The characters belong to JE. I receive nothing from this, but it sure is fun.
A/N: Hector makes an appearance in this chapter. Anything that is said in Spanish will be in italics.
Chapter 14
Ranger's POV
By midmorning at the police station, I had already solved two of Morelli's cases. All I had to do was read the file to discover the guilty parties. Morelli could have solved the cases himself if he ever had a moment of peace around here. This station is as bad as the 'Burg gossip vine that Babe's always complaining about. I had already had at least a dozen cops or detectives stop by and ask about Babe and her latest car explosion.
I was just about to open another case file when the call came in about an armed robbery in progress at the Bank of America on Hamilton. That bank is one of Rangeman Trenton's biggest accounts. I made sure that I was included in the team that went down to the scene. I know that Tank would be at the scene with a team of Rangemen. I know that they are capable of handling everything without me, but I still wanted to make an appearance of at the scene, even if I was still in Morelli's body.
I was almost to the Bank of America when Morelli's cell phone rang.
"Yo." I answered.
"Hey Joe, its Connie. I heard about the bank robbery in progress and I thought that I should give you a call." Connie said, nervously. "I've already called Rangeman, so they could let Ranger know, too."
"Know what?" I asked.
"I think that Steph may be in the bank. She came by the bond's office this morning to pick up her files. One of her skips, Darla Perry, works as a teller at that bank. Steph was headed over to the bank to pick her up." Connie explained.
"You're positive that she's in there?" I asked, making sure that I hid any emotion from my voice.
"Pretty sure. She's had enough time to drive over there and go in. She didn't mention if she was going straight over there or not. She may have decided to stop somewhere before going to the bank, but you know how her luck is." Connie said. "I tried to call here cell phone, but it goes straight to voice mail."
"Trouble does seem to follow her around." I agreed.
"Word of advice?" Connie asked.
"About?" I asked. I seriously doubt that Connie could give me any advice on how to handle an armed robbery with hostages, but you never know.
"I would never have the guts to say this to Ranger, but the two of you need to put a couple of pacifiers in your mouths and get over this competition between the two of you. If Steph's in danger and the two of you start fighting like children, like you did last week, you could get her killed." Connie warned. "And if I want Ranger to know that comment I made about the pacifier, I'll tell him myself."
If she only knew, I thought as I rolled my eyes.
"Got it. If she's in there, we'll get her out safely." I promised.
"You do that. Bye Joe." Connie said, before hanging up.
I parked Morelli's truck next to the barrier that the police had set up to keep the crowd that had gather at safe distance away. The SWAT team was gathered with Tank and the rest of my men. Morelli was with them, in my body. I wasn't surprised to see him since Connie had mentioned that she had called Rangeman.
As I walked over to the group, I glanced over to the entrance of the bank. Motorcycles were pulled up to the entrance. I recognized emblems painted on the motorcycles. The motorcycles belonged to a motorcycle gang called the Brotherhood of the Coffins. They have been creating havoc up and down the East Coast. Rangeman Boston and Rangeman Atlanta have each had run-ins with some of the members of the gang. Two of my men in the Atlanta office will be spending the next few months in physical therapy , from the gunshot wounds that suffered after attempting to bring in two members that were FTA. My Boston team learned from Atlanta's mistakes and made the capture when the gang passed through Boston. Needless to say that the Boston team made sure that the two FTA's would also be spending a few months of their own in physical therapy.
"What happened to you?" I asked Morelli, as I walked up to the group. Morelli was sporting a black eye.
"Mats." Morelli answered.
I nodded in understanding. Now thanks to Morelli, the guys will think that I couldn't hold my own on the mats anymore. I'm never going to be able to live it down.
"We need to speak, privately." I told Morelli.
"No time. Steph's in there." Morelli said, attempting to dismiss me.
"Now!" I growled, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him with me. I notice that my men immediately put their hands on their guns, in case they needed to get involved.
"You got a lot of nerve, Manoso." Morelli quietly hissed.
"You're going to need my help with this, but in order for me to do that, you're going to have to order my men to listen to me. I know you don't want to hear this, but I have more experience than you do with this type of thing." I told him.
"I'm going to let Trenton SWAT handle this. I'm just here to make sure that Cupcake gets out of this safely." Morelli replied.
"Tank hasn't told you who's in there, has he?" I asked. "Of course he hasn't. He thinks that you're me and you should already know who they are."
Morelli shook his head and asked, "No, should I?"
"Ever heard of the Brotherhood of the Coffins?" I asked.
Morelli immediately turned as white as a sheet and ran his hand thru his hair. "Of course I have. They have been robbing banks up and down the entire east coast. Members of that gang are suspects in at least a dozen murders, starting with New York, all the way down to Florida. Do you know how Stephanie got involved in this?"
"Connie called. One of her skips works in the bank as a teller." I explained.
"I can't believe I'm asking you this, but what do you suggest we do?" Morelli asked.
"We need Hector to access the security cameras, so we can learn exactly how many people are in there and what their positions are. I'm sure Hector has loaded a copy of the buildings blueprints on a laptop. We can use those to decide the best way to get in the building undetected and immobilize the threat while the negotiators distract the gang members." I told him.
"By immobilize, do you mean….?" Morelli paused, unable to finish his question.
This is typical Morelli. He automatically assumed that my plan was to go in there and start a killing spree. "Despite what you think of me and my men, we don't kill unless it's to protect or self defense. We prefer the judicial system to make handle the punishment. But understand this….. I will do whatever is necessary to protect Babe, at all costs." I once told Babe that there is no price for what we give each other. I never told her that I would willingly pay any price to protect her, ever if it means giving up my life in exchange for hers.
"Maybe we should left Tank and the others handle this. If something happened and one of us gets killed we'll never be able to switch back." He suggested, nervously.
"My men and I are a team, even if I am trapped in your body. If you're worried about getting hurt you can wait out here with Hector, but I'm going in." I said determinedly. "I need to make sure that Babe gets out safely."
"Are you sure that's wise? How do you know that our team will trust you while you're in my body? I've heard exactly what they think of me over the last few days." Morelli said.
It was a fair question. While we have been able to work together in the past, my men have never trusted Morelli. However, my men always follow my orders. "If you tell them to trust me, they will." I explained.
"I still don't think that we should be going in, but if you're going in so am I." Morelli said. "I want to get Steph out safely, but I also need to make susre you don't do anything stupid, like jump in front of a bullet while you're in my body."
"I can't promise that. If a bullet is meant for Babe, I'll do anything I can to protect her. But I need you to promise me that if something happens in there to me, that you will take care of her." I tell him.
"Trust me. Regardless of how this turns out, I will be the one taking her of her. I would just prefer to take care of her in my own body, instead of yours." Morelli said.
Morelli and I walked over to join the others. Hector was sitting in the back of one of the Rangeman surveillance vans. He had the blueprints pulled up on the large monitor and the security feeds pulled up on the other five monitors.
"The Coffins found the obvious security cameras and disabled them. They didn't find the smaller, well hidden cameras. They have no idea that we can still watch them." Hector explained.
It was obvious that Morelli had no idea what Hector had just said.
"Uh….maybe we should do this in English, since not everyone here understands Spanish." Morelli requested.
"What about Morelli? We're not including him in this, are we?" Lester asked, glaring at me.
"We can trust him." Morelli said, glancing at me. "He could probably be useful in getting Stephanie out safely."
"Hector said that the Coffins only took out half of the security cameras." Lester said, rolling his eyes. I would say that Lester rolling his eyes meant that he's been spending too much time with Babe, by since Diesel switched me and Morelli, I've picked up the habit, myself.
"Do we have confirmation that Stephanie's in the bank?" I asked.
"They separated her from the rest of the hostages. She's closer to the guys filling the bags with money. We think that they've recognized her. They have her tied up. They still have their motorcycle helmets on, so we're not sure which member of the gang that we are dealing with." Tank explained.
"I need Maalox!" Morelli announced, marching off to his truck and swinging the truck door open.
Morelli had just walked up next to me when I heard one of the members of the SWAT team ask one of the cops, "What's wrong with Morelli and Manoso? Normally Morelli is the one yelling, waving his arms around, and jugging Maalox. Ranger's usually the calm and completely in control. It's like they changed personalities."
I glanced over at Morelli to see if he had overheard the comment. The shocked expression on his face let me know that he had heard every word. "Do people really see me like that?" Morelli asked me in a whisper.
I shrugged. To be honest, I can't recall anytime that Morelli hasn't acted like that when Stephanie was in trouble. According to Babe, I haven't behaved much better recently. I may not walk around yelling and demanding Maalox, but that still didn't excuse my behavior.
"Let's work on a plan to rescue Stephanie and everyone else out safely, instead of worrying about how people see out behavior." I said.
It didn't take us long to come up with a plan to rescue Babe. Once everyone was suited up with the necessary communication devices and weapons, Tank gave the okay to the Trenton P.D. hostage negotiator to make contact with the gang in the bank.