AN: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'm loving all of the reviews! As always everything familiar belongs to JE.

Part of me wanted to deck him for that, another part of me wished it was real, a third part of me was scared shitless by the second part of me. The diner went instantly silent and I saw about fifty phones being whipped out to take pictures. The news would be all over Trenton in about ten minutes. Bravely, I shut my phone off and wolfed down the rest of my breakfast so I could bolt. Ranger was smirking at me the whole time. "You're giving me an ass cramp." I said and felt my eye begin to twitch, "You knew that would happen."

"I did." he said, "I like to keep your life interesting. And you haven't given me an answer."

"Ass. Cramp. Yes I'll marry you." I rolled my eyes hard and then it dawned on me, "Oh God, Joe's going to lose his mind."

"Probably." Ranger shrugged, "Just tell him the truth and avoid Bella until we leave." Bella was Joe's insane grandmother. She claimed that she had the eye and she liked to put curses on me whenever I pissed her off, which was pretty much always. I was only semi certain that her curses weren't real. She once told me that she was going to make me marry Joe by putting a curse on me that would counteract my birth control. Two weeks later my period was late and I couldn't button my jeans anymore. I damn near had a heart attack. Turns out I wasn't pregnant, just stressed and my stress eating was the reason I couldn't button my jeans.

Ranger stood up and dropped some cash on the table, "I'll be over later tonight."

"Bring dinner." I grumbled.

"Don't be mad." Ranger bent to kiss the top of my head and whispered, "I didn't cheap out on the ring."

I couldn't help it, I laughed "You're such a jerk."

When he left, conversation instantly resumed and I knew there was only one thing they were talking about. I blew out another sigh. It was going to be a long day. I put the ring box into my pocket and stood up. The part of me who knew the kind of insanity that Ranger's little stunt was going to cause, wanted to say 'Fuck it' and tell Ranger I wanted to leave immediately. The part of me that didn't want to be homeless knew I had to tough it out in order to pay rent.

"You can do this Stephanie." I whispered to myself, "Maybe it won't be that bad."

Yeah sure it wasn't going to be that bad. I was going to be under the same scrutiny as a Kardashian if I went anywhere near the Burg. Wisdom stated that I should just avoid the Chambersburg section of Trenton where I grew up. Unfortunately wisdom isn't exactly my strong suit. Besides my mother was probably having a stroke and my grandmother was going to be egging her on. I could call and tell her what was going on, but the phone was probably unplugged and Grandma was too deaf to hear her cell phone. I sighed again. With all the extra oxygen I was taking in so I could sigh, my lungs were getting a workout and my heart was probably happy. The diner went quiet again when I stood up. I gave them an awkward wave and practically sprinted for my car.

There is an instinct that Burg women are born with, a strong maternal pull to know when a child is returning to the nest. This instinct led mothers to stand by front doors to welcome a child home even if they had no prior knowledge that said child was planning to visit. Every time I came home, if mom or grandma was home, one or both of them would be waiting for me at the front door. When I pulled up in front of my parents' house ten minutes later and saw that my mother's was car in the driveway but nobody was at the door I wondered for a second if in my flustered state, I had driven down the wrong street. Then I realized that my grandmother was actually at the bottom step jumping up and down like a school girl.

My grandma was eighty something years old and didn't look a day older than one hundred and four. She was small, looked a bit like a boiled soup chicken and might have given the impression of frailty if it weren't for the fact that she dressed like a twenty year old and had the mentality and curiosity of a thirteen year old boy. When my grandpa Mazur died and grandma moved in with my parents, she realized that she had a freedom she'd never had before. She was bound and determined to enjoy every second of this freedom and she didn't give a hoot what anyone thought. She was not so slowly unhinging both of my parents and I secretly I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.

Today she was wearing a pair of purple velvet track pants that had the word 'Juicy' stamped out in rhinestones across her boney ass, she'd paired it with a matching zip up hoodie and a t-shirt that I bought on a trip to Atlantic City with my friend Diesel a million years ago. On me the shirt looked slutty; on grandma you could tell that gravity hadn't been kind to her and she needed to roll the girls into a better bra. She had no coat on and she was still wearing her bunny slippers, clearly too excited to realize it was winter still.

I turned off the ignition and put my forehead on the steering wheel. Yeah any hope I had that my parents hadn't found out yet, misguided as that hope was, was shot to hell and it probably meant that there was absolutely zero chance that I was going to be the first one to tell Joe. My eye was already twitching again. I mentally hiked up my big girl panties, cursed Ranger and got out of the car to face the music.

My grandmother hurried to my car and squeezed me in an exuberant hug. She grabbed my hand and let out a girlish squeal and jumped up and down on the spot. If she wasn't careful she was going to slip on some ice and break a hip.

"That's a pip of a ring! Can I take a picture of it? My phone is blowing up with people asking me about the ring." grandma said. I mentally cursed Ranger again and held my hand steady so she could take the picture. If anybody looked me up on social media, the engagement would look legit.

"Your mother is ironing paper towels and she disconnected the phone five minutes after the first tweet hit my Twitter feed." Grandma said. In times of stress, I ate doughnuts. My mother on the other hand, if the sun was over the yardarm, hit a bottle of Wild Turkey she kept stashed in her baking cupboard; otherwise, she ironed. She ironed everything. That she was already on to paper towels probably meant she'd done most of her ironing after the Dip incident and she was desperate.

I saw curtains twitch on the other half of my parent's duplex and knew that in ten seconds, everybody in New Jersey would know I was at my mom and dad's house. Sure enough other curtains started to twitch all down the street, one by one like dominos falling as some ancient telephone tree was activated.

"Crap." I said and ushered my grandmother back into the house.

Sure enough we found my mother in the kitchen where she was ironing and starching a roll of Bounty, sheet by sheet. I was actually impressed by her ironing skills; if I tried that I'd set the kitchen on fire. I helped myself to some milk and sat in my usual place at the kitchen table. There was a plate of my grandmother's fresh cookies on the table, still warm from the oven and I picked one up and broke it in half. Mom would need a minute to formulate her rant. She wouldn't be able to hear the truth until she got what she needed to say off of her chest. I dipped half of the cookie into my milk and then popped it into my mouth. I'd just finished swallowing when she slammed the iron down with enough force that I was amazed the ironing board didn't flip over, catapulting her perfect stack of horny paper towels.

"One month ago," She held up one finger, "One month! I asked you how things were with Joseph and you told me, YOU. TOLD. ME. that everything was fine. That he'd brought up marriage again but you weren't ready. Neither of you were ready. I don't know what there is to be ready for, you've practically been living together for years now, but noooooo you can't marry Joseph, a man who loves you, has a normal job, a house, and comes from a good Italian family. You can't do that because you aren't ready… and suddenly I'm sitting here with my phone unplugged for the second time in a week because of you and it's because you're engaged to this Ranger person."

"You've met him more than once, mom. It's not like he's a stranger." I said.

"I like Ranger, I wouldn't have you still if it weren't for Ranger. I'm grateful to him for saving your life a thousand times, but I know nothing about him. People are asking me how long you have been together, saying how in love you are and I see the pictures and I can see it in the way he looks at you and I'm hurt that you haven't told me that you're serious enough about him that you want to marry him. I'm sitting here trying to figure out what kind of wedding this is going to be and I don't know anything about him except that he drives German cars and he actually likes salad."

"Hey, that's more than most people know about him." I said.

"Well were is he from? What's his real name? What is his religion? If he's not Catholic is he willing to have a Catholic wedding? How big is his family? Will they come to the wedding? Are his parents still living and if they are, where do they live? We're going to have to meet them before the wedding. At least with Joseph I know his family and I know what to expect from them. I know how involved Angie would want to be if you married Joseph. I know nothing about Ranger's mother, but I'm willing to bet she's going to be so thrilled her son is willing to settle down that she's going to want to be as involved as possible. And kids! You're going to have kids, I'm going to have to get a bigger table, it's already a mad house in here. And where are you going to live? You can't live in your apartment and apartments are no place to put a family, which means we're going to have to find you a house, and we know that's going to fall on me, because you're the least domestic person ever and Ranger is always rushing off to do whatever it is that he does." Mom's voice trailed off as she finally ran out of air and she flopped down in her chair.

I slid the plate of cookies in her direction and she put a finger on each of her eyelids to stop a very visible twitch from continuing. Huh, turns out it's a family trait.

"Mom, you don't need to worry about that stuff. There isn't going to be a wedding." I said. That just made the twitch worse. Her whole face spasmed as though that thought was simply not able to compute.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Oh I know why." Grandma piped up, "She's in one of them modern relationships. The ring just says they are in a commitment but they aren't going to go through with the antiqued institution of marriage." My mother turned green and stared at me in utter dismay.

"I think you mean antiquated." I said to Grandma, "And that's not it. Ranger asked me to pose as his fiancee for a job. We'll be going away together for a few weeks and when we come back we'll tell everybody the truth. For now, it works for us that everybody thinks that it's real, but it's just a job."

"It doesn't look fake." Grandma said, "You're trending on Twitter and my Instagram is going nuts."

"What?" I said. She pulled out her iPhone and opened her Instagram and showed me. There we were in every possible filter from about a dozen sources. Me opening the ring box looking totally shocked while Ranger smiled smugly across from me. Ranger putting the ring on my hand while I continued to sit there stunned. Ranger looking affectionate while he kissed my hair and me smiling looking like I was overcome with emotion.

"Oh boy." I said for the fiftieth time that day, "He gave me the ring in the diner because he was being an ass. It surprised me a bit, and he made me laugh."

I took the phone from grandma and looked at the pictures again. Ranger was right, it looked right and it was because we loved each other. Shit. I secretly sent a couple of the pictures to myself so I could print them later for the house in Florida to add some authenticity to the role. Yeah, that's why you're doing it Stephanie. You keep telling yourself that's why you're doing it. It has nothing to do with the fact that more of you than you would like to admit is wishing it was real. The thought made me reach for another cookie.

The idea of marriage scared the bejeezus out of me. Marriage to Ranger especially so because, first of all, it wasn't a possibility. As he'd told me a billion times, Ranger's life didn't lend itself to relationships. The second reason was because I knew that if he asked me for real I'd say 'yes' without thinking. Since Ranger's anti commitment was practically a commandment, thinking about the second reason caused a giant pit of unhappy to form in my stomach. A void I hoped to fill with cookies.

"Well what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say?" mom asked.

"I don't know." I said.

"Well she can't tell everybody that it's fake. It'll be all over social media and it'll blow her cover." Grandma said. My mother looked like she needed to process that for a minute. It was hard to say if she was relieved or upset by the news.

"I have to tell Joe the truth." I said. Grandma nodded and we looked at my mom for her input. Mom didn't answer because she was too busy staring at the plate of cookies as if they held the answers to the universe. When she didn't blink for longer than I thought was healthy, I decided that there was no time like the present and fished my phone out of my pocket to call Morelli.

I powered it up and immediately threw it onto the table in fear. It wash making an alarming series of schizophrenic sounds as it tried to produce multiple text alerts, email alerts, missed call alerts and voicemail alerts all at the same time. I quickly put the phone under a place mat and pushed it to the centre of the table with my finger and then we all pushed our chairs out of the way as we braced for the news of my engagement to literally blow up my phone. It made one last feeble sound resembling a muffled burp and then went silent. I opened one eye and when I saw that the placemat wasn't smoking, I carefully uncovered the phone. My iPhone had crashed and was rebooting itself. When it started back up, it made a noise that sounded like Bob as he regurgitated a sock and then the screen froze. I couldn't even turn the phone off.

"That's going to be a problem." I said.

"You're grandmother is right. I'll think of something, just…Tell me about Ranger." mom said this as if she hadn't spent two full minutes staring at a plate of cookies without blinking or that we weren't all momentarily concerned that the rise of the machines was about to take place on her kitchen table. My grandmother eyed the cupboard, probably wondering if mom had finally been driven to day drinking.

"His name is Ricardo Carlos Manoso," I said slowly, sharing my grandmother's concern. Either my mom was drinking or she'd had a mini stroke. She was too calm as she stared at me, patiently waiting for more. "He's non practicing Catholic, Cuban American, has three sisters and a brother, a daughter named Julie, an ex-wife named Rachel and his family are mostly in Miami and Newark. I honestly don't know how much more he would be comfortable with me sharing." I certainly wasn't about to tell her that the last time we spent the night together, I was pretty sure he made me see God.

"That's enough, the rest should be easy. There are enough rumours about you two that people will fill in the blanks themselves." My mother said. She looked at the ring on my left hand, "It's too bad you'll be giving it back; it suits you. He has good taste."

She reached for a cookie and we were both surprised to see that the plate was empty. When the hell had we eaten the rest of them? Grandma went to the fridge and produced some leftover pineapple upside down cake and some forks. Grandma had the right philosophy, the family that stress eats together, sticks together.

We polished off the cake, I cleared the table and mom began disassembling the ironing board. That action reminded me that I actually came here to do laundry so I grabbed my keys off of the counter and jogged out to the street to get my laundry bag from the back of the car.

I'd just closed the backdoor of the Buick when I heard the sounds of an engine revving and then the squeal of tires as a green Jeep came barreling around the corner and skidded an attempt to a stop in front of the house. I jumped back moments before it clipped the back end of the Buick and jump up on the curb, coming to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk. I looked at the front end of the Jeep and winced, it was going to need some serious body work. The Buick was fine, the paint wasn't even scratched. That wasn't going to do anything to diffuse the six feet of pissed off Italian American male that was cursing as he tried repeatedly to get out of the car.

First he tried to open the door but forgot the locks were engaged. Then when he realized this and managed to unlock the Jeep he discovered that the collision had jammed the door, so he had to throw himself into it to get the door to open. Then he forgot he was wearing his seatbelt and he was yanked back like a dog on a leash. I would have found it funny except for the fact that Joe was usually pretty cool, the famous Morelli temper held firmly in check. Sure we had arguments that were punctuated with lots of cursing but those were healthy and we usually reconciled after a brief cooling down period. This however was a whole new level of pissed off.

He finally managed to get out of the Jeep and stood in front of me. He looked like he was about to say something, but I beat him to it.

"Would you believe that it's not what you think?" I said lamely, bracing myself for his verbal explosion the way I had prepared for the phone blowing up. Like the phone there was nothing, only this time when I opened my eyes warily, I really wished I hadn't. Joe was doing something that no Morelli had ever accomplished. He was so pissed off he couldn't speak. Hell, he couldn't even produce sound.

"I was going to call you." Shit, that was lamer than the first thing that came out of my mouth. It was hard to tell if that was the right thing or the wrong thing to say because it's what allowed Joe to regain a the ability to form a semi-coherent sentences.

"That's what you have to say? You were going to call me? You were going to call me!? How exactly do you think you were going to accomplish that? I had to shut down my phone! I've had no less than fifteen calls in twenty minutes. I've seen that damned picture of him kissing you in about thirty different emails with every fucking filter imaginable!"

"Hey that's better than me. My phone got possessed and then died." Stupid Stephanie said. Joe turned purple. Not a good look for a man with an olive complexion.

"Okay, why don't you come inside before you have an aneurysm and we'll talk once you've had a chance to calm down." I said, looking around nervously. The neighbours had decided, 'fuck peeping through the curtains' and were now blatantly standing in their yards watching this go down with the same morbid fascination that was usually reserved for train wrecks.

"You want me to come inside so I can calm down?" Joe incredulously, his voice was too quiet and I didn't realize his eyebrows could go that high, "I WILL NOT FUCKING CALM DOWN! MY GIRLFRIEND IS ENGAGED TO A SOCIOPATH WHO ISN'T ME!" There we go, that was the volume I was expecting. Probably it wouldn't be smart to point out that he just called himself a sociopath.

"He's not a sociopath. He's just pragmatic and follows his own rules." I said. See the thing about me is that when I'm upset, I can't really shut up and I just say whatever pops into my head. It's not usually the most useful defence mechanism as it has a tendency to escalate things. That I defended Ranger instead of denying my relationship with him was sort of the exact wrong thing to do.

What Joe said next doesn't bear repeating, was mostly justified, not at all that coherent, and part of it was in Italian so I didn't follow it all that well, but I got the gist. Suffice it to say, it wasn't exactly complimentary. I let him burn himself out and I bit down hard on my tongue to stop myself from lashing out in an equally scathing commentary on our relationship. I loved Joe and I hurt him and while what he was saying was pissing me off, I knew he'd be regretting it in the morning so I kept myself in check. That is until his tirade went from an unflattering description of my conduct and person and reverted back to Ranger.

"You know he's only doing this because he's trying to make himself more respectable, right? He's using you." Actually he hit the nail on the head there. That Ranger was using me with my permission made it so it wasn't a painful thing to consider, "That's all this is. If you think he loves you, you're wrong. Guys like him, they don't love women, they use them and throw them away, and that's what he's going to do Stephanie. He's going to leave you when he's got whatever he needs from you."

"You know what Joe? You're totally right" I snapped, "Yeah, guys like him can't possibly love a screw up like me. They just jump off bridges into frigid water or walk into a room with a man who wants to kill them because the girl they're using is in danger. They nearly die taking bullets so she doesn't have to because that's what users are known for, their fucking altruism."

"And I haven't been through a lot for you?" Joe yelled.

"Yeah, and you make sure you let me know just how hard it is for you. You make sure you point out how big of a screw up I am. He genuinely wants what's best for me, even if it means he loses. That's why he always…" I snapped my mouth shut before I finished that thought.

We did not want to go there. Joe didn't need to know that every time we broke up and Ranger and I got together, he always sent me back to Joe because he thinks it's safer for me, better for me to be with someone more traditional, someone more like Morel…

You know how in movies when something big happens and the hero has an epiphany and there's the sound effect of a record coming to a scratching halt; the soundtrack stops and everything around them freezes for a split second while they process what they just figured out? That happened, though the record sound was probably just in my head and time probably didn't actually stop.

The first time Ranger and I had sex, I was pretty sure it was because he was hoping to scratch an itch where I was concerned. Joe and I were in an off phase, Ranger came over, told me that we were going to have sex and it was going to be good. We did and it was. Then he told me that I should fix things with Joe because Morelli was better for me than he was. Then he told me he was an opportunist and wasn't above applying pressure in order to create those opportunities. After that Ranger teased, flirted, and essentially drove me crazy until my doodah overrode my conscience and I fell into his bed again. After every time we slept together there was some kind of conversation reminding me that we couldn't have a relationship. Every time but the last time. The last time he didn't send me back to Joe.

The last time, there had been no pressure, no slow burn until we couldn't take it anymore. The last time we'd just made love and afterwards he asked me to stay and I was too fucking thick to realize that's what he was saying. Except maybe on a subconscious level and that's probably why I was in a good mood. "I said I'd take you home after I fed you. I never said after which meal."

"Oh my God, I'm a fucking idiot." I said slowly. "Holy shit. I… I just…I'm sorry Joe, but Ranger and I love each other. The rest of it? Just details."

"So everything we have together is over, just like that?" Joe said in painful disbelief.

I hated that I was hurting him, I hated it that I could see it on his face. I loved him but I realized then that it wasn't enough. With Joe, the rest wasn't just details. He wanted things from me that I wasn't sure I could ever give him. With Ranger, I was willing to fight for what we had. Even if it meant that all we had was a mutual acknowledgement of love, a deep friendship and occasional mind blowing sex.

"Not just like that, Joe. We both know it's been over for a long time, it's just that neither of us has been willing to admit it." I said, "Neither of us is willing to fight for it."

"What the hell do you think I'm doing here Stephanie!?" Joe yelled.

"You're here because of your pride." I said, "You're angry because you lost. If we loved each other as much as we've been saying we do, we'd make an effort to see each other and we don't. It should bother me that you don't tell me when you're leaving anymore but it doesn't. You should want to tell me, but I bet you don't even think about it. You know I'm right, you know that if this was real between us, Ranger would never have been a problem. We've been together for so long because it's easy…ish."

He smiled sadly in agreement at the 'ish'

Joe and I looked at each other for a long time. I could see defeat in his eyes, it made me sad, but I had just realized that I could never go back to him. That while my engagement with Ranger was fake, and the way things were between us probably temporary, this break up was real and it was permanent. I felt a stab of pain as that realization struck home and I felt tears prick my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Joe." I said past the lump in my throat.

"Cupcake." Joe said quietly,he wiped a tear off of my cheek the fight gone, his own eyes damp. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek and then stepped back. I jumped about a foot in the air when I felt Ranger's hand on the back of my neck.

"Babe." he said. I reflexively leaned into him for support and with that action I saw the finality of us register in Joe's eyes. My mother had come out along with everyone else and she quietly walked up to Joe and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Come inside Joseph." she said, her voice laced with motherly sympathy. She liked Joe, she thought he was a credit to his family and she was friends with his mother; it was her duty to take care of him. Joe looked like he was going to protest but she gave him a look that triggered an instinct of obedience that was as strong in Burg children as the child homing instinct inherent in all Burg mothers. She handed me my purse and then steered Joe towards the house.

Ranger had traded the Turbo for the Cayenne and helped me climb up and into the SUV. He got into the car and gave me half a glance to make sure I was wearing my seatbelt, flicked on my seat warmer, engaged his own seatbelt and then hit the ignition button. He didn't say anything. I'd like to think that it was because he knew I just needed time, and maybe he did, but mostly that's just how Ranger drives. He didn't have a destination in mind, he was just driving because in the car we were away from any scrutiny and that was what I needed more than anything else.

"How long were you standing there?" I asked after we'd been on the freeway for about half an hour.

"A while." he said.

"What did you hear?" I asked.

"The truth." Ranger said. He was quiet for a long time and then he said, "You don't know how much I wish I could be the sort of man you need, Stephanie."

"You're already the kind of man I need, our relationship is the kind of relationship I want and I don't give a shit if you're bad for me." I snapped, "I don't need your bullshit right now Ranger, so just don't even start."

Ranger chuckled softly and shook his head ruefully, "And that's why I can't stay away from you." I tried to glare at him but it didn't take. I'd started smiling again. He picked my hand up off of my lap and kissed it. He held my hand for a long time while he drove down the freeway. He didn't let it go until he came to the next off ramp and left the freeway and started heading back towards Trenton. I just stared out of the window until we got closer to town and Ranger gave my knee a squeeze.

"Who are you after today?" he asked.

"Ronnie Jenkowitz, Hank Kuntz and Mario Gruzzie." I said, "I thought I'd start with Hank, he'll be on his corner. Then I thought I'd go after Gruzzie because Connie says he'll be at his social club. If I manage to round them both up in one day, I'll get started on Jankowitz."

"Jankowitz is probably in Brazil." Ranger said.

"I know, but I have to do some research on the off chance you're wrong and by some miracle of stupidity he's still in New Jersey."

Ranger snorted and I stuck my tongue out at him. "Vinnie only gave him to me because he knows you'll help me and he won't have to pay you for it. I'm sorry to say that I'm not against shamelessly using you for your resources if it means a hundred grand finds it's way into my bank account."

"Mi casa." he said. He had his phone in a cradle on the dash, he punched in a number and the blue tooth picked up.

The phone rang twice over the speakers before it was answered.

"Hey, Boss." A man's voice said.

"Look up Ronnie Jankowitz, contact the right people and see if he's been looking into alternate papers or transport out of the country." Ranger said.

"Call you back in an hour." the voice said. Ranger hung up the phone and turned down Stark.

It took us all of five minutes to find Hank. Hank was about six foot four and thanks to a hardcore pilates addiction, two hundred pounds of seriously lean muscle that made me question whether or not he was actually two hundred pounds. Rumour had it that half his weight was in his skirt. He was racially ambiguous, his skin a soft cinnamon tan, he had a brilliant green fro, which he'd matched to his skirt and his lipstick. He wasn't the first transvestite of my acquaintance but he was definitely the prettiest, today in a weird sixties mod kind of way, with his white leather go go boots, leather mini dress and white fur coat. Ranger pulled up to the curb and Hank came over to lean suggestively on the car; the tinted windows of the Porsche obscuring the fact that his bond enforcement agent was picking him up and not some John.

I hit the button for the electric windows and when he saw that it was me, his smile went from flirtatious to genuine pleasure.

"Hey girl," Hank said in an effeminate falsetto.

"Hey," I said, "Got stripped for parts in the hospital parking lot."

"Eaten by a John's pet alligator." Hank said and we shared a grin. Hank and I once spent three hours in a courthouse comparing disaster stories while we waited for Hank to get re-bonded. Now whenever we saw each other, if I was driving something new, which was always, we greeted each other with our latest disasters.

"That's a good one." I said, "That sounds like something that would happen to me."

"I'd be fucking impressed if an Alligator ate your car." Hank said. He pulled out a 1990's flip phone that was the Big Blue of the cell phone world. He made a call to his girlfriend letting her know he was going to be home late and hung up.

"Alright, tell me, how long have I been on the lam?" Hank asked.

"Not long, only since yesterday." I said.

"Fuck." he said, "Oh well, business is slow today and it's too fucking cold to stand around here for nothing."

"Yup." I said, "Hop in the back." I hit the door locks and he angled himself in. Ranger put the car into gear and pulled a u-turn.

"On the bright side it gives me a chance to catch up with my favourite bounty hunter. How are things with the Cop?" Hank asked.

"It's probably on Facebook and it's complicated." I said, "But it's over."

"Are you sure? It's been over before." Hank said. I glanced at Ranger who seemed completely focused on the road.

"Positive." I said. "He might think there is a chance still, but I'm done."

"Good for you. I told you it was time. What you really need, Miss Plum, is a man who will fuck you senseless when you need it (which is often, by the way; you're very tightly wound, sweetheart) and you need someone to get into your head and remind you that you're not the train wreck you think you are." He eyed Ranger like he was lunch, "He'd do."

Ranger cut his eyes to me and looked like he was thinking about smiling. I rolled my eyes and laughed softly. Yeah, he'd definitely do. It was about time we both realized it too.

Vinnie was at the courthouse when we got there so we got Hank re-bonded and took him back to his corner. I promised that someone would be there to pick him up for his next court date, and then Ranger took me back to the Bonds Office so I could get my cheque from Connie. He opted to wait in the car while I did my thing. Chicken.

I was pleasantly surprised when they didn't jump all over me the second I walked in the door. In fact Lula looked bored. I casually slipped my left hand in my pocket, thinking I might slip the ring back to Ranger until I actually needed it. I was also thinking that I would do that when the outside temperatures we were having reached hell.

"I'm going after Gruzzie, are you coming?" I asked Lula.

"I thought you was riding with Batman today, Connie says you've been gone with him all day."

"Nope, he just wanted to talk about a job and then he came with me to pick up Hank," I said, "Big Blue is at my mom's so if you want to drive me over we can pick it up."

"Nah, we'll take my car." Lula drove a pristine, candy apple red Firebird that I think she loved more than family. I dropped my bag on the sofa and went back out to tell Ranger I was set for the rest of the day.

"I heard back from Roderiguez." he said when I got to him.

"That was Roderiguez? I thought he was a myth and that those searches were just the guys messing with me."

I periodically worked for Ranger when things got tight, one of the things he always had me do were these endless background checks. The people we looked into were either bad guys Ranger and his Merry Men were going to round up, or they were standard employment related background checks that Rangeman had been contracted to conduct. My job was to sit in a cube, run these searches and prepare reports for anyone in the company who asked for them. Every time I left my desk, even for a minute, Rodriguez put twenty more research requests into my inbox.

"You're good at them." Ranger said with a shrug.

"It was ass numbingly boring." I said.

"Why do you think he kept giving them to you? He's been begging me to get you to come back." He said, the corner of his mouth tilted up in a slight smile.

"Funny guy." I said and poked him in the chest, "What did he say?"

"A guy of Jankowitz's description bought himself a new passport under the name Mickey Marsterson. And Mickey just bought himself a plane ticket to Peru. He left yesterday morning."

"So close." I snapped my fingers, "Brazil, Peru, you weren't far off. Don't worry, I doubt your instincts are failing you, he probably just wanted to check out Machu Picchu before he moves on to Brazil."

He snagged me by the belt loop of my jeans and pulled me close. He tilted my chin up and he kissed me right there in the parking lot, in full view of everyone, and it wasn't just for show. It was because he wanted to. The kiss ended and he folded me in his arms, the hug protective and comforting at the same time.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. It was time." I pulled back a little so I could look up at him, "You know I'm not expecting anything right? That this had to happen and I mean it, it doesn't have to change things between us."

"I know." He said and nodded towards the bonds office, "We have an audience."

"I'm not surprised." I said. I glanced at Connie and Lula who were blatantly staring out the window.

"I have to go, I have things to do before Friday. I want you to take one of the Explorers."

Ranger had an endless supply of pristine, brand new, black vehicles for his employees to use and where he got them was a complete mystery. He was constantly giving them to me and I was constantly ruining them.

"I don't want to kill it." I said.

"It's just a car." he said, "And I have good insurance."

"You're not going to take no for an answer are you?"

"Nope." he said, "Tank's already on his way."

Just as he said that, a shiny black Ford Explorer pulled into the lot. Tank got out and tossed me the keys.

Tank was six foot five, African American and built like a tank. He was comprised entirely of bulky muscles on top of bulky muscles and when he got out of the Explorer the suspension of the small SUV groaned in relief.

"This thing has keyless entry and keyless start. Put that fob somewhere on your person and you can't get locked out of your car." Tank said.

"Thanks Big Guy." I said. Tank gave me a half assed salute and got into the passenger seat of the Cayenne.

I gave Ranger a little wave and was about to go back to the Bonds office when Ranger grabbed my hand and dragged me back.

"Gruzzie is a pain in the ass but he's a pain in the ass with a gun. Don't get shot.' he said.

"I almost never get shot." I said. He gave me one hell of a goodbye kiss and got into his vehicle. He popped open the centre console glove box and handed me a small black gift bag.

"Jeeze, a car, a house in Florida, a ring, and now this? Careful Ranger, a girl could start to feel spoiled."

"You'll thank me tonight." He said. He closed the door and drove off. I opened the bag and cracked up. Inside was a pair of fuzzy black wool mittens with (thanks to Ella and her fancy machine) the Rangeman logo embroidered in hot pink across the back. I was still laughing as I pulled them on and went into the office.