I've had this idea for a while now and I thought it was time to actually write it down. I'd just like to start with saying that I will be focusing on Ranger's thoughts and feelings when his with Steph. This means that sometimes I might make some conversations shorter or sum them up, because they're only about the case and not about them. 'Cause I feel that if I write too much about the case then you will get bored (because we already know what happens with the case) and also I feel that I would simply be copying straight from the book. I hope that's alright with everybody.

I apologise in advanced for any typos or grammatical errors. English is not my first language.

Disclaimer : The story and the characters are property of Janet Evanovich and I don't make any profits from this.

I leaned against my car as I watched her argue with some weirdo who sold t-shirts out of the trunk of his car.

From the looks of her I could see she'd been infighting with one of her skips again. She was covered in food and had a deep frown on her forehead. I don't know how she does it but it seems like half the times she goes after a skip she ends up wearing either his dinner or a year worth supply of Vaseline. I felt myself smile as I thought about her never ending excuse - It wasn't my fault. To be honest, most of the time it really wasn't her fault, she just had a way of attracting freaks and mentally instable people.

She walked over to the t-shirt guy and pulled a few bucks out of her pocket. I couldn't stop myself from laughing when I realized that she actually bought a t-shirt of the guy. Only Steph.

She turned around and locked eyes with me. God that woman is beautiful. Even though she was covered in food and had chunks of cheese in her hair, she still managed to make my breath get caught in my throat. I don't know what it is, but there's something about her that makes me lose control. I never lose control. Before she came into my life everything made sense, I did my job and was damn good at it, I ran my business successfully and I visited my daughter whenever I could. Other than that I didn't have much interaction with what Steph calls 'the real world'. Then she came out of nowhere and slowly shook things up. In the beginning I just thought she was a beautiful woman who could use her head as well. But as time's gone by I find myself more and more drawn to her. Sometimes I just feel the need to be near her... I can't even stop myself from smiling just looking at her. And I'm not a smiling type of guy. I keep telling myself it's just physical attraction, 'cause physical attraction passes, physical attraction I can handle.

She strolled up to her car next to mine.

'Looks like you've been shopping' I said.

She threw the t-shirt in the car and looked at me. 'I need some help'.

'Again?' I couldn't help but tease and she blushed ever so slightly but quickly covered it up.

'Do you know about child custody bonds?' she asked.

I wondered what kind of trouble she'd gotten herself into this time and gave her a small nod.

'I'm looking for a mother and a little girl' she explained.

Small children were never a good thing when it came to things like this. The innocence in them makes people panic on a whole different level when they think something has happened to them. People in panic are hard to work with.

'How old is the little girl?' I asked.

'Seven'

'From the Burg?'

'Yes'

'It's difficult to hide a seven year old. They peek out of windows and stand in open doorways. If the child is in the Burg the word will get out. The Burg isn't good at keeping a secret', I explained to her. It was true, children are good that way.

'I haven't heard anything. I have no leads' she answered looking slightly beat. 'I have Connie running a computer check, but I won't get that back for a day or two'

'Give me whatever information you have, and I'll ask around' I offered and she looked thankful. No offence towards Connie, but she just didn't have the same resources I have. I usually didn't offer my help so easily, god knows I have enough on my hands as it is, but when it came to Steph I offered without even thinking about it. I didn't even know why.

I saw her look past me and heard a car speeding behind us. I turned my head around and saw a Cadillac cruising towards us. As the car drove past us the driver reached out and gave us the finger before he rolled away again.

'Friend of yours?' I asked trying to hide my amusement. She opened the door to her car.

'I'm supposed to be capturing him'

'And?'

'Tomorrow' she answered.

'I could help you with that too. We could run a tab for you' I said before I could stop myself.

I've already mentioned that this woman in front of me makes me lose control, and a while ago I almost lost itcompletely. Even thought I've been attracted to her for a long time, I have always seen her as off limits. Her stupid on and off relationship with Morelli has been too much for me to wanna interfere in. Sometimes I went temporary insane and kissed her anyway, but I could feel that eventhough she enjoyed it just as much as me, she always felt so guilty over Morelli that I forced myself to back off. But then the off-period in their relationship lasted a little longer than usual and I went temporary insane again. I could feel that even though the guilt was still there, it was weaker. Then some time ago she asked me to help her capture a skip named DeChooch, somehow I snapped and named a price for my assistance. The price being a night spent together... and I get to pick the activities. I still can't believe I said that to her. And I definitely can't believe she agreed to it.

Now here we were, DeChooch has been behind bars for a while and I still haven't collected my fee. I know that I will do some day though. I need to. I think it's the only way I can get her out of my head. That's the way we men work isn't it? We want something as long as we can't have it, but once we've had it it looses it's appeal. If I spend this one night with her, my attraction will probably fade and I can move on. My life will go back to normal and she will go back to Morelli. I know it's all really stupid and has consequences I don't even wan to think about, but right now it feels like my life depends on that night.

She grimaced at me and didn't answer my teasing.

'Do you know Eddie Abruzzi?' she asked. I felt my heart sink and had to strain every muscle not to show her any physical evidence of my reaction. Abruzzi is trouble... big trouble. To keep my fists from clenching, I kept my fingers busy by slowly removing a slice of pepperoni out of her hair and some potato chip crumbs of her shirt. To feel her under my soft touch calmed me down.

'Abruzzi's not a nice guy. You want to stay away from Abruzzi.' I knew I wouldn't get her to completely back off, you never could with Steph, but at least I'd warned her. I noticed that her eyes seemed more dazed and that she wasn't really paying attention to what I was saying.

'Stop fondling me' she finally said and I had to stop myself from smiling.

'Maybe you should get used to it, considering what you owe me' she turnedtwo shades of red.

'I'm trying to have a conversation here! The missing mother is renting a house owned by Abruzzi. I sort of ran into him this morning'

Shit, that means I can rule out the chance of her not being seen by Abruzzi. Sometimes she just walks right into trouble with out even knowing it. 'Let me guess - you rolled on to his lunch?' I asked.

She looked down on her shirt. 'No. Lunch belongs to the guy who gave me the finger.' she explained simply. There's just too many psychos in her life.

'Where did you meet up with Abruzzi?'

'At the rental house. This is the weird thing... Abruzzi didn't want me in the house, and he didn't want me involved with Evelyn. I mean, what's it to him? This isn't even a significant property for him. And then he got really freaky about this being a military campaign and a war game.'

This was not good. She had gotten herself involved in things that even I didn't want to be involved in.

'Abruzzi makes his money primarily through loan sharking. Then he invests it in legitimate ventures like real estate. His hobby is war gaming. Do you know what that is?'

'No' she answered. I hate telling her bad things. She still looks at the world as a positive place with a few bad exceptions. Every time I have to tell her about something bad she didn't know about, it feels like I'm pulling her down with me. I've lived in this world for most of my life, this is my life. She doesn't have to be dragged into it.

'A war gamer studies military strategy. When it first started is was a bunch of guys in a room, pushing toy soldiers around on a map on the table. Like the board game Risk, or Axis and Allies. Imaginary battles are constructed and fought. A lot of war gamers play by computer now. It's Dungeons and Dragons for adults. I'm told Abruzzi takes it seriously.' And by serious I mean deadly.

Steph had weird expression on her face. 'He's crazy.' she finally said.

'That's the general consensus. Anything else?' I asked.

'Nope that's about it'.

I got in my car and drove away. I had a bad feeling about this. I sensed that somehow this Evelyn woman and her kid were involved with Abruzzi and his sick games... which meant that Babe was involved too. I didn't like this at all.

Let me know what you think!