Whether Joseph A. Morelli is an exceptional police detective is yet to be decided, but he sure is a very persistent—if not annoyingly stubborn—person who wants to make something out of his life. And sometimes he's almost like a typical, cliché, stereotyped and most boring badly-written character straight out of a bad paperback romance . He's a has-been bad boy who desperately wants to prove to the world that he's no longer the troubled 8-year-old who fingered little younger girls in his father's dark garage, nor the irresponsible teenager who coaxed innocent curious girls into giving him their virginity on cold hard marble floor or bare grassless ground and then walked away without a backward glance 6 minutes later. He's hardworking and hot tempered, rude and loud when angered, and he tends to stick to his views and opinions—sometimes regardless to clear and objective evidence—concerning certain people and things.
Now as Morelli stands dazed and frozen by the roadside watching the firemen put out the fire, a same thought keeps repeating itself over and over again inside his brain like a broken track record. Ranger. It must be Ranger who's behind all this. Morelli tells himself and clenches his fists as a sudden pang of rage possesses him. As if stealing Stephanie away from him and openly humiliating him in Hawaii is not enough, now that crazy cold-blooded calculating mercenary is out to destroy and torture him slowly, like a cat would a rat. And he, a mere Trenton police detective, can only rely on his wits, skill, and courage to thwart the enemy's evil plan. He knows he shouldn't have told Stephanie he wanted them to try an open relationship. He did and yes, still loves her, but he just had that strange choking feeling whenever he thought about buying an expensive diamond ring, dropping onto one knee and actually asking her to marry him. And when he finally, finally mustered enough courage and determination to go all the way to Hawaii to propose to her, she flat-out cheated on him with Ranger.
Morelli shakes in the cool night wind. He's hungry, cold, and mad with anger. He wants to revenge. He will have his revenge. He doesn't know how, he's not sure when, but he will definitely and eventually get what he wants and make them pay. He swears.
~End of Kiss 26: Be Careful What You Wish~