Disclaimer: As usual, all characters are the property of JE. I am making no money yada, yada, yada

WARNING: For Adult Content & Language. Not Cupcake Friendly. I don't know why, but even when I don't intentionally try to hurt Joe I still manage to rip him to shreds. Sorry!

CHAPTER 1

SPOV

"Well, girls, I'm going to get home before it gets any worse out there. I'll see you tomorrow." I told Lula and Connie as I walked out the door into the freezing cold and pouring rain.

I couldn't believe how much the temperature had dropped today. It seemed like just last week it had been the perfect fall weather and now it was like winter outside. The rain seemed to be somewhere between wet and freezing. I climbed into my new VW Tiguan that I had bought last month and steered my car toward my apartment.

My professional life had been going very well. About six months ago, I asked Ranger if he'd help me train and after blinding me with a smile he said, "Proud of you, Babe." The rest, as they say, is history.

Half-a-year later, I've kept up with all of my skips and taken most of them down, too. I was able to add to my job skills the ability to break into and out of most things that are locked, even my own apartment if I hadn't put in the new security system. I've split my time working between RangeMan and Vinnie's. I've actually been doing really well for myself and for the first time in my life, I felt proud of how well my professional life was going.

Now, if only I could say the same for my personal life. Joe is…well, Joe. He's not getting any younger, which he keeps reminding me, and evidently, neither am I. Which means we really need to get married and start having kids immediately because we're running out of time. Shit! Just the thought of kids makes my eye twitch. We'd had another argument last night about me giving up my apartment and moving in with him. He'd received a promotion and raise and thought that it was the perfect time for me to quit my job. According to him, it wasn't like I was any good at it anyway. No matter how much training I acquired, he still saw my job as a hobby to tide me over until I finally got serious about my life. He thought I should quit my job, move in with him, marry him, and give him babies.

On one hand, I could see where he was coming from. Since we were in our thirties, all of our friends were already married with kids. It was the next logical step, but I just didn't want to take it. I didn't know how to make him understand because I didn't understand myself. I felt like I still wanted to fly. Was I ready to be grounded? Maybe it was time. Joe thought so; my mother definitely thought so; and the 'Burg definitely thought so; everyone couldn't be wrong. Could they?

And then there's Ranger. Ranger let me fly, but he'd made it clear that we could only be friends, so nothing else mattered. He'd been "in the wind" so much in the past four months that I'd only seen him twice. I missed him so much that it physically hurt. I knew I shouldn't miss someone that didn't want more than friendship from me, but sometimes you can't control who you lo... I mean…who you miss.

About a mile away from my apartment, as I tried to keep myself from saying 'Why me?', so that I could avoid sounding just like my mother, I watched an eighteen wheeler fishtail as it came around the curve. I tried to get out of its way, but I knew it was too late. I only had time for one thing…one thought…

"I love you, Ranger. I always have."

RPOV

I'd almost made it back to the office after my final meeting in D.C. when I heard Stephanie's voice.

"I love you, Ranger. I always have."

I'd known immediately that something was wrong and had reached for my phone just as it rang.

"Boss, Beautiful's tracker just went offline." Lester said when I answered the phone. I felt my heart stop and it was all I could do to breath.

"Explain." I barked, trying to keep from losing control as I turned my car in the direction of the hospital without even thinking about it.

"I just heard on the scanner there was wreck over by the old high school. Sounds like an eighteen wheeler hit some black ice and went head on into her SUV. The paramedics are taking her to St. Francis." Lester told me before I hung up the phone.

I could hear the worry in his voice. Sometime over the past few years Stephanie had become important to every one of my men and I knew that most of them were probably on their way to the hospital as well.

I'd spent the past year of my life making it possible for me to have a relationship with the one person I loved more than life itself. Now, when I'd reached the point where I could finally offer her our someday, a reckless driver and some black ice could've taken the only woman I've ever truly wanted away from me.