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Betrayal

Chapter 14

Stephanie´s PoV

October 31, 2011 1300 hours

Bodie, WA

Who would have thought that my assortment of lethal weapons would be the icebreaker? The high tension died down a bit.

"Come on guys, take a seat."

Ram took the other guns from Adam and putted them into the bag. He sat down on the air matrass the bags in front of him. Adam and Jordan joint him. Hal, Cal and Manny spread out the sleeping bag and sat down.

"There is a blanket in the right bag." Bobby went and retrieved it and he, Lester, Silvio and Eric sat down.

The only one left standing were Ranger and I.

"Take the chair, Ranger. I´ll take the cooler. It´ll more likely hold me than you."

"Something to drink anyone?" I asked. I might never be a Burg housewife, but I still have some manners. They all looked at Ranger expectantly. I rolled my eyes. "I´m not going to poison you."

He gave imperceptible nod. I handed out water bottles.

I on the other hand took out the bottle of wine I saved especially for this moment.

Raising his eyebrow Ranger asked:

"Wine?"

I shrugged.

"It´s an Italian wine called Sangue di Giuda5, Blood of Judas. I thought it fitting."

"Drowning your guilt in alcohol now, Plum." Ram snarled.

I snorted.

"As if one bottle of wine would be enough for that."

Sitting down on the cooler I turned to Ranger and gestured with my hand, to ask his questions.

"What about my men?" Ranger demanded.

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Of course he started with the one thing that is the most difficult to answer.

"They broke the law and I captured them."

"Plum" he barked and I winced. He crossed his arms in front of his massive chest and pierced me with his cold, dark eyes.

"I will tell you, I promise, but it wouldn´t make much sense to start at the end, would it? But it is what it boils down to it."

"So it´s really true, Beautiful" Lester spoke up, "I won´t believe you just used us. I mean nobody is that cold blooded. We are friends for fucks sake. I refuse to believe that everything was nothing but a ploy."

"Playing the Advocatus diaboli, Lester?" I smiled. "Don´t get your hopes up, Les. I´m nothing but a ruthless spy."

"You are not ruthless" Lester protested "I mean come on, Beautiful. Ok, you might have lied to us, and I´m not happy about it, but I´m sure you had good reasons. I won´t believe that the last three years was all show. I know you. You.."

Isn´t he cute. He still believes the best of me although I wronged them so much. I can´t let him live with his delusions, though. I got up from my cooler and went to him. Crouching in front of him I looked deep in his green eyes and said:

"You can stop right there, Lester. I´m not some tragic heroine. I deliberately looked out for you, I weaseled my way into your lives, I used you, I spied on you and I manipulated you. I cost Ranger a fortune. I got him shot. Got a lot of you injured.

Yes, I do love you but I would have stopped at nothing to reach my goal.

Legit reasons or not. Hell I even killed to protect my cover."

"Alpha and Cone was in self-defense." He argued. Poor boy still wouldn´t understand. But Ranger did.

"Abbruzzi" he whispered.

I didn´t turn around to him but I gave him a sharp nod.

Bobby spoke for the first time since Quantico.

"But I thought it was…" he trailed of not sure what to say.

"Ranger? Morelli? " I looked Bobby in the eyes.

"I had you all believe what I wanted you to believe. Joe thought I was knocked out cold from the pain pills he believed I´ve taken. In truth I´ve just pretended. What a better alibi to have then a cop. I slipped a sedative into his beer when we were at his house. As soon as he was out cold I left all my trackers behind, slipped out, went to get my back up car. And no, no one of you knew about it and hunted Abbruzzi down. And yes Bobby, Ranger was there but Abbruzzi was already dead when he arrived."

"So it was what? A sanctioned kill?" Ranger asked.

I shrugged.

"I didn´t leave them much of a choice. Either they accept my actions or risking 12 months of undercover work for a crazy bastard."

"Why?" Ranger whispered.

"Abbruzzi was lunatic and he wouldn´t have stopped."

He wanted to interrupt but I held my hand up. I know what he wanted to know.

"You had already done enough for me and I couldn´t let you kill for me, too. Besides it would have been an excuse for them speed up your arrest. At that time I couldn´t risk it and let them interfere. The stakes were too high."

I could see the question in his eyes and the puzzled faces of the Merry Men. My answer to Rangers question only served to make them more confused.

"Maybe it´s best I start at the beginning. What I´m going to tell you is confidential. I need an oath from all of you to never repeat anything what is said in here."

"Want it written in blood, too?" Ram snarled.

"Don`t temp me, Walter." I snarled back in the same tone. Seems like Ram is not a happy camper. I locked eyes with him, silently telling him to knock it off. This whole situation is as fucked up as it gets and I don´t need his bitching, no matter how much I deserve it. Eventually he lowered his eyes.

"Please don´t interrupt me you can grill me all you want when I´m done."

4 Chey Tac M-200 Intervention.

5 The wine is real and it´s excellent. I love it.

Tomorrow we are starting with The Spys Tale.