My heart was in my throat as I watched the Hummer containing the woman I was pretty sure I was in love with drive away toward certain danger. I wasn't all that religious, but I prayed for her safety as Ranger put the SUV in gear and started to follow at a safe distance. These things were always scary, no matter the level of experience and training I'd racked up over the years, but add Steph to the mix, unarmed and without immediate backup and I wasn't going to deny that I was fairly terrified of the outcome. She could handle herself, for sure. She'd really stepped up her training over the last year. But that didn't mean everyone else involved was going to play fair.
"It'll be alright," Ranger uttered through gritted teeth. He'd settled down after Steph openly opposed him, contributing helpful information and insights that had helped us formulate the plan, but he'd done so begrudgingly, like he had a gun held to his head. "She knows what she's doing, and we'll be close enough to help if something happens."
I didn't think the one block radius we were being forced to stay beyond was close enough, but I kept my lips sealed, focusing on the Hummer as it turned into the driveway. Ranger continued driving past the property, looking for gaps in the trees along the fence that would allow us a decent view with the binoculars. Eventually, he turned around, took a perpendicular side street one block down, and immediately got out, fiddling with his phone as he paced the empty sidewalk, his eyes trained on the sliver of the mansion we could see from here.
I tapped to activate my comms, letting the other teams know that we were in position at the front of the house and receiving confirmation that the three other teams we'd pulled in had also managed to find decent enough lines of sight to satisfy our needs. It was time to make the best of a bad situation and hope we could tell from here, between the guys on the ground and Hector's undetectable drone in the air, if something went wrong. He was back at the safe house, monitoring the drone's visuals remotely while he also hacked into the security system for visuals, and hopefully sound. Despite his distance, Hector was our first line of defence.
Through the binoculars, I watched as two of O'Shea's men met the Hummer at the top of the drive, gesturing for the occupants - Alexander and Steph - to exit the vehicle, and proceeding to wave wands similar to the metal detectors they security in airports have over their bodies. They must have passed inspection, because they were immediately led inside and my visual was lost as the door closed behind them.
Tense minutes passed and I kept my gaze glued to the front of the house, hoping against hope that with a short conversation, Steph could clear up the misunderstanding and she would be back out the door and headed back to the drop off location we'd agreed to.
A text from Hector with a link to the security feed he'd hacked into and an apology that there was no sound appeased my curiosity, but did nothing to lessen my nerves.
Steph and Alexander sat on one sofa, while a fair-haired man in a pale polo shirt that I recognised as O'Shea lounged in the wingback chair adjacent to them, far too at ease for my liking, but then, he had the upper hand: a house full of lackeys and two, unarmed individuals at his mercy.
The conversation appeared casual, but I saw the way Steph's hands were clenched into tight little fists in her lap. She was no more at ease with this situation than I was. They continued to speak back and forth for a couple of minutes until something distracted them. Eyes widened, heads tilted up, looking toward the ceiling.
"Hec?" I demanded an explanation for what was going on as O'Shea's expression turned mean.
"FUCK!" Ranger roared from beside the SUV, sprinting toward the house while Hector was still explaining that he was trying to figure out what had caused the alarm. I was out of the car and pounding the pavement behind him, because one person against the whole mansion of staff was terrible odds and I didn't want anything to happen to Steph.
"Monitoring system detected a bug activated," Hector informed me, his accent thicker than usual, belying his worry for the situation. "And a crosscheck with the Rangeman systems shows a bug activated exactly twelve seconds prior to the alarm. A bug Ranger-"
I didn't have to hear the rest of the explanation. All the information was there: Ranger had planted a bug on Steph, kept it offline until they were inside when he thought it would be safe to turn it on so he could listen in on the meeting, but apparently O'Shea had an advanced system that detected such things, and now the entire operation was ruined.
"So help me, Ranger," I huffed, putting on an extra burst of speed to catch up to him. "If you get her killed you'll be begging me for your own death."
"We needed ears inside so we could monitor, how else would we know if she needed extraction?" Ranger tried to defend his decisions.
"The fucking CCTV feed?" Lester yelled in our ears, sounding like he, too, was on the move. "Did they remove your brain on that mission, Primo? Because you are sure acting like you haven't got two brain cells to rub together at the moment. What the fuck has gotten into you?"
"You're on the bench until I can get a full psych eval once we rescue Steph," Bobby added.
"Fence disengaged," Hector interrupted our dressing down of our supposed leader to inform us of the safe entry points. "They're taking her upstairs," he added as I gave Ranger a boost over the fence, deliberately putting too much power behind my lift so he tumbled less than gracefully over the top before I climbed up to follow him more slowly. "Bedroom on the third floor has reinforced walls, doors and windows, similar to the interrogation chambers we have. Looking for the codes now."
We weren't subtle as we overpowered the guards that came running at us on the way up the sprawling front lawn. There was no point. They would have been alerted the second we were over the fence, and there wasn't exactly a lot of cover once you past the line of trees at the perimeter. I heard scuffles from further into the house as he stole inside and assumed the other teams were also throwing stealth out the window in order to make sure we got Steph out of here alive.
Ranger must have been on the same wavelength as me, because he started taking the stairs two at a time the second we reached them, our footsteps pounding on the expensive hardwood. I imagined I was doing structural damage with every footfall, leaving my size fourteen mark on this place. We were left alone, no sign of security until we were nearing the third floor.
I caught sight of Steph careening out of one of the rooms, a boot clutched in her right hand. Our eyes locked for the barest millisecond before she turned and threw the boot at the guy pursuing her out of the room. I could tell it was just a bid to buy Ranger and me enough time to reach the landing, but unfortunately, the guy had the reflexes of a cat. He caught the boot and immediately sent it flying back at Steph. She ducked just in time, the shoe sailing over her head and connecting squarely with Ranger's face instead as he crested the landing.
A spray of blood arced through the air and I stepped to the side as Ranger teetered backwards, allowing him to tumble past down the stairs. It was petty, I knew. And I probably should have done more to keep him upright, given the fact that we were in the middle of a combat situation, but he deserved a fall after compromising Steph's safety.
Bounding up the last couple steps, I ignored Steph's shocked expression and barrelled straight into the guy a second before he fired off a shot that would have been a direct hit on Steph. As it was, the bullet lodged in the wall about two feet from Steph's head. I wasn't comfortable with that range and let the guy know with a fist to the face, knocking him unconscious.
"I'm going to check the rest of this floor," I announced, removing my spare sidearm at my ankle and sliding across the floor to where Steph was still crouched, looking between me and, presumably, Ranger on the stairs. "Shoot anyone that tries to come up those stairs."
Her eyes shot down the stairs again, a smile quirking her lips. "Anyone?" she checked.
I looked into the room she'd sprinted from, determining that it was empty, and paused to glance over my shoulder to her. "He planted a bug on you and activated it after you'd entered the house, which set off the alarm," I explained. "Do with that information what you will."
She growled, and I focused back on my task, moving to the next room to clear it.
"Babe, I'm sorry," Ranger said, but I couldn't tell if he was genuinely sorry for causing this shitshow without seeing his face, especially since his voice had taken on the quality it always had when he was in physical pain and trying to hide it. Good.
"I wouldn't test me right now, Ranger," she seethed. "You take one step toward me and I'll shoot."
"You would shoot a friend?"
I caught Steph's head shake as I turned around to check the rooms on the other side of the hall. "I'm not sure you count as a friend right now, Ranger," she pointed out. "All you've done since you appeared yesterday is screw me over. And not in a good way. You need to pull your head in and think about something other than your own ego for a change. So for now, I'm gonna keep this gun trained on you in case you decide to do something even more stupid and get us all killed."
"First floor, clear," Cal called from down below, followed by footsteps on the staircase.
"Third floor, clear," I replied, returning to the top of the stairs to look down at Ranger on the landing for the second floor. The bottom half of his face was covered in blood and he was leaning heavily on the railing, listing to the left, indicating he'd injured his right leg during his tumble somehow. Possibly more than just the leg. "Second floor report, Ranger?" I requested.
"Not cleared," he gritted out, glaring at me, like it was my fault he'd decided to make an ass of himself today. "I-"
"Cal, Hal, clear the second floor," I commanded as they approached the landing. "Santos, Brown, report!"
"Ramos is clear of the property," Bobby announced through the comms. "As is O'Shea and his personal security detail. We're headed your way. How's Bomber?"
I took a second to really look at her. Her posture was perfect, just the way Cal had drilled into her in the range over the last year, her muscles relaxed despite the fury in her expression as she kept the gun trained on Ranger. Aside from the scrape on her chin from yesterday, there didn't appear to be a scratch on her. Reaching out, I touched her shoulder to gain her attention. "Bobby wants to know if you're injured," I asked softly.
"I knocked my shoulder on the doorframe on the way out of the bedroom," she explained, "But it's probably just a bruise. Nothing like what Ranger is dealing with."
I relayed this information to Bobby just as he and Lester popped their heads over the railing near the first floor, peering up at us. "What happened to Ranger?" Lester called.
"He took a boot to the face," I shrugged, grinning at the memory. "Bit of a shame that my foot wasn't in it at the time."
The guys and Steph snorted, and Cal and Hal appeared to announce that the second floor was also clear. Since none of the rest of us were inclined to offer Ranger any kind of assistance right now, I got the pair to help Ranger down the stairs. We were all silent as we made our way out of the house and down the front drive, exiting through the front gate that had helpfully been left open. We were all silent until we reached the nearest SUV, the one Ranger and I had hastily abandoned.
I held Steph tightly to my side the entire way, not wanting to let her go even when we'd opened the trunk of the SUV, Hal and Cal had lowered Ranger to sit there for Bobby to examine, and the medic immediately turned his attention to Steph instead. I was thankful he was making her a priority over the asshat who had ruined our chances of resolving the issue of Steph's safety, but there was also a chance that if my arms were free, they would swing at Ranger of their own accord, and I couldn't be counted on to pull my punches.
Seeming to understand this without me having to communicate it, Steph cleverly tricked me into releasing her by holding her hand out towards me, fingers down and curled together like she was holding something she wanted to give me. When I let go of her waist to hold my hand out palm up to accept it, she fainted placing something there and twined our fingers together instead. My mouth popped open in surprise, but she simply rubbed her thumb over mine and turned her attention back to Bobby, explaining what had happened to her shoulder and allowing him to shift the fabric of her shirt enough to check the joint.
Once he'd agreed it was probably just bruised and handed her an ice pack from the first aid kit, Bobby turned his attention to Ranger, and I pulled Steph back into my arms. I retrieved a TastyKake from my pocket before I took over holding the ice pack to her shoulder.
Her smile was like a balm on my soul. As she melted back into my chest, our linked hands wrapping around her stomach, she ripped open the packaging and stuffed half the cake into her mouth at once. The telltale moan that left her lips drew everyone's attention back to us briefly with a mixture of expressions. Hal and Cal still had their blank faces in place and immediately resumed their self-assigned task of surveying the street for threats. Bobby and Lester shared a knowing glance. And Ranger just glared until Bobby unceremoniously pressed a wad of gauze to his face to catch the blood still dripping from his nose, causing a growl of pain.
It was then that Lester, who had been uncharacteristically quiet the whole journey back to the vehicle, opened the floodgates and let every one of his frustrations out on his cousin
"What the fuck were you thinking?" he demanded, standing before Ranger with his hands planted on his hips, an intense rage radiating off him like the heat from an inferno. I'd rarely seen Santos this incensed outside of an active warzone. It was definitely a sight to behold, all signs of the loveable jokester having vanished from his being. "They specifically said no transmission devices of any kind! You could have gotten her killed!"
Ranger's reply was somewhat muffled by the wad of gauze, but the dumbassery came through loud and clear. "I'm an alpha male," he proclaimed. "I wasn't gonna let them -"
"You're not an alpha, Ranger," Lester cut him off. "You're an asshole who thinks he knows better than everyone else and that the rules don't apply to him." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned closer so their faces were mere inches apart. "Do you even know what an alpha does?" Ranger listed to the side as Bobby yanked his foot up so he could start removing the boot to examine his ankle and Lester followed to maintain maximum intimidation. "They protect and feed their pack."
"I was protecting h-argh!" Ranger's words were cut off as Bobby reefed the boot off, causing an obvious jolt of pain through the limb. The grin the medic shot Steph and me told us he had no remorse for the action.
I used my splayed fingers on her stomach, to knead there reassuringly as Steph tensed. As always, she wasn't comfortable with being so staunchly defended, and probably, despite everything, there was also a bit of guilt growing over Ranger's condition. And the dressing down Lester was giving him now wouldn't help that situation. She made no effort to stop him, though, aware enough to know Ranger was in the wrong, and that we wouldn't let his actions go without calling him out.
Lester stepped closer, practically spitting words in Ranger's face. "Your actions put her in direct danger," he seethed. "And you did it without even warning her!" His hand flew out to the side, a stiff finger pointing at me. "Tank has worked hard through this whole shit show to keep Steph informed and make sure she has choices. To keep her safe, because he knows that part of keeping her safe is allowing her to have control of her life so she doesn't rebel and go off on her own. He brought her in on all the conversations and plans, so she knew what was going on and she has cooperated so much more than she ever did whenever you pulled your bullshit alpha asshole routine."
"If she'd gotten training when I offered it - " Ranger tried to argue, but Lester was in no mood to entertain a dialogue. He had a point to make, and interruptions would not be tolerated.
"Don't even start with your attempts to train her, Ranger," he said, straightening again when Bobby dropped Ranger's foot, earning him a hiss of pain as Ranger came fully upright again. No one acknowledged his discomfort. "What the hell did you think she was going to do when you dragged her out of bed at the butt crack of dawn to run ten miles and told her her eating habits were going to kill her. With Tank's guidance this last year, she's spent more time in the gym working on her fitness, self defence, and takedown techniques than ever before. And she's eating healthier too, but Tank still understands that she needs her sugary treats, especially when she's stressed, so he makes sure he's got them ready for her, just in case. Because he's an alpha. He's making sure she's protected and safe and happy and fed. Where's your cargo pocket full of TastyKakes, Ranger?"
Surprise once again caught me off guard enough for my lips to pop open as all eyes turned to me just as I was retrieving a second TastyKake from my cargo pocket. I straightened slowly, the small package dangling from my grip, drawing everyone's attention.
I knew that they knew I'd been carrying snacks for Steph the last couple months, but I didn't realise they'd assigned so much meaning to it. It had started as just something I could do to cheer her up. I bought a box of TastyKakes after an offsite client meeting when she'd sent me a text that sounded like she was having a bad day. I shoved the pack in the glovebox, and when her car was totalled a couple hours later, I'd grabbed one of the individually wrapped snacks from the box and stuffed it into my cargo pocket when I arrived on the scene to check on her, offering it once I'd assured myself she was okay.
Her response had been endearing: a smile so bright it made the sun dim, and a brief hug that I could still feel several hours later. It was an addictive feeling to know I had put that smile on her face, and so, it became a habit that every time I knew I was going to see her, I put a TastyKake in my pocket. Over time, it evolved into grabbing a cake from the box on the kitchen counter every morning before I left for work, and I had boxes in my car and my desk at Rangeman to top up as needed. And every time I handed her one of her cakes, she smiled a little wider.
She grinned up at me now, squeezing my hand. "Alphas bring the TastyKakes, huh?" she said. "Does that mean I've been an alpha my whole life?"
I thought it was absolutely a possibility. She may have lost her way for a while thanks to the overbearing and manipulative people in her life, but she had always been protective of those she loves, and as she pointed out, always ready to feed them in her own unique way. She ticked all the boxes Lester had laid out for being an Alpha. And now that she was finding herself again, there was again, there was no doubt in my mind that she had latent alpha tendencies hidden away inside her.
Before anyone could comment on this revelation, though, a sharp trill sounded from inside the SUV.
"What the-" Bobby started, peering past Ranger towards the front of the car.
"My phone!" Steph exclaimed. She easily extracted herself from my hold, even though I wanted nothing more than to keep her glued to me. Thanks to Ranger's hubris, Steph hadn't had a chance to resolve the matter of the price on her head, which meant she was still in imminent danger.
That reminder had me following her to the passenger door just as she straightened from leaning over the seat with her phone in hand. I'd stashed it in the hidden compartment in the centre console at her request when we'd met Ramos at the service station down the road. She couldn't take it with her to the meeting, but we'd needed to bring it in case something went awry and we had to get in contact with Ramos prior to the drop off. The man had made it clear during his early morning call that he wouldn't answer the phone to anyone but Steph.
Not paying any mind to the attention of all six men on her, Steph answered the phone, giving my forearm an absent pat at the same time. "Alex! Are you okay?"
My eyebrows shot up at that. I knew Steph was on a first name basis with the international arms dealer, but this shortened form was new. Had she been given permission to call him that? Or was this just Steph's natural progression?
As she listened, the tension that had been gripping Steph's entire body eased, and she slumped sideways against my chest with an easy, relaxed smile. I automatically brought my hands up to hold her there. After a couple minutes, she thanked him and hung up. Every single one of us had a question on the tips of our tongues, but she held up a finger for us to wait as she tapped into her email and opened up the latest message.
"I'm free," she announced, handing me the phone so I could see the email she'd received directly from Patrick O'Shea himself, apologising for the misunderstanding and assuring her that he had rescinded the price from her head, and anyone who continued to pursue her for the now non-existent reward would meet dire consequences. I read it aloud to the rest of the group, and as soon as I got to the sign off, Lester was in front of us, twisting my hand so he could look it over himself.
His eyes whipped over the screen with a speed and accuracy few outside of Rangeman would suspect the playboy clown capable of before he speared Steph with a furrow-browed questioning look. "How?"
Steph shrugged and took the phone back only to pass it to Bobby when he appeared at Lester's side - having abandoned his examination of Ranger - and gestured that he, too, would like to read the email for himself. Ranger, I noted, stayed where he was. Whether it was because moving caused him physical pain, or Lester's words had managed to get through his thick skull, I didn't really care.
He was our friend, of course, and we would make sure he got proper medical care, but if the medic didn't think his injuries needed immediate attention, then I figured he could sweat it out as a consequence of his actions over the last twenty-four hours. Especially since his being injured meant I would have to wait before I could drag him into the ring and let all the rage I'd been suppressing out on him in a total beating.
"When the alarm went off they took me upstairs to lock me away, but O'Shea had his guys escort Alexander out instead of risking the repercussions if they apprehended him too," Steph explained as she wrapped her arms over top of mine at her waist. "Apparently he didn't like the way O'Shea was talking to me and got the impression that he wasn't gonna let me leave now that he had me. Alexander said he explained a few things to O'Shea to convince him to drop the head hunt and let me go."
"That's probably why we didn't run into any trouble extracting you," I voiced my thoughts aloud,
Cal, still stationed at the rear of the vehicle with Hal, shook his head. "You may attract the crazies," he mused, an expression of wonder on his face, distorting the flaming skull tattooed on his forehead slightly. "But every now and then the universe tries to balance it out by sending you a dangerous guy with a soft spot for your particular brand of chaos who can't help but protect you." The flick of his gaze to Ranger and then me made it clear he was including us in his description. I don't know how I feel about being lumped into the same category as both Ranger and Alexander Ramos. Where did I stand on that spectrum?
I must have inadvertently tightened my hold on Steph, because she pinched lightly at my wrist before smoothing over the residual sensation with a couple of strokes back and forth over the skin. I interpreted this as a silent instruction to relax, that despite Cal lumping us all together, I wasn't the same as Ranger. I took a subtle, slow breath to loosen my muscles and rubbed my thumb against her stomach to let her know the message was received. She let out a tiny hum of approval that was more of a vibration against my chest than a sound as she settled heavily against me, and I marvelled at how natural communicating with her in this way felt; how it had developed on its own as we spent more time together both professionally and socially.
"So, this means we don't have to go back to the safe house, right?" Steph asked, tipping her head back to look at me.
Her expression was so hopeful that I probably would have seriously considered agreeing even if she was still in danger. "No safe house," I assured her, rewarded with another of her smiles. That, I had been prepared for, but in the next moment, she turned around in my arms so she was facing me, reached up to link her hands together behind my neck and used the momentary disconnect between brain and body my surprise caused to pull me down, sealing her lips over mine in a kiss.
Our first.
The warmth her touch sent flooding through me, and the tingle of her chaste pecks on my cheek, head, or wherever else she had laid her lips on me in the past in no way prepared me for the searing heat of finally having her mouth on mine.
Her lips parted on a soft moan just like the ones she let out when she tasted something she really liked, and I took the opportunity to sweep my tongue inside, tasting her fully as I pulled her more firmly against me. I was vaguely aware of the guys - well, Lester at least - whooping and hollering with delight, and I couldn't help but smile into the kiss. I would never get enough of Stephanie Plum, but if this was all she wanted to give me, then I'd find a way to be okay with it.
When she started trying to climb me, her leg coming up to wrap around the back of my thigh, I found the wherewithal to break the kiss. We were in public, not two blocks from a mafia mansion, and all of five minutes past the price being lifted from her head. As much as I would have loved to continue wherever she wanted to take this, this probably wasn't the time and place to do so.
My hands remained on either side of her face, holding her there with our foreheads touching while we caught our breaths. "We should get you home," I suggested after a long moment, pressing my lips to her forehead and letting my hands drift down her neck, shoulders, arms, before shifting to her waist once more while her's slid down my chest. "I'd like to keep a team in your parking lot, just in case some of Trenton's scourge didn't get the memo, but you should be safe."
She nodded, looking up at me through her lashes in a way that was so damn sexy I was on the verge of embarrassing myself by getting a hard on in the middle of the street. "Home sounds nice," she said simply. "If you don't have any plans, maybe we could share a pizza and watch the game. Decompress."
"We need to decompress, too," Lester pointed out, drawing our attention beyond the little bubble we'd created around us, "Can we share a pizza and watch the game?"
"No one's stopping you," I pointed out. "You have money and a TV."
He grinned, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning a hip against the Cayenne. "Yeah, but we wanna hang out with Beautiful, too."
Steph rolled her eyes, patted me on the chest and turned to face Lester, an air of authority about her. "We don't need a chaperone tonight."
Lester's grin grew wider, but I wasn't willing to play into whatever hand he was trying to deal. "If you and Bobby can deal with Ranger, Steph and I will walk back to one of the other SUVs and head back to Trenton," I put forth.
"Deal," Bobby said, pressing a set of keys into my hand before Lester could make any suggestive comments. "Should probably get an x-ray on his ankle sooner rather than later. And while we're at the hospital I might see about a proctologist to remove his head from his ass."
I nodded, and Steph hugged each of the guys in turn to thank them for everything they'd done to keep her safe. Ranger was noticeably absent from the hug register, however she did stop in front of him and exchange a few quiet words that I couldn't hear from my vantage point. His reply was solemn, and I hoped it was an apology for the unnecessary pain and suffering he'd caused her over the last twenty-four hours, if not the last couple years.
In the next instant, she was back at my side, twining our fingers together. "Ready to go," she announced with a smile.