A/N: You guys rock! You blew me away with your resonance and your great reviews. BTW I forgot to mention it in the last Chapter, we are starting on a ride of an emotional rollercoaster. So take a seat, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride. We will cross the valley of despair, the loops of anger, rage and violence, the spirals of confusion and whiplashes and we even climb the mountains of forgiveness and love.

Betrayal

Chapter 13

Ranger´s PoV

October 31, 2011 1230 hours

Bodie, WA

"Hello Ranger"

The woman kneeling in front of me had nothing to do with the spitfire I fell in love with. And she certainly wasn´t the ruthless Fed, who arrested me 17 days ago. This woman there was resigned, broken. Oh, she still held her head high but the fire in her beautiful blue eyes was extinguished, her untamable curls hung limp around her face, her creamy skin was gray and she had dark circles und her eyes. My heart ached. My arms trembled slightly. I wanted nothing more than to gather her in my arms and tell her that all will be okay.

`Get a grip, Manoso; this is the woman who lied to you for ove three years. Whatever feelings she made you believe she had for you was nothing but a ploy to get what she wanted`

Shoving my desires mercilessly aside I held my gun steady again. Lester and Bobby came up behind her, guns at the ready. I nodded to Bobby. He secured his gun and cuffed her hands behind her back and then he pulled her none too gently to her feet. Lester patted her down and when he was at her butt she rolled her eyes and growled:

"Hands off my ass, Santos." I couldn´t help it but my lips curled. Slightly.

"Call the rest, Ranger and tell Ram to come of his tree."

I raised my eyebrow in question and received an eye roll in return. Yes she knows me well.

While we waited for my men to arrive Stephanie and I engaged in a silent stare down. My eyes bore into her baby blues. That damned fool in love within me still hadn´t given up hope. He still thought that nothing was like it seemed. That there was a logical explanation for all this mess, but her once so expressive eyes were nothing but steel. She wore a blank face that even I couldn´t manage. She gave nothing away. I wanted to rip those eyes out, these weren´t the eyes of the woman I love.

I shoved the fool in love ruthlessly aside. The woman I loved never existed she was a disguise, a roll she played and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Rage surged through me again. I was taught to respect and protect women, I have never raised a hand against one –sure in my time as a black-ops I had to kill women; but I always made sure it was a clean shot no matter what evil bitches they were- but in Her case I was willing to make an exception.

Hal, Cal, Manny, Adam, Jordan, Silvio, Eric and finally Ram closed the circle around Stephanie. She looked around and raised her eyebrows at me.

"Overkill much, Ranger?"

I didn´t answer. I was still struggling to get my emotions under control. It wouldn´t do to kill her without getting my questions answered first.

"Oh, for heaven´s sake, Ranger." She exclaimed. "Do you really think I would lure you into some kind of trap after I worked my ass off to bring you out of this clusterfuck unharmed?

Whatever! Follow me."

She turned and began to walk to the mine but Bobby and Cal didn´t let her through. With her back to me she said:

"Ranger you are here to get answers, so let's go inside it´s going to rain soon."

She was right, of course she was, fucking know-it-all; and that pissed me off. But it also helped me to get my head straight again and focus on my goal. I nodded to my man and we followed her into the mine.

We lit our flashlights and followed her through the tunnels until we came into a cavern.

The cavern was big enough to hold all of us comfortable. Oil lamps were lit and hung on the walls and the propane gas burner made it pleasantly warm.

In one corner lay an air matrass with a sleeping bag and three large travel bags, in the middle stood a camping table with a chair. Food, water and two coolers were stacked at the other side and a small diesel generator stood in another corner.

She went in and stood at the other end of the cavern pointing with her head to her makeshift bed.

"The bag in the middle and to your left, under the chair and table, in both coolers and behind the generator." Nodding at each location

I raised my eyebrow in question and she sighed.

"My weapons, Ranger. You don´t really believe I´ll come here with only one Glock. I´ve stepped on too many toes to be that stupid. I´m a spy for fucks sake. I´m paranoid by definition."

"How can you be sure that we aren´t here to kill you?" I challenged.

"Oh I´m sure that you want to. But I´m also sure, that you will want to hear my sordid little tale first. Besides you are only here because I wanted it and you are NOT my enemy."

She was right, of course. Everything she said and did, since we arrived here practically screamed surrender.

I nodded to Ram and Adam to collect her weapons and said to Lester:

"Uncuff her."

"Thank you" she said rubbing her wrists once she was freed.

Suddenly Ram whistled.

"That is quite an assortment, Plum."

"Why thank you Ram." She coquetted and batting her eyelashes and laid her hand over her heart. Try as I might I couldn´t hold the chuckle that was escaping my lips. Here we were 11 mercenaries ready to kill her and she still has an attitude. You can take a girl out of Jersey but obviously you can´t take Jersey out of a girl.

We all took a look and we all whistled. It really was a nice collection. From throwing stars, to knives, to various handguns, to an AK-47, to a M-200 (4) a sniper rifle. I almost expected a rocket-launcher, too. And ammo lots of ammo.

"Men" she muttered exasperated, "if you are done ogling my goods maybe we can get a little more comfortable and get down to business."

~~~~~oooo~~~~~

4 CheyTac Intervention M-200