Chapter 14

Mistakes are mine, characters are not. Ratings for language and adult content.

SPOV

The next morning after a long run in the gym, I stopped by the Control Room to see if there was a team rounding up skips today that I could join. Ram told me that Manny hadn't been feeling well and I could take his place with Woody today. We had a handful of non-violent offenders on the books that we needed to bring in. I texted Woody on my way back to the Penthouse to let him know I'd be ready anytime after 8. He texted back a thumbs up immediately. I let myself into the apartment and dropped my sweaty clothes in the hamper and made my way into the incredible shower. I lathered up with Bulgari Green Tea Shower Gel and let my mind wander.

Two weeks had passed since the meeting with Jeanne Ellen and Les and I was getting more nervous by the day. How in the world am I supposed to play the part of the wife of the woman I once suspected was sleeping with Ranger? I know Ranger said they were never involved, but there's different levels of involved. I guess I could always ask him. But that would require me admitting to more insecurities, which I definitely didn't want to do. Suck it up, Plum. You agreed to this.

"Deep thoughts, Babe?" Ranger asked.

I screamed and threw loofah in the direction of his voice. I hadn't heard him enter, but damned if he wasn't standing in front of me gloriously naked. Good thing I already shaved!

"Jesus, make some noise next time, will you?" I said. I leaned back to rinse the conditioner out of my hair. Ranger closed the distance between us and pressed against me, kissing me while he enjoyed the hot water.

"Good morning," he said. "Busy day today?" He grabbed the bottle of Bulgari and squirted some onto a washcloth. He lathered up.

"I'm heading out with Woody to pick up some skips before the Op Meeting this afternoon." I said, trying not to drool.

"How are you feeling about the Op?" Ranger asked. We showered together most mornings now, and had a good rhythm down – except for when it got interrupted by him taking me against the shower wall. But I could tell he was on a schedule this morning. He moved his head under the spray and began to wet his hair. It was getting longer now, almost long enough to pull back into a ponytail again, and it made him even more sexy.

"I'm anxious to talk more specifics with Jeanne Ellen and the team you put together. I'm nervous," I admitted, moving out of the shower and twisting my hair up in a towel perched on the top of my head. I grabbed a 2nd towel to wrap around my body.

"Paranoia or spidey sense?" he asked, as he finished rinsing his hair and turned off the water.

"I'm not sure," I hedged. He started toweling himself off.

"You've done more distractions than I can count, with people much more violent than this crowd, especially at a wedding. And you've been undercover before. You've never been nervous."

I nodded as I combed my hair. "Yes, but when I was undercover as part of a couple, you were the other part of the couple. Not exactly hard to pretend."

"You want my opinion?" he asked, pulling on cargo pants and tucking his tee shirt into them.

"Please," I said, laying out my own clothes for the day.

"You'll need to work on your personal comfort level. We did well undercover together because there was always attraction and familiarity between us. You and Jeanne have to figure out how that translates to the two of you."

I slowly shook my head, as if trying to clear the cobwebs. I was so out of my depth. Ranger dropped a kiss on the dop of my head and checked his guns before tucking one into the holster on his hip and another in the waistband of his cargoes.

"Gotta go, Babe, have a meeting. See you later." And he was gone.

I finished dressing and enjoyed a quick cup of coffee before heading down to the Control Room to find Woody. We took the stairs to the garage and loaded into one of the fleet SUVs and began our morning. We hit upper Stark Street and parked across from a known dealer's corner. Our guy was a regular customer, and this seemed to be one of the best bets to find him.

Woody put the car in park. "And now we wait," he said, scanning the crowd of stoners and gangbangers hanging out by the bus stop and brick wall.

I sat there for a few minutes, lost in thought. When I glanced over at him, he had his eyebrows raised. He held out his hand in a 'go-ahead' gesture.

I blew out a sigh. "How do you project familiarity with a person that you don't know well, and maybe don't like a whole lot?"

"Darlin'. How do you so easily act familiar with the skips you lead out of the bars, practically on a leash?" he said.

I stayed silent.

"Bomber, you've always had an easy way with people. You've never been stiff with any of the guys at Rangeman. Why…"

He couldn't finish his thought, because our man was walking down the sidewalk, swaggering in his new Jordans, jeans riding low and exposing the majority of his ass.

"Let's roll," Woody said. "You approach from the front, and I'll come up from behind. You talk."

We hopped out of the car and approached our guy.

"What's up, Bitch?" said one of the gangbangers lounging on the bus stop bench.

I didn't spare him a glance but tossed a Jersey-girl hand gesture over my shoulder at him.

"Johnny Alaimo?" I said, briskly approaching our guy. The dealer looked nervous. I smiled. "I'm not here to upset any of your transactions," I said quickly. "I just need a word with Mr. Alaimo."

Johnny wasn't too bright, but he wasn't completely dumb. "What about?" he said, slowly backing up. He bumped into Woody and spun around. Before he could even take a breath, Woody clapped the bracelet on his wrist.

"You missed your court date, Mr. Alaimo, and we've been contracted by your bailbondsman to bring you back to the courts to reschedule. Won't take long," I said. Just long enough to rebook you and get you to post another bail.

Woody escorted our man to the car and attached an ankle shackle to a hook on the floor of the backseat. "Have a great day," I said to the dealer. Woody closed the door and was walking around the car toward the driver's seat when a flurry of activity just behind the dealer caught our attention. A series of quick gunshots rang out and I dived behind the door and drew my gun. I surveyed the scene, but nobody seemed to be firing AT us; it looked like a gang war was breaking out. I couldn't see Woody, so I called to him.

"I'm hit," he said. "But stay there, I can drag myself around." I crawled into the SUV and climbed across the console. Woody hoisted himself into the passenger seat. "It's a through and through in my lower leg, but I'm gonna have to get seen pretty soon," he said on a grunt. He quickly pulled off his belt and made a makeshift tourniquet below his knee.

I put the car in gear and a little blonde girl pounded both her hands on the hood. She stared death rays at me and started screaming.

"Stop the car you cunt!"

I blew out a sigh and put the car back into Park as Johnny started shouting from the backseat.

"Marcie, baby, I'm not with this Bitch, I just gotta take care of some paperwork I'll be back soon."

I looked at Woody and even while he was holding compression to the gunshot wound, he cut his eyes to me and nodded his head.

I hopped out of the car, unhooking cuffs from the back of my utility belt.

"Marcie Anderson? Is that really you?" I said, like a long-lost friend.

"Yes! And I want to know what you're doing with my boyfriend, Skank!"

"I'm just helping him work out a paperwork problem, but no worries," I said, quickly closing the distance between us. Marcie wasn't super quick on the uptake. "Actually, you can come too," I said, clapping the bracelet around her wrist. "You missed your court date too, and we'll need to take you downtown to reschedule." I said, guiding her to the backseat beside Johnny. I couldn't believe our luck, bagging 2 FTAs in an afternoon because she happened to be the flavor of the week. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I shackled her to the floor too and did a quick drive thru at St. Francis to drop off Woody at the ambulance bay. I called the Control Room to give an update and was told Junior would meet me at the station to haul in our two skips. We collected our body receipts without incident, and I drove back to Haywood lost in thought. I made a quick detour through the breakroom to grab lunch and ate at my desk, catching up on a couple searches that needed my attention since Rodriguez was on vacation.

I lost track of time and looked up when my phone beeped with a meeting reminder. I stood and stretched at the desk. With more trepidation than I wanted to admit, I made my way to the 5th floor conference room for the Team Meeting for the upcoming Wedding Weekend Op. Stephanie, Stephanie, Stephanie! You can't just agree to everything someone asks because they're complimentary. But I also knew deep down I really wanted to prove to myself, and maybe Ranger and the Merry Men, that I could hold my own and contribute to something just as well as someone as seasoned as Jeanne Ellen. Ranger had told me they hadn't been involved, which I interpreted to mean they hadn't slept together.

I entered the conference room and found Bobby, Ranger, Cal, Hector already there. I took a seat just as Jeanne Ellen entered. She laid her hand on my shoulder as she dropped into the seat beside me. I tried not to move away from her hand and wondered briefly if Ranger had told her about our conversation this morning. I looked up and saw Ranger give a small, almost imperceivable shake of his head. Damn ESP.

Ranger was at the head of the table, so he began. I asked Bobby to put together a team, and he felt the best resources were himself, Cal, Hector and me." Ranger said. "Jeanne Ellen, this is your Op, so we're all here to make it run as smoothly as possible so it will be nothing short of successful." He sat. "The floor is yours," he said.

"Well, I wasn't expecting you to be here, Ranger. Isn't this beneath your paygrade?" she asked.

"Certainly you're not so dense that you are unaware that Stephanie and I are together. Anything that involves her, involves me."

"I wrote that off as rumor mill," she said honestly. "No offense intended. I'm happy to have you on the team, Ranger. Obviously, your experience is in our favor. Are you going to be OK with this?" She was all professionalism now.

"Yes." Ranger said. He spoke with sun finality that no one dared question him.

"Alrighty then," I said, ready to move on. "Enough about our personal lives. I assume you have a file that I can begin to study for some of the background details I should already know about your cover?"

Jeanne Ellen passed around files to each of the team. "Yes. You can find an entire review of the op up until now and a complete dossier of my relationship with my wife. We've been married just over 2 years."

I read some of the details incredulously. Jeanne had even included descriptors she had given about me over her time on this op. "How long have you been building this character?" I asked as I skimmed the list and noted she'd included "chaotic, curly brown hair" and "sapphire blue eyes" on her list.

"A while," She said. "It was much easier to be accepted on the inside since I wasn't a sexual option for any of the men. That's why I decided I needed a wife in the first place."

"So you're not gay?" I asked. I tried to make it a statement, but my curiosity won out. Cal barked out a laugh.

"No." Jeanne Ellen said.

Hector decided to put me out of the spotlight and began explaining some of the tracking mechanisms he had in mind for this Op. I almost fell out of the chair when Bobby started talking about sub-cutaneous trackers.

"Is it removeable?" I asked. I wasn't sure how I felt about being trackable forever. At all times. Mental sigh.

"It can be." Hector said. That wasn't yes. Double sigh. Hector went on. "I've also completed full social media profiles on your alias and you can undergo a full background check." He said.

"What's your name?" I asked, turning to Jeanne Ellen.

"Jeannie. Jeannie Benedict," she said. It's always good to keep things familiar.

"Who am I?" I turned to Hector. Bobby smiled.

"Stephanie Lester?!" I said, somewhat shrilly. Ranger didn't look amused either.

Cal put his hands up. "Technically it was his turn to run surveillance on an undercover op. So, it was either using his name or including him on the Op. I didn't have the patience to listen to him on the comms while Bomber and Ms. Burrows are wife and wife," he explained practically.

"Good point," Ranger said. He was appeased.

"From where I'm sitting, I think everything we'll need surveillance wise is a breeze. We can book both rooms adjoining with the suite you ladies will be in the weekend of the wedding, so we can have easy access to you when you're there. Nothing is that out of the ordinary with cameras and trackers. The biggest hurdle we have facing us is whether or not Steph and Jeannie can convince people of their relationship."

"Fair," I said. "But how do we remedy that?"

Hector leaned forward. "Remember when you first met me? You were scared to talk to me without Ranger. Now you kiss my tears." He said. "You got comfortable spending time with me. You guys need to date." My mouth fell open with a pop.

You see, Stephanie. When you try to go impressing people and let your ego get stroked into doing something, you end up dating a woman.

Jeanne nodded her head. "I came to the same conclusion. I've put together a schedule; we can do some surveillance shifts together, of course, but any other outings will have to be closer to Newark. We don't want anybody in the 'Burg alerting the presses. Or Morelli." She said.

I nodded. "I appreciate that. And I agree. We have 3 weeks before the wedding, when do we start?"

"Tonight," she said.

"Sounds good," I said.

"Let's finalize the rest of the things we need so we can work on getting everything sourced before the wedding." Ranger said. "Then you ladies can hit the town." He smirked.

We finished the details and ended the meeting. It was nearly 5pm. Ranger buzzed Ella and had Cal take Jeanne up to the 6th floor so Ella could get measurements for some of the specialty clothing they'd insert trackers into. Ranger tugged me into his office and closed the door. As soon as the latch clicked he pressed me back into the door and captured my lips in a scorching kiss. His hands tugged the polo shirt from my cargoes and his fingers teased the skin above my waistband.

"You shouldn't come home tonight," he said, working his way down my neck. "You need to fast forward 18 months worth of familiarity. The best way to do that is to spend the night together."

"You want me to sleep with her?!" I hadn't counted on that.

He chuckled. "Babe."

"Seriously?!" I said.

"Sex, no. Sleeping in the same bed, yes. Your family wasn't big on physical touch. You didn't grow up with touch as a form of expression, and Morelli only touched you when he wanted to get some. You still flinch sometimes when I touch you." He said honestly. Damn, I hoped he hadn't noticed that.

"Babe," he said again. "It's not a big deal. We all have our own hang ups. But it is one of the first things people will pick up if they are looking for holes in the story."

I knew he was right. "It still feels weird to have my boyfriend tell me to spend the night with someone else," I said, teasing.

He kissed me again, this time running his hands up to my breasts. He traced his thumbs across my nipples and I moaned. "It's only my name you'll be screaming when you cum," he said in a husky voice. "Go upstairs and pack and I'll be up in ten to see you off." He smoothed my shirt down and tucked a curl behind my ear.

I hustled upstairs and packed an outfit for dinner, some comfy pj pants and one of Ranger's tee shirts to sleep in, and a uniform for tomorrow. True to his word, Ranger came upstairs to "see me off" and just a few minutes after he arrived, I was naked and screaming his name when he made me cum.

When we were finished, he walked me to the door in his boxers. "See you in the morning," he said, kissing me.

"This is so weird," I said.

"Babe."

"Come on! It's weird."

"It's definitely one of the more interesting Ops I've been involved with," he agreed, smiling.

The elevator dinged and Lester stepped out. "Nice boxers, Boss. Too bad you didn't have those when your pants ripped that time on Stark Street," he said.

"Fuck off, Santos," Ranger said casually.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm your escort, Beautiful. And the Night Watch," Lester said.

"Babe, you didn't think I'd leave you unprotected, did you? Lester will be on guard tonight and drive you home in the morning. If it gets too 'weird' for you, you can always tap out. But I do think some quality alone time is what you and Jeanne Ellen both need to get to know each other and to gel. We do this kind of submersion before ops in the army. It's useful, but new to you. Lester will bring you home anytime. We still have 3 weeks." Ranger said. He kissed me again and I got on the elevator with Lester, carrying my gym bag.

We rode to the parking garage in silence. I raised my eyebrow when Lester walked over to Ranger's Porche Cayenne.

"Have you ever tried to sleep in the Explorer? Makes my ass cramp if I'm in there too long. Boss man gave us permission to use the Cayenne. Probably since you're along he figures I won't do anything stupid." We climbed in and drove in silence. Jeanne Ellen lived in a trendy high rise, about 20 minutes outside of Trenton. I was trying to find a zone. The parking lot was gated. Lester entered the credentials I assumed Jeanne Ellen had given him and found a spot with a good view of the lobby door.

"I've never done this before," I said finally.

"Slept with a woman?" Lester said in a thick voice.

"Well, yes. I've never actually been to a sleepover before," I admitted. "Mom never would let me, she always figured Mary Lou and I got into enough trouble during the day that nothing good could come from us hanging out together all night. And after the bakery incident with Morelli, I wasn't allowed to do much of anything besides go to school and work."

Lester looked over at me, gauging. "She won't bite you, Beautiful. You'll have some wine, watch The Bachelor, talk about how hot I am, and paint each other's toenails. And, remember, I'm just a text away if you need someone to come help facilitate the conversation. Or if you need someone to run the video camera," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Fuck off, Lester. But thanks."

With that, I slammed the door and walked into the lobby for my very first sleepover.

Here goes nothing.