RANGER AND STEPHANIE.

(I do not own any of these characters. They are all the creation of the fabulous Ms. Janet Evanovich. I am not making any money off of this)

CHAPTER 1

A picture can say a thousand words. At least that's what Ranger tells me. I'm not so sure... I've been sitting in my cubicle all day long examining the same photo's repeatably trying to figure them out and what they could possibly be saying. After a full hour I decided maybe these photo's weren't one's that wanted to speak so I left for a lunch break. I had been working at RangeMan for a good 3 months just so I could keep feeding me and Rex. Skips just weren't skipping as much anymore, I guess my reputation had finally blown full circle, I mean, it's either that or crime rate in Jersey really was going down!

I had barely made it to the break room when my cell phone rang. The call display said Lula. I wasn't sure if this was a call I wanted to take so close to lunch but I flipped my phone open anyway.

I had barely gotten out my usual greeting before Lula completely dominated the conversation.

"I bet you couldn't guess where I am right now, or where your grandma is but you get one hint, she's with me. Can I just say I don't know how you came from her because she's the bomb whereas your a bomb, a fucking walking bomb and believe me there's a difference." She yelled into the phone. I could here noise in the background, a lot of it.

"Where are you?" I yelled back, completely forgetting that I wasn't somewhere noisy so I probably didn't need to yell. Lula is a train wreck and my grandmother is out of control, together the two of them become an out-of-control-train-that-turns-into-a-wreck. It's one of those things that's so bad that you want to look away but no matter how hard you try you can't not look.

"If you can't even guess then you don't deserve to know" she exclaimed, almost sounding hurt that I didn't want to play along.

I could feel a headache coming on. Leaning against a frame of an open doorway I started rubbing my temples. Taking a deep breath to get my annoyance under control I said, "Okay, if I had to guess I would say the beauty parlor" knowing fully that the amount of noise in the background wouldn't be generated over there.

"Wrong! We're at Cluck-in-the-Bucket and you'll never guess whose here!" She was screaming by this point and it wasn't because of the noise. While her excitement level was rising up my patience level was on it's way down.

"Lula. I'm at work. How important is this?" I asked leaning my head against the wall and closing my eyes. Picking up my phone before lunch was always a bad idea. I knew this and yet I never listened to my instincts. Why. Why me?

"Listen up skinny white girl. That skip or should I say the only skip you're looking for is right here sitting across from me! How cool is this? How long till you're here? And how much do you owe me?" She asked.

"Kenny? As in Kenny Barrelli?" I asked, my eyes snapping open. Okay so I know that leaving work is irresponsible and that whole speech my mom used to give me, but technically I'm leaving work to do more work. Who says I don't take initiative? "I'll be there in less than ten" I said, taking the time to do the calculations in my head, if I took certain roads and hit green lights the whole way I could be there in five.

Snapping my phone closed I rushed back to my cubicle to grab my bag. I did a mental checklist of the things I should be bringing. Pepper spray? Check. Handcuffs? Check. Stun gun? The battery said low so I passed on it. Gun? I took one look at it and replaced it back into it's drawer, maybe another day. I turned around and flew out the door.

Unfortunately I didn't get very far, instead of going through the doorway like I normally do, I slammed into a hard body. The hit was hard and left me dazed for a couple seconds. I took a few steps back to look at the damage and my eyes met with another pair of eyes. A pair of eyes that created a low burning sensation in my stomach and that caused the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. We stood like that for what felt like minutes but in reality was only a couple of seconds. I allowed my eyes to slowly travel the length of his body. I hadn't seen Ranger for a full month. I could feel myself lick my lips. A full month, I decided, had been too long.