The long awaited and hopefully worth the wait Chapter 10.

Most of the bars were helpful to us if the guy we were after was a regular. They would give us background information and tell us the best time for the take down. Plus most of the bars owners preferred the action to happen outside. I figured there were two reasons for this. The bar owners didn't want anyone to know they were working with bounty hunters. That could hurt repeat business. Also if there was a chance of a fight, the bar wouldn't suffer damage if it happened outside. The Point was a shit hole to put it nicely. There was no neon sign announcing the name of the bar. It was a wooden shack with two big windows and on one of the windows someone used paint to write the name of the bar.

Bobby and I went inside. The owner didn't do much to improve the looks inside the bar either. I could say that the dim lights and heavy smoke made it hard to see the inside, and I counted that as a good thing.

The owner was behind the bar and motioned for us to take a seat at the end. His name was Joe at least that's what his shirt said. He looked to be in his late thirties with spiked hair and slightly vacant eyes. I'd bet he knew my friend Mooner; he had a stoner "vibe". He confirmed that Benny was a regular.

"Benny is in here every night closes the place down, he's like our very own Norm, you remember that show Cheers, he walks in and we all go BENNY! "

Yep Spike had to know Mooner. "OK that's great will we have any problems getting him out?"

"Not if Benny wants to go, but if Benny doesn't want to go well, Dude that's could be a problem."

Bobby asked "You said he's here every day what day is better to pick him up?"

"The day he wants to leave Dude, didn't you hear me?" Bobby rolled his eyes in the back of his head and took a deep breath.

"OK" I tried a different approach "Which day would be best for you for us to come in and walk him out?"

"You're a pretty lady" he told me. "I'll tell you again, whatever day Benny wants to go would be a good day for me."

O…K.." I breathed out and turned to Bobby. Tag you turn. "Which night is you're slowest"

"Man that's easy-Tuesday." Bobby looked at me and I looked at the clock. "What time will Benny be here?"

"Between five and six but always by six thirty. And he always stays until we close or he passes out."

"We can do itIt was Tuesday but we could pull everything together and get it done tonight. Bobby and I gave Spike the standard run down. I would come in and order Vodka Rocks but he would need to serve me only ice water. Spike had a hard time understanding why I would order vodka but I only want water." Why don't you just order water?" he keep kept asking. Bobby decided it would be better to have a Rangeman bartender for the night.

"No way man not going to happen no one but me behind my bar."

"Fine ." I gave up. "I'll just order one drink and I won't drink it."

Spike still didn't understand but Bobby held his hand up. He couldn't take anymore of Spike. "OK she will order a vodka rocks can you just please slip an ice water to her instead and pretend it's the drink she ordered." Bobby pleaded one last time.

"Sure man whatever you say."

Ugh. I wanted to bang my head on the bar.

We arrived back at Rangeman. We called Lester, Tank, Hal, Cal and Ranger into the conference room. We told them we needed to go tonight on Smullen. Everyone agreed to eight o'clock for the op. Hopefully Smullen would be drunk enough by then that I could waltz him out without any problems. I kept thinking about what Spike said. Smullen is always there until closing. What happens if Smullen didn't want to leave?

I was home when Joe arrived.

" I have a job tonight" I told him. He raised an eyebrow wanting more information. This was the part I always worried about. Giving Joe information on my jobs. I never knew which Joe I was telling Cop Joe or Husband Joe. Sometimes what I told him caused the hand waving thing to happen.

He asked "Where at?"

"The Point", I told him and held my breath. I knew after being there today it was not a nice place.

"You did intel there today?"

"Yeah." I told him. He seemed to be okay.

"That would explain why you smell like an ashtray."

I sniffed my shirt. "I guess I had gotten used to it by now. You want to come?"

"Sure Cupcake I'll be there. It's fun to watch you work your magic on those poor felons. Plus I get to take you home all dressed up and have my wicked way with you."

I stepped to him and gave him a quick kiss "Got to get ready we need to roll by 7:30pm and be in place by eight.

"Who we after?" he called after me.

"Benny Smullen. His file is in my bag" I hollered from the stairs.

We rolled into the lot of the quickie mart next to the Point at 7:30.

"Ranger's back in town I see." Joe said as we pulled in.

"Yeah got back yesterday while we were all at Shorty's ." Ranger's eye were glued to our car. I always thought he had superpowers. I was hoping that one of them wasn't laser eyes because if so we would have been on fire.

We parked between two Rangeman SUVs. Joe turned to me. "You might want to take your rings off. I brought you this chain to wear them on." Joe handed me a long black box. I opened the lid and it was a female version of the one he wore.

"It's beautiful Joe but I don't want to take them off."

"You need to," Joe told me. "It's part of the job you need to appear single and available. They will be around your neck and I'll put them back on your finger at the end of the night."

I looked into Joe's eyes. This was the great thing about being married to him. Joe had done his share of undercover work, he understood and he was right. I took the necklace out of the box and put my rings on the chain. Joe fastened the chain around my neck. The chain was long enough that my rings rested between my breasts, unseen to the world.

We got out of the car and walked over to the group.

"Hey guys." Joe greeted everyone

"Morelli." Came back from everyone but Ranger.

"Thought you two were going to start making out there for a minute." Lester joked "What were you doing"

We just ignored him and went on with the briefing. Ranger got the mic out of the case and all the guys vanished. Joe walked over with his hand extended so Ranger could place the mic in it. I swear there was a moment I thought Ranger wasn't going to give it to him. Ranger's eyes never left me as he handed Joe the mic. Joe stared at him for a moment before turning back to me. He placed the mic under my bra, put the ear wig in my hand and gave me a kiss before sending me off to the ride next door in the SUV.

Once inside I tested the mic and ear wig "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Babe."

Great. I was going to have Ranger in my head tonight. "Let's roll boys." I told them and we were off. I looked back at the quickie mart lot and saw Joe and Ranger speaking and Tank was standing ready to intervene I guess. "What's going on guys?" I asked into the mic but I didn't get an answer. Lester broke the silence in the truck.

"When the Boss saw Morelli pull in with you he started to shake a little. When you two stayed in the car he kept saying, what the hell? What was that by the way?"

"Joe gave me a necklace to put my rings on so the perp would think I was single." I wasn't sure why this freaked out Ranger.

"Anyway "Lester continued "When Ranger pulled out that mic Holy Shit I thought he was going to insist to put it on you, you know his op, his control."

This thought had occurred to me as well. Lucky Ranger thought better of it. Tank had better things to do than referee a fight between Ranger and Joe.

I gave Lester and Bobby time to get in place inside before I went in. The Point wasn't any better at night unless you counted the amount of smoke in the place doubled so you saw even less.

I spotted Lester and Bobby over by the pool tables. Bobby gave me a nod-our boy Benny was sitting at the bar. I walked over and sat down. Spike was behind the bar and he was stoned. Either he did not recognize me from the afternoon or he was one great actor. I tuned back to look at Bobby. He just lowered his head, rested his fingers between his eyes and shook his head. All that time we spent on Spike this afternoon was wasted.

I had a choice I could order the vodka rocks and hope to get Smullen out before I had to drink it or I could order a beer. I can drink a few of them and I wouldn't be out of place doing that at this bar. I looked at Smullen and decided beer was the way to go. This deviation caught everyone's attention. Joe chose that moment to walk through the door. He came over and hit on me and asked me to dance. On the dance floor I spilled about Spike and my choices.

Our song was over and Joe took me back to the bar and went to play pool with the guys filling them on what was happening. Spike brought my beer and I started up a conversation with Benny.

"Come here often?" I asked.

"Yeah it's a quite place… usually" he added.

"New in town myself." I lied but Smullen had turned away from me. I looked over at the pool table for a little help. I was at a loss. I never had an FTA not be interested in me. I tried again.

"SO I'm Jennifer." I decided to go with the fake name. I didn't want this guy knowing my name. At least this granted me another look even if all he did was grunt. I tried again.

"What's your name?"

"Listen chick I don't come here for talking does this place look like the kind of place to pick up guys? There's a sports bar about two block over go bother them."

Oh boy I thought.

"There's a nice dance floor."

"Listen Chick." That did it that was the second time he called me chick.

"Don't call me Chick. I'm not a bird I don't go cluck- cluck you got that mister." Ok so I was pissing off this asshole and yeah I knew it wasn't a good idea but I hate being called a chick.

"Shut up and go to the sports bar then Chickie." Then the asshole pushed me. By this time Joe, Lester and Bobby were circling around. Tank and Ranger were both inside the bar and when the dickhead pushed me I fell into Bobby who kind of pushed me back up and I fell on Smullen causing him to put me on the floor.

Smullen was friends apparently with everyone in the bar but us because all hell broke loose. Cal and Hal were at the door. Tank and Ranger were throwing people off them. Lester and Joe were fighting their way out of a crowd and Bobby was quickly moving me outside. All the while I was yelling "Get Smullen".

The cops were called and my buddy Eddie was the first on the scene. "What's going on Steph?

I didn't get a chance to answer before two guys were thrown through one of the big glass windows. That was when Contanza and Big Dog showed up.

"Joe and the Rangeman guys are in there." I pointed to the bar. "You might want to help." They headed in while I was still talking. They had a brother in there and he might need them. Eddie, Carl and Big Dog went inside leaving me with Robin. I yelled "My FTA scumbag asshole was cuffed at one time try to find him."

With nothing else to do, Robin decided to pick up with the questioning.

"So Steph what happened?"

"Doing a distraction job. The dumbass FTA called me Chickie. He's known to be a little violent. He lost his temper and pushed me on my ass. Joe and Lester cuffed him and all hell broke loose." I told her as we made our way to the window to check in on the action.

It would appear the good guys were winning

Ranger was sitting a tall skinny fellow in a chair and Tank was hauling Bobby up off the floor. Bobby had his cuffs on Spike and Tank was trying to get Bobby to stop hitting him. I told Robin about Spike's limited vocabulary and the will power Bobby exhausted this afternoon on him. The bar was under control and my men marched out all with their cuffed prey including Benny Smullen. Benny was taken back into custody and charged with a new assault. Joe said since he did identify himself he would go with assault of an officer. That was when I noticed Joe's swollen eye and the cut on his cheek. We all had to go down to the station and give a statement. We didn't get out of there until one a.m. I had fallen asleep in Joe's office when he came to get me. We went home and went to bed.

The ride home was silent. We entered the house, petted Bob, and then looked at each other. We had not spoken of the incident up until now and I had to know "Are you mad?"

Joe looked at me . I couldn't help it he looked so helpless with his swollen eye I smiled. He caught it and said " You enjoy my pain?"

"No, but you are so cute I just want to take you upstairs and make you forget it."

Joe grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs and said "No Cupcake I'm not mad that was actually kind of fun. I didn't like the asshole pushing you but punching him felt good."