AN: Thanks for reviews everyone! I'm glad y'all are enjoying things still. There's some spanish in here, but as I said before, I got it off a translator so if it's not accurate, I apologize if I insult anyone! Please Read and Review!

Chapter 20

Stories and Prisoners

While Cami and Richard made love, Stephanie and Ranger arrived home, feeling more relieved than they had for the last couple weeks. Of course the fact that they still had to get Cami back was a bit of a challenge, but the fact that they knew who had her and knew she was unharmed, mostly, was a relief.

"How was the dinner?" CJ asked from his planted position in front of the T.V. He was still sulking at the lack of help he was doing. Even after nearly two weeks he was still in a bit of pain. Most of it was soreness. When he had tried to actually spar in the gym a few days ago, Tank had managed to hit his ribs, enough to show him that if something happened, CJ was not going to be much good. It grated on him.

"We found her." Stephanie grinned at her son.

"What?" CJ stood and followed them into the kitchen. Elise was already there sitting on the counter munching on a handful of chips.

"Those will kill you, munchkin." Ranger said getting two bottles of water out of the fridge.

"Yeah, but what a way to go!" She grinned and continued eating.

"They found Cami." CJ told her.

"Really? At the dinner?" Elise looked at her parents. "Her kidnapper decided to parade her around in front of you?"

Stephanie laughed. "Not quite. Seems her kidnapper underestimated the amount of hate his younger brother has toward him." She told them everything they found out from Richard. With a grin she said, "And it seems that Richard is very much in love with Cami, so when we get her, we have to make sure we get him as well."

"Cami gets kidnapped and ends up with a boyfriend." CJ shook his head. "If I get kidnapped I wonder if I'll get a girlfriend."

"Nah," Elise teased, "You couldn't handle a one on one relationship. She'd eat you alive."

"That's harsh."

"I call it like I see it."

"Where's Julie?" Stephanie laughed interrupting her kids. "I thought she was staying here with you two tonight."

"We don't need babysitters, Mom." CJ informed her.

"I don't, but you do, Mister I-Can-Still-Do-Everything-With-Broken-Ribs." Elise said, then turned back to Stephanie. "She had to go after an FTA tonight. She'll be home after."

"I'm surprised you didn't go with her." Stephanie smiled. "You've laid low for the last three days. I would have figured you'd be itching to go out and do something."

"Between Alan and Uncle Bobby I didn't have a choice. Last time I ignored them they sedated me for a week." Elise replied grouchily.

"Last time?"

"It was a few years ago, plus after the last time I helped Julie with an FTA I'm pretty sure she doesn't want my help again." She grinned mischievously.

"I brought pizza!" Billy announced as he and Victor walked in. "Captain, how's your head?"

"If I say fine, will you stop kissing ass?" She asked him.

"Probably not," Victor chuckled. Billy had looked guilty and felt just as bad whenever he thought of what he had done to Elise. While she had assured him that she was fine, and that regaining the memories from that night was a good thing, he had continued to suck up. It was beginning to drive her nuts.

"Mr. and Mrs. Manoso, how was your evening?" Victor asked them. Stephanie liked all of Elise's generation of Merry Men. They amused her and made her laugh, even with times being as tense as they were.

After she had given them the info that she had given her own kids, Billy grinned. "Awesome! Operation Rescue Baby Manoso is under way."

"Baby Manoso?" Ranger raised an eyebrow.

"Well, she's the youngest. Doesn't that make her the baby?" Billy looked at them. "So, do we get to help with the rescue?"

"We have to do some research into Ortega first." Stephanie answered. "Depending on what we find, we'll let you know."

"I'm really good at exploding things if you need it." Billy informed her, then turned back to Elise. "Julie said she and Alan will be home soon and that she's glad you didn't help."

"Why?"

"Guy had a pocket knife."

"Fucking A." She grumbled and rolled her eyes.

"Why does that matter?" CJ asked helping himself to a slice of pizza.

"Dude." Billy chuckled. "We were in Miami a couple years ago on leave and Julie asks Elise if she wants to help with her FTA. Of course we all wanted to see this, so we went too. The FTA wouldn't let them in so one of Julie's guys had to kick in the door, but he'd escaped out of the fire escape. Julie and Elise went after him and he jumped from the roof of his place to the roof of the next building. They followed with that too. By the time they caught the fucker, he pulls out a pocket knife."

"You can stop now." Elise informed him.

"No, no." Stephanie grinned at her. "I think we all want to know how this ends."

Billy laughed. "Elise, she looks at him and just says, "Are you fucking kidding me? You made us chase you down and you're going to use a fucking pocket knife? I've been attacked in third world countries by kids who have bigger knives than that." The dude he looked insulted and claimed she was full of shit."

"Then she took out her knife and told him to try hers." Julie said as she and Alan walked in. She stuck her tongue out at Elise. "I told you we were supposed to just take them in."

"It's not much of a challenge if they don't give you a good fight. The running and jumping from building to building was easy." Elise shrugged.

"Elise, you're not supposed to enable the FTAs." Ranger grinned at her. She grinned back and shrugged.

"I was feeling restless." She answered. "The running, it was just a warm up." Ranger threw his head back and laughed.

The next morning they were all back to work at RangeMan. Elise was back in the conference room, but this time instead of obsessing over reports trying to jog her memory she was writing her own. Something inside her felt sharper, more lethal. It was as though the emotions she'd had locked down for so many years had blocked part of her from coming out. Knowing that there was still a lot of rage buried down she knew she would have to deal with that soon, but if she could pent it up and use it to fuel her fight against Cortez, she had a feeling it would help. In fact she was willing to bet a lot of anger was toward him.

He had gotten close, too close, when he'd managed to use the tiger claw on her. She knew one of her greatest strengths was her speed. She'd had to learn to be fast. As a woman it just wasn't feasible to expect to bulk up the way her men or her uncles or father was. However she was fast, and she could use it to her advantage to keep one step ahead of her opponent. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, she thought as she thought of the fight she and Cortez had engaged in. Cortez was not overly built himself, which probably contributed to his speed.

If he had been part of the Army, Elise knew she would have loved sparring with him. He gave her a challenge. It was one she liked. In this case, she knew she had to really be on her game in order to take him down. She was all too aware that it would more than likely come down to hand to hand combat with him. Randy had sparred with her, using a tiger claw, helping her to find ways to disable the arm and keep from being ripped through again.

Stephanie had gone into the conference room long enough to put a sandwich and water on the table beside Elise and left her alone. She was glad Elise had finally broken down and allowed herself to be human, as Julie kept putting it. She could see the shift in her demeanor. The soldier was still out to play, but the five year old in her had finally released her.

A loud crash a couple floors below caught all their attention. Elise and Stephanie looked at each other from their spots and left to find out what was going on.

The floor that held the holding cells had a small cluster of men around one room. CJ and JJ were standing there glaring inside one of the rooms. Stephanie made straight for her son. "CJ! What are you doing out?"

"Mom, that fucker in there was watching the house." CJ motioned into the room where Ranger was currently staring down at a man who appeared to be in his early thirties. His skin was dark, as though he'd spent way too much time in the sun. "JJ cornered him and Uncle Tank and Lester dragged his ass here when he refused to talk and tell them what was going on."

They looked at the man in the room again. He was taking every hit from Ranger and still not talking. He was either very ballsy or stupid as hell. Elise narrowed her eyes and walked into the room. His eyes landed on her and widened. Then he began trembling. Ranger looked over his shoulder and saw Elise standing there eyeing the prisoner. He had seen his reaction to his daughter and knew the man was probably very familiar with his daughter.

Then Elise spoke. "¿Sabe usted quién soy yo?" (Do you know who I am?)

"Sí, Jaguar, sé quién eres." (Yes, Jaguar, I know who you are.)

"¿Por qué se te está mirando la casa de Mañoso?" (Why were you watching Manoso's house?)

"Me dijo que." (He told me to.)

"¿Por qué?" (Why?)

The man looked at her. He looked at her and looked like he was going to grin, but thought better of it. He finally said in English, "Because of what you have."

"And what do I have?"

"What belongs to him."

"He sent you to watch me?"

"He wants it back."

"He won't get it back."

"Then you won't get what belongs to you."

Elise moved closer to him. The man had the common sense to shudder at the sight of her nearing him. Ranger was leaning back against the wall watching her. He could see her eyes had dilated. He was sure he was getting a first- hand look at what she was capable of, or at least a small portion of it. He looked up and saw her men, as well as his, slowly fill the room. He nodded toward the window where some were still looking in. They blocked the window and made the room door was secured.

"Where is he?" Elise asked. She squat down in front of him. He looked down at her. There was no emotion on her face, just the quiet look of someone stalking their prey. He had heard stories of her, but looking at the tiny thing she was, he started disbelieving them. He felt bravado seep in and looked at her.

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"No?" She leaned back on her haunches, propping her arms on her knees. "Why not?"

"You don't scare me."

Billy and Randy shared a grin when the poor bastard said that.

"Really?" Elise casually took out her knife and reached for a lighter in her pocket. Eyes locked on his face, she turned the flame on and started heating the blade. His eyes widened and she watched as sweat beaded on his face. He was getting nervous. She knew what she would have to do to break him. It wasn't easy, but she'd do it. "Why don't I scare you?"

"You're a little girl."

Victor snorted a laugh.

Elise raised an eyebrow. "Little girls can be mean too."

His eyes were watching the flame as it danced along the blade. He would not crack. All these men in here could beat him to death but he was going to take it to his grave. Surely the stories he had heard of Jaguar were about someone else.

"He's going to enjoy taking what you call yours until you give him back what's his." He taunted.

Elise smiled predatorily.

All the men in the room cringed and looked elsewhere when the searing blade was shoved into the prisoner's shoulder. He screamed out in agony. "Where is he?" Elise demanded. He shook his head. "Hm. You know this knife looks awfully tight in here. Maybe if I loosen the skin a little…"

"I don't know." He cried out. "He just said to try to get your family."

"He already has one of my men."

The prisoner shook his head. "He fights. Cortez, he took something that wouldn't fight."

"Who?"

"Your sister."