Dangerous Deals - Chapter 12

Tank had just shut his eyes when his phone rang. "Fuck," he mumbled. "Talk," he snapped into the phone.

"My, my, grouchy tonight?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"Your new shadow."

Tank's head fell back onto the pillow. "Shit."

What in the hell had he ever done to deserve Terri Gillman as a shadow?

oOoOo

"What are you scared of?" Although Ranger was staring out the windshield, focused on the judge's house, Stephanie knew that he was also focused on her response. Her emotions were so coiled up inside of her that she ended up blurting them all out at once.

"I'm afraid for Joe: that he'll wind up dead. I'm afraid for you: that you'll get hurt." She felt another reassuring squeeze on her hand. "I'm afraid for me: that I'll end up having to marry you." Underneath her hand, she felt his muscles tense. "I'm afraid I won't have to marry you." His muscles relaxed. "I'm afraid I don't know what I want, and things are spinning out of my control, and I don't know how to get them back under control." She leaned into the seat and closed her eyes. "I feel lost."

Ranger shifted his gaze in time to see a solitary tear slip from beneath her closed lids and trickle down her cheek. He was already feeling like an ass for making the deal with her; now he felt like an entire herd of jackasses. "Babe, between you, Terri, Murdock, Tank and I, we're all doing our best to make sure Joe stays alive. Don't worry about me, I'm good, I'll be okay."

Stephanie opened her eyes to find him staring at her, his eyes dark and… regretful?…compassionate?…what? His face was serious. "Only you can decide what you want, Stephanie." He wiped the tear from her cheek, softly brushing a finger across it. "As for the deal, I…" His attention was suddenly drawn out the windshield.

"What?"

He pointed without making a sound. Stephanie's eyes focused in the direction of his finger and she made out the form of two people. From this distance she couldn't tell if they were male or female until the door of the judge's house was opened, spilling enough light to expose the figures as male. They wasted no time entering the house and the door was shut behind them, leaving a black void in their wake.

"You recognize them?"

Stephanie shook her head. "I could barely tell they were men. You?"

"No." Ranger picked up his phone and stabbed in a series of numbers. "Yo. Gonna have to cancel your nap." He listened for a moment. "Bring her along. We'll have to chance placing some mikes." Another pause. "Make it sooner." He tossed the phone onto the dash.

"Tank?" Ranger nodded. "Bringing Terri?" He nodded again.

Without removing his eyes from the house, Ranger entwined his fingers with hers. Stephanie wished she had the courage to ask him what he'd been about to tell her concerning the deal, but wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. With a sigh of frustration, she settled back into her seat, watching and thinking.

She realized she'd been doing more thinking than watching when the soft click of the truck's back door opening startled her into awareness. Terri slid across the back seat; Tank followed emitting a low growl. The door shut the same way it had opened, with one soft click. "Got the equipment. You want to do it now?"

"Yeah. They've been inside for fifteen. Hoping they'll be there for a while and we can pick up something useful. Let's roll."

"Hey, wait a minute!" They all turned, surprised at Terri's protest. "I want to be part of this too. I have more at stake than any of you." Casting a sly glance at Ranger, she amended, "Most of you."

Ranger studied her. "You know how to lay the mikes? How to activate them?"

"Of course. I'm not a rookie."

He studied her a moment longer. "Suppose not. Tank, you stay with Stephanie, Terri and I will handle the mikes. We're not back in twenty, follow the drill."

Tank nodded, and Ranger and Terri slipped quietly into the night. Tank maneuvered his body through the small gap between the front seat and settled himself behind the wheel, not an easy feat for a man his size. Stephanie tried to squelch the giggle rising in her throat. Tank glared at her and she knew her efforts were in vain.

"Woman, we need to talk. What the hell is going on with Ranger? I've never seen him act this way before, and letting Terri go with him…." Tanks voice trailed off. "Is everything all right between the two of you? He mad at you?"

Stephanie stared at Tank in astonishment. She thought he might be one of Ranger's best friends, maybe the best, and here he was asking her what the problem was?

"How am I supposed to know? A few days ago, I would have said I was beginning to know him a lot better, but now…?" She shook her head. "Now I just think he's crazy."

Tank's forehead creased in a frown. "He is crazy, but I'm guessing our definitions of crazy might not mean the same thing in this situation. What happened that makes you think that?"

"Didn't he tell you about his deal?" Tank shook his head.

Stephanie quickly ran the pros and cons of telling Tank about the deal through her mind. The worst that could happen was Ranger would be angry, and maybe he already was. The best-case scenario would be that Tank could give her some insight into Ranger's state of mind. Being an optimist, Stephanie went with the best-case scenario.

"Terri came to me for help in finding Joe. She was really worried about him, and it looks like she was right. I agreed. Joe and I may not have as close a relationship as we used to, but he'll always be a dear friend. I asked Ranger to help us, and he agreed, but for a price."

Stephanie stopped and drew a deep breath. It still wasn't easy to say.

Tank prompted her along. "And? The price was…?"

"The price was marriage. He expects me to marry him in return for his help." Tank's bark of laughter shocked her and then it made her angry. "It's not funny, Tank. He's serious."

"Yup, I expect he is. So, he's helping, and when this is over I'll be invited to a wedding?"

"The only thing you'll be invited to is your own funeral if you don't explain what the hell is going on? What can he be thinking? It isn't normal, you can't possibly think it's normal, Tank."

Tank was still chuckling, shaking his head. "You don't get it, do you? You don't have a clue how much he loves you, how long he's loved you."

"No, I don't. I don't think he loves me at all. If he did, he would never have made a deal like this. He's got some other really strange reason in his head; I just don't know what it is."

"Has he told you why he wants this?" Stephanie shook her head. "Have you asked him?" Another shake. "Jesus, dumb and dumber." Before she could blast him with her protest, Tank's next words had her snapping her jaw shut. "And you're dumber."

All the laughter had disappeared from his face as Tank peered at her. In as serious a voice as she had ever heard from him, he spoke. "Look, Stephanie, Ranger has been in love with you for over two years. I don't think he realized it himself until he was FTA. Once he'd been released from custody, he went to your apartment to let you know how he felt, but you'd disappeared, as we later found out, to Morelli's. Then came the news that you two were engaged. It just about tore him up. He agonized for weeks, blaming himself for not letting you know sooner."

Tank paused for breath. As Stephanie opened her mouth to reply, he shot her a warning glance. "Don't. Hear me out." When she nodded her agreement, he continued. "We all knew Morelli wasn't the right man for you, but Ranger took it really hard. I've never known him to feel this way about any other woman, not even his ex-wife. It wasn't so much what he said; it was more how he acted. Upset, distracted, agitated. Not behaviors you'd normally associate with him. So I asked."

Tank seemed to drift off for a moment, and then he drew himself back to the present. "We sat in the office one night and had a long talk. I'm not gonna give you the details, but believe me, it was very clear how deep he was in. Then, when the DeChooch thing came up, Ranger told me about the deal he made with you."

Tank laughed. "Probably not the way I would have handled it, but I had to give him an A for being ingenious. His reasoning was that you could easily bring DeChooch in by yourself. He was kind of astounded when you asked for help. I think he was feeling desperate by that point, and so he made the deal. He thought if you didn't want him, you'd refuse it, but, if you accepted, it was your way of saying you were interested. And I have to say I agree with him."

Stephanie began to protest, but Tank cut her off again. "No. I'm not done yet. Examine your real feelings, girl, put all the bullshit aside. Nothing else makes sense. I don't know why you're so special to him, but I've never seen Ranger pussyfoot around a woman like he does with you. If I had to guess, I'd say that he's afraid of upsetting or offending you. I'm gonna take a flying leap on this one, but I think this new deal was his roundabout way of proposing to you. He figured if you accepted the deal, well, that was your way of saying yes. Let's face it, neither one of you are all that traditional."

"Oh my God." Stephanie didn't know what else to say. What if he was right? Had she said yes to his proposal? Well. Obviously she had, but had she really said yes? "He thinks I have ESP like he does."

Tank chuckled. "He doesn't have ESP. He's just a man. A man who loves you so much and knows you so well that he can predict your reactions. A man who marches to the beat of a different drummer, a little unconventional." Stephanie's look of disbelief had him laughing again. "Okay, a lot unconventional, but still just a man."

Stephanie's voice came out as a thread of a whisper. "Oh my God. I don't know what to do, Tank."

Tank studied her for a moment. "I can't help you there, that's something you have to figure out for yourself. Just don't hurt him. He's a good man who loves you a lot and he doesn't deserve that."

"I'll try not to."

"Good. Another thing you might want to do is get your face back to normal." He pointed out the windshield. "Here they come."

"Oh shit."