Chapter 81.5 We Woo, Part III
Diego’s POV—Wednesday
Plum worship is in effect in Miami.
Miami leadership loves her. Thomas and I haven’t had to buy flowers for the CO yet. Mario came in on Saturday with a special bouquet. He said it was just in case she was still traumatized from her kidnapping but he blushed slightly. That’s Mario’s tell. I asked what they were really for. He admitted he’s talked to the rest of the men around the company. He found out she loves flowers, doughnuts, dancing, and naps. Since dancing was a bust, he brought flowers.
Deuce brought in half a dozen doughnuts. He and Mario talked to Marcus and found out that she had been converted to Krispy Kreme. He stalked a KK for 45 minutes that morning, waiting to get her a hot, fresh half dozen, but since he had no intentions of getting his ass beat by Hal, he gave those to Maria to give to the CO as appropriate. I went back to my office and laughed my ass off.
That explains the glaze in the corners of Steph’s mouth and her obvious happiness during what I expected to be a tense and unhappy meeting.
She’s already under guard, so she doesn’t have as much freedom as she expected to have while here. Listening to her talk, I realized that I didn’t know much about her, at least, not as much as I need to know. So I called Trenton and asked them what they recommended and what I should expect.
The stories gave me heartburn. Trenton has always been known as rough and tough but damn. I called Manny, got the update on Juana then asked him what I should do.
“I don’t want the CO to lose her mind in the building, but I hesitate to take her outside. She’s being watched and tracked.”
Manny snorted. “She’s always being watched and tracked. You should see the nosy people she grew up around. This is the first time since Scrog she’s being watched and tracked because of Ranger. Basically, find fun things for her to do that help her forget she’s in the building. You can leave the building, but make sure you take plenty of firepower and guards with you. Hal’s headed there and believe me, that’s the best thing. She’ll listen to him when it comes to her safety and if you are ever unsure, don’t hesitate to call Hector. Let them duke it out.”
“I’m already due mat time with Hector.”
“Then make sure you call him if there’s any confusion about her security arrangements. Confess your sins with Hector. Don’t let him catch you slipping.”
Advice noted and stored away.
Miami Leadership, except the asshole, quickly got on the bandwagon. We’ve been delivering the flowers to her office and making sure she has time to slip back up to 8 and ‘think’. Naptime? I hear the screams. I’d say that’s about 50% naps, 50% frustrated yelling.
Steph is starting to look tense and unhappy and, quite frankly, I like Steph. A lot and I prefer seeing her happy. She needs to be appreciated more for everything she’s doing and I’m determined to make that happen. I’m betting no one’s executed the ‘wooing’ list since we thought it up, so I decide to get on that.
So Thomas and I got really slick. We’ve arranged for a masseuse next week for Steph and Maria. They’re battling the Miami assholes.
Lessons from Maria: Don’t let any woman in your life walk around feeling unappreciated.
I consider myself a quick learner. I sent my mamí roses at the first of the month. Didn’t quite go over like I expected it to. Papí called, wondering what the hell had happened. Was I dying? Sick? Mamí was worried and ready to come check on me. I hung up the phone thinking it was a damn shame that a man does something loving and a woman’s first thought is something’s wrong. I checked with Thomas and he said his mom had the same reaction. We pondered the deeper meaning of that.
Shit. Maria might retrain us all.
I go in search of Hal and Mack. I like having Hal here. He’s the newest XO but he’s leading the pack. He’s not taking his relocation to Miami as a vacation. He brought his laptop and is doing all the admin from here. Junior is apparently a happy motherfucker because, with both Manny and Hal gone from Trenton, he and Ram were trying to hold the fort by themselves. So since his partner is doing admin, Junior is meeting men and doing the hiring with Ram and making sure everyone is staying on task in Trenton.
The newbie is showing the old dogs how it’s done so I definitely want to spend time with him and learn from him. After all, if I’m lucky enough to be recommended for San Antonio, I’m going to try to do the same. That would be the shit, if the new boy at RMSA toppled everyone his first few months in charge.
The thought makes me grin.
Everyone around the company has had to reassess their opinion of Hal Linden. He’s not stupid; that’s one sneaky fuck, but he got outwitted by the CO. Now that we know more about her, the story is being rewritten on that one. He’s the man and a lucky motherfucker at that.
Candy? Jesucristo! Does she have a sister?
I check my email and find the list of ideas. Hmm … I was wrong; someone’s been on this. I’ve seen the noise-cancelling headphones and we did the night out dancing (I cringe. That’s off for a while). The CO definitely knows Latin dances, which shocked every man here. Maria and Steph have rhythm, and when Steph said that Ranger taught her the bachata, I put that on the list of dances I’ll never do with her.
When a man teaches you a dance that intimate, he’s making a statement.
Game night. This isn’t a bad idea. Every man can play poker and Mack said the CO is a hustler with some cues. Now, personally, I wish I could see that shit cuz Mack’s no slouch. But game night’s a good choice. Indoors, lots of fun, every man can participate, and if we get a variety we can play for hours. Sounds like a plan.
I call Maria to my office. Maria steps in looking happy and confident. I wonder if I’m going to have to scramble the cameras again.
“Diego?”
I smile at her. This woman is not the same one who left. I love my Maria. She’s found herself and now she’s helping us put the men in their places. I love the woman she’s become.
“Maria. I need a favor.”
She sits and smiles. “OK. What do you need?”
“I want to do a game night. Lots of food, drinks, board games, cards, that sort of thing. Good clean fun.”
Maria grins. “I love it!”
“Great! Do you mind? Checkers, chess, multiple packs of playing cards and maybe some chips for the ones who wanna bet.”
“Excellent idea!” We start making a list of board games to buy and crafting a healthy menu of snack foods the men can eat. Maria leaves an hour later, happy to have something new to do beside fuck with the men.
I kick back for a moment before getting back on the crushing XO workload. Shit. I’ve had time to think about Lester’s words at the beach.
Being an XO is more than what you see. It’s about managing the unseen. Managing the unanticipated. Managing the unexpected. Keeping the men in line. Ensuring that the men both love and fear you.
Now that I see Armando’s full workload, all the shit he was doing, I realize I didn’t give my XO enough support. He had us doing certain items but Mando didn’t have time to slouch. He was managing budgets and schedules, keeping an eye on the bonds business, attending meetings and conferences here in the city, networking to get more business.
All that shit while keeping up with what was going on with all the men. Thomas and I fed him the status on the men most of the time but trying to keep up with all the shit going on in 80 men’s lives?
Mando delegated and Thomas and I definitely had a full workload but Mando? I’m surprised Mando had time to breathe. No wonder he lived in this damn office when he was here. I’m drowning. There’s a difference between knowing and doing and I’m seeing that difference now.
That’s another reason I love my XO. One of the first things Mando did when he reached Charlotte was set up two calls with me. One is a 30 minute daily pulse check. I give him the status on Miami, ask him to move on certain items, approve budget requests, that sort of thing. That call takes every second of those 30 minutes. There’s a lot to cover.
The second call is a three-hour training session once a week. Mando takes time to show me the different aspects of his job that we’ve never covered before. So I’m in the XO community of RangeWorld and I see how they communicate. We took time to discuss how the budget is formulated and tracked, and I also got a chance to see how he and Ryan communicate on the budget and the bonds business. I never knew the Miami office required 15 different bank accounts and Mando has to track each one down to the penny.
The last session was the XO status report that has to be submitted to the CO, and that session took three hours on Saturday. I’ve never done it before and it was a beast. Mando said that this week’s session was new protocols, which was postponed due to all the security that needed to go in place with the DEFCON2 order. I’m looking forward to this weekend’s session. I’ve read everything Mando sent. I never want to fuck up again.
Hal pokes his head in. “Yo.”
“Yo.” I’m trying to figure out how to schedule the men, but the schedules haven’t been done in months. What the hell? “‘Sup?” I ask tiredly.
“What’s up? You look exhausted.”
I bark a short laugh. “I am. Trying to schedule.”
Hal walks over and, seeing the paper schedule, laughs. “Procedure changed. Mando did scheduling?” I nod. “Open the master calendar for the branch.” I open my calendar then switch to the branch calendar. The current schedule pops up and I’m confused. “So Mando did the schedule for this month before he left but you need to do October, right?”
“Yeah. Mando said there was a new procedure he needed to show me, but he got posted to Charlotte first.”
Hal hits the ‘Trenton XO’ button on the speakerphone.
“Yo!”
“Yo, Junior?”
“‘Sup, partner?”
“Can you send Diego the scheduling instructions?”
“Done.” Click.
I know I’m brief but Trenton believes in ten words or less. My email pings and I see a short doc on scheduling with Microsoft Outlook.
“Read that. You just arrange the men’s schedule in the calendar and it’ll show on their calendar and in RangeWorld.”
I’m stunned. “You’re kidding me!”
Hal smirks. “Nah. New protocol. My idea. LC approved it for implementation. It’ll save you at least three hours, you don’t have to post paper anywhere, and if anyone requests a change you can approve or deny with one click.”
I send an email to Mando to tell him that Hal’s given me the protocol for scheduling. Mando pings back that that’s one less new protocol to cover this week. I check my list. Yup, there it is; I skimmed it but didn’t read it deeply. I put a flag on it to remind myself to go back and read this one deeply.
Hal is the man. I love this motherfucker. I’m spending every minute I can get with him.
Hal did not lie. I was done with October in four hours using the calendars instead of the all-day drama it used to be. I need to buy him a beer. I call Thomas to my office and we do it together so he knows how it’s done, just in case he has to do it in a pinch. I think about this and decide to channel Mando. I call all of Miami leadership in and show them how it’s done, just in case. Everyone needs to know. Then I delegate access to the men’s calendars to the heads of each department and tell them to ensure that the men are scheduled.
Thomas laughs and tells me there’s a fine line between delegation and lazy and I’m straddling it. I flip him off and remind him that it will be my job to make sure it’s been done. Besides, I’m taking disputes about scheduling back to the department level and allowing each head to earn his money. I don’t need to be contacted unless the men can’t work it out. We sit and look at all the duties again, making sure everyone’s on point.
Before he left, Mando said that I was the XO. I needed to be the XO. I looked at him, confused.
“Don’t approach the job as if you’ll be fired tomorrow.” He smiled. “You wanna be an XO?” I nodded. “Good, because you are. Delegate, authorize, retrain. You have my full confidence. Do whatever you want.”
I peeped his meaning. I called Miami Leadership together and started redistributing duties. I’m not Mando. I’m not gonna die in that office. Everyone has a small piece of the workload now and I’m watching everything like a hawk. That’s why productivity is surging. That and I’m firing. Fuckers know to keep their heads down and work.
Having the schedule done means I can speed through the rest of the day, and I’m done at 1700. I’m stunned. I wonder what other stuff is out there for me to learn. I head to Maria’s area, passing Antonio on the way. He and Patrice are talking but they shut up as they pass me. I smirk.
He didn’t expect Steph to take his insults so calmly, nor did he expect her to pass them right back to him. She’s embarrassed his ass time and time again since she arrived, and she hasn’t responded to him the way most women in his life do, by accepting his authority or mistaking his shit as some kinda half-assed compliment. She pushes back against him and, since he doesn’t respect women at all, he doesn’t know how to switch gears with her.
I’m waiting for her to tell me I can fire him. Rehiring the men I fired was a blow, but Mando and Hal have both said that Steph had to do that for the greater good. I’ll need to take this blow to my pride and ignore any whispers. Besides, Hal says, chances are ‘Sis’ has another plan in place. Keep my eyes on them, make sure they’re working, and wait to see what she’s come up with.
I can do that. I already know that she’ll do what’s right. I’ve seen her do that, which is why Mando is a different man now. I’ll keep my mouth shut, accept her (and Les’s) decision, and wait for the moment when she tells me I’m clear to fire them again.
I hit the CO’s office and poke my head in. Mack’s sitting there with Steph and Pat (it’s taking everything I have not to kill him). The shopping trip to the mall didn’t go how she expected and she’s been looking unhappy and withdrawn ever since. She’s due to speak to the bodyguard division in a few minutes.
“Steph?”
Everyone looks up. “Yes?”
“You have plans tomorrow night?”
“No . . .” She looks confused.
I smile. “I’m planning a game night but I don’t want to screw with your plans.”
Mack and Pat grin. “Game night?” Mack asks, a gleam in his eyes.
“Yeah. Playing cards, board games, pizza and wings—”
“Beer?” Steph asks, sitting up excitedly. I laugh.
“Beer.”
“Yes!” She does a fist pump and Mack and Pat laugh. I feel brilliant again. “You have a date, Diego.”
“Great. And Steph? You can call me Diggy.”
Game night started at 1900 Thursday. If you’re on duty, no beer. Off duty? Beer, wings, pizza, water. It’s live in our conference rooms.
Conference one is our largest conference room and we have the board games going. The CO isn’t bad at playing checkers but I’m winning this game.
“King me!” I grin, sliding one home.
“Damn!” she moans. She’s down to four checkers and I have three kings and two men still on the board. I’ve got her pinned. She can’t move anywhere that I can’t take her men.
Hal is trying not to laugh. “Call it, Diego. You have her pinned.”
“No he doesn’t!” she cries, looking for a move. Minutes later, she slumps. “Damn. That’s how many games?”
“Six out of eleven,” Maria says, laughing.
“OK, so clearly I’m rusty at checkers. Let’s play something else.”
“What’re you good at?” I ask.
“Poker.”
That’s what she thinks. We stand and head to conference two, the designated poker room for the night. The men barely pay attention. I see monthly salaries changing hands and smile. Mack spots us and waves.
“Yo, Boss Lady! Don’t tell me you got two hustles.”
“OK, I won’t tell you that,” she replies, grinning. I’m mentally laughing. Mack loves the CO in a way I can’t even describe. Complete, wholehearted adoration. It’s hilarious. I believe he really will take bullets and/or do time for her. I would too, but Mack will do it with a smile on his face.
“Shiiit, you think you know how to play. Sit here and lemme show you how it’s done.”
Two hours later, Mack, Antonio, and Steph are the only ones left standing and Mack’s about to be out. Every other game has stopped. Every man wants to see how she’ll do. Tony’s our card shark and they’re playing Texas hold ’em.
“Fuck!” Mack’s out. He leans back and laughs. “You and Ram! I swear, I’m tired of running up on Trenton’s hustlers.” Hal is laughing at him and Mack’s pouting again. It’s taking all I have not to laugh. Thomas gave up; he’s ribbing his cousin.
“You played poker with him?” Steph asks, tossing in two $100 chips and frowning. We thought she was telling her cards at first, but we realized that she frowns after every draw and every bet. She put three guys out before they caught on to it.
“Yeah.”
“Who won?”
Mack turns red. “Well, we all won. But he was last man standing.”
Steph collapses her cards and looks at him critically. Mack’s blushing. “Let me guess,” she says slowly. “Ram ended up in his socks?” Mack slides down in the seat, beet red and laughing hard.
Hal is astonished. “Is that what I missed?” Mack grins. “Christ! It’s a good thing I was banned.”
Tony is staring at her and trying to determine if he wants to raise her. He finally matches her bet. Mario deals the final card.
“Yeah, we heard about your party,” Mack chokes out. “I want Trenton to plan my b-day. Every chick in there was a dime piece and your wifey is foine.” Hal grins, beet red.
Steph laughs. “I played against Ram once. If it had been strip poker, I would have been naked in minutes, but Ram’s not even the best in the branch. That honor belongs to Vince.” Steph immediately slides another two chips in. “Vince and Ram have to be careful in Atlantic City. The casinos watch them carefully. They’ve come close to being banned a few times.”
“Why?” I ask.
She flicks her gaze over at Tony, amused. He puts his bet in, furious.
Hal snorts. “Vince can count cards. He understands odds and Ram’s slick.”
We nod. Good skill to have.
“Ella’s slick too,” Steph says, grinning at Hal. He raises an eyebrow. “We had to do something while I was on total bed rest.”
Tony calls. He has a flush, ace high. Steph smiles. She has a full house. There’s a rush of breath and Tony’s stunned.
“Holy shit,” I hear someone mutter behind me. Mack is laughing his ass off and Thomas is hiding a smile.
“This ain’t shit! Take the Boss Lady to a pool hall. I never had a chance.” Mack grins at her. “You hustle poker during college too?”
“Had to pay the tuition bill somehow,” Steph says, laughing. “I learned it was a lot harder to hustle to pay for the classes I flunked than I thought. I stopped wasting my dad’s money and started paying attention. At a minimum, if I hated the class, make a ‘C’. That’s passing but I wouldn’t have to take it again.”
Pat laughs. “Wow … that explains a lot.”
I slam my blank face into place and stare at him. So do Thomas, Hal, and Mack. Pat realizes how fucked up that comment was and pales.
Steph laughs. “Yeah. I realize now that I wasn’t ready for college. I was just ready to be out of the Burg.” She stands, scrapes her winnings into her pocket and takes Pat’s arm. She gives us a finger wave and they leave.
Pat’s POV
I cringe. That was stupid.
I’m not stupid. I haven’t been forgiven and no one is ever going to forget, but I would like them to stop hating me at some point.
I didn’t realize it until it broke, but my relationship with Diggy is dead. Completely in the water. When he chewed my ass away at Point Pleasant, I was stunned. Diggy and I had never had a fight. Shit, we’ve been helping each other since we each joined the company. Our XOs were tight so we learned to lean on each other. Now Diggy looks ready to body slam me every time I open my mouth near Steph.
Following Mark’s plan has cost me more than I originally thought it would. My colleagues hate me and I wish to god I hadn’t followed Mark into his insanity. But I can’t blame him for my predicament. Every man has to make a choice. I made mine. It was the wrong one.
Steph’s stopped in the break room and is loading her plate with wings, carrots and celery. I go grab the ranch dressing from the fridge and join her, my own plate piled high.
“Stop beating yourself up,” she says quietly. I stare at her. “I know. You fucked up. You want to move on from it. You’re tired of everyone throwing it in your face all the time and looking at you as if they’d like to stab you. Believe me, I get it.”
I swallow hard and nod.
“I had six months of it,” she says, looking at me. “Six months of everyone telling me what a screw up I was. That they were sick of watching me get hurt all the time. That they’d had enough of me being careless.”
I sit back, pale. “What?”
She huffs a laugh. “Yeah. Not once. Not twice. Multiple times in a bunch of different ways. It took months for me to accept that they were right. I don’t respond to orders, I hate running and exercise, I hate rabbit food, none of these about me have changed. But I finally take myself and my life seriously.”
I’m thinking that it’s about damn time. I mean, Steph’s OK but hell, we weren’t exactly cool with the idea of having the Bombshell Bounty Hunter as a boss. Everything about her said disaster. We know better now but if each man is really honest with himself, no one thought that was a good idea.
Which underscores, yet again, why you follow the Leadership Core even when you don’t understand. They knew better.
She licks her fingers and wipes them, still looking at me. “Here’s the deal, Pat. I didn’t like hearing it. I didn’t want to accept it. But I finally realized that they were right the day Les’s car blew up.”
I frown. “What?”
She smiles. “Nice to see the story didn’t make it to Boston. Long story short, I have terrible luck with cars. A former FTA of mine saw me out in Les’s BMW and tossed a Molotov at it.” She shrugs. “Bombshell Bounty Hunter strikes again. The local cops showed up and started laughing and passing money and I finally, finally, saw how bad the problem was. I’ve known these guys for years, went to school with them, they’re my ex’s colleagues, and they were laughing at me. Not with me. At me.”
I’m finally eating my wings again, wondering where she’s going.
“I’m not the same woman. I’m trained. I carry now. I’m prepared but in the eyes of the cops, I was still the BBH, car explosions and disasters following me like stench on a corpse.”
I cringe. Shit. My words at the beach.
“Yeah,” she says, looking at me knowingly. “So I’ve changed but what people know about me hasn’t. They don’t know everything I’ve done to change. They haven’t seen it. So I have months, maybe even years to go before people hear Stephanie Plum and don’t automatically think ‘disaster’ or ‘car explosion’.”
She starts eating her wings again and I see her point. I screwed up and I screwed up big. It will take time for everyone to forgive me and accept that I’ve really changed and, until then, I just have to live with the distrust and subtle threats. These men have every reason to love her. She’s Hal’s little sister. She saved NYC, so Mack adores her. She’s giving Diggy a chance to prove himself as an XO and she’s helping Mando save himself, so Thomas adores her. She’s had a great influence on all these guys’ lives and here I am insulting her.
No wonder the guys were so pissed at the beach. She gave Jorge a job, with his best friend, and the RangeMan brotherhood helped him get visitation with his little girl. I feel him on that. I love Dani. She said ‘Da da’ at Logan as she and Jen saw me off and I’m not ashamed to admit I really didn’t want to leave as I kissed her goodbye. I’d break if Jen took her from me.
Chase? She helped Atlanta come from behind to take second place and he’s in Charlotte now, proving himself as a strategist. Everything she’s done has helped Chase prove that he’s a good strategist. I’ve always known that but Chase is quiet. He doesn’t brag. He and Danny are the kind of men where you don’t know you’re in trouble until you’re in it.
Manny’s clearly headed to big things in the company. He’s helped build Trenton and NYC, proven that Javi is a good leader, investigated and put Liam’s ass away and helped the CO prove Shane was barely competent. He’s been working his ass off and now he’s in Boston, assessing Mark. Mark’s nervous as hell because he knows Manny will sniff out any of his deficiencies. He did with Javi.
“How long does it take?” I ask quietly.
The CO sips her beer and shrugs. “Hell if I know.” She’s quiet for a few moments then starts laughing. I look at her. She grins. “All I know is that I can’t allow anyone else’s opinion of me to stop me. I know I’ve made the changes, some big ones, because everyone else demanded it. Now everyone else is going to have to make some pretty big changes for me. I’m planning it now.”
I smile in spite of myself. “And me?”
She shrugs. “My issue with you isn’t you. It’s the speed with which you were willing to believe the worst about me.” She looks me square in the face. “You know Ranger and Les. You’ve spent time with both of them. Have they ever struck you as stupid?”
My shoulders slump. “No,” I reply quietly.
“Then why? Why join Mark in his insanity? You did half-assed research about me to learn more about me, but you didn’t call the people who could have given you the best assessment. You didn’t call any of the Trenton guys. Why not?”
“We wanted unbiased information.”
“From New Jersey?” She snorts. “Pat, there’s no such thing as ‘unbiased’ information. I pulled your college transcripts.” I look up, eyes wide. She’s smiling. “Seems I wasn’t the only person who made C’s in hated classes just to get through.”
I smile. “Exactly. That’s what I meant back there. I understood.”
Steph’s POV
This was a great idea. Pizza, wings, beer (how long has it been since I had a beer?), and I just won Antonio’s monthly salary from him. Excellent! I toss my plate, smile at Pat and return to conference room.
Hal smiles. “I feel like getting out for a minute. Interested?”
I look at Hal, wide eyed. Is he kidding? Let me go grab a jacket! Hal must have his ESP turned on because he smiles and whispers, “Garage. Five minutes.”
I leave the room, sprint up the stairs to 8, fob my way in, grab a jacket and change shoes (kidnap-friendly, just in case), then sprint back down to the garage. Hal and Diego are there, smiling.
“Sorry, Sis. I should have given you more time.”
“Forgiven,” I pant. “Where are we headed?”
“South Beach?” Thomas says. “Thought you might like to ride in style.” He takes my arm and escorts me to a candy-apple red convertible. He unlocks the door, Diego slides in behind me, and I slide in the passenger seat. Maria comes through the door at that moment with her jacket and a scarf on her hair. She hops into the backseat between Hal and Diego and passes me a scarf.
“Pat and Mack are keeping an eye on everything,” Maria says, climbing in. “I don’t think there will be many problems. The men are too intent on losing their paychecks.”
The guys are smirking. I turn to Thomas. “Is this another car we kept from the business?”
He starts the engine and smiles. “Nope. This is my pride and joy. A perfectly restored ’85 Caddy Eldorado. This was the last year they made the convertible model and I’ve spent hours restoring this car to showroom status.”
I can see. The white leather is perfectly sprung, the wood interior is polished, and the car has a gloss finish.
“Eight tracks?”
Hal and Diego laugh in the back. Thomas looks highly insulted. “The car might be vintage, but I’m all up to date, Steph.” He opens the compartment in front of me and grabs a remote, then turns the radio on. Yeah, this is definitely after-market.
“I feel like I’m sitting on a speaker.”
Thomas turns the volume down and smiles smugly. “You are.”
Right song and right level and I might embarrass myself. Thomas switches to something I don’t recognize but everyone in the back, including Hal, starts jamming. Thomas looks over and grins. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize Earth, Wind, and Fire, Steph?”
I shake my head. “Lawrence Welk, the Rat Pack, and Motown in my house. Personally? Metallica.”
Thomas grimaces. “Oh man, we gotta get you caught up.”
We cruise Ocean Drive for at least an hour. This is the view people think of when they think of Miami and South Beach. I’m taking pictures of everything I see and we’re jamming in the car. I recognize some songs, I’m clueless about others, and pay close attention to the Latin ones.
“Thomas, are you Latino too?”
He nods. “Afro-Dominican. Mack too. Our dads are cousins.”
I twist in the seat. “I’m going to be confined to the building most of the time, aren’t I?”
“Definitely during daylight hours,” Diego replies. “Outside the building we’re in a tough position. We could be pulled over and held on any damn thing if they think you’re in the car. Right now it’s the middle of the night, we’re driving carefully, and we’re willing to take the risk to get you out for a while. It won’t happen often.”
“And it’s about to end now,” Thomas says tightly. I look over at him. “We’re being followed. I’ve been watching. There’s an unmarked in front of us and another behind. I bet money they intend to try to trap us.”
“Options?”
“None.”
I’m looking around. “Hey, a McDonald’s! Let’s stop.”
“Steph, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Hal says tightly.
“It is if we need to buy time to get backup here. We sit and chill for a while, looking nonchalant, and wait for an escort.”
“In that case, let’s go to Segafredo’s,” Maria says. “That should be the perfect spot.”
“Nah. Parking is in a parking garage. Can’t leave the car,” Thomas says. He cruises to the McDonald’s and there’s one parking space in front of it, on the end. He pulls in McDonald’s and Maria runs inside and orders drinks.
Since we’re on the end, no one can drive up behind us without us knowing, so the car following us has to pass. I take a close look but I don’t recognize the people in the car.
“This is good,” Hal says, returning with the drinks. “We can watch everyone who drives by and really get an idea of how many cars are behind us.”
I nod, sipping my frozen lemonade. “Get away options?”
“Pretty good. I didn’t see any open parking spaces on the other side of the street, so they’ll have to go up at least a block and, in order to stay mobile, they’ll have to keep rolling by us.”
We sit for 15 minutes, enjoying our drinks. Hal tosses the trash and we look at Diego, who has been busy texting someone on his phone. “OK, we’re clear. Head back to the building, Thomas.”
We head back and, sure enough, the blue and whites of Miami PD start flashing behind us. I groan but Diego grins. Thomas pulls over and grabs his registration.
“License and registration, please,” the officer says, looking bored until he spots Diego. “Diggy! Sup man.”
“Chillin’.” They do one of those complicated hand things and Diego points to me. “We have a VIP here and we’re being followed by three suspicious cars.”
“Description?” The officer starts taking notes.
“Crown Shit”—the officer snorts and shoots Diego the bird—”unmarked, each vehicle carrying two suspects.” At this, the vehicle in front of us pulls off. Thomas smiles at me while I watch in shock. “OK, one down. The other two are behind us, Tahoes, one white and one black, unmarked. I suspect they intend to tail us back to our building.”
“Need an escort?”
“It would be helpful. We have additional firepower coming.”
The officer nods and returns to his car. The Tahoe behind us hasn’t moved. The officer moves in front of us and signals for us to follow. We start moving when we see a black SUV pull alongside and signal to move in behind us. I’m watching carefully. The white Tahoe speeds up to prevent it but the black SUV cuts in beautifully.
I look at Thomas. “NYC?”
“You know it, baby.” He smirks. I laugh. Mack. The white Tahoe honks but the black Tahoe continues to follow us closely.
“Isn’t he in violation of SOPs?” I ask Hal.
Hal smiles. “I think, at this moment, he doesn’t really care.”
We make it all the way back to the building safely. I wave to our police escort as he drives off and hop out. Mack and Mario hop out of the Tahoe.
“Boss Lady, next time you decide to go joy riding, lemme know. These close calls are enough to give a brother a heart attack.”
I laugh as he grabs me in a big hug. Mario bumps my fist.
“Seriously, Steph. I was the lucky man who drew the straw to come along. I wasn’t the only person trying to run a tail.” I watch as three more cars pull into the garage. I have to learn to pay attention to other cars. The guys were in an older Chevy, a Chevy Mailbu, and a Ferrari.
“Ferrari?”
Diego grins and directs everyone into the building. “It’s not like we’re allow to drive the Lamborghini.” Everyone laughs. We stand still as Marco, the head of the bonds office, scans everyone with a bug detector. He nods. “Clean.”
“Check Thomas’s car. They could hear us.”
Marco heads out and returns shaking his head. “Clean.”
I’m thinking hard and I think I have an idea. “They’re desperate to know things. Well, I’ve been kidnapped more often than not due to simple tricks. I say we run one on them.” I turn to Hal. “I’m headed to 8.”
Hal smiles and nods. I take the elevator to 8 and send Hector a text.
They’re literally stalking me. I wonder how long it will take for him to answer this.
RINGGG.
“Yo!”
“Hey. I need to speak to Ranger.”
“OK. Two minutes.” Click.
Thirty seconds later, RINGGG.
“Yo!”
“Babe, you OK?”
“I’m fine. That took less than a minute.” I hear snickers on the line. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey, Bomber! How’s Miami?”
“Exciting. Thomas took me on a joyride tonight.” There’s silence on the line. “Don’t. It was perfect. I had a great time. We drove Ocean Ave.”
“OK,” Ranger says tightly.
“Stop. Really. The car was packed. Me, Thomas, Diego, Hal, and Maria.”
“Damn! Where was Mack, Beautiful?”
“We left him in charge of RangeMan with Pat. If we took him, we would have had to leave Maria or Hal. Hal wasn’t having it and Maria needed some time out of the building too. Worked out in our favor when we needed someone to block the other cars. Anyway, I had a great time.”
“OK, Babe,” Ranger says, a lot more calm than before. “So?”
“FBI listened to us. Don’t know how—”
“Parabolic microphone. Standard technique,” Les mutters.
“Well, whatever it was it’s clear they’re desperate for something. I thought you, or maybe Les, might have some ideas.”
Silence on the line.
“What are you thinking, Babe?”
“Well, my rep says I won’t accept bodyguards even when my life is at risk. So why not allow me to get out and about, with the bodyguards? They’ll be busy trying to follow me everywhere. Meanwhile, we can supply them with ‘disinformation’.”
Silence on the line. “That’s incredibly dangerous, Beautiful.”
“I know, but it works in our favor. I’m trained and god only knows how many trackers Hector has on me.” The guys snicker. “So I’m prepared if I get kidnapped. After all, I got away last time.”
“And they know it, so they’ll be prepared this time, Babe.”
“I know, except I won’t go anywhere without a guard, which is standard procedure after I’ve been kidnapped, right?”
Again, silence until I hear Bobby mutter, “So . . . she’s proposing using her crap reputation with bodyguards to draw out killers? It’s brilliant and insane all at once.” Silence. “Haven’t been teaching her the best and worst of your repertoire in secret, have you, Les?”
“Fuck you.”
I laugh.
“We’ll get in touch with Diego when we decide.”
“OK. Just thought I’d pass along the opportunity.”
“Thanks, Babe.”
“No prob.” I’m quiet for a moment. “Stay safe, Ranger.”
“I will, Babe.”
Click.
Ranger’s POV
It’s quiet on the line. Finally, I hear Les laugh. “Need a few minutes, primo?”
I look down. Yes, but I’ll be damned if I tell him that. “Les.”
Bobby and Les both laugh but I sit back and smile.
Who was that woman? I love her but I’m uncertain. Is this Babe putting her life at risk again? Or Babe willing to execute a smart plan? She doesn’t accept orders and won’t listen to reason . . . or has that changed?
I check on my suspects. I hope they have plans this weekend. I think a trip to Miami is overdue.
