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I might be a little slower getting chaps to you from this point. I admit that I didn't finish the story, I was still chewing on where I wanted it to end. I have a couple in mind, still not sure. I always have a eureka moment waking up in the morning, after a nap, or in the shower. (back the visual out, it ain't pretty) It hasn't come yet.

I decided to give Ranger a pain in the butt. Guess who that is? LOL

I'm getting better at self editing. So, all mistakes are mine on this one!

Chapter 6

The women were quiet throughout the flight and the baby made very few sounds. She had fussed a little after the plane first took off, then calmed down when Stephanie had given her a bottle and then a pacifier to suckle.

Stephanie never looked back at me, she just looked tense and stared straight ahead nearly the whole flight. I looked at the back of her head. Her hair had always been curly, shiny and bouncy. I remember that I developed a habit over time of tucking those stray curls of hers that would appear while I was talking to her, back behind her ears. Her brown locks were dull and lifeless now. After the baby's needs were addressed, Stephanie's would be next. She didn't look healthy, and no telling how long since she'd seen a doctor. I even wondered if the baby had ever seen one.

Although, I had been convincing enough for Tank and Lula to let me take them to Miami. I really had no clue how to fix this. It had been a very long time since I'd lived my life by the seat of my pants or what was left of it. This mess would take maybe a divine intervention. I sighed and looked out the window as the captain announced our approach into the Miami airport.

I had a new Mercedes G-Class SUV and requested that it be brought to the airport. It was big enough for all of us and the luggage. My men retrieved the baggage off the plane and loaded it. I could tell the pieces that belonged to Lula, they were a matched set, uniquely hers, and all bright pink. I had one carry-on, and a garment bag, and two other medium-sized ragged pieces were placed in the car. This was it? Not even baby items? This was all that she owned besides the second-hand furniture back at that rat-trap apartment she'd been living in? Querido Dios.

Stephanie had not raised her head the entire time. She stood like a stone statue clutching that baby to her, looking at the ground. I opened the door for her to get in the car and spoke to her. "Stephanie, we don't have a car seat for the baby yet. You'll have to hold her this one time."

She didn't move. She kept looking around at ground level like she was looking for something. Lula opened the opposite door and hopped in and spoke to her. "Come on, white girl. It's hot out there. Get in here with that little baby so we can go."

Stephanie then turned and stepped in the car. She'd been waiting for Lula. I was beginning to see what Lula had been talking about when she said that Stephanie was there, but not Stephanie. There was no doubt she might need therapy, and what I'd done had probably loaded even more time on to the total necessary to get her back to a functioning person again. How would I explain that to a therapist? I'm both her caretaker and her abuser.

The penthouse apartment at Rangeman Miami was available to the General Manager, but that guy was my older brother, Francis Ricardo, or Frank. He had a home nearby and a family, and only stayed in the apartment when the branch was short-staffed or extremely busy. I had been staying there since I'd moved back during the week, and at the beach house or my companion's condo on the weekends. I was taking the women to the beach house to stay. I had called ahead to have the housekeeper fully stock the kitchen, and baths, and prepare the guest bedrooms for our arrival.

I pulled into the garage and clicked the back door open. I told Lula to take Stephanie in the house and they could look around while I was unloading the car. She said, "Come on, girl." Then walked off clucking away, Stephanie looking down and following on her heels. I shook my head.

When I walked in the house through the pantry and into the kitchen, I stopped cold. It was like I'd walked into a Mexican stand-off. Except this group weren't holding guns, they were shooting laser beams. Fuck me.

Lula was in a defensive stance, Stephanie was behind her holding the baby. My housekeeper, Betina was tapping her foot, hands on her hips. And the woman I called my companion, Aleida, was dressed in a tiny string bikini, and high-heels, blocking the doorway to the rest of house.

Betina was the first to speak. "I'm sorry, Señor Manoso. I told her when she arrived this morning, I was busy tending to your needs. She did not go away. It was not my place to tell her you had guests coming."

"That's fine, Betina. You did exactly what I would have wanted you to do. Take Lula and Stephanie upstairs and show them around please and to their rooms."

She nodded and the women followed, except I saw Lula stop just past the doorway out of the corner of my eye, and stick an ear back in to listen. I cleared my throat loudly, and her ear disappeared. I inwardly chuckled. How the hell did Tank manage that woman? My friend had big cojónes indeed.

I turned to Aleida. "We have an agreement. You don't come here unless I call and ask you to come. I didn't call you."

She ignored me and asked. "Who are those street women and that little urchin? Where did you pick them up?"

"One is my best friend's lady, and the other is a friend who needs help right now."

"The baby looks like it could be yours. Did you get that woman pregnant? Is that what this is about?"

"No, and I'm not answering any more of your questions. Please go home."

She stomped her high-heeled foot and a tear escaped one eye. "Why are you treating me like this? I thought I was yours."

I sighed. "Aleida, you're my mistress. We have a mutual respect, and enjoy one another, but no emotional ties, and I made that clear in the very beginning."

"But, you spent money on me, gave me nice things, and you treated me like I was yours."

"I treated you well, which was our agreement. I don't own you, I keep you. there is a big difference. I'm asking you again to please leave, and go home. I'll call you tomorrow or the next day."

More tears escaped, and she turned and picked up a bag next to the sofa and walked out the front door, slamming it behind her.

I walked through the kitchen doorway out to the living area, and Lula was standing at the top of the stairs. She smirked and said, "You so full of yo'self, you got you a mistress now, huh? Just think what you'd have if you'd put some of that mutual respect, and care, into enjoying a relationship with my girl. The right way. Instead, you put all of that energy into another ho' you don't care nothin' about. I pity the lonely man you must be..." She turned and walked back down the upstairs hallway.

I know why Tank sent her along now, she's supposed to torture me the entire time she's here. She's part of my payback.

In the end I left instructions with Betina, and decided to make myself scarce around the house for the first few days. I would spend a good amount of time at Rangeman. I was having a car delivered for the women tonight for their use, and Betina was going to take them shopping for baby items, and necessities first. I would enlist help with making doctor appointments for Stephanie and the baby, then on to the more personal and enjoyable needs. The pampering.

When I came home later that night, the house was quiet. I tip-toed to the bedroom that Betina had put Stephanie, and the baby in, and tried the knob. The door was locked. For the first time in my life, I was hesitant about picking that lock. I finally did anyway. I stuck my head in, and was not surprised to find a gun pointed at my head. Stephanie was curled up on one side in the fetal position and in that curve pressed against her was the baby, sleeping quietly. I sighed. "Stephanie, I promise that I won't touch you or hurt you again. I was just checking on you both. Can I get you anything?" She shook her head, still holding the gun on me.

I closed the door and continued to my room. Is that how she lived the entire time this last few months in that neighborhood? Constantly on alert? And I'd thought her old apartment had been bad.

I woke early the next morning and went for a run on the beach. When I came back in the house, Stephanie was in the kitchen making a bottle. When she turned and saw me, she looked like a deer in headlights. She actually patted herself down, looked up terrified, and raised the bottle like she was going to throw it. I put my hands up. "Save the bottle for the baby. I just want a bottle of water, babe."

She looked over at the island and pulled a knife out of a block and started past me with the bottle. I watched her run up the stairs, and ran my hand through my sweaty head. How the fuck were we going to get past this?

The other two big questions that were now floating around in my head was, is she dangerous and is she sane enough to walk freely around my house? I had this picture in my head now of waking with a knife at my throat. I actually shivered a little.

Betina arrived and began making breakfast. I went to my study and called my sister-in-law, Grace. "Good morning, Carlos. Frank has already left for work."

"Actually, I wanted to speak to you. I need appointments with some doctors. A general practitioner or internist, a female doctor, and a pediatrician."

She was quiet a minute. "Well, I would make a joke, but I don't think you would appreciate it by the tone of your voice. What's the story?"

"I'm just helping a friend from Trenton out who's down on her luck. She's got a baby that needs attention first."

"Okay. Would you like for me to just make the appointments for you?"

"If you don't mind."

"What are the names?"

"Stephanie Plum and shit, I don't even know the baby's name."

"Stephanie? This is your Stephanie, from Trenton?"

"Yes. No, she's not my Stephanie."

"Carlos, we have to have the full name and these days, a social security number is required as soon as a child is born." Fuck me, again. I know she won't have that, or a birth certificate. She can't even legally adopt the baby right now. This was going to take one of my attorney's and some time to fix.

"Grace, just make Stephanie's appointments. I'm going to have to find someone to look at the baby, no questions asked."

"Call your sister, Carlos."

I hung up and vigorously scratched my head, scowling. I hated talking to my sister, Sara. She was the oldest sister, the smart one, the wise one, the know it all, and the perfect one, and she still lectures me for ruining her teenage years, and her chance at the ivy league med school where she really wanted to go. But she was a doctor, a fucking pediatrician. I resigned myself and dialed her number, leaving a message.

My phone sounded in less than ten minutes. "I'm so intrigued that you're calling me, I left a colicky baby with the nurse practitioner to call you back."

I groaned inwardly. "I need a favor."

"Damn. What a disappointment. I could have guessed that one. Couldn't you have been a little more creative."

"Sara, I don't have the time or the patience for this. I need you to examine a baby about six months old. Give her a physical."

"Why exactly are you asking me? Is this another illegitimate baby of yours?"

"No. I'm trying to help a friend from Trenton that's down on her luck. I don't think that the baby has ever seen a doctor."

"Why didn't you take her to a doctor in Trenton?"

"Because, she's here now. Can you just see the baby?"

She sighed. "What's the name and I'll have the receptionist pencil in one of our emergency appointments."

I closed my eyes. "That's the problem. No legal last name, no birth certificate, no social."

"What? Where did this baby come from?"

"She found it. It was abandoned next to a dumpster, left for dead, and she kept it."

"Oh Dios mio. Carlos, I'm required by law to report this kind of thing. That baby should have been turned over to social services. It may have relatives looking for it."

"Well it wasn't, and I doubt anyone is looking for it. It likely belonged to a prostitute or a teenager that lived in either a crack house or a rundown, rat trap of an apartment building in Newark near the airport. It was left with the umbilical cord attached for the rats to take it, Sara."

Now it was her turn to be silent for a minute. "Bring it to me during the lunch hour."

I went to the kitchen where the women were now eating. I said, "Stephanie, the first thing we need to do is get you, and the baby to a doctor to be checked out. The baby has an appointment at noon with a good pediatrician."

She jumped up holding the baby in her arms. I wondered if she'd taken a hand off of it since we'd left Trenton. She was shaking her head vigorously. Lula said, "She's scared they'll take her baby. She went one time and they asked so many questions, she took the baby and left."

"Stephanie, the doctor is my sister. I had to tell her the circumstances for you having a baby with no last name, and no birth certificate."

Lula smirked at me again, "Its gotta name. Why wouldn't she give it a name? That's Angel Plum."

TBC -