I thought from the way our night had begun that Ranger was going to spend the night with me. I thought there was a good chance that I'd get that itch scratched. I didn't. He left with Tank and Lula. I don't blame him. I'm pretty screwed up. We're both tired. We have a lot going on and the last time we had sex…only the second time ever I'd pretty much told him it was just sex. The time before that he sent me back to Joe. Man…do we ever need marriage counseling.

That reminded me that I lied to Brian. I told Brian that I hadn't had sex with Ranger for a long time and that wasn't true. I felt guilty. I had to call him.

"Yea," he said groggily when he answered the phone.

"Oh God, I woke you up. I'm so sorry."

"Stephanie," he asked.

"Yea."

"Sweetheart…it's midnight. Are you okay?"

"Yea…well, about that…"

"What's wrong?"

"I lied to you. I didn't mean to lie to you. I…think I just sort of blocked it out."

"What did you block out?"

I could hear rustling and knew he was sitting up in the bed. "Oh…um…well, you know when we were talking about the last time I had sex and I said it was before Joe and I ya know, split up?"

"Yes, I remember," he said patiently.

"I think I blocked it out. It was just so out of character and well…"

"You had sex with Manoso," he sighed.

"Yea," I sighed along with him. "It was just sex. It was…it was just sex."

"Are you telling me that or you?"

I took a deep steadying breath, "I don't have to tell me. I was there. It was just sex. There had been so much tension between us and he kept pushing and finally, I just did it. I sort of made him…sort of."

"You can't make a man have sex that doesn't want to have sex."

"That's not technically true," I corrected. "Emotionally and intellectually they may not want to have sex, but their penis may still…"

"Okay," he interrupted me, "I know that it's possible to rape a man. Did you rape him?"

"Oh God no," I groaned.

"And obviously he didn't rape you?"

"No," I agreed.

"Then you had consensual sex with Manoso?"

"Yea," I sighed. "I really am a skank."

"You're not a skank Stephanie. You're a woman with needs. He was familiar. The two of you definitely have chemistry. I can see how it might happen."

"Yea," I bit the inside of my mouth.

"Are you still having sex with him?"

"No, we've only had sex twice and it was a long time between bouts."

"What's going on between the two of you?"

"I have no idea," I sighed. "Maybe we're some sort of weird friends with privileges?"

"Hmmm," he said calmly.

"I know. That's stupid. I just… We have chemistry."

"I know," he sighed. "Maybe you better figure that out before we go any further."

"You're probably right," I said and wiped at the escaping tears. "I just… I like you Brian."

"I like you too. But I don't want my heart handed back to me on a silver platter by a gorgeous curly headed, blue eyed babe even if she is you. Okay, especially if she is you."

I swallowed, "I'm sorry Brian."

"Do you love him?"

"You know I do. You also know that he doesn't do relationships. He told me that himself."

"Maybe you should ask him if that rule still applies," he suggested. "And then when you know the answer to that…we can decide where to go next."

"Yea, maybe you're right," I agreed.

"So…think about it."

"I'll think about it."

I did not have a peaceful night's rest. And that's insane since I was absolutely exhausted. But my mind was running a million miles an hour. Where was my relationship with Ranger going? Was it going anywhere? Was his love conditional? Did a relationship with him still leave out rings and only include condoms? I knew I wanted more than that. I was being selfish expecting him to change. He didn't want more children. I want a couple. I know that. It occurred to me about two am that I wasn't being fair to him. Maybe I was holding him back. Maybe I should let him go.

After a restless night and with little or no sleep I wasn't looking forward to going back into the office. My first meeting of the morning was with Binky and Jed. They found diddly squat of any use during the B&E. In fact, they informed me frowning curiously, it was as though the woman lived in a hotel or something. There was absolutely nothing personal in the place.

That only reassured me that I was on the right track. And I decided I needed to dig a little deeper. Who was going to get hurt?

I went back to my computer and continued to dig. This time I focused on everyone that she could have a vendetta against. I started with the victims.

Ivory was a pain in the ass that was certain. But if she ever committed a crime that harmed someone else I couldn't find it. I found proof that she was using. I found proof that she was a narcissistic bitch. I found proof that she didn't practice safe sex. But I didn't find any proof that she'd ever hurt her potential murderer in any way.

There was even less proof that Lynette could have ever done anything to her. By all accounts, the two of them got along. They had a rapport. They even spent time together away from Sizzlin. If she was the intended target all along, it made no sense to go after Ivory first. I couldn't find any proof that Lynette had ever hurt a fly. As a matter of fact the only cause she was active in was PETA. She was clearly not the primary target.

Marc had done some damage in his youth. She was too old to be his daughter. I suppose that she could have a sister that Marc had married and discarded or worse…just discarded. He'd had a very colorful early career in New York, maybe he'd crossed her path before. But by my calculations, he was already clean and sober by the time she was old enough to be in New York and on her own. Besides I detected a Midwestern accent. She definitely wasn't a native New Yorker like the woman who's identity she'd stolen was.

Try as I might, I found no proof that any of three of them were the primary target. That meant that at least one more person's life was in real danger. After hours of research and using every ounce of instinct and knowledge I had in me, I'd narrowed it to one person. It could only be one person. Maybe it was time to pay that person a call.