Warning: Some mild violence in this chapter
God I don't think I've ever been this angry. I've stalked through the apartment 5 times and there was no sign of my rage reducing. Men! God save me from overprotective, overbearing, controlling assholes. I can't believe I got Joe dragged into my mess again. As pissed off as I am, I couldn't stand it if something actually happened to the asshole.
Eventually I stood at the window and watched the traffic below. It took awhile but I finally saw Morelli's POS car pull out. The sick feeling in my stomach grew. I know Joe was capable and experienced in this kind of thing and I know that Ranger would be monitoring and ready to go and I know that this was hardly the first time any of us had been in this type of situation but normally my role was more hands on. I was finding this standing around harder than I thought it would be. I grit my teeth and pulled out my phone.
"Yo."
"I'm not staying up here." I spat into the phone.
"Babe." The line went dead. I stared in disbelief, before swearing angrily. I fought the urge to throw my phone at the wall and counted to ten…to 30. Then I redialed. This time he didn't even bother with the yo.
"Ranger! You win ok. I'm furious and when this is over I am going to kill you and Joe but for now I accept defeat. I can't get out of this building and you've already sent Joe out as bait. Just let me come down so I can watch what's happening. Please? I'm going to go crazy imagining it alone up here."
There was a grunt and he hung up the phone again. A minute later there as a knock at the door and Manny waved me out. I slipped out without a word and they followed me into the elevator and out on level 5. I walked past Ranger and sat next to Lester instead.
"Hey beautiful. The cop's going to be fine. We've got 3 tracers on him, 2 on his car and one in his gun. Tank and Cal are tailing him…and Hector is in their vicinity looking for Ricky. Trust us." Lester said giving me a side hug.
"I know. It's just hard to wait. I keep picturing everything that could go wrong. This is weirdly easier when I'm the one being taken."
"Not for us, Babe." Ranger said quietly across the room. We sat in silence for awhile, listening to Joe through his trackers. I thought of all the times Ranger had had to sit and listen to me being taken and put in danger. I thought of all the times I was at risk without the benefit of a plan and team backing me. The times when he tracked me down and burst through a door with no idea of what shape I would be in. My anger started to weaken.
It took hours before anything changed. Morelli had spent the day working and had picked up Pino's and gone back home. We listened to him say hi to Bob, sweep the house, and he turned on the game. "I'm turning off the mike guys. Your men have the door covered if anything changes." Joe muttered and the mike went quiet.
"What now?"I asked.
"Nothing. The men will let us know if anyone approaches the house, otherwise Morelli will be getting some sleep for tomorrow and we should too. Bobby is taking over monitors for the night."
"I'd like to stay here for a little longer." I said, watching Joe's tracer.
Ranger sighed and nodded at Bobby. "I've got some work to do." He said and headed off to his office.
We sat there in quiet for twenty minutes. "So do you just sit here all night until something happens?" I questioned starting to regret my decision to stay.
"I stay in contact with the men on scene, doing regular check ins and continue researching Ricky. If nothing has happened yet it probably won't until the early morning when people are asleep." Bobby explained. I jumped up and grabbed a coffee for myself and Bobby before making myself comfy. I wasn't going to be sleeping anyways.
I snapped upright at someone's hand on my shoulder. "Babe, there's movement at Morelli's place. Joe's been informed and turned his mike back on. Are you sure you want to be here for this next part?"
"I'm not going anywhere." I said determinedly. Ranger looked resigned and he settled next to me, checking in with Zero and Junior, who had taken over Morelli's backup. I listened to Joe's quiet breathing, trying desperately to hear anything else. There was the familiar creak of Joe's bedroom door and I stopped breathing, hating this more than anything I'd been through.
"What the hell?" Joe croaked and then there was a slight crackle.
"Good night Morelli."
I whimpered and grabbed Ranger's hand. He listened to his ear piece. "He's ok Babe. Stun gun. The guys have a rifle trained on him through the window." Soon grunts and thuds were heard. "He's dragging his body out of the room. Zero is outside the back door, Junior's by the front and Hector still has a gun trained on the house." I winced at the sound of something rolling down the stairs and heard Joe groan. "He's tying him to a chair. Hector has him in view again. He says that he looks like he is coming around."
"Fucking hell. God damn it!" Joe swore as he came to awareness. "Are you insane Ricky? I'm a fucking cop."
"Ha! You're the same selfish, conceited prick you were in high school. Thinking you are better than everyone else and walking all over people." A thud followed by a grunt sounded.
"High school? You decided to hold me hostage because of something from high school? God man, move on." Two more thuds.
"What are they waiting for? Thats enough to arrest him for!" I whispered.
"We've only got enough for B&E and assault on a cop. Morelli is trying to get evidence for the murder. He's got a code word if he wants us to go in early but he can take this Babe."
"This is about Stephanie Plum! You kept her away from me in high school and now you're doing it again. She's MY soulmate!" Throughout this discussion there was the sound of punching and I could feel tears escaping down my cheeks.
Joe spat. ""If you were that confident in your claim of being soul mates, you wouldn't need to worry about competition. You never had a chance with her 'Little' Ricky. Then or now."
"I would have, if it wasn't for you! Telling all of us that you called dibs and she was yours. Refusing to let me approach her because you knew we were soul mates and she would have chosen me. Giving her no other options than you!" This time I heard a crunch after the thud of a punch.
Joe gave a dark chuckle. "You're one to talk about other options. How many guys have you killed in fear that she'd prefer them. You're killing anybody who looks at her so that they can't compete."
"I killed those men for her! She is too naive to see that they only want to use her! And once I've dealt with you, she will finally see me!" Ricky screamed.
"Move in!" Ranger ordered and I heard the sound of doors flinging open and a scuffle. Someone yelled knife and I flinched at the sound of someone grunting in pain.