Happy new year everyone! Fingers and toes crossed for a wonderful 2021 for you all.

Chapter 10

I woke up the morning after my kidnapping stiff, sore and happy. There was a heater at my back. I rolled to greet him. "Yo."

He gave me a warm smile which was breath taking. "Yo yourself." He replied, giving me a thorough kiss that didn't care one jot about morning breath.

I gave him another warm smile and a bit of a wiggle which might have led to something interesting except I caught sight of the clock.

"Holy smokes Batman! We're late! It's nearly 11am!" I whipped the sheets off and started to run to the shower.

"Babe." Ranger said, his voice a hair from laughter. "The boss has given us the day off." He pulled me back to bed.

I thought about it.

"Just this once." I said firmly.

He gave me the wolf smile. "Sure."

Much later, after another 3 orgasms and a shower, I was definitely walking funny, not just because I was on cloud 9 and but also because Ranger had me being a contortionist. Worth it.

We grabbed a warm brunch that Ella had discretely delivered while we were showing together. Ranger handed me a replacement phone, already programmed with my number. We were just discussing our plans for the day when it occurred to me that we had told literally all of Rangeman Trenton that we were expecting.

"Uh oh." I said aloud. "First port of call is going to have to be my mom's. She's already going to have kittens but I don't want her to find out from someone else." Ranger nodded and kissed my hand. He ducked back into his wardrobe and ditched the combats in favour of his Abercrombie and Fitch look. He was causal, rich and sexy, and man did he know it.

I licked my lips unconsciously.

He smirked. "You do that again and we're staying in."

I bit my lip and seriously weighed it up. Ranger laughed out loud, grabbed my hand and his Porsche keys.

We got in the lift and Ranger held two fingers up to the camera.

When we got down the garage there were four guys getting locked and loaded into 2 Ford Explorers. Ranger waited until they were ready and then the first Ford, Tank and Cal, preceded us all the way to Mom's house.

"Overkill?" I enquired as we headed out.

Ranger shook his head. "We don't know the threat is neutralised yet."

"Have you warned Colonel Winters?"

Ranger nodded.

"Did you get much information out of Jon?"

"Jon?" he asked.

"Face scar chewing gum dude."

Rangers lips twitched again. "Nothing we didn't already know. We're digging now. We're on it and so are the Colonel's people."

I nodded and let him sink back into the zone.

One of the Ford's parked opposite, the other parked behind. Well, it was a circus but my family were used to it.

My mom and Grandma were there, brought to the door by some early warning Hungarian system that I seemed to have missed.

"Is dad in?" I asked as we approached.

Mom nodded, she sighed at the black cars and the black eye. "Another Psycho?" her lips were pressed together in worry and dismay.

"Just a precaution." Ranger assured.

My mom raised an eyebrow at Ranger. "And this?" She said, gesturing to my black eye, "is this a precaution too?"

"No Ma'am." Ranger said calmly. "The one who did that is dead."

My mom blinked rapidly several times. "Well then, you'd better come in." She couldn't really throw rocks, she had committed what she preferred to call bunnycide when she had run over a man in a bunny suit. He'd been chasing me at the time, intending me bodily harm. I guess her moral code wasn't so far from Rangers after all.

"Frank!" She hollered, "Stephanie and Ranger are here."

"Who?" My dad called back. I rolled my eyes. He knew damn well who Ranger was, it was a power play.

Grandma Mazur answered cheekily, hollering back, "The big black man Stephanie's been doing the nasty with, the one she's living in sin with, the one that's making her walk funny - that one!"

There was a muttered, "Jesus Christ," from the Garage.

I was struggling not to laugh. I loved Grandma Mazur. "He's Cuban." I said, like it was a normal non sequitur to utter.

"Coffee?" my mom offered, trying to get societal manners shoehorned back in.

"Decaff if you've any." I replied, without even thinking.

My mom sucked in her breath sharply and looked at me. Uh oh. I had never in my life had decaff anything. My mom knew the pregnancy things to avoid as much as I did, runny eggs, Pate, Shellfish, Shark, Caffeine…

"um…" I said, looking helplessly at Ranger.

"Hot damn! She's knocked up!" Grandma Mazur crowed. She gave me the biggest hug, "Congratulations Stephanie."

My mom all but shoved Grandma out of the way and gave me a hug. "I thought you might never have this day." She said softly into my ear, her voice was full of emotion. "and being a Mom…It's the best honey. You've been a bounty hunter and a deli manager and an ice cream technician…but I promise, nothing is better than this."

The damn pregnancy hormones got to me and the tears welled up. "Thanks mom."

My dad walked in, wiping grease off his hands. "What did I miss?"

"She's pregnant!" Mom cried giving him a hug.

Dad's eyes narrowed on my hands. "No ring." He said quietly. The flurry of the room stilled.

"Frank!" Mom said, hitting him lightly in the shoulder with a tea towel, "this isn't the time."

"I'm not getting married because of some social convention. I've done it before, I regretted it. The only one getting me up the aisle now, is me." I said firmly.

Dad turned his gaze to Ranger, "And you're happy with this?"

Ranger gave a slight lift of his shoulder that could be interpreted as a shrug. "I'm good with anything that makes Stephanie happy."

My dad opened his mouth and then closed it again.

"You've missed lunch," Said my mom, "but I can fix some sandwiches or some cake."

I smiled, "Cake and decaff coffee would be amazing."

She gave me a smile and bustled off. She was happy for me, honest to goodness happy for me. Who would have thought it?