Okay, so once again, I do not own anything that you recognize. I do own Chloe and Jaime, and you cannot have them. They are mine, and I don't share well with others which may have to do with being number four in a family of five. Anyway, I'm rambling. Thanks to Jaime for being an awesome editor and putting up with my insanity. You rock my socks, Babe. Also thanks to my loyal reviewers for putting up with my sporadic posting. Kate, please stop sharpening your ax, please!! I'd like to live to get married and have kids. LOL. Okay, so here is the next chapter.

ENJOY!!

Chapter Four- The Art of the Threat

Slowly, the fog in her brain began to clear as Chloe started to regain consciousness. Her first coherent thought as her mind awakened was warm. Chloe felt warm, and she could not figure out why. Her eyes began to open all the way, and as they did, she saw that she was looking straight into a pair of warm, green eyes that were laced with concern for her. She felt startled at first, but then she realized she was looking into Lester's eyes. The room began to come back into focus, and she realized she was back in Lester's townhouse on his couch in his arms. Finally she voiced what she what was thinking, "What the hell is going on?"

Lester looked at her and said calmly, "You went to leave when you found the note from Rob, and you screamed for me. Bobby and I came out, and you fainted, but I caught you. Then I brought you back in here."

Chloe sighed. She had been really hoping that was all a dream. Stephanie was awesome at the denial thing, but she had nothing on Chloe. Southern girls may have been good at the damsel in the distress thing, but that didn't mean that they didn't fight it the whole way. Deciding to ignore all things associated with her ex-husband for the moment, she said, "Who's Bobby?"

Lester gave her a look that said he knew what she was doing, but he answered her anyway, "Bobby was the guy who came in at the end of our talk. You started to leave before I could introduce the two of you."

"Oh, okay. Where did he go?"

"He took the note to the police station so they could start a file on your ex-husband. He was going to wait until you woke up so you could go with him to make your statement, but I told him it could wait until the morning."

"Thanks, Lester. I'm not sure I'm up to it right now. On that note, I really am going to go. It's late, and I really, really need sleep."

"Where are you staying again?"

"Stephanie offered me her apartment to use until I find one. Since she moved in with Ranger, she says she has no use for it."

"I forbid you to live there."

At his statement, Chloe gave him her angriest glare. People thought Stephanie's death glare was terrifying; it had NOTHING on Chloe's. "Excuse me? You want to repeat that? It sounded like you just forbade me to do something. Last time I checked, you had no claim on anything that I do."

"I did forbid you, but I only said it because I'm worried about your safety. Everybody and their brother breaks into that hell hole, and Rob could get to you there. At least here, there's a security system to alert us to an intruder being here. There you'd be unprepared if something happened."

Chloe sighed, but she knew Lester was right. "So you want me to stay here?"

"Please. At least then, I'll get sleep knowing that you are safe. You can stay in the guest room, and I promise to be a total gentleman."

Chloe snorted at this, "You have never been a gentleman a day in your life."

Lester smirked at her, and suddenly it hit Chloe that she was still in his arms, and that he had predatory glint in his eyes. She started to back slowly away from him, but he followed her every move until suddenly Chloe's back hit the arm of the couch. As Lester's arms were still tight around her, she had no escape, and he was so close to her, too close. Lester leaned into to her until his lips were right at her ear, and his voice took on a seductive tone as he whispered in her ear, "Pretty girl…"

Chloe shivered at his tone, and suddenly all her rules for why this had to stay professional flew out the window as Lester began to kiss her. Her mind became blissfully blank as he kissed her, but then she felt Lester's hand at the edge her T-shirt. He was slowly edging it up, and Chloe knew his intention was to get it off her. The simple action was enough bring her back to reality. She pushed away from Lester, and she managed to get off the couch saying as she did, "I'm sorry, Lester, I can't. I'm not ready."

She then proceeded to walk into the guest bedroom. The last thing she saw before she left Lester's presence was his expression which was a mixture of hurt, confusion, regret, and was that love? Chloe decided to do the denial thing for now, and entered her room. She flopped on the bed to think when she realized she really needed a girlfriend to talk to. Stephanie and Mary Lou were good options, but she knew they'd be relaxing with Ranger or Lenny, and she really didn't want to disturb them right then. Suddenly, the light went on in her head, and she knew exactly who to call. She grabbed her cell phone from where it was sitting on the nightstand. Looking around the room, Chloe saw that her suitcases that previously been in her car were now in the room. Lester must have gotten Bobby to bring them in while she was still unconscious. Sneaky smug bastard! It was like he knew he could get her to agree to stay. Deciding not to focus on the fact that he had succeeded, she proceeded to dial the phone and put it to her ear listening to it ring.

"Hello?"

"Jaime!"

"Chloe?"

"Yep, it's me. How are you girl?"

"I'm fine, but how are you? Your parents told me you took off for New Jersey to start over. What the hell's going on? As your best friend slash lawyer, I deserve full disclosure!"

Chloe sighed, but then she proceeded to spill her guts. Jaime had a way of making Chloe want to tell her everything. Chloe guessed that it had to do with them having been friends for such a long period of time. She finally finished sharing the latest encounter with Lester and waited for Jaime to speak. After two full minutes of just listening to Jaime breathe, Chloe decided to speak again.

"Jaime?"

"I'm processing all this new information. Hold on a second."

"Okay."

After another minute, Jaime said, "Okay, let me make sure I understand all this. You moved to New Jersey, became a bounty hunter, Stephanie had her boyfriend get one of his men to train you, the man who came to train turned out to be Lester, you and Lester have had a heart to heart, you've kissed twice, Rob found you and is stalking you, and now you are moved into Lester's second bedroom. Did I miss anything?"

"Nope, those are the major highlights."

"I'm flying out there tomorrow. In fact, I'm walking to my computer now to book my flight."

"What? No! Jaime, I'm fine. You can't just put a halt on your life just because my life is going crazy! What about your clients?"

"My clients will just have to deal. Besides, I am the boss, and I have many qualified underlings who can handle things while I'm gone. You, as my best friend, are my number one priority. Plus this new situation with Rob is going to eventually require legal action, and as your lawyer, I should be there to help protect your interests."

"Ugh, fine. I know I can't change you're mind once you've made it anyway."

"Damn skippy."

Chloe laughed as she said, "Call me tomorrow, and let me know when I need to pick you up from the airport. I'm going to bed."

"Night."

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Three hours later, Chloe was tossing and turning. She glanced at the clock and saw it was now 1:45 A.M. Chloe sighed, and she decided to accept that sleep was not going to come easily. When she couldn't sleep which had been rare lately, there was usually only one type of solution. Getting out of bed, she padded down the hall to Lester's room. She pushed open the door and walked over to his bed. Before she could lose her nerve, she addressed his sleeping form, "Lester."

He stirred slightly, but didn't wake-up. She tried again slightly louder this time, "Lester!"

Thankfully this time, he heard her. His eyes popped open slightly as he looked at her. He looked confused and said, his voice still husky with sleep, "Mac? What's going on? Am I dreaming?"

"I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd come in here to see if I'd sleep better. No, you aren't dreaming."

He seemed a little more awake as he replied, "Come get in bed then. I promise to be a perfect gentleman, and I know I'm not dreaming because if I was you would have been naked when you came in here."

She glared at him, "Jerk."

He smirked at her before he pulled the covers back and patted the bed inviting her to get in. She did, but said as she did, "You stay on your side, and I'll stay on mind. This is in no way a concession to your thoughts on us. I am doing this simply because I cannot sleep, and I always sleep better when there is someone else there."

He just smirked at her saying, "I'll behave myself if you do."

She glared at him before they both succumbed to sleep.

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Chloe felt weird when she woke-up the following morning. There was an unexpected heat warming the front of her body, and there were two arms wrapped around her that she had been sure had not been there when she had fallen asleep. She slowly cracked her eyes open. It took her a second to realize that she was looking into a pair of just awakened green eyes. "Why the hell am I on top of you, Lester? I am one hundred percent sure that this was not how I fell asleep."

"Maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you something."

"Ugh, whatever. That had better be your gun poking me, Lester."

"Sure, Mac, that's my gun," Lester said with a wink, "Want to help me unload it?"

Ugh! Mental head slap! "No, I don't, and don't wink at me," Chloe said as she managed to roll off of Lester, "I'm going to get ready for the day. We have a fun filled day of skip tracing ahead of us."

Lester watched her go sighing to himself as she did. Chloe was going to be the death of him, and she'd only been back in his life for one day. Before he could get too lost in thought, a phone start ringing from his nightstand, and it wasn't his. He realized that Chloe must have brought her phone in the room last night, and he walked to answer it. "Hello?"

"Santos, why the fuck are you answering Chloe's phone?"

It took him a second to realize that the voice belonged to Jaime. "Jaime?"

"Yes, it's me. Now answer the damn question."

"She's in the shower, and her phone started to ring. I answered in case it was important."

"Ugh, whatever, I'll save my lecture for when I see you later today."

"Huh? What?"

He heard her sigh on the other end of the phone, "Men! She called me last night and told me what was going on. I'm flying out to check on her. As her lawyer and best friend, it's my right. Tell her I'll be arriving today at 3:30."

"Um…okay," Lester was still feeling slightly out of sorts and having trouble forming sentences.

"Thank you, and Lester?"

"Yeah?"

"Break her heart again, and I will cut your balls off and feed them to you."

Before he could reply, Jaime had hung-up on him. He was still standing there shell-shocked five minutes later when Chloe came back from her shower. She was wearing a robe and her hair was still wet, but she forgot all of that when she saw Lester standing there looking freaked out.

"What's wrong?"

He turned toward her, and it was testament to how freaked he was that he didn't comment on how she was attired. "I answered your phone when it rang."

Fighting to keep her cool, mostly because she wanted to know why he answered her phone and why he was so freaked, she said calmly, "Why?"

"I thought it might be the police calling you with an update or something equally important. It wasn't the cops.

"Well then, who was it?"

"Jaime."

"Okay, so what did she want?"

"She said that she arrives today at 3:30."

"Then why are you looking so freaked out?"

"I looked freaked out because she threatened my manhood!"

"Told you that if you break my heart again she'd cut your balls off and feed them to you?"

"Yeah."

"I love my best friend."

With that, Chloe disappeared into the guest room to finished getting dressed and ready for the day. By nine, they were out the door for a day of skip tracing and training.

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Around two-thirty that afternoon, Lester and Chloe had managed to collar five skips. All were male and had fallen for Chloe's southern accent and damsel in distress act. According to one skip as he was being cuffed by Lester, Chloe looked too sweet to be a bounty hunter. After the last skip, they drove back to the bonds office in the Rangeman SVU they had been using all day. They pulled up to the office at two-forty five which gave them just enough time to get their check before they had to get to the airport to pick up Jaime. They walked in to be greeted by Connie and Bobby who was there turning in Rangeman's body receipts. Chloe said hello to Connie before turning to Bobby and saying, "Hi, we weren't properly introduced the other night. I'm Chloe McDuffie, and you are?"

"Nice to meet you, Chloe. I'm Bobby Brown."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm feeling the urge to mock you for the name, but I'll be nice and restrain myself."

Lester broke in saying, "Why are you dropping off the body receipts? Usually, Ranger or Tank does it."

Bobby sighed, "Tank's off with Lula somewhere probably having a nooner, and Ranger and Bomber are offline until further notice. Something about Bomber having some great news that they had to celebrate."

"She's pregnant!"

"What?" Connie, Lester, and Bobby said at once all looking shocked.

"Yesterday, before I left her and Mary Lou, she had something that she wouldn't tell me or Mare until she told Ranger. Trust me, she's pregnant."

The three of them just nodded at Chloe still a little shell shocked at her statement. "Come on, Lester. We need to go pick up Jaime at the airport."

Lester still looked freaked out only this time it was because Jaime terrified him. Bobby noticed this too and said to Chloe, "Why is he so scared looking?"

"Jaime is my best friend, and since Lester broke my heart back in college, she is not his number one fan. Hey, you want to come with us? Maybe if there is a cute guy there, it'll distract her so she doesn't kill him."

"Sounds like there is good story there, but I'll grill you later about it. I'm game."

"Thanks, Chloe."

"For what, Lester?"

"Bringing Bobby along to protect me."

"Bobby isn't for your protection! He's coming to protect Jaime so she doesn't kill you and end up in jail."

With that said, Chloe left the office with Lester and Bobby trailing behind her. Before they knew it, they were approaching Jaime's gate at the airport. Jaime's plane had just started to disembark when Chloe spotted her. Chloe ran towards her, and the two hugged jumping up and down squealing excitedly. The first thing Jaime said as they pulled out of the hug was, "Who is that fine hunk of a man standing next to Lester?"

Chloe giggled, "That is Bobby Brown, a friend of Lester's and I'm pretty sure he is single."

"Well, I won't hold him being friends with Lester against him. Now please introduce me to him."

Chloe and Jaime walked back over to where Bobby and Lester were standing waiting for them. Chloe started the introductions, "Jaime, you know Lester, but this is Bobby Brown. Bobby, this is my best friend, Jaime Reynolds."

Bobby took Jaime's hand as if to shake it, but he then lifted it to his lips and kissed it saying, "What a pleasure it is to meet such a pretty lady."

Jaime proceeded to blush and then giggled nervously. Chloe almost had to laugh. This was a first, Jaime nervous around a guy. That never happened, but Chloe smiled at the thought. Time to play matchmaker. What fun that would be!

TBC…

So there is chapter four. More coming soon. Until then, review, review, review. I am becoming a major review slut so review makes me update faster.