Chapter Four

Ranger

She just stared at him for a minute. Like she was trying to crawl inside his head. That had always been both thrilling and unsettling. From the first day he met her, Stephanie Plum had been able to see something different in him than everyone else. Saw through the hardened demeanor and the street swagger. Called him out on his bullshit. And now those transparent, bright blue eyes of hers were holding him prisoner. Analyzing him without bothering to hide a single one of her own thoughts. She was nervous. Unsure of herself and him.

Which was justified.

They hadn't seen much of one another the last three weeks. Not since the whole plague incident. It had turned out to be nothing. The overhyped master plan of an insane scientist too unhinged from reality to realize his plague was inert. But they hadn't known that at the time. Ranger had been told that the love of his life was run down with a van and injected with a deadly disease. Found her stumbling into the street half drugged and bleeding, and he'd had to face the possibility of losing her all over again. And he hadn't even been able to comfort her. Not the way he wanted to. Because she'd put up walls between them to protect herself like the smart woman she was. And he loved her enough to respect that. Even if he didn't like it. She couldn't take a blind leap of faith with him. Not when neither of them knew if he'd be there to catch her.

He was actually pretty sure the reason she'd been avoiding him the last three weeks was because of Morelli. Because they had broken up yet again and gotten back together less than a day after she'd admitted to Ranger that she and Morelli were no longer a couple. Like she thought Ranger would feel cheated or betrayed or confused by that. Like it was something new.

It wasn't. None of this was new to them. They'd done this dance so many times it was second nature. Muscle memory. He'd let her closer to him than he'd ever let another person. Let her under his guard. Fell in love with her. Because he was an idiot who couldn't leave well enough alone. Couldn't even figure out what it was about her that was so disarming even his famous hard earned self discipline couldn't seem to help him let her go.

And now he was in her apartment unannounced, asking her to go down the rabbit hole with him all over again.

He saw the wheels turning through her eyes. "It's serious, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Oh god, are you—"

"It's not about me. Not directly."

She blew out an unsteady breath to try and calm herself. A hint of that unknowable heat warmed his chest again. She was worried about him. Sweet. "What does that mean, not directly?"

"It means if I'm quick enough I have a chance to get out in front of it. But we'd have to leave right now."

"Leave for where?"

"Newark."

Her thoughts clicked into place. "This is about Loopy."

"Yes."

"I'm a suspect for her murder."

"I know. But that won't last long. Eventually they're going to admit you'd never kill someone in cold blood and they'll move on to the next viable suspect. I have to find him first."

"Him? You know who did this?"

"No. But I know who they're likely to suspect. Lupita had a boyfriend a couple months back that she still has some ties with. The Harley she was riding was registered to him. I was told she stole it when he dumped her."

"I remember hearing something about an ex when I was tracking her down. I think they called him Wildog."

"That's his street name."

"Why do you need to find him first?"

"Because his given name is Ricardo Marco Manoso. He's my brother."

ooo

Steph

I was speechless for a full minute. Not a typical state for me. But having that dropped in my lap was not in any way what I'd been expecting. "You have a brother?"

The almost smile ticked at the corner of his mouth again. "Babe, you know I have a brother."

"Yes, but there's knowing you have a brother and then there's knowing you have a brother. You never talk about your family."

"There's not much to say."

"Your brother was dating a crazy chick that sets cars on fire. That seems conversation-worthy."

"Babe."

Babe had a lot of meanings the way Ranger says it. In this case, I was pretty sure it meant 'you're cute, but clock's ticking'. "So why do you need me? He's your brother. It's not like you have to run a skip trace on him."

"Except he's not answering my calls and I can't seem to locate his whereabouts."

"Why isn't he answering your calls?"

Ranger's dark eyes held mine a second. Not happy. "Marco and I aren't on the best of terms."

That opened up a million questions, but it didn't really seem like the right time to ask them. I filed them away for later. "So you need me to help you find him? You're the terminator of bounty hunters. You're Batman. You can't tell me your skills have dulled since you stopped taking skips from Vinnie."

"That's not the reason. I need backup. You're my best option."

"Not Tank?"

"Tank has even more problems with Marco than I do."

Jeez. Now I was just made of questions. "So let me get this straight. You knew Loopy was your brother's ex girlfriend and that I was her bond enforcement agent and you didn't say anything?"

"It wasn't relevant at the time."

"Until she turned up dead."

"Yeah."

I bit my lip trying to hold in the one question burning in the back of my throat. I think he saw it anyway. His eyes crinkled just a little at the corners through his seriousness. "Just say it, Babe."

"Do you think your brother murdered Lupita Ortiz?"

"Honestly?"

I nodded.

"I don't know. I'd like to think he's not capable of murder, but the truth is I don't know him the way I used to."

"So you need to find him and do damage control."

"That's about the shape of it."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes. Okay, I'm in."

"You're not going to ask if I'm planning to pay you?"

"I hadn't thought about it. This isn't a job for you. It's family. Family looks after family."

The smile was back, but softer this time. More than just amusement. He caught my hand and a second later I was plastered against him and he was kissing me. His tongue touched mine, sending a trickle of molten lava into my belly and straight down. I was out of breath by the time he pulled back. His hand still on my ass. "I can always count on you to brighten my day."

"Even now?"

"Even now." He kissed me again. Slow and soft this time. And then he smiled. "Are you ready?"

"You mean to go to Newark, right?"

That got me a full on Ranger grin. Damn him.

The 911 was waiting in the lot when we got downstairs. I hadn't seen it when I came in. But then, I hadn't really been looking for it. Ranger held my door open for me and then angled into his own seat. Slipping the high performance engine into gear.

It's about an hour's drive to Newark on a normal day. We made most of the drive in silence. Not a problem for Ranger. Ranger likes silence. Ranger gets into his zone and doesn't require outside stimuli to occupy his thoughts. Me? Not all that good with silence. By the time we reached the outskirts of town my curiosity had gotten the better of me. "What did you mean you and Marco aren't on good terms?"

Ranger shook his head so slightly I would have missed it if I wasn't looking at him. "He and I took very different paths after I went to juvie for stealing that car when I was fourteen. I was sent to live with our grandmother in Miami. Marco stayed in Newark. We were never really that close, but the distance made it more pronounced."

"Is he older or younger than you?"

"Older, by four years. Firstborn."

"So he was eighteen when you left."

Ranger nodded slightly. Just once. "When was the last time you talked to him?"

"Right after Lupita moved to Trenton."

"So you knew all along who she was."

"Yes."

"And you didn't think to tell me."

"I knew you could handle her. She might have been vindictive and batshit crazy, but she wasn't particularly dangerous. I'd promised to keep an eye on her. That didn't extend to keeping her out of jail."

"So you were watching her?"

"We weren't running full surveillance, if that's what you mean. More like I was paying her neighbor the occasional twenty to stay informed of who she was seen with. It was about making sure whatever was between her and Marco didn't blow back on rest of our family." He turned off the main road onto a frontage. "Didn't know finding her dead was a possibility."

His eyes were still on the road, but I could see it when a bit of his control slipped. Ranger wasn't one to show a lot of emotion. At least not outside of his bedroom. You might catch a wisp of smoke coming off his scalp when he was angry, or a shadow in his eyes when he was worried or annoyed. I had a suspicion that this particular look was the Ranger equivalent of bitterness. He didn't like that a woman was dead on his watch. Even if she was his brother's batshit crazy ex.

He pulled the 911 onto the edge of a narrow dirt road lined with overgrown fruit trees. I could see the rundown little shack at the end of the road, surrounded by the neglected orchard. It looked smaller than my apartment. Peeling whitewash on wood siding. A roof in bad need of repair. A little surprising it wasn't condemned.

Ranger put the Turbo in park and reached under his seat for the lockbox. Handed me a .38 Special identical to the first gun he'd ever bought me. "Stay close until I signal. I want you to take the front door while I circle around back."

"Shouldn't you take the front door?"

"He's more likely to answer if he sees a beautiful woman."

Well. When you put it that way.

A touch a humor leaked through the shadows again. Ranger thought I was amusing.

I took the .38 and did as I was told. Tucked it into my pants at the small of my back. It wasn't comfortable. Jeez. Imagine if I'd gotten to eat all those candy bars I'd bought. It wouldn't have fit at all. I watched Ranger vanish with big black jungle cat stealth into the overgrown orchard. Not so much as a rustle of leaves to mark his presence. It really was impressive. I wasn't capable of even a quarter that level of stealth. Deep down, I'm pretty sure Ranger has some kind of superpowers.

I waited a minute until I heard a light whistle. And then marched up to the front door and knocked. Listened. No answer. Not even the rustle of someone throwing on clothes or trying to make a break for it.

And then I reminded myself that we weren't after a skip. This was Ranger's brother. Not only did he not have any reason to try and run from me, there was a high likelihood that if he did I'd never hear him.

"Come on in, Babe. The front door's unlocked."

I tried the knob. He was right. The front door was indeed unlocked. That didn't seem like a good sign to me. "Nobody's home?"

"No. And from the looks of it, he doesn't have intention of coming back anytime soon."

I closed the front door behind me and suddenly wished I'd left it open. The dark was oppressive. There was only one window in the tiny living room, and it was covered with enough dingy curtains and plaid blankets that sunlight was only able to filter through as a halfhearted amber haze. Ranger clicked on a flashlight from his belt. The room was a mess. Hard to tell if it had been tossed or if Marco Manoso was just a slob. We searched together room by room. Didn't take very long. And I had to conclude that Ranger was right. There wasn't anything there to suggest someone was planning to come back.

"You're sure he lives here?"

"It's what my latest intelligence said."

"You have to run recon on your own brother?"

Hard to really see the look Ranger gave me through the uneven darkness, but I was betting it wasn't happy. "Marco hasn't ever been the reliable stay in one place kind of guy."

"So this wasn't a permanent residence."

"No. Looks more like an old stash house. Lots of places in the walls and cupboards that look like they were meant for guns, but I didn't see any evidence it's been used recently."

My eyebrows shot up. "Jeez."

Ranger only shrugged. The idea that his brother had been sleeping in a shack designed for gunrunning wasn't a big deal to Ranger. Ranger knew a thing or two about gunrunning first hand.

He shined the light around the kitchen. Taking in the dirty dishes. "Someone was here as recently as this morning, but they didn't leave any personal belongings behind when they vacated. I was hoping this would be easier, but it's starting to look like we might need to go through more traditional channels to find him."

"What, like local PD or the FBI?"

That got me another smile. I was sure of it. "No, Babe. This will be far scarier than that. We're going to have to talk to his family."