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

23. Chapter 23 Another Beach Day in LA

Chapter 23 Another Beach Day in LA

My father stood up and took Oshanna into his arms. She burst out into a new pool of tears on his shoulder. "Well we are in a bad, rock has hit a life threateningly hard place situation. Oshanna thought she was bragging to some nameless, faceless friends who didn't know who she was or her situation and as a result was tricked into putting her family into danger." He addressed everybody.

"However, we all know, or should know by now, that we can't tell anyone outside of these walls where we are or where we are going, not for the week, not for the day, not for an hour. We have to believe that any phone we call is tapped, any email sent can be read and anything we post online the bad guys have access to. I have the only compromise I can offer to everyone here…" He released Oshanna and turned to look at everyone before continuing.

Damn, even in my very controlled world my Father's word is law and whatever he says now in this meeting is what everyone will agree with. I was frustrated and angry that I was losing control of this situation. I had been the commanding officer of my team in the Rangers. My word was respected and my orders were followed, creating more successful missions for the government than I could count and now I was going to have to bow to his suggestions. It was nearly impossible to keep my mouth shut and maintain my composure.

In my world my orders were never questioned and needed no explanation. The people I am responsible for rely on me to make the decisions that will keep everyone safe and achieve the goal. However, there was some small part of me that knew papa would be more rational and fair than I could even conceive of being at the moment. I also knew my family would abide by his calm and well-spoken solution rather than any order I give.

"I suggest that Oshanna is allowed to stay with the family for the rest of the trip. But she has to be cut off from all electronics." Papa announced to everyone. "No phone, no computer, no iPad, no internet, no smart TV. And that means everyone's electronics. No one can lend her a phone, a computer or a tablet. Nothing that can communicate with anyone or anything outside these walls. Not to check her emails, not to check the news, not to check the weather."

"Oshanna is an electronic junkie." He continued. "For the last several years she has always been plugged into something. So, if she agrees to this she is agreeing to not ask or try to use anyone's computers, phones or tablets until we are done with this trip. Everyone here understands that she is like a drug junkie. That she will want to ask or just use a phone or computer that is left unattended."

"Our job is to remove all temptations. No electronics left out. No phones being borrowed. If she really needs to make a phone call she can come ask me. I have a satellite phone and if I authorize the call I will take responsibility for what she says while on that call. That is the only piece of electronics she is allowed to touch till we get home. Can you agree to that Oshanna?" He leaned back, looked at her and she nodded. "Can everyone else promise to help her by denying her access to all electronics?" There were nods and words of agreement all around the room.

"Papa, I can agree to that but I need stronger agreements from everyone else. Because like a crack addict Oshanna is going to start hitting people up for a fix and I need to know that everyone will put the safety of themselves and the family in front of Oshanna's need to be connected. Julie, Becky and Maggie can you all agree to not let Oshanna use your phones, tablets or laptops until this trip is over?" I asked them. All three girls said yes.

"Stephanie, you are Oshanna's good friend. Can you promise not to let Oshanna use your phone at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Sure."

"Julio, you are Oshanna's brother and best friend. Can you promise not to let Oshanna use your phone, or computer at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Angelia, you are Oshanna's sister and best friend. Can you promise not to let Oshanna use your phone, or computer at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Diego and Isabella, you are Oshanna's sister and brother-in-law. Can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your kids' electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Richard and Leyla, you are Oshanna's sister and brother-in-law. Can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your kids' electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Ron and Rachel, you don't know Oshanna, but can you support her and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your kids' electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Mama, Papa, can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?"

"Of course."

"Yes"

"Abuela Sanja y Abuela Rosa, Oshanna ha estado usando su teléfono y computadora para decirle a otras personas dónde se ha escondido la familia. Nos ha guiado a los malos y ha causado el ataque hoy. ¿Puede apoyar a Oshanna y prometer que no le permitirá usar su teléfono, computadora o cualquiera de sus dispositivos electrónicos en ningún momento por ningún motivo hasta que termine este viaje?" (Abuela Sanja and Abuela Rosa, Oshanna has been using her phone and computer to tell other people where the family has been hiding. It has led the bad guys right to us and caused the attack today. Can you support Oshanna and promise not to let her use your phone, computer or any of your electronics at any time, for any reason until this trip is over?")

Both my Abuela's answered "Si"

"Remember that what we do here tonight we do for everybody's safety. If we can keep our location secret we can have more fun and be more relaxed knowing that we are safe. Now I have to ask. Has anyone else been posting anything about this trip on any social media sites? Or sending emails with information about our whereabouts? I have to tell you that my men are going through everyone's phones so I will know the answer to this soon enough, but it will go better for you if you just fess up to it now." I paused and looked around the room.

"Anyone? Any postings at all?" I paused again. "Good. My men will finish going through your phones and electronics and they will be here on the dining room table in this house probably by dinner."

"Oshanna go to your room and don't come out till dinner. You put all of our lives in danger and I honestly can't stand to look at you anymore." I told her. She got up and walked out the backdoor and I hope went back to her house. I can say it was petty but I didn't want to talk about any future plans in front of her. I looked around at the rest of the group and my eyes focused on Stephanie and after staring at her for a moment my blood pressure started going down. She has always had this calming effect on me.

"Now on to more pleasant topics, like what we will be doing for the next few days. No information about these houses or where we are staying was given out. We should be safe here for the night. Go ahead and finish most of your packing tonight. We have to be out of here by two o'clock tomorrow."

"If you want to do something fun tomorrow," I continued. "We can get up early, load all our luggage in the SUVs and have one last day in Los Angeles. Unless anyone else has pressing things they want to do, in light of our new information, I think we could go back to Universal Studios tomorrow." Big Yeaaa's from Maggie, Becky and Julie. "And Isabella there is at least one little princess that I promised we would try to let go to Disney World. If you think she will be interested?"

"Yes, she would be interested." Isabella answered smiling.

"Let me explain the situation. My travel assistant knew that one day is not enough to see Universal Studios Theme Park. When she bought our tickets, she negotiated a special deal for two day express ride VIP passes. Everyone that wants, already has a ticket for tomorrow. Isabella and Diego let me know how many in your party wants to go to Disneyland; anybody else that wants to go to Disneyland tell me as well and I will make arrangements for you and all your men. If there is something else that any of you would like to do tomorrow instead just let me know by dinner. Mama, Papa, Abuelas if you want to go to the Getty or any other museum just let me know."

"We will plan for the plane to leave about 21:00 that's nine o'clock tomorrow night so you can have a full day at the theme parks or where ever you want to go. Tomorrow night is going to be a surprise, I don't even know where we are going to be spending the night and then after Saturday we will be where we are going to be for a week. So, you can relax, take a break and not have to pack or unpack or haul suitcases for a week. Side note there are washers and dryers in each house, this is a good opportunity to do laundry tonight and then everything you pack will be clean for the next week."

"Does anyone else have anything to add to this meeting?" I asked the group.

My mama spoke, "Gracias mi'jo, for not sending Oshanna away. I know you must be very angry with her right now. I will stay with her for the next week and keep an eye on her to make sure she is keeping to the agreement. I am telling you right now, she will not be given a chance to tell anyone where we are going anymore."

"Gracias Mama. I do appreciate that. Now everyone but my men are dismissed."

Slowly my family got up and made their way out of the room. Most of them went into the den to check on the children there.

"Men, out front for a briefing." I told them and they all started moving in that direction. I went over to Stephanie and took her in my arms again.

"Babe I need to talk to my men and do something that will take about half an hour. You can pretty much do whatever you want right now, but can I ask a favor of you?"

"Sure." She smiled up at me.

"Can you not hang out with Oshanna for the next two days? After Saturday you can hang out with her as much as you want, but I need to be with you and not be around her for a couple of days."

"Okay, I guess. It's just that I was going to go talk to her now."

"I'll be busy for the next half an hour or so. If you need to go talk to her do it, but then please come back and spend the afternoon with me on the beach."

"Okay, I can do that." She told me.

"Thanks." I told her and gave her a panty destroying kiss.

I followed my men out to the front round driveway and addressed them. "Good job today, men. I am still very displeased that some of you were ambushed and six women were taken. But the rest of you took up the slack, found the women immediately, and caught eight of the bad guys. We were able to find the leak and that is priceless to our safety and will reduce the chances of them finding us again. Lester, Woody, Junior, Hal, Sport as soon as this meeting is over meet me on the beach."

"Everyone else is welcome to watch and when I am done with those five you can join in. I have a lot of extra energy ready to be burned off in a fight and there is no punching bag or weight room here. If you are interested and can handle it feel free to come at me three on one. We are at the houses for the duration of the day. We had dinner reservations but I am going to cancel those and order in pizza for everyone. I will need three volunteers to go get dinner."

"After the fighting is over, I am sending night shift back to bed. Assignments: Marc on Stephanie, Junior on Julie. Lester, you are on Oshanna. She gets a daytime guard to make sure no one with electronics goes into her private room. Confiscate them as they enter and return them when they leave, frisk them if you think it is needed. Francis, Gavin, Manuel, front house one; Eddie, Dillon, Ian front of house two; Scott, Sport, Pace front of house three. Vince, Erik, Tiger rear house one, Cal, Hal, Tony rear house two, Red, Woody, Ram, rear house three. Zip you are inside house one, Zero inside house two, Bobby you're patching people up as needed then inside house three."

"Everyone outside carries LSATs with fifty rounds. After the fighting everyone go change into pants, shorts were OK for the theme park but I want you to be seen from a distance as dangerous and on-duty. Tomorrow you are back at theme parks and museums. Any one that prefers Disneyland can text me and I will make those assignments. Shorts are okay for tomorrow."

"Saturday, the family is leaving on a seven-day cruise. I will be making sure that they are safely aboard and leaving to go resolve this problem. Again, the family will be told I am going away for business. Stick to that and tell them I will be back as soon as possible. I will be gone until probably Tuesday and I will try to rejoin the cruise at whatever stop they are on. Any questions?"

"Do you need help or volunteers for your business trip?"

"As much as I would be willing to take any of you, I need you here. Making sure my family is safe is the number one priority. It wouldn't serve any purpose to get back and find out half my family has been taken or killed while I was gone. We know that up till now their orders have been to kidnap and torture before killing. Be aware that at any point in time those orders could change to just kill, and you may be dealing with snipers, sharp shooters, or other mercenaries armed to the teeth. Sergio keeps offering people millions to do his bidding. Realize that whoever comes at you will be very motivated. Meet me out back in ten."

I left my men and went upstairs to my bedroom. I took off my boots, gun belt and shirt and began stretching and then going through movements to warm up my muscles and joints. After eight minutes I went downstairs to meet my men.

Some may think meeting me on the mats is barbaric, that I am just beating my men up for failing me. But this gives them a chance to show and improve their own skills and I know how to hit so that it hurts but doesn't leave more than a bruise. It wouldn't do to damage my men so that they are incapable of protecting the women and doing their jobs. I can hit them several times, throw them a few times and they get winded or the wind knocked out of them and they get the point. I'm the big dog, my word is to be followed without question and if you fail you can expect a few bruises and to land flat on your back, repeatedly.

When we are done they know they will begin with a clean slate and that the past mistake is behind them. I don't hold screw-ups against them unless they become recurrent and then they know they will lose their job. I took on the first five men separately. I was here to leave a message. Once they were done and picking themselves off the sand I realized most of my family, including Stephanie, was outside on the decks watching us. I had been aware of a growing audience but my focus had been on my men.

It takes real skill to hit the right spots and bruise and hurt without leaving any real damage. I needed my focus not to get caught up in all the anger that was still pouring through me and just kick the shit out of them so that I would feel better. Once done I had pulled each of them off of the sand and called all my men down to join me.

Fighting in sand has whole new dimensions because your feet are not as solid underneath you and a hit you could normally take with no problem may knock you down as the sand shifts under your feet. Or that kick to the head you easily block may knock sand off in your face and eyes, making breathing and seeing more difficult. These things were in my mind when I picked my men to go at me three on one. It still gives them the chance to get a few hits in but I get to let loose and really work out some of my anger. Nothing gets rid of anger like throwing a two hundred fifty pound man.

In a real fight I would purposefully use the sand to my benefit repeatedly throwing it in their faces and knocking them down instead of throwing them. I didn't want to have to avoid multiple sand throws myself so I left that out of the fight and focused on short punches and kicks to knock them off balance and then threw them into each other, taking out two opponents at once.

Almost thirty minutes later I called a halt to the fight. Most of my men had the chance to get involved. I had been knocked down more times than I could count because that was the easy move in sand. I had taken down everyone that had come at me and I was finally starting to run out of adrenalin. I told all my men to get cleaned up, see Bobby if they needed, and report to their stations. I shook off all the sand that was coating me and just decided to walk down to the water to go for a quick swim.

I figured I would go about a mile, ten minutes out and ten minutes back. When I came back out of the water most of my family was now out having fun on the beach. The younger kids were all over digging in the sand with their toys and the older kids and some of my siblings with their husbands were swimming. Stephanie and Angelia had pulled loungers down off the patio and were laying out.

"Great job Dad." Julie called out.

"You were awesome." Chris told me as I made my way past.

"Thanks." I responded. I got to the shore and went over to Stephanie.

"Babe," I leaned over her, purposefully dripping onto her. "Can I borrow your towel?"

"Ranger!" She squealed, hopping up. "You're getting me all wet." she accused.

I just smiled to myself as I took the towel she had been lying on and started drying off with it.

"Thanks." I told her. "I'll bring a fresh one down." I said as I started walking away, laughing to myself at the haughty glare she was giving me.

I went upstairs and gathered up a load of laundry for myself and Stephanie. I changed into board shorts and a RangeMan tank top then grabbed two more towels and took the load downstairs to get it started washing. I knew that some of my family had been doing laundry all week, but I wanted to get a jump ahead of anyone who will be packing tonight and suddenly decide they need to do laundry.

I pulled out my phone and made the call I had put off earlier.

"Skylar my wonderful woman."

"Ranger, the man that has been avoiding me." She scolded.

"I was in a room with intense negotiations going on earlier, I really couldn't talk."

"And you couldn't have stepped out of the room for something as important as talking to me instead of just texting."

"I'm calling you now Beautiful. To say thank you for everything you do and for getting us taken care of for the week. I know I have been almost spastic today, asking you to do one thing, then changing it and then changing it again. I appreciated you doing everything I have asked, even as neurotic as I have been, and taking care of me and my family."

"Ranger you know I would do anything for you. I could hear it in the tone of your texts and knew you were frantic and that something major was going on."

"The bad guys found us at Universal Studios today, took down five of my men and kidnapped six of the women, including Stephanie and Julie. Frantic is a nice word for what I was. Fortunately, we got everybody back unharmed a short time later. Caught a few of the guys hired to take the women and the most important thing, we figured out where the leak was and it is now permanently plugged."

"What were they doing, following your phone or something?" She asked.

"No, my youngest, stupidest, most careless sister was tweeting everything we were doing and where we were going. The bad guys knew she liked social media and started following her months ago. These people that kept asking her where she was and what she and the family were doing, she thought they were friends that she had known for several months, but really it was just the bad guys trying to find out where we were."

"That's crazy, and she was telling them?"

"Yes, she has been tweeting every day since we left about our location, what was going on and where we were going next."

"…and you finally caught and stopped her?"

"Actually, we caught some of the guys that kidnapped them and they had the twitter feeds on their phones."

"So now you want me to make flight reservations to send her to Antarctica?"

"I would like to. That was my plan, but I told the whole family what she was doing and my father interceded on her behalf. She gets to stay with the family but she is not allowed to be in the same room with any electronics that can connect to anything. She can have a wind-up watch, that is the most electrical thing allowed to be around her."

"So what are you calling me for? I already did everything you asked earlier."

"Set up the plane to leave tomorrow night at 9:00 pm. We are going to spend the day at the theme parks again and then blow this popsicle stand."

"Done."

"What I really need is to rework dinner tonight. Please cancel the plans that you made. Now that I have everybody at the houses and safe I want to keep everyone here. I want to order in pizza. But from some place that has nice big salads, and maybe some kinds of large dishes like fettucine alfredo, or manicotti or a couple of Italian dishes."

"No problem Ricardo, I've got you covered. 60 people, salad, bread sticks, a couple of large dishes and pizza."

"Let me know where and when. My men are going to pick it up."

"Done and done. I will text you the details."

"Thanks Sweetheart. One more thing."

"Of course, there is one more thing. What else can I do for you?"

"Some of my sisters want to take their kids to Disneyland instead of Universal Studios tomorrow. Can you arrange VIP tickets for them? I'm guessing somewhere between five to eight people will be going."

"I will have the tickets ready, you just let me know tonight how many people will be going."

"Thank you, dearest lady of my realm. You are my savior in all of this."

"Always Ranger. I am always here for you."

"Goodnight."

"Talk to you later Ranger."

I disconnected and had a thought. If Oshanna had been feeding the bad guys our direction, we can use her phone to feed them misdirection. Alaska, here we come. I am sure they are also monitoring the plane, so when we are getting ready to leave we will send them in the wrong direction. I smiled smugly to myself. Maybe we can get one step ahead of them this time. I took the towels back outside and my dad stopped me on the patio.

"Carlos, I was so mad when I saw you practicing your karate in the backyard so many years ago. I truly thought you were learning how to fight to get back into the gangs. Now I see that you have learned a lot about fighting and are an amazing fighter. I'm surprised that even three on one your men could hardly get any hits in on you. You throw them around like rag-dolls. I don't say it enough, but I am truly proud of the man you have become. I am proud of the distinguished way you selflessly served this country and I am proud and impressed by the successful business you run. I have never had as many men working for me as you do, in four different locations no less. Watching you command so many men and seeing them follow your orders without question because they respect you and choose to work for you is just awe inspiring. You are also obviously very profitable and financially sound for still being so young." He took me into his arms and hugged me tightly.

"I love you mi'jo and I am proud of you for so many things, but the way you handled your sister today was impressive." He held me by my shoulders looking deep into my eyes. "You didn't just throw her out. You didn't rant and rave and put her down. You logically called the whole family together to solve the problem. I understand wanting to send her away, but I am grateful you let me have a say and that you took it under advisement to let her stay with the family. This whole event has really shown me the kind of man you have become. You didn't try to hide this problem from the family. You faced it head on, took responsibility for it and have done everything possible to make this trip safe and fun for everyone. It is a lot more than many others would have done or could have afforded to do."

"Thanks Papa."

"One final thing, if you need to borrow any money to pay for this trip or anything else, I have substantial savings. I can help you pay for part of this. It's really like a strange vacation and it is not really fair for you to pay for it all."

"It's my fault that this is all happening, I don't mind paying for it. Besides, and don't tell this to anyone else in the family not even mama, part of the reason Sergio is doing what he is doing is to force me to spend money. It is one of the ways he wants to hurt me, he's trying to bankrupt me. When I catch up with him he is going to pay me back double for every dollar that I have spent." (Well really he'll pay me back ten times and more what I am spending.)

"You're going to get him to pay you money? How can you do that?"

"Simple. If he wants to live and wants me to leave his wives and children alone he will pay me whatever I am asking."

"I may not have understood, I just assumed you were going to go take him out to get rid of the threat to your Mama, Stephanie and your sisters."

"He is a businessman, hitting him in the wallet with the threat of death for himself and his family, will hurt him worse than anything else I can do to him. Besides he is in Colombia. You kill one man; then his family and business partners will come after you. You take his money and threaten him, then he will have to make the choice to leave you alone. If I take ten million dollars from him and prove to him that I will ruin him if he continues to harass me and mine, he will back off. That's the base price I will accept for all of this so I will come out ahead when all of this is over."

"Ten million dollars? You think he will pay that?"

"Papa he is worth over a billion dollars. Ten million is nothing to him now. The problem is that ten years ago my mission cost him millions of dollars and he has held a grudge all this time. More than the grudge was his promise of retribution. His word is worth more to him than just some money. That is why he is willing to spend his hard earned cash to get back at me. Ten million is less than half of what I cost him back then. I will make it clear to him that this is his life he is playing with and that every time he comes after me it will cost him more and more money. I will get his word that he will stop coming after me and mine. He cares more about his money and his reputation than he does his life."

"You think that will work?"

"I'm pretty sure of it. If taking his money is not enough, and he won't give me his word, then I will do whatever I have to do to make mama and my family safe. But in situations like these that is never the first line of defense. Like I said before, you kill someone rich and powerful in Colombia and it only makes more people come after you."

"Alright, I trust that you know the kind of people you are dealing with and what you are doing. I trust you to make the right decisions. Those are my wife's, my mother's and my daughter's lives I am trusting you with, so make sure you are making the right decisions."

"I'm sure Papa. I've dealt with his kind before. The kind of rich and powerful men he is around won't risk that I will come and take money from them too. They will scold him for coming after me and tell him that he got what he deserved. Personally, I think part of the reason no one from my family is dead yet is because he has two sons and two daughters. He knows if he hurt me in that way there is not enough money in the world to protect his own family. That is the ultimate threat, if nothing else works it will make him fall in line."

"I'm even more proud of you now. I assumed with your background that reaching for a gun is the way you would solve this."

"Sometimes Papa, that is the only way. But in South America there are lots of guns and threats. Hitting them in the wallet hurts worse." I wouldn't tell my father but I was going to hit him up for a hundred million dollars or more. I wanted to see what he thought his life and the lives of his children were worth. It had to be enough to make him bleed, with the promise of stripping him of everything if he ever went after me or mine ever again. I was personally beginning to wobble on the thought of outright killing him but what I told my father was true. Killing him might bring more people after me and mine in retribution. Taking everything from him would make him mad enough to just come after me harder. I was trying to strike the right balance between punishing him and threatening his family to keep him and others away from ever harming my women again.

He grabbed me again and hugged me. "Love you son." He whispered before letting me go. I stepped back and headed down the stairs to Stephanie. My father's words melted away some of the anger and frustration I have felt about him and my mother over the years. I've always wanted him to be proud of me for something. I have always felt that I let him down when I was fourteen. Getting involved in the gangs and stealing that car. I know that even while I was in juvie and after they sent me away that the gang members continued to harass my sisters and brother.

Some of them worked hard to recruit my brother and that was one time his laziness paid off. He never wanted what they offered. He didn't want money, or to belong, or to join so he could beat up others instead of being beat up. He just wanted to be left alone and his older sisters protected him more after I left so eventually that's what he got.

I walked down and gave Stephanie the fresh towels then went into the water to play with Julie and the other kids. Julie and the girls got into a splash fight with her brother and the boys. The boys tried to chicken fight with her and the girls to prove who was more superior but the girls couldn't keep standing in the waves so I stepped up. I picked Julie up and put her on my shoulders and she easily beat her brother Freddie that was on top of Chris.

"No fair!" Freddie cried. "Uncle Carlos is much taller than we are."

"Where is your dad?" I asked. "He is taller than me. Maybe he can come help you."

"Nope I want one of your big strong men to come help me." he declared. I smiled inside. As much as I wanted my men to be threatening I didn't really want them to be frightening my family, especially all the little kids and it was good to know it was working.

"Okay Freddie. Pick any man up on that beach and I will have them come down here and help you and Chris out." The two boys stood very still looking over the men in black on the shoreline with automatic rifles at the ready and debated it. They took time pointing at different men and discussing them.

"Okay Uncle Carlos, we want him, the big white guy with the tattoo on his forehead." They said pointing to Cal. I was surprised. Cal looks like one of my meanest men with the flaming skull tattoo on his forehead. I would have thought he was pretty unapproachable but obviously the boys were not afraid of him. Even more likely, they thought his meanness or badassness would help them in a fight.

I walked onto the shoreline and waved Cal over.

"If you're not too busy soldier I have a short-term assignment for you."

"Yes Sir."

"Go onto the patio and strip down to your cargos. Hand your weapon off to Hal or someone to watch. Then return here. We have some chicken fighting that the boys can't seem to win and they think if they have a better base they will do better against their sisters. Can you handle that soldier?" I asked, his smile getting wider as he understood what I was asking of him.

"Yes, Sir. Be right back Sir." Five minutes later Cal was wading towards us, the big grin on his face belying the dangerousness of this man.

"Okay" He boomed. "Who needs help kicking some little girl as…butts?" Freddie, Ricky and Chris all waved their hands and went over to meet up with him.

"I'm first," Freddie declared. "Julie is my sister and I need to take her down."

"Alright, up you go." Cal declared and picked the boy up and plopped him down on his shoulders.

Julie swam over to me and I plucked her out of the water and put her on my shoulders. The other children stood around cheering as Julie and Freddie locked arms. They pushed on each other and pulled and I saw that Julie had a good hold of him.

"Julie hold on to him." I told her and I quickly took two steps back and she held onto Freddie and almost pulled him off, but Cal sensing what I was doing held on tightly to the boy's legs and stepped towards me giving Freddie the ability to hang on. Another few seconds and Julie pushed him hard making him lose his balance. Freddie fell backwards into the water and Cal had to let go of his little legs.

Julie waved her arms up in the air and yelled, "We are the Champions! We are the Champions!"

Freddie said, "best two out of three."

"I already won two." Julie declared.

"The first one didn't count cause I didn't have a good base. You got to let me do it again." Freddie explained.

Minutes later their arms were locked together again. Julie trying to pull him off to the side and me side stepping that way to give her more leverage, but Cal watching and moving with me.

"Dad get closer." Julie yelled. I took another step towards them so Cal and I were almost face to face. I knew why Freddie had picked Cal. At 6'4" he is one of the biggest men that came with me on this trip and those few inches of height were helping Freddie in his quest to get his big sister. Another minute or two and Julie knocked him back into the water again.

"Whoot Whoot!" Julie cried. "We are the best Water Champions here!"

For the next ten minutes all of the boys lost to the girls. Chris to Becky and Ricky to Maggie. Of course, all of the girls were two to three years older and bigger so the boys didn't really have to feel bad about it. I suggested the girls go up against each other to see who was the best and after several rounds Julie had won all but one. Then the boys decided they needed to see who was the best. I don't know if it was because he had gone up against Julie and learned some of her tricks or the fact he was on my shoulders but Freddie beat out both Chris and Ricky.

I was just happy to see all the kids playing together so well. I always wanted Julie to get to know her cousins better and this vacation was doing a lot of things that were good including giving her and her siblings a chance to know all their cousins. I dismissed Cal to go change and get back to his position and he offered to help with the kids anytime.

I decided after dinner I would suggest a volleyball tournament for my men, to break the stress and craziness of the last week.

I pulled Julio out of Oshanna's room for a talk. "I have three men going to pick up dinner and they can drop you off at your hotel." I offered.

"No, Bro. I was going to stay here and spend the night with the family."

"Are you sure? This is our last night in California. Tomorrow night we leave for parts unknown."

"Yeah I'm sure. Oshanna needs the support tonight and I want to go back to the theme park with you guys tomorrow."

"Okay, if your certain I will have some of my men drive you back to your hotel room in the morning so you can get your stuff and check out."

"Sure, that would be great." He said and he went back into Oshanna's room to keep her company. I knew that Julio and Oshanna had grown close since they were teens, but I never thought he would give up a night of women and clubbing to keep her company. Maybe he was growing up just a little bit. I went down and transferred our laundry to the dryer.

I sent three guys, one from the front of each house to go together to get the dinner that was waiting at Fossetti's Italian Restaurant. They came back with trays of lasagna, chicken fettucine alfredo, and baked ziti. Large salads, bread sticks, eight pizzas for the family and fifteen pizzas for the men.

During dinner I went to update the night shift on all the events of today and the plan for the weekend. I offered them two SUVs and hotel reservations for the next day so in the morning they could pack up and go sleep all day without interruption. When dayshift came for dinner I suggested the volleyball games and told them to divide up into teams. After shouts of agreement went up all around I asked Marc for all of Oshanna's electronics. I was going to use her phone as a diversion.

While everyone was eating I asked for the number of people that wanted to go to Disneyland.

"Actually Carlos, is it okay if we split up? Chris really wants to stay with Ricky and Freddie and go to Universal Studios. It will just be me, Shylia and Parker going to Disneyland."

"Sure, we can do that." I told her as I planned to send extra men for her protection.

"Carlos, if it's alright we would like to go too. So, three more for Disneyland." Angelia told me. My mama heard them.

"If all the little ones are going to Disney. I'd like to go as well and help out with them." Mama said.

"Is that just you or you and Papa?" I asked.

"Just me. Papa can go hang out with the boys."

"Quiero ir con los más pequeños también." Abuela Rosa said and I nodded. (I want to go with the little ones too.) I knew that Abuela Sanja could speak English she just preferred Spanish. I'd always suspected that Abuela Rosa understood more English than she let on and this trip was proving it to me.

"I'd like to spend time with the young ladies tomorrow at Universal Studios, if that's all right with you three?" Abuela Sanja said. Becky and Maggie both nodded at her.

"Sure Abuela you are welcome to join us." said Leyla.

Only three of my men had texted that they wanted to go to Disneyland and I needed nine so I quickly made those assignments. I texted the final numbers for Disneyland to Skylar: eight family, four adults, and four children. I texted her everyone's names, as well as my nine men, and told her to put the tickets on hold in my mother's name.

Everyone pigged out at dinner and there were still a lot of leftovers. My mother said she would heat them up for breakfast for anyone who was interested. When the family was finished eating I told them about the volleyball games after dinner and invited everyone who wanted to come and watch and cheer on their favorite teams.

When Marc brought me Oshanna's phone and computer I took them upstairs and immediately knew I didn't know what to say. I texted Stephanie to come to the room that I needed her help. She came up and I explained to her my plan to lead our nemesis to Alaska and asked her what I could type that would be in line with Oshanna but keep the bad guys off of us till we left town.

"Simple," she said. "Continue on with her complaining about you and what a hard ass you are being. Something like: 'My brother is such a control freak. After the events today he has locked us all in our hotel rooms.' Then tomorrow morning type that 'He is being a hard ass and won't let us go anywhere today except down to the beach, how boring. Totally lame vacation.'"

"Then tomorrow night text. 'All excited, finally we are leaving to go somewhere else, but he won't tell us where.' Then file a flight plan to Alaska and Saturday morning have her bitch about being locked away in a freezing cold remote cabin where there is no beach. And that as much as she likes shopping, shopping for heavy winter coats in April sucks."

"Thanks Babe that is perfect. They won't suspect a thing and it will throw them off our trail." I told her as I tweeted her suggestion 'My brother is such a control freak. After the events today he has locked us all in our hotel rooms.' on Oshanna's phone and hit send.

Minutes later one of the fake accounts wanted to know what was going on.

'My pain-in-the-ass know-it-all brother won't let us go out to do anything. Even though we are safe now. We are on lockdown in the hotel for the night.'

Suddenly we could hear the cheering coming from outside and I guessed the volleyball games were beginning.

My men had divided themselves into four teams of six each, all showing up stripped down to the shorts they had changed back into. I'm not gay but even I could appreciate the toned male flesh that was rippling as each man jumped for the ball. I hadn't realized how attached my family was getting to my men but each woman and some of their kids were cheering for their own personal bodyguards.

Up first was Team One made up of Hal, Cal, Zero, Zip, Manuel and Francis playing against Team Two that included Lester, Woody, Bobby, Vince, Eddie and Eric. Team One had the bigger men on it, but team two was more experienced in volleyball and they were currently ahead by three.

"Go Hal! Kick their butts!" was coming from my sister Leyla and her kids.

"Get 'em Francis!" from my mother.

"Hit it Cal! Take them down!" yelled Isabella.

"Go Lester!" came from Oshanna, who I realized had escaped her room for dinner and was still out and about. As much as I may want to lock her in her room for the rest of the trip I knew that was an unrealistic expectation.

Angelia was hollering for Woody to "Spike the ball!"

Becky and Maggie were both hollering for Hal. Abuela Sanja was yelling for Vince to "Ace it"!

The cheering and yelling went on through the game till Team Two got to 21 points. That seemed to be the standard number and both teams left the court.

Team Three was made up of Marc, Tiger, Junior, Ram, Ian and Tony. This team was half huge, standing in the back row was Tiger, Junior, and Ram. Marc, Ian and Tony were thinner but tall and lethal in the front row. Team Four was all Miami guys: Dillon, Red, Sport, Gavin, Scott and Pace. They also put their biggest guys in the back and their leaner guys in the front row.

Play was fierce and fast. The serves were quickly returned with each side setting the ball up and spiking it over the net. Once again my family was hollering for their favorite players.

"Hit it Red!" yelled Isabella.

"Go Sport!" hollered Oshanna.

"Spike it Ian!" yelled Abuela Sanja.

"Get it Tony!" came from Leyla.

Stephanie was cheering on both Marc and Tiger. Julie and Rachel were hollering for Junior to "Smash it!" and Scott to "Set it and Spike it". The play went on till Team Three beat Team Four soundly 21-15. With Julie running up to hug Junior telling him she knew he could do it.

A time out was called so Team Three could get something to drink and cool down before the final game was to begin.

Fifteen minutes later the ball was served, starting the final game and my family was at it yelling and screaming for their favorite players.

"Go Erik!" called my mama.

"Come on Tiger serve that ball!" came from Stephanie.

"Hit it Junior!" yelled Julie.

"Lester spike it!" yelled Oshanna.

"Set it up Eddie!" came from Rachel with more yelling from Becky and Maggie.

"Go Woody!" yelled Angelia.

"Get it Tony!" was coming from Leyla

"Spike it Ian!" came from Abuela Sanja.

Everyone was hollering as the game repeatedly tied. Both sides being pretty evenly matched in speed, muscle, teamwork and stealth. Finally, after two good set-ups Team Three pulled ahead and finally won 21-19. There was a lot of talk from team two that it was supposed to be the best out of three games and next thing I knew they were playing again. Team Two beat Team Three in the second game 21-20. Everyone agreed to another fifteen-minute break and several of the men dove into the ocean to cool off.

By the end of the third game my family was becoming hoarse from all the yelling. The ball was moving so fast you could hardly keep up as one of the major strategies was to keep it moving faster than the other team could respond. This game the play was wild and practically manic, the ball was moving so fast. Suddenly, Team Two broke away and got ahead of Team Three. Which lasted for several long minutes till Team Three tied it up again.

Team Three called a time out and after just two minutes of quick discussion were lined back up this time with Tiger and Marc at the net. As soon as the play restarted their plan was obviously to set up Tiger and let him spike the ball over the net. Three plays later they were ahead and finally won 21-18. I was proud of my men for strategizing and taking down the opposing team as they have been trained to do. I stood by the net congratulating each team on a good game, giving high fives, fist bumps and a few complicated handshakes.

When it was all over I gathered up Stephanie, our clean laundry and retired to our room. She folded the laundry I brought up while I began packing our bags. I finished mine first because I hadn't unpacked much so it took no time at all. Then I started packing her, first her big bag where I carefully laid all her new dresses. Then her carry-on. Asking her to lay out an outfit to wear tomorrow. I finished by carefully cramming all her new shoes in the shoulder bag. Then I dragged her into the shower with me.

I purposefully got her all hot and bothered in the shower but didn't give her a release knowing she would come out and tackle me to the bed. I was right because as soon as she wrapped her hair in a towel she attacked me though I was only half dried and we did it wild and reckless on top of the covers, barely remembering a condom at the last minute. I left her panting to catch her breath and get her heartbeat under control while I got the red lace baby doll outfit and gave it to her.

"Something for you to wear tonight." I told her as I handed her the box. She lazily rolled over to her side and pulled the box closer. She carefully lifted the lid and dug through the tissue paper pulling it out and lifting it up. Someday I'm going to get her to wear something scantier than this but this is a good first step. She once again disappeared into the bathroom and came out, the red creation clinging to her in all the right places. The red silk hugged her breasts, with the white trim lace at the top and bottom accentuating her bust and legs. The stretchy red lace around the waist emphasizing her slender torso, the flair of her hip and it was just long enough to brush the tops of her thighs. I crooked my finger to her. Dressing her up was so much fun and undressing her even more so.

The second time I made love to her slowly, kissing all skin that was exposed from shoulder to shoulder, brushing the tops of her breasts with my lips then skipping down to her thighs, refusing to touch anything that was covered. I slowly kissed down to her toes and back up again memorizing her body as I went. I got all the way to the crux of her thighs and breathed my hot breath on her but still refused to touch anything that was covered. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and the red frilly thing was thrown over her head to the floor. I smiled and continued to torment all the now exposed skin from her lips down to the edge of her panties. Where I licked all along the edge and looked up at her expectantly.

"Oh good gracious," she expelled as she quickly shimmied out of them. That was all the invitation I needed as I proceeded to pin her to the bed and feast on her. Long minutes later I was buried in her again, taking her so slowly and leisurely building us both up for a long time until we fell off the precipice together. Then I gathered her in my arms and held her tight against me never wanting to let her go. So grateful I got her back after only being taken for five minutes. Today could have ended so much worse and just the thought had my arms tightening around her. I needed all the time I could get with her, knowing I was leaving in two days. I needed the skin to skin contact, it was as if I was soaking up all of her skin into mine.

To be continued…

A/N: Everyone is safe. I wanted to write a 'happy, fun beach' chapter after all the angst. Let me know if I succeeded. Thank you all for your reviews! I appreciate them all. Someone had suggested using the offending phone for distraction and it sounded just like what Ranger would do, and he agreed but he needed Steph's help, he seriously didn't know what to write. LOL Please read and review.

As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint you add so much!

Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.

Ranger's Family Album

Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso

Mother – Maria Father – Javier

Siblings and family in age order

Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5

Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3

Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger

Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2

Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3

Oshanna Manoso (22)

Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6

Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)

Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian

Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin

Maria – Erik, Francis

Leyla – Hal, Tony

Angelia – Woody, Dillion

Isabella – Cal, Red

Oshanna – Lester, Sport

Rachel – Eddie, Pace

Julie – Junior, Scott

Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger

Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip

Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon