Thanks for the continued support. Some of you guessed the path of the story, kudos to you.

Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to JE.

Nine o'clock came and went. Our man didn't show. I have to admit it was a huge possibility he wasn't going to appear for his court date and I so wanted to avoid the whole chasing after his sorry ass part. Officially he was FTA now, meaning someone would have the right to track him down and bring him to jail. For obvious reasons I won't be able to, at least legally, capture him. My hurt shoulder and the whole conflict of interest bit take me out of the running.

I think Ranger's going to do it.

Mary went into panic mode the second she realized her ex-husband was a no-show. Ranger was moving her to Rangeman to keep a closer eye on her. Ranger had Tank take care of Mary's relocation so he could stay with me. We were on our way back to the Turbo when Eddie bounded towards us.

"There's something you should now." Eddie's gaze flickered to Ranger. I'm guessing what Eddie was going to tell me was something he shouldn't divulge to the public, but was willing to share the info with me and not so much with Ranger.

"What is it?" I asked. Eddie motioned me to follow him back to his office, where we would be able to talk in private. It was my turn to spare a glance at Ranger. Ranger only nodded, keeping close right behind me.

On our way down the hall a short Latino detective woman I've never met before approached Ranger. It seemed I wasn't the only one receiving information.

"So, what's going on?" I asked Eddie once we were alone. He motioned for me to take a seat. I did. Eddie perched on the edge of his desk and blew out a sigh. He said an old buddy of his called when he found out Andrew Santos was out on bail for shooting an unarmed woman.

"My friend says this guy has his finger in a lot of bad pies, but nothing can ever be pinned on him." Eddie told me his friend, Billy, works for the Miami-Dade Police and has had quite a few run-ins with Santos. "I don't know how much you know about this guy, but you can't go after him. He can be real nasty when he wants to be."

The door opened, making us shift our attention to the visitor. It was Morelli and I gasped. He had a two day beard and his clothes looked rumpled. I could tell he hasn't been to sleep in a couple nights. That's probably why he never returned my call; it seemed he'd been cut off civilization because of his work.

"I just got in and I heard the news." Morelli's brow furrowed as Eddie's last words sunk in. "You're going after him?"

"I…" Rising to my feet, I tried to fill him in.

"You are." He accused, his patience as absent as his rest.

"Look," I don't do well under accusations. Joe's a tough guy and maybe it was the heat of the moment, but I stood tall and puffed out my chest as best as I could. "I'm not going to sit around and wait for him to come after me or anyone else. Something has to be done."

"God." Morelli passed a hand across his face and shook his head in a 'why are you so stubborn' manner. "I am up to my armpits in dead bodies and now I'm going to have to worry about where the hell you're running off to." His rant continued, reminding me that I wasn't invincible and that I should step aside to let the professionals handle everything.

Something inside me snapped and I ground my teeth. "This isn't about you!" I cringed, because even to my ears it sounded harsh. I felt my heart break a little when I saw Morelli slump his shoulders. He was a good guy and the last thing I wanted was to hurt him, but he needed to understand that I just couldn't hide behind someone else's muscle until the situation was resolved. It wasn't me. I tried to say something else to ease the tension, but Morelli was having none of it.

"Okay." And Morelli took a step back. We'd done this enough times for me to know we'd fallen to that off again stage. In all the times we've split, more often than not, words haven't been necessary. Sometimes we've fought over insignificant things, like bread, that lead to our breakup but this time it was more than that. It seemed we'd reached the last straw and things were irreparably broken. He stayed put for a breath or two, probably waiting for me to make the next move.

I couldn't help him. My life was in the crapper right now. I had to settle my situation before I could figure out where I was headed. I watched Joe walk out of the office, immediately whisked back to his work.

"What?" I growled at Eddie, annoyed to feel my eyes tearing up. Eddie shrugged and rounded his desk, giving me some space.

The drive back to Rangeman was spent in silence. If Ranger knew what happened with Morelli, he didn't let on. I'd never found his silence so comforting.

S&R

The rest of the day was uneventful. It was hard to top the morning events, I guess.

I was munching on dinner all by my lonesome when my cell rang. It was Lula.

"You gotta know what just went down." She said by way of greeting. I wasn't in the mood so I told her to get to the point. Lula told me Ranger had a chat with Vinnie.

Oh boy.

"Connie's gonna pass the papers to Ranger in the morning." I raised an eyebrow at the information. I'm sure the second Ranger had the right to apprehend paperwork he would be on his way.

"Thanks." I thanked her for the heads up and disconnected.

I waited up for Ranger, wanting to discuss his plan.

"You're awake." Ranger murmured when he slipped into bed next to me. He didn't bother changing and I figured it was to make it easier for him to slip away once I was sound asleep.

"You're going after a skip in the morning." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah." No point in denying it. "Things are way out of hand." His tone told me he planned on putting an end to this mess, once and for all.

"I want to go." I said I wanted to help.

"No." Ranger held his ground, pulling away so he could look me in the eye.

I sighed. Convincing him was going to be even harder than planned.

Will Steph be able to persuade Ranger?...