Physical Evidence

NOT CUPCAKE FRIENDLY. Angst. Sexual situations. Adult Language. Babe HEA!

Not mine. No profit. Belong to JE.

Thanks to my fabulous Beta, Jacqueline!

Chapter 34 – May 26, 2010 – 3:45pm

Law student, Natalie McGarr sped away, hoping no one would recall her vehicle at the scene. She couldn't be caught anywhere near the hotel or her life and career as she knew it would be over. She'd never be admitted to the bar if her current drug use or relationship with Joseph Morelli became public knowledge.

She'd been using Ketamine ever since she met Joe Morelli. He'd slipped some in her drink at a bar they both frequented. Since it made sex between them off the charts, every time they got together, he'd give her a couple of pills. Now, she found sex without the drug almost boring, although her body had taken a beating on several occasions when Morelli got too rough. Her collection of bruises confirmed that fact as she drove back toward her office.

Almost six hours earlier, Natalie had called and warned Morelli that RangeMan employees entered the building where she worked as a clerk for prosecutor Nicholas Reed, the youngest prosecutor in the state of New Jersey. Morelli had warned her that they would show up to get Manoso out of jail. He also warned her that if that happened, he might have to hide out for a while. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of any beating that Manoso'd be looking to give him after sitting in jail for 12 days.

Knowing he'd have to hide out caused her to panic. How would she get the drug she needed if he was unreachable? She'd offered to help him slip away from the guys who were watching his house. He'd spotted them a few days earlier and knew Manoso was behind the surveillance. Waiting for her 11:30 a.m. lunch hour and telling her boss that she had a doctor's appointment and needed some extra time after lunch, she headed toward Morelli's neighborhood. He climbed out the upstairs window, dangled his legs as far down as he could, and then dropped the rest of the way to the ground. Natalie waited three blocks away for him to make his way to her vehicle and then she took him to the Howard Johnson off Route 1. She took some Ketamine, and they spent the next couple of hours fucking each other's brains out. When she asked him to join her in the shower, he complained of heart burn from lunch, swallowed some Maalox, and stretched out on the bed to rest. When she'd finished in the bathroom, she couldn't wake him up. Not sure what to do and afraid to get in trouble, she fled the scene and headed back to work.

Hours later, back at Haywood

Stephanie and Ranger had spent the past few hours kissing, touching, and napping. Each kiss from Ranger triggered the memory of a kiss from the past. Stephanie remembered their first kiss, which Ranger had given her in the parking lot after she'd lost his BMW to a car thief. Then she recalled their many trips to the alley for passionate kisses that left her breathless and wanting more. Her eyes lit up when she finally retrieved the memory of Ranger kissing her against her car just before she left on the day Morelli attacked her.

When they woke from their nap, the lip locking resumed and Steph found herself pinned beneath Ranger's hard body. She ran her hands over his muscular shoulders and up into his silky hair, lacing her fingers around his neck. Looking into his eyes, she had the overwhelming urge to be reminded of what they shared together in the past.

"Make me remember, Ranger. I want to remember everything." She whispered against his lips. "I need you."

"I need you, too. I want to taste you. Will you let me do that?" He trailed kisses down her neck and across her collar bone, pulling her shirt to the side, exposing her shoulder as he nipped at her skin. The action triggered a flashback to the time in her bed when Ranger blazed a trail down her body and buried his head between her legs underneath the covers. She remembered the ecstasy she felt when his tongue began to torture her. She also remembered the knock at her front door and Morelli's voice calling her name, like a bucket of ice being thrown onto the bed. She swore she could still hear the knocking.

"Fuck!" She heard Ranger curse as he rested his forehead against her chest, holding himself up on his elbows. "I'm sorry. It must be important, or the guys wouldn't be disturbing us right now."

"Why didn't they just call you?" Steph asked, finally realizing the knocking wasn't from her memory, but from the front door of the apartment.

"They called my cell phone twice already and the apartment phone once." Ranger smirked. He brushed her curls off of her face and kissed her softly. "I had someone more important on my mind."

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I didn't hear anything because I was lost in your kisses. You distracted me." The knocking turned to pounding and Ranger's expression turned grim.

"Somebody better be dead!" Grazing Steph's lips once more softly with his own, he jumped up off the bed and disappeared into the living room. Steph adjusted her clothes and then headed into the bathroom to look at the damage to her hair. She decided she didn't give a rat's ass what her hair looked like. The guys knew what she and Ranger would've been doing up here alone. Why should she hide anything?

Heading back out in search of Ranger, she found Tank, Eddie Gazarra, and June Quinton. They stared at her when she entered the room and all conversation ground to a halt.

"What's going on?" She asked hesitantly, looking at each of them before focusing her eyes on Ranger's soft brown ones. "You all look like you've seen a ghost."

"Babe, come sit down." Ranger gently picked up her hand and pulled her toward the couch. "There's something you need to know."

"What is it, Ranger? You're scaring me." She admitted fearfully.

"Steph, June and I have been searching for Morelli since the warrant was issued for his arrest. We know that RangeMan was contracted to arrest him, but we wanted to help out with the search." Eddie ran his fingers through his hair and sighed loudly. "We checked out some of the local hotels, hoping to get lucky and catch a break. If we found he'd checked in somewhere, we figured we'd sit tight, call RangeMan, and then wait for the apprehension to take place."

"Eddie, what happened?" Steph urged.

"We found him at the Howard Johnson off Route 1." June finished. "He'd checked in around noon. The clerk seems to think there was a woman with him, but no one walked in with him, unless he snuck her in another entrance."

"Okay. So, is RangeMan going to get him? Did they already get him? Why are you here now?" Steph fired off the questions.

"Babe, there's no easy way to say this." Ranger paused.

"Just spit it out already! Christ!" Steph ordered.

"Morelli's dead." Ranger told her quietly. "They don't know if he was murdered or if it was an accidental overdose."

Steph blinked, processing the words. "He's dead? You're sure?" She directed her questions to Eddie.

"Yes, Steph. I saw him myself. He'd been dead for at least a couple of hours. He was covered in his own vomit, so we're guessing he choked to death on his own puke. We'll know more when the autopsy is performed, but we found some empty beer cans and a bottle of Maalox by the bed. The Maalox is being tested for drugs."

"My guess is you'll find Ketamine in the Maalox." Steph commented and then started giggling.

"Babe?" Ranger raised an eyebrow in question to her fit of giggles.

"JoMo died at the HoJo!" She laughed gleefully, gripping her stomach and bending over at the waist.

June started laughing along with her, and soon they both had tears streaming down their face.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry. That just tickled me, like a headline popping into my head. Can you imagine the newspaper's front page with that headline?" She took deep breaths to get herself back under control.

"It's pretty hilarious." June added.

"Steph…." Eddie scolded her. "I never wanted Joe dead!" He scowled. "He was a good cop before he got mixed up in the drugs. Now he's lost his life! What's funny about that?"

"What's funny about that? What's funny?" Steph hissed. "Did you know that he tried to kill me, Eddie? Do you know that I remember it now?" Eddie's eyebrows shot up in surprise as Steph stalked toward him. "That's right! Joe Morelli hit me, restrained me, tied my hands together with his neck tie, and then humiliated me by putting on a latex glove and ramming his fingers in and out of me. He tried to rape me, but his dick fell limp as soon as he covered it with a condom. Then he threatened to fuck me with long-handled kitchen utensils…" When he heard her description of what happened, Ranger's fists clenched into white balls of fury.

"Steph…look…I'm sorry…." Eddie stammered as Steph was nose to nose with him, pointing her finger in his chest angrily with every word.

"That's right, Eddie! Kitchen. Utensils. So, I tried to kick him off of me and he started beating my head against the floor. He wanted to kill me so that I couldn't be with anyone else but him. Do you understand that I'm glad he's dead? Do you get that? I'm just sorry that I couldn't kill him myself!" She placed both palms on Eddie's chest and pushed him as hard as she could, anger overtaking her. Eddie recovered quickly and wrapped his arms around Steph, causing her to struggle against him.

"I'm sorry, Steph. I didn't know. I wanted to believe that the old Joe was still in there somewhere…that he could be rehabilitated somehow. I wanted him to pay for what he did to you, but not with his life. I didn't know how far gone he was. I'm sorry." He told her, tightening his arms around her. Her anger turned to sobs and her legs buckled under her. Eddie tried to hold her up, but she was dead weight. Ranger rushed to her side and lifted her effortlessly, carrying her to the bedroom and laying her on the bed.

"How could I not know? How could I not see? I trusted him. I believed he was a good cop. He hurt so many people." She cried. Ranger wrapped himself around her and held her tightly letting her get out everything she was feeling. "He's dead and all I can think about is why he didn't suffer more! It was too easy! He just choked and died! That's it? No pain and suffering like what he put all of those women through? No jail time for him to get a taste of his own medicine? Where's the justice in that? Why?"

She cried for all of those women and for all of the pain that Joe Morelli caused. She cried for Ranger and the 12 days he had to spend behind bars just because of his love for her. She cried for the worry and the guilt that Ranger felt for not protecting her the day of the attack. She cried for the time they lost with each other and for the memories she almost didn't get back. Then she became aware that a muscular, warm body was wrapped tightly around her, and she realized she was wasting precious time allowing Joe Morelli to occupy any more of her thoughts.

She reached over to the bedside table and grabbed some tissues. Wiping her tears and blowing her nose, she calmed herself down. Rolling over, she looked up into Ranger's concerned, brown eyes and whispered, "I won't shed anymore tears over Joe Morelli or what he's cost us. We're together now and I don't want to waste another minute of it. I love you so much."

Ranger tucked her hair behind her ear and kissed her gently. "I love you more than I've ever loved anyone." He gazed into her eyes, now red-rimmed and puffy, and smiled. "Let me get rid of our guests. Nothing is more important than us right now."

"I agree." Steph smiled back. Ranger jumped off the bed and was out the bedroom door.

Steph could hear the murmur of his sexy voice as he spoke to the others in the living room. She heard them all walk toward the front door and then heard the door shut behind them. Seconds later, Ranger reappeared in front of her.

"They're gone, Babe. We're alone." He crawled up on the bed and hovered over her. "I'm going to make you forget for a while. Okay?" She nodded her head and reached for him. Their lips met, and the world around them faded away.