Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Ch2

I was surprised to see Tank waiting for me at the baggage claim in Newark. I knew one of the Merry Men would be picking me up, but I wasn't expecting Tank. Tank was the Man in Charge when Ranger disappeared into the wind, which meant he was usually pretty busy.

"Hi Big Guy!" Tank pulled me in for a hug and squeezed me tight.

"Hi Little Girl, how was your flight?"

"I'm still a nervous flier, but it's slowly getting easier. I'm happy to see you, but didn't expect you to be my chauffeur today. What's up with that?"

"I needed a break. The paperwork is getting out of hand. Are you ready to head out?" I nodded and he easily picked up both my large suitcases and led me out to the waiting black SUV. He hefted my bags into the rear cargo area and then opened the rear passenger door for me. I climbed in and saw Bobby sitting in the driver's seat.

"Bobby! I get to see two of my favorite guys at one time. What'd I do to deserve two members of the core team?"

"Bomber, I'll gladly play hooky to pick you up at the airport anytime. When Tank found out where I was going, he was desperate to come with me to get out of the office. Have you had lunch yet? We're lookin' to drag this out as long as possible before we have to go back to the office."

"You know me. I can always eat. What's wrong at the office?"

"Well..." Bobby stretched out. He exchanged a glance with Tank.

"Spill it, guys. What's wrong?"

"Technically, it's nothing bad," Bobby replied. "Business has really picked up in the past several months. We're struggling to keep up and maintain our quality standards. We've hired a few new guys, but we probably would have rejected them if we weren't so desperate for personnel. They aren't exactly capable of independent thought and need a lot of hand-holding. The paperwork is piling up faster than we can process it. It's hard to complain since it's all a result of increased business, but at the same time..." he trailed off.

"So I take it this was a bad time for Ranger to leave?"

"Pretty much." Just then, Bobby pulled into a parking lot of a Mexican restaurant. The hostess seated us at the rear of the dining room and Bobby and Tank both sat with their backs to the wall, of course.

"What's the solution?" I asked around a mouthful of chips and salsa.

"We need to hire some competent guys. We need to get this paperwork knocked down so that the core team can spend more time in the field," Tank answered.

We munched on chips and salsa for a few minutes while a few ideas bounced around in my head.

Tank broke the silence. "Little Girl, I smell somethin' burning. What are you thinking about?"

"I have a temporary solution to the paperwork. I have a possibility on the staff problem." I mumbled. I was busy turning around the possibilities in my head and figuring out how to make one of them work.

"Let's hear it."

"Did you know I have a business degree?" I asked. Both men shook their heads. "I do. I was thinking that I'm gonna be in Trenton for a week. What if I helped knock down the pile of paper while I'm here. Maybe that would help you get ahead enough to go back to field work."

Tank and Bobby shook their heads. "No, Bomber. I'd love to say yes, but you're here on vacation. You can't work."

"Sure I can. It's not really a vacation. I'm unemployed. Every day is a vacation for me. My main reason for this trip was to spend time with Ranger, but he's not here. I can do paperwork for you during the day and still hang out with friends and family in the evenings."

I could tell I almost had them so I pushed a little more. "Besides, I was wondering what I was going to do all day while I was here. I don't want to hang out with my mom and grandma all day, every day that I'm here with the exception of meal times. You'll be doing me a favor." Since Mom and I have improved our mother-daughter relationship, I really don't mind hanging out with her and Grandma Mazur, but the guys didn't need to know that.

"Okay. We'll give it a shot. You can handle the business papers and we'll keep handling the incident reports. Tomorrow at 8:00?"

"I'll be there."

"Do we need to send someone to drag you out of bed?"

"I. Will. Be. There." I gritted my teeth. You'd think they'd be a little nicer to me, since I was going to help them out. "Talk to Lester and Hector. They'll tell you about my new abilities to get out of bed at the crack ass o'dawn." Thankfully our food arrived at that moment, and our attention was quickly diverted to our meals.

/

I parked Big Blue in the garage on Haywood at 7:50 the next morning. I'd even got up in time to go for a run before work. I wasn't dressed in total Rangeman black since work wasn't really in my plans when I packed my bags, but I did manage a little black t-shirt paired with dark blue skinny jeans and knee-high black leather boots with a three-inch stiletto heel. I sent a little finger wave to the camera near the elevator. When I arrived on the 5th floor, I was greeted eagerly by Lester. "Beautiful, you're early! I totally won this bet. I knew you'd be here. Pay up, dudes!"

I stalked my way to Tank's office. With my hand on his door, I turned my head and said through clenched teeth, "Lester, I appreciate your confidence in me. As for the rest of you, if I ever find out you've bet on me again, I will confiscate the pot and donate 100 percent to charity. Got it?" There was silence on the floor. I put my hands on my hips and raised my eyebrows. "Got it?" I repeated.

"Yes, ma'am," someone replied. A bunch of heads bobbed along with that response.

"I love you guys, but the bets really piss me off and I'm sick of it. It's time for it to stop. I appreciate your cooperation," I finished with a smile and finger wave and got several sheepish smiles in return.

I turned back around to knock on Tank's door only to find the door open and the big man himself standing in front of me. "Little Girl, that was hot!" Tank breathed. His face froze and he continued, "Don't tell Ranger I said that. I like the new confidence, by the way."

"Thanks, Tank. So where do you want me to start?" I looked past him and saw that his desk, guest chair, and couch were all piled high with stacks upon stacks for paper.

"How about payroll? Then maybe you can move on to billing. I need to run over to the office supply store and pick up some more paper and a few other things. You can work in here while I'm gone." Tank quickly showed me how to do the payroll before he almost ran out the door. I sat in Tank's chair and pulled the payroll stack towards me. Tank's computer was locked, so I tried my old log-in, curious to see if it still worked. It did! After logging in, I opened a blank spreadsheet and started typing in employee names and then did a little formatting. Relatively quickly, the payroll was finished. I saved it and emailed it to Tank. I created a template of a time sheet and emailed it to all of Rangeman Trenton with instructions on how to fill it out and how to send it back each week. I also posted it on the server that everyone had access to. I fixed it so that it'd be easy for Tank to check the info and then get the info from the emailed time sheets onto a master payroll sheet, also on the computer. The final product could be emailed to the accountant. I was kind of surprised that Rangeman didn't have a better system for this.

This whole process took about three hours and I was ready for a snack by the time I finished. I stood up and stretched and made my way to the break room. "What happened to Tank?" I asked the guy on monitors. He must be new, I didn't recognize him.

"He's in the elevator now, ma'am," New Guy said nervously.

"First, call me Stephanie or Steph. I'm not a fan of being called ma'am." New Guy nodded in response. "Second, what's your name?"

"Eugene, ma'am, er, Stephanie."

"It's nice to meet you Eugene. How long have you worked here, Eugene?"

"About a month now." Ah. He had to be one of the guys Tank was complaining about yesterday. He seemed like he might need a lot of hand-holding. About that time, Tank stepped out of the elevator pushing a dolly loaded down with boxes of paper reams.

"Did you give up?" he asked when he saw me.

"Nope, I just finished payroll and decided to take a break before diving back in."

"You're joking," Tank said flatly.

"Nope. Come with me, I have an easier way for you to do this in the future."

Tank followed me into his office and I demonstrated what I'd done. "It normally takes me all day to do payroll and you finished in just a couple of hours. This new system you rigged up will enable me to get it done that quickly as well?"

"Oh sure, probably faster. There are actually real programs for this kind of stuff, this is just something I rigged on my own. You might look into investing in a real program. It could save you even more time and offer more functions and features."

"Damn."

"There are probably things you can do on the computer to speed up the client billing process as well as the guys' incident reports. I'm not really a computer expert and I'm definitely not a computer programmer. You might get with someone like Hector to see if you can get these things more user-friendly and speedier, not to mention cutting down on your paper usage."

"Damn," Tank repeated. He shook his head. "We're security experts, not business people. I kinda always thought there had to be a better way, but didn't know what it'd be."

"Instead of hiring just hiring for security positions, you might look into hiring an office manager. That would free up a lot of time for you guys."

Tank bobbed his head. "That's an excellent idea, Steph."

I tackled client invoices next and spent the rest of the day working on them. By the time I left at 5:00, my shoulders were cramped and I felt like my eyes were about to cross from so much reading. I waved at the guys and promised to be back in the morning.

/

Mom made me a pineapple upside down cake for dessert, which helped make up for the fact that the dining room was practically standing room only. The Kloughn family was there, in addition to Grandma Mazur's latest boyfriend. I was surprised to see Joe Morelli as well. I shot Mom a look, thinking she was trying to get us back together. She shook her head and then Joe spoke up.

"I ran into your mother earlier this afternoon and she invited me for dinner. It's not a fix-up, Steph. I just wanted to see you. Plus, your mom makes a mean pot roast."

Dinner was just like old times and I had an eye twitch by the end of the meal. Mom wasn't harping on me, which was very nice. However, Grandma continued to make inappropriate comments about her new stud-muffin and Albert seemed incapable of taking his foot out of his mouth. Val looked like she was ready to deck him within five minutes of sitting down at the table. Mary Alice whinnied loudly throughout the meal and Angie educated us with gruesome details from a recent frog dissection she'd done in science class.

I walked Joe out to his car after dinner. We leaned against the vehicle. "So, Cupcake, how are things in your world?"

I told him about Ranger, the house, and how I was planning on returning to Trenton soon. I then asked about him.

"It's good," he said with a grin. He told me he'd been seeing a nurse at St. Francis for the past few months and he thought she might be the One. I was happy that he'd found someone who hopefully shared his goals for the future. Joe told a few stories about some of his more bizarre cases and then said he needed to get going. We hugged and I returned to the house, feeling good about the state of my friendship with Joe.

I called Mary Lou to arrange some girl time with her. She told me she'd get Lenny to watch the kids tomorrow night so we could go out to dinner. I texted Lula and Connie and worked out that I'd bring lunch to the bonds office in a few days. Turning on my laptop, I decided to do a little research on local real estate for sale. I was positive that I didn't want to live in the 'Burg, but I wasn't really interested in moving to the 'burbs either. I wrote down several addresses of places I might be interested in, and powered down the computer. I needed to get some good sleep so I could be back at Rangeman bright and early.

/

The rest of the week followed a similar pattern. I'd get up early to go for a run and then be in Tank's office by 8:00. Adding the second bathroom at my parents' house really helped speed up the morning process. I'd bury myself in paperwork all morning and then take lunch to the bonds office or go out with some of my Rangeman buddies. I'd work on more paperwork in the afternoon before heading to my parents' house either for dinner, or to get cleaned up to go out.

Mary Lou and I drove by some of the houses I was interested in. Several were eliminated right off for a variety of reasons. I was left with only a few possibilities, and decided to get in touch with a realtor to see if I could tour the homes.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time. The week was over before I knew it and it was time to return to Jacksonville. I did talk to a realtor and told her what I was looking for. I planned to fly out again in a few weeks so I could look at what she came up with. I was hopeful that my Jacksonville house would sell quickly. Spending the week in Trenton made me realize how much I missed home. I liked Jacksonville a lot, and I met some really great people there, but Trenton was where I belonged.

Tank took me to Newark so I could catch my flight. I'd made a serious dent in the paperwork in his office and he was ecstatic. He told me he'd talked to the core team and they agreed to start looking for an office manager as soon as possible. It made me feel good that I could help out the guys who had done so much for me over the years.

/

Nothing too exciting happened in Jacksonville while I was gone. The realtor showed the house a few times. Steve had moved on to a new project. Doris and Jimmy were doing well, although Jimmy was bored. I pulled Jimmy aside the day after I returned to Jacksonville. I asked him if he'd be interested in relocating for a job.

I told him a little about Rangeman and he asked a lot of questions. We mentioned the idea to Doris, and she was ambivalent about the idea. She'd lived in Jacksonville her whole life and the idea of moving was a little scary to her. She also knew Jimmy would never leave without her and his chances of finding a good job that utilized his skills were slim in the Jacksonville area. I gave Jimmy Rangeman's number, if he decided to pursue the idea. I wasn't trying to force it on him, and it was a decision he and Doris needed to make together, although it would be great if a couple of my Jacksonville friends made the move to Trenton.