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Chapter 13—Lunch with Ranger

Several minutes later, barely able to stand and flushed all over from the feeling of Ranger's hands on me, I pulled reluctantly away. "Come on, the guys are waiting."

I took his hand and walked with him out the front door. Tank and Lester had the Explorer parked behind the Turbo, Springer shackled in the backseat, and after locking up Springer's house I gave them the capture paperwork. They took off for the police station and Ranger and I got back into the Turbo, me still driving.

"Do you want to go for an early lunch right now, Babe?"

"Pino's?" I asked hopefully.

"Anywhere you want, Babe."

"Okay, Pino's."

oOo

The lunchtime crowd was just starting to trickle into Pino's as we arrived. There were a few cops at the bar, but no one I knew very well. I nodded to some people I knew as we walked to the back and secured Ranger's favorite corner booth. He sat, as usual, back to the wall, and I slid in across from him.

After we were settled and gave our orders to the waitress, he reached across the table and grabbed both of my hands, holding them in his in the center of the table and leaning toward me to talk.

"Nice job taking down Springer, Babe," he said.

"Thanks, but it wasn't a big deal," I told him. "He went to high school with me, and Connie knew his girlfriend's sister, so he was pretty easy to find. And you guys did the hard part making the capture."

"You're wrong, Babe." He shook his head at me, his face serious. "Making the capture isn't the hard part. The hard part ninety percent of the time is locating the skip. And you do that exceptionally well."

"It's just that I grew up here. I know everyone in the Burg, and quite a few people from other parts of the city. It's not anything special, just that I've been around here my whole life."

"It is special, Babe," he corrected. "You're special. And there's something else you did right, too. You called for assistance with the takedown."

"Well, of course I did!" I was surprised. "He wasn't my skip; he was RangeMan's."

"You haven't always waited for backup," he reminded me. "Remember Alphonse Ruzick?"

Oh, yeah. A while back Ranger asked me to see if I could get one of my Burg contacts to report if Ruzick showed up at his mother's house there. I enlisted Sandy Polan, who called when I was at Julie Morelli's wedding reception with Joe. I couldn't find Joe or reach Ranger on the phone, so I went myself, even though I had no gun and no cuffs with me. I made the capture, but not before having garbage thrown all over me, rolling around on the ground with the skip, and being doused with water.

"Well, that taught me a valuable lesson," I said. "I shouldn't get covered in garbage for anyone's skips but my own."

Ranger grinned and brought my hands to his lips, kissing my fingers. His lips were soft and full, and the touch of them spun all the way through me.

Even though I had my back to the room, I could still see the bar and most of the tables in the mirrored wall behind Ranger's head. While it was hard to tear my eyes away from his beautiful face, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Joe Morelli coming in the door.

Crap.

Ranger looked toward the door and gave me the almost-smile. "Babe."

"I gotta go wash my hands," I said quickly. "Be right back."

One of the advantages of the back booth is that it's right by the restrooms. I slid out of my seat, ducking down a little, and hustled into the ladies' room, hoping Joe didn't see me. I wasn't yet ready for him to know I was with Ranger. He had been too jealous of our friendship.

It was Morelli's ultimatum, Ranger or him, that finally gave me the incentive to end that relationship for good. Of course, I was pretty sure he saw us kissing in the police station parking lot Friday night after I turned in Gnypek, so he probably already suspected. And if the rumors about us kissing at Rossini's that same evening were all over the Burg…

Crap, crap, crap.

I just hoped Joe wasn't going to make a big scene and spoil our lunch.

Falling back on that old standby, avoidance, I stayed in the bathroom a good ten minutes. But I knew my pizza would be ready, so I finally exited, only to find Joe sitting in my spot in the booth across from Ranger. I would have turned right back around, but he saw me, so I forced myself to face him.

"Hi, Joe."

Ranger slid off the bench seat and stood, pulling me to him for a hug and a brief kiss, not overly passionate but still a public display of his possession of me. He gestured me into the booth and settled in beside me, saying, "Detective Morelli is joining us for lunch."

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

Joe's teeth were clamped tight in a physical effort to control his temper after Ranger kissed me. "So, Cupcake," he growled, teeth still clenched, "I see it didn't take you long to replace me."

"We broke up more than two months ago. Who I date is none of your business anymore." I was pissed. "You were with Myra Slotnik long before I went out with Ranger."

"Aha," he exclaimed, triumphant. "So you admit it. You're with him now."

Ranger broke in. "What's your point, Detective?"

Joe ignored him, his handsome face contorted with anger as he glared at me. "The whole Burg knows you cheated on me with him, and now you're rubbing my face in it."

I took a deep breath and counted to ten, my hand seeking and finding Ranger's under the table. "I'm going to say this one time, and then you're going to leave and never bring this up again." I gripped Ranger's hand tight and held my other hand up, palm facing him, gesturing for emphasis. "I… never… cheated on you. And I'm not rubbing your face in anything. I hoped we could be friends, but obviously you're not ready. It's over, Joe. Please accept that and leave me alone."

"Well, when he's done fucking you, don't expect me to take you back." He got up and stomped out the door.

"Crap," I said, close to tears. "I just lost my appetite."

Ranger slid his arm around my shoulders and kissed me above my ear. "Do you still want to stay here, or would you rather take lunch home?"

"Home."

He gestured to the waitress and asked her to pack our food to go. And in a few minutes we were back at the Turbo. Ranger ushered me into the passenger seat, taking the keys from me and giving me a very sweet kiss on the cheek before walking around and getting behind the wheel.

We rode silently back to Haywood Street, Ranger in his zone, no doubt, and me thinking about the implications of him calling it home. Obviously he meant his home, since that's where we were headed. But did he mean home for me, too? It gave me a fluttery feeling in my chest. But the more I thought about it, being with him felt like home, no matter where we were. Ooh, pitter-patter went my heart.

Reaching the RangeMan building, we got out of the car, each carrying our respective lunches. In the elevator he pulled me against his side, his warmth and strength making me forget all about Joe Morelli.

As soon as we got in the apartment, he took the pizza from me and put the food on the breakfast bar. Backing me up against the counter he wrapped me up in his arms, pulled my head back by the ponytail and kissed me. He began with my mouth and then moved down my throat, nibbling with his lips, sucking my skin gently into his mouth, scraping with his teeth.

"Babe, you taste so good," he huffed against my throat. "You're all I want for lunch."

"Okay."

I really needed to get out of these damp panties, anyway.

oOo

Cuban for lunch. Yum…

After my second shower of the day and Ranger's third, we exited the apartment and walked down the stairs to the fifth floor. I knew I had a little cat-that-ate-the-canary smile that just wouldn't go away. And, I thought, giggling to myself, not only did the cat eat the canary, the canary ate back!

Ranger had his hand on the back of my neck and he squeezed it and gave my curls a kiss. "What's so funny, Babe?"

"Nothing. Just feeling good." I giggled a little more.

As we exited the elevator, though, my stomach gave a flip-flop as I remembered. Oh, yeah, the job offer. Shit. Ranger wanted me to work for him, be part of the core team. He'd managed to keep my mind from churning around about it all weekend, and all this morning. But now the time of reckoning was here. I was going to have to talk with him and the guys, and think seriously about changing my life, taking charge of a whole department at RangeMan.

We entered Ranger's office and I flopped down on the couch, gnawing on my lower lip.

"Hey, Babe, do you have the other files you picked up from Connie this morning?"

Oh, yeah, almost forgot about them in my worrying. I pulled them out of my big bag. "Here you go."

Ranger took the two files and glanced through them, asking, "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure. What?"

"Something has come up that the guys and I have to take care of this afternoon, so we're going to need to postpone our meeting. If you don't have anything going on, would you mind very much starting the research on these two?"

I started to open my mouth, but he spoke first. "I really could use the help, Babe. We're spread awfully thin right now. And of course you'll get your usual pay from RangeMan for the time you spend."

"You don't have to pay me, Ranger," I said. "I'd be glad to do it for you."

"Well, we'll figure that out later," he told me, rising from his chair. "Sit here and use my computer. Vince has taken over your old cubicle with all his equipment."

He pulled me up from the couch, pushed me over to his desk and gave me a breathtaking kiss. Wow, did somebody turn up the heat in here? My knees were wobbly and he lowered me into his chair. The immense strength of his arms never failed to send a tremor through me.

"We should be back before the end of the day, Babe. See you later."

"B… b… bye," I stuttered, finally getting my voice back.

Damn, can he ever kiss!

TBC