Chapter 11

Stephanie POV

I woke up this morning smiling to myself feeling on top of the world after last night. I rolled over and looked at my phone to see three texts. The first was from my mom telling me I needed to be at family dinner on Sunday at six pm sharp. The second was from Hector who asked if I'd like to get lunch with him and Hal today. The final one was from Carlos.

Babe, thank you for a wonderful evening. Would you like to have dinner at my place tonight?"

I was so excited he wanted to see me again and so soon. I quickly responded yes to all three requests and then sent another message to Mary Lou letting her know the date went really well and I had already secured a second one. I had about three hours until I would need to meet Hector so I decided to take a bath and relax a little since my muscles were sore from ice skating. At least I didn't have any bruises because Carlos broke my fall.

I was about ten minutes into my bath when I heard a crash that sounded like glass breaking. I heard a thud that sounded like a heavy boot step into my bedroom. I didn't want to draw attention to my whereabouts so I held my breath and remained silent. There was a ton of crashing noises as whoever was in my apartment continued to look for whatever they were searching for. I heard the noises move from my bedroom and out to my living room and kitchen so I took that time to quickly jump out of the tub and put my bathrobe on. I quickly tied it in a double knot hoping it would stay secure.

I grabbed my phone off the counter and as quietly as possible dialed 812# which Hector had programmed to immediately send a 911 signal to him with my location. I put my phone in my robe pocket and looked around the bathroom. I didn't have anything to arm myself with other than the plunger, since my stun gun and gun were in the kitchen, so I picked it up and held it out in front of me.

It didn't take long for the footsteps to make their way back to the bedroom and to the bathroom. It took a few hard knocks since it was locked but eventually a big boot kicked through the door before retreating and the rest of the door slammed open. I took in a big gulp when a large man similar to the size of Tank or Hal stepped in. He looked at me with a creepy clown-like smile before taking a big lunge at me. I used some of the self defense that Ram and Vince had taught me. Using my weight I shoved the plunger into his stomach causing him to double over then twisted it around after he grabbed it pushing him back into the tub which was still full.

As he was falling back I reached for the cuffs he had on his belt but let out a scream when a knife that he must have been holding made contact with my arm. Knowing I needed to get out of there I quickly slammed one one cuff on his ankle as he hit the water before chaining him to the metal bar on the side of the tub. He was now halfway submerged and chained so the last thing I did was grab the bottle of baby powder and squeeze it all around as I retreated back through my bedroom and straight into Carlos's arms.

The rest of the merry men rushed forward around us, guns drawn as they made their way back to the bathroom. Carlos swept me off my feet and carried me bridal style to sit on my couch. I snuggled into him breathing his scent which seemed to be calming to me. He was whispering Spanish into my ear that I couldn't understand but from the tone he was worried.

Hector came back into the room and kneeled down in front of us taking a hand and stroking my hair. "Hermana, you gave us quite the scare. You did good defending yourself." He said to me. Carlos shifted me to sit on the couch by myself and Hector moved to my side I assume so Carlos could go check out the scene in the bathroom himself. A few minutes later Bobby came to my arm which Hector had wrapped in a towel from my kitchen.

Tank POV

This morning I woke up with a nasty hangover after pizza and beer night at Shorty's and then dancing at one of the clubs downtown last night with some of the guys. Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to wake up next to a beautiful woman. Instead I had the two jokesters named Bobby and Lester sleeping on my sofa with my cats Apple Puff and Paul licking their faces. We were all working today since some of the guys had called out with the flu so I woke them up and got us all up and out the door of my house and over to Rangeman.

"You're late." Ranger said coming up behind us after we tried to act normal rushing off the elevator.

"By just two minutes!" Lester whined. "Hey you're smiling!" I turned to get a better look at Ranger and he indeed was smiling.

"This is weird what's going on, you never smile." Bobby said.

"Can't a guy just be happy to see his friends?" Ranger asked before slamming his blank face back on.

"Yes but not when that guy is you." I stated.

"Get to work. Lester, you're on monitor duty with Hector."

We all dispersed into our duties after that. Hal had pulled myself and Ranger into a meeting for most of the morning with the bond enforcement team because we were having a hard time tracking down Stanley Brasher. He was a highbond worth almost half a million to us and time was running out. He was convicted for several counts of rape and two counts of murder of women in the northeast but hadn't appeared for his court date. He should've been locked away and not even granted bail but the judge for some reason decided to let him out on bond. He had so far escaped our efforts to track him down. We were in the middle of reading through the background check to see if there was anybody in his life who might be hiding him when we heard a ruckus out in the control room.

We opened the door just as Hector ran past us toward the stairwell. Lester had barely finished yelling "It's Stephanie at her apartment" before Ranger followed by the rest of the guys who were in the conference room were also running down to the garage. Ranger jumped into an SUV with myself in the passenger and Hal and Bobby in the back. Hector, Junior, Ram, and Vince followed in a second SUV. Stephanie lived about 10 minutes from the office but at the speed Ranger was going we would make it in about five.

We sped to a stop in front of the front door not caring about actually parking. We all jumped out and immediately armed ourselves as Ranger led the way to her apartment why he knew which one was hers would be something I'd have to contemplate later. Hal and Ram were going around the back to monitor the fire escape. We made it to her door and nothing indicated that there was a disturbance from the front door. It was then that we heard a scream and Ranger kicked in the door.

We rushed towards the back seeing nothing but broken furniture and open cabinets in the kitchen and living room. Ranger entered the bedroom first just as Stephanie in nothing but her robe backed right into him. He quickly wicked her up and carried her back to the living room as we continued towards the bathroom that she came from. I noticed the window to the fire escape had been broken in with a brick that was laying on her bed.

The sight was not pretty but I had to admit Stephanie was a fighter so it was not unexpected. A large unconscious man was covered in baby powder and handcuffed by the ankle to Stephanie's bathtub. I signaled for Vince to put on our own flex cuffs to his ankles while I cuffed his hands before we released him from the tub. We got him undone and were letting Bobby check on him when Ranger came into the room.

He took one look at the guy and then pulled out his phone and showed it to me without saying anything. On his phone was a picture of the skip we have been trying to find all morning. I looked at the man in the tub and realized that it was the same guy with a full beard and he had dyed his hair red.

"Take him the long way." Ranger said. "Bobby, I need you in the living room. Stephanie is bleeding." Then he left.

"He should be awake soon. Let us get Stephanie out before you take him." Bobby addressed me and Vince before he left.