Note: yes, well, back in the day when I first wrote this, your standard house alarm was a pretty primitive thing. Just … go with it.

Under Pressure – Chapter 8

I laid on the bed where he left me, trying to make my sluggish brain work. What the hell had happened here today? I felt like I had whiplash. Emotional whiplash.

Ranger and I seemed stuck in a cycle of bad timing. Originally it had been me – afraid of what I felt or what I could possibly feel, torn between the familiarity of Joe and the thrill of Ranger, I knew that I had sent mixed signals to both men. And now that I had sorted out my feelings for Joe and put Joe into the category of an old friend and I was ready to try and sort out how I felt about Ranger, he seemed to be the one with doubts. Sometimes when Ranger looked at me I saw warmth and at least affection in his eyes and other times all I saw was distant cool. But what did all that mean?

When I couldn't stand to listen to myself anymore I got up and walked out into the living area. Maybe food and caffeine would get my brain actually working instead of just spinning.

The house was silent and I nearly walked right past Tank without seeing him, sitting motionless in one of the armchairs. I took a big detour around him and looked out one of the big sliding doors into the backyard.

Tank looked at me warily. "Please move away from the windows. And the doors," he added, as an afterthought.

"I won't run, Tank," I promised.

"That's good to hear, Ms. Plum," he said in a tone that told me just how much he believed me.

"How long do you think it will be?"

"Not his op to schedule. No way to know. Depends on how the others decide to take it down. Probably by late tonight."

"Do you know what this is about?"

I got a glimmer of a smile from him. "Ranger doesn't volunteer information, Ms. Plum."

I sighed. "But I've been in the middle of this whole thing and I don't have a clue what it's about. You'd think I'd need to know some of it."

"With Ranger you can usually get more information from what he does than what he says."

I turned back toward Tank. "Like…?"

"Like he left his #1 team, all three of us, here with you." I looked at Tank blankly, and he continued in a gentle voice. "Brooks does not know the location of this safe house. But Brooks does know that Ranger is loose, angry and hunting for him."

Tank smiled a predatory smile and continued. "Yet Ranger left his best people behind to keep someone who is important to him safe rather than take us with him to finish business with a man who is probably set up and waiting for him."

"He went alone?"

"No, there are other people involved. But not his own people, the ones he trusts at his back. He wanted us here for you, even though you are less likely to need us than he is."

I chewed on my lip. "Do you think he's in trouble without you?"

"I don't know. Ranger is an excellent strategist and planner but he does occasionally have blind spots."

"Blind spots?"

Tank smiled.

I'd seen that smile before on Ranger's face. I studied Tank for a moment. "You've known him a long time, haven't you?"

Tank's smile got bigger.

"How did Brooks find Ranger?"

Tank frowned and then shrugged. "Brooks deals in gems, antiquities and artifacts as his legitimate business. Also in guns and drugs, but he keeps that well-hidden. He brokered an antiquities deal that involved Abruzzi, but Abruzzi died before the deal closed. Brooks heard about Ranger's... connection to Abruzzi. There is some old business between Brooks and Ranger and a few other people that Brooks has been looking to finalize for a long time. Brooks came to Trenton, started asking about Abruzzi and your name came up alongside Ranger's. You know the rest."

"Brooks found Ranger by using me?"

"Looks like it. Ranger's security is good. He's a hard man to track down." He shrugged again. "You, on the other hand…"

I had always thought Ranger was just somewhat paranoid. Is it still called paranoia if there is a legitimate reason for it? Probably not. Earlier Ranger had implied that I was one of his weaknesses and this must be what he meant. His - call it "mentorship" - of me shook him out of his usual caution, drew him into my incredibly open life. Where anyone could find him. When Ranger had been FTA during the whole Ramos mess, Arturo Stolle had sent two men to watch me, knowing that eventually Ranger would come. And he had, except that he was too good for Stolle's goons to catch. But Stolle had been right, and if the goons had been better they would have gotten him. And now Brooks had been successful.

I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, which was well-stocked with lunch-ish material. I looked at the kitchen clock – 5:00, a little late for lunch but a little early for dinner . . .

Dinner. It was Sunday. I slapped my forehead. I was supposed to be at my parents' house for dinner in an hour. I hadn't talked to my mother in days and she was probably frantic. I could picture her, running up and down the street, begging the neighbors for things to iron, having already ironed everything flat in the house.

"Tank, I need to use the phone."

He hesitated. "It would be better.."

"Tank, I have to call my mother. She'll be insane by now – and she'll have driven everyone else in the house insane, too."

Tank gave me a look that perfectly conveyed what he thought of my family's sanity on a normal day. But he gave me his cell phone. "This should be safe. It's a secure sat phone. Untraceable."

I took the phone and punched in the number. My mother answered before the first ring was even finished. "Plum residence."

"Hi, Ma, it's me."

"Stephanie! Where have you been? I have been calling everywhere…"

"Mom.."

".. I called the hospitals, I even called Joe and he…"

"MOM!" The yell stopped her, though I'm sure she'd be reminding me for months that I'd yelled at her over the phone. "Mom, I'm sorry, but I've been.. working, and I was so busy that I didn't get the chance to call and…"

"Too busy to call your mother? Too ungrateful to let the woman who spent hours in labor with you know that you weren't lying the road somewhere.."

I'd heard the "ungrateful daughter" speech enough times to know this could go on for hours. "Mom, I don't have much time now, I just wanted to tell you that I won't be able to be there for dinner tonight…"

"But, Stephanie, there's a man coming to dinner tonight to see you!"

I stared at the phone handset. "What man?"

"He's a friend of yours. I saw him this afternoon at Giovinchini's Market. He said he was a friend of yours and he had a message for you."

"Did he tell you his name?"

"No, but he drove one of those big black trucks and he said you had a mutual friend. He was a bit rough-looking, but since he was a friend of yours I invited him for dinner. Now that you and Joe aren't dating…"

I tuned my mother's voice out and tried to think. Crap. If Brooks found me, finding my parents was not hard at all. Brooks and all of his men drove big black SUVs. My mother had invited one of Brooks's goons for dinner. Perfect.

"Listen, Mom, when he comes, don't let him in. Do you hear? Do not let him in the house!"

"Stephanie, the man is an invited guest! I am sure.."

"Mom! Mom, just listen to me, do what I tell you to do.." I was starting to sound like Ranger. And my mother didn't listen any better than I did.

"No, young lady, you listen to me. You will be here for dinner and you will show courtesy to your guest!" And my mother hung up on me.

I stared at the phone again.

"Problem?" Tank asked, one eyebrow uplifted.

"We have to go to my parents' house, Tank, my mother has invited a thug to dinner!"

He shook his head. "My orders are that you do not leave the safe house, Ms. Plum, and I intend to follow those orders to the letter."

I explained the situation to him as fast as I could, and he just shook his head again. "Lester is on patrol in this neighborhood and scheduled back in about an hour. When he gets here I'll send him over to your parents to check on them. It's really not likely that it's one of his men, the situation isn't critical."

An hour was too long. He would already be there by then. Tank was trying to use logic to explain why it couldn't be a problem, but he didn't understand. This was my family and we lived in a large logic-defying alternate universe. It might not be logical that my mother would invite a hired killer to dinner, but that's what made it so likely.

Tank walked a few steps away and opened his cell phone to call Lester. I stood with both my palms on the counter and tried to think my way through this. I looked longingly at the door in the kitchen, which probably led to the garage. I needed to get out of here.

I saw the sensors on the door frame that indicated the doors and windows were wired to an alarm. I looked at the door sensor for a minute and then saw a key rack by the side of the door. There were two sets of keys there, each with a tag printed with a license plate number.

I glanced back at Tank, who was facing the other direction. Quietly I reached over and palmed one of the sets of keys, shoving them in my pocket.

Tank flipped his phone shut and turned back to me. "Lester will try to finish his sweep sooner and then check out your parent's house. I'm sorry, Ms. Plum, but that's the best I can do."

I didn't trust myself to speak, just turned and walked back into my bedroom. Tank has his orders to follow, but this was my parents. I closed the bedroom door and walked over to the window.

It had the same style sensor as the kitchen door. If I opened this window the alarm would go off and I doubted I'd make it six feet before Tank caught me. I'd seem the alarm master keypad in the kitchen and it looked like a simple alarm. But I'm not exactly the master burglar type. The only way I could see to get the alarm to shut off was to get one of the guys to shut it off. And they weren't very likely to do that for me.

I walked across the hall to the bathroom. The window here was smaller, but it also had a sensor on it. A plan came and knocked on my door, and I let it in.

Timing and guile would be critical. Not really my strengths, but I was running out of time. I peeked out in the hallway. No sign of Tank. I walked back into my bedroom and yanked up the window. The alarm began to screech. I pushed the window back down until it looked closed and pulled the curtain to hide the sensors so that it wasn't so obvious they weren't aligned.

I ran across the hall to the bathroom and yanked that window open too.

I had been wrong. I didn't make it six feet before Tank caught me, I didn't even make it out the window. And he was furious. He grabbed me, one large hand, vise-like, on the back of my shirt, lifting me through the window and setting me, ungently, on the floor. He slammed the window shut.

"Ms. Plum," he began, his voice stiff and formal.

"Tank, please, this is my parents . ."

He spun on his heel and walked into the living room. I crossed my fingers. I heard him talking to someone else over the screech of the alarm. I heard a little swearing, and then the alarm shut off.

"You're sure that window is closed? The alarm won't reset. Let me just.."

That was my cue. While they were occupied with the alarm, I opened the window in my bedroom as slipped out, walking quickly to the SUVs out front. I clicked the alarm and saw the lights on the first one flash. I slipped in, started the engine and took off, hoping that I'd make it in time to keep my family safe.

I had to drive all the way across Trenton but the Sunday traffic was light. I made it home by quarter of six. I only had a few minutes to get my family out of the house before Brooks's man showed. I ran up the steps and into the house, my heart pounding. I threw open the front door and stopped short.

The dinner guest was already here.

I took a few steps back and looked in the driveway. Yep, there was my CRV. Fixed now. Just like he promised me, by the time the weekend was over.

I walked back in the house. "Hi, Al."

"Hey, Stephanie, got your car all ready to go, and when I saw your Mom today she invited me for dinner! It's a great bonus, I haven't had home-cooked meatloaf in years!"

He smiled at me. My mother smiled at him. I felt sick.

I walked back out the door. "Stephanie!' my mother voice followed me out the door. "Stephanie, aren't you staying for dinner?"

I sat on the front step of my parents' porch, my head resting on my knees, my arms wrapped around my legs. I'd done a stupid thing yet again. I'd run away from the safe house to protect my parents from . . my car mechanic. Of course he drove a big black SUV, just like all of Brooks' men drove. Because all of Ranger's men drove them, too, and Al worked for Ranger.

I'd broken a promise to Ranger for nothing.

I rocked back and forth some.

I hadn't heard Tank arrive, but I had been expecting him and I wasn't startled when he spoke. "Everything's under control here?"

I nodded but didn't lift up my head.

"Ms. Plum, he called. It's over. He's on his way back."

I finally looked up at him. "Take me back to my apartment, Tank."

He nodded slowly "That would probably be best. Give him a little more time to cool off."

Cool off? I sighed. Maybe I should take myself to that third world country I always worried about him sending me to. Get a head start. Pick one that at least had a nice beach. When he "cooled off" he'd probably sent me to Antarctica, and those huge orange parkas were so unflattering.