Saving All My Women

by Rangerbabe21

What can Ranger do when Stephanie is taken and the threat that comes in is for all his women: Julie, his mother and sister's too. Where and how can he protect them, when the bad guys can find them where ever they go? Babe HEA

4. Chapter 4 Special Project

Chapter 4 Special Project

I decided to walk the perimeter and check in with each of my teams. I grabbed my radio, turned it on and stepped off the porch onto the sidewalk that turned left and led to my father's company truck parked in the driveway, in front of the white two-car garage, but then I veered off it walking across the yard to my SUV. I was half way across the green manicured yard when machine gun fire broke out from the gray roof across the street, spraying the front yard at my feet.

Without thinking I ran back to the tree in the front of the house, while Zip and Junior both dove for cover in the bushes. While Hal and Cal were out of the vehicle racing towards the gunfire.

The hail of bullets followed me and raked across the front of the house, blowing holes in the large family room window, and across the front door. It dawned on me, at that moment, that if they had wanted to hit me, I was an easy target walking the lawn. Now they were using my running as an excuse to shoot up the place. All of the children were in that front room and I had to draw their fire away. I pulled my gun and ran down the lawn, yelling, firing suppression fire at the roof line of the house across the street. Immediately the two heads I saw above the roofline disappeared and all fire at the house ceased.

I yelled into my radio. "Backyard stay alert and in position. Front cover the roofline but hold your fire unless the moles pop back up. Patrol call 911 report gun fire at this address." By now I was at the neighbor's six-foot wooden fence line. Hal and Cal nearly pulling it down getting over it. I vaulted it holding on near the house where it was bolted. Only to find whoever had been on the roof was long gone. Then Cal cried out pointing and three houses down we could hear barking and saw two men in long sleeved shirts, yellow leather construction gloves and jeans, climbing the fence to get away.

I signaled to Cal and Hal to split up going back to the street to watch for the getaway car, while I took off again parkour style, hopping over fences in one jump. My hands on the top of the fence, swinging my legs over in one smooth move. Hitting the ground on the other side and running to the next fence line to do it again. I could now see the next several fences were four-foot-high chain link with two large dogs on the other side already barking at me.

Whichever way the gunmen went, I could no longer see them up ahead climbing fences. Instead of hopping the fence with the dogs. I hopped the fence to my left and came out on the street. Hal was jogging back down the street to me. "Silver Bronco. Too far away to get the license plate. There was one guy driving it and it just veered in picked up the other two as they came running from the backyard and took off."

I pulled out my phone. "Hector, priority search, Silver Ford Bronco. Approximately 09:27 at the corners of Hucklebee and Tanner. Search all cameras you can find."

"The car was probably stolen anyway." I told Hal, "Get Cal, secure the scene until the cops get here. I didn't see them carrying a gun. Check if it is still on the roof. I never saw it in their hands. I'm going back through the yards looking for it. I want to find it preferably before the police get here." I got on the radio as I walked through the backyards looking for a weapon.

"Cal, get a finger print kit. We're looking for the weapon but we might be able to find prints on the ladder they used to climb up to the roof with."

"Zip, this is the hardest job of all. Go inside make sure everyone is OK and tell my father, he's probably in the kitchen; that there were two gunmen across the street that fired on the house. No one outside was injured. Tell him they ran away and I am searching for the gun and men now. Tell them Carlos will answer all their questions when he gets back. Walk around the front of the house with him and record the damage. Tell him Carlos will pay to have everything fixed. Call Tank and tell him of the shooting and the size of the safety glass needed to fix the front window. I want it replaced today."

"All teams, we had two men on the roof across the street shooting an automatic rifle at the house. We returned fire. No one was injured. Gun men got away. Waiting for police. Fleeing car was a silver Ford Bronco, plates unknown. Hold your positions. Keep alert. This may have been a diversion for a different attack."

I stopped two houses down, drawn to the line of bushes along the back-privacy fence that look disturbed. The line of four-foot-high, freshly trimmed pink azaleas was pushed away from the fence about halfway down the line. I couldn't get right up on them because of the white, pink, and purple flowering viburnum lined up in front of the bushes. But looking down there was a large foot print stomping down two of the pink flowering plants. I got down looking at waist level and there wedged between the bushes and fence was a Russian RPK, machine gun.

I quickly walked back to the house that was across from my parents and Cal was dusting a ten-foot ladder that was propped up against the back of the house. I looked at the ladder and saw there was writing down the side that read 'Manoso Construction Inc.' I took a deep breath knowing I was going to have to bring my father over to figure out where the ladder came from and knowing if these guys were smart they would have been wearing gloves for all of it. A patrol car pulled up and double parked in front of my parent's house.

"Cal the police are here, pack up and bag a few shell casings, then guard the ladder and roof so it is not disturbed. Hal go to the backyard two houses down and guard the azalea bushes against the wooden fence. There is a RPK stashed there." I walked quickly out to meet the officers wanting to put aside any concern with all the big men in black, carrying guns, patrolling the grounds.

I greeted them, gave a short explanation that right now the entire Manoso family was under the protective care of RangeMan due to threats against the family and that there were ten RangeMan employees, all badged and wearing weapons, guarding the house and street. That fifteen minutes ago there was gun fire from the roof across the street and I had a man guarding the scene. Now that the police were here both my parents came out of the house slowly, followed by my sisters and some of the boys who, like most young boys, are fascinated with guns and police.

I walked the police to my father and introduced them. While they talked I politely requested all the women to go back inside the house, reminding them that dead is dead whether from a bullet or longer more painful means. Suddenly my mama cried out and pointed to my right calf, where there was a hole and blood obviously on my leg. I pulled the pant leg out of my boot to find a hole going straight through my pant leg and a gash on the side of my leg that was bleeding.

"It's nothing mama, just a scratch." I assured her. "Now will you please go inside." Once I got everyone inside I followed my dad as he showed the policemen the damage. There were at least three holes in the big window and I called Chet and Hank to get a crime lab kit and camera out of the back of the Cayenne and start inside and retrieve the bullets. The police were waiting on a crime lab unit to arrive and wanted everyone out of the residence and away from the crime scene, but I nipped that in the bud.

"Officers the men targeting the Manosos' are not here legally. You're not going to find them in the system. We aren't going to be pressing charges. I will have my men process the scene but right now it is more important that the Manosos' have a safe place to be protected than it is for you to turn this into a sealed-off crime scene. If you want to write up a report for the shooting, that's fine. If you want to call it a neighborhood disturbance that has resolved itself and leave, that works too. I know your job is to keep the citizens of this town safe, but our job is to keep this family safe and trust me no one is going to be shooting up this house again. If you need me to I will talk to your Chief and explain that my men are taking control of the scene."

They made a few calls over the radio and informed me that a Sergeant was on the way to talk to me. While we were waiting, I braved the inside, expecting to be grilled like a hostile witness by the prosecution, to face my mama and sisters. Inside I found my Abuela Rosa in the kitchen helping mama fix sandwiches and soup for lunch. Three of my sisters were in the living room and descended upon me.

"Nobody said anything about getting shot." Angelia started in.

"Now are you going to tell us we can't even go outside?" Oshanna complained.

"Are you alright? I heard you got shot." Isabella asked me.

"The shooting was their calling card. Just their way of saying 'Hi, we know you are in there.' If they had wanted to they could have done more damage but most of the shots were fired into the ground and the front of the house. Not really inside it. Very little damage was done."

"Little damage? little damage?! The TV was shot up and it could have been the kids. Now the TV doesn't work anymore right in the middle of the movie and the kids are starting to climb the walls." Angelia squawked. I immediately walked to the family room and surveyed the situation. The family room was the room for all of the grandkids, with a big brown leather couch that had a quilted throw my mother made when we were kids. Several brightly colored pillows and a matching brown leather chair with a scarred very old wooden coffee table rounding out the furniture in the room.

This was set back away from the TV, leaving the main wooden floor open for the large oval woven rug that had pictures of children from all around the world in a circle holding hands, including of all things, a penguin. The toys were lined along the left wall in racked cloth baskets and primary colored buckets. The rest of the wall was taken up by large book shelves, stacked with hundreds of children's books from Hop on Pop to the last Harry Potter.

The rug and room had been arranged ten years ago after Leyla had her second child and my mama and Abuela Rosa, and sometimes Oshanna after school, started watching her kids while she worked at my dad's construction company part-time. Now Abuela Rosa watches the kids for an hour after school until she gets off work. The old tube TV we'd had since I was a boy. We spent hours in front of it Saturday mornings while mama slept in, the one day of the week she got to.

Now I watched as Chet and Hank, after taking pictures of each bullet were trying to dig them out of the back of the TV. I called Erik and Martin to the house. I met them at the front door and walked them out to the back yard, where most of the children were running around playing on the play set, the dog following them around nipping at their heels, some throwing a frisbee, and some of the boys were involved in a made-up game involving swords. I told them they were to relieve Lester and Woody as the backyard team.

"New assignment. The TV just got shot up." I told Lester and Woody. "Go buy a new TV and come back and set it up." I handed him a RangeMan credit card. Lester's face lit up but instead of heading for the house he walked around to the side yard.

"I'm going through the fence. You can't get me back in that house until I'm loaded down with something that will make them happy to see me."

I called Tank for an update. Gave him the nuts of the shooting and asked where we stood with the window being replaced. "We need it done by this afternoon. As soon as they fix the front door send that crew over here to replace this window. Also, if you haven't already: start an expense account for this case. Label it the Manoso Protection Detail. Charge everything including man hours back to me. Some things are going to show up on the RangeMan card, charge them back to me."

"You're paying for this personally? If we run it through the accounts I can write some of it off."

"I know we will write off some of it but I want a full tally and then we will start with deductions. The plan is to get everyone out of town by tomorrow. Skylar is getting me options. Expect a jet that can fly fifty. I want twenty men along."

"You sure you want twenty men? Knowing your family, I can't decide if that is too many or not enough."

"It is going to depend on the accommodations how many men can go. Lester is the only must go. Pick six-night shift to go and we will work out the rest of the personnel tonight. When are Boston and Atlanta flying in."

"Both groups will be on the ground by 1430."

"Ok, at 1300 send over the next protection detail. Chet and Hank are processing the shooting. We found the weapon, it is a Russian RPK, they must have brought hardware with them." I stared at a little brown squirrel that was carefully trying to climb down the wire and make it to the bird feeder that was hanging in the tree.

"You think they were trying to get lucky and take out some of the family at random?"

"No, they were just saying 'Hi'. They could have mowed me down, but instead wasted time shooting at my feet. It could have been bad; three bullets went into the room the kids were playing in and destroyed the TV. We now have better street coverage. Junior, Zip and I were right there watching everything when they just popped up and opened fire."

"Junior and Zip were watching the front and didn't pick them up?"

"Well I was standing right next to them. In fact, I started walking across the lawn when they opened fire. If they had wanted to ventilate me I would have been gone."

"Is this going to force you to move the family?"

"I'm waiting for the sergeant to arrive and plead our case with him to stay in the house. I'll show him the video if I have to. It is more important to protect the people in the house than to protect a crime scene, where no one got injured, and the culprits are foreign nationals who are not in the system and probably didn't leave any evidence behind."

"What did your mom say about the TV?"

"She hasn't said anything to me yet. Lester and Woody are after a new TV. Hopefully that and the new window will make the people in the house relax a little." I said.

"Your family relaxed? I've seen full on riots have less energy. How are they taking the shooting?" Tank questioned.

"Everyone here was already wound up. Now they are crawling out of their skins except for the kids who are running around and playing like nothing has happened. Update on the shooting there."

"It's roped off, waiting for the crime lab. When they come I want to give them a full copy of the video. Since the girl's body was found." Tank said.

"Sure, cut out the part where Stephanie gets pumped full of heroin. She doesn't need that going around." I answered.

"None of the men from the video have been identified."

"Keep me updated." I told him and I disconnected. Now back to the fray. I walked back into the house and everyone except papa was there in the kitchen.

"Does anyone have any questions about the shooting?" I asked them.

"Who was shooting?" Leyla asked.

"The same men who have made the threats against the family."

"Why aren't you dead?" Angelia snidely remarked.

"They weren't shooting to kill. This was the equivalent of them knocking on the door and saying 'Hello, we know you are in there.'" I explained.

"That doesn't make any sense. If it is you they are trying to make hurt, why not just shoot you outright and move on to the next target?' Oshanna said.

"One thing we know is that they are recording this for the man who's bankrolling them. This may just be part of the show they are putting on for him."

My father stepped into the kitchen. "Carlos the Sergeant is here." I excused myself and went out front to meet him. Sergeant Markowitz stood proudly in his starched uniform, full gun belt on, radio clipped to his left side still squawking, on the porch surveying the damage.

"I'm sorry son, but this house is going to have to be evacuated for several days while it is processed as a crime scene."

"Sir with all due respect, I would like you to hear me out. We have extenuating circumstances that require this family to be in protective care. Their lives are in imminent danger. This shooting could very well be the bad guy's way of forcing us to move them so they get a chance to grab the intended targets. These guys are foreign nationals, they are not going to be in your system, and they are ex-military. They won't have left any clues behind. All the crime lab can do is log how many bullets were shot and where they landed. There are not going to be any fingerprints and no one got a clear view of the shooters. I was standing out in the middle of the yard when the shooting started and they could have mowed me down, instead they shot at the ground around me. My men were standing on the porch. If they had wanted to take them out they could have. Instead they just loaded up the grass and raked low down on the house, where they couldn't get anybody. The only thing they killed was the twenty-five-year-old TV. If you come inside I will show you the threat.

"First of all, they sent this video last night, I will tell you now it is very graphic. This is a copy. The Trenton Police have the original because the house that got broken into was Detective Morelli's." I turned on the video. My father left the room when they got to the belting part, but Sergeant Markowitz stayed through the whole thing. Then I showed him the note and explained what it said.

"Sergeant I understand your job is to protect the community. Let me protect my family. They are in danger because of me and I can't risk their lives for evidence in a case that will never go to trial. If these guys are ever found they will go up on charges in Trenton for what they did to this woman. She was found this morning dead."

"Mr. Manoso I understand the situation better now and you have made a good point about keeping your family here in protective custody. But somehow, I need this crime scene wrapped up. I can't just leave bullets lying all over the yard."

"We have that handled sir. We have an official crime scene kit." I walked him back outside and showed him the kit in Chet's hand and the camera around Hank's neck. "this is Chet and Hank. They are trained in evidence collection. We will photograph everything and collect all evidence using proper crime scene technique and I will bring in a metal detector to make sure we get every bullet up. These are my nieces and nephews that play out here so I take this very seriously."

"I'm going to leave these officers here to supervise and take all the evidence back to lock up and log it in." Sergeant Markowitz said.

"Thank you, sir." I shook his hand and watched him walk through the yard. I pulled out my phone. "Lester pick up a X-Terra metal detector .70 or .705 on your way back. If you can't find one that refined pick up one that can detect gold, that will be sensitive enough."

"Where am I supposed to find a metal detector in Newark?"

"A sporting goods store."

"Where is the nearest sporting goods store?" He harassed me.

I sighed internally and disconnected.

"Officers," I called out to the two men who were loitering on the edge of the yard. "This is Chet and Hank. They are going to process this crime scene while you watch and turn all the evidence over to you to be logged into your system."

Then I went into the house. "Papa can I talk to you outside for a moment." When he joined me I said, "Will you follow me to the neighbor's yard." I led the way to the back of the neighbor's house, where Hal had the wooden gate opened and showed him the ladder.

"Dad this was here when we got to the scene. Obviously, it belongs to your company. Do you know what job it was registered to and when it was taken?"

He pulled out his phone and talked to someone quietly for several minutes. "It was loaded up on a truck this morning. It was taken off of a renovation job at Fourth and Broadway. They noticed it missing about an hour ago."

"When the cops come over, I'm going to tell them I borrowed it from you so we could get to the roof. Cal has already swept it for prints, but I expect all we are going to find are your crew. When we are done you can take it with you, or have some of your men come and pick it up."

"Thanks."

I opened my phone, "Hector second search: cameras around Forth and Broadway a ten-foot ladder was stolen from a construction site. We are looking for images of the men and whatever vehicle they used." I disconnected.

"I'm going up on the roof to survey the situation. Do you want to come?" I offered. Papa nodded to me. There wasn't much on the roof but a pile of casings. The fact that they didn't bother to take them let me know there is no evidence there. The last hope was the gun itself. They may have used gloves when they fired the gun. But they probably didn't when they loaded it in their car and when they last cleaned it. I went and got the Cayenne and drove it up the street, one house past where the gun was.

I got gloves and hopped the fence to find Hal standing at parade rest in front of the spring green bushes looking uneasy. "I'm glad you're here to take this thing. I'm worried the home owners are going to come home and call the police on me."

"I've got it now." I put on the gloves and carefully stepped between flowers and reached over the azalea bushes to find the gun wedged into the fence. I'm hoping they stashed it because they were planning to come back for it later, and maybe there is some evidence on it they didn't want us to find. I just didn't know if I should spare the man power to watch this backyard.

I opened the fence and stowed the gun in the back of the Cayenne. Relieved Hal to go back to his position in the vehicle and debated on how I could have two men watch this backyard. "Tank," I quickly called, "send an extra team over now, I have a new assignment. Two men, two vehicles." They could watch it from Nateville, the street that dead ends one house down where the person only had a chain link fence. I sent Hal around to start watching the street and the backyard for men returning.

I returned to Cal and told him to join Hal once they started processing the roof. I crossed the street and told Chet and Hank to go process the roof so it would be done before the owners came home since the yard and front of the house was going to take a while and they had to wait for the metal detector.

Finally, everything was taken care of, so I got the medical kit out of the Cayenne and lifted my black pant leg. The one inch gash, angled down from mid-calf towards the ground, had stopped bleeding a while ago and was all crusty with dried blood. I cleaned it thoroughly, causing it to start bleeding again. Bandaged it and called it done.

I went to stand up on the porch with Zip and Junior not wanting to brave the hornets' nest that was waiting inside until I had some travel plans I could discuss with them. I pulled out my phone and walked away from the porch. "Skylar, my lovely, beautiful, most fantastic woman."

"Ranger you're too impatient. I've only been at this a few hours I don't have anything solid for you yet."

"What do you mean you don't have anything for me yet?"

"So far I have possibilities but nothing that is a solid yes. Your men are the problem. There is just not any place big enough for the whole group."

"What do you have so far?"

"Isolated mountain cabin in Colorado with 12 rooms. More than half of your men will have to sleep outside, they would have to share bathrooms with the guy's inside. On the plus side it is safe and remote and there is everything you can do outdoors. Hiking, fishing, biking, kayaking, campfires, smores, star watching. There are other activities in the area like white-water rafting, horse-back riding and four wheeling"

"I found a Dude ranch in Wyoming, plenty of room for the family. Only two rooms for men, but has offered bunks in the longhouses the ranch hands sleep in."

"I found a group of three beach houses in California. There's enough room, but they are only available for ten days. You would have to be out by next Friday."

"In Hawaii, I found special Wedding grounds that can hold everyone. It's three buildings. A chapel, a Reception room, and a very large eighteen room guest house. It's supposed to be for Brides and Grooms and their families to all come to Hawaii and get married and have a vacation. It is right on a private beach for beach weddings and the couple that booked it canceled two days ago, so I can reserve it till next Thursday. I have contacted the next Bride and Groom to see if I can pay them to get married elsewhere."

"Cruises – all I can find that have enough room are seven day cruises. One going up the Alaska coast. Monday to Sunday, it's seven days but only six nights. One going up the California coast, Sunday to Sunday and one touring the Hawaiian Islands. Leaves Saturday night till next Saturday morning. All longer cruises are too booked up."

"So, you see I am finding a lot of options but none that will carry you through your two weeks. At some point, you would have to be in a regular hotel.

"That's all a good start. I'm thinking California, the houses for a week and then a cruise."

"You will be happy about this. I have already reserved a jet. It is a little larger than what you specified but it is much nicer, it has a range of 4300 miles, and it can fly over 1300 mph, twice as fast as anything else on the market. So, you can get across the country in three hours instead of six."

"Ok." I just waited for her to continue.

"Now here is the best part. It seats one hundred people and every seat is first class."

"I thought all the Concordes had been retired. If they haven't been, they have to be dangerously old."

"Thought you would never ask. As it happens in 2009 they refurbished five of the remaining fleet and tried to put them back into service. They upgraded the engines, made them faster and able to travel further. But then the economy tanked and once again people were not willing to pay the higher price of getting there faster so they took them out of service in 2011 and have been renting them out privately. Well two of them were bought by private people who fly around the globe too much and need to get there faster. One stripped out over half the seats and put in a bedroom with a full bath. Of the three that are left, this one has been in France. It is perfectly maintained and has been hardly used. It is in top shape and still the fastest commercial plane around."

"Definitely a winner. Thank you, Skylar. You're a life saver. In this case, it is my ass you are saving here."

"and a very nice ass it is. We wouldn't want anything to happen to it."

"I'm going to give you one hour to see what else you can find and then I am going to give the options to my family."

"You are going to let the family decide?"

"It will make them much more cooperative for the trip if they have some choice and input. Thank you for all your hard work my most wonderful, excellent travel agent in the whole world." I told her.

"Thank you, Ranger. I will see what else I can round up."

I told her goodbye and she disconnected.

I dialed my cell phone again. "Tank I have a special project for Bones. First, I am going to be sending him pictures and information. He is to put them together in a digital family album for the men to study. Second, make up fake profiles for each family member, nationalities: Italian, Greek, French. Make Oshanna's and Angelia's Russian or better yet Chinese, they can still be sisters. Third. Make everyone a Driver's license and issue them a RangeMan Credit Card, five-thousand-dollar limit on each. Fourth, get sixteen nice phones, not burner phones, phones that can take good pictures. Like those new Samsung Edge 8 phones that are waterproof since chances are we are going on a cruise or staying on a beach." I have a Samsung Edge 7 the first waterproof phone and it has been a good phone. There is going to be a riot when I try to take their phones so I need something nice to replace them with, or my sisters will have my nads. "Fifth, send someone to a kiosk in the mall or where ever you have to go to get twenty different cases for them, I don't need fights over who's phone is who's. Sixth, Put a tracker on every phone and a RFT tag on every ID and Credit Card."

"You're going all out for your family. Are you sure you want to do all this?"

"They are being forced into this, so I'm trying to make it as pleasant as possible. As much like a real family vacation as I can."

"Where are you taking them?"

"Still unknown. So far we have a jet so I want to be flying everyone out by tomorrow afternoon."

"Copy that." And he disconnected.

I called Ella to ask if Stephanie was up yet, but she hadn't heard from her or heard that she had left. There was nothing for me to do but wait, something I normally did extremely well but today I just wanted to get the plans in place and my family settled. When I went back inside they had the folding table and chairs out on the back patio and were preparing to feed all the kids lunch. I looked at my watch: almost noon.

I checked in with all my men letting them know their replacements would be here at two. Then they would be going to the airport to pick up the men flying in from Boston and Atlanta.

I got my phone out and primed. I walked out on the back porch and announced, "I need to take a photo of everyone, one at a time, in the kitchen. Leyla, can I start with you? Then I will do each of your kids. I'm going to take them by family."

One at a time, I documented my family, typed in: name, age and relationship on each and added them to the file. While I was doing this the new patrol to watch the neighbor's backyard showed up and I sent them around to relieve Cal and Hal.

I was half way through Isabella's family when Julio, my brother, the joda walked in. "Heard you're fucking up not just your own but everyone's life again." He started in. (pain in the ass)

To be continued…

A/N Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for all the reviews. They are all greatly appreciated and have really encouraged me.

Huge THANK YOU to my Beta Mary Sassysaint. She does wonderful thing with my words and makes them more readable for you. You Rock!

Oh no… Rangers finally getting things a little more settled and his brother shows up to heat up and stir the pot he's cooking in. Where do you think they should go? Colorado? Wyoming? Alaska? California? Hawaii? If you were on lock down where would you want to go? Please read and review.