I would like to say that I didn't mean to go this long without posting. I had a chapter written, but didn't like it so I tried again. Still didn't like it, so I restarted. This one, I really like. So as a treat that you guys had to wait so long, I added more than I normally do. Don't get used to long chapters (I wish I could write longer ones) but I think you all will like how it ends...

Your votes were tallied, the winner picked. I hope you enjoy!

Not mine. If it was, I'm pretty sure no one would ever hear from Ranger again.


First of all, I would like to say that none of this was my fault.

We were having a great time and nothing was going wrong. It was as if my bad juju was still in Trenton.

That was, until day five of our trip.

"I'm going out for some groceries. Anyone want to come with?" Connie asked. We had just finished breakfast and Lula and I were getting ready to go swimming.

"Sure, I'll go." Mari said. Connie beamed. They had become as thick as thieves lately and I was glad someone was going with Connie. They left a few minutes later and the boys decided to go down to the basement and play games.

"So how's Batman?" Lula asked me as we got comfortable in our lounge chairs. Lula was wearing a loud printed tankini and I was in my black bikini thanking the clothing gods that Lula wasn't in less.

I blushed. "He's good. Working hard." Ranger and I have kept in some kind of contact every day since we landed. I think it gave him some peace of mind that I wasn't destroying anything. We talked about our days, flirted a little and then he went back to work or I went to sleep, depending on when he called. I told him that I needed some space to get my head around things and he had abided by that rule. But that didn't stop him from doing a little lighthearted flirting.

"Uh huh. I'm sure he is."

I just let Lula's comment go. No need to add fuel to the fire.

But as I thought about Lula's comment, I began to wonder if there was something going on between me and Ranger. Something greater than whatever I had with Joe.

I pushed it out of my mind for later. That was definitely thinking position material.

A few minutes later, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Stephanie? It's Mari." She sounded shaken up. "We need your help."


"What happened?" Tank asked when we arrived at the scene.

And boy what a scene it was.

Connie and Mari were stopped at a light when they started getting harassed. Connie, being from Trenton flipped them the bird and motored out of there. What they didn't know was that the guys were following them and when they stopped, the two guys got out.

"I don't know what happened." Connie said. "One minute they were harassing us, the next, their car is lit up like a Molotov cocktail."

"It was the craziest thing I've ever seen." Mari said. "Once the car blew up, ours caught fire. I'm just glad I wasn't inside." Bobby hugged her close.

"Girl, this rivals one of your accidents." Lula said.

I glared at her. I wasn't even there for crying out loud!

The fire department and Miami-Dade police were already on the scene. The two punks were cuffed in the back of one of the squad cars by the time that we had gotten there. The cops had found marijuana on the guys and a broken bottle of whiskey (or at least a melted bottle of what they thought was whiskey) in the back seat. We drew our own conclusions about that one. Bobby and Mari were huddled on the curb, Tank and Lula were talking pretty closely themselves (they were taking it slow these days) and Lester was looking over Connie for injuries with a smile on his face. They had flirted in the past, but since we arrived, that relationship has bloomed into something.

It made my heart warm.

It also made me realize how alone I was. Each of the conversations seemed private and I could no doubt, butt in, but it just didn't seem right.

Right then, it made me miss Ranger even more.

I straightened. Ranger? I missed Ranger?

I mentally slapped myself. Of course I missed him!

Even though we talked every day, I was beginning to see that it wasn't enough. Those thoughts from earlier were creeping back and I realized that I wanted something to start with Ranger. I didn't want Joe anymore. All he wanted was something convenient. I wanted something real.

And I wanted it with Ranger. And no one else.

I sighed happily and watched the firemen do their job. It was interesting to see them work from a bystander's perspective. I was also eager to talk to my man in black tonight. We had some things to discuss.

"Some fire." A man said from behind.

"It wasn't my fault."

"What?"

I turned at looked at him. "Sorry, knee jerk reaction." He was cute, standing in at about six feet tall, with an athletic build, brown hair and eyes. The lines near his eyes crinkled. He was nice to look at, but when you've seen Ranger, something about every man sorely lacks something.

"You look familiar. Have we met?"

"I doubt it. I'm vacationing with my friends from Trenton."

"Long way from home."

"We needed some sun."

"Understandable." He nodded. "Wait a minute. I do know you. You're the Bombshell Bounty Hunter!"

Jeez. They knew of me in Florida? I blushed. "That's me."

"My wife loves you. There's a little section in our town newspaper about you each month. She reads it like the bible!"

Ah he's got a wife. That explains it.

"She's going to freak out when I tell her."

I smiled. Somehow making this woman's day made me feel a little better. "I'm Stephanie."

He shook my hand that I had offered. "Alex."

"It's nice to meet you."

He just grinned.


Click.

"What are you doing?" Bobby asked Mari. Mari had taken out her phone and began texting.

"Giving my brother some incentive to come claim his woman," she replied after hitting send. "He needs to get his head out of his ass."

Bobby nodded. "You're evil."

"This is why you like me."


Back in Trenton…

Ranger's POV

"Report." I said to the skeleton crew I had assembled for the afternoon meeting. Everything was quiet. No skips, no break-ins, and three more clients. Everything was looking up. The criminals were taking a vacation and business was booming.

The thought of vacation reminded me of the mental image of Stephanie in a tiny string bikini, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief. My cock twitched.

"Good. Start working on the background checks." I told one of the new hires. I hadn't learned his name yet, but I'm sure his nickname would be coming up soon.

Hal brought in the accounting guy and he started to go over boring details. I'm bringing in more money, stock in the company is up, and my other stocks are down, blah, blah, blah.

I couldn't understand why I wasn't paying attention.

The image of Stephanie reappeared.

I'm sure my eyes glazed over.

I couldn't believe that things were finally over with the cop and she's in Florida. In my room, no less. I was pretty sure she had realized the personal touches, like Ghostbusters, I put in there just for her. I wanted her to feel welcome there so that maybe someday, it would be our room when we needed a vacation.

Someday…

I sighed. Who knew if Stephanie would ever be ready for someday? I knew I was ready for it, and I was going to tell her, but then she jetted away from me so fast, I still had the whiplash.

Mari was keeping tabs for me on what Stephanie was doing. Not that I asked her to! Jeez, I was pretty sure she was doing it to torture me. She was Stephanie's own personal Twitter account.

Not that we haven't been keeping in contact anyway. I made sure that I was never late for our late night calls. They were the highlight of my day.

That's when I got the recent update. Now I knew for sure that she was torturing me.

It was a picture of Stephanie holding the hand of some fireman. Mari and Tank had both filled me in on the car fire.

But then I remembered the picture and my heart sank. She was smiling and her eyes had a sparkle that used to be because of me.

I read the message then.

Are you sure you want this to be Morelli's replacement instead of you?

Of course my sister knew all about our little love triangle. I beat it out of Lester for a month.

My hand clenched around the phone. It wasn't going to happen again.

"Sir?" Hal asked. "What do you want to do?"

I tuned back into the conversation at hand, but of course, I had no idea what was going on.

"Sir?" Hal asked again.

I got up and grabbed my coat. "Do what you think is necessary. I have to go." I stomped out of the conference room and headed for the elevators.

I called my pilot. "Dave? Check a flight plan with control. I'm going to Florida."


Back in the control room…

"Okay, I'm in charge now." Hal said, putting his fingers through his belt loops. "And we have some very important business to attend to."

The guys in the room were quiet, waiting.

Hal held up the money clip and calendar. "Who had five days?"

The men cheered.


Stephanie's POV

"I'm just glad you guys are okay." I said when we had gotten home later that evening. Us girls had decided to do a little retail therapy after the accident and were bone tired. We had found some good deals and I was very happy with my purchases. Nothing like supporting the economy for a little ego boost.

Connie nodded. "I'm so sorry about the SUV though." She said to Tank.

"Don't worry about it. We'll get another one tomorrow."

Connie relaxed a little.

I looked around the living room as we laughed and joked about the day. There was no way that anything could top this.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Seeming that everyone looked comfy all paired up, I jumped up. "I'll get it."

Okay, there was one way to top it. Pizza!

Opened the door and gasped.

So I lied. There were two things that could top this day.

"Hey," Ranger said, smiling. "Surprise."

Ranger holding a pizza box. Day topped.

He set the pizza inside, gently grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. Where he proceeded to give me one hell of a hello kiss.

"Hi." I managed after we had separated to gasp for air.

I'm pretty sure that just topped Ranger holding a pizza. Forget it. I'm not counting anymore.

"I know you said you needed time to figure things out, but I can't wait anymore. I've waited a long time for you to be away from Joe permanently and I'm not going to waste this. I want to be with you. Not as a rebound, but as something more. I've missed you every day since you left. You left a pretty big hole in my life, Babe."

"Me?" I squeaked. I know, that was classy of me to say. Mental head slap.

He tucked a curl behind my ear. "Yeah, you."

"But what about all that stuff about not having relationships."

"We already have one. People already think we're together. Why not make it true?"

I didn't have an answer for that. "What about loving me with a condom instead of a ring?"

"That's all I could offer you at the time. That I could commit but I wasn't ready to have you sacrifice any more than that."

"Is it because you work for the government?"

He nodded. "Yeah. But you mean worked."

"What?"

"I quit. Officially, I retired, but I told them to shove their new contract."

I blinked. "You're out?"

He smiled. "I'm out."

"This has nothing to do with me, does it?"

"It has everything to do with you."

"Ranger, I don't want you to change for me. Joe tried that and I resented him for it."

"I know. I did it for me because I want to give you more than weeks of time before I go off to places unknown. I want to be around for months. For big things like birthdays and holidays. You deserve more than what I could've given you while I was still in. Now I can make good on that promise."

"I don't know what to say." And I didn't. He had given me a lot to think about.

He put his forehead on mine and closed his eyes. "You don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to know and I knew I couldn't do this over the phone."

Irony of ironies. I guess we both had a lot to say on the phone. Might as well tell him what I was going to tell him tonight. "I love you." I said quietly.

"You what?"

"I love you. I'm in love with you. I don't want to be with Joe anymore. I want to be with you. I want everything you just said. I want months with you." Years, even, but I didn't want to scare him off.

He gave me a big smile. "You don't know how happy I am."

That's not exactly what I was hoping for. Oh, I don't know, maybe an I love you too would be nice. I looked up at him expectantly.

"Babe, Stephanie," he said, cupping my cheek. "I love you too. Even though it doesn't even begin to cover what I feel for you." He kissed me softly again. "This isn't going to be easy." He said. "It'll be downright dangerous."

"So what else is new in our lives?"

He brought his head back. "What do you mean?"

"We're bounty hunters, Ranger. That's a dangerous job. Danger is in our blood."

He blinked. "True, but I'm going to do my damndest to protect you."

"The same goes for me too. We're going to do this together, Ranger." I said, using his words. He smiled at me when he recognized them. "And it's going to be good."

"I have no doubt it'll be amazing."

And then he kissed me again.

Things were starting to really heat up when Tank opened the door. "Stephanie? Where did you… Oh shit."

"Nice timing, man." Ranger growled.

"Hey Tank." I said, blushing really hard. "Look what I found."

He chuckled. "Good to see you. Did you just get it?"

"I thought I could use a vacation."

Tank had a big smile on his face and nodded. "We're about to have pizza. Are you two coming in or should I leave you to suck each other's faces off."

I blushed harder when my stomach growled.

Ranger grinned. "The beast has spoken." He grabbed my hand and went inside. Tank chuckled and went to tell the others about our surprise guest.

Ranger pulled me into the hallway wall. "Remember our spot because we'll pick up there later."

As if I could forget. I nodded because I was unable to speak. Ranger grinned at me and then we walked to the dining room.

"Glad to see you, big brother." Mari said, giving him a hug.

"You too." He said, hugging back. "Bobby treating you okay?" He asked so only the three of us heard. The only reason I heard was because Ranger was refusing to let go of my hand.

She smiled softly. "He's a true gentleman."

"Good."

She grinned evilly. "I see you got my text."

"You gave me some sage advice sister."

She shrugged. "All in a day's work."

I was confused. "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing." They both said quickly. Too quickly… I narrowed my eyes.

"She took a picture of you and the hot fireman!" Lula said around a piece of pizza.

Glad to know I could count on Lula. Mari blushed and Ranger refused to look at me.

"You mean Alex? His wife reads something in the paper about my antics. He knew she'd love it if he said he met me today so I talked to him for a little while. Who knew I was a hit in Florida?"

Ranger looked up at me and then at Mari. "Married?"

She shrugged. "Clearly you didn't look at the picture hard enough, Carlos."

He smiled. "I should kill you for that… but I think I'll thank you instead."

"Good choice." And she flounced away.

I hugged Ranger to me. Actually, Ranger let me hug him to me. "So how much did the picture influence the fact that you couldn't wait anymore."

"It was pretty even there for a few hours."

"Uh huh. You're cute when you're jealous."

"Glad you think so, Babe." He gave me a soft kiss. "Let's eat."