Betrayal
Chapter 32
Rangers PoV
October 31, 2011 2100 hours
Bodie, WA
Planning with my Babe is fun. After she claimed Anderson as her prey, well really there is no other word for it, the gleam in her eyes when she declared that Anderson was hers, made me shiver. I divided my men into teams of two. Due to the layout of the land, they will circle around us in a distance of a furlong.
Lester and Bobby. Team Bravo.
Silvio and Eric. Team Charlie.
Adam and Jordan. Team Delta.
Cal and Hal. Team Echo.
Manny and Hades. Team Foxtrot.
Nighthawk. Team Golf.
Stephanie and I will stay in the clearing close to the entrance of the mine.
Tell will escort Morelli to one of the cars Steph had hidden. Oh, Morelli was not a happy camper when Steph stated this, I could feel one of his infamous Italian temper tantrums coming, but Steph shot him down mercilessly.
"It is out of question, Joe. This operation is strictly voluntary and nobody else here is going to be a father of twins in less than six months. Besides Terry will have my hide if something happens to you. And Nighthawk is fully capable to patrol alone. "
He surrendered with a sigh and I had to bite back a gleeful snicker. Morelli is as much an alpha-dog as I am and although I theoretically knew, there was nothing romantic going on between him and my Babe well…old habits die-hard.
After Tell returned from escorting Morelli to the car he would then take up position on one of the hills with Babes M-200. He will watch out for any assassins that may have been sent to take us out. He is Sniper-One.
Ram will do the same but from a closer location. To say it in Steph´s words, ´Ram climb up your tree and cover our asses. Look out for their sniper but don´t kill him unless he is trying to hit one of us in the back.` He is Sniper-Two.
We geared up with Steph´s spare weapons and ammo. Thanks to her, we have enough firepower to invade a middle-sized third world country. The only problem was communication.
We had the RangeMan standard throat-mic and earpiece but Steph, Hawk, Tell, and Hades did not have comm-units. To eliminate this problem, Jordan gave his Tell, Hal gave his to Steph and Eric gave his to Hawk.
Steph showed us a secret exit about half a mile further into the mine. It was an old ventilation shaft she had covered up. The guys climbed up the rope and spread out, surrounding the areal. Steph ordered them to let Tank and Anderson through but all the others were to be captured, alive if possible. She described Anderson and the members of his team to us.
Steph and I will hide at the entrance of the mine waiting for Tank and we will settle this matter, once and for all. Once he is here, we will separate and Steph will hunt down Anderson. I was not happy with this part of the plan but there is no way to persuade her otherwise.
Morelli was the last to climb up the rope, before he did so he gathered Steph in a bone-crushing hug. After he released her, he turned to me and offered his hand. I took it and he drew me into a one armed hug, whispering in my ear.
"Don´t mess it up, Manoso." Squeezing my hand a bit harder.
"I won´t" I answered honestly.
He stepped back and looked me in the eyes, judging my honesty. I let my blank face drop for a moment and let him see how deep my feelings for Stephanie were. He nodded and with a last smile at Steph, he turned and climbed up the rope.
Steph and I went back but when I wanted to bypass the cavern, she took my hand and pulled me behind her into the cavern. She went to one of her bags searching for something when she found it she stood up again and offered me three USB-Sticks.
"These contain the complete Manoso file and it´s the only copy. Not even the Black Unit has that much information. They contain every single thing I've done in the last 1198 days. Everything I didn´t tell you, because it wasn´t relevant in the big scheme of things. My personal dairy, if you will, from July 20th , 2008 until this morning. Plus copies and photos of every piece of evidence I collected, every lead I followed, audio files of conversations I listened in on, video files, my personal notes and suspicions, everything."
"Why are you giving me this?" I asked with a horrible foreboding, dreading the answer.
"You know why, Ranger." She said never averting her eyes. In this moment, I wanted to rip her beautiful blue eyes out. In them, I saw a disturbing mix of love, pain, protectiveness, anger, and sheer determination.
No, I will not let her risk her life for me. My hand moved to my cuffs on its own accord; intending to chain her to the wall until the danger is over. I think she anticipated something like this cause in the next moment she closed the gap between us and her lips crashed against mine. Our tongues battled ferociously for dominance. Her hands snaked under my shirt and fingernails scraped down my back. She nipped on my bottom lip hard trying to take over control. I growled. She will not win this. I pressed her harder to me, rubbing my hardening cock against her. She moaned into my mouth. I had sexual manipulation 101 too. I buried my hand in her soft curls and wrenched her head back; sinking my teeth into that spot just below her ear that always makes her putty in my hands. Rolling my hips against her, I let her feel what effect she has on me. I bit down on her pulse point, sucking the soft skin into my mouth, hard, marking her. Soothing the string with a soft lick of my tongue.
I growled.
"You will not do anything stupid, Stephanie." Empathizing every word with a small kiss. "You will not jump in front of a bullet to protect me. You know who I am. What I am. You did a tremendously good job protecting me, but please let me do my part now."
I lowered my forehead against hers. My eyes boring into hers. I dropped all the walls and shields I had erected around my heart. I let her see my pain from the betrayal of my best friend, my cousin and my other employees and friends. My struggle to come to terms with the things she told me about the case and herself, my love for her and the fear of losing her again, my insecurity where love and relationships are concerned and my need for vengeance. I showed her my greatest strengths and my greatest weaknesses. I literally bared my soul for her to see. I once told her she had all the power and now I have given her the key to destroy me if she so desired.
I could see that she understood what I just offered her. She kissed me softly and said.
"The same goes for you, Carlos."
I gave her the USB-Sticks back.
"You tell me yourself when we get home."
"Yes, but promise me you will take them should anything happen to me."
"Are you able to take on Anderson?" I asked seriously.
"Yes" she said in dead earnest "I can take Leland on any day with one hand tied behind my back, but I won´t make the mistake of underestimating him. Leland is hotheaded and short-tempered and makes fatal mistakes but he is also sneaky and cunning and he fights dirty. He and I will have an all-in balls-out, everything, or nothing, living or dying fight. He won´t shoot me on sight, because he will want to fight me. He won´t pull punches so I´m not going to risk victory by being overconfident."
I nodded accepting her words. I activated my throat mic and said.
"Alpha to all. Tango-two is to be killed should Stephanie be in mortal peril." I sent Steph a look that clearly said ´don´t fight me on this` I wasn´t done yet. "The same goes for Tango-one and me." Steph gave me a blinding smile after that.
The men responded with "copy that." I turned the mic off again.
"Now do you want to tell me what the deal is between you and Anderson, Babe?" I asked.