Chapter Two

Ranger

Steph nearly gave herself whiplash spinning around to stare at me in surprise. I worried that she was so tuned out to her surroundings that she hadn't noticed us approach. I slid the vehicle into park and looked at Vince in the passenger seat. "Ask if they want to try a jump."

Vince hopped out of the SUV while I kept it running. I was hoping that Babe would decide to just take a ride. I wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting out here in the negative temperatures. Every instinct I had was screaming at me to yank her out of that POS car and get her warmed up. Then maybe take her home and warm her up some more.

Thankfully I'd mastered my instincts a long time ago, and knew how to maintain the upper hand. First there was the fact that Stephanie was liable to throw a fit if I tried to separate her from the car against her will. Second was the fact that it wasn't fair to her for me to get her all warmed up and then leave her back out in the cold. But that was all I knew how to do. Because without exception, that was where my instincts failed me. Neither they nor I had any idea what to do in those hazy moments that came after the warm-up.

So for the time being, I held myself under control. Vince had rapped on Steph's window and they exchanged a few words. Steph's eyes snapped back to me, and after lingering for a moment, she turned to Vince and shook her head. Then she and Lula gathered up their bags and exited the car, and I released my breath.

Vince held the passenger door open for Steph, who thanked him while she climbed into the seat beside me. Vince and Lula packed into the backseat. I contemplated Steph for a moment, taking in her red nose and cheeks - she wasn't wearing a hat - and her resigned expression. I wanted to ask what she was doing here, whether she was okay, and whether she needed anything before she'd feel comfortable leaving. But she didn't look in the mood to accept any more help than she already had, so instead I said, "Babe."

"Thanks for the ride," she said. She averted her gaze while she said it; I'd been right.

I pulled us out of the parking lot and swung onto the feeder street that would bring us back to the highway. I assumed that we'd drop Lula off at the bonds office. Then I planned on dropping Vince back at Rangeman before taking Steph home.

"What are you ladies doing out here this afternoon?" Vince asked.

The man could not let three minutes go by in silence. Our patrol styles did not mesh, and I wasn't upset at cutting this ride-along short.

Lula answered him. "We were on the job. Our FTA lives in one of them nice condos."

"Was he not home?" Vince asked.

"We decided not to haul him in today," Lula said.

I glanced over and caught Steph's eye. "Decided?"

"That's right." The stubborn tilt of her chin indicated she had nothing more to say on the matter.

Vince made no effort to conceal his amusement. "What factors went into that decision?"

"It was on account of the end of the world," Lula said.

"Ah." Vince nodded sagely. "At least it was for a good reason."

Steph released a small sigh from beside me, and I glanced over again to see her gazing out the passenger window.

"It was out of the kindness of our hearts," Lula said. "He didn't want to spend his last night in jail. Me, I might have brought him in anyway, but Stephanie has got a generosity of spirit that you just don't see every day."

"True," I confirmed. Steph looked my way that time, but quickly aborted when she caught my gaze. I cut my eyes to Vince in the rear view mirror, who was chuckling under his breath. I raised an eyebrow in warning and he quickly sobered. Then I turned my attention back to the road. "Tell me about the end of the world. Anything we should be concerned about?"

"Doubtful," Steph said. "Turns out, our guy has gotten his calculations wrong a time or two."

"Couldn't hurt to see to your affair, though," Lula said. "You know - just in case."

"Never hurts to plan for the worst," Vince agreed. "So where to now? What are you ladies doing on the last day before the end of the world?"

"I'm gonna pick up my car at the bonds office and go meet my honey back at home," Lula said. I did my best to tune out anything she said after that, not needing to hear about her plans with her 'honey', who also happened to be my best friend. He thought he was being covert about their rekindled relationship. He was mistaken.

"What about you?" I asked Steph.

"Can you drop me back at the office, too?"

"Sure," I said, ignoring the disappointment ballooning in my gut. "Do you want to borrow a car?"

"That's okay. I'm just going to do some research for the rest of the afternoon. On my open files. FTAs, you know." She was rushing her words, her neck was pink, and she was toying with the earring in her ear. Stephanie Plum was many things, but a convincing liar was not one of them. The question was, why was she lying about research?

"How about you?" Lula asked me. "What does Batman do on the last day of the world?"

"Try to save it, I'd guess," I replied. "But I can only speak for myself, not for him."

Lula huffed and turned her attention to Vince. "What about you, Ken?"

"Vince." He pointed to his own chest.

"I know that, but you look like a Ken doll."

"Uh… thanks?" he ventured.

Steph was smiling again, so I was thankful to Lula for that at least. And for the fact that I intimidated her enough that she didn't follow up on her line of questioning about my plans.

"What are you gonna do with your last day?" Lula repeated.

"I thought we were all in agreement that the world isn't really ending," Vince said.

"That might be true," Lula agreed. "But you never know, right? I mean, let's say the world goes on, but you get hit by a bus. What then? That's why I got my life philosophy that says 'there's no day but today'."

It wasn't surprising that Lula had a life philosophy, although I'd be a little surprised if it didn't vary a bit day to day depending on her needs at the moment.

"If I knew that today was my last day, then I guess I'd be spending it with my daughter, instead of riding around town and holding hands with clients who leave their Audis unlocked and then act surprised when they get broken into," Vince said. Then he shot me a rueful smile. "No offense, boss."

I couldn't blame him for that. Today was the second time we'd had to follow up with Mr. Gregerson about that damn Audi. Granted, if our clients all suddenly developed common sense and started locking their doors and setting their alarms properly, then we may no longer have jobs.

Steph twisted around in her seat to see Vince in the back. I recognized her spark of social curiosity. "How old is your daughter?"

Vince was wearing his proud dad smile and already reaching for his phone. "She just turned two. We had a Frozen themed birthday party, and she's still talking about her Sven cake."

Steph accepted the cell phone that Vince handed her and grinned down at the pictures. "She's adorable. That little smile would be worth seeing as many times as possible on the last day of the world."

By the time I pulled up behind Lula's Firebird at the bonds office, Vince had shown the girls no less than a hundred pictures and three videos of Kayla. I'd also somehow agreed to release Vince early from his shift so he could take Kayla to the zoo to see the elephants. The next time any of the alphabet agencies were hiring an interrogator, I'd be submitting Lula's name.

To be fair though, although it was Lula doing the browbeating, I'd given in for Steph. She had a forlorn look in her eyes that I had an urge to erase, and the idea of Vince taking Kayla to the zoo had seemed to make her happy. She had me wrapped around her pinky finger, and if anyone - including her - ever realized the extent of her power over me, I'd be a dead man.

"What about you?" I asked quietly.

"What about me?"

"It's the last day of the world. What are you doing?"

She'd either forgotten how to unbuckle a seatbelt, or she was using the task as an excuse to avoid eye contact. My bet was on the latter. She made a noncommittal noise and shrugged one shoulder. "Same old, same old. Lula suggested birthday cake as a special treat to balance out the suckiness of my car going kaput."

I mimicked her noncommittal hum and then waited. Steph hates silence. If I let it settle between us for long enough, she starts talking, and I pick up each little detail she discloses and hoard them all like the greedy bastard I am. But Lula didn't give me the chance.

"You comin'?" she asked, pushing the back door open. "It'll take my honey some time to get away, so I've got time to drop you at your place if you want."

"Yep. Thanks for the ride."

Steph and Lula had already hit the pavement, and I was out of time. I rolled down my window and called out to Steph. "See you later?"

She looked a little lost for a minute, then attempted a smile. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."

I nodded and rolled up my window. That answer wasn't doing a lot for me. Vince was making motions to get out of the backseat, but I shifted into drive and stepped on the gas before he had a chance to move back up to the front. A man should be allowed a little space to think in his own car.

When we rolled into the parking garage, I'd been mostly successful in shutting down the handful of conversation attempts. I'd ruminated over the latest nuggets of information that Stephanie had fed me, and I was in the mood to get back up to my office and sink into some mind-numbing paperwork. Unfortunately my team had other plans for me.

"Yo." Tank greeted me the moment I stepped off the elevator. "Could use your review of some footage."

I followed him to the monitors, nodding to the other men along the way. "What's up?"

"The Lang account had some action," Tank said. "Want to get your interpretation."

That sounded ominous. "What is there to interpret?"

"You'll see."

Woody and Manny were on monitors this afternoon, so their presence was no surprise. I was at a loss as to why Les and Hal were congregating around the consoles, let alone why Tank was involved. The Lang account was residential, and Tank primarily focused on government and commercial. The amusement written all over Lester's face was not a great sign, although it did allow me to relax a little with the assumption that nothing was seriously wrong.

I joined Les and Hal where they stood behind Manny's chair. At my nod, he started the playback with a click of his mouse. The footage was from one of the external cameras on the southeast side of the house. A man carrying a small duffel bag entered the frame, moving like he was on a mission. He went straight to the patio door off the living room. His hand came out of his pocket with a small tool that could have just as easily been either a key or a pick, but his body blocked the camera's view. He worked on the door for about twenty seconds and slipped inside.

"Did the alarm trigger?" I asked.

"No," Manny confirmed.

The Langs didn't have interior surveillance, so we didn't have eyes on what the intruder was doing inside, but Manny hit some keys and the footage switched to the camera at the front of the house in time to see Mr. Lang's SUV come up the driveway and pull into the house. The timestamp showed that 27 minutes had passed since the intruder first entered the home. The recording continued for another 38 seconds before there was movement in the upper left corner of the shot. A second floor window opened, and the man sloppily climbed out the window and flopped onto the sloped roof. He crab-walked to the edge, lowered himself off the roof while hanging on by his fingers, and then dropped to the ground. He laid there dazed for a few seconds before he lurched upward and jogged straight at the camera, continuing past it and out of sight.

And from the moment he'd toppled out of the window, he'd been clad only in boxers. His duffel bag was nowhere to be seen.

The timestamp indicated that this had all happened a little less than an hour ago. "Have the Langs made a call? Anything missing or damaged?"

"No call," Woody confirmed.

The Langs had been clients of Rangeman for years. I'd consulted on, designed, and sold their system. "Does the footage confirm whether anyone was home at the time of the break-in?"

"We can check," Manny offered, already tracing the footage backwards.

"I think you'll find that their 20-year-old daughter was home. If I remember correctly, that second floor window is her room."

"That's twenty bucks," Les murmured.

"For each of us," Hal added.

Woody rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

"Why couldn't you be the tie-breaker?" I asked Tank.

"Because I wanted in on the bet." Tank bumped the fist that Lester was holding out to him without breaking eye contact with me.

"Glad to see you've all been so productive this morning."

Lester had plopped into one of the chairs behind a vacant monitor station and kicked his feet up on the console. He laced his fingers behind his head and grinned up at me. "You, too. We noticed that you two got a little sidetracked on your patrol."

"Just responding to a call."

"How's Bomber doing?" Hal asked.

I looked at Manny and he answered my unspoken question. "She called in right as my shift was starting. Slick opened a lobby door for her at Pinnacle Place about half an hour before you and Vince showed up on scene."

"Everything okay?" Woody asked.

"Steph's fine," Vince confirmed. "She and Lula were there tracking down a skip, but they decided not to bring him in because apparently the world is ending tonight."

I hadn't planned on having a share and tell. I cut my eyes to Vince to communicate that intention, and he straightened his spine.

"That's a new one," Hal mused.

"Bummer about the end of the world," Les said. "Tonight, you said?"

Vince shrugged. "According to the FTA."

"Who is this guy?" Woody asked. "Any credibility?"

"Don't you think if the world was really ending tonight, we would've heard about it by now?" Manny asked.

I was still pondering Woody's question. Assuming the world didn't end - which I was going to keep on assuming - I wouldn't mind knowing who exactly Steph was after. Pinnacle Place wasn't like the typical magnets for FTAs. It was a nice place - high-dollar, high-security. Made me wonder where the guy got his money, and what he needed the security for.

"How can you still have so much faith in open and transparent communication to the masses, when you've worked for Uncle Sam as long as we have?" Woody asked.

"Maybe because I'm not a conspiracy nut, like some people I know?" Manny shot back.

The conversation devolved to good-natured bickering while I sank into an empty chair and keyed in my credentials to bring the computer online. Now that I'd had the thought, it wouldn't be letting me go. I resolved to quickly hack into Vinnie's database, find Steph's skip, and run a few searches to see what I could dig up.

"Are you saying you believe this shit?" Hal asked, leaning back against the wall.

"Not necessarily," Woody said. "But I don't reckon that just because we hadn't heard anything from the media means that it's not real."

"Let's say it is real," Les proposed. "What are we gonna do about it?"

"I'm taking off early," Vince proclaimed proudly. "Taking Kayla to the zoo. If today is the last day I have on earth, then I'm going to watch her face light up when we see the elephants."

I kept my focus on the search programs in front of me, studiously ignoring the men around me. Or trying, anyway.

"Smart man," Woody acknowledged. "Couldn't hurt to do what needs doing today. Just in case."

"What about you?" Vince asked. "What would you do if this were your last day?"

Blessed silence descended for a few moments while the men apparently contemplated their answers. I'd procured the name of Steph's FTA easily enough, but the search programs were taking a little longer than usual to narrow down results. Apparently his name was turning up higher than average results.

"I'd take Ginger for a good, long ride," Woody decided.

Lester smirked knowingly. "Nice."

"I didn't know you were seeing anyone," Hal said.

"I'm not," Woody replied.

"Oh. Oh." Hal flushed and nodded like a bobblehead. "Got it."

"I doubt it," Tank said.

Woody watched the exchange with dawning apprehension and then narrowed his eyes at Hal. "Ginger is a gorgeous roan mare."

"I'm not judging," Hal insisted, holding his hands up.

"A horse," Woody clarified. "She's my horse. Out on the family ranch."

"Oh," Hal said again, dragging out the vowel.

"Hell, I'd find a gorgeous ginger to ride, too," Lester said. "Only my ginger would be the kind that frequents STORY in Miami, not Blacktail Flats in Kalispell."

"Really?" Manny asked. "A random redhead? That's how you'd spend your final day?"

"Yep," Les confirmed. Then he sat up a little and arched an eyebrow. "Actually, if it's truly my last day, then I lied. It would be a ginger and a blonde."

Once my searches returned the details of the right Duncan Hines, it only took thirty seconds for me to dismiss him as a threat. Steph would handle him just fine. My efforts to tune out hadn't been entirely working. With my worry over Steph's FTA laid to rest, I had no distraction left.

"You sure you want to waste your precious time on your last day on earth getting turned down?" Manny ribbed.

"Ha ha," Les intoned. "What's your plan then, smart alec?"

"Easy," Manny said. "A dinner of mi abuela's famous posole, and then tia Juana's pan tres leches. My wife beside me, with Franny and Alex playing with their cousins. Surrounded by family; that's how I want to go."

We all absorbed that for a minute. Lester grumbled something that sounded a little like "Yeah, okay." Though he talked a big talk about the club, I suspected that Les's last day would actually look an awful lot like Manny's. I didn't doubt that he'd up at STORY - just not until afterward.

Would I be there with him? Surrounded by siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins? Les and I had both been absent for our fair share of family gatherings over the years, held up by this or that - meetings, missions, or miscellany. Lately Les had been better than I had about making the time, and he'd been all-too-happy to pass along a few smacks upside my head on behalf of my mother who didn't appreciate my absence.

"What about you?" Manny asked Tank.

I spun my chair back around to face the men again and crossed my arms, waiting for Tank's answer. Hal was leaning forward, practically salivating. He wasn't the only one who had money on how long Tank would keep Lula a secret.

"You're invited to Miami," Les offered. Since he was giving Tank an easy out, I'd guess that his money was on a future date.

"No one in their right mind wants to stand in line with sweaty dudes for $20 drinks during their last night on earth," Hal argued. "Tank is smarter than that. He knows that time would be better spent with the right woman."

Les snorted. "Or the right hand in your case, huh?"

"Oh, fuck you."

"He's already taken, remember?" Vince said.

"Seriously, though?" Manny asked Hal. "What would you do?"

Hal sobered and stuffed his hands into his front pockets. "I guess, if this were really the last day of the world, then I'd have to suck it up and finally ask out that cute girl at Sloan's."

Woody straightened in his chair. "The extra-peppers-no-charge girl?"

"Sloan's Deli? Are you talking about the short girl, dark hair, dark eyes, works the lunch shift?" Vince asked.

Hal nodded. "Casey. That's her name."

"Good choice," Lester confirmed, and held out his fist for Hal to bump. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Hal acknowledged. "So, yeah, that's me. Tank's still not off the hook, though."

"Yeah, T, what'll it be? Party city with Santos, or candle-lit dinner for two?" Vince asked.

"I've never been a fan of the clubs," Tank answered.

"A-ha!" Hal brandished his finger at Tank. "So there is someone special!"

"There's three someone specials," Tank said. "I'd take some well-earned R&R with Snowball, Summer, and Siamean."

The men groaned in unison, and one of the muttered something about fucking cat people. I kept my eyes on Tank's and shook my head. The corner of his mouth lifted. He knew that I was calling bullshit, and he wasn't going to contest it.

"Whatever tickles your pickle," Les concluded. He lurched to his feet and slapped Hal on the shoulder. "Come on, lunch is on me. I'm taking you to Sloan's."

Hal was slightly panicked and his gaze bounced around the group before landing on me. "Hold up. We haven't heard about Ranger's last day."

"True," Tank acknowledged. His damned smirk grew a little bigger.

I held Hal's gaze and it was about that time that he started to rethink pushing me. He paled a little and stammered. "Uh. I mean, yeah - lunch. You guys coming?"

Lester rolled his eyes and leaned over into my line of vision, blocking my view of Hal. "Knock it off with the stare-down crap. Halosaurus is right - everyone else has said their piece. What'll it be, primo? Today's the last day on earth. What are your plans?"

The truth was, I was wondering the same thing. In an ideal world, I'd spend my last day with family. But it had been a long, long time since I'd lived in an ideal world. I'd been in the same picture that Manny presented, in the middle of a raucous family dinner. I sure had enough family - parents, siblings, in-laws, cousins. Hell, I had family to spare. But I knew how that went for me. Sitting in the middle of the conversations happening all around, but still somehow apart from it all. Separate. Missing a conduit.

Manny was sitting closest to me, and he tried to divert attention after he picked up the undertones of my silence. "What do you care, Santos? I thought you were spoken for."

Lester shrugged. "Turnabout's fair play."

"If today were my last day on this earth, then I'd be glad that I'd put in a solid day's work, rather than wagering on possible burglaries and sitting on my ass, chewing the shit." My attention was entirely on Les, which was why the other men felt safe to chuckle and jeer him even though they'd been accessories to the figurative crime.

"Now that's just sad." Lester shook his head at me in mock pity.

"I'd also be happy to go out on the day that I wiped the mats with you in five seconds flat," I added.

"Still sad for you, because that didn't happen."

"Yet."

The good-natured jeering intensified until Lester slapped his hands together. "Right. That's my cue. Come on, Hal. Woody, Manny, you coming?"

"What about me?" Vince asked, offended.

"Thought you were going to the zoo," Les reminded him. Then he pointed to Tank. "And you have a date with your feline friends."

"And does Ranger not get an invite just because he flaunted that he could kick your ass any time he puts his mind to it?" Manny asked.

Les contemplated me for a minute, and then responded to Manny in a stage whisper. "I think he's got some critical thinking and reflection to do."

Well, shit. He wasn't wrong.

###

No telling how many times I'd ended up in front of this same door after periods of self-reflection. Some of those times I'd even made it all the way inside. Tonight was going to be one of those times - in case it was the last.

I was still debating whether to knock or let myself in when the door was thrown open. Steph was clearly on a mission, and we would have collided if I hadn't caught her by her shoulders. She stumbled back half a step and blinked up at me in surprise.

"I was just going to see you," she said.

That admission did a lot to ease the tightness in my chest and the inexplicable nerves that had kicked in on the drive over. Another unfortunate side effect was that anything eloquent I'd been prepared to say went right out the window. She'd been coming to see me.

"Hines' prediction is bullshit," I said.

"I know," she agreed. She reached out to fist her hand in the front of my jacket.

"But just in case…"

She pulled me toward her, across the threshold, and I kicked the door closed behind me.