Chapter 7

We took a chartered jet home as soon as we'd landed in Florida. It never ceased to amaze me how Ranger had everything in his life come together with precision and expertise. Everything in my life came together with prayer and begging, and even then it didn't always line up.

He helped me onto the plane and settled me into my seat. Then he sat beside me, tucking me into his side. "Are you okay, babe?" he asked.

I nodded, pressed my head to his chest, and closed my eyes. Mid-flight I woke up and tilted my head back to look at Ranger. His eyes were closed and he was sleeping. I hadn't noticed the weariness in his face, but I supposed it was inevitable that Batman would wear down. He'd been taking care of me constantly since my ordeal.

I reached up to kiss his temple and he woke up. "Babe."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you," I said softly.

"You didn't. I was just resting my eyes." He looked at me. He was relaxed and it was … cuddly. I wondered who this Ranger could be.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"You. I've never seen you act like this before," I said.

He fixed a steady gaze on me. "This is who I want to be all the time when I'm with you."

"Why me?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

"Now you're starting to sound like the Ranger I know," I said with a smile.

"I'm starting to wake up," he said.

"I thought you weren't asleep."

He shook his head slightly and then kissed me. His lips were soft and expertly caressed mine. His arm was around my shoulders, avoiding my wounds. He held my face with his other hand, lightly caressing my neck and jaw. His tongue caressed my mouth and teased my tongue. Then he broke away and kissed my temple in deep thought. He surprised me by opening up a few minutes later.

"It's been a long couple of days. I thought I was going to kill Kirk when he called me and told me he couldn't find you." He nuzzled my neck. "I thought that it was D'Angelo. We couldn't get a handle on him. He'd slipped out from under our radar somehow. I hate to say it, but I was relieved to find out that it was just some garden variety psycho stalker." He nibbled at my ear. "There's no telling what D'Angelo is capable of doing."

I nodded. "The Captain was really upset."

"Guess playing danger isn't close enough to real life danger to give you the tools you need to cope with something like this." He kissed me again. "I was trying to go easy on him, but he started pushing my buttons."

"He's a pretty honest guy," I said.

"An honest guy like that would be good for you," he said quietly.

I looked away trying to figure out if I was more hurt or angry. First Morelli and now Chris. He really didn't want me in his life.

I sat up when I felt the plane tip forward in descent. "We landing soon?"

He nodded and we buckled our belts.

"Just one thing," I said when we were settled again. He looked at me. "At some point, you're going to have to realize that if you really love me enough, you're going to have to let me decide which man is best for me." We locked eyes. "And if you don't love me enough to be that man, then you need to tell me."

We were almost on the ground by now, so the conversation was over.

It was just after midnight when we arrived at Rangeman. He carried me up to his apartment and tucked me into his bed. I settled onto my stomach and turned to look at his retreating back. "You're not staying in here?"

"I'm afraid that I would forget not to touch you and I'd hurt you." He smiled. "Don't worry. As soon as you're back to normal, I'll be in here with you."

Mmm, I thought. Then I had to wonder what it all meant.

I slept like a baby that night. I always slept peacefully in Ranger's bed. It wasn't just the security of the building or the softness of his sheets, but it was the man himself. He was here in the apartment and that knowledge gave me the security to sleep a deep, dreamless sleep.

I slowly slid out of bed and went into his bathroom to shower. After, I pulled my hair into a ponytail and spritzed some gel into my curls to help tame them. I swiped on some mascara and lip balm, then worked my way to Ranger's kitchen. He was there working on filling his plate from a tray of fresh fruit, granola, and yogurt that Ella had brought up. I looked around at the familiar surroundings. Everything was black from his counter tops to his furniture. It was all new and expensive.

I saw Rex's cage on a stand by the couch. "Hey Rex!" I said, grabbing a grape from the tray and walking over to him. He already had food and water in his cage, but I dropped the grape in anyway. He sniffed at the grape and selected a walnut instead, but he wiggled his whiskers at me. I smiled. I had missed him. I liked taking care of him and showing him that I cared about him.

This thought made me ponder Ranger's actions over the past few days. He'd been with me practically every second of every day since they'd rescued me from the shed. I knew that he loved me and I knew that he'd been worried about me. I didn't understand his obsession with keeping me at arm's length. I knew he had dangerous missions he went on periodically, but mostly he was here. His business was becoming more administrative than manhandling. I was completely baffled.

"Earth to Stephanie," Ranger said.

I looked at him. "Do you want something to eat?" he asked.

I walked over and loaded fruit and yogurt onto a plate. I studied him as I nibbled on the food. "What do you have going on today?"

"I have some people I need to see. I thought I would drop you off at your mother's so you can bear her wrath and explain the tabloids." He grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "Jerk," I said.

We left as soon as I finished eating and were on our way to my mother's when I started having second thoughts. "Okay, maybe this will just blow over. I don't need to go there. Why don't you just take me with you and I'll wait in the car?"

He almost smiled. "You've got to let her know you're back sometime, babe. She was a wreck and worried about you."

"How do you know?"

"I called her yesterday and told her that I had you and I was bringing you home," he explained

"Did she say anything about the tabloids?"

"No, but I didn't expect her to say anything to me about them." He had a point. She was storing all of that up for me.

He pulled up in front of my parents' brown and yellow duplex and kissed me. "That's for luck," he said.

"Thanks." The front door opened and my mother came tumbling out to stand on the porch and wait.

"When do you want me back, babe?"

"As soon as possible," I said, opening the door and looking out to my doom. Ranger carried me up to the house, up the steps, past my mother after saying hello, and went inside to deposit me gently on the couch. When he was gone, I looked up to see my mother standing in the doorway staring at me and felt the hot coals piling up on top of my head.

"Do you want some lunch?"

"I had a late breakfast." I waited for the explosion, but none came.

"Well, uh, I just made lunch. Give me a few moments to eat and then I'll be back." I nodded and she left, leaving me to think about what I would say to her.

"I don't understand this!" my mother said fifteen minutes later. She was standing in front of me with a Star magazine in her hands pointing at the picture. I was lying face down on her couch, propped up on my elbows. The magazine featured a shot of Chris and I mid-heavy petting when we'd thought we were safe from eyes and cameras. He had his mouth down inside my shirt and I remembered exactly what he was doing with that mouth when I saw the picture. I felt my pelvic muscles contract at the memory. The caption read: PINE TREKS ALONG NEW PATH

"He's just a friend!" I said. "We met on the ship and got to know each other."

"I'll say!" She threw her hands up in resignation. "Betty Gotti doesn't have a daughter who goes around having sex in public with movie stars and getting photographs taken of her. Suzanne Greecher doesn't have a daughter who lets a man fondle her after they'd known each other only two days." Think again, I thought.

My mother continued, "Why do you have to this wild life with photographic evidence of it plastered all over in newspapers and magazines? I don't understand!" I felt bad. She'd been really stressed about my disappearance and now she had the whole Burg breathing down her neck about my very public, disgraceful behavior. "Not to mention the fact that you just took off without saying so much as a word and worried everyone. I thought maybe one of those violent criminals you track down finally came to finish you off."

She sat down on the armchair and burst into tears. I stared at her. As long as I've known my mother, I've seen her cry maybe once and that was because my dad's sister, her best friend, had died.

My Grandma Mazur was sitting in the other armchair absorbing the conversation. "I think he's a real pip of a man. I'd like to see what he looks like under that Star Trek uniform." Grandma Mazur had been with me when we'd gone to the theater to watch Star Trek with Mooner.

My mother made the sign of the cross and the doorbell rang. Grandma Mazur opened it and Ranger stepped in. She was eyeballing him in a way that had Ranger cringing. I knew the only thing that brought him into my mother's house was because he knew I needed help getting out, or else he'd have waited in the car.

"Did you see the pictures of my granddaughter in the tabloids?" She asked him.

Ranger nodded.

"I'll bet you wished you had made a move on her first," she said with a grin, elbowing him in the side. "Say, you have a strong stomach. Do you mind if I take a look under the hood?"

"I think that it's time I took Stephanie home so she can rest. She's been through a lot." He walked over and scooped me up off the couch, a bit too rough. I gasped and held on. He really wanted out of the house. I almost smiled. Almost. But I wasn't stupid.

We were just about to the door when Ranger flinched.

"I'll be damned," Grandma said. "His ass feels like it's been chiseled from granite."

I lost it. I broke down, burying my face into Rangers neck and laughing. "You're going to pay for this," he whispered.

He got me into his Porsche 911 Turbo and started down the street. "Where to?" he asked.

"How about we get the office out of the way? Besides, I want you by my side when Vinnie sees me. He's likely to kill me," I muttered.

Secretly, I was dreading the trip to the office, but it couldn't be avoided. It was where I worked, after all.

Ranger rolled up in front of the building and walked around to lift me out of the car. I could see Lula and Connie gaping at us before we walked through the door. Ranger stopped, holding me in his strong arms for a minute when we first walked in. No one spoke. Lula and Connie sat fanning themselves and Ranger stood holding me. I half suspected he was showing off.

Vinnie crashed out of his office and stopped short at the sight of Ranger. "Ah, Connie said you were back," he said to me. He looked at Ranger standing there holding me and said, "Christ, what did you two do, get married?"

I thought Lula would drop on the spot.

"No," I said. I looked at Ranger and he gently deposited me onto the scarred and worn faux leather couch. "It's a really long story."

"Does it have anything to do with that pretty white boy you was kissin' all over St. Martin?" Lula asked. "I can't believe this. I had to hear about you and your new man from a magazine. Is it too much to ask for a phone call? It don't take long. You pick up the phone and dial my number and say, 'Hey Lula, I gotta new man and he's rich and famous.' It's simple. But did I get a phone call from you? No. I tell you the shit I put up with from some people. It's a damn shame," she said all in one breath. I sat there looking at her in a daze.

"He's not my new man," I said weakly.

"Girl, did you even see those pictures?" Lula grabbed a copy of People off Connie's desk. "Look at this: CAPTAIN KIRK PINE-ing AWAY ON NEW VOYAGE. Look at this picture. He's got his tongue on your nipple." I cringed a bit. That segment of our afternoon hadn't been for show. "Look at this picture of you sitting on top of him and kissing him." It was the shot of me straddling his chest when I'd rubbed noses with him. Of course, people couldn't see that because my hair was in the way.

"I'll tell you," Lula said. "When I saw that picture, I thought to myself 'Man, that Stephanie got sexy men comin' out her ears, but she had to pick one that had crazy men with cameras running after her.' It wasn't smart is what it wasn't," she said. "But just out of curiosity. How is Captain Kirk's little starship. Does it get the job done?"

I sat stunned on the couch, slack jawed. I looked up at Ranger and he wasn't amused. In fact, he wasn't happy at all. "I never met his … starship."

Lula gave me a look. "Uh-hunh."

Vinnie broke in. "Well, I don't give a shit whose starship you met, I care about the fucking pile of skips that have accumulated since you've been off playing. You need to get started on these files right away."

"Stephanie is out of commission until further notice," Ranger said, putting an abrupt end to Vinnie's tirade.

"Oh my god! You did get married! And I didn't even get to put on a bridesmaid's dress! That's just a nasty thing to do your friends. Some people, they just only think about themselves," she said.

I sighed. "We didn't get married."

Everyone looked at me. "I sort of had an incident. I have stitches all over the back of my body and I can't run around and chase skips until I'm healed."

"Geez!" Connie said. "What'd you do? Jump through a plate glass window?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I said. "I'll be in as soon as I can move around better."

"I'll come in later and get a stack of files that I can clear for you over the next couple of days," Ranger said to Vinnie.

"I can't afford your fee on these low bonds," Vinnie said, stammering.

"I'm doing these for Stephanie. And you'll be lucky if I ever do anything for you again if you talk to her that way again," Ranger said, scooping me off the couch and piercing Vinnie with a dark look. Vinnie gulped and slunk back toward his office.

"I'll be damned," Vinnie said as we walked out. "They did get married."

"Go, Captain Kirk," Lula and Connie murmured together.

I sighed and buried my face in Ranger's shoulder, shaking my head from side to side. "They're all impossible."

Ranger was silent. He tucked me back inside his car and pulled out into the street. "I thought you might want to check out your apartment."

"Yeah."

When we got to my building, Mr. Wolesky came out and asked me if Ranger and I were married because he was carrying me, what happened with Captain Kirk, and that he'd been worried when he didn't see me around for a few days.

I was mentally exhausted and annoyed by the time we got to my apartment.

Ranger set me on the couch and looked around. "Well, everything is the way we left it, except for the fingerprint dust. Looks like they launched an investigation. We should probably tell them you're back."

He walked over to the answering machine and I stopped him. "There's nothing on there I haven't heard. My tape was full when I called the other day and I didn't erase the messages. I didn't want to have to keep checking it."

"Smart." Just to be sure, I glanced at the machine and, sure enough, the light wasn't blinking.

"Okay, back to Rangeman, then?" he asked.

"Can we get something to eat, first?" I asked.

"You want to go out in public?" He looked at me with a smirk.

I thought about it. I was already past my limit. "No, not really," I said.

"How about if I get a Pino's pizza for you and bring it back?" he asked.

I smiled at him. "That would be wonderful," I breathed.

He shook his head, his lips twitching. "Babe."

A short while later, I was lying face down on Ranger's couch when he walked in. The pizza smell hit me before the Bvlgari and when they mingled, I wasn't sure what I wanted to eat first.

He set the pizza on the table and came over to help me get up. Soon, I was settled in a chair at the table biting into my first slice when my cell phone chirped.

Ranger looked around. "Where is it?"

"Night stand."

He retrieved the phone for me and answered it before it went to voicemail. "Yo."

His face was unreadable. "Yeah."

He handed me the phone. "It's Kirk."

I got a flutter in my stomach. I wasn't sure if it was because Chris was calling or because I was worried about Ranger's reaction to the call. I took the phone from him, "Hey, Captain."

"Hey yourself, Princess."

I smiled and took a swig of my water.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better. I can walk a bit now, though Batman isn't taking any chances on me opening up my wounds." I smiled at 'Batman' who was busily munching his salad.

He chuckled and hesitated.

"What's up?" I asked with a furrowed brow, feeling a little concerned.

"Well, I just found out that we might have a little problem."

"Oh?" My face showed my surprise and Ranger stopped eating to study me.

"Well, maybe a big problem."

"How big?" I asked.

"Well, bigger for me than you, but pretty big." He sounded tired.

"Just tell me."

"Well, I'm looking into it. I wanted to see how worried we needed to be before I notified you, but then I realized maybe I should warn you since everything I'm seeing is making me believe the problem is real," he rushed out, avoiding my question.

"Tell me what it is," I said through my teeth, growing more concerned. "Is it Louisa?"

Ranger's brow cocked at that. "No," Chris said.

"Captain, you'd better spill it before I lose my temper with you. You're really freaking me out here," I said, my heart beating a little faster.

"How much do you remember about the night we both got drugged?" he asked.

"I told you. I puked and passed out. That's all I remember," I said. Ranger set down his fork and watched me closely.

"Yeah. I remember you passing out and that's it," he said, hesitating again.

"What the fuck is wrong?"

Ranger's eyes grew hard, scrutinizing me.

"Well, apparently there's more to that story for us," he said. "A lot more." He blew out a breath.

"I don't understand," I said.

"Well, you know how Louisa was so upset with you for taking me away?"

I nodded and then remembered he couldn't see me. "Uh, yeah."

"Well, I found out the reason she was pissed at you," he said.

My heartbeat had to be upwards of two hundred beats per minute by this point. "Oh my God, Captain. What happened?"

"You're never going to believe this, but…"