You Think It's The Past

AN: Alright, so here is the prologue for the follow up story to You Think You Know Me. Sorry it took so long, but I got caught up in the other stories that I have been writing. The outline for this story has been written for a while, and I have been adding to it almost daily. The posts for this story will not be everyday, but rather every other day. If something changes I will let you know. More than likely this story will begin full swing on Monday. As always I look forward to any and all review good or bad. I look forward to hearing what you think about my stories.

Disclaimer: I love the Stephanie Plum series, but I don't own them and I don't make anything off of them.

Thanks to everyone for your reviews on my first story. Also a special Thank You to Margaret Fowler for you encouragement.

I hope you like it.

Prologue

Previously in You Think You Know Me

"Are you guys ready to go? We need to get the SUV loaded and head to the airstrip for the jet." asks Tank.

"Yeah, were ready, nothing that can't be finished later. Can you get the bags from over there? I'll get my pack and meet you out in the lounge." I ask.

"Sure thing Beautiful." Lester gives me a kiss on the head, picks up the bags and walks to the door.

"Babe, we have a lot more to talk about. I just need to know that you won't give up on me. That you won't shut me out of your life, I couldn't survive it if you did. I love you so much that it physically hurts to stand here and not be able to touch you." Ranger says.

"I know Ranger, but I wasn't the one that shut you out to begin with. You did that all on your own, you can't expect me to just welcome you back like nothing happened. I love you, but I still don't know if I can trust you with my heart." I say sadly. Picking up my pack I turn back to him. "Come on we need to get going. I want to go home."

"Home is where ever you are Babe." Ranger says as he follows me out the door.

XXXXXX

(Ranger's POV)

Leaving the compound of Gutierrez I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders as the plane lifted off the ground. We were finally headed back to Trenton and I now knew that my Babe had protected me like I had protected her. I'm both honored and humbled by her actions, I'm also more determined than ever to earn back her trust and love. I'm willing to do anything that I can to see that that happens. I had no plan to leave her side anytime soon, as far as I was concerned, where she went I went. We could work together now instead of separately through out our contracts.

The farther we got from Columbia the better I felt. I watched my Babe make phone calls throughout the flight and interact with my guys and I felt jealous. They all knew more about her new life than I did. I watched her interact comfortably with my men, I even noticed that she pulled Hawk and Bones aside at one point. I also watched her with Lester and couldn't help but notice that they acted differently around each other than they used to, and much differently than she did with the others. If I was honest with myself I didn't like the comfort I was seeing between the two of them. There was a level of intimacy that didn't used to be there. This line of thinking made my mind detour in another uncomfortable direction, just who had she slept with while I was away? Was she in a serious relationship with someone else? She mentioned that she didn't put her life on hold, and I had a feeling that she was not only talking about her training and work. I had to shut down that train of thought quickly before I drove myself nuts. The thoughts of another mans hands on her was just too much for me.

Thinking back to our conversation I was still stunned by her name change. Of all the families to get involved with she chose Alexander Ramos? The name alone would bring her more enemies than any normal person could even imagine. Obviously she could take care of herself, I'd seen it myself several times, but why take on the name of an Arms Dealer in the New Jersey and European syndicate. It must have made sense to her, but it sure as hell didn't make sense to me. Alexander was flirtatious, I know that he fell for her when she helped me since I was framed for Homer's murder, but he had his moments mentally. I'd have to look further into this arrangement.

She seemed to understand, or at least accept my explanation of my lack of control when it came to her, but I knew I still had a lot more to explain to her. We had a lot of ground to cover, since I missed more than two years of her life, but if we didn't stop getting interrupted it would take forever to get there, and I was running out of patience. Our lack, or I guess I should say MY lack of communication skills wasn't and wouldn't help in that. I was so close to what I wanted, now I just had to figure out how to get it. And I would. I am nothing if not determined.

I felt the plane start to descend and felt the last bit of tension that remained from our previous situation in my body release once we touched down in Newark at the private airstrip. We were finally home, I knew there was a lot of work to do with the information that we had recovered in Columbia, but we were home and could work on getting our relationship on track. I wouldn't settle for anything less than my Babe being MINE. That's how it should be and how it will be.

As we all got off the plane I noticed the two black Rangeman SUV's along with a black limo waiting by the hanger the plane would be stored in. All of our luggage was taken off the plane and we were turning to walk to the cars. That's when I noticed that the people exiting the limo were Alexander and Adrian Ramos. I felt my blood pressure rise as my Babe headed straight for them. My Babe gave Alexander a kiss on the cheek and a hug before stepping into the arms of Adrian Ramos for a kiss that was definitely more than just friendly. He lifted her up and swung her around in a circle and I could hear the laugh that I had longed to hear, and it hurt that someone else was the one to cause it. I started to walk in their direction and was stopped by Hawk and Tank by hands on my arms. Before I could say anything my Babe was waiving to us and stepping into the limo with the two Ramos Men and pulling out of the airstrip.

"Calm down Ranger. Going all cavemen on her is not how you are going to earn her trust and love back, if that's what you intend. Give it time man, she may be different, but the old Bombshell is still in there." Tank explained.

All I felt was rage within me for seeing Adrian touch her. I wanted to break him in half, I wanted to hide his body somewhere that I knew no one would find it. Only problem I could see with that is that my Babe would never trust me again. I would have to work to earn her trust. And that is what I had to keep reminding myself. I nodded to Tank in acceptance and climbed into one of the SUV's after loading my gear into the back and we headed back to Haywood. It would be my first time back in more than two years.

Let me know what you think. Thank you for reading along, this should be a fun ride. I hope you'll read along with me.