Steph’s POV—Wednesday

I wake up bright and early the next morning and go to the gym. My presence causes every man to stop and stare. I merely wave and hit the treadmill. After an hour, I’m dripping nasty sweat and exhausted. Thomas has arrived and is smiling at me.

“Mats?”

I roll my eyes. “Right. Wait until I’m good and tired to issue a challenge.”

He laughs. “Mack keeps telling me about your pointy elbows.”

I frown and look at my elbows. They look like normal elbows. “OK, but if Mack warned you, I’m promising nothing.”

I start hitting him with everything I have. I’m sweeping his feet, hitting and immediately bouncing back, watching him carefully. He’s trying not to smile, but I can see it’s hard for him. He’s enjoying this. I hear the door close behind me and I’m distracted. It’s Diego walking in, but that’s enough time for Thomas to pick me up.

Pointy elbows? I use them. I start wriggling and hitting Thomas in the head. He still successfully body slams me, but he backs away clutching his head.

“Shit! Mack’s never lied,” Thomas moans. Diego is laughing. “You can register your knees and elbows as lethal weapons.”

“Ugh …” Thanks, Thomas. I’m still hurting. I finally roll over and stand up, getting back into fighting stance. The battle begins again. Diego joins in and I’m battling two at once. Woody and Binkie had just started teaching me to defend against this kind of attack when my clearance started, and they have me on the mats in minutes. I laugh.

“OK, the Trenton men haven’t finished my training defending against this kind of attack,” I tell Diego, who is lying across my stomach. Thomas has my legs, well away from my elbows.

“Good.” Diego grins. “Miami gets to teach you something. We’ll teach you this.”

“Great. Now, feed me!” The beast growls his approval and Diego rolls off me and laughs hard.

“ROARRRRRR!” he yells at my stomach. “Thought I’d let him know he’ll be filled soon.”

I laugh and the guys pull me up and slap me on the back, making me pitch forward. The Miami men are silent. We leave the gym and they turn to me, concerned.

“You sure about this?” Thomas asks, frowning.

“Yup,” I respond, smiling. “I look like a weak, silly woman. I can’t take down Thomas, I can’t defend against a double team, and we’ve established I’m shit on the mats. I want their expectations in the toilet so they underestimate me. They were going to do it anyway since I’m a woman. Now, since I’m not some ass-kicking fighting machine, they’ll really discount me.”

We’ve reached 8 and I fob us in. “Here’s the thing, guys. I’m not Ranger. I don’t want to be Ranger. I’ll never be the one whose first thought is to body slam you to the ground. I’m different. I’ll screw with you another way. But tell me, do you really think the Miami men learned the lesson from the housekeepers? Or do you think they stuck it out just long enough to get what they want again?”

The guys are silent but smiling.

“So now they know. The CO is a woman and she’s not physical. She’s shit on the mats, so we don’t have to worry about that. Some of them learned yesterday that I’m no idiot, so they’ll be confused about how to respond to questions. So let’s see how they’ve chosen to respond.” I look at Diego. “You figured out the problem in the bodyguard department yet?”

“I think I have. After Mack told me what he witnessed, I thought about it and called a strategists’ meeting to brainstorm through it. We’re agreed.” He swallows hard, looking angry and embarrassed. “I’m furious that I didn’t see it.”

I turn to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You saw it but you were immune to it, having seen it for so long. It’s all around you but it was a sharp shock to Mack.” Diego nods. “Don’t beat yourself up. I know you’re a good strategist. I know you’re sharp and you don’t miss things, but everyone is capable of missing what they see every day. This is why Les wanted to move you guys around.”

“Situational fatigue,” Diego mutters.

“Exactly. You’ve seen it for so long you learned to ignore it.” Diego barks a laugh. Thomas is smiling and shaking his head. “You needed to see it from another angle.”

“Still,” he starts, “I’ve wanted him out for so long and—”

“You went to NYC and were able to report back to me in three weeks with the true problems there. Mack? Mack saw the problem here because he’s brand new. Pat too. They’re looking at it with new eyes. That’s why I take people from other branches with me when I do the review. They’ll see things I don’t a lot faster.”

I put both hands on Diego’s shoulders. “Stop beating yourself up,” I tell him softly. “Your colleagues are ready to help you. So let them. And I need you to do me two favors?” He nods, waiting. “One: teach Mack the strategists’ skill set. I have plans for him. Mario too.”

Thomas grins and I remember that Thomas and Mack are cousins. Like Les and Ranger, and Bobby and Chase, Mack and Thomas look similar when they smile.

“Two, and this is the hard one.” I wait until I’m in Ranger’s apartment to finish the thought. “I need you to get me a list of all the fired RangeMen. I have to hire them back.”

Their eyes widen. “Why?” Thomas exclaims.

I look at him and then Diego. “I need you to step out, Thomas.” He looks at me, bewildered, but leaves.

Diego looks thoughtful and the moment the door closes he says, “They know too much.”

“Exactly,” I reply. “I talked to Les last night. We don’t have a choice. If they start talking, they might give up Ranger. I can’t have that. So, I need you to get me the list, I’ll hire them so you don’t have to acknowledge having fired them, and I’ll handle them.”

Diego sighs. “How on earth do you plan to handle them?”

I shrug. “No ideas yet. I’ll think of something. So, your plans?”

“I’ll get you the list of fired RangeMen, then take the list of cancelled and lost bids and get started.” He snorts. “I mean, we did this, Steph. Each time we lost a client or missed a bid, Armando would go personally and ask what we could have done to retain their business or win the bid.”

I smile, not surprised. “I know. I’ve seen the notes on the contracts. Let Pat help you and tell each person you talk to that I’m going to come speak to them too. I doubt they say anything to you but they’ll talk to me.”

After all, I’m another woman. I know the gossip stops. I know where we congregate. I just need to do a little digging in those places. I think I’ll call Mariela today.

---

I decide to start with Mario. Between Victor, Mack, Marcus and Zip, I’ve been assured that Mario is a straight shooter and he’s ready to talk to me. Good. Plus, Danny said he might make a good strategist. I liked Mike in Boston so I’m eager to meet Mario. I head to bonds enforcement.

“Hello?”

Mario is grinning. “Ms. Plum, I’m happy to see you.”

I give him a big hug. Mario looks surprised. “Stephanie, please. I know I’ve never really said this, but thank you for having Hector’s back during that shooting.”

He smiles. “No problem, Steph,” he says softly. “Hec’s a brother and he’ll be the first to throw himself into danger for someone else. I didn’t mind.” He laughs. “Besides, he’d already decked himself out to be shot. All I did was screw up the shot.”

I laugh. “Well, thank you. I should’ve said thank you then, but I was worried about him.” He rubs my back and we stand in silence for a moment. “Please tell me we have a skip to chase.”

His smile drops. “Well, yes, we do . . . but due to the FBI interest in you, I wasn’t sure if you’d want to get out skip chasing. If we go, I’ll have to put a guard in place.”

I groan. “OK, fine. Surveillance?” I don’t care. I just want out of the building for a while.

He smiles. “I think we can do that.” He looks at my outfit. “You want to change your outfit. Black in the Miami heat is killer. If we’re just doing surveillance, you’ll want to be comfortable.”

I smile and head back to 8 to change into a sundress and sandals. I grab a pair of RayBans and make a note to call Manny tonight. Mario meets me in the garage; we slip into a Ferrari and head out.

“Where are we headed?”

“South Beach. Newest target is a South Beach regular.”

“Where’s the security detail?”

He laughs. “Hal and Mack are two cars back. There’s another already headed there and they should be in place before we arrive.” I make a face and he laughs. “Hey, I’m a lot of things, but dumb is not one. I’ll be damned if you get kidnapped while out with me. Mack convinced Hal that we needed to be alone because he assumes you’re interviewing me like you did him.”

I blow a breath. “Yeah, CO passes standards, still has a guard. Nothing has changed.”

Mario looks over at me. “CO passed standards at a level which was pretty fucking impressive, by the way. Congratulations.” I look at him and he nods. “Yeah, I was impressed. You blew it out of the water. Anyway, you passed but whatever the CCO is doing is making ‘unfriendlies’ nervous and you’re the convergence point. Diego told us not to fuck up protecting you.”

I chuckle. Mario grins and turns forward.

“The target?”

“Eduardo Gonzalez. Owns a club which the DEA believes is a front for his drug activities. Surveillance only, boss. They just want info, so we’re tailing him to his favorite brunch restaurant.”

We arrive, park, and take the RangeMan surveillance position. I look at him. “Spill.”

He takes a deep breath, leans back and sighs. “Steph, I don’t even know where to start.” He looks over at me. “OK, so we ran through bonds enforcement yesterday and those were good ideas. I caught Mack later and we sat down and brainstormed so I’m ready to try some new things.”

“Why haven’t you before?”

“We didn’t need to. Bonds Enforcement is making money hand over fist. Honestly, I was more interested in moving into private investigations on an expanded scale because I felt we’d pretty much tapped out bonds enforcement. I had to agree with Antonio yesterday. I didn’t see the point of buying smaller bonds companies and using them as a feeder. We are a bonds company. That’s like lowering our threshold.

But if you and Leadership Core think it’s a good idea, then we’ll move on that. We’re just always careful to stay within Ranger’s guidelines for what RangeMan should be. We’re a high class outfit. We aren’t Rent-A-Cops.”

I open my pop and wish for a Tastykake.

“Now, expansion isn’t a bad idea either, especially toward Fort Lauderdale, but we’d need satellite offices and more men. I’m willing to do that, head that up, if you approve it. Mando and Diego were already talking about this new satellite office model and I’m ready. I’d love to stick some in Hialeah, Hollywood, and Cutler.”

“OK. Your ideas for bonds enforcement in Miami?”

He thinks for a few minutes. “Honestly, I can’t see very much that we need, but if you have ideas or suggestions you want to implement, I’m all for hearing it.” He grins. “Marcus is talking shit to me weekly and I’m getting tired of it. We’re third right now and I’m all for capturing the crown from Atlanta.” I laugh. “We’ve always had a great capture rate and we write profitable bonds so expansion is really our next step.”

I smile. That’s pretty much what I’d gathered too. Mario runs his department well and the numbers back him up.

He taps his fingers on the steering wheel and looks pensive. Finally, “Can I talk about the office now?”

I grin. “Please.”

“Please fire Antonio. Him, Pedro, and Patrice. I don’t care how you do it, just fucking get rid of them.”

“Why?”

He looks at me in astonishment. “Oh man, how much time do you have? Sexist, difficult, arrogant, condescending, you name it that fucker is it and he’s got a clique—”

“There’s four of them and 80 of you. You mean to tell me you couldn’t have given them the cold shoulder before now? You guys couldn’t have convinced all of them to quit?”

He shakes his head. “First, RangeMan brotherhood says that if the fucker is one of us, you accept him. I’m former military, Steph. Infantry. I hated some of the bastards I served with, but I’d take a bullet for them because I knew they’d take a bullet for me. Brotherhood means you don’t abandon someone just because he gets on your fucking nerves. My blood brother, you know, mi familia, gets on my damn nerves but I’d never leave him and never betray him.”

I grimace. Val ran three guys down for me. I matched her with Albert. Yeah, I get it.

“Second, we didn’t realize—”

I point at the dash. The light just started blinking. Mario rolls his eyes, disables the monitoring and calls it in. “Yo, turn that shit off. The CO is protected. We’re cool.” He hangs up and we wait for the light to stop blinking.

“OK, so second, we didn’t realize how bad it was here until the housekeepers started their regime.” I laugh and he smiles. “Yeah. I mean, Diggy beat Tony’s ass all the time, but we didn’t really see the issue until the housekeepers showed us the problem. Not only does he not respect woman, the fucker has no respect for leadership—”

“How on earth did you guys miss that?” I ask, incredulous.

“Because we typed Mando’s and Tony’s issues as personal. Family squabbling.” He swallows. “I’ve been in the company since the beginning, Steph. I saw the occasional disagreement between Les and Ranger.” My eyebrows rise and he nods. “Well, I didn’t really see it. We felt it. It was rare, but it happened on occasion and the office was tense until I guess Ranger backed off in favor of letting Les run his ideas. So this thing between Mando and Tony felt like Ranger and Les all over again.”

I’m silent. That’s . . . interesting. “You mean the men ignored Mando and Tony’s squabbling because Les got his way over Ranger?”

“I’m saying those of us who were here at the beginning, which is about 30, remember that. We remember that Les got his way, which is why some of RangeMan’s services exist. For example, when the law changed and you had to get licensed as a bail agent to be a bounty hunter, Ranger was in favor of dropping it. Les thought that was short-sighted.” Mario shrugs. “As the man in charge of that department, I gotta side with Les on that one. Our bonds company is widely respected. We could run bonds all over the country from here in Miami if we put the paperwork on the website.”

My mouth drops and Mario nods then grins. “So I guess that’s an additional idea I have for my division but seriously, Les was right there. We make serious money there and it’s all internal. Tony? Tony is an asshole but he’s also creative. Good ideas and Diego does implement some of them.

I don’t think there’s a man in management in Miami that would disagree with me on that. Tony’s creative and he has good ideas. He’s just an asshole. He really thinks he knows more than anyone else and he should be in charge. I’d put next month’s paycheck on him throwing Mando and Diggy under the bus when you talk to him.”

So would I. “And now?”

“The housekeepers reminded us that a leader is the person who’ll stand by you. The person who’ll protect your ass in a fight. That’s what they did for Maria. They reminded all of us that they could kill us to protect Maria and that was a wake-up call. I’ll never ever forget Ms. Rose telling me that her superpower was that she could poison every fucker in the branch.” I laugh and Mario shakes his head.

“That’s the difference in the two situations and that’s what we’ve had pointed out to us. Ranger and Les would protect us. They stand by us. They believe in us. That’s Mando, not Tony. Diego, not Tony. If bullets were flying, Tony’s ass would have a great explanation for your family on why you’re dead. Mando and Diggy would show up bullet-scarred and in grief with the family. Man, we loved Diggy for firing Julio off the bat.” He grins at me. “He fired Thierry after yesterday’s meeting.”

“What?” I check my email. Yup, Thierry was fired. Insubordination. So was Nacho for the same thing. I wonder why Nacho was fired.

“Diggy’s made it clear: Disrespect the CO and he’s done with you. You won’t get a second chance and the gossip goes that Mando is on the line each time he fires.”

I wince mentally. I’m going to have to make sure they understand that Diego’s still in power in the branch.

Mario stares out the windshield. “Plus, the other difference was that when Ranger and Les disagreed, we only knew because things got tense in the office until they resolved it. They never fought or disagreed in front of us. They lived and breathed brotherhood in front of all of us and that was the standard.

Tony liked to poke Mando in front of everyone. He liked to test Mando’s leadership and dis him openly. When Mando came back from the beach and body-slammed Tony for steppin’ in his office without permission, we all understood that Mando was a different man.” He smiles at me. “No idea what you did to him, but those of us with a brain got the point. The CO was not to be trifled with cuz Mando was swinging his balls. He looked at Tony like he was a roach he’d love to exterminate.”

He chuckles and hands me a bottle of water before draining his. “Anyone with sense figured it out quickly: You’re the only thing between Tony and an “exit interview”, but since he doesn’t respect women, he won’t acknowledge that you have any power.”

I sit back in shock. Yeah, moving Mando to Charlotte was the best thing for him. “I’ve heard everything possible about Mando’s leadership. Tell me, when do you think he lost his edge?”

Mario looks at me seriously. “When his pops died. He hasn’t known peace since.”

---

Mario and I sit in the Miami heat for two hours talking about the office. Mario gives me the scoop on every person in the office and he’s clear about who he is, his strengths and weaknesses.

“Honestly, Steph, I’d like Mando back but I realize that we all did him a disservice. There’s a quote Mando gave me when I joined branch leadership. I have it posted big in my office.” He looks at me. “Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’“

I nod. Again, something about Mando I like. I hear, consistently, that he tries to develop his men. Diego, Mario, Thomas, all his leadership supports and believes in him. His problem is the men, because he allowed them to run him over, and he allowed them to run over him because of his cousin. I can’t wait to drop in on Charlotte. I get a feeling I’m going to be looking at a different Armando Cortes.

“I see now that, to be a success in my position, I should have been asking myself, how can I help my XO? We all told him to fire his cousin but we never gave him the RangeMan brotherhood he’s given us.” He slumps in the seat slightly. “My apartment flooded three years ago. Mariela and Armando showed up at my apartment, helped me salvage my stuff, and let me stay at their home until my insurance check came through and I could move.”

He looks at me. “His mother had just moved in. His father had just died. They’d just had a baby. Mando had all kinds of shit going on in his life, but he and his wife were there when I needed them. That’s RangeMan brotherhood.”

Eduardo Gonzalez decides not to show, so we head back to RangeMan Miami. I take a nap before I head back downstairs to talk to Braulio and Deuce. Their interviews are like Mario’s, so I ask each man to gather his men together for me to speak to them later. I’m just curious now. Antonio is next and I can’t wait to hear what he has to say.

---

The rehired RangeMen (all seven) show up ready for their shifts that afternoon. I talk to each one, letting them know that they were being rehired only because I want to meet them and assess them myself. I’m not reversing Diego’s decision, per se, only putting them on probation for 30 days until I know more about them. Tank, who is on speakerphone, lets them know that my decision on them would decide if their terminations would stand.

They are quietly grateful to have been rehired and say nothing more (Well, Nacho couldn’t. His jaw is wired. What happened there?). I ask who they talked to in the meantime and all of them said no one. They know better. I let them know that if I heard anything, Ranger would be the least of their worries. A few snort until Tank says, “The female of the species is, quite often, more vicious than the male.”

That shut them all up.

---

“Where’s the closest mall?”

I’ve walked into Antonio’s office and he’s on the phone. He asks the person on the other end to hold and puts it on mute.

“Excuse me?” I repeat the question. He looks amused. “Dolphin Mall but Aventura is better. Two Macy’s. Up for a shopping trip?”

“Yes,” I grin. He laughs.

“OK. I’m on with a client but if you’ll pull Hal and Mack, I’ll put your security in place and we can go.”

“Thank you.”

So far, so good. I find Mack and Hal, both of whom give long-suffering sighs. “Yeah yeah, you hate shopping. I know. But I also need to talk to him and I want to do it away from this building. Plus, I’m starting to feel stir-crazy.”

“OK, Sis. Just remember, we’re at your back.”

I can’t forget.

Mack and Hal go to Antonio’s office to meet with him about my security and I leave with just the three of them.

“Where’s the rest of the detail?”

“Unnecessary,” Antonio says. “Between the three of us, we can put down any threat. Besides, you didn’t want to be followed by heavily armed mercenaries all the time, right?”

“Right.”

We arrive at the mall and I grin. “Well, it’s not King of Prussia”–I hear Hal groan–”but it’ll do.” I start walking but I hear the conversation behind me.

“Homie, King of Prussia?”

“Largest mall in the country and it’s 45 minutes from us.”

“You’re fucked,” Antonio says, and Mack chuckles.

“And all of Trenton knows it,” Hal replies.

---

After two hours, I’m enjoying a cup of ice cream. The guys are rubbing their biceps.

“Boss Lady, have pity on us poor men,” Mack moans. “You the super-shopper. Be kind. We can’t go stash these in the car without leaving you a man down.”

“If I agree to sit here while one of you goes?”

Hal looks at me considering. “You won’t move?”

“I have ice cream.”

Hal grins. He takes the keys from Antonio and the bags from both and heads to the car. Mack laughs.

“How does he do it?”

I lick my spoon. “Les reminded me that Hal won’t fall for the same tricks anymore. He’s more likely to stun me and handcuff me to the chair if he thinks I’ll move.” Mack and Antonio fall out laughing. “It’s easier to negotiate with Hal. Besides”–I swallow hard–”he still blames himself for my kidnapping during the Slayers mess. I never want him to blame himself for something that was my fault ever again.”

Mack nods. “Solid, Steph.”

I smile. Hal returns 10 minutes later, slightly out of breath. I laugh. “I didn’t move.”

He nods. “I didn’t think you would, but I didn’t want to leave you a man down for longer than absolutely necessary.”

I toss my spoon and cup and wave. “Come on. More shopping.”

We start walking and I pull Antonio up closer with me and give Mack a look. He stops Hal and allows us to get a little further ahead. I turn to Antonio, who looks amused by this.

“So, bodyguards in Miami. I’m out with the head of the group. Tell me about your men and your area.”

He still looks amused. “Well, there are 45 of us, mostly on long-term contracts to major businessmen in the area. Some are with families. All my men are trained and armed and have high client satisfaction ratings.”

“So why are we losing contracts lately and not successful in closing the deal on the ones we lose?”

His smile drops. “Who says?”

“The paperwork says.”

He’s silent for a moment. “We’re not sure.”

“What have you done to investigate it?”

“Excuse me?” He looks over at me, offended. I’m amused.

“You’re the one losing the contracts and money. That means less bodyguards. So what are you doing to fix the problem?”

“You say that like there is a problem. We lose contracts due to a variety of factors.”

“And you don’t follow up to find out why?”

He stops. “Of course I do, but I don’t have time to run around after every lost contract and find out why we lost it. My job is to generate business and make sure my men are scheduled. I hear you’re good at playing detective. You call them.”

I’m quiet for a moment then I smile. “I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.” He turns red. “I’m not your secretary and I’m not going to play detective. I’m not going to do your job because if I have to do your job, I’ll replace you with someone else. So far, you aren’t impressive.

Everything I’ve seen and heard regarding your performance in your position leads me to believe that you spend more time harassing your cousin about how he does his job than paying attention to how you do yours. So, let’s try this again. What have you done to investigate why you’re not getting contracts and why you’re not getting renewals?”

“You haven’t seen me perform my job yet.”

“Don’t assume that.”

“Fine. I won’t assume it. I’ll simply tell you, point blank, to back off thinking you know how I do my job. I have high client satisfaction ratings and high job performance ratings—”

“Not from me you don’t. It doesn’t matter what smoke everyone else has blown up your ass. My opinion of leadership at RangeMan Miami is what matters, and so far you have a major problem with me.” I stop and face him, completely serious.

“The number one thing I’ve heard about you is you don’t respect management. You’re proving that now. I’m the CO and you’ve been a complete asshole with me so far. No respect. Not even an attempt to pretend you respect me. So far, you are failing in job performance and being insubordinate. I hear Diego’s firing for that right now.”

There’s nothing like getting in someone’s face, especially when they deserve it. Jersey upbringing for you. Yeah, I could be a little more polite about it but why? He’s not being polite about anything he has to say. I spot the other Macy’s, turn around and smile at Hal. He looks forward and groans. Mack looks forward and grins. I turn back to Antonio, who is still staring at me stonily.

“I’m shopping. You keep thinking. I can’t wait to hear your response.”

---

Hal’s POV

Antonio looks as if he’d like to stab Sis with something sharp right now, so his interview is going badly. Meanwhile, Mack and I are taking note of the sudden influx of people following us.

“You think she’s noticed?” Mack whispers.

I shake my head. “She’s too intent on him. She’ll notice soon. You stay with her. I’ll go sweep the store.”

I walk into Macy’s and ask for the manager. I show him my bodyguard license and ask how many exits there are to the store. He tells me that there are only a few outside exits. I whisper that we’re protecting a high-interest individual and will need to secure all exits against kidnapping.

This would cause a lot of interest and speculation in NJ, but I guess it’s common here. He merely nods. I walk back outside to Mack.

“Multiple outside exits. No way to cover efficiently. I’ll stick close to her. You roam in a circle, watching individuals. I’ll tell Antonio to cover the entrance.” He nods and we approach Sis.

“Steph?”

“Hmm?”

“Blank face.” Sis slides her new blank face into place. I laugh mentally. She modeled Hector’s. It’s a slightly insane looking smile. “We’re being followed. I’d estimate 10-15. I’ve swept Macy’s and there are multiple exits. Where were you planning to go? Shoes?” I hope only shoes. There’s an outside exit there.

She looks stunned and is turning pale. “There’s really that many people following us?”

“We told you, Boss Lady. High value target.”

She swallows hard and nods. “OK. Yeah, just shoes. Call Hector. Let him know to watch my trackers. After this, we leave.”

I turn to Antonio. “Shoes has an outside exit. Protect against that. I’ll call Hector and tell him.” Hector would prefer she leave now, but I tell him we have a plan in place. She’ll be OK.

Steph shops quickly and we’re out in 30 minutes. We head to the truck, stash her bags, and head back to the building. Antonio called for an escort while we were in the mall, so we have a three-car escort back to the building. Good call. It throws the following vehicles off.

We make it back inside and Steph swallows hard, looking out of the windows. There’s a look I can’t quite place on her face. She turns to us and her shoulders slump.

“Let’s get my bags upstairs. Antonio, I want to meet with your men tonight, 2000, and I expect you to have an answer to my question.”

We follow Sis upstairs, stash her bags, and leave.

---

Steph’s POV

I’m in Ranger’s bedroom, our bedroom, in my thinking position on the bed.

Shopping trip cut short due to a threat against me. This would be my life.

I need you to accept that my life involves danger. It involves constant monitoring and intel on enemies. It requires that I display few weaknesses. . . A life with me means accepting that you will have to acknowledge that kind of information . . . all the things you run from now will be a part of your life with me.

Bodyguards weren’t something he named, but it’s something I run from and it’s now part of my life.

“Ranger, it’s the life I’m already living. What would be the difference?”

I had no fucking idea.

---

The bodyguards are first, at 2000. There are twenty of them and Antonio is sitting in the head seat when I walk in. I smile. “Hello.”

He nods and motions for me to sit at his left. I laugh.

“Nice try. Leave.” He stares at me. I’m still smiling. “I’m not giving you all day to do it either. I asked to speak to the men. I’ve already spoken to you. Send your answer to me via email.” Another tense moment and he finally leaves.

I sit in the chair and smile. “Nice of him to fart in it before he left.” A few chuckles around the room as I switch chairs. “So …” I get comfortable in the chair. “Tell me about bodyguard services here in Miami.”

Silence around the room. I feel my eye start to twitch the longer the silence lasts.

“Look, sweetheart, I’ve been a bodyguard for five years. This department makes money hand over fist. We don’t need a review.”

I look around the table. “And how many of you agree with”–I look at him–”who are you?”

“Jozen.”

“Jozen?” All hands but six are raised. I smile and make a note. “OK, thank you. You can go.”

They’re shocked. “You don’t have any other questions?” Jozen asks.

I shake my head. “Nope. You say you’re fine. I’m sure when I’m done reviewing everything that’s exactly what I’ll find. You’re fine, you have no needs, and don’t want anything. Goodbye.”

I start writing notes. No one’s moved. I look up again and they all look confused. I check my watch. “Yes?”

“You didn’t ask us what we need.”

“I don’t have to. You said you don’t need a review. Asking what you need is part of my review. You don’t need a review so you don’t need anything. Leave.”

They’re still sitting so I sigh and stand. “Nevermind. I’ll leave. Goodnight.”

I leave and start laughing. Idiots. I wait outside the door.

“Twenty bucks says she’s on the rag. That’s why she’s acting like a bitch.” They laugh.

They’ve chosen to make this hard.

---

I hear a knock at my door. “Come in.” A RangeMan steps into my office, Ranger’s office, and falls into parade rest. Sigh. “Yes?”

“I’m Lawrence, Ms. Plum. I’m a bodyguard, well, armed guard. I wanna talk about bodyguards here.”

I stare at him. “Why didn’t you speak up earlier?”

“Permission to speak freely?”

I write a note to add that to my list of phrases I don’t want to hear ever again. “Go ahead.”

“Tony’s an asshole and so are the majority of the men in that department. Since I’d prefer not to have the shittiest assignments we have for simply telling the truth, I decided to speak to you privately. If you’d like to speak to the men who didn’t raise their hands, we’d love to speak to you.”

I stare at him before sighing and nodding. “Get them in here now.”

Five minutes later I’m listening to Ren, Etienne, and four more guys detail everything going on in the bodyguard/armed guard division. They spill everything and I’m shaking my head. My suspicions have been confirmed.

“So, what do you think I should do?”

Each man looks at each other before Etienne finally says, “Fire ’em. All of them.”

---

Thursday

Again, I wake up bright and early the next morning and go to the gym. And again, my presence causes every man to stop and stare. I merely wave and hit the treadmill. After an hour, I’m dripping nasty sweat and exhausted. Diego has arrived and is smiling at me.

“Mats?”

“You and Thomas have amazing timing.”

Mack has walked in. “Yo, Boss Lady, if you want a real workout, you can take me on.”

“No thanks. You tried to body slam me. I haven’t forgiven that yet.” He laughs.

Diego and I face off, Diego defending against my attack. The men watch and, after ten minutes, start laughing.

“How cute. She thinks she can fight.”

“Diego is taking it easy on her dumb ass. Otherwise, she’d be flat on the ground.”

“Hey Diggy, next time I get mat time, how about you be this nice to me?” Laughter.

I stand straight up and hold up a hand. “Diego, could you translate that last sentence?” Mack has pulled a shank, which has shut them up.

“Sure. ‘Hey Diego, next time I get mat time, how about you be this nice to me?'”

“They think you’re taking it easy on me?”

“Yup,” he replies, wiping his face.

I smile at the RangeMan who said that. “Who are you?”

“Patrice,” he answers, smiling.

“Great. Ass on the mats. Now.” He looks shocked but I’ve stopped smiling. “I mean it.”

He smiles. “That’s not necessary, Miss Plum. I’d hate to hurt you. You’ve made your point.”

I’m not smiling. “Apparently not, because you’re not on the mats. Keep stalling and I’ll ask Mack to use that shank. He’s been waiting for me to tell him he can.”

That stops all smiles. The men look over at Mack nervously. He has two blades in hand and is looking at them as if determining the best vulnerable spot to hit. Hal and Thomas have arrived and Hal is also assessing the men. Finally, Patrice strips his shirt and steps onto the mats. I immediately rush him and I don’t let up for the next 30 minutes.

“Come on, Patrice. I’m not asking for favors. I’m asking you to come with it. This is mat time, remember? You earned it from the CO. Is this the defense you’d put up against Ranger?”

The gym is full now and everyone is watching. I immediately kick Patrice’s knee and he goes down in pain. Trenton was clear when training me: Immobilize quickly then get away as fast as you can. I’m not playing about this. My style is to hit hard and keep moving.

“Is this your best? Because Mack gave me his best. Your best is shit.”

I send my elbow into the small of his back and watch him crumple in pain. He’s gotten a few solid hits in on me but I’m clearly holding my own. After 30 minutes, I call time and Thomas tosses me a towel. Patrice’s knee is shot, I’ve put my knee to his balls, and the elbows have landed square in his back a few times. I turn to the rest of the men in the gym.

“My style isn’t mats, guys, but I think a point needs to be made. I’m your boss, to be obeyed, not patted on the head. I’m not someone for you to amuse and I’m not here to amuse you. I’m not a joke. I’m here to assess this branch and make some decisions. Everything I know about this branch, so far, is negative. Want to be unemployed? Keep it up.” I look around at each man and nod at Diego and Thomas before leaving.

Patrice is still on the ground, holding his knee. Antonio is watching me carefully.

---

0900 sees me meeting with the monitoring group. They heard about the review from the bodyguards. They come with a list of things.

“We thought we’d save you some time and go ahead and get you a list of our needs together, along with some things we’d like and other things we thought of.”

I blink. The list is three pages. Isn’t this the housekeepers all over again? “Thanks . . . “

The RangeMan grins. “No prob. We figured you’d forget to ask something and we wanted to make sure we covered everything.”

“Was Deuce involved in putting this together?”

“Nope. We took the initiative to do it. Figured we’d save you some time so we can get to more important stuff.”

More important stuff? What’s more important than my review? I start the review anyway. I ask more and more questions until I hear someone mutter “Dios, she’s as smart as a man. It’s like being interviewed by Ranger.”

I make a note and pretend I don’t hear that. “So, do you have enough space?”

“Question 12.”

“Excuse me?”

“We answered that already. Question 12 on the sheet.”

I look. Space in RM Miami is good. I take a few minutes and read through the sheet and smile. There are a few more things I’d ask, but let’s see if they’re as stupid as the bodyguards.

“Can I learn everything I need to know reading this?”

“Yes.”

“OK. Dismissed.”

They’re surprised but they leave, smiling.

They’re as stupid as the bodyguards.

One hour later, I’m looking at twelve men from the monitoring group. They spill everything going on and, again, they recommend I fire all their colleagues.

---

Group three? Security installs. They took come with a list of pre-answered questions and no, Braulio did not assist.

“So, you guys work in tandem with the monitoring group?” Chuckles around the table. “What’s so funny?”

“You bustin’ out the big words,” the RangeMan says, laughing. “Tandem.”

“That’s funny?”

They stop laughing and look at me closely. “Well, we know you aren’t an ‘intellectual’.”

“Oh. Well, I do occasionally trot out the big words. My dad and I did pay for my college diploma. Where did you go?”

All laughter stops. “OK, that’s disrespectful. Nobody asked you to throw your little degree in my face.” He snorts. “Besides you graduated at the bottom of your class, so I wouldn’t brag if I were you.”

“OK. I’ll take that to mean you don’t have one. Back to my question. You guys work in tandem with the monitoring group, right?”

It’s completely silent.

“Yes,” Jaime replies. He’s tried his best to answer questions openly and honestly during this session. “We have a graph of the installs in conjunction with monitoring.” He passes me the chart and I study it.

“If I am reading this graph correctly, I’d be very surprised.” Small smiles. “What, exactly, am I looking at?”

Jaime turns the graph and shows me the upcoming installs versus monitoring capacity. The chart makes absolutely no sense.

“So is installs are increasing exponentially?”

More chuckles. I stare at the offending RangeMan. He puts his blank face into place but when he thinks I’m not looking, he smirks.

“Umm … no. We have six this month, seven next month, and nine in December.”

“So this chart goes to the end of the year.”

“Yes.”

“You need some labels on it.” I smile at Jaime. “This is completely confusing.”

He shrugs. “We understood it. We assumed you would too.”

Two hours later?

I sigh and look at my notes as eight men from this group, including Jaime, leave my office. I lean back in Ranger’s chair and blow my breath up to the ceiling.

---

After a week of being led around, I’m pissed and amused. The men are sexist idiots, well, not all of them but at least 60% of them. I knew Miami was going to be difficult. I thought I was prepared for it, but I was wrong. I’ve never had to do so much ‘thinking’ in my life, but if I don’t go to 8 and scream I might shoot all of them.

I spoke to Mariela and asked her to give me a small sampling of the Miami gossip spots, based on the client list. Then I went and hung out in those places, which was interesting since I was shadowed by Hal and Mack, but I was right.

Antonio is a huge problem and one that will be fired, but it’s not just him.

It’s the entire branch.

The problem is the absolutely sexist attitude in the branch. It’s not one or two (or five) RangeMen. It’s all of them. The mole? Every single one of them. Their attitudes have pissed women off so much they’re gossiping about us. That’s the problem at RMMiami.

Amazingly, Miami leadership are the only ones coming out clean. When I talk to our current and former customers, they’re clear that the Miami Core, and the men in leadership underneath, are great people to work with. The ones who have been saved are clear that they were saved because of Armando, Diego, or Thomas. That makes the situation underneath even worse. I’m stuck on what to do with the Core Team. I’m probably going to need BLT to weigh in here.

This isn’t just an RMMiami problem. This is cultural. This is an issue within the city. Les warned me that this was a city-wide problem and I believe Les. I saw it at the mall. I was stunned when the saleswoman at the first Macy’s actually turned to Hal, waiting for him to produce a credit card to pay for my clothes. She honestly expected my bodyguard to pay for my clothes simply because he was the man standing next to me.

The blush on Hal’s face was the only thing that kept me from screaming, and it happened at every store we went into.

I thought about all the things Grandma told me at Point Pleasant, about living with grandpa for 50 years, cooking his meals, having his child, and keeping her mouth shut. I remember that about Grandpa Harry. It didn’t matter what your opinion was. His was the one that counted. His was the one that mattered and he made sure you knew it.

That’s exactly what I have here.

The sexism issue here in Miami is bigger than just the men, but I can’t solve that. What I can do is fix what impacts RangeMan. These men have no respect for women. That’s why the housekeepers’ war worked so well. Each one showed how she directly affected each man.

Each woman came in here and demonstrated her power, but she did it from a place that the men expect the women to stay in, the kitchen. They could accept the power of the housekeepers in the kitchen because the housekeepers were still doing ‘women’s work’.

I’m different. I’m the boss. I affect their very job, their paycheck. I’m not in a kitchen. I run the conference room. I run the meetings. I’m doing a ‘man’s job’ and I’m making it clear that I will do it. They don’t want to accept my power because that’s like saying I’m equal to, or worse, better, than a man.

So RMMiami is a small sampling of the city it draws from. There are men here who accept my orders and respect me, especially the leadership. They’re firmly behind me. There are men who are waiting to see what I’m made of first. And there are men who have no respect for me because I am a woman. They believe they have the right to call the shots and make the decisions. They believe that if they don’t like my decisions, the Leadership Core is always available for them to appeal to.

Nope. Time to nip this in the bud. There are women in leadership in this company and I’ve just hired another. We won’t be driven crazy. We will be respected.

I finally have a problem that Ranger can’t fix. If he came here and took over, the men would accept it. Another man would be in charge. That’s acceptable. That’s why they get in line when Ranger’s here. They know his standards, his expectations, and they don’t test him. If he came, or if Bobby, Tank, or Lester came, and tried to back me up, that would be equivalent to saying that I can’t do the job without a man behind me telling me what to do.

I need to find a way to make it clear that I don’t need the Leadership Core to do this job. I can do it on my own.

Problem? I didn’t have a single idea.

So I called Candy. Perhaps she would know something or have something, working in HR. The longer we talked, the more I realized I had the perfect weapon at my disposal.

So I called her and invited her to Miami.

---

My phone rings. I’m lying back on the bed, thinking of Ranger, hoping he’s safe.

“Yo!”

“Babe.”

My heart beats faster and I sit up. “Are you OK?” I whisper.

“Fine, Babe. How are you? Where are you?”

“I’m fine. I’m under guard in Miami, of course.”

“I thought so.” I can hear Ranger’s smile. “It’s been nearly a week, Babe. How are you handling it?”

“I’ve been allowing Miami to lead me around like I’m an idiot.”

Silence, then, “I probably don’t want to know, do I?” He sounds as if he’s holding his anger.

“You know your men. What do you think?”

“I think I miss you. Feeling like a break?”

I look at the phone. Who are you? “Are you suggesting I ditch the guards?”

“Nope. Do you remember how to get to the house?”

“No.”

“You know how to get to the airport?”

“Yes.”

“The Lamborghini doesn’t have tracking. You do. Take the Lamborghini to the airport, short-term parking. Once you join me, we’ll call Hector to turn your tracking off.”

“Problem.”

“What?”

“Hal says there were 10-15 men tracking me in the mall earlier this week.” I’m moving to pack an overnight bag.

Silence. “OK. I’ll put a decoy plan in place.”

“OK. You mean it?”

“Just for the weekend, Babe. Friday afternoon to Sunday.”

“What do you want to do?”

“You know my restrictions.”

“I know.” I’m thinking. “Can we go somewhere else? Like Tampa or Orlando? Or the Keys?”

Silence. “OK. Tampa.”

I grin. No tracking, no Miami men, and a weekend with Batman. Perfect!