Chapter 3
Stephanie Plum, Lula Banks, and Mary Lou Stankovic sat huddled under blankets as they watched the players on the field. Considering she wouldn't necessarily need to be out here in this weather, Mary Lou was a trooper to come along with her husband Lenny and keep Stephanie and Lula company.
Lula pulled her blanket closer around her and grumbled. "Remind me again why we doing this."
Stephanie rolled her eyes. "It's not that bad. Besides, it's the least we can do for getting the guys into this mess in the first place."
Lula's eyes widened. "How was I ta know the cops was gonna take such a itty bitty taunt ta heart and challenge the guys?"
"You couldn't, but then you had to go and add the rider about real men, and then Lester and Bobby walked in with Tiny—a high-bond skip who was wanted on a capital murder charge. Lester's comment coming so quickly after yours must have hit its mark, and Carl challenged Lester, who accepted before he even knew what he was accepting."
Lula's expression took on a disheartened look as she said, "Yeah. That was probably not the best thing that coulda happened."
Mary Lou chuckled. "So that's how all of this came about?"
Stephanie nodded. "Yeah. And since I know how good those guys are, I figured that the RangeMan team would need every advantage that we can give them."
Mary Lou was still smiling as she shook her head. "Lenny's good at coaching, but this has the potential to end badly. They only have three weeks to get their team in shape, and we all know that the police department's team plays against professional teams for practice."
Lula's look was hang-dogged. "My name's gonna be mud. You know, I bet that's why Tank was so willing to agree to a date if RangeMan beat the police department. He knew it wasn't on."
Stephanie shook her head once again. "Every one of those guys is going to give it their all because we all know how vicious the TPD team can be in ribbing the teams that lose. And then there's that thing about the losers dressing up in drag at the Policeman's Ball."
Lula and Mary Lou's eyes widened as they both exclaimed, "Oh, shit!"
Lula paled. "I'm gonna have ta leave town. They'll murdalize me if they lose and gotta dress like women."
Mary Lou put her thumb up to her mouth and started biting on the nail. "No wonder Lenny's been so fanatical about this."
Lula and Stephanie both nodded their heads as all eyes went to the field to watch the practice going on there.
As she watched, Stephanie let her gaze wander over the guys on the field. She'd grown close to all of them over the past few years, even more so since she'd finally broken things off with Joe and bared her soul to Ranger, telling him she loved him. He'd admitted his feelings for her as well, and she'd moved into the seventh-floor apartment.
Although she still worked for her cousin, Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, it had gotten easier bringing in FTAs since she'd taken Ranger up on his offer to give her the training she needed. She smiled to herself as she recalled Ranger's earlier attempts to get her into shape. How he'd come to her apartment and dragged her out of bed to go running with him. Ranger had known her heart wasn't into it, and he'd let her slide out of it easily enough.
Stephanie was ever grateful to Vinnie's secretary Connie Rosolli for introducing her to Ranger Manoso. Connie had called Ranger when Stephanie first started bounty hunting and asked him to give her some pointers. When she'd walked into that diner and taken one look at him, she wasn't aware of it then, but she'd fallen head over heels in love and nothing was ever the same. Although she'd had an on-again, off-again relationship with Joe Morelli, the boy who, at eight years old, had taken her to his father's garage when she was six and played trains with her. She was so mad at him because he'd been the train and wouldn't give her the chance to be the train going into the tunnel. Then when she was sixteen, he'd taken her virginity on the floor of the Tasty Pastry before he left town to join the Navy.
When she saw him back in town three years later, she'd let the rage and hurt from him just leaving town without a word—well, if you didn't count that he'd written about her on every bathroom wall in Trenton, as well as under the bleachers at the high school—dictate her actions, and she'd jumped the curb and hit him with her dad's Buick.
It was over a decade later that she'd seen Joe again. She'd just lost her job as a lingerie buyer and her car had been repossessed, and in desperation she'd blackmailed her cousin into hiring her as a bound-enforcement agent. The FTA—Failure to Appear—she'd been going after was Morelli. He'd been charged with murder. He was a cop and knew his chances of staying alive wouldn't be good if he allowed himself to be taken back into custody.
It was through her attempts to capture Joe that she'd met Lula, who was a hooker at the time and working on Stark Street. Benito Ramirez, a fighter who had a penchant for beating and cutting the women he had sex with, had seen Lula talking with Stephanie and had brutalized Lula and left her half dead on Stephanie's fire escape as a message to Stephanie of just what he planned to do to her. Lula had survived though, and Stephanie had found the evidence Joe needed to prove his innocence. She'd succeeded in taking him in and collecting the bounty.
After that, Joe had become a fixture in her life again and eventually became her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Joe was on the police department's team, and he was still as good of a player as he'd been in high school. He was now a Homicide Detective with the Trenton Police Department, and although they were no longer together, they remained friends.
Ranger was ex-military, half American and half Cuban, and one hundred percent sexy male. He'd been in the Rangers and had taken part in several secret missions since he'd left the service. He was also the owner and CEO of RangeMan Security Ltd, which had headquarters in Miami, Boston, and Trenton. At one time, he'd had an office in Atlanta as well, but he'd allowed his partner to buy him out of that one.
It was during the time that Ranger's daughter, Julie, had been kidnapped and the man who took her tried to take over Ranger's life that Stephanie came to her senses and admitted that what she and Joe had wasn't enough. Edward Scrog looked enough like Ranger to pass for his twin, and he'd used that resemblance to kidnap Julie, and then he'd kidnapped Stephanie to complete his family.
It was when Scrog was holding Stephanie and Julie in Stephanie's apartment that she'd come to realize as much as she loved Joe and prayed he wouldn't be the one walking through the door, she had to admit that she was praying even harder that it wouldn't be Ranger. Ranger had walked into the apartment unarmed, fully willing to give up his life for his daughter as well as for Stephanie. When Scrog shot him in the shoulder, her world had come crashing in around her, and if there was any way she could have gotten loose, she would have stepped in front of the bullet to save Ranger. But she'd been tied to a chair, and it had been left to eight-year-old Julie, who'd gotten ahold of the gun and shot Scrog.
A shout from the field brought Stephanie's attention back to the present, and she squinted to see who was down on the ground. She winced when she saw that Lester was beneath Tank and Binkie. When he got up, Lester Santos was moving a bit slower. He was the ladies' man of the group. Although all of the guys were hot, Lester's fun-loving personality had women flocking to him in droves. Lester was a couple of inches taller than Ranger and he wasn't as muscled, but their coloring was similar, as it should be, since they were cousins—Lester's father and Ranger's mother were brother and sister.
On the other side of the scale, Ranger's second in command, Tank—whose real name no one was brave enough to call him—was six and a half feet in height and close to three hundred and fifty pounds of muscle. His black head was shaved bald, and she'd never seen it any other way.
Bobby Brown, the RangeMan medic, started jogging over to Lester, but he was waved away. Bobby was built similarly to Lester, and his coloring was somewhere between Tank's and Lester's. He was a good-looking man and for the most part was easygoing. It was a mistake to write him off as a weaker opponent, though, because he was every bit as deadly as the rest of the team.
Even though Stephanie had known this group of men for years, there were more things she didn't know about them than things she did know. For instance, she knew that Vince was Italian and knew more members of the mob than it was healthy to know; Woody was from Texas, had a southern drawl, and looked like the perfect cowboy; Manny was descended from the conquistadors of Mexico, an expert with cars, and loved practical jokes; Ram was the RangeMan sniper and an expert with weapons of all kinds; Hector had once been in a gang but had miraculously been allowed to leave. He had two teardrops under his right eye, which was an indication that he had killed two people and might explain why the gang gave him a wide berth as well as why no one dared make fun of him for being gay. Hector was also an expert with locks, gadgets, and anything to do with a computer.
The other members of the RangMan crew who were taking part in the football game against the police department included Binkie, who was the youngest member of the RangeMan group and was beautiful with his blond hair and blue eyes, and Junior, who looked the part of a defensive end and was a great asset to have along on a takedown. There was also Cal, who had a flaming skull tattoo on the middle of his forehead. He'd been Stephanie's bodyguard at one point, and they'd gone to the hospital because Steph's sister, Val, was in labor and Cal had fainted and gotten a concussion when Val's water broke on him and he'd gotten wet. One of Stephanie's favorite Merry Men, Hal, was also there. Hal still hadn't lived down the fact that when he went to the garage to stop Stephanie from leaving RangeMan—because once again, someone was after her—Stephanie had asked to see his stun gun and he'd trustingly handed it over, only to have her stun him. Finally, there was Rodriguez. The man was in charge of all the searches and assigning paperwork. During Stephanie's stints working for RangeMan, he'd taken great delight in overflowing her inbox in an attempt to keep her busy.
All of these men had something in common besides working for Ranger. None of their last names were known by anyone in Trenton except a select few.
Stephanie's gaze went to Mary Lou's husband, Lenny. They'd been sweethearts since grade school, and when Lenny showed promise on the football field, Mary Lou had been willing to let him follow his dream. Then the final game of senior year, he'd blown out his knee when he'd been tackled by three members of the opposing team who moved out before the play was called. An off-side penalty had been given, but it did Lenny no good as he was carried off the field, his professional football career over before it even got started.
Mary Lou had stayed by Lenny's side, and it was her love that had carried him through the bad times and brought them out stronger at the other end. Lenny had gone to work for his uncle as a plumber, and he and Mary Lou had married less than six months later. They'd been very happy ever since, and it was plain for all to see just how much Lenny loved his wife and three children—Kenny, Mikey, and Sarah—and it was just as apparent that her family was everything to Mary Lou.
The theme from Jaws played, and Stephanie grimaced as she dug through her Coach bag to retrieve it. Connecting the call, she lifted the phone to her ear. "Hey, Mom. What's up?"
"Does something have to be up for me to call you?"
"Well, no…" Stephanie knew better than to add that it was just because she knew her mother and she wouldn't be calling now if something wasn't up.
There was a sigh on the other end. "Am I really that transparent?"
Stephanie smiled. "I wouldn't say you're transparent, exactly…"
"Well, you were right. Your grandmother is driving your father nuts, and if you don't get her out of the house, I'm afraid he'll do something drastic. Is there any way she can stay with you for a few days?"
Stephanie's eyes widened in horror. Grandma Mazur was the nicest little old lady that you'd ever want to meet. She just had a few quirks. She loved ogling men, and she had a penchant for getting in trouble. There was no way that Grandma Mazur would be able to stay at RangeMan. However, Stephanie had kept her old apartment. Not because she ever thought she'd move back there, but because when she did pick up a stalker, it was an excellent decoy for when they decided to try to blow her up. "How about if Grandma stays at my apartment and I can ask Ranger to have RangeMan make sure it's secure?"
"Are you sure it'll be safe? You don't have any stalkers right now, do you?"
"No, Ma. No stalkers. And it will be safe enough for a few days."
"I suppose that will have to do. You're sure you couldn't have her stay with you and Ranger?"
"Uhm…you do realize I live in a building where several single men also live. And, well, the one thing that all of the guys have in common is that they're hunks."
Another sigh sounded. "Yes, I see your point. All right. Your apartment will have to suffice."
"Tell Grandma we'll be over for her just as soon as the guys get done with football practice."
"I will…and thank you, Stephanie."
After replacing her phone in her bag, she looked at her friends.
Lula's eyes were round as a saucer. "Your momma want you to babysit Granny?"
"Yes. She's driving my dad nuts, and Mom fears for her safety."
Stephanie's father, Frank Plum, was a retired postal worker who now drove a cab part time to supplement his social security. He was the Italian part of the family.
Grandma Mazur was her mother's—Helen Plum's—mother, and they represented the Hungarian side of the family. Stephanie loved her mother and knew that she was loved in return. She was just glad all of the matchmaking was over and she didn't have to worry about her mother setting her up with another killer—although to be fair to her mother, she hadn't known he was at the time. She knew it was because her mother wanted her to be happy, but Stephanie didn't find it necessary to be married with a passel of babies in order to be happy. Once she'd made it known that she and Ranger were a couple, Helen had reluctantly accepted that her daughter's life wasn't going to mimic her own.
Two police cruisers pulled up, and Carl Costanza, Big Dog, and Eddie Gazarra climbed out of the two vehicles. Carl raised a hand in a wave as the trio walked over to where the girls were sitting.
Eddie grinned. "So how's the team shaping up? You know we can call it off. Of course, that would mean that Ranger and his team would need to dress in drag for the ball."
A shadow fell over them, and they turned to see Tank standing there. "You three are on private property. You need to leave before we press charges."
Carl's eyes widened. "What do you mean, private property? This field is city property. We always practice here after our shift."
Tank shook his head. "Not no more you don't. Ranger signed the paperwork this morning. He also bought the other three fields, including the one that the schools use to play their games. While the schools have permission, I don't see your team being accorded the same privilege."
Eddie shook his head, still grinning ear to ear. "I'm sure you know that paybacks are a bitch."
Tank shrugged. "By all means. Do your worst." He grinned. "Oh, just so that you know, any retaliation against us will be considered as a termination of our working relationship with the TPD." He winked. "You know what that means, right?"
Stephanie had known that there was a plan in the works to level the playing field; she didn't realize just what that plan entailed. Eddie was her cousin's—Shirley the whiner's—husband and he'd been a great help to her over the years. She'd taken communion with Carl, who, along with his partner Big Dog, had come to her rescue numerous times. Most notably when someone had left a bag of live snakes on her door handle.
Carl shook his head. "Looks like we lost our advantage, boys."
Stephanie's eyes narrowed as she watched the three walking back to their cruisers. She had a feeling that there was more to the guys showing up here than they were letting on. She stood, and quickly mumbled to the others that she'd be back, and then ran after the trio. She caught up with them in time to hear Big Dog laughing and wondering what Ranger and his team were going to say when they found out they'd arranged to practice with the Eagles. She ducked behind a tree so they wouldn't see her and then hurried back to the field so she could let Ranger know about this new development.
