Ranger walked me up to his apartment, gave me a brief rundown of the TV then promptly departed for his meeting. Ella dropped by with some lunch, so I sat at the kitchen table snacking while writing down some notes on our current situation. Bruno seemed to be a key player in at least part of this, but I was worried he might be somewhere pushing up daisies.

Running into a dead end with Bruno, no pun intended, I decided to write out the list of events as they'd unfolded over the last several days. There were the three mystery packages, the break-in with the man in black, the dead flowers, the poisoned cayenne pepper, the car explosion, and the poisoned donuts.

The first half of the list all seemed directly tied to Ranger. The car and the donuts seemed unrelated and were focused more specifically on me. There was a suspect in custody for the car bombing, and I'd seen the crystal blue eyes of the man involved with the Ranger stuff.

Obviously it still wasn't much to go on, but I could tell my next step involved finding out what the police knew regarding the Stark Street mess. Morelli had mentioned a Stark case at my parents' house the other night. He'd probably be a useful resource. But considering we weren't on speaking terms at the moment, getting him to share privileged information with me was probably a moot point.

Thinking about dinner with my family, I decided to give Grandma a call and find out how her new phone was working out.

"Stephanie?" she asked after the fifth ring. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, Gram," I answered. "I was calling to see how you're doing."

"You didn't get any of my texts?"

I did a mental grimace. "My phone was off."

"Nothing much new going on around here anyway. There's a viewing at the funeral home this evening. Care to join me?"

"Not tonight, Gram. I'm kind of busy right now with a case, and I'm not sure when it's all going to be taken care of. Maybe we can catch up in a couple of days. Until then, give everyone my love."

"Will do," she said in a singsong voice. "Oh! Before you go, I almost forgot to tell you. I've got another date with Mr. Martindale tomorrow evening. Said he'd give me a crash course on how to do picture messaging. Is that the same as sexting?"

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, look at the time… Gotta go. Have fun, Gram."

Old people and technology…eeesh!

After hanging up with Grandma Mazur, I decided to take the TV for a spin. It was still complicated, and I could feel myself starting to get antsy. I'd already racked my brain for details related to the cases, and nothing had yet to lead to a breakthrough. There were holes I couldn't fill without doing more research, and sitting idly in Ranger's apartment wasn't helping anything.

After another fifteen minutes of pacing around, I was ready to make an escape plan. Moments later I had the rough outline of an idea; a really sketchy and mostly stupid idea.

As I was refining some of the details, I felt a sudden change in air pressure. I started casually making my way towards the door. Ranger walked in and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

"Nope. Just thought I heard something suspicious outside. I was just on my way to check it out."

"With your handbag and," he slid his hand into my pocket. "My car keys?"

"There's a panic button on the key ring, right? There could have been a dangerous intruder at the door. Figured I could throw them off guard with the alarm."

"The panic button's for the car, babe. Nice try." He tossed the extra keys back in the bowl in the entryway then headed for the kitchen.

"How was the meeting?" I asked changing the subject.

"Successful," he said grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

"While you were busy playing corporate genius, I was doing some thinking about our case. I need to find out more on the Stark Street situation. Have you heard anything about it?"

"Babe, between my usual clients and our current mess, I haven't had a whole lot of extra time to keep up with local events. I can make some calls if you want." He took a sip of the water. "Still thinking Bruno is the key?"

I nodded. "And I think Morelli's working a case that might be tied in too. I'd call him, but I don't think he's interested in talking to me right now. Even in a professional capacity."

"I'll head downstairs in a minute and see what I can find out. Anything else you want me to look into?"

"I have mail that probably needs to get picked up from my apartment, but other than that, I think I'm good. Good luck with things downstairs." I leaned over and kissed him. And not just a friendly little peck on the cheek. It was a heated kiss with a little strategic groping. This time Ranger didn't pull back. Go figure. In fact, before I knew it half my clothes were gone and we were almost to the bedroom.

I did an internal grimace and pulled back. "Umm…maybe this should wait," I said softly. Ranger took a step back and stared at me.

"You can't be serious," he sighed.

"There's just so much going on right now. I'm not sure I can focus on anything else." Ranger leaned down and kissed the pulse point on my neck.

"Trust me, babe. You won't need to." And the truth was, he was probably right. I could totally ignore all the stuff going on and focus on Ranger. I didn't even need any additional incentives. However, there was something that currently required my attention, and unfortunately it wasn't Ranger.

"This isn't going to happen right now, is it?" he asked. I shook my head and frowned.

"Sorry. I'll make it up to you," I called after him as he adjusted his clothing and walked back to the door.

He sighed again. "I'll see what I can find out downstairs." He headed back toward the elevator.

Ok, so I felt marginally guilty for putting on the breaks like that especially since I'd been the one who initiated everything with the kiss. And I felt slightly worse that my tactics had succeeded in getting me what I was really after. I held Ranger's master set of keys in my hands. Pickpocketing was definitely a new low for me.

I quickly grabbed my bag and headed for the elevator. Given Ranger's keen sense of well, everything, I probably had only a few precious moments to get my butt to the garage before he realized what had happened.

There had been a few times at Rangeman when Ranger and I had gotten a little carried away in direct line of sight of the security cameras. With a click of a button, Ranger was able to block the security feed to the control room and give us a little more privacy. I hit that same button as I entered the elevator and then again in the garage.

Ranger was probably hot on my trail by now, so I quickly hopped in the Porsche Cayenne and sped off down the street. My phone rang once I was a few blocks away. Obviously I knew who it was before I answered.

"I'm not sure if I should be furious or proud," Ranger said with a hint of amusement. "That stunt you pulled was…something else."

"How long did it take you to notice?" I asked curiously.

"A few minutes before I reached my office. Didn't want to take the Turbo, huh?"

"I thought that might be crossing a line."

"Babe."

"I have a few things I think I need to do alone."

"Still have the watch?"

"Yep."

"Be safe." The call ended. There was much less push-back than I had anticipated.

At least from what I could tell, I wasn't permanently in the dog house. Still, Ranger was probably plotting some form of retaliation. I knew I would be. Ranger wasn't kidding about my actions being "something else." They were something else alright. In fact, they almost seemed someone else. The Stephanie Plum I knew wouldn't sink so low as to use seduction to steal something. At least not from Ranger. And the Ranger I knew wouldn't have fallen for it. Maybe we were both off our game.