Disclaimer: See ch. 1

Spoilers: Through 14

A/N: I'm back already! I've actually got quite a bit of this written already, so I should be posting pretty regularly. Thanks so much to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. More fun in this one! A stalker, a distraction, and plenty of Ghetto Ranger, yum!


The phone woke me at 7 am. I was still on the couch, there was a pile of popcorn in my lap and an empty beer bottle lying on the floor. The hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. I took a short moment to ponder this phenomenon. Huh.

The phone stopped ringing and the machine picked up. "How's your car?" A voice said, a voice I didn't recognize. "It's a very good thing you weren't in it, don't you think? He wouldn't have been happy if you had been. Or would he? It would have been an easy out…if you'd died. No hurt feelings, no explanations, no more Stephanie to complicate his life."

I walked out to the kitchen and stared down at the answering machine, the message light was now blinking like some bright red omen: disaster to come. A concerned passerby? Somehow I didn't think so. I saved the message, knowing from past experience that it could come in handy.

My morning off to such a grand start, I decided I might as well take a shower and go down to the office. When creepy voices started showing up on my answering machine, I like to distract myself with work and Boston crèmes.

I had dad pick me up and stop at the bakery on the way to the office. We got a dozen donuts and ate two each before we were out of the parking lot.

Connie and Lula were filing when I got there, their nails that is. They looked up as I entered.

"You here early, white girl," Lula said, eyeing the donut box. I set it down on Connie's desk and fell onto the couch in front of the window.

"Just thought I'd get an early start," I said.

"Since when you get an early start?" Connie asked.

Since I'm pretty sure I've got some new creepy stalker and I didn't want to sit alone in my apartment, I thought.

"Since today." I shrugged.

Lula nodded like that made sense. Connie watched me for a moment before returning to her filing.

"I ran into Johnny Douglas last night at the funeral home," I said.

"He dead?" Lula asked.

I shook my head. "He was among the living. I chased him down to Broad, but I lost him at the light. He was driving a green Ford truck."

"That sucks, girl."

I nodded.

"We gonna go catch him today?" Lula asked.

I thought about it, I didn't really want to deal with Douglas right now. The guy was a friggin' lunatic. Besides, he'd probably laugh at me about my car getting smashed.

I turned to Connie. "Anything new?"


By three o'clock I was ready to call it quits. Lula and I had hauled in Bernie Schafer, arrested on a drunk and disorderly. My favorite kind of skip, catch them in the morning and they're usually so hung-over they just fall right into the back of your car. Bernie was no exception.

In the afternoon, we went after Donna Dernon. Everything just went downhill from there. Donna had been arrested on robbery charges. The drugstore on Main had been relieved of some merchandise, her fingerprints had been found on the empty shelves. Everyone was pretty sure that she'd been covering for her loser boyfriend Charlie, but no one could prove it. Apparently the security cameras had been out of order the night of the crime.

Seemed Chuck was willing to repay the favor. He met Lula and I at the door. With his .45. Needless to say, Donna was gonna spend a few more days as a free woman.

We rounded the day off by chasing 72-year-old Mr. Feester through the back alleys of Trenton. By 3 o'clock Mr. Feester was nowhere to be seen and I couldn't have distinguished between my sneakers and the heap of rotten garbage I was standing in if my life depended on it.

"I say we call it a day, girl," Lula said, wrinkling her nose against the odor. "That old man be halfway to New Hampshire by now."

I rolled my eyes and yanked my feet out of the garbage. "Let's go."

"Um, well, you know, no offense girl but I just had my car detailed and well…"

I glared up at her. "You are not leaving me stranded here."

She seemed to think that over. "Well, maybe if you took off those nasty ass shoes."

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to scream. I left my shoes and socks with the pile of garbage and rolled my jeans up to my knees.

"Better?" I asked Lula.

"Much," she said. "Let's go."

Lula dropped me off at my apartment and I made my way upstairs barefoot. I unlocked the door and felt a familiar tingle on the back of my neck. Ranger was waiting for me on the couch.

"Babe," he said, his lips tipping up at the corners. To anyone else, Ranger would have looked pretty emotionless, but I knew him fairly well. Ranger was amused.

"Don't say anything," I shot at him as I made my way past to the bathroom.

"No shoes, babe?"

I glared. "What do you want?"

His eyes crinkled and he stood smoothly and moved towards me. "Just wanted to make sure you were set for tonight."

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm good," I told him. "Are you picking me up?"

He smiled, then leaned forward and whispered a kiss across my forehead. "I'll be here around eight."

I nodded against his lips. "I'll be ready."

He turned to leave. "Have a nice shower, babe," he said over his shoulder, and then he was gone.

Nice shower, yeah right. Really long shower was more like it. Shower massage, here I come.


The message light on my answering machine was blinking when I got out of the shower. I hit play and headed back to the bathroom to do my hair. Great thing about a small apartment, you can hear your messages from just about any room in the house. The first one was from my mother reminding me about dinner tonight (guess I'd have to skip that one – tragic), and then one from Mary Lou telling me that she'd seen Joyce Barnhardt at the Sleep-E-Hollow Motel with Benny Donato. I called Mary Lou back and gossiped for an hour or so.

By the time I got off the phone it was 6:30 so I made a peanut butter and olive sandwich and ate it standing at the sink, then headed to the bathroom to finish the hair thing, keeping it simple, long curls pulled back from my face with a clip. I put on lip gloss and a couple of layers of mascara for courage, then headed to the bedroom.

I was pretty proud of my new outfit. The black pencil skirt fit like a second skin, but went down to my knees, so it couldn't really be considered skanky. The white blouse was tight and short sleeved and accentuated what little cleavage I had so long as I left a few buttons undone. I finished off with the red FMP's and had to admit that I looked smokin'. Batman, eat your heart out.

The locks tumbled at 7:56 and Ranger materialized as if out of nowhere in my kitchen. I stepped out of the bedroom and waited for his reaction.

I wasn't disappointed. His eyes darkened and a muscle clenched in his jaw.

"Babe," he said with that hint of a smile. I smiled back and did a little twirl.

"Sexy sophisticated?" I asked.

"Sexy something," he replied, moving across the room to stand a few inches in front of me. He brought a hand up and traced the skin along my collar. I tried very hard not to shiver, really I did. He smiled all 200 watts and I'm pretty sure I moaned.

"Let's get you wired up," he murmured. I knew if he touched me now I'd orgasm on the spot. But I wasn't single and the Morelli-guilt was enough to have me stepping back.

"I'll do it," I said, holding out my hand.

He shook his head slowly, smirk firmly in place. "I don't think so, Babe. This is expensive equipment. Best if I handle it." With that, he pushed my shirt slowly up to just under my breast and rested his hand there. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on breathing. I could feel his thumb stroking up and down my stomach as he taped the wire just below my left breast. Then my shirt was back in place and I struggled to open my eyes.

"Babe?"

I nodded quickly and made some kind of a sound, although I'm not sure it was intelligible. He chuckled and moved away.

"Let's go, babe. The guys are waiting."

Right, I thought. Wouldn't want to keep the guys waiting. Who cares if I was so close to an orgasm I was trembling? I nodded again and followed Ranger out into the hall, trying to ignore the way my legs barely held me up.


"This distraction's a little different, babe," Ranger told me once we were cocooned in the Turbo.

"How so?" I asked, peering over at him by the light of the dashboard.

"Guys not exactly a skip," he said. He kept his eyes carefully focused out the windshield.

I stared at him. "Not a skip?" I asked, probably a bit too loudly. "Then who the hell is he?"

Ranger finally turned to look at me, his eyes dark. "He's a guy I need some information from."

"But you said he was arrested for rape and assault," I pointed out. Ranger had never lied to me. I wasn't too excited about the prospect of him starting now.

"He was. I never say he's FTA. Not yet anyway. He works for a guy who about to start some real bad shit, Steph. I need some info so I can stop it from going down." Ghetto Ranger, kinda hot. I had been trying lately to determine what exactly was the catalyst in bringing out Ghetto Ranger. So far, I hadn't found anything. As far as I could tell, Ghetto Ranger just kind of popped up every once in awhile for no good reason. I hadn't totally shelved my theory that Ranger did it on purpose to amuse me.

I took a moment to absorb what he'd told me. The bad guy wasn't FTA, Ranger just needed him to inform on another bad guy. Right. But Batman had ways of gaining information. Ways I wasn't sure I wanted to know anything about. What the hell did he need me for?

Ranger's almost-smile peeked out from behind his blank mask. Damn ESP.

"I'll be extracting the information, Babe. I just need you to lure him up to one of the rooms."

I blinked a few times. "A room?" Shit. Crazy, psycho rapist plus hotel room equals…not good.

Ranger must have read my mind again, because a moment later his hand was on my arm and he was speaking in a low voice. "It'll be fine, babe. Tank and I will be waiting for you in the room. You won't be alone with this guy for more than a few seconds."

I stared silently up at him as his hand rubbed lightly up and down my arm. I shivered and his lips tipped up again.

"Sure," I said, pulling away from his touch. Being so close to him was seriously messing with my head, not to mention my hormones. Ranger watched me for a moment, but I turned away from him, looking out my window. He turned the key in the ignition, shifted into gear and pulled out of my lot.


"Bobby's behind the bar," Ranger said as we pulled up in front of the Marriot. "Lester's circling inside. Cal's got the back. Tank and I will be upstairs. Everyone's got ears on you." I nodded and tried to calm the butterflies in my stomach. This wasn't my first distraction job, and I knew that I was safe with Ranger and all of his men lurking about, but I always got a little nervous just before I went in.

"You've got this, babe," Ranger said softly, a hand on my knee. "You'll do great."

Somehow that little bit of reassurance was all I needed. I squeezed his hand and opened my door to get out. He watched me enter the building, and then probably went around back to find some secret entrance and head up to the room.

The bar was just off the lobby, to the left. I spotted Bobby as soon as I entered. He grinned and tipped his head to the right. I turned and spotted Lester nursing what I was sure was some kind of non-alcoholic beverage. Ranger wouldn't allow drinking on the job. Lester winked at me.

Our man was sitting at the bar holding a beer. Edwin Mortars was not what I had expected. He was surprisingly attractive. I took a seat two stools to his left and surveyed him. It wasn't hard to fake the way my eyes slid over him in appreciation. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, I thought. A small voice in the back of my mind reminded me that this guy was a creepy abusive rapist. I suppressed a shudder.

Mortars was a tall guy. Not as tall as Ranger or Morelli, but tall enough. He had dark hair that fell over his ears. When he turned towards me, I saw that his eyes were a striking shade of green. He smiled and a dimple appeared in one cheek. If this guy wasn't so goddamn creepy, we might have had something. I slid over one stool, leaving one between us. Good old Edwin slid onto the empty stool.

"You like what you see?" He murmured, conducting his own appraisal. His eyes started at my throat, lingering on my meager cleavage before traveling the length of me. They froze momentarily on my hot new FMP's.

"Mmmm," I hummed, taking a sip from the drink Bobby had set down in front of me. Virgin margarita. Ugh.

"Not so bad yourself, sweetlips." His hand brushed my thigh and I had to grit my teeth to keep from jumping away. "You from around here?"

"No," I said and named the next county over. "How about you?"

His head tipped to the side as if he were considering his answer. "I grew up in Trenton," he said. "I went away to college. Decided to come back a few years ago."

"Missed your family?" I asked.

He laughed softly. "No, more of a…business venture, you might say."

Business venture, my ass.

His eyes slid once more down my legs, then back up to my face. "You wanna get out of here?" He asked.

I smiled up at him through my lashes. "I've got a room…if you're interested." This was too easy, too goddamn easy.

"Sure," he said, standing and offering me a hand.

We were at the elevator before I had time to think. Ranger had told me to avoid the elevator. Take the stairs, he'd told me. Less alone time. Lester and Bobby could follow on the stairs. The room was only on the third floor. It wasn't unreasonable. For once in my life, I was willing to take Ranger's advice about the stairs. Unfortunately, Edwin Mortars was not.

"Let's just take the elevator, sweetlips. It'll be quicker."

I glanced up at the display, blinking from 5 to 4.

"It's still a few floors up," I said. "My room's on three. The stairs will be quicker." As I spoke the light flashed from 4 to 3 to 2. Stop godamnit.

"Look," he said. "It's almost here."

With that, he pulled me into a tight embrace and pressed his lips to mine. I think I threw up a little in my mouth. The doors dinged open and Mortars maneuvered us into the elevator, never removing his lips from mine. I pushed futilely at his chest, but he just chuckled and pulled me closer, then his tongue was in my mouth and the doors slid shut.

"Oh, God," he groaned when he pulled away. "You make me so goddamned hard." He illustrated the point my pressing his, not exactly impressive, length into my stomach. I smiled in what I hoped was a beguiling manner.

"You make me pretty hot, too," I purred. His lips crashed down on mine. Perhaps I shouldn't have encouraged him. With one eye I watched the number display as the car inched slowly towards three. Somewhere between two and three, Mortars reached over and pressed the emergency stop button.

"I can't wait," he ground out as he started to unbutton his pants. I gasped. This had not been a part of the plan. I mean, yeah, the guy was cute, but there was no way I was letting him bang me in an elevator. There were just some things I wouldn't do to get the job done. Whoring was one of them.

"C'mon baby, we're almost to my room. Just a few more minutes and we can do this in a bed," I said, stilling his hands on his zipper.

"Aw, come on, sweetlips, I haven't done it against a wall in a long time," he growled. "You have no idea how fucking hard I am."

"Oh," I chuckled. "I think I do." The proof was digging uncomfortably into my abdomen. "But…I've got a bad…back. Yeah, you know, I can't really do it against a wall. Just get us upstairs and we can stay in bed all night long." I drew the last part into a whisper as I leaned around him and flicked the emergency switch off. Mortars growled and pulled me closer.

The doors opened on three to reveal an empty hallway. No doubt Ranger's doing. If anyone had been lurking, Ranger would have seen to it that they got lost. He wouldn't want anything interfering with this job.

I managed to maneuver Mortars down the hall to number 315, his tongue rammed down my throat the entire time. I managed to pull away in order to place the key card in the slot and push the door open. At first glance, the room appeared to be empty and my heart turned to ice. Ranger had lied to me. I was here, alone with this creep and he was…

Mortars stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. At almost the same moment, Tank and Ranger stepped out of the bathroom and the bedroom, respectively. Tank's gun was aimed straight at Mortars. Mortars reacted more quickly than I guess any of us expected. He grabbed me around the waist and hauled me in front of him, placing me firmly between him and Tank.

"Oh!" I gasped. Surprised indignation seemed to be the best way to go. Probably letting on to the fact that I was a part of this setup wouldn't be helpful.

Clearly, Mortars had already come to his own conclusions.

I felt cold metal against my throat and Ranger's eyes hardened to black steel.

"Put down the gun or I slit her throat," Mortars ground out, his chest vibrating against my back.

Then Ranger did the last thing I would have expected. He laughed.

"You think we care? Who the fuck is she? Some whore we paid to lure you up here. Go ahead and kill her."

I stared wide-eyed between Ranger and Tank. Ranger maintained the sick smile, while Tank's face was stuck in unreadable, army-guy mode. Mortars twitched behind me.

"Yeah, right, like I'm supposed to believe that."

Ranger shrugged. "Tank," he said, making some kind of motion towards the larger man. "Maybe we'll get lucky and the bullet will go right through into Mortar's heart."

Tank raised his gun and I squinched my eyes closed, knowing that Ranger would never let anyone shoot me, hoping that he knew what the hell he was doing.

"Woah, woah, hold on now, let's talk about this," Mortars said in a rush. "It doesn't got to be like that. Tell me what you guys want."

Ranger smiled his sick, fake smile again. "We just want to talk, Eddie."

I felt Mortars slowly inching us towards the door, felt him nod. Then suddenly he was slumping against me, the knife pressed into my throat. Then I was free and I spun to see Lester standing over Mortars wearing a silly grin and holding a stun gun.

"Dumb bastard never heard us coming," he said.

Bobby stepped around him and picked up the knife. The blade had a thin line of red on it. My head started spinning and I saw stars.

"Babe," came Ranger's voice as his arms came around my waist, supporting me as my knees gave out. "C'mere. Let Bobby check out your neck."

He lowered me to the couch, coming around to kneel in front of me. His large, warm hands enveloped mine and squeezed.

"Breathe, babe." I took a deep breath and focused my eyes back on his face. He looked…concerned…and something else, but Bobby was touching my neck gently and I couldn't figure out what.

"Just a shallow scrape," Bobby announced. "Les, get me some water, some paper towel, and a band-aid if you can find one."

Lester was back a few moments later and Bobby cleaned and bandaged my wound.

"You okay, babe?" Ranger asked softly. I nodded.

"Just…the blood, you know."

He looked like he was thinking about smiling. "I know."

There was a moan from the other side of the room and everyone turned to see Mortars coming around. Tank had cuffed him to the radiator.

Ranger stood and suddenly he was all business. He motioned to Lester.

"You and Bobby get Steph out of here."

Lester nodded and reached down to pull me off the couch. He kept one arm around my waist as he led me to the door. Ranger looked like he might want to protest, but he peered into my, probably pale, face and seemed to think better.

He called out as Bobby opened the door to the hall.

"Get her home safe. Check out her apartment. Don't leave until she locks the door."

Bobby nodded.

Les muttered, "Sure thing, man."

I gave Ranger my 'Burg girl eye roll. "Will you call me later?" I asked. His face was blank. "Just so I know how everything turned out," I clarified. Just so I know you're okay. I kept that thought to myself.

He nodded once. "Sure, babe. Later."

I nodded back and followed Bobby out of the room.


A/N: Don't forget to let me know what you thought!