Chapter 26: Stephanie's POV

It took several minutes, but eventually the men in black recovered enough to help me. Tank and Bobby had picked up Lester and drug him out the door. I wiped up the blood on the floor as best I could and went to the bathroom to wash my hands. Eww gross, I had Lester's blood and snot on my elbow. Ick.

While I was there, I double-checked to be sure that I hadn't peed on myself when Ranger winked at me.

I walked outside and found the guys. Lester was still holding his nose and leaning against a black SUV. Bobby had finally snapped on gloves and was checking his nose.

As I walked up, I heard Lester whining. "I can't bewieve she bwoke my nose. And maybe my fut."

I just shook my head. "I'm sorry, Lester, but let this be a lesson. Don't ever grab a woman like that unless you want to have your balls handed to you on a plate. My next move would have been to punch you in the throat, and we wouldn't be having this conversation if I'd followed through."

All of the guys, except Lester, smiled at me.

"Damn, Bombshell. Where'd you learn those moves?" Hal wanted to know. Ranger was still smiling his big smile.

"Kickboxing three times a week for the last ten months."

"Hot damn!" That was from Tank.

I shot him a glare and he chuckled.

I turned back to Bobby. "I probably did break his foot. That's the whole idea and I was scared and pissed enough to put a whole lot of force into the move."

Bobby nodded and bent down to check Lester's foot.

"Why did you hit me so hwad, Bwutiful?"

"Shit, Lester, I've been stalked by homicidal maniacs. How did you expect me to react when someone grabbed me?" I glared at him.

He looked away. "Nawt like this."

I rolled my eyes. "Dumbass."

"So what are you guys doing here?" I wanted to know.

Tank looked at me and stopped laughing enough to answer. "We were here to pick up a skip but he'd already left by the time we'd mobilized and gotten the crew here."

I nodded. Made sense. I'd been a part of apprehensions at clubs before, but my job had usually been to lure the skip outside so the boys could take him down.

"We're going to have to get more than just your knees registered as lethal weapons now." This hilarious comment came from Hal. The guys laughed again. I glared at Hal and he looked away, but he didn't stop laughing.

"Proud of you, Babe." Huh? Ranger's proud of me for breaking one of his Merry Men?

I looked at him quizzically. He caught my look and correctly interpreted it. I hate that I'm so easy to read. Have I mentioned that?

"If it had been a real bad guy, you'd have taken him down before he could do anything to you. Especially if you'd punched him in the throat. Good job."

I nodded. I knew this. "Kinda hard to chase someone if you have a crushed trachea," I said matter of factly. That earned me another smile and nod from Ranger and a groan from Lester.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked Bobby. I hoped I hadn't done any permanent damage, but I did hope it hurt some. It was a stupid idea to grab a woman like that. Moron.

Bobby nodded. "I'll have to set his nose when we get back, you did a good job breaking it. I'll need an x-ray to be sure, but I think you broke his foot too. The body blow didn't do any permanent damage but he'll feel it for a while. Hell, I felt that blow on the other side of the room."

I glared at Lester. "Good." Lester just moaned into his tissues.

Ranger walked over to me and wrapped an arm around my neck and kissed the top of my head.

"So what made you start kickboxing, Bombshell?" Hal was really caught on this how'd I do it question.

"A really hot instructor." I felt Ranger tense. Hal laughed, but I saw the look Tank shot at Ranger. Uh oh. I rolled my eyes. He didn't own me, I could look at all the eye candy that I wanted to. I'll keep the part about the kickboxing king being a queen to myself.

"Babe." I really need a Ranger to English dictionary. "Babe" can mean anything. Based on his body language and tone of voice, though, I was taking it to mean, "do not talk about other men in front of me or I will kickbox that man's ass straight to Mars." If I keep rolling my eyes like this, I'm going to give myself a stroke.

We stood like that for a few moments while Lester moaned. I rolled my eyes again. "Oww," Lester groaned. "My tomach is cwamping."

"You big baby, women live through that every month. Suck it up." I wasn't in the mood to listen to complaints after he'd given me a heart attack grabbing me like that.

"Are you okay, Babe?" Ranger turned me so that he could look me up and down. I rolled my eyes. I was starting to get a headache from rolling my eyes so much. "Hurt your arm or foot?"

I flexed my arms, legs and toes. "Nope, everything seems to be in good working order." His eyes darkened at that, and I realized that it could be taken as a double entendre too late. He leaned forward to kiss me and I leaned back.

I shrugged out of Ranger's hold and walked over to Bobby and Lester. I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed Lester on the ear. The rest of his face was covered in dried blood and there was no way in hell I was going to kiss that. "I'm sorry I broke your nose and foot, Lester. Is that better? Want me to kiss the bruises on your ass too?"

He looked at Ranger, who was glaring at us with his formidable arms crossed over his equally formidable chest. "Do you want to get me killed?" Lester whimpered.

I just shook my head no and gave Lester a little hug. "I'll make it up to you. Give me a call and I'll take you to dinner one night before I leave. I gave him another kiss on the ear and walked away. I could hear him moaning behind me.

"Bye bye, boys. Have fun storming the castle!" I trilled. I love "The Princess Bride".

I smiled at Ranger as I walked by him, but he didn't return my smile. I think he may have been growling. I went back into the club, but I just couldn't get back into the dance party groove, so I left in about half an hour after saying goodnight to Lula and Connie.

I walked outside and was walking to my car when I saw a shadow within the shadow. I had my defense spray out and aimed before I realized it was Ranger. He just raised an eyebrow.

"You're the one who told me to be more aware of my surroundings."

No response. Great. Batman is feeling pissy tonight.

"We need to talk." Ah, finally he decides to grace me with actual words.

"Not tonight, Ranger. I have to go bathe in bleach to get rid of Lester cooties." I got in my car and drove away, leaving him staring at my taillights.