Eeek! I know it's been a while…sorry! This is a rather plotty chapter, and it might be confusing, so just smile and nod. This whole 'lockdown/Disk/Family' thing wasn't actually part of my plan, I just looked the other way for two seconds, and BAM my muse had taken a tangent. Hope you all like - let me know what you think!

Chapter 13

'Glad to see you got reacquainted with Miss Plum, Panther.' Said an amused male voice. It was the man that Ranger had called 'General'.

Ranger gentled our kiss and pulled away slightly, he looked into my eyes and smiled, 'did we get reacquainted Babe?'

I sent him a sexy smile and said in a purring voice, 'hell yeah.'

Ranger flashed me his 200 watt smile and leaned in to kiss me again.

'Jeez, Ranger.' Said Damien, a mixture of amusement and exasperation in his voice.

'What?' Ranger asked.

'Let the woman breathe!'

'I'm sure she doesn't mind.' Said Pat.

'No siree. Breathing's overrated anyway.'

Pat flashed me a stunning smile, 'especially when it's your man taking it away.'

Jay cleared his throat, 'I don't mean to be impatient or anything, but could we talk about our situation? I don't want to be on lockdown for the next twenty years of my life, so can we sort this out so we can all go our separate ways? This house isn't supposed to accommodate a hundred people.'

I rolled my eyes, 'you have the patience of a gnat; even I'm more patient than you.'

'And that's saying something,' Tian muttered.

'Hey!' I yelled. Ranger's arms tightened around me – probably because he thought I was going to do something rash like hitting Tian. He was right; I really wanted to hit Tian. Not hard enough to leave bruises…but still. 'I have patience.' I muttered sulkily.

'Sure you do…just not very much.' Tian replied.

'Why you little –' I took a long, deep, calming breath. 'We need to get out of lockdown. I love you guys, but I'm ready to kick your asses if I have to stay here another week.'

'I hear you.' said Adam.

'So what have we got?' asked the General.

Basically the Fists job went FUBAR, one of the baddies escaped and is now wreaking havoc on Gotham city and it's Batman's job to fix it.

Ok, I admit it; I switched off. One minute I was paying attention, and the next thing I know, wham, I'm off in la la land. It's the one thing the boys couldn't train out of me; I get bored.

'You're not listening.' Ranger whispered into my ear.

'Oopsie.' I whispered back.

Between our bouts of lovemaking Ranger had told me about the attack on Grandma, the corrupt Fed, The Disk, and the Family's involvement.

As far as I could tell they were just going over and re-hashing the same information Ranger had told me. But they still didn't know what to do.

'Give them The Disk.' I said.

'What?' Said Adam.

'Give them The Disk.' I repeated.

'But we don't have The Disk.' Adam replied, sounding exasperated.

'Then get it. It's what they want. The Family doesn't have a personal vendetta against you, they don't care overly much about the drug ring being busted; they just want The Disk. So give it to them, and they'll get off your backs.'

'Whatever The Disk is,' the General said, 'we probably don't want to give it back to the Family. The way they talk about it, the information is very valuable.'

'Then doctor The Disk, and give them the altered one, whilst copying the original for the Feds.' I said in my best well-duh voice.

'But we don't have The Disk.' Said Jay.

'Then get it!' I repeated; getting a bit exasperated myself.

'How are we supposed to get it when we don't know who has it?' said Zach, the practical one.

'We know who has it.' I said.

'We do?' asked Zach.

I looked round at all of them, and nodded, 'we do.' I confirmed.

They looked confused.

I sighed. 'Who told the Family that we have The Disk?'

'That other dealer guy, the one that escaped?' asked Jay.

'The one that Adam said is as dumb as a bunch of rocks, and can barely speak words of one syllable - let alone understand them? Why would he lie to the Family that we have The Disk? Even the Family know he's brain dead or they wouldn't have leant him Carl Tilio to find you guys. No, if he told the Family that we have The Disk, it was because he believed it, which means that someone else convinced him that you had it.'

'So who then?' said Tian.

I rolled my eyes. 'Who does that leave?'

'The Fed.' Ranger said.

'Exactly! If he'd double cross the Feds for money, why shouldn't he double cross the Family for money? Hmm…maybe that should have been triple cross? Anyway, the point is; that the corrupt Fed isn't stupid, and he must have set someone else up for the fall. Probably it was the drug ring that he was going to set up, he would claim they moved on to dealing information as well as drugs and while the Family dealt with the drugs ring, he'd secretly be selling the information, all the while saying the Feds are trying to buy the info from the drug ring. Than after the drug ring was dealt with, and The Disk wasn't found, he'd shrug and say that they must have sold it all ready. After a year or two he'd disentangle himself from the Family, saying that the Feds were on to him and that for the safety of all he should retire. Then bingo, he moves to Aruba.'

I smiled round at the room, 'of course, this is all pure speculation and female intuition; I don't have a shred of evidence, you'll need to make him talk. But maybe if you tell the Fed that that's what you're going to leak to the Family…With the charges levelled at him, he's looking at around ten years in jail, minimum. And if the Family knows he double/triple crossed them, then he won't survive two weeks. Enemies of the Family don't survive too long in jail; there're too many friends of the Family in there. And he knows it, he'll talk.' I concluded.

'When you said she has good instincts, you weren't kidding were you?' said the General to Ranger.

'Not even slightly.' Ranger replied, flashing me a proud smile and hugging me tightly.

The General went to the red phone; there were no buttons to press, no way to dial, so I guess it was a direct connection to someone. 'We think former Federal Agent Charles Bronswick has the disk, or knows its location' The General listened for a minute, then hung up without saying anything.

'Oh...' I said to Ranger. 'You get your phone manners from him!'

He grinned at me, 'yeah, blame him.' Then he frowned suddenly, 'Charles Bronswick? Related to Agent Fredrick Bronswick?'

'Yes.' Said the General. 'Fredrick is Charles' son. Fredrick's a good man, he's just been having a tough time because of his Father's betrayal.'

'That's why he was an asshole?' Ranger said, with a sigh.

'Yeah.'

'Fine,' Ranger said, 'You can let him work with me in the future, but I won't put up with any crap.' Ranger warned.

'Good.' Said the General with a hint of a smile, 'I was hoping you'd say that.'

Ranger raised an eyebrow; the General shook his head very slightly, 'some other time.' He said.

Ranger nodded.

Damien glanced from his boss to his brother. 'You're not a fed.' He said to Ranger.

'No.'

'But you follow the General's orders?'

'Suggestions.' The General said, 'not orders.'

Ranger shrugged, 'the General saved my life a couple of times. So sometimes I follow his suggestions.'

Damien nodded, but you could see he wanted to ask more.

'Are you sure we can trust Agent Fredrick Bronswick?' Pat asked the General.

'The apple doesn't normally fall far from the tree.' Jay agreed.

I felt Ranger tense, and he and Damien exchanged glances across the room.

'You shouldn't measure the son by the action's of the father.' Damien said softly.

Ranger nodded slightly to his brother, their eyes still holding each other's gaze. And looking into their eyes, seeing the hint of suffering and pain in them, I didn't doubt that their father had been a terrible man.