Disclaimer: I make no money from this. All characters that are recognized belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm just playing with them. Please be aware, there will be violence and mature adult situations in this story.

Tank POV

I was sitting in another boring staff meeting, listening to Ram talk about intake of new employees at the Miami office. I could see Lester's eyes glazing over, Cal had started doodling, and Bobby was making lists in his head. Hector was just staring at the walls with a smirk on his face. And at the head of the table, Ranger was sitting stone-faced, taking in everything.

Everyone had been on edge slightly for the last six months. I knew why, everyone knew why. But no one would mention it and the edge was kicking up.

Ranger's phone rang. He looked at it and sent it to voicemail. It didn't buzz again, so whoever it was didn't leave a message. Ram continued with his report for four more minutes. And then my phone buzzed.

Surprise ran across my face before I could slam down on my emotions, and Ranger started glaring at me, daring me to answer the call. That told me that the caller he sent to voicemail was now trying to reach me. Why he sent this call to voicemail, I couldn't understand.

I stood and strode out of the room, making it to my office just before the call rolled over to voicemail. I slid the icon and took a deep breath before answering.

"Little Girl." It came out breathlessly. I couldn't believe that after six months of silence she was finally reaching out.

"Tank." Her voice was hesitant, but started picking up with determination. "If I could get you to pull up the trackers on the watch Ranger gave me and pull the audio to your phone, I would be really grateful. I have a really bad feeling and I know I'm not supposed to call, but something is going to happen and I need someone to call the police for me if things go really wrong. Please."

"You're not supposed to call?" What the hell was she talking about? She went radio silent and installed a new floor bolt six months ago. We could never get close enough to get any answers as to why and now I have a feeling I know. Someone told her to back off. My money would be on the cop, but the way Ranger ignored her call told me that may not be true.

She hadn't gotten into any trouble since she disappeared from our lives. No car explosions. No kidnappings. At least that we know about. We know she started training with someone, but could never get a name. She was finally taking her safety seriously, and it seemed that the only way she would was having Ranger pulled out of her life. I had called Lula in desperation about a month after she shut herself off and Lula told me that the Rangemen should be ashamed of themselves, hung up on me and won't return any of my calls.

"I'm sorry to put you in a bad position with Ranger, but if you would just listen and call the cops, I don't think he'll come down on you. I know your desk is piled with reports, so maybe I could be background noise?"

She was starting to sound a little desperate, so I knew I had to dig for details before she walked into whatever was giving her a bad feeling. Steph has great instincts that I've never questioned.

"I'll do that if you'll tell me where you are and what's going on. I know you've had training." I hoped she would be willing to bargain a little here so I could prep a contingency plan.

"I don't want to end up on charges, so I can't use what little I do know." She took a deep breath and I knew I was about to get an outline of the situation. "Joe's been drinking. A lot. I've been pulling back and I'm ending it today. I don't think it will get violent but he's gotten controlling and I've got this bad feeling just sitting outside his house."

That was something we weren't aware of. If Morelli was drinking, he was unpredictable. I didn't want her in there alone.

"Wait for me and I'll be over to watch your back. Or just come over here and talk to me. We haven't seen you in months." I was going to try to minimize the damage any way I could; and the longer she talked, the bigger the ball forming in the pit of my stomach became.

"I can't do that, Tank. I can't abuse your time, money or energy. I wouldn't even be disturbing you now if I didn't feel like I was going to die."

My blood ran cold. She couldn't die. She was my friend and I wanted to protect her. Truth was, I loved her. And who the hell had fed her those lines?

"Just wait for me. I want to help you. And I'm due a break from work. Just stay on the phone with me and stay in your car, I'm leaving now. We can deal with Morelli together." I was pleading, something I didn't do, but damn it, I loved her and I think I was having a heart attack at the thought of her dying.

"I can't let you get dragged into this. If Rangeman gets implicated in another scandal involving me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself." The second sentence sounded forced, like she had memorized it and chanted it to keep from calling us. Whatever had sent her running from us six months ago was bad. But it was a mystery I would solve after I got to her.

I was already halfway down the stairs and didn't remember moving. Lester and Hector were behind me, both swearing quietly in Spanish about Morelli.

"Little Girl, please wait for me to get there. I'm less than ten minutes away." I started praying that should listen.

"Don't come. I'm turning on the audio on the watch now. Just call the cops if anything goes wrong. Please, stay away. I love you, Tank. You're a great friend." And she hung up on me.

I started running full out and slammed into the nearest Explorer, Lester and Hector still on my tail. I peeled out of the garage and began praying in earnest that she would be okay. I've never doubted her instincts, and if she felt her death coming, I was going to stand in the way.