Chapter 25

Bobby

I was covering monitors so Cal could have his dinner break. There was a certain serenity to the task that I didn't get in my regular day-to-day duties, so I'd just relaxed back in my chair, intending to take these moments of peace to wind down from the week when my cell phone rang. I should have known better than to settle in.

With a sigh, I hit the green button, noting the number for the reception desk downstairs on the display. "Yeah?" I greeted, wondering just how much havoc Bones was about to wreak on my quiet overnight supervision shift.

"Got a Collin Bates from Neon Nights on the line," he informed me.

I thanked Bones, asking him to patch the call through to the monitors station and hung up, crossing my fingers that Bates wasn't about to ruin my night.

"Rangeman Security, Robert speaking," I identified, flagging down Ghost as he passed and motioning for him to come keep an eye on the screens while I was distracted. "How can I help?"

"My name is Collin Bates," the guy on the other end of the line introduced himself in a Boston accent. "I'm the assistant manager at Neon Nights. One of your staff asked me to call this number if Tam Nguyen turned up here."

The name didn't ring any bells for me, but I wasn't across every single file we had on the go at any given time. "Is he there right now?" I asked, seizing the keyboard and reverting one of the lower screens to a normal computer desktop so I could look up the name in the database.

"Yeah."

"Is he actively causing problems at the moment?"

"Not yet, but the night is still young. He doesn't usually kick into gear until he's got a few drinks in his system."

The search results appeared, and my eye skimmed across the information, taking it all in and concluding that my quiet night in the office was, indeed, at an end. And I was about to ruin at least two more people's nights as well.

"Thanks for notifying us," I said to Bates. "I'll have a team dispatched to your location soon. Please call back on this number if the status changes before we arrive."

I gave Ghost the details he needed to dispatch the team and picked up my cell once more, surging to my feet and striding to Lester's office - currently empty - while I debated my options. There was no time to waste, but I still took the coward's way out.

"Someone better be dead," Tank rumbled down the line a moment later.

I cut straight to the chase, lest I invoke the big guy's ire even more, relaying all the information from the phone call and the file, and received an irritated growl in response.

"So send a team in to nab him and be done with it," Tank said.

It's what I expected him to say, but there was more to it than that. "Note on the file flagged that it has to be done discreetly," I explained and quickly swallowed before adding the last, most important piece of information: "And Ranger needs to be present. Relationship with the owner is rocky after a messy takedown there last year."

"Fuck," Tank's uttered curse echoed my own sentiments.

"Yeah," I agreed. "He and Steph have their date tonight," I added needlessly. We were all acutely aware of how big a night it was for the couple. They'd both been antsy and impatient all week, but no amount of prodding could persuade Ranger to move the date forward. And now it was about to be interrupted.

"Can we proceed without him?" I asked over the muffled rustling sounds in my ear - Tank was on the move.

"Who entered the note?" he asked.

I hadn't thought to check that detail, having leaped into action once I saw the content of the notes, so I raced back to the monitor station, letting out a groan when I saw the name on the system annotation. "Ranger."

"Call him," Tank commanded. "I'd rather ruin his date than risk the consequences of ignoring his orders."

I nodded and hung up, immediately redialling before I had a chance to lose my nerve.

It took longer than usual for Ranger to pick up, which was surprising in the moment, but when I stopped to think about it, it made sense. Ranger wasn't usually spending quality time with his girlfriend. Tonight, he was in full Carlos-mode as Lester would say. And Carlos didn't need to be at the beck and call of his company and employees. He had men he trusted to take care of its running in his absence just as he did every time he accepted a government mission.

"Brown?" he said by way of greeting, his tone suggesting in that one word what Tank had used four to achieve: Someone better be dead.

"Sorry to interrupt your evening," I started, and I might have taken a little longer to beat around the bush despite my usual elevated sense of self-preservation, but Ranger was in no mood for filler, and as I'd already acknowledged, time was short.

"Out with it, Bobby."

Suppressing a sigh so as not to further irritate my friend and boss, I stated the facts as efficiently as possible. "Tam Nguyen has been spotted at Neon Nights. The note on the file -" But I didn't need to finish my explanation because he was biting out a series of curses that would make a sailor blush.

In the background, I heard Steph's concerned voice asking if everything - everyone - was all right.

"Fine," Ranger assured her. "Just a skip that's been evading us." His attention returned to me then to start listing instructions on how to handle it without him, but Steph interrupted him. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but in the next second, Ranger let out a groan. Seemed there was a lot of that happening tonight, but none as agonised as Ranger's. "Babe."

More talking from Steph, and if I weren't wound so tight by the situation and the clock ticking in the back of my mind, I might have had the spare energy to be shocked by the sigh that escaped Ranger a moment later.

"Assemble a team and patch me in for the briefing," in instructed, and just before he hung up the phone, I thought him mumble something about murder or suicide. Maybe both? Should we be more worried about this skip than I thought? Was that why Ranger had made the note in the file?

Dragging a hand down my face, I turned to Ghost, sucking in a breath to inform him that he, unfortunately, would have his ass in that chair for a while, but before I'd even parted my lips, he was giving an efficient update.

"Benny and Brett are enroute to the club. ETA five minutes. Monitor but not approach unless the target endangers civilians. Tank and Lester called in. Cal is mobilising a team to meet in conference 2 in two minutes. Hector is on his way up with comms as we speak."

Stunned by this latest show of how valuable Ghost was to the team, I simply nodded, thanked him, and went to prep the briefing. Time was of the essence here, so the sooner we could get the information relayed, the sooner we could put together a plan and roll out.

As soon as I got the nod from Hector that Ranger, Tank and Lester were all patched in, I started laying out everything we knew. "Tam Nguyen. Age 28. Arrested for assault and battery after picking up a woman at Neon Nights. Nguyen has returned to the scene this evening, and this may be our only chance to bring him in. FTA file expires in three days."

"How many men do we have available?" Ranger asked.

"Including the room, the road and the field, ten," I responded after a moment for some quick math. "Benny and Brett are at the club now, keeping a low profile until advised otherwise. Yourself, Tank and Lester in transit. Cal, Hector, Brutus, Mikael and myself in the room."

"We need to keep this discrete," Tank reminded us. "Any disturbance to the club atmosphere will likely bring a swathe of unflattering publicity our way."

Lester sounded both pumped and frustrated when he replied, "How are we supposed to keep a low profile while dragging a guy out in cuffs?"

"Maybe you don't need to drag him out in cuffs?"

All faces in the room registered surprise as Steph's tentative voice sounded through the speaker in the middle of the table. Silence coated the room for precious moments we couldn't afford as we all tried to reconcile the fact that Steph's had just emanated from the speaker. How and why had she been included in the call? And more importantly, how was Ranger going to react?

Before anyone could work up the courage to ask any questions, though, Lester's voice broke the momentary silence, and I could hear one of his easy grins in his tone. "Hey Beautiful," he greeted warmly. "I didn't realise we'd called you in, too."

I stared at the speaker in disbelief, because he knew as well as I did what was on the agenda for Steph and Carlos tonight and could easily figure out why and how Steph was listening in to this discussion.

"Oh, no. I'm not. Carlos has his phone connected to the bluetooth in the car," Steph corrected him and I could just imagine the blush creeping over her features and the thought of everyone in the room knowing that they were on a date. I was following along. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"By all means," Cal assured her. "Tell us your idea." He met my gaze across the table and I just shrugged. I was curious to know what she had in mind as well, especially since she'd given several guys tips on where to find their skips over the last few weeks.

There was a long pause, during which I suspected some kind of silent communication was happening in the car before Steph finally spoke. "Well." She cleared her voice. Was she nervous to be speaking in front of the team? Or did it have more to do with Ranger's vibes? "Well, if his usual method is to pick up a woman at the club and take them to a second location where he abuses them, why not wait until he's leaving with a woman and nab him then?"

"Too much risk to the innocent bystander," Tank said immediately, like he'd already contemplated the idea. "If Nguyen is spooked, there's no way of knowing what he'd do to her. The women he lures out are usually plastered and pliable, and he's a volatile, reactive personality. If we wait for him to pick a victim, we risk their safety."

"But what if the woman was clear headed, and was aware of what was going to happen when they left the club, so she could be prepared to get out of the way when you guys step in to capture him?"

I narrowed my eyes at the speaker, as though I could scrutinise her ever-expressive face through the connection. "What are you suggesting, Steph?"

"Plant someone for Nguyen to pick up. Control the situation," she said.

"Plant someone?" Cal questioned. He had the calculating look in his eye that was mirrored on every other face in the room. "Like who? I know Lester's done drag before, but he's not that convincing as a woman. I doubt he'd be able to draw the skips attention. At least not in the way we want."

"Hey!" Les protested, but any further defence of his performance as a woman was cut off when Steph spoke again, her confidence awe-inspiring.

"I could do it."

"Babe," Ranger's tone was surprised, warning and cautious, all rolled into one, making me suddenly understand what Steph had been telling me when we had lunch together last week about how Ranger could have a whole conversation with that one word. And while I wasn't as well versed in interpreting the many meanings he infused into his pet name for her, I had a feeling he wasn't keen on the idea of his girlfriend being in such a dangerous situation.

"I could cosy up to him, lure him out, and once he's outside, you all can take over," Steph explained in the same tone she used when she'd already committed herself to an action. Persuading her not to do this would be hell on earth. She could be a dog with a bone when she set her mind to something. And we're not talking your average golden retriever or even a pit bull. We're talking about Cerberus guarding the gates of hell.

Like the time she dug her heels in until Lester agreed to let her wax his chest. He'd been left with a patch on his chest where a wire tape had relieved him of the hair that was normally there. When he'd mentioned being unsure of what to do about it to Steph, she'd suggested waxing the whole chest so that whenever it grew back it would at least be even. This had led to an entire dinner conversation devoted to the pros and cons of waxing versus shaving his chest. In the end, I'm pretty sure a big part of the reason Steph dug her heels in so hard was because of how much of a whimp Lester was being about it.

The final argument that convinced him? "God, Les, it's just your chest. Be thankful the wire wasn't in your crotch. Have you ever had a Brazilian?" Somehow the suggestion that waxing his genitals was also an option, convinced him to let her pull out her sugar wax kit and relieve him of the hair on his chest. The immediate results had been intriguing. I'd found myself constantly running my fingers over the smooth flesh, but as it started growing back, the prickly hairs were aggravating for both of us. He was now finally, almost back to normal, but we'd both learned a valuable lesson about Steph's determination, and had vowed to stand our ground in future, at least where body hair removal was concerned.

The question was, would Ranger?

"Absolutely not," he said, and it took me a moment to realise it wasn't in response to my musings, but to the suggestion that Steph had made. Oh boy. Was he about to get into his first argument with his girlfriend while we all listened?

"You need to get him out of the club without causing a scene," she reminded us all. "You can't achieve that by your usual methods. I doubt he'd be open to coming quietly if you asked him nicely. This is a decent option to keep the peace and get your guy."

Ranger's voice was low and tender, with just a hint of pleading in his tone when he spoke, so quiet that I didn't think we were supposed to hear. "Babe, if it were a decent option, it wouldn't put you in danger. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Lester and Bobby have been teaching me self-defence," she reminded him, not matching his tone so that we could all hear her statement loud and clear. Yep, she was digging in her heels, all right. "I've faced a bunch of the guys on the mats. I can do this."

"The two situations are very different," I pointed out, feeling the need to help my friend out. "Each opponent you've faced in the ring has been to teach you a specific move."

"Moves that she's definitely got under her belt now," Lester added, apparently taking Steph's side. If you can't beat them, join them?

"If she can toss me over her shoulder, she can do anything," Tank said.

"You really think it's a good idea to throw an untrained woman to the wolves?" Ranger asked, sounding like he was only just in control of his frustration.

"She's not completely untrained," Lester reiterated at the same time Tank mentioned, "I don't hear any better ideas being suggested."

A moment of silence fell while we all waited for Ranger to make a verdict. It stretched on so long that I began to wonder if the call had been dropped, but a distinct, crackling sigh carried across the line, and I knew Steph had once again gotten her way. "Okay," he said. "Here's what we're going to do."