I do not own these characters. They belong to Janet Evanovich. Please continue to review. I appreciate it more than I can say. I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

Chapter 2

Ranger POV

It seems like forever since we've been home. We got to the Keys the end of April, and only now have we gotten close enough to the family to be invited to the compound in Havana. The main obstacle was I needed a wife. I had told our contact with the family that I was married. It makes you seem more stable when working with an old world family and the Vasquez's were as old world as they come. In a moment of improvisation, or covering my ass, whichever way you want to see it, I showed him Babe's picture. I kept one in my wallet. No one knew about it. No one needed to know, and once again, by pure dumb luck, Babe saved my ass.

Our target on this mission was the entire top tier of the Vasquez family. The father, Emanuel, took over the family business of drug running. While the elder was a local distributor, his son took the business global. Now the Vasquez family was one of the major cocaine suppliers in the world. His sons, Manny, Victor, and Hector made the movie Scarface look like a Disney cartoon. They had connections in the military and were able to travel back and forth to the US by giving the right people lots of money. They were big players in Miami, but fortunately I had been able to steer clear of them until now. I still had two years left on my government contract and they wanted my team to find out who they were using in both the Cuban and American governments to help get the drugs across the border and find their civilian contacts before the family was to be eliminated.

I hated having to bring Stephanie into this. I would have given anything to go back and change that day. Since arriving at the Keys, Lester and I had been posing as brothers. We were cousins and there was a slight family resemblance. Bobby was posing as our bodyguard. In this op we were Les and Carlos Martinez. Bobby was Robert White. When we were doing the op tech before the mission it was decided that I would be the older brother. We had decided that I would be married, to give more of a sense of stability. When making up these kinds of backgrounds you use names that you can easily remember and relate to. So obviously, when I had to choose a wife, I chose Steph. We then manufactured and called in favors to establish a reputation for the Martinez brothers. By the time we made contact with the youngest of the Vasquez boys, Hector, we were known as up and coming players in the area of gun and drug distribution. We started spending time with all three boys, who spent a tremendous amount of time in the Keys. It was close to Cuba and their connections there were too numerous to mention. It required us to be on our game 24-7.

One evening, the brothers brought in "entertainment" in the form of five very lovely ladies. We were too deep undercover for them to be refused, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Just as a very lovely Latin beauty in her early twenties was brought to stand in front of me, I turned my attention to Manny, the oldest of the brothers.

"She is very lovely Manny, but I am a married man. I just so happen to be very much in love with my wife."

Manny turned the girl and smacked her on the butt to dismiss her. "Tell me Carlos, do you have some kind of a witch at home that has put a spell on you to be able to refuse my present." He was testing me. As friendly as he seemed, I knew he was looking for a weakness. If one of us so much as slipped for a second, we were all dead.

"My Stephanie is no witch, but she has bewitched me none the less." Saying her name almost broke my heart. I, in no way, wanted her involved with these animals.

Manny walked closer to me and sat on the coffee table opposite the couch on which I was setting. Bobby was standing watch in a central location between where I was setting and another couch which Lester was making out with a very aggressive blonde. I saw his eye cut to me though when I said Babe's name.

"Let me see a picture of the little Witch. I want to see what is worth giving up that fine piece of ass." He leaned forward, calling my bluff.

I sighed, retrieved my wallet and pulled out Steph's picture. It had been taken before one of the many distraction jobs she had pulled for Rangeman. She was wearing a black, low cut dress. Her hair was up with just a few loose curls clinging to her neck in the back. Her blue eyes sparkled and she was completely unaware that I had snapped the picture with my cell phone. Manny stared at the picture, and when he ran his thumb over Steph's image, I had to call on every reserve ounce of strength I had. I wanted to break his neck.

"She is beautiful, but there must be something I am missing. My wife is just a beautiful, but I have yet to refuse a gift as lovely as Selena. Tell me Les, what about your sister in-law am I missing?" He was getting suspicious, and this could turn bad in a heartbeat.

Lester pushed the blonde off of himself and stood to cross to us. He took the picture out of Manny's hand and laughed.

"Typical husband, showing a picture that doesn't do his wife justice. She is much more beautiful in person, and is completely capable of castrating my poor brother if he sticks his dick somewhere it doesn't belong."

Manny looked at him and smiled. "I can't wait to meet her. Why is she not here with you now?" His attention focused back to me.

"Her sister is expecting a baby any day now. She wanted to be there for her." I looked at Lester and his eyes, which had returned to Stephanie's picture quickly flashed to me and if looks could kill, I'd be toes up right now.

Manny sighed and stood. "All this talk of wives has killed the mood. Go now ladies. I'll call you tomorrow." The other two brothers entered the room then and they all stood by the bar as Victor made us all mojitos. "I want to bring you boys to the compound to meet our father. But we won't be leaving until your Witch can join us Carlos. I would hate to keep two people so obviously in love apart and you might be in Havana for awhile." Manny was clearly the brother in charge. He also had been around the block a few times. He was ten years older than Victor, who was 35. Hector was the baby of the family at 29. All three didn't even come close to matching Lester and I physically, but what they lacking in body mass, they made up for in mental instability.

"Let me make the arrangements to get her here and we can leave when you are ready." I was calling his bluff, hoping that he would back down. Saying the words made bile rise up in my throat. He just nodded his head and we all finished our drinks in silence. Bobby, Lester and I left shortly after and walked in silence to the yacht we were staying in. None of us spoke until we had cast off from the dock and dropped anchor about half a mile out to sea. I was in my room when the door suddenly flew open.

"I am talking to you right now as your cousin and your friend. What in the fuck are you thinking? Stephanie shouldn't be within a thousand miles of these sick bastards and you went and drug her right into the middle of this shit." I just looked at Lester. He was seething and I had nothing I could say. I felt the same way he did. I acted impulsively and now the one person I would do anything to protect has been brought into the lion's den with a steak tied around her neck, and there was no one I could blame but myself.

"Ric what are we going to do?" Bobby was in the room as well now. It wasn't anger, sadness and desperation that painted his expression.

I ran my hand over my face. There was only one option. No matter how much I wished it wasn't the case, you know what they say; want in one hand, shit in the other and see which fills up faster. "Call Tank, have him work up an op tech for Stephanie that fits in with our current identities. Have him get all the supporting documentation. Call Ella and have her gather a wardrobe for Babe that fits into the op tech. And then in the morning, I will ask Steph if she will come. If she won't, then we will go from there." Both of them left the room then and Lester slammed the door behind him.

Steph had never done anything like this. She wasn't trained and I knew that this would either make or break any future we had together. All I could do was trust in my abilities, my men and Babe. In some really sick, childish part of myself, I was excited to be with her. I missed her so much. More so this mission than any of the others I've been on. Maybe because in my mind, because of this false reality we've been forced to create, she is mine and I am hers. And damn it I really liked the way that felt.

I explained to Babe what had brought us to this moment. She had her head on my shoulder and was looking at me as I spoke. When I finished, she smiled.

"You keep a picture of me in your wallet?" I could tell that the fact pleased her more than it probably should and I felt like a fifteen year old that had been caught passing a note in algebra.

"Babe." I sighed and hoped we could leave it at that. We had arrived at the airport and I held Steph in my arms as we boarded the plane to the Keys. We all sat in a group of chairs surrounding a table. I handed Steph the file with her new background information and let her look over it quickly. "We are heading to the Keys first. You are going to meet the brothers. Then they are going to arrange our transportation to Havana. Once there, we will be staying in the family compound, so we will be in character constantly. There is no room for error."

Stephanie put her face in her hand and shook her head. "Do you really think I can do this? I am a walking disaster Ranger." I was setting beside her so I pulled her into my arms.

"First of all, you better get used to calling me Carlos. You can't call me Ranger. Second of all, you will do great." I kissed her on the forehead and she let out a long sigh.

Babe placed her hand on my chest and then looked up at me. "You seem different somehow, softer, but not in a bad way."

I kissed her again on the forehead. "You're my wife remember. How else is a husband supposed to treat his wife?" As I felt the lines between reality and this fantasy world start to blur, I was suddenly afraid of how easy it was to picture myself married to Steph and how much I wanted it.