Chapter 4- I don't own anything. I'm just having a little fun with JE's characters.

Thank you so much to those of you who are taking the time to review. I appreciate it so much. I hope you enjoy Chapter 4.

RPOV

As I watched Tank standing in front of my desk, his face filled with concern, all I could think about was that I'd let my penis hire a dangerous person; someone that could put not only my business in danger but also everyone in it. I knew better than to hire someone before all the background searches were complete but I'm typically a good judge of character and I didn't get a bad vibe from her. "Is she dangerous," I asked Tank. "Did you find something criminal in her background?"

"No, but I think you should see it," Tank replied handing me the folder.

Grabbing the file I flipped it open. On the very top was a printed newspaper article that read: Aliyana Cruz, 20, the victim of a brutal crime is set to face her kidnappers in court. Ms. Cruz will testify on Friday in court to explain the brutal details of the case against Miguel Rodriguez, Shaun Martinez, Daniel Mateo, and Herberto Gonzalez, all known members of a local gang The Mexican mob.

I looked up to Tank who was staring at the ground. I realized that it wasn't concern on his face, it was compassion. I looked back down to the file and flipped to the next paper which was the original police report. Aliyana Cruz was reported missing by her fiancé. A full investigation was launched after the normal 24 hours. After three days Ms. Cruz was dumped in front of her fiancés apartment and left for dead. She'd been subject to three days of brutal torture. She had been raped, beaten, and tortured for three days. Victim was transported to the hospital where we will follow up with her. I moved the police report aside to look for a hospital report, which I'd figured Tank had pulled illegally. When I found it I read through, she'd suffered a broken nose, a broken ankle, two broken wrists, severe internal damage as well as multiple rapes. I scanned down to the bottom and when I read the last line my stomach clenched. I looked up to Tank who had sat down and met my gaze head on giving me a sorrowful stare. "She was twelve weeks pregnant," I said in shock. "Because of the damage it ended in miscarriage."

"Yeah there's more, Boss," Tank said. I started to flip through the file when Tank found his voice; "It looks like the Boss of The Mexican Mob had been taken down during an undercover investigation a few months earlier." He paused and cleared his throat. "The cop was brand new to the force. He was pulled in for this huge undercover op and he's what brought this man down." He paused briefly. "The Boss sent them after the rookie but they had trouble getting to him so they went after the next best thing his fiancé." He stopped his face was tight. "Ranger, the cop and her fiancé was Joe Morelli. He was the father of the baby."

I slumped back into my seat and rubbed my hand over my face. My thought instantly went to Stephanie and how I'd tried so hard to keep her at a distance to avoid that very same situation but it also made me realize that this is why Morelli was so overprotective of Stephanie and why he didn't like her line of work. This was why he tolerated me and my men, because he knew I'd lay down my life to protect Stephanie as I knew he would.

"Are you going to let her know we know, Boss," Tank asked pulling me from my thoughts.

I ran the question through my head; "Yes, but I only want to make sure it's not going to affect her position here. I want to tread lightly."

"Boss," Tank asked.

"Hmmm."

"It's not the same."

"What?"

"Stephanie is not Aliyana. Morelli was new to the force he was a rookie. He had no idea that those men would come after Ally. You know the danger and you do everything you can to protect Stephanie. Don't use this as an excuse to push her away."

Tank knew me all too well but he was right; "No, I'm done pushing her away."

Tank stood to leave. "Tank."

"Yeah, Boss," Tank replied before opening the office door.

"Get with Hector and make sure all this is sealed. I don't know that we can conceal it permanently but I want to make sure that no one can pull up anything of a RangeMan search."

"Will do, Boss," and he left.

After Tank left I dug for Ally's phone number and called her and asked her to meet me for dinner the following night. I think she thought I was asking her on a date but I explained I just needed to ask her a few questions and I wanted to do it outside the office. She agreed.

SPOV

I watched Tank walk into Ranger's office with his game face on. When he closed the door I knew something was up. After I watched Tank leave his office I'd gotten up to go see if everything was okay. As I approached the door I heard Ranger calling Aliyana and asked her to dinner tomorrow night. What the hell was going on? He wanted me this morning now he was asking her to dinner. This was so confusing. Ranger and I were going to have to have a talk real soon.

I made the quick decision to clock out for the day and go check in with Connie. It took only a few minutes to get to the bonds office. I walked in the front door to see Connie sitting at her desk as usual but Lula was actually down on hands and knees filing and that was unusual. It was a good thing her ass wasn't facing me because with the mini skirt she was wearing I was pretty sure she'd be mooning me.

"Hey," I said as the door slammed behind me.

"Hey, girl," Lula said trying to push herself up off the floor. "Did you come to put in your notice?"

"Did you get the Office Manager Job at RangeMan," Connie added.

"No, I came to see if you had any new skips for me," I said quickly hoping that would end the questions.

"You mean to tell me that sexy ass man didn't give you the job," Lula asked.

"Yeah I figured he'd made that job for you."

"You guys know I don't want an office job. I'd go crazy. He hired someone else." They both gave each other a sideways glance. I really didn't want to get into this right now. "Do you have anything new for me?"

"Yeah, this one just came in," Connie said handing me the file. "It's Lewis Reynolds. He missed his court date this morning."

"What's the charges?"

"Armed robbery and be careful cause he's a slick one."

I opened the file and flipped through the paperwork until I found his address. The address listed a house in the middle of Stark Street. Perfect! I turned and headed out the door with the file in hand. I stopped before I opened the door; "Well are you coming," I asked Lula.

"Hell yeah," she said running to the door. "It hurts my knees doing all this filing."

Lula and I got into my car. "I was thinkin we should get something to eat before we go catch Reynolds. It ain't good catch skips on an empty stomach."

I rolled my eyes but I was hungry too so I headed for Pino's to get two meatball subs. Lula and I were just leaving when I saw her. Aliyana was walking in as we were leaving. Shit!

"Hey, Stephanie," she said pleasantly.

"Hello, Ally," I replied then looked over at Lula who was giving her the evil eye. "Ally this is Lula. She works at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds with me. We were just on our way to pick up a skip."

"Nice to meet you, Lula," Ally said nodding her head to Lula.

Lula nodded but continued to eye her.

"That sounds so interesting, would you guys mind if I tagged along?" Was she serious? "I don't know much about bounty hunting and since I'm working for RangeMan now I'd love to see you work first hand." Lula's head snapped to me and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

I wanted to tell her hell no but I couldn't; "Sure but we have to go now."

"Alright."

The three of us loaded into my car and I couldn't help but pout. I wasn't sure why I didn't like her she had been nothing but nice to me but I just couldn't help but not like her. The ride to Stark Street was exceptionally quiet considering Lula usually never shut up. We parked across the street from Reynolds house and all three of us sat in silence while we stared at the house as if we were waiting for him to come out and jump into my back seat.

"So what's the plan," Lula finally asked.

"We are going to knock on the door and ask him to come with us to reschedule his court date."

"Great," Lula said sarcastically. "We know how well that always works." I rolled my eyes and we all got out of the car.

We approached the house and I instructed Ally to remain at the bottom of the steps on the other side of the aluminum guard rail. I knocked on the door and listened to the rustling inside until the door opened.

"Lewis Reynolds," I asked.

"Yeah, who's asking," he replied harshly. The man was huge. He stood in front of us with nothing but a pair of low hanging jeans. His face was badly scarred. When he talked the smell of ass filed my nose.

I gagged at the smell of his breath but continued. "My name is Stephanie Plum and I'm with Vincent Plum Bail Bond and you're in violation of you bond agreement. I need you to come with us so we can reschedule your court date."

He stood staring blankly for several minutes before screaming you'll never take me alive and tossing Lula off the steps and plowing into me. Everything happened so fast that I didn't realize it until it was too late. I slumped down on the step as I watched Reynolds take off in my car. I looked over to Lula who was passed out on the ground and then to Ally who was looking down at the handcuffs that was attached to her hand on one end then threaded through the guard rail and my hand on the other end.

"Is this normal," Ally asked curiously.

All I could do was nod. I looked back down to Lula who'd obviously took a hard hit because she was out cold. I patted my pocket and realized I'd left my phone in my car. Shit!

"What do we do now," Ally asked surprisingly calm.

"We wait…" Before I could finish we heard the loud explosion before we saw the smoke coming from a mile or so away.

"Shit, I really liked that car."

"How do you know it was your car?"

"Trust me, it's always my car."

RPOV

After I got off the phone with Ally I distracted myself with work to keep from thinking about the new information Tank had found. I'd thought I was caught up on paperwork but then a brand new stack was brought in to go through. I couldn't wait for Ally to start and handle some of this paperwork.

I'd managed to get halfway through the new stack when Lester and Tank came rushing into my office.

"Boss," Tank said. "Bombshell's car tracker just went offline.

I flew out of my chair; ready to leave the office. I felt the panic run throw me and my chest tighten. Every time Stephanie's tracker went offline I always thought it would be the last time. Trying to stay positive I said; "Send her last location to my GPS I'm on my way."

"Ranger, Ally's purse tracker went offline with Stephanie's," Lester said quickly before I disappeared.

I stopped stunned. I'd slipped a tracker into Ally's purse her first day. "They were together?"

"It appears that way," Lester replied.

What the hell were the two of them doing together? I didn't have time to figure that out now I had to make sure my babe was okay. "Tank with me, Lester get me that location, now!"

APOV

I wasn't exactly sure what happened but now I was sitting here handcuffed to Stephanie. I'd never seen anyone bring in a skip before but I was pretty sure this hadn't gone as planned.

"How long do we wait," I asked her curiously. I wasn't sure how this whole thing would work itself out.

"Figuring that was my car that just exploded I'm pretty sure Ranger's on his way to the crash site. If we can get Lula awake we can send her down there to get him."

"How would Ranger know your car exploded?"

"He puts a tracker on my vehicles."

I'm sure the confusion was apparent on my face. "Why does he put trackers on your car?"

"That's just Ranger. I wouldn't be surprised if you have a tracker on you as well."

"What? That's an invasion of privacy."

"Yeah I use to think that too but in times like this it comes in handy. Plus Ranger doesn't have the intension to invade anyone's privacy he's just overprotective."

We sat quietly for several minutes. "He's in love with you," I said more as a statement.

"No he's not."

"Yes, he is. I see the way he looks at you."

"He asked you out to dinner."

"Yeah but I don't think it was because he's interested. He said he had some questions for me and I kind of get the feeling he's trying to make you jealous."

I saw her brows fling almost off her head. "That son of a bitch," she said under her breath.

We both started yelling for Lula to get up.

RPOV

The ride to her last location seemed to take forever and all I could think about was holding my babe again and telling her exactly how I felt. When Tank and I pulled up to the accident site at the same time Morelli did. I was out of the truck and running to the burning car before Tank pulled the SUV to a complete stop. Morelli and I made it at the same time. The car had run into a telephone pole with an impact hard enough to make it explode. We both turned in circles looking for any sight of Stephanie. The panic was clear as day in Morelli's face and I'm sure his heart was throbbing as hard as mine when we didn't see her.

"What happened," Morelli yelled at me.

"I don't know," I replied. "She was working at RangeMan and I wasn't even aware she'd left." I pulled my phone out and dialed the bond office but before it connected I saw Lula running, well more of a trot, down the road towards us. Her clothes were filthy and there appeared to be some blood coming from her head.

Joe and I took off in equal strides towards her.

"Where's Steph," Joe said when we'd reached her.

"That asshole handcuffed them to his porch," Lula replied trying to catch her breath and pointing down the road. "Pushed me down, made me hit my head and mess up my hair."

"They," Joe asked.

"Yeah, her and that new little girl that Ranger hired."

Joe looked over at me but before I had to answer I took off running I wasn't sure if Joe was following or not and I hoped not. I didn't want things to be uncomfortable for any of us.

I hope this chapter lived up to everyone's expectations. Please let me know what you think the reviews really help motivate me to write more. I'm not sure where exactly I'm going with Chapter 5 yet but hopefully it won't take me too long to figure it out. Thanks again to everyone who has or will review.