Thanks, Jessica, for your encouragement.

All characters belong to J.E.

Chapter 9

Steph turned around and resisted the urge to slap Ranger. "Hey Ranger. Did you just get in?"

His response was a slight nod. With a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, he tucked a curl behind her ear.

"I hear you've attracted another crazy."

"Yep, just another normal, average day in the life of Stephanie Plum. I've got some work to finish before lunch, so…."

"Come up to seven for lunch, Babe. We can go over the plan for tonight."

"No thanks, Ranger. Tank's already given me the details."

A puzzled expression crossed his features briefly before his blank face slammed back down, and Stephanie had to bite back a laugh. She usually jumped at any chance to be alone with him. Apparently Tank's report hadn't included any of her and Lester's developing relationship.

"Let me know if you change your mind." With that, he turned went to his office, shutting his door with a little more force than necessary.

With a slight smirk on her face Steph turned back to her computer to finish the last search. She was just putting the file in her outbox when Les spun her around and kissed her soundly.

Steph immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Once they were both breathing heavier, Les pulled back far enough to speak.

"How about some lunch, Beautiful? I've got some leftover chili in my apartment."

"Sounds wonderful. Is there any cornbread left?"

"I saved some just for you, Steph."

Once they were in the elevator, Les backed Steph into a corner and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Will you be my dessert?"

She felt a shiver run down her spine as his breath tickled her skin. Her hands fisted in his shirt as Les began placing feather light kisses on her neck.

When the elevator doors opened, Les had to give her hand a gentle pull to bring her back to Earth. With a slight head shake to clear her head, Steph followed him to his apartment.

Les had just put the cornbread in the oven to re-heat when there was a loud banging on the door. Stephanie gave Lester a worried look, but all he did was shrug his shoulders. She noticed he answered the door with clenched fists, though.

Ranger stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest making him twice as big as usual, with a murderous expression on his face. "Explain." He's still his normal chatty self, Steph thought. She rolled her eyes when Lester mimicked Ranger's stance.

Stephanie stepped in between the two posturing men. "Explain what? If you mean what I think you do, it's none of your business."

Ranger glared at Les over her head. "My business is your safety. I don't want you to get hurt, Babe."

Stephanie felt the color rise to her face as she went into rhino mode. "Don't want me to get hurt? You've got a lot of nerve saying that to anybody. You've played with me for years, Ranger, and this last time when you pushed me away, Les was the one that helped me pick up the pieces. If I'm in danger of getting hurt, again, it's from you. I trust him. He's done nothing but be my friend until the last couple of days. As for whatever else is developing between Les and me, that ceased to be your problem when you tucked tale and ran to Miami when we started getting closer a few months ago." She began to poke her finger in Ranger's chest as she spoke. "And as for our friendship, I'm not feeling too friendly right now, Ranger. For now, all we are is employer and employee."

Ranger's blank mask began to slip when she poked him in the chest, and Steph began to see some of the shock he must be in. Grabbing her hand, he kissed her wrist. "Babe, I did what I had to do to protect you. Tank hadn't told me any details other than what was going on with your stalker. If you and Les are happy, then I can live with that. But if he ever hurts you, I'll kill him and the only thing left for his mother to bury will be fingerprints." Ranger's face had the same happy expression Tank's had when he'd told Steph the same thing yesterday. It was short-lived, though. His blank face slipped back in place when he released her hand. With a final glare at Lester, he turned and left the apartment, shutting the door with a snap.

Steph stood with her back still turned to Les while she tried to get her temper back under control. She jumped slightly when Les came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle.

With his breath caressing her ear, he asked, "Do you know how sexy you are when you get mad?"

Leaning her head against his shoulder, Steph let out a long breath. "You've got it bad if you think I look good when I'm in rhino mode."

"Hmmm. You got one thing right, Beautiful. I do have it bad, but you don't just look good. You're hot. When you're mad your eyes spark and turn a deeper shade of blue, and you're skin flushes. It's a shame we don't have but half an hour left for lunch, or I'd show you exactly how hot I think you are." With that last statement, Les nipped the skin at the pulse point on her neck and pulled her up against his hard body. Before he could lose control, Les released her and put some distance between their bodies. "How about we finish lunch?"

"What lunch?" Steph's stomach took that opportunity to remind her they hadn't eaten yet. "Oh! Right. Let's eat."

When she got back to her desk thirty minutes later, Steph found Tank waiting on her. "I reserved some time for you in the gun range this afternoon at 1400. Ram will be down there to give you a refresher course." When Steph started to argue, Tank held up his hand to silence her. "No arguments, Little Girl. With everything going on lately, it couldn't hurt. Please," Tank added as an afterthought, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. It seemed to work for Santos, so why not give it a try?

With a Burg-worthy eye roll, Steph just nodded. Damn Tank and his shameless guerilla tactics!

Steph worked steadily until two. Gathering her Sig out of her desk, she trudged down the range to meet Ram. She may have gotten more comfortable with her gun over the last few weeks, but she still didn't like it.

Ram gave her smile that sped up her heart rate. "You're mine for the next hour, Bomber. You ready to show those paper men whose boss?"

"Lead the way, Tonto."

"Tonto?! If anything, I'm the Lone Ranger, and you're Tonto."

"Whatever, kemo sabe. I thought you'd be happy with the Johnny Depp comparison, but you can be the Lone Ranger if it makes you happy."

With a bark of laughter, Ram put her ear protection on. Once the paper victim was twenty-five yards away, Steph loaded her gun and took aim. She surprisingly felt better after blasting through a clip.

Ram grinned at her when he reeled the target in. "Did you mean for all the shots to land in the groin area, Bomber? Remind me never to get on your bad side."

"I couldn't help myself. I kept seeing Joe's face, and I decided to run with it. Maybe my next target will be Ranger."

Ram looked like he wanted to laugh, but checked himself after glancing at the camera in the corner. With a small smile on his lips, he set up her next target.

As tempting as it was to shoot paper Ranger in the same area as Joe's, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she concentrated on the shoulders and hands. If she had to use her gun, she'd rather shoot to disarm instead of kill.

Ram whistled when he brought the target back in and saw the straight line of shots going down both arms. "Nice shooting, Tex. Keep that up and you'll be able to out-shoot me."

Steph continued going through her normal range work out. When three o'clock rolled around, Ram swept up the spent shells while Steph put away her unused ammo and gathered the dead paper targets to throw away. Just as she was rolling the paper up, Ranger walked into the room.

"Mind if I take a look? If you can impress Ram, you must be doing pretty good."

With a cat that ate the canary smile, Steph handed them over. She could tell when he got to the one she'd made especially for him.

His eyes widened slightly as he took in the shots down both arms, then narrowed when he saw the 'R' shot into the face.

"Getting a little frustration out, Babe?"