Chapter 2

Bobby's POV

I drove over to Steph's apartment to help her move into RangeMan. I can't believe she actually signed that contract. I hope she knows what she's doing, she has a tendency to dive into things without much thought.

I let myself in because her lock is a fucking joke and walked toward the bedroom. I leaned against the door frame watching her bend over to throw more clothes in her suitcase.

Damn, she does have an amazing ass.

"You know you're not going to need seven pairs of heels," I pointed out.

She let out a small yelp as she jumped. "Will you make some noise! You scared the shit out of me," she said.

"You really need a better lock," I replied.

"So I've been told," she muttered.

"Alright, I'm going to pack up your TV and then I'll start bringing your heavy stuff down," I said as I turned to head towards the living room.

"Thanks Bobby!" she called after me.

Steph's POV

My heart finally started to slow. Bobby scared the shit out me.

This move was starting to scare the shit out of me. Am I really ready for this? All the training? I'm going to have to start carrying my gun. I hate guns. I'm also going to be on borderline lock down for three months with some seriously sexy guys. My hormones were already hopping up and down just thinking about it.

It's been a long four months since my last sexual encounter and now that Ranger has declared his lack of feelings for me, the guys should be worried about me jumping one of them.

I stopped to watch Bobby bending and lifting things. It's a great sight to see.

Bobby is a little over six feet with short light brown hair and hazel eyes. He has a ridiculous smile which would make any woman weak in the knees. He's like an all American boy/badass. Bobby and the rest of RangeMan Merry Men are in incredible shape and they're all lookers, as my grandmother would say.

Bobby turned around and smiled at me. "Can I help with anything Bomber?"

Shit. He totally caught me staring; at least I'm not drooling…hopefully.

"Nope! I'm all set to go! Thanks for helping me out," I said hoping that I recovered from getting caught checking out his ass.

"No worries," Bobby said as he threw me a cocky smile. Okay, he totally knew what I was doing.

Bobby and I drove the 15 minutes to RangeMan and then he and Lester were nice enough to unload my car and carry all my stuff into my new place one the fourth floor.

"Need anything else Beautiful?" asked Lester.

"Not right now, thank you both for all your help today. I really appreciate it more then you know," I said greatfully.

"Anytime Gorgeous," Bobby said as he took me into his arms and dropped a kiss on my head. Lester also grabbed me and kissed my forehead and then they were both gone.

I unpacked my stuff and tried to breath. I was definitely feeling anxious. I couldn't get the conversation with Ranger out of my head. It kept playing over and over and over again. I just wanted to shut it off. It was only last night but I felt it was a life time ago in some ways. I just felt so different.

Twenty-four hours ago I was chasing skips, contemplating McDonalds for dinner and hoping Ranger would grab me and kiss my behind the bonds office. Now, I'm unpacking my stuff in a new place because I am now a full time employee of one of the best security companies in the country.

The man who I was hoping to be able to steal kisses from was now a world away, possibly getting shot at. Maybe laughing at the stupid woman he "solo'ed" before he left.

My emotions kept jumping from furious to despair. I was furious this morning and now in the quiet of my new place, the despair was really kicking in. The only thing that stayed consistent was the knot firmly placed in my stomach.

I am normally a big eater and am always hungry but even though I hadn't eaten today my appetite was nonexistent.

A knock at the door interrupted me from my thoughts. When I opened it I couldn't suppress the grin even if I tried. "Ella!" I exclaimed.

Ella was Ranger's housekeeper, cook and aunt. She is also what I like to think of as the housemom of Rangman. She keeps the fridges stocked and the guys clothed and most importantly she makes the place feel homey.

"Stephanie! It is so good to see you, I'm so happy you have finally become a full timer! I've brought you these," she said handing my bags of clothes. I looked in and it was Rangman t-shirts, shorts, underwear, sports bras, pairs of black fitted cargo pants, a RangeMan jacket and a pair of black work boots.

"Ella! You shouldn't have done all this! It's too much!" I exclaimed.

"Nonsense! All the boys get this treatment, well except the underwear and sports bras" she said with a grin.

"Thank you, I really mean it. You've always been amazing," I said.

"Stephanie, can I just ask why you are not staying on seven? Ranger told me before he left that if you ever needed a place to stay that you had his permission," she asked. Eek. Seven was Ranger's apartment. I stayed there before when I needed to lay low from gang members looking to assassinate me.

"I don't want any special treatment Ella, I'm really ready to prove myself," I replied. Huh… I actually meant that. I didn't even need to lie! That's EXACTLY what I wanted to do. Prove myself.

"You have nothing to prove to me! You've always been a good girl and an amazing friend to these boys," she said hugging me. It always made me laugh how these huge scary mercenaries were just "boys" to her. She really was the coolest.

"I have to run now but come to dinner soon!" she said still hugging me.

"I absolutely will!" I promised.

With that Ella left and I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking. At seven o'clock another knock at the door and this time it was Bobby, Lester, Vince and Ram with pizza and beer! I love when men bring gifts.

"Yo! Bombshell!" yelled Vince grinning at me. "We're here to welcome you to the building and give you tomorrow's breakdown," he explained.

"Bring it!" I said with much more confidence then I felt.

"At 0600 you will be in the gym with Bobby and I," said Lester grinning at me and shooting me a dangerous look with his bright green eyes.

Vince spoke up next. "At 0800 you will have an hour to change and eat and then you will be meeting Ram and me at the shooting range for an hour and then an hour of other weapons training. You are then to report to Tank for searches and administrative work. At 1500 you will be meeting down in the gym for hand to hand combat training," he said.

"When am I supposed to pick up skips?" I asked.

"Not for the first few weeks," Bobby explained. "At 1700 we're going to do an hour of first aid training tomorrow," he said.

I'm sure I could use first aide training being as accident prone as I am and Bobby is an amazing medic but I'd much rather be picking up skips.

"Congrats Beautiful, boot camp is about to begin," Lester said raising his beer toward me.

I looked around at all their smiling faces and was genuinely afraid.

XXXXXXXXXX

My alarm start went off 5:30am. Thank the good Lord that I spent my last skip check on an ipod home so I could wake up to my play list instead of the glaring beeping of my former alarm.

I am NOT a morning person and even with the music feeling chipper at 5:30 is borderline impossible. Especially in January, it is so fucking dark. I can't believe I am getting up in the middle of the night.

I trudged to the bathroom where I washed up and brushed my teeth. I threw on my new RangeMan workout clothes, tied my sneakers and took my ipod down to the gym. I was throwing my hair in a ponytail when I heard Lester scream "Holy shit! She's here and on time!"

"Hop on the treadmill honey, we're going to start you off easy" said Bobby attempting what I think was a reassuring smile.

Two hours later I was sweat soaked and lying on the mats after we finished our last circuit of abdominal exercises.

Bobby and Lester were standing over me sweating but grinning and definitely not about to pass out.

"Not bad Bombshell and you'll only get better from here," Bobby said while helping me up.

"I thought you said you were going to start me off easy," I moaned.

I felt Lester's hands on my hips from behind as he whispered in my ear "We did."

Fuck.

I walked slowly and painfully back to my apartment to shower and dress. I tried to eat but that stupid knot in my stomach had not let up and I only managed a few bites of yogurt and a quarter of a banana before feeling like I was so full that I thought I might be sick.

I met Vince and Ram at the shooting range. "Ahhh there she is and she's five minutes early!" Vince was flashing his perfect white teeth at me. What the hell? Am I really always that late?

"Yes, usually anyways," replied Ram.

Shit. Definitely said that last part out loud. The next hour I practiced with all sorts of guns, my revolver, glocks, even rifles. I also practiced loading and unloading all of the guns over and over. I wasn't actually that bad of a shot when I could keep my eyes open. The next hour was spent with knives. I'm lucky I didn't lose a finger but I had some really amazing teachers so I shouldn't complain…much.

I met up with Tank and helped him with payroll and inventory and then headed to my cubicle to handle my growing pile of searches. Next thing I know I looked at the clock and it was already 2:30 and I had to be ready for hand to hand combat at 3:00. I ran back to my apartment and changed and headed back down to the gym.

Bobby and Hal were sparing. Manny was running on the treadmill and Tank was beating the hell out of a punching bag.

Lester was standing there smiling at me. Lester is gorgeous, like woman break their necks trying to get a look at him gorgeous. He's a 6'6'' Latino god with unbelievable green eyes and as cute as he is, I wanted to knock that stupid smile off his face.

"Come on Beautiful, we're going to have some fun," he said.

Two hours later I was back to lying on the mats soaked in sweat and Lester was still smiling.

Bobby came jogging over and pulled me up. "Up you go! Now let's talk some basic first aid," he said easily.

I tried not to moan too loudly.

By the time I got back to my apartment on four I was pretty sure I was dying. I ran a bath and soaked for awhile. I got out and rapped myself in a robe and raided the fridge.

Ella stocked me up well with nothing but healthy things but then low and behold in the cabinet…PEANUT BUTTER!

God bless that woman. It was organic with no additives but it was peanut butter. I toasted a piece of whole wheat bread and spread on a thick layer. The first bite was heaven, but after I swallowed the knot in my stomach reared its ugly head. I sighed and chocked down the rest and tried an apple without much success.

This must be hell week because that's exactly where I feel like I am. I crawled into bed and unfortunately every time I closed my eyes one face kept appearing and I kept wondering if I would ever get a chance to see him again.