Janet Evanovich is the rightful owner of the Stephanie Plum stories and characters.

Author's Notes: I really thought this would be the last chapter. Alas, the characters took control and decided a few things needed yet to be done. I don't want to be one of those writer's who can't let a story go and allows the story to go on forever when it should really end, so the next chapter should be it. I laid my foot down even though Morelli keeps begging me with endless emails. He can't talk to me like he did in the last story, because I left him in Trenton and here we are in Miami and I refuse to give him my cell phone number.

A Total Eclipse of the Heart

….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….

Chapter 25

It took a few minutes for Stephanie to pull herself together after the girls left. She had been completely thrown by their presence and still had so many questions about what they had been doing in Miami. Ranger promised he would explain everything and answer all of her questions later.

Hector had finished setting up the equipment and was ready to begin recording her account of her kidnapping.

As they all took their places, Ranger remained out of the view of the camera, but close enough to hold her hand or otherwise support her when necessary. Jack would be conducting the interview and Bobby would observe from the sidelines.

Jack began by asking Stephanie to recall everything she remembered about the day she was kidnapped. Her memory was spotty at best after she left Megan sitting on the bench in the mall with her injured foot, but she followed by recalling as much detail as she could about the trip from Trenton to Miami. She knew that two men were with her the entire time, but only the one spoke. She found out later from Colleen that Jake Murdock had been one of them, and the other was an unnamed employee of Grayson Murdock, whom she was informed she would not see again. She thought that she might be able to identify the distinctive voice if she ever heard it again.

Stephanie's detail of her time at the beach house was much more complete because, by then, the effect of the drugs had worn off, and she was no longer missing any time.

"I had only been at the house for a short while before Grayson came into the room and introduced himself." She focused her attention strictly on Jack. "He called me a 'guest' in his home. He tried to convince me that Marcus had been falsely accused of raping and hurting Emily Barnes…that she led him on and then cried rape to avoid getting into trouble with her brother." She paused for a moment. "That's why he had Jake kidnap me and bring me to Miami. He said he was going to use me as a negotiating chip with Ranger. He wanted Ranger to force Tony and Emily to drop the charges against his nephew. He told me I would be set free in exchange for the charges being dropped."

She told them about Jake cutting off the cast and admitting to her that he killed the girl at Bugsy's as a message to someone.

Bobby threw a look toward Ranger. He clearly thought it was time for Stephanie to know about Megan.

Stephanie continued, and when she mentioned finding the University ID card belonging to Chelsea Grant and where she had hidden it, Ranger stopped the recording. He called Tank, who was still at the beach house, and had him locate it so it could be used as evidence in the related kidnapping and murder case against Jake Murdock. Tank found the card still buried at the back of the bathroom drawer just as Stephanie had said.

With that little detail taken care of, Ranger signaled to Hector to restart the recording and for Stephanie to continue her statement.

"Stephanie," Jack prompted. "Tell us about that first night at Grayson Murdock's house."

Stephanie told of the dinner and the newspaper articles. When she got to the part about seeing the pictures of Ranger at the funeral, she became very emotional, and they paused the recording.

Ranger was at her side in an instant. "Babe, if you can't finish this now, it's okay. We can do this later."

Stephanie adamantly replied, "No Carlos, I want to do this now. I'm good. I just want to get this over with."

They started the recording once again and Stephanie continued. She relayed the headache episode she had experienced and the fact that Colleen had her medication and injected her with it. "Colleen told me that Jake had an informant giving him details about my health and security situation, but that she didn't know who it was. They knew the name of my medication and had some available in case I needed it."

"Stephanie, did you ever feel threatened while you were at Grayson Murdock's home?"

"Yes," she answered tentatively. "At lunch on Sunday. Grayson always insisted that I take my meals with him. We got into a discussion and I questioned his relationship with Colleen. She's just a child, and the man is…was nearly seventy. She came from an abusive home with a drug addicted mother and a sexually abusive father. He took advantage of that with her, and I told him I thought that was wrong. He didn't care for my criticism. He said if I did anything to jeopardize the negotiations, for Marcus' case, he would allow Jake or Marcus to…" Stephanie found it hard to finish the sentence.

"What did he say they would be allowed to do, Stephanie?" Jack prompted.

"He said that if I took advantage of his 'generous hospitality' he would no longer protect me from anything that Jake or Marcus wished to do to me."

"Did he say what that would entail?"

"No," She whispered. He just said that they could be very creative when inspired." Her voice got a little stronger. "But later that day Colleen told me that Marcus was the one who raped her and made her pregnant. She said that he was furious with me and had ranted on and on about getting even with me for causing his arrest. She said that that when he…when he…was inside her, he called…my name in anger." She hurried on before the emotions got the best of her again. "I also knew what Jake Murdock had done to that poor girl at Bugsy's, and how he had used Chelsea Grant. He also told me about what he had done to his informant in Trenton." She sighed. "I knew what both of those men were capable of doing and so did Grayson Murdock. The threat was implied and very real."

Stephanie caught movement from the corner of her eye and swiveled her head in the direction of the bedroom door. Without a second thought to the integrity of the recording procedure, Stephanie burst into a huge smile.

"Lester!" she exclaimed happily. "How long have you been standing there?"

Lester rushed to her bedside and pulled her into a hug. He hadn't realized how difficult it had been to breathe these last few days until the air in his lungs exhaled her name with such comforting ease that he found himself flooded with emotion. "Beautiful," he murmured in a reverent whisper. "Damn it's good to have you back." He sat back, slid his hands to her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, as his own twinkled with a hint of moisture. "Are you okay?"

"Much better now." She sniffed, and then tried to lighten the mood with a quip about her own endless stream of tears. "Damn you guys for making me cry all morning."

"Yeah? Well, I'll take the happy tears over the sad ones from last week anytime, Beautiful."

Stephanie pulled Lester into another hug, "Oh god, Lester, it's so good to be back." She sat back once more. "How's Megan?" she asked, pulling a tissue from the box on the side table. "I saw Adria a few minutes ago. It's good to see that she and Bobby are still together. What about you and Megan?"

Lester shot a glance over to Ranger. Ranger returned an almost imperceptible shake indicating that they hadn't told her yet. "Megan's fine…we're fine," he hedged.

"Liar," she gently accused. "I know Megan was the one who gave Jake Murdock the information about me. I know she had something to do with him getting to me at the mall."

Lester was surprised. "How did you…"

"Jake told me." Stephanie took both his hands in hers. "Listen, Lester. You aren't upset with Megan for what she was forced to do, are you?"

"We're working on it," he admitted. "It hasn't been easy." Lester glanced over at Hector, who had developed a tight and bitter expression on his face.

Stephanie caught that exchange and looked at Ranger. "Nobody should blame Megan for what happened, Carlos. Did she tell you what he did?"

Ranger slid closer to Stephanie and put an arm around her waist. "She told us, Babe. We know that he threatened to hurt her sister and nieces, and we have the pictures he sent to convince her to give him the information he wanted. We know about Anna Burke, too."

"Did she tell you that he only resorted to threatening her family when she didn't give in to his first attempts at getting her to cooperate?"

Stephanie could tell by the look on both of their faces that they didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about. She wondered why Megan had withheld that information and briefly considered whether she should respect her privacy about it, but then she looked at Hector again. She had seen the anger bloom on his face the minute Megan's name was mentioned, and she knew that his over protectiveness wasn't allowing for any reprieve where Megan was concerned. Stephanie was suddenly greatly disturbed at the thought that so much tragedy had come from all of this, and she was determined to prevent one more casualty of the sick mess.

"Lester," Stephanie said resolutely. "Go sit in that chair over there." She pointed to an upholstered chair near the side of the bed.

Lester eyed her suspiciously, but reluctantly got up and moved to the chair. "Beautiful, what are you doing?"

Stephanie pinned him with an authoritative look. "Just listen," she ordered. Her whole demeanor changed. She gathered up all the loose wet tissues and balled them into a wad, then stuffed them under the pillow behind her. She put her hands to her face checking for wetness and removing any trace of emotion. When she was ready, she pointed to the camera. "Hector, turn that thing back on." She took a deep breath and looked at Jack. "Ask me about last night."

Jack nodded. When Hector gave him the signal that the camera was running, he proceded. "Stephanie, what can you tell us about what happened last night?"

Stephanie took a final calming breath and started speaking. "I decided I needed to try to escape and refused to have dinner with Grayson to give me time to work on a plan. He allowed Colleen to bring me a tray…a salad and some dessert. I had been able to pick the lock on the French doors with a wire I had picked up on the beach earlier that afternoon, but there was a sliding bolt securing it from the outside and I couldn't escape. At some point I must have fallen asleep. I woke up to find Jake Murdock leaning over me in the bed, holding my arms. I tried to fight him, but he was too strong, and it only made him angrier and more determined. Jake Murdock has a fondness for sharp objects. He pulled a knife from his pocket and ran it lightly from my neck to my chest, increasing the pressure as he went." Stephanie's eyes drifted off to the side, and her hand absently touched the wound on her chest. "He told me that women were easy to manipulate with the right motivation, and that he was able to get my nurse from the hospital, Megan to give him the information he wanted about me, but only after his first attempt failed." She turned her face slightly toward Lester. "He said that he…raped her and…cut her…with the very same knife he was holding at my chest. He laughed and called her 'foolishly noble' when she still refused to cooperate. Megan was his best chance at getting the information about me that he wanted, so he admitted that he couldn't afford to kill her. Then he bragged about being prepared with a backup plan to get her to talk by threatening her family." She tightened her face in incredulity. "He was so arrogant and proud of his success."

The room had gone deathly quiet. Tears welled in Stephanie's eyes. She turned full face to Lester and whispered. "Don't you see, Lester? It's all my fault. Everyone who was threatened, or injured…or killed, was done so because of me. Because Grayson Murdock wanted to get to me! Megan had no choice. She was trying to protect her family. I would have done the same thing. After Justin died, she just couldn't afford to lose anyone else in her life."

Jack leaned forward in his chair and tried to take her hand. "Stephanie, you can't…."

Stephanie swung her focus to Jack. She pulled back her hand and sharply cut him off. "I can't what Jack? I can't blame myself? I can't believe that I'm responsible for all the death and destruction that has surrounded me for the past couple of weeks? Anna Burke was raped, mutilated, and her body was callously stuffed into a bathroom supply closet…because of me! Chelsea Grant was kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and killed…because of me! Megan was raped and cut with a knife…trying to protect me!" With the listing of each victim, Stephanie pointed to herself, and her voice grew in volume and intensity. "Colleen was raped, got pregnant, and has now most likely lost that baby…because Marcus Sandor was angry at me!" Stephanie looked at Lester and saw the fresh hurt and concern in his face that her revealing truth about Megan had caused. Her unyielding self-reproach faltered. She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her middle. She felt undeserving of anyone's attempts to comfort her. The overwhelming inventory of victims came barreling down on her conscience. "God! I sit here all warm and safe in my bed, with just a few cuts and bruises and I…I…" she turned to Ranger with panicked, imploring eyes. "I can't do this anymore…I'm going to be sick."

Stephanie scrambled toward the side of the bed, but Ranger quickly picked her up and carried her into the bathroom just in time. She sat on the floor in his arms leaning over the toilet, sobbing and heaving up the breakfast Mary had prepared. When she settled, Ranger cleaned and cooled her with a damp washcloth.

After a few minutes, Bobby softly knocked on the open door and stepped into the bathroom. He crouched down next to the exhausted couple on the floor. "Steph, after what you've been through, you can't afford to become dehydrated. I'm going to inject you with something for the nausea, and both Jack and I agreed it would be best to pre-empt another headache with an injection of the pain medication we've been giving you."

He waited for her acknowledgement. She wordlessly nodded, so he swiped an alcohol swab across her upper arm and quickly made the two injections. He looked at Ranger. "This will probably knock her out. She really needs to get some sleep. We're going to clear outta here and let you two get some rest. I'm going to the airport with Adria and the others, to make sure they get off the ground okay, but I'll be back, and Jack is still here. Call me if you need me."

Ranger nodded and thanked Bobby. He sat with Stephanie on the floor a few minutes longer and then helped her up to the sink. She rinsed out her mouth and washed her face. Ranger carried her back into the bedroom and they wordlessly sunk into the bed for a long overdue rest.

…XXX…XXX…XXX…XXX…XXX…XXX…XXX…

The next time Stephanie opened her eyes, it was late afternoon. Ranger was still with her. He was awake, and he was gently, but absently rubbing his fingers along her arm that was lying across his chest. He was staring out the window, but he was seeing something much further away and more serious than the skyline of downtown Miami.

Stephanie transiently studied him while he remained unaware that she was awake. Stark memories of the emotional breakdown came flooding back, and she immediately felt guilty. She could see the worry on his face. He had been through so much in the last few weeks because of her. She may have called him Batman, but she knew he was human and the events had taken their toll. She slowly lifted her hand and ran a finger along his cheek.

"I'm not leaving you again, you know?"

Ranger was caught unaware and jerked slightly at her movement. His face immediately softened in response. "I'm sorry, Babe, what did you say?"

"I left you when I lost my memory. I lost us for a while, but I'm stronger now and I won't do that again." She struggled to sit up, and he helped by scooting himself against the headboard and pulling her to a sitting position in his arms. "I'm sorry about freaking out earlier. It's just that…when I was telling the story, everything caught up with me and the truth was staring me in the face…in spades. I'm afraid I didn't handle it very well."

Ranger hugged her more tightly in response. "You scared the shit out of Hector, Babe."

"That wasn't my intent. I just didn't want Megan to take the blame for something she had very little control over and very few resources to handle. What about Lester? I dropped a pretty big bomb on him. Do you think he's okay?"

"He and Megan had already worked some things out before he came down here. He didn't know about the rape." He pulled Stephanie's face to his with his free hand. "Let Lester worry about his relationship with Megan. You need to…" Ranger hesitated, looking for the right words. "You need to take care of you first. Hector isn't the only one you scared, Babe." He leaned in and placed a gentle but telling kiss on her lips. "Dios, I love you so much." He leaned away with great concern written all over his face. "And I'm so afraid that you actually believe those words you said about everything being your fault."

"How could I not believe that? It's true. All of those girls were hurt because of me."

Ranger could feel her body tense up as she spoke and he didn't want to her to get upset again. He could argue her reasoning, but he felt it would be best to let it go for now. "Babe, I want you to talk to Jack. He's here for you. I think he can help you put some things into perspective and see the situation differently."

"I will, Carlos. I know I can't do this by myself, but I don't know how he can change the truth."

Ranger's cell phone rang, but he didn't answer it right away. He held Stephanie's gaze a few moments longer in contemplation and then slowly lifted the device to his ear.

"Yo."

Stephanie could here a female voice on the other end, but couldn't tell who it was.

"We're awake. Come on up. Sounds wonderful. Gracias, Mary." Ranger closed the phone and asked. "Are you hungry? Mary's made dinner for us."

"Dinner would be wonderful," she smiled. "But can I get out of this bed for a while?"

"How 'bout I carry you into the living room? We can eat in there."

Stephanie nodded enthusiastically and they moved to the living room. Within minutes Mary was industriously puttering around the kitchen pulling out plates and silverware to serve dinner on. There was another knock on the door and Ranger got up to answer it. Stephanie couldn't see the door from where she was sitting, but the voice was unmistakable, and soon Tank's massive form was hovering over the couch. He leaned down and gave Stephanie a kiss on her cheek.

"You look a damn sight better than you did this morning, Bomber," he said in good humor.

"I feel a damn sight better too," she quipped back. "But you look like hell."

Yeah? Thanks a lot!" he said with a slight chuckle, rubbing his hands over the rough texture of a face long overdue for a shave. "I spent the whole damn night looking for this curly headed friend of mine and the whole damn morning dealing with the local cops and the feds. On top of that, the boss here ships my woman back to Trenton without a proper goodbye."

Ranger resumed his place next to Stephanie on the couch and Tank took a seat in the chair across from them.

"I'm sorry, Tank, maybe Lula should have stayed," Stephanie said.

"Nah, it's okay. We're gonna be pretty busy for the next couple of days down here and Lula doesn't do so good with neglect. It's better she went home. I'll make it up to her later." He said that last line with a grin on his face that hinted he knew exactly how to do just that.

Ranger interrupted their little reunion. "What have you got?"

Tank sat forward in his chair. "Right now, MDPD has Murdock in their custody since they won the race. Feds showed up after Morelli called in the information we left with him. They're mighty anxious to get their hands on him, but they're gonna have to work that out with a judge, because the list of charges against him is as long as your arm and covers four states. We turned over most of the evidence we collected to the locals."

"The gun?"

"Colleen said that Stephanie never touched the gun, so Lester turned it over as evidence to support the claim that Colleen is the one who shot Sandor."

"What about Sandor?"

It was a cryptic question, but Tank knew exactly what Ranger was asking. "Taken care of," he replied.

It seemed to Stephanie that there was more unsaid with their intently locked eyes, but she couldn't guess what.

Ranger nodded that they both understood and moved on to his next question. "Murdock?"

"The bastard was still spilling all that shit to the local cops about Bomber attacking him with a shoe and kicking him in the groin. She's expected the day after tomorrow at ten hundred. I called Morgan. He'll meet us here tomorrow pm to go over a few things."

It was obvious that Ranger and Tank had done this a million times and had developed a sort of verbal shorthand that proved efficient at sharing details with each other, while at the same time not giving away too much information to the casual observer. The conversation was moving a little too quickly for Stephanie. She got hung up trying to make sense of the bit about Morelli and fell behind after that. She finally made her frustration known to the two clueless men. "What the hell does all that mean? What does Joe have to do with this? What's going on the day after tomorrow? And who the hell is Morgan?" Her volume rose with her agitation. She started her rant by looking at Tank for answers, but the blank face fell into place and she switched to Ranger.

Ranger actually felt bad about her unintentional exclusion. The way he and Tank conversed was second nature to him and he hadn't taken into consideration that she would not be able to follow along. "I'm sorry, Babe. Morelli was very helpful back in Trenton when we discovered that you were not dead. He was able to get the DNA testing done without making the request public knowledge. Once he had the identification of the real victim in your car, he agreed to keep it under wraps for just over twenty-four hours. Long enough to give us a head start on finding you before the FBI was notified." Ranger ran a single finger down the side of her cheek." He did that as a favor to me for you. I owe him for that."

Stephanie produced a sad smile on her face. "He's really a good guy."

"He's a good cop and a good friend who still cares about you," Ranger readily admitted.

"Would it be okay, if I called him later?"

"I think he would like that," he said.

Stephanie got curious again. "What's all the stuff Tank said about the gun, and Marcus Sandor, and about tomorrow pm?"

"One of the reasons I left Tank and Lester behind at the beach house was to make sure that you weren't falsely implicated in any of the deaths that took place last night. When we came on the scene, we had dead bodies, an injured and somewhat hysterical young woman, and we knew you had been there, but we didn't have many answers. We didn't want to take any chances with shoddy police work screwing up the evidence. After I found you and learned more about what had gone on, I called Tank." Ranger hesitated before he continued. "Babe, because Sandor is dead, and it was Colleen that shot him, there's no reason for you to give a statement about the attempted rape if you don't want to. Emily Barnes' case will be over, and it will make no difference in the case against Murdock. I asked Tank to clean up the scene. Sandor's pants were still open when we arrived. By the time the cops got there, they weren't." Ranger stopped.

Stephanie's eyes had lost their focus. She was processing what Ranger was saying, and was already contemplating how she felt about it. "You had Tank adjust the evidence to give me options," she correctly interpreted.

"Yes."

"I understand."

"It's your decision, Babe. We'll stand behind anything you decide."

A single tear fell from her left eye. That's all she would allow. She swiped at it before it ran beyond her cheek. "If it's alright with you, I think I could talk about it with Jack, but I don't want to talk about it with anyone else. Not the police, not my friends, not my family, no one else," she said with some finality.

Ranger pulled her close to his chest and kissed her on top of her head. "Done," he promised.

Stephanie turned her head toward Tank. "Thank you."

Tank nodded. Nothing more needed to be said. Stephanie knew that those RangeMen who knew, would never mention the private details she had shared in the shed.

Ranger finished answering her questions. "They need you to come to the Miami-Dade PD headquarters the day after tomorrow to file formal charges against Jake Murdock. They are already holding him on a slew of other charges, but yours can only strengthen the case against him. Tank set an appointment for ten o'clock Wednesday morning. Jonathon Morgan is one of my attorneys. He's going to meet us here tomorrow afternoon to give you some legal advice and then he will accompany you to the station the next day, to give your statement."

Stephanie looked upset. "Won't you be there too?"

"I'll go downtown with you and I'll be there the whole time. But they won't let me stay with you while you give your statement. Because we were part of the rescue, we have to give our own statements."

"Oh," was all she said as she nodded.

Tank stood up to leave.

"Tank, do you know how Colleen is doing?"

Tank paused to answer Stephanie's question. "Tony left the hospital a couple of hours ago. She lost the baby. They're keeping her for a couple of days."

Stephanie nodded sadly and turned to Ranger. "I want to see her."

"Babe…"

"No, Carlos! She's alone. She has no one. She helped me. I want to see her!"

Ranger looked at Tank. "Have they filed any charges against her for the kidnapping?"

Tank shook his head "Not yet. FBI didn't seem too interested in pursuing it. They want Murdock. She'll probably get immunity for turning evidence."

"Babe, I'll call Morgan in the morning. If he thinks it's okay, we'll go."

Stephanie gave him a hard look. "Make it okay, Carlos. I'm going to see her."

….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx….xxx