisten her throat. "Ranger?"
"No ranger." The older woman tried to calm the young woman down. Emilia's nervous eyes glanced out the window again, hoping to see Manuel with Enrique. What was taking them so long? The woman's fever had broken, but she was still delirious.
Stephanie struggled against the restraining pair of hands pressing down on her shoulders. Didn't they hear the gunfire? Had there even been gunfire? Why did everything look so fuzzy and why was she so confused? She used what little coherent thought she had and forced herself to calm down. Calm would be good. Calm would help her figure out what was going on.
The restraining hold on her shoulders was lifted and she opened eyes. She didn't recognize her surroundings; then again, that wasn't anything new. Rolling her eyes, she tried to focus on the face of the woman sitting on the side of the bed; at least she assumed she was lying on a bed. Her eyes were almost focused when she again heard the sound of gunfire and tried to get up. The older woman pressed her back down and shot an angry stream of Spanish over her shoulder. Stephanie squinted her eyes, trying to see who or what had angered the woman. Little by little the room came into focus. There was a young child standing next to a large wooden table. What was the child doing?
This time when Stephanie heard the gunfire, her foggy mind was able to connect the sound to what was causing it. The child was pouring dried beans into a large metal pot. Knowing that she wasn't in danger of being shot or killed by a dry bean, she allowed her body to relax and brought her eyes back to the older woman's face. The two of them stared at each other. The sound of a door opening caused the woman's eyes to break away. Not strong enough to care who was coming through the door, Stephanie closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.
oOoOo
Miguel watched the rise and fall of the foamy white-capped waves from the plane's small window. The pilot was flying in the narrow pocket of air space known as Drug Runners' alley, a space so tight that in order to avoid being detected on the radar, the wheels of the plane almost touched the water. Miguel had traveled this course so many times that he could tell when they had entered the area just by the number of times his ears popped. Soon he'd be on Cuban soil, God how he hated living there. What little money the country had was used to support the few luxuries found in a small center portion of Havana for tourism. Outside of that area was nothing but poverty and civil unrest. The Manoso name still carried power and depending on what your first name was, it could bring either fear or respect even today. He turned his attention away from the water and allowed his thoughts to drift to the past, back to when his father and Ricardo's father had taken different stands on what was best for Cuba and her citizens. Ricardo's father wanted to risk all the family's material wealth to support the fight for freedom. Miguel's father felt that the family's wealth should remain in the family's pockets.
In the end, Ricardo's father had been killed. Ricardo, along with the remaining members of his immediate family and the bulk of the Manoso fortune, fled to America. The final insult came when Miguel's fiancée, Maria, and her family escaped with them. Maria Chavez was to have been his wife instead she had married Ricardo. Now, thanks to a twist of fate, he would have his chance at revenge.
oOoOo
Ranger stood on the balcony looking out over the water, ignoring the three men behind him as he talked on the phone. He knew Tank was fuming over his decision to act alone in this matter; he was just going to have to get over it. Besides, if something went wrong, he trusted Tank to find Stephanie.
"Everything's all set," Ranger said, not bothering to look in their direction. "Johnson's arranging a conference call with Will on a secured line."
"Who's Johnson?" Detectives Miller and Lopez asked in unison.
"A friend." Using a tone of finality, Tank stepped away from them and went to stand next to his friend; he too stared in the direction of Cuba.
"We'll find her and bring her home, just stay focused." Tank gave his friend a gentle slap on the back to show his support.
"That's the plan and the only acceptable outcome to this cluster fuck." Ranger said and reached to answer his ringing phone.
"Yo." He listened for a few minutes as the other part of the conference call was connected. "Need your help, Will." Again Ranger became quiet, listening to the man on the other end of the call. A brief flicker of a smile appeared on his lips and then it disappeared. "I'm sure Johnson has briefed you on the plan. Do you have anything to add?" Ranger's jaw tightened while he listened to whatever Will was saying. "Yes, that is correct. My wife." Ranger grew silent again, this time his whole face tightened. "One day." He held the phone away from his ear and looked at it. Turning to Tank, he handed the phone to him. "Remind me that when all this is over, I need to hurt that man."
Tank put the phone to his ear and listened to the loud roar of laughter coming over the line. Tank shook his head, pitying Will already.
oOoOo
Stephanie wasn't sure which sensation had caused her to wake. Was it the wonderful smell of food that had her stomach screaming for attention or was it the annoying vibration coming from her right arm?
"Lady." Now the vibration had a voice. "Lady." She opened her eyes and looked at the small child standing next to her. "Wake up, lady." Damn, if he'd just stop shaking her.
"What?" she croaked.
Just by uttering that one word, the child stopped shaking her and rattled off a long line of Spanish.
"Lady?" Stephanie rolled her head to find her face even with his. "You okay?"
"No." Stephanie closed her eyes and tried to get her thoughts under control. "Water."
"Agua," the small boy spoke to the older woman. "Who are you?"
"Stephanie. Stephanie Plum… uh, I mean, Manoso, Stephanie Manoso."
"Manoso?" The youngster's eyes grew large.
"Yes." Stephanie wasn't sure why the child looked so alarmed. "Ricardo Manoso is my husband." She watched the boy's large eyes change from having the look of fear in them to having the look of wonderment. Again, the child rattled off a string of Spanish, this time his words caused a hushed silence to fall over the room.
"I'm Enrique." The boy tapped his small chest. "I speak English."
"Thank God," Stephanie said and watched Enrique make the sign of the cross over his small chest. "Oops."
"Oops?" Enrique parroted back at her.
Stephanie started to smile at the child's question, but ended up wincing in pain. Raising her hand to her mouth, she felt the large patches of dryness that encircled her mouth.
"Emilia." Her young interpreter pointed to the woman when she returned with a glass of water.
It was her turn to mimic the boy. "Emilia. Gracias."
"You speak Spanish?"
"No." Her voice sounded better after the sips of water Emilia had given her.
"No problem, I will teach you," Enrique said as he smiled at her.
She snorted. Poor kid, he had no idea how many times Ranger had tried to teach her. "I need to find my husband, will they help me?"
Before Enrique could answer an older man hurried through the door, his hands gesturing and his words quick. He hurried across the room and started to help her up. She was surprised at how weak she was and welcomed his assistance. Enrique ran to help her from the other side.
"Hurry," Enrique said in a whisper. "We need to hide."
"Why?"
"Not now! Get in the closet." Enrique pulled back a brightly colored rug, exposing a crooked door that had no doorknob. He put his small fingers in the hole and pulled the door open. "Inside!"
Despite her muddled mind, she recognized the urgency the others felt and with Emilia's help followed the child inside. Behind her the door closed and she heard the soft swish of the rug falling back into place. Enrique dropped to his knees and began wedging his small fingers into the back corner of the small closet. A rectangle section of the back wall slipped open.
"Crawl through, quick!" His small hands pulled on her arm. Dropping to her hands and knees, she started to crawl through the opening, hoping she wouldn't run into any creepy crawlies along the way. She felt a pair of small hands pushing her butt. "Faster!"
"I'm going, I'm going," she whispered back. "Damn." Damn, he may be young but Enrique seemed to have the same level impatience that another Cuban had when it came to her ass.
"No bad words. Hurry!" The boy urged her from behind and then began replacing the small section of the wall to cover the opening. "Don't make any noise!"
Great. Just great. She was being stuffed inside a hidey-hole by a 10-year-old Cuban male version of her mother!