I wish I could take the credit, but JE created everything with any genius to it.

Fredda (Rangergirl1234) you've really outdone yourself this time. Thank you for working so hard to beta this story.

Chapter 13 – Special Delivery

Stephanie's POV

"Alright everybody, you've done a great job tonight. I'll see you on Thursday," Maggie's voice cut over the music that Vince and I were moving to. The swing was a fast paced dance, and it gave us plenty of time to hold onto each other as he lifted me and I soared through the air. It probably wasn't sexy or graceful, but it was a blast and for the first time in a long time, the fact that I was drenched in sweat and slightly out of breath was fun.

I felt bad about him having to pick me up so often with the cut on his arm but he didn't seem to notice it. I made a mental note to check it tonight to be sure he hadn't pulled anything loose and just tried to act tough as a cover up. Stupid macho men.

Vince and I were slowly packing up when Maggie came over. "You guys were great tonight. Dancing really suits you."

"Thanks," Vince said with a smile. "We're having a great time." He seemed so sincere that I was almost convinced he was enjoying being forced to dance with me.

Maggie then looked at me and her whole persona changed. She only glanced at my eyes and then looked around the studio as though afraid to connect with me again. "My brother is in my office and is very interested in meeting both of you."

I looked at Vince, and he took my hand tightly in his, putting his free hand in the pocket of his pants like he was silently fiddling with his keys as we followed her to the office.

"Raoul," Maggie said softly. "This is Stephanie and Vince, the couple I told you about."

Raoul stood up and looked at us both before his eyes settled on me. "It's nice to meet you both. My sister tells me that you are interested in my little business opportunity to pick up some extra income for a period."

"Yes," I said trying to keep my voice even despite my stomach feeling like it was in my throat.

He lifted his hand to gesture to the two guest chairs beside the desk where he was sitting. Maggie excused herself, and Vince and I both took a seat. "I'm just beginning in Trenton and have several clients who will be in need of regular deliveries. At this point I am the only person making the compounds that need to be delivered, and because of their volatile nature they can only be made in small batches, so I am too busy on the manufacturing side to get involved with distribution."

As he talked he sounded so legitimate that it was hard to remember that he was responsible, either indirectly or by his own hand, for the brutal attacks on the girls I had seen photos of several weeks ago. Finally he ended his sales pitch by asking, "So do you think this is something you would be interested in?"

I tried to act much more excited than I really was, "It sounds perfect."

Raoul asked questions about my bounty hunting and I explained my long standing friendships with the police which seemed to interest him even more. He didn't seem the least bit concerned about my accident prone nature and seemed a little too excited about my propensity for exploding cars.

The closest he came to losing his used car salesman tone was when he pressed the importance of keeping the entire activity secret. Vince and I could discuss it, but I wasn't to mention it to any coworkers or friends, no matter who asked. He tried to explain it as the products being new and not fully patented yet, and he didn't want anyone to try and rip him off, but he also acknowledged the fact that the secrecy could make someone suspicious and he was merely trying to protect me. His final sentence of, "I can only make money if the packages arrive in tact, unopened, and you are only valuable to me if you prove yourself worthy of that task," seemed more like a threat than a job description, but I tried to let it go.

Vince, however, played the skeptical boyfriend and jumped in, "You said the compounds were volatile. Does that mean Stephanie is in danger while she's delivering them?"

"No," Raoul quickly assured us. "But if the vials are damaged in any way, the compound can quickly lose its chemical balance, rendering it useless but not dangerous."

"Would she need to be out late at night?" Vince asked, as though he were resigning himself to letting me do this.

"No, we can make this easy by setting up morning deliveries. She can come by the studio and pick up her box for the day around nine o'clock and drop it off. Once I receive word from my client that it's been received in good condition, then I'll get the funds to Maggie to give to you. I believe for the next two weeks I have enough orders to keep you busy daily." Raoul kept his slimy business charm going, and we both shook his hand, although he pulled mine to his lips and placed a wet kiss on my knuckles.

I could feel his eyes on me as we stood and walked out and by the time we were pulling away in Vince's truck I felt like I'd just done a distraction and had a skip's hands all over me.

"Are you okay?" Vince asked as we turned into the parking lot of my apartment.

I nodded, just waiting for the truck to stop so that I could jump out and run to the shower. I needed to wash the slimy drug dealer cooties from me. He only touched my hand, but my whole body felt violated.

We got out and I went straight for the stairs, knowing it would be quicker than the elevator. Vince unlocked the apartment, and I didn't bother waiting for him to do a sweep before dashing into the bathroom and shutting the door behind me.

Standing under the warm water I began to worry that Ranger had made a huge mistake in asking me to do this assignment. I mean, I was okay with the flirting and setting up a cover, but working with the low lifes as though it didn't bother me was a skill I just didn't have yet. The steam was getting thick enough that I couldn't see much, so I turned off the water and began to dry off wondering if Vince had left or if he was still in the living room trying to figure out what kind of crazy person he was partnered with.

I put on the big olive t-shirt hanging on the back of the door and was relieved to see it was every bit as long as the others. It would offer me enough protection to slip into the bedroom to get some panties and shorts on.

When I opened the bathroom door a little I could hear Vince talking. There were no other voices so I assumed he was on the phone. I couldn't hear everything, but I did hear him say, "She did great…had Raoul eating out of her hand." Then he summed up the meeting by saying, "Tomorrow morning is her first pick up from the studio to the delivery address. It needs to go perfectly, and we need to get his trust so that we capture the evidence outside this conversation tonight."

Then he asked about a wire, wanting to know if they had recorded the entire conversation. I knew I wasn't wearing one, so apparently Vince was more prepared than me for the meeting tonight. I realized we had Raoul admitting he made the drugs, so that would be enough to get him arrested, but if we wanted to really get a decent conviction we needed to test the drug to insure it was the same one used in Miami and get a list of who his customers were to understand how he was trying to get this to the market.

I threw on some shorts and walked out of the bedroom just as Vince was hanging up. "Hungry?" he asked turning to reveal a take out bag from Pino's.

"How did you manage that?" I wondered, allowing the smell to draw me quickly to the kitchen.

"Lester had Ram drop it off when I called him," he explained, causing me to quickly check the time to see how long I'd been in the shower.

The sub was still hot, so I figured it hadn't been too long, and I happily ate my way through it feeling content and happy by the end. Vince finished just before me, so as we cleaned up the trash he began talking first. "Tank, Lester, and Bobby will be here at 0730 tomorrow to have a team briefing before you have to leave for your pick up at 0900. I think they're going to want you wired, with multiple tracking devices," he warned me.

I nodded, knowing he was probably right and it all fit with what I was expecting anyway. Once we'd gotten all the business over with he did the unexpected and grabbed my hand and pulled me to the couch. I was about to sit beside him, but he moved his hands to my hips and guided me down into his lap. It wasn't a hardship as I'd sat in his lap enough lately to know I'd be comfortable there, so I relaxed realizing whatever this was about must be important to him.

"Can you tell me why you freaked out at the studio?" he asked, gently rubbing my arm with his free hand.

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, realizing it was too much for me to ask that the universe leave me alone and not let Vince notice how I'd reacted to the meeting. When I opened my eyes Vince was patiently waiting for an answer, so I decided to jump in the deep end and tell him the truth. "Raoul gave me the creeps. When we were walking out I could feel him watching me, and the way his eyes were on me made me feel dirty- like when a skip gets their hands on me too much during a distraction- and I had to wash it off in order to relax."

I was expecting him to jump into a speech about me not being the right person for the job if I couldn't handle something as simple as a skip leering at me. I was totally caught off guard when he said, "I'm sorry. I knew he was watching us too, and I didn't like it, but I wasn't sure how possessive I should be, so I didn't hold you close to me like I usually do when we leave."

I thought about it quickly before saying, "It might have helped a little, but he still would have looked and I still would have felt the need to get his cooties off of me."

His chest moved a little at my word choice. "So you're cootie free?" He asked teasingly.

"Yea, I'm good now," I said electing not to fuss at him for picking on me. Instead I leaned into him more and rested my head against his shoulder absorbing his strength. "This helps," I sighed hoping I wasn't scaring Vince.

When his arms tightened slightly and he replied, "Yea, it does." I let myself believe it didn't bother him at all to have me so close to him.

The next morning I was still fighting with my hair when there was a knock at the door, telling me I'd run out of time and this would apparently be yet another pony tail day. I was wrapping the band around my hair to keep it under control as I walked out to the smell of fresh brewed coffee and doughnuts. There were two boxes on my kitchen table, each holding at least a dozen doughnuts. Vince had a Boston Cream in his hand holding it out to me. I didn't hesitate to bite into it and express my appreciation for the creamy center while pulling the band across my hair at the back one last time.

The guys were all watching us as Vince wiped the little bit that fell to my chin with his thumb and then proceeded to lick it off. To the outside observer we must look like a real couple.

Once my hands were free I took the rest of the doughnut from him and polished it off. If we'd been alone I might have been tempted to let him continue feeding it to me, but in front of the guys it just seemed wrong.

We jumped right into the discussion of what would happen this morning. I was going to drive myself to Maggie's with Lester following at a discrete distance. I would pick up the package and get back to the car where I would read the address aloud so everyone would know where I was heading. Then I was to come up with an excuse to sit in the truck until I got a text on my phone alerting me that it was safe to proceed to the drop of location.

I knew 'safe to proceed' was code for there was a substantial RangeMan presence at whatever address I was to make the drop. The guys on site would be in charge of monitoring the package once I dropped it off. They would see to it that none of the drug made its way to the streets of Trenton, so I didn't have to worry about my role causing more women to be hurt.

"How close will Les be to the studio doors?" Vince asked as things were winding down.

"I'll keep a visual on her car, so I can follow when she leaves, but I can't get close enough to be seen from the studio or it could blow the fact that she's being followed.

Vince's fist hit the table, and Bobby asked what was wrong. Vince looked at me when he answered and said, "If Raoul is there, don't go back into the office. Keep him out front. You'll have a wire, and we'll know and I'll come up with a way to get there to check on you. You don't need to be alone with him for any reason."

When Tank asked if there was a problem, Vince answered, "No, but I didn't like the way he was looking at Steph last night, and I don't want to take a chance that he's setting his sights on her in any way." I was relived that Vince wasn't telling the guys how I'd freaked out last night just from Raoul looking at me. He was taking the unease with our mark on himself to protect me from the teasing I might get about the bad guy cooties.

Everybody agreed that Vince was the only person that could really go in without screwing up everything that we'd established, so he was going to be around the block and in place before I arrived in case he needed to show up quickly. Just knowing he was around made me relax and I shot him a smile after his plan was agreed to.

I drove over to the studio on silence, not even bothering to play the radio. If anybody needed a clue about how nervous I was, the quiet of my car should have given it away.

There were no cars in the parking lot, leaving me to assume it was too early for any classes. The door was unlocked, so I let myself in and called for Maggie. She came from the back looking tired, but smiling as soon as she saw me. She told me to wait there and she'd get the box I needed to deliver. While she was gone I looked at the pictures on the wall and smiled at the typical little girls in ballerina shoes and the nervous looking boys in their dress up clothes. Mixed in was a picture of a much younger looking Maggie holding a little boy in her arms. He looked perhaps two and was grinning up at her with obvious love in his eyes.

When she came around the corner I said, "Is this your son? He looks just like you."

She visibly paled in front of me to the point that I rushed to her side to be sure she wasn't going to pass out. "Maggie?" I asked, getting worried.

She shook her head and apologized trying to sell me a story I wasn't buying, "No, I don't have any children. He was just a child I held once that seemed happy enough that the picture seemed to fit."

"I'm sorry," I apologized hoping she would understand that just because I was letting this go didn't mean I was buying her ridiculous story about it not being her son. The resemblance was enough to convince me but her reaction was all the proof necessary. I now had something new to dig on when I finished this drop off.

She seemed to come to her senses all of a sudden and lifted a small white box, just a fraction smaller than a cake box from a bakery and said, "I believe this is what you need."

I was about to turn away when Maggie called me back, "Stephanie, can I give you some advice?"

I nodded eager to hear what she wanted to say. "My brother takes this very seriously. He has a temper, and I don't want to see you get hurt, so it's very important that you make the deliveries, don't open the boxes, and don't remember any place you've been. When you're ready to stop, I'll help you, but between now and then it's important that you play by his rules."

I could hear the fear in her voice and almost felt badly for her before remembering whatever her role was in this was, she was still playing a part in those girls being hurt.

Then she handed me an index card with her handwriting on it giving me an address not far from Haywood. I had been half expecting to end up on Stark and was somewhat relieved to know that wasn't the case. I followed the plan perfectly reading the address aloud and then looking through CDs as though trying to select some music for the ride while waiting the forty-five seconds for the guys to be in position before heading off.

My phone rang and I answered it quickly, "You're doing great, Bella," Vince said in lieu of hello.

I let out a long breath, thankful to hear from him. "Thanks," I told him realizing it didn't really cover everything I wanted to say, but not really knowing what else should be said.

I hung up when I got to the address on the card and was surprised to see it was a furniture store, with the word, "Liquidation" painted on the window.

I took a deep breath and got out of the car, suddenly nervous about carrying the package in my hands. When I entered the store I realized my instructions ended there and I had no idea how to make this drop off. A middle aged man came from the back and looked at me with a typical salesman expression, but when his eyes landed on the box he asked, "Raoul?"

"Yes, he asked me to drop this off," I told him, not sure what the proper protocol was.

His entire expression changed and he looked at me as though I were lunch before taking the box and turning it at every possible angle and then pulling a cell phone from his pocket and hitting a number on speed dial. After waiting a moment he spoke only, "Yes, it's good," before hanging up and telling me, "Your payment will be back at Maggie's."

"Have a nice day," I told him trying to keep my happy, ignorant demeanor going.

"I think this will greatly improve my night," he replied in a voice that made my breakfast want to make reappearance.

I got out as quickly as possible and drove to Haywood. Once I was parked in the garage I sat there unable to decide if I should get sick or get mad. Before I could make up my mind one way or the other the door to the car opened and Vince was there with concern written all over his face. I climbed out and put my arms around his neck not caring if this was real or not, but recognizing I needed somebody to tell me I hadn't just played a real part in putting a horrible drug into the hands of some sick men.

"You did good, Bella," Vince assured me. Then he began to whisper to me in Italian. I caught words here and there but mostly I just let his arms around me and the tenor of his voice soothe me until I was no longer in danger of losing my breakfast. He must have sensed I was calming down because he pulled back just a little at the exact moment I was ready to pull myself together.

"What now?" He asked, waiting for me to dictate my next move.

"Now, I'm going to find out when Maggie had a baby, and what happened to it. Based on her reaction to the picture I saw she has a son who is probably three or four by now and he's been taken away from her for some reason. I think I'm going to need to know what happened in order to figure out how to help her." I explained hoping Vince wouldn't argue with me about trying to help someone so intricately involved in the investigation.

I should have known better by now. He smiled and led the way to the elevator before escorting me to my cubicle to let me work in peace. How he'd learned when to push me and when to leave me to sort things out on my own was a mystery, but I appreciated it more than I could say.

Two hours later I finally had the information I needed. "Yes!" I screamed when my eyes ran over the vital piece of data to answer my questions. "Lester appeared magically beside my desk and asked, "Find something interesting?"

"Absolutely," I answered before asking, "Where's Vince?"

Les grinned before telling me, "There was a time when you would share things with me."

"I still will, but I've got to tell Vince first," I told him missing his attempt at a joke completely.

A few minutes later we were in one of the small conference rooms so that I could explain my sudden excitement. Tank, Vince, Lester, and Bobby were giving me their full attention as I walked them through what I found. "Maggie had a son named Christopher who is now three and a half. About nine months ago there was a car crash where a little boy was reported as killed and Maggie's picture was shown at the side of the newspaper picture. I think it was a cover to make it appear that her son was the one that died."

Before they asked the relevance I kept going, "Two weeks later her Aunt became a foster mother for a three and a half year old boy named Chris whose single mother had passed away. This is really surprising because she has a genetic condition that affects her eyes causing a great deal of pressure and pain. She visits a doctor way across town for glaucoma treatment, even though her condition is nothing like glaucoma and he has more of a pediatric practice."

The guys were intrigued, so I figured I'd be able to finish my story now. "Apparently from the few records I could find, Christopher, Maggie's son, and now Chris, her Aunt's foster son both have this same condition which is exceptionally rare. From looking it up online it appears the only proven way to alleviate the pain from the condition is to produce a form of temporary blindness that paralyzes the muscles of the eye and prevents any signals from traveling across the optic nerve to the brain.

"So you think Maggie is doing this to help her son in some way?" Tank asked trying to understand everything.

"Yes, I think she's being forced to do it and doesn't feel like she has a choice. But the reason I think they're here is that her Aunt spent a considerable amount of time in Trenton when she was younger and recently purchased a home not far from the studio. Based on some recent credit card transactions it looks like she's planning on moving. My guess is that Maggie came up here to set up her life under the guise of the Aunt and her son following and for whatever reason it seems that someone is controlling all of this." I said beginning to see there were still quite a few details that weren't clear, but I still felt like it was important.

"So we know why Maggie's involved, and possibly why Raoul invented this drug to begin with- to help his Aunt and nephew. It might be accidental that he discovered its use as a drug for the criminals of the world." Bobby summed up.

"Regardless of his reasons for producing it, we still have to stop it from hitting the streets." Tank reminded us.

"But when we put Raoul behind bars, what will happen to Christopher if the only way to end his suffering is to use this product?" I asked, feeling my heart break for the position Maggie must feel like she's in.

"Beautiful, our job is to get the bad guys off the street. Sometimes people chose the wrong path because it's the easy one. For all we know there is a better treatment out there that could help Christopher but because this one is available to her she's quit looking for something else." Lester tried to assure me.

We talked for a few minutes and I was reminded that tomorrow's shipment would work exactly like todays. I nodded that I understood as the guys stood up to leave.

Vince moved to be in the chair next to mine pulling me closer to where he was sitting. "You're worried about Maggie?"

I nodded, "She's in over her head because of her son. I mean, I don't have children, but if I did I think I'd do just about anything to be sure they were okay."

Vince knelt in front of me allowing his chair to move from behind him. "We have to get this drug off the streets, but if you want to spend some time researching the disease Christopher suffers from, then you might be able to offer Maggie some hope by the time our assignment is over."

I hadn't thought about doing research on the medical side. I was good at looking stuff up, so I finally felt like there was something more I could do until it was show time again tomorrow.

Seeing that I was snapping out of my funk, Vince stood up and took my hand to pull me back to the office with him. I couldn't help but smile as he led me to my cubicle and deposited me in the chair back in front of my monitor. Then he kissed my hair and said, "I've got a few more hours of work to do. How about you see what you can find out from here, and I'll swing by after my shift and we can figure out dinner together."

I agreed quickly and then decided to sweeten the deal, "Dinner's good as long as it goes with the Chubby Hubby Ben and Jerry's in the freezer." The boyish smile on Vince's face told me I'd hit a home run with that suggestion.

The next day the routine was exactly the same except that when Maggie gave me the box she didn't seem to be in the mood to talk, so I left pretty quickly. While scanning through my CDs as an act while waiting for the all clear to move to the drop off location, someone knocked on my door and I screamed from the shock of it before rolling down my window to an amused looking Raoul.

"I didn't mean to startle you," he said but the smile on his face didn't support his words at all.

"No worries, I was just about to drop this off," I told him sticking to the plan.

He looked over my lap and saw the package sitting on the seat and nodded. "Tomorrow, I may have multiple deliveries for you. Do you believe you could handle three at once?"

I nodded, unsure what this meant. As far as I knew he'd never tried rushing the shipments this way. "Very good," he said with a smile before leaving me to my work.

I pulled out of the parking lot a moment later and realized my hands were shaking. I didn't know what it was about this guy, but he scared the crap out of me. I knew Vince didn't want me alone with him, and I didn't want to be in that position either.

This drop off was at a veterinary practice. The receptionist seemed to recognize the box and reached out for it, looked it over, and then picked up the phone and called Raoul to announce that the package was there safe and sound. Once she hung up she thanked me, and I returned to my car unsure what Raoul must be telling people about the deliveries.

I went back to my apartment after this drop off feeling like I needed some time to rest. It was still early, so I cleaned my apartment decided to reward my efforts with a little nap when I was done. Then after lunch I would check in at the bond's office before dance class tonight. I laid down in my usual thinking position, not the least bit surprised at how easy it was to go to sleep.

I wasn't sure how long it had been, but I felt myself waking up slowly with someone playing in my hair. Figuring it probably wasn't a bad guy since they were being so gentle, I didn't bother to yell but sighed loudly instead. I heard a deep laugh behind me and knew Vince had let himself into the apartment. "Did I miss lunch?" I wondered aloud.

"Technically," he replied still laughing, "but I did bring you a snack to eat on the way to Maggie's."

I sat up quickly at that point realizing that meant I'd virtually slept the day away. Why I was so tired was a mystery to me. I'd been sleeping well lately, much better than normal in fact. Something about having Vince beside me helped me to relax fully. Great, now that I'd slept so long I would probably struggle to sleep any tonight.

I dressed in a hurry, putting on a pair of wide leg pants, a fitted blouse, and a pair of strappy black heels. I was just freshening up my make-up when Vince knocked on the door of the bathroom and asked if I was ready to go.

"Ready enough," I told him walking out of the bathroom and getting a first good look at him in a pair of black dress pants and a bright red button up silk shirt that wasn't tucked in and was sexy as hell. I had no idea what we were in for at tonight's class but my hormones were certainly up for something exciting.

We walked in just as Maggie was starting and took our places with the other couples. She then introduced the rumba which was our dance of the evening. "Tonight's dance is in the Latin dance group, and it is the slow dance of love. It is easy to learn with a basic pattern that we can flourish to show why this is to be a dance of courtship and adoration. If you ever wanted a way to worship your partner's body in public, then this is your dance."

Oh God, I was in trouble. The last couple of days Vince had been extra attentive and tender. He had been funny and supportive and everything I could possibly ask from a partner. Then he showed up this evening looking drop dead gorgeous. Now that was another strange expression. Why, when something was particularly good looking, did we compare it to things that are dead? Honestly, I could see something being drop dead ugly, but the opposite I'd never quite understood. Whatever combination of words meant that a man was basically able to send fire in your veins with just one look was the way Vince should be described tonight.

And now I had to move my body with his in a dance that was meant to show our bodies' love for each other. If I made it through tonight without embarrassing myself it was going to be a minor miracle. As the music began and Vince put his hands on me I realized that trying to escape without embarrassment might be asking for too much. Perhaps I should just hope that I managed to keep my clothes on.