Chapter 12

I was 37 weeks pregnant when someone held a gun to my head. "Come with me Bitch." He ordered gruffly.

I casually tucked a curl behind my ear and pushed the panic button on my earing. I needed to delay. I gave the gang banger a long look. "No." I finally said. "I'm huge, I'm the size of a house. I'm full term, I could literally give birth at any time. Now is not a good time for a kidnap. Come back in a few weeks time. I am NOT having Ranger miss the birth."

The gang member blinked several times. Clearly, this response wasn't in the handbook.

"Puta, you're coming with me." He repeated aggressively.

"No, I'm really not." I assured him. "And you're making me mad. Do you know how long it took me to persuade Ranger that I was ok to go to the shops without an armed escort? Weeks. Weeks Cabron, and you've ruined it all. He is never going to let me out alone ever again."

The gang banger frowned at me. He reached into his rucksack and pulled out a pre-prepared Molotov cocktail. He lit the rag sticking out, smashed the window of my car and chucked it in. We both watched for a moment while it sizzled and then went out. He swore darkly and repeated the process.

That one caught. Phhhhooom. The car lit up rapidly and exploded. In a way, it was kind of nice. I hadn't had a car explosion in a while. It was cold and the heat off the explosion was warming me nicely.

"Now your car is gone you got no choice but to come with me." He said proudly.

I stared at him. "You're not the sharpest crayon in the box are you? I have lots of other options. Getting into your piece of shit car just because you exploded my car would be monumentally dumb. I do have bad impulse control, but generally I try not to be stupid."

He was looking at me, gold teeth flashing whilst he genuinely studied me in open mouthed confusion. I'd have to tell Ranger not to kill this one, it'd be like shooting a puppy.

The flames were pouring out of the car, and the sound of the sirens were rending the air. "We'd better step back." I grabbed him by his jacket and dragged him back a few feet.

"What does your mama think of you being in a gang?" I asked, "Because it's not what I'd want for my children." I said honestly. Ohh looks like my subconscious really likes the idea of children, plural.

Poor gold teeth just didn't know what to say. He looked towards the cop cars coming our way and the gun in his hand. Three black Ford Escapes were converging too. Before the gang banger could decide it was time to use the gun on me, I punched him as hard as I could in the head. He went down like a ton of bricks. I kicked the gun away from him and stood over him, poised to do a well-positioned kick to keep him down. It wasn't necessary. He was out.

Ranger reached me before the police car. Sugar was with him, they seemed to have made some headway recently. Apparently half a year is round about the total time Ranger can hold a grudge. After that he lets it go.

I gave Ranger a finger wave. "Howdy."

He grinned at me. "Good job tiger."

Ranger was good at letting go the shoulda, woulda, couldas. Same as me. If it hadn't happened, let it go.

"I'm pretty happy." I said, "I didn't want an explosion when the baby was brand new. This should keep us explosion free for a good while."

Ranger grinned. "We can hope."

"Sorry your car's dead." I said.

"It's just metal." Ranger shrugged, throwing an arm around me. Ranger gave Sugar a nod and Sugar grabbed gangbanger and stuffed him in the car.

Eddie pulled up. "I'm trying real hard not to see that." He huffed.

"I'll put him back alive." Ranger promised, "I just need some intel."

Eddie sighed, "and our excuse is….?"

"Steph laid him low and while we were all checking she was ok, he snuck off."

"Sneaky motherfucker." Eddie said.

Ranger nodded.

Eddie looked at me. "You're the size of a small house, go home, it's cold. I'll sort the paperwork for you."

I gave him a hug. "You're the best."

Eddie waved it away, "yeah yeah, you owe me babysitting."

I grinned, we both knew there was zero chance of that happening.

Ranger drove us home. Gold teeth was still out. Ranger turned off the camera in the garage so there was no evidence of him coming on site. He was taken to an interrogation room. Ranger took me to 7 and then headed on back down.

I fell asleep by the time he got back in. Something woke me in the night. "Weird noises." I murmured to Ranger.

"The boys are doing an exercise in the attic roof." Ranger explained pulling me back to him. I cuddled in and drifted back to sleep.

The next morning, Ranger explained he'd had to go and do some "discussing" with a new gang that had popped in the area. He was confident they now understood that they weren't to touch me, or the baby, ever again. But I was still back to having an escort, just in case.

I was officially on maternity leave. Ranger wanted me to have some time to relax to myself before the baby arrived. Funnily enough it was Sugar who had taken on client relationships whilst I was having my mat leave. He worked hard to come across personable and warm rather than scary. Him and Hector made a good team. Not better than me and Hector, but good enough.

I had a lazy day of mooching planned but at midday Ranger came home and told me we were going to see about getting my name changed by Deed Poll.

I was surprised because it hadn't really been mentioned again but I was happy to roll with it. He took us to the court house and then he took us into a private room whilst some of our guys stood guard.

"What's this room?" I asked curiously.

"It's one of the Judge's private chambers." He explained, "I know a guy. Listen Babe, no pressure, but I looked into it and it literally costs the same to get married as to change your name by deed poll. If we get married, we get various tax breaks. I'd like you to consider it."

I blinked. "For the tax breaks?"

He flashed me all 200 watts. "Because I want to be your husband, and I want you to be my wife. I know you didn't love marriage last time, so I thought the tax breaks thing might persuade you it had other benefits."

I laughed out loud. "Ranger… I've wanted to be your wife for months. You just needed to ask."

He was smiling, he dropped down on one knee. "Stephanie Plum, love of my life, mother of child, please will you marry me?"

I pulled him up to standing. "Yes!" I half laughed and half sobbed. Throwing myself into his arms. It took a while after that for me to calm down. When I had stopped crying he pushed me into the Judge's bathroom which had three cream dresses hanging up. I tried on all three, they fit over my bump perfectly. I picked the one that made me look least whale-like and shimmied it on. I slipped on small kitten heels and a veil and I was ready to become Mrs Manoso.

"How did you get the dresses to fit so well?" I asked as I stepped out.

He didn't answer me for a moments as his eyes swept over me. "You're beautiful." He whispered to me. He lowered his lips to mine and we had a slow burning kiss which swept over me.

"I love you." I whispered.

"Te Amo Babe." He pulled back and smiled. "I bribed your midwife to measure your bump for me."

I grinned at him. "You know they measure it at every appointment, right? You didn't need to bribe her at all. It's all in my book."

He stared at me for a moment, his lips tipping up. "She deserves it for being enterprising." He finally said, making me snort with laughter.

"Come on Ranger, let's go get married."

"Yeah Babe, lets."

We took hands and went to go and meet our Judge.

After we were married Ranger whisked me off to a honeymoon not too far away from our hospital. No exotic trip for us, as I was virtually in the next week or two. But we had a hotel, food on order, and a swimming pool. It was a perfect break away. When we returned a week later there were lots of grins from the Rangeman as we headed up to 7. On the Elevator a new button had been fitted. 8. What the heck?

Ranger pressed 8 and took us up.

"What?" I said eloquently.

Ranger grinned and didn't answer.

The lift doors opened and my mouth dropped. We walked into a beautiful apartment. This one had a huge lounge and a number of bathrooms and guest bedrooms. It also had a decent sized office for Ranger.

Grinning Ranger tugged my hand to the internal staircase and let me downstairs. Into our old apartment. The small kitchen diner had been transformed to a much bigger family size table and the previous adult lounge had been changed into a child's playroom. There were books and toys, and kids equipment. It looked amazing.

Ranger's old office had been transformed into a nursery, completely with matching wardrobe and changing table. It was done in cream and yellow and had cute animal decals on one wall. There was a huge cot ready for when the baby was older.

He tugged me into our bedroom where the next to me cot was now set up and there was a nursing rocking chair in one corner so I could nurse in that room comfortably. I burst into sobbing messy tears.

"I love it." I managed eventually.

Ranger looked like the cat who had got the cream. "I figured. One day, we'll get a big house, but for now, me feeling like we're all safe is the most important thing, and this place is nearly as secure as the pentagon. We can be happy here." I nodded soundlessly, still lost for words at all he had done.

The square footage of the two-floor apartment was amazing, two penthouse flats combined. I could be happy here forever. The building was always warm, there was always company and most importantly, it had Ella and Luis on floor 6.

"It's perfect." I kissed Ranger. "Thank you."

He hugged me. "I'm glad you love it. The boys have been working all hours to put it all together, sneaking tradesmen in while you were sleeping. The final touches were put in during the honeymoon."

"Let's have a house warming tonight! Beer and pizza! We can invite all the guys."

He smiled. "Sounds good."

AN I'm taking artistic license here, I know Haywood only has 7 floors, but I wanted 8 so I made an attic/roof. Why not? Hope you all enjoyed it!