Hello all. I am slooowwly making progress, with the valuable help of Melody/Harmne! :) Thank you to all who have read and reviewed.

This has been the first story on that I have written where I have consistently received abusive guest reviews for the last few chapters. Is this just the changing audience of FF? It feels like Twitter abuse or Facebook abuse or the entitled people on YouTube that just have to tell you why only their opinion counts. I don't like it much and I'm considering turning off my guest reviews. I am reluctant to do so, since I have received an overwhelmingly positive experience from guest reviews that are supportive and constructive. I would miss them. But I really hate abuse...

Facing Up

I allowed Tank to lead me back to the stairwell and down to the fourth floor. He said he was giving me a quick tour before taking me down to the executive offices on the third floor. Tank led me down a wide corridor on the fourth floor. On the left-hand side, there was an extensive cubicle farm, with scattered heads bent over desks and piles of paper. On the right-hand side was a large, glass-enclosed space filled with equipment, and four men sitting at large tables around the outside with three or four television screens on each table. There was also a bank of television screens mounted on the walls. They were obviously monitoring security systems. I watched briefly as the men switched the images on their screens, occasionally made notations on notepads on their tables. Each man had two telephones in front of him, and one made a call while we were walking past. It looked very professional and busy, and I felt a pang as I realised this is what might have been in Haywood Street in Trenton. If only…

Further down the corridor, the monitoring room and cubicle farm gave way to several storage rooms, a meeting room, and a couple of office doors, marked 'Shift Supervisor'. One of these doors was open, and Tank gave a brief head-nod in acknowledgement to the man working at the desk inside. He returned the acknowledgement, but they did not speak. Men of few words, I guess. At the end of the corridor was a large open space that was set up as a break room. There were coffee machines, a couple of refrigerators, a couple of microwaves, a sink and water cooler. Round tables to seat four to six people were surrounded by chairs. There was a long counter with fruit bowls filled with apples and oranges, a box of what looked like granola bars, and a couple of warming plates and crock pots that all seemed to be empty at the moment. I thought they must take good care of their employees to have such great facilities.

"We have a housekeeper," Tank told me. "Her name is Carol. She doesn't live on site, but there is a kitchen facility up on the sixth floor beside the penthouses. She cooks hot food for lunches and dinners and stocks some salads and sandwiches in the fridges. She and another cleaner look after all the public areas. We contract to a firm for building maintenance. Men are responsible for their own apartments on site and getting their breakfasts, but she stocks the fruit and granola bars, and some men just rely on those. The men really appreciate it; it's one of the good perks of working here. It suits a lot of the men who come from military backgrounds, since they are used to being fed." He grinned at me, and I returned the smile. I could see that would be so.

Tank led me back to the stairwell and down another floor to the third floor. Here there was a reception area, with some comfortable-looking sofas, coffee tables stocked with magazines, and a tv on the wall showing CNN. There was a coffee machine off to the side and another water cooler. Past the reception area, I saw a row of office doors on both sides of the wide corridor. Tank led me down the corridor. As we walked past the first office, he knocked softly on one door, but nobody answered. I saw it was marked with a nameplate that said, Lester Santos, Fugitive Apprehensions. I guess Lester must be out somewhere. I looked at the door on the other side of the corridor, that said Andreas Mitchell, Human Resources, and another a few feet down that said, Simon Hart, Finance.

Tank led me past the door beside Lester's that said, Tank Broussard, Security Manager and to a third door to a corner office that said, Marco Manoso, General Manager. Here again, he knocked softly, and this time was answered by a call of 'Come in'. Tank opened the door to an office that looked bright and inviting with windows on two walls, a large desk in light wood, and a comfortable set of tub chairs around a coffee table grouping.

We entered the office and a middle-aged Latino man stood from his desk and smiled at me warmly. Marco was in his forties, but still in good shape. He had some of Carlos' good looks in his tinted skin and dark eyes, but he had a slighter build and was not quite as tall. I almost felt like I knew him from our phone conversations, but this was the first time we had met in person. Marco also had some of Carlos' aura of command and authority, although again not quite as strong or pronounced. I stepped forward to shake hands and he smiled again as he led me over to the small grouping of chairs around the coffee table. Tank fetched us all a cup of coffee and we sat down.

Marco evidently saw my nervousness and sought to make me feel more comfortable. He began by running through the training plans and schedules, reiterating a lot of points about what he wanted me to achieve on this visit. I had brought a notebook in my bag and was taking a couple of notes where Marco expanded beyond what we had previously discussed. We drank our coffees, seemingly ignoring the elephant in the room, and Marco mentioned he would take me down to the second floor to show me the conference room where I would be doing the training. He also said that Silvio Diaz's office was further down the corridor opposite his office. Silvio was their main expert on electronic surveillance and digital information and would be my primary contact for the business computer training and the setup of equipment for the training.

Miami had two electronics experts. One was Leonard Slone, who was primarily responsible for the installations and electronic equipment used in physical security systems. Silvio was more involved in the electronic security monitoring, and his skills with computing outstripped mine by a long way. Tank left to go and find Silvio, and brought him back to Marco's office, carrying his own cup of coffee, and he joined in our discussions and planning. Silvio seemed really nice. He had an open, friendly face and cheeky smile, and I started to relax slightly with these three men who were showing me respect and professional courtesy.

I ventured to ask why Silvio had not trained the men previously, and he looked embarrassed as he admitted, "I'm not really good at training people. I tend to go into long technical explanations, with too much detail, and people end up confused. Plus, I'm more focussed on the whole data and information security side, while the general business computing side doesn't really interest me. I can use the programs if I have to, but I'm not an expert." I nodded at his explanation, and it reassured me that I would be able to provide the men with something new in the training. I asked him if he had seen the movie The Net, and he smiled at my enthusiasm. He agreed that there were some realistic aspects to the movie's depiction of viruses and data breaches.

After about thirty minutes of discussion, Tank and Silvio stood, shook my hand, and left the office, leaving me with Marco. Marco almost seemed to fidget for a minute or so before he looked up and smiled at me slightly. "Steph, I just want to take this opportunity to apologise to you."

I was puzzled as to what he should apologise for, and my confusion must have shown on my face. Marco went on, "In the general excitement of Carlos' homecoming, we all completely forgot you were on the phone and listening to every word we said. While I think, in some ways, it was better you know immediately what was going on, that was certainly not the best way for you to find out. It must have hurt you, and I suppose what I am apologising for is the way we handled it."

I considered that. I don't think it would have changed how much I hurt in the end and given Carlos' subsequent silence to me, I'm not sure how or when I would have found out otherwise. So ultimately, I think it was better for me to find out immediately. And at least I had the chance to lick my wounds privately. I told Marco, "In the end, I think it worked out. No apologies are necessary. Honestly, I prefer to have found out immediately." I added with some bitterness, "I might still be in the dark otherwise."

Marco looked pained but couldn't dispute that. He asked hesitantly, "Do you have any preference for how we go from here? With Ranger, I mean."

I was glad he had asked me instead of assuming on this. I had given it considerable thought leading up to this trip. I took a deep breath, "I think I need to confront him, now, immediately. I know you might worry it will disrupt the training, but I don't think there's any point in putting it off. I promise to be professional about the training, no matter what. He's going to know I'm in the building by the end of the day, anyway, so he'll just be pissed off if we try and avoid him. I've prepared myself for this. I've braced myself for the confrontation, and I'd rather just get it over with."

Marco gave me a small but genuine smile, "Brave and beautiful. He's a fool. Just remember, I've got your back. So does Tank and so does Lester."

"Where is Lester? I haven't seen him."

"I asked him to keep Ranger occupied while you arrived. I didn't want a big drama in the lobby or open work area of the building. So, I asked Les to distract him for an hour or so."

I nodded, that was probably a good thing. I would much rather anything that was said was said behind closed doors as well.

Marco stood and held out his hand to me, "C'mon Steph, let's go beard the lion in his den."

I took another deep breath and followed Marco.

Marco led me down to the opposite corner office to his, which must be Ranger's office. We walked past Sylvio's office and a conference room on the opposite side, and a fairly large meeting room between Marco's and Ranger's offices. I saw the teleconference equipment on the meeting room table and guessed this was where they spoke to me. Everything was appointed with light wood furniture and looked bright and professional. My heart started pounding as we neared the door marked Ranger Manoso, General Manager/CEO.

We approached the door, and I was shocked to hear Ranger's raised voice come through quite clearly, "How many times do I have to say it, Santos? It's none of your fucking business!"

"It is my business! She's become a friend to me! And she's a good person who, for some unknown reason, loves you! You're treating her like shit, and it's not ok!"

Marco and I realised that Lester was talking about me, and I saw a deep frown cross Marco's face in a scowl. Evidently this was not what he had meant when he asked Lester to distract Ranger.

"I'll talk to her when I'm ready. And I'm done discussing this with you!" Ranger's voice was ice-cold and diamond hard.

"Man up, Carlos. Pull your head out of your ass, and man the fuck up. I'm telling you, you're throwing away something precious, something unique. I've spent time with her, and she's incredible, beautiful, loyal, smart, and a total asset to Rangeman. If you don't fix this now, someone else just might fix it for you. And you better believe I'd be throwing my hat in that ring. Wouldn't surprise me if Tank wasn't right beside me. I don't understand why you want to throw this away; I didn't think you were that dumb.

We heard a thump that sounded like a chair being tipped over and a scrabble of feet, before Lester's said, "Coming at me, Ranger? Why? I know you think you're all that shit and more, but you're not deployed here. You're supposed to be some kind of businessman, not a thug."

"Fuck you, Santos!"

We could hear the clear frustration in Lester's voice as he continued, "No! It's time you listened instead of brushing everyone off and acting the big man! You're hurting her!"

Silence again; then Ranger's voice came through with a hint of his own frustration, and a touch of anguish, "I don't want to hurt her. That's why I'm staying away. And if you have any sense of decency, you'll stay away from her too."

"Staying away?" Lester sounded confused at that description. "Don't you mean chickening out?"

"Fuck you, Santos!" Ranger repeated, his voice sounding increasingly strained. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know anything. Men like us, we aren't meant to be with women like her."

"Bullshit! That's just an excuse! For fuck's sake, what is going on man?"

Ranger's spoke, calm again now and sounding resigned, "I repeat, It's none of your business. And I'm not hurting her, she doesn't even know I'm back. Now get out of here and let me get some work done. You'd do well to get some of your own work done."

"She does know you're back, idiot. Of course, she knows you're back! She was on the phone with us the day you got home." There was stunned silence at Lester's admission. Marco looked gobsmacked at this altercation. He appeared frozen in shock. But I decided it was time to intervene. It may not be Lester's business, but I knew it was my business. Something was going on here, and he owed me an explanation.

I reached out to open the door, and a hand came gently down on my arm. I twisted to see Tank attached to the arm, and he gave me an uncertain look, unsure if it was a good idea for me to go inside. Obviously, he had heard the shouting and come to investigate. A couple of others in the corridor had stuck their heads out of their offices, but quickly seemed to retreat, seeing the men involved.

I gave Tank a reassuring half-smile and took a deep breath. I opened the door and walked in. I walked into a frozen tableau with Lester and Ranger facing off in stunned silence. Ranger's eyes came to me, and the shock deepened. For a long minute of time, he said nothing. Then he just said, in disbelief, "Stephanie?"

I am about to go on holidays! Yay! First time in well over a year... can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it. I probably won't have a lot of time to work on writing and posting, so I hope you will accept this short hiatus (two weeks) and come back to keep reading when I return. I hope I will return refreshed and inspired to keep writing! :D