Chapter 7

Joe insisted that Stephanie call him to set up a night, so they could all go out together. Sounded like a great idea. She needed to get out more anyway. It would only help her to feel normal again. Annemarie seemed really nice, and Joe appeared to be very taken with her. Hopefully things would work out for them. She wanted Joe to be happy. Especially after his shocking confession of his desire to be married and have a family of his own. But if Joe was going off to the FBI Academy in the fall, it might make things hard for them. She knew all too well the difficulty of being away from Ranger this past winter.

Stephanie made Lula swear on her Firebird that she arrive by 8:30 A.M. for her interview. Lula promised she would. She dropped Stephanie back at Rangeman then headed straight to her hairdresser's place. She needed to look her best.

She stopped on 5. Tank informed her that Ranger headed up to 7. "Is he mad at me, Tank?"

Tank shook his head. "Nah…just worried is all," Tank told her gently. "Do me a favor next time…just let him know where you are. And make sure you have your phone with you at all times. He just…." Tank paused to search for the right words.

"He just what, Tank?" Stephanie urged.

"Just like you are trying to deal with what happened…so is he. He doesn't like it when he's not in control. And he sure as hell doesn't like not knowing where you are. With your history, he has reason to worry."

Stephanie nodded. "I didn't think about that. I was just so mad at Camel Toe. And, I was mad at Carlos for not telling me. I…I just wasn't thinking straight at all. But you're right, Tank. That wasn't fair to him. I'll go easy on him. Promise."

Tank leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Thanks, Bombshell." He reached for her left hand and examined the black and blue knuckles. "I hope you got the bitch good at least."

Stephanie giggled. "Yeah…we did. Um…do you have a copy of the profiles and resumes for the interviews tomorrow?"

Tank's face brightened. "You joining us for the interviews?"

Stephanie grinned. "I wouldn't miss it. Maybe someone else will spit food on Carlos again!" They both burst out laughing. Tank ducked back into his office to grab an extra file.

"Here ya go, Bombshell. See you in the morning."

"Thanks, Tank."

Stephanie thought about what to say to Ranger on the ride up to 7. She told herself that she would to listen to what he had to say. Even if she had to force herself, she would stay calm, cool, and collected. But, he still needed to know how wrong it was not to tell her. She knew Ranger had certain things he couldn't talk about. That she understood. Things that pertained to her were her business. She refused to compromise on those types of situations.

"Carlos?" she called to him. A soft glow filtered through the foyer from the living room. She rounded the corner and dropped her jaw at the site before her.

A bare-chested Ranger lounged on the leather couch with an open book blocking the rest of her view. He looked up and smiled.

"Have a nice day, Babe?"

As she drew closer, she realized he was reading her book, What To Expect When You're Expecting. Then she noticed his long bare legs stretched out in front of him. She tossed the file on the coffee table.

"Why are you reading this book?"

A sly smile spread across his face. "There's a lot of good information in here."

"I don't want you reading this," she ordered him.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want you knowing more about what's going on in my body that I do. If I catch you reading this again, you'll be reading What To Expect When My Fiancée Catches Me Reading This Again And It's Won't Be Pretty. But first, we have to talk about why you didn't tell me about that lab report!"

Stephanie yanked the book from his hands and revealed his naked body. A few seconds passed before she realized the whimpering came from her. Her mouth flapped like a fish until the words finally found their way out. She pointed to his groin.

"You're naked!"

"Yes."

"Y-you're trying to distract me!"

"Yes." Ranger's wolfish grin appeared. He watched her eyes rake over his body as she licked her lips. "Is it working?"

"Uh huh."

Ranger stood up and pulled her to him. His lips found hers as his hands wandered to her behind. He ground his forming erection into her firm belly. As he lifted her to his waist, she wrapped her legs around him. He carried her to the bedroom so he could distract her some more.

Stephanie rolled onto her back and lay still while she panted. Their bodies glistened from the frantic encounter. Ranger surprised her by pulling away and getting out of bed. Her body protested at the loss of his warmth.

"Where are you going?" she whined.

He didn't stop but looked back at her over his shoulder. "Hang on…I'll be right back."

True to his word, he returned a few seconds later with a huge piece of chocolate cake. She took in the most beautiful site in the world and licked her lips again. A naked Ranger with Ella's chocolate cake. She scooted back against the pillows while drawing the sheet with her to cover her own naked body. Ranger slid in next to her. He loaded up the fork with the chocolaty goodness and fed her a piece.

"Mmmmm," Stephanie moaned. "You really are trying to distract me."

Ranger shrugged as he readied her next bite. "Worked for you at the beach house. Thought I'd give it a try." He watched as her body began to turn light pink, but she opened her mouth for more.

"We got that toxicology report from Beth Barnwell. You were still missing, so it was the last thing on my mind at the time," he began.

Stephanie motioned for him to continue and that she was ready for her next bite.

"Then you were so…." Ranger paused to search for the right word. "…overwhelmed with everything. I just didn't want to add that final straw, Babe. I was afraid you might crack."

"Go on."

He fed her more cake. "I was going to tell you. That's the truth. But first, I wanted to confirm that Miss Toe did it."

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "You know she did it, Carlos. Who else would have done that?"

"I know she did it, but we don't have proof that she did it. That was serious shit, Babe. It was a criminal act. People go to jail for intentionally poisoning someone. You could have lost the twins. I wanted to make sure we did everything right."

"That explains why you didn't tell me at first, but doesn't explain why you still kept that from me," Stephanie added. Then she opened her mouth for another bite.

Ranger fed her and gave her a sad smile. "Well…I sort of forgot about it." Stephanie rolled her eyes. "You had me really worried there, Stephanie. I knew you needed time to process your ordeal, but you weren't getting better. I didn't know how to help you. I got so focused on you that I forgot all about it. That's the God's honest truth. If I had known that letting you punch her in the face, dump feminine trash on her, stamp her body, and shave half her head would pull you out of your funk, I would have told you sooner."

A slow smile spread across his face, and her jaw dropped her chin to her chest. "Do I even want to know why Lula carries around a pair of clippers?"

"H-h-how did you know that?" she stammered. His ESP was getting stronger and stronger all the time.

"One of Rangeman's contract employees works as a security guard there. He e-mailed me a copy of the video and deleted the original," Ranger told her with his smile still in place. He picked up her left hand and placed gentle kisses on her colorful knuckles. "Proud of you, Babe. Not because you beat the crap out of Miss Toe. I'm proud of you because you're facing your fears. You're not letting fear keep you down. That takes a lot of strength and heart. You never cease to amaze me. I guess that's why I love you so much."

"Thank you, Carlos. First…for loving me so much. And for being honest with me. I understand why you didn't tell me. And…thanks for being human."

Ranger raised an eyebrow. "You don't think I'm human?"

"Well…you're always so perfect. You never make mistakes. Me…I screw up all the time. It makes me feel better knowing that you make mistakes, too. I don't want to keep disappointing you," she told him lowering her voice to a whisper.

Ranger smirked. "One thing you never do is disappoint, Babe. I am human. A perfectionist? Maybe. But, I'm far from perfect. I don't expect you to be perfect either. I just want you to be yourself."

"Thank you for that. I still don't want you reading that book though. I'd rather not know what is happening to me. Or what else can happen to me."

Ranger frowned. "Why?"

"So far, this pregnancy has not been fun at all. I've only stopped puking every day a couple weeks ago. I'm sure there are other wonderful things that can happen. I'd rather not know about it, so I don't have to worry about it. I'll go to all of my appointments and do everything I'm supposed to do. I'm sure all kinds of things are going to change in my body as it gets fatter and fatter. I just don't want to know about it. And I don't want you to know about it either. And no…you don't want to know why Lula has clippers."

Ranger's chest hitched as he smiled. He decided to keep his weekly calls to Selma to himself. "Okay, Babe. I promise not to read that book anymore."

But, he didn't promise that he wouldn't read another copy. It contained really good and easy to understand information. Stephanie's rationale made all the sense in the world to him. Murphy's Law seemed to be her best friend. Anything that could go wrong….would go wrong when it involved Stephanie.

After inhaling the last bite of cake, Stephanie snuggled into Ranger's nook. "I love you so much, Carlos," she murmured as she traced little circles on his lower abs. "If you want to distract me again, you have my permission."

Chuckling, he rolled her underneath him. "Now that sounds like a good idea to me."

Ranger woke up again for the second time that night. The unwelcomed anxiety he experience that morning triggered some nightmares. He hadn't suffered any in weeks. The first time he awakened, he also woke Stephanie. He covered by making love to her. She didn't suspect a thing.

This nightmare was worse than before. The dream transported him back to the basement of the Henried's stable. Only this time, Khalid actually raped Stephanie. He almost cried with relief when as the dream faded, and their bedroom reappeared. Stephanie lay next to him safe and sound asleep. He refused to wake her this time. She had a long day and needed her rest. He slowly slid off the bed on his side. Pausing for a second to make sure she remained unconscious, he silently rose and padded to the kitchen.

Ranger grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He twisted the cap and took a long swallow. Gazing at the piano, Ranger smiled. Stephanie had a good day. After dinner, she reviewed the files to prepare for the interviews, made a couple of calls, and then played the piano for him. He loved listening to her play. He made love to her one more time before they fell asleep. He hadn't expected the nightmares to come back. The doctor told him that he had Post Concussive Syndrome from his head injury. It would only last several weeks after his accident. Three months had gone by. He thought he was past that crap.

He finished off his water and searched for his iPod. Listening to the song Stephanie had written for him would help. It always did. He found it on his desk and headed back to bed.

Right after Ranger left for his morning run with Ivy, Stephanie dragged herself out of bed. Lula emailed her resume last night. She giggled to herself as she recalled Lula's description of her former prostitution job as a Customer Service Rep. Stephanie needed to print it out and sneak it into the team's files for the interview. She called the three candidates last night and explained that the position had been filled. She refused to take any unnecessary chances. Lula needed this job, and Stephanie was going to pull out all the stops to make sure she got it. She couldn't risk the perfect candidate coming in and ruining everything.

She threw on Ranger's shirt and pulled on her yoga pants to sneak downstairs. Well…as much as one could sneak around in a monitored and secured building. She waved to Zip and Junior at the monitors and hurried to the copier. She decided to leave the other profiles and resumes in the manila folders stacked on Val's desk. She slid a copy of Lula's resume in the back of each folder. This way, no one would see it immediately. Glancing at the clock, she knew she had to hurry. Ranger would be back from his run soon. Besides, she still had time to get in a nap before she had to get ready.

Stephanie waited for Ranger to leave for the office before she called Lula. Lula promised she was on her way and wouldn't be late. Relieved, Stephanie raced through her shower. Ella told her the Rangeman maternity shirts wouldn't be in till Friday, so she pulled on another color blocked top. No Shamu look today. To make things even easier, she pulled her hair back into a high ponytail. Mascara and lip gloss completed the look, so she hurried down to 5.

Ranger started off the morning meeting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. Stephanie fidgeted in her seat. Ranger seemed to drone on like the adults in the Peanuts cartoons…whaa..whaa-whaa-whaa…whaa. 8:30 felt like a million hours away. She didn't actually see the sideways glances Ranger shot her way, but she could feel them.

"Okay," Ranger announced. "Since discussing next week's assignment roster doesn't seem to be interesting enough to Stephanie, I've got something better."

Ranger motioned for Hector to begin. The 52 inch HDTVs on each wall of the conference room flashed to life. Until Stephanie glanced at the clock for the kabillionth time did she notice the security video from the Hilton playing on the screen. With widened eyes and chin on her chest, she spun in her chair to face Ranger.

Flashing his 200 watt grin, he squeezed her hand. "Sorry, Babe, but this was too good not to share."

Her head snapped towards the TV. Camel Toe looked to be programming card keys when Stephanie and Lula came into view. Stephanie didn't know if it was a good thing or bad thing that there wasn't any sound. The room erupted in cheers when Stephanie punched Camel Toe. Then, there were gasps and looks of horror when Lula dumped the used sanitary products on her. Screams and howls of laughter during the stamping. After Lula shaved her head and Stephanie's circus of middle fingers, the Merry Men jumped into a standing ovation.

"That was priceless, Beautiful," Lester exclaimed as he slung an arm over her shoulders.

"You still got it, Bombshell," Tank agreed, remembering the left hook that had sent Jeanne Ellen ass over head.

"She deserved it," Stephanie insisted.

"She deserved to be arrested, Babe," Ranger corrected. "She got off easy."

He called to group back to order. "Okay, let's take a look at the information on these candidates. First, we have Maryann Resnick…"

"Carlos?"

He raised his eyebrows.

"Um…I forgot to tell you," Stephanie explained. "She couldn't make it."

"Oh…okay. Then let's look at…."

"Carlos?"

"Yeah, Babe?"

"Um…none of them could make it."

Ranger frowned. "Why not? Did they become suddenly bruised, too?"

"Um…no! I called them and told them that the position was filled." She bit her lower lip.

"Babe…why'd you do that? You know we need to find someone for tomorrow," Ranger groaned.

"It's okay…I found someone who is perfect for the job. She's here for an interview. Her resume's in file….Tallulah Jones."

"Tallulah Jones?" Tank uttered in surprise.

Stephanie jumped up and ran to the door. She escorted in an impeccably dressed, black woman. "Gentleman…this is Tallulah Jones."

"Nice to make all of your acquaintances," Lula told them.

Jaws dropped all around the table…including Ranger's…as they realized who stood before them. She had dressed in a tailored, double breasted suit. Her hair was made up in a simple twist. She wore thin, wire-rimmed glasses. Flat out…Lula looked incredible. Stephanie led her to the empty seat by Tank.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I am interested in the position you have open. I do believe I would be an asset to y'all's team," she explained then smiled.

"Tallulah? Can I offer you some refreshments?" Stephanie offered.

Lula scanned the buffet table. "Uh…yes. I would like some tea please."

The baddest men in Trenton suddenly became mute. Even Tank. He had no idea that Lula would be interested in this job. And now, he felt a little guilty that he didn't think of her first. Stephanie brought over the tea.

"Thanks," she told her. She leaned closer to Stephanie and whispered, "I got tea 'cause that sounded more classy."

They pulled out Lula's resume to read as she sipped her tea.

Lester snorted. "Customer Service Rep?...OW!" He bent down to rub his shin where Lula kicked him.

"Pardon me," she replied. She turned to Tank and flashed him a smile. "My foot slipped. Damn Italian shoes."

Ranger had to bite his cheek to keep from smiling. He knew right then that he would hire Lula. Not only would it make Stephanie happy, he sensed that Lula would actually do a good job. With the decision already made, it was time to have a little fun.

"Has Stephanie explained the role of this position, Miss Jones?"

"Yes…Miss Plum did tell me what would be required," Lula responded. She shot Stephanie a quick smile. "I am to attract the attention of our FTA and get him to come outside with me peacefully. Then the rest of the team…that would be you…will take him into custody."

The guys exchanged shocked glances. None of them would have ever thought of Lula for the job. They all knew her. They all liked her. And, she had been the best candidate since Stephanie.

"We are all aware of your background in fugitive apprehension, Miss Jones. That makes you a very strong candidate for this position," Ranger told her. "Could you please step outside for a moment? I would like to discuss this with the team."

"You could sit with Val," Stephanie offered.

Lula got up and followed Stephanie towards the door. "You did really good in there, Lula," she whispered. "I'm sure Carlos is going to offer you the job."

"You think so, White Girl? I was practicin' those lines all night," Lula admitted.

Stephanie pointed to Val's desk then closed the conference room door behind her. "So what do you guys think? I think she's perfect for the job!"

Tank looked around the room. "I know you think I'm biased, but I have to agree with Bombshell. I don't know why I didn't think about her in the first place."

"I think she'll be great, too," Hal chimed in. The others nodded.

"Please, Carlos," she begged. "I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't think she could do it. And…she didn't spit food on you!"

"And she didn't blow ass," Woody murmured.

Ranger let out an exaggerated sigh. "Okay, Babe. The job is hers. Let her back in. You can be the one to tell her."

Stephanie cried out in delight and threw her arms around him. "Oh thank you, Carlos! She's going to be great. Just you wait and see!"

He kissed her quickly before she broke loose and hurried to the door. A few seconds later, Stephanie pulled Lula into the room.

"Lula…you got the job!"

Lula looked at all the faces in the room as she took in this news. Excited, she emitted that high pitched, howl-like screech. Some jumped. Some covered their ears. Hal swallowed his gum. Bobby spilled his juice down the front of his shirt and cargos.

"Shit….I'm deaf," Ram whined as rubbed his ears. His ears happened to be in the direct path of that Bigfoot mating call. Having a pastry dumped on his neck looked better and better.

"I can't believe this! Thank you. I promise I won't let you down. We'll get that mother fucker if it's the last thing I do. Y'all don't know what this means to me. Thank you!" She lunged at Ranger and grabbed him in a bear hug. Then she grabbed Tank and peppered his face with kisses.

"Tank, why don't you see Lula out? Or better yet, why don't you take her out to breakfast and go over the FTA's file with her?" Ranger suggested. He stood up and extended his hand to Lula. "Welcome to the team, Miss Jones."