Chapter 40

"Badly bruised Steph. He just needs to rest"

I was looking from Ranger to Bobby hoping that I was being told the truth but knowing that I wasn't going to get anything more from either of them.

"Conference room?"

Asked Ranger as he slowly moved from the bed. I was by his side in an instant and the fact that he put his arm around my shoulders told me that badly bruised meant he was in a lot of pain. Hell, he even let me walk him to the elevator. I was surprised when the doors opened on five and he made to move forward.

"Bobby said to rest"

Came from me because now I knew what he'd been asking Bobby. He was intending to be at whatever meeting was happening in the conference room. Walking slowly inside the room I was surprised at how few people were present. Ranger had us walking around the table and then sitting down at the head of the table. He was sat next to Tank and I had the pleasure of having Jackson Sinclair next to me. Kinley, Hector, Les, Bobby and the man with the now very blackened eye. Everyone was still dressed in their black gear, with their vests hung on the back of their chairs so had obviously come straight back here from that scrap yard. Had they just let the bad guys go?

"Glad to have you back Carlos. So what do we know?"

I couldn't believe how emotionless Sinclair sounded as he spoke to Ranger. He hadn't even asked if he was okay, no, he was too interested in what Ranger might have found out.

"Why didn't you stop those men, why let them get away?"

I almost shouted as I looked at Sinclair. That he looked to Ranger first almost had me saying something else but Ranger's hand squeezing my thigh told me that I needed to be quiet and to listen.

"We planted a very small sophisticated tracker to the book, well to the string. We needed them to believe that we were there to get Ranger back and to show them that we protect our own. This operation runs deep, and we need to catch the people at the top"

I opened my mouth to say something and then closed it as Ranger began to talk.

"Those four men were paid for a single job. Get their hands on that information from Sullivan. I got hurt when I wouldn't cooperate"

"I delved deeper after we realized that you'd gone off the grid. I managed to hook up into the street cameras. They were very sloppy about being seen and probably knew that we'd use a face recognition program. Someone knew that they'd be checked out and had provided an excellent cover for them but forgot that something like that can be time referenced. The aliases were only fabricated six weeks ago"

I looked over to Kinley as she gave that explanation knowing how good she was on the computer but slightly concerned that something like that could be done. I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised because I knew that when Joe had gone undercover, he'd told me that he would be working under an assumed name and that the cover was foolproof. Well unless someone like Kinley was looking at it.

"I assume that the book that you handed over had no clue as to what Sullivan was hiding?"

I wasn't sure who Sinclair was asking but felt that if I said nothing then that would definitely make me look guilty of hiding something.

"No, nothing. I have a copy of the verses that he wrote if you want to look at them. But the words don't really make any sense"

Shit, I really hoped that Sinclair believed me because I wasn't always the best at lying, or should I say omitting the truth.

"Okay then, we'll have to keep a watch on where that book ends up and hope that one of those men doesn't unwrap it and throw away the string"

Knowing that those men used a wand to check me out for trackers I wasn't confident of Jackson being able to do that. I wasn't too sure what to say next and from how Kinley was looking at me knew that she wanted me to say something about what we'd found before everything had happened. I closed my eyes debating what would be the best way forward for me but decided that I really needed to talk to Ranger first. He could decide how much to tell Sinclair. Looking over to Kinley I could see that she was letting me take the lead on that and was so very grateful that she hadn't broken my confidence by saying something.

"Jack. How about we let Carlos rest up. There's the problem of the police looking for Steph to contend with and that's something that we can follow up on"

I was so grateful that Kinley was trying to divert Sinclair's attention to another avenue to look at but at the same time it brought back the fact that I was being looked at for murder. Would the police come here again with a warrant? Would I be arrested?

"Steph and I will be at a safe house. Go through Santos if you need to talk to me"

Ranger effectively finished the meeting though to be honest the whole meeting was a bit of a letdown to me. Normally a meeting like this would have included an analysis of what was done and the outcome. Was that because Jackson Sinclair was here? I never got the chance to ask because I was quickly corralled between Ranger, Hector, Bobby and Les and led into the elevator with Ansgar following behind.

An hour later I was sat on the couch in Ranger's house enjoying a hot chocolate. Hector and Les were downstairs keeping a watch of the area surrounding the house and Bobby was upstairs with Ranger. As I sat there, I'd hoped that I could relax now but to be honest I had too much whizzing around in my head. I couldn't believe everything that had happened in such a short time. Questions that I had no answers for flitted through my head. What would have happened if I hadn't escaped from Sinclair's building? Would he have allowed me to do the swap for Ranger? Then there was how someone knew where Ranger was when they ran him off the road. Though maybe these people really were totally linked into every street camera.

There was so much that I needed to tell Ranger and some concerns that I wanted to ask him about. He'd said that those four men had been tasked to get the information from Sully so did that mean that they were the ones who'd robbed the bank and then taken me. I wasn't sure that I'd recognized the man who had come close to me, and I hadn't been able to see any of the others very clearly but that fission of fear that I'd felt told me differently. I suppose that I was annoyed that Sinclair had insisted on letting them go.

The sound of voices had me looking toward the stairs and as Ranger and Bobby appeared. Bobby nodded his head at me before he was going down to the garage.

"Is he staying here tonight?"

I asked Ranger as he fetched a bottle of water from the fridge before sitting down next to me.

"Yeah, he'll sleep first then take over watching the monitors"

As he drank his water, I was wondering how to broach the subjects that were on my mind, so sipped on my drink as I thought how to begin.

"I worked it out"

"I'm proud of"

Both of us talking at once had us retreating back into silence. Hell, I was finding this hard and had no desire to visit what had happened this evening"

"Conrad Dresden, I did some research on him"

That was enough for Ranger to turn to me with I'm sure a frown on his face.

"I don't know if he was the one who betrayed you, but I have the feeling that he's more involved than you realize"

"What do you mean?"

And there it was, that blank face that he let fall into place when something being said was serious.

"Anna, the woman who died, well she bought a device that could be used to download information from a computer's hard drive"

I stopped there seeing Ranger lean forward with his elbows on his knees as though he was thinking through what that meant.

"So she stole information from him"

"Maybe. Ranger there was something else about Anna that came up on the search on her, something that I just never realized before. She's Alfred Creighton's niece"

Okay so Ranger really wasn't catching onto what I was saying, or at least wasn't seeing the connection that I had.

"How was Dresden's son kidnapped?"

Okay the change in topic threw Ranger and I was worried that he might not want to share that piece of information with me.

"According to Dresden he'd been at a funfair with some friends for a birthday party when some men approached him and dragged him into the back of a car"

I suppose that it was a reasonable explanation, but it had me wondering if the son had been with Anna at the funfair and the men had seen an opportunity to demand a ransom for the boy and decided to take both of them.

"Why you, why would your team be asked to deal with the kidnappers and not the police or FBI?"

I saw the slight quirk to his lips as though what I'd asked him had amused him.

"It's what we do Babe. We free hostages when it involves ransom demands and the outlook isn't good that the captive person won't be released. Dresden obviously had friends in high places and had demanded that we were involved"

So whoever had taken Anna had they decided to cash in on demanding a ransom for the son, an opportunity that they obviously couldn't resist. Had Dresden given specific instructions for what to do about Anna and surely if Dresden had demanded the use of an elite force to rescue his son, then he must have known that they would have found Anna as well. Or was Anna supposed to be far away from the son, but the men had gone against orders.

"Did you find the kidnappers quickly?"

Okay, so maybe it was a strange question coming from me, but I felt that Ranger's answer would be important. I watched as he thought through what I'd asked, I'm sure being curious with what I'd just asked him.

"Yes, we did. The intel that we had led us almost straight to him. Why are you asking that, why is that important?"

I took a deep breath before answering because this was all supposition on my part, supposition that I just knew was right.

"I think that Dresden arranged for Anna to be grabbed not realizing that his son might be taken as well. That the kidnappers got greedy when they saw the son so took him as well seeing the money that they'd get for him. Maybe they were supposed to have killed Anna or at least held her somewhere else"

"Why"

"Dresden. If Anna had taken evidence of what he was doing then he'd want it back. What if she'd already passed on that information to her uncle, who gave it to Sully"

Yeah, I know. It was a lot of what ifs, but I was sure that I'd figured it out but as I'd said before, well thought, proving it would be hard to do. Why hadn't Creighton said more to us when we'd visited him? It would have saved us so much time and got the answers that we'd needed sooner. Then again, I'd been slow to put together what he'd said, or implied. I never asked Alfred why Sully had gone back to him when I should have done. Looking back, it was obvious now that Sully's new information had come from Alfred Creighton.

"I know where Sully's information is"

Just came out as I thought about Alfred, his niece and Sully. I felt Ranger looking at me but didn't dare look up and over at him. Hell, I'd hit him hard with everything that I'd already said so was sure that he was still thinking through all of that.

"You worked out his message? Of course, you did. Where do you think he hid it?"

I'd originally intended for Ranger to work for the answer to that but now I just wanted this whole thing to end. I felt his arms come around me and the light touch of his lips on my neck before he was whispering in my ear.

"Babe, where do we have to break into?"

I laughed at his question because in reality we wouldn't need to actually break in.

"Oh, I think we can walk right in. If I read the clues properly then it's inside the safe in Vinnie's office"

I wasn't sure why he pulled away so quickly so turned to see why.

"What safe?"

That had me raising my eyebrows because that meant that Ranger had totally missed seeing it.

"It's in the corner behind that damned life size poster that Vinnie had printed up and stuck everywhere"

I hated that poster and how Vinnie had made me look as though my breasts were the same size as Lula's but what Vinnie had never appreciated was the impact that it had on me trying to catch skips. It may have brought in extra business for Vinnie, but everyone knew my face so recognized that I was after them. Thinking about the bonds office had me wondering how Vinnie was coping with bringing in skips now that I'd left. It would be good to visit the office to catch up with Connie, Vinnie not so much.

"Can we go in the morning?"

I asked hoping that Ranger would agree to me going with him. I didn't think that us going there would raise any concerns. As he tilted his head as though thinking about it, I took advantage and let my lips gently nuzzle at his neck and then move up to his ear. As I heard him groan, I realized that he was hurt and me doing that was a stupid thing to do. I pulled away and closed my eyes trying not to feel so despondent.

"Babe"

I shook my head because I felt stupid now trying to seduce him in order to get him to agree for me to go with him. I felt his hand on my cheek and he turned my head so that I had to look at him.

"I have no idea how you ended up at that scrapyard tonight. You were the last person that I expected to see and seeing you, well it had me feeling so worried"

I wasn't sure what to say to him because I knew that it had to me. I'd made so many improvements in my life so had needed to do it, not just for him but for me as well.

"I didn't feel happy staying in that building with Sinclair, so got myself out. Hector was there waiting for me and told me what had happened to you. I did what I had to do"

And I'd do it again of I had to, anything in order for Ranger to be freed. I rested my head against his chest hoping that he wasn't overly annoyed with me. I could feel him relaxing so felt that maybe we'd said what needed to be said about what I'd done. It had been such a long day and so much had happened that I knew that we both needed to take the opportunity to rest.

"You need to head to bed while you're still awake"

Seemed that Ranger knew exactly how I was feeling. I'd given up on the idea of being allowed to go with him to the bonds office and I had no desire to rehash the events of the day so slowly got myself to my feet. I only wanted a quick shower to wash off the dirt from the day before I climbed into bed. Even as I tried to relax, I could hear Ranger moving about, almost cursing at how loud the shower seemed to be. At last I felt the bed dip, glad that he was coming to bed as well, and felt as he pulled me toward him.

"I'm not used to you being so strong, determined yes. You did well Babe, I might regret it, but after everything that you've been through how could I refuse you being there when we find Sullivan's secrets"

I was smiling as I heard that so pleased that he was going to let me go. Okay I knew that we'd have to be extra careful, but I'd put up with anything to be there when that safe was opened.