Sorry for the hiatus, had examinations and then was travelling around europe for five weeks!But I'm back now! – As always, please let me know what you think – Heather x

'Goodnight Babe.' He whispered, kissing me softly.

'Goodnight Ranger.' I whispered back.

Ranger slung his arm across my waist and spooned me from behind. With his warmth at my back, and the sound of his steady breathing filling my ears, I was soon lulled to sleep.

Chapter 14

I woke up with something poking into my back. I twisted round, and came face to face with Ranger and his desire darkened eyes.

'Morning.' He whispered huskily.

'Morning.' I replied. 'Did you sleep well?' I asked.

He moved his body into me, so I could feel his erection pushing into me.

'I had X-rated dreams.' He admitted.

'About me?'

Ranger smiled, 'yes Babe, about you.'

'Then it's ok. Maybe if you're really good, I'll re-enact your dreams one day for you. Would you like that?'

Ranger swallowed, 'Yes.' He breathed.

'Good.' I said, 'now go get me some coffee and a donut.'

Ranger burst out laughing.

See, that's the difference between men and women generally. Men wake up thinking about sex. Women wake up thinking about coffee.

Ranger eased out of the bed and disappeared. Ten minutes later he returned with some freshly brewed coffee and a fresh Boston cream.

I scarfed this down, and then raised an eyebrow in question. Ranger Esp'd, and answered my silent inquiry as to how he got the donut in his boxers. 'I sent Tank Babe.'

'Oh. Thanks.'

Ranger had a shower whilst I finished my coffee. Then I had a shower and got dressed for the day ahead.

Lester's riding bodyguard today, Ranger's working with his father and his cousin to find the supposed murderer. Tanks doing paperwork, much to his disgust – I think Ranger was giving him payback for the whole binocular/shower thing. Hector was updating the Rangeman security systems.

To tell the truth, I was pretty excited about having Lester on board, he may be a wiseass, but he's a funny wiseass.

Three hours later I was revising my opinion. There is nothing funny about wiseass's, especially when they're Lester.

He's spent the last three hours teasing me about my car destructions. I accidentally mentioned I was in the newspapers over one or two of them, and now he's decided to call me 'Bombshell'. He finds it funny.

I wonder if he'll find my foot up his ass funny?

I was just contemplating how best to insert my foot, when my cell rang, saving Lester from certain anal pain.

'What?' I snapped into the phone.

Ranger laughed, 'Bet you wish you had me as your bodyguard instead of Lester.'

'Ranger, at this point I'd prefer to have an Ariel doll that sings, 'I wanna be where the people are' than this clown! Where did you find him? In a dumpster? Or a bad talent contest?'

'Hey!' Said Lester, 'it wasn't that bad. I came second.'

I stared at Lester, trying to work out if he was serious.

'Huh.' I finally said.

I could feel Ranger smiling over the phone, 'Tell him to behave himself or I'll tell you the story about Sandra.'

'Lester, if you're not nice to me, Ranger will kick your sorry ass all the way to Timbuktu and then he will tell me all about Sandra.'

'Babe, I did not say I'd kick his ass all the way to Timbuktu.'

'I know, but you were thinking it, I was just saving you the trouble of having to verbalise the threat, that's all.'

'You're so considerate.' Ranger said dryly.

'Yup.' I agreed.

Lester was gaping at me, 'Timbuktu?' he said.

'At the very least.' I nodded, 'and if you really piss me off, Ranger will send you to the Antarctic with nothing but your boxers. And a Frisbee.'

'A Frisbee?' Lester asked, sounding dumfounded.

'I wouldn't want you to get bored. You could play with the polar bears. Maybe then they won't maul you to death.' I said hopefully.

'Babe.' Said Ranger, 'will you quit putting threats in my mouth?'

'Ok. You me to put my tongue there instead?'

I cannot believe I just said that – it just popped out!

Ranger burst out laughing again, 'sure.' He gasped, 'that's a deal.'

'Polar bears?' Lester was saying, looking worried. 'I don't like polar bears. Normal bears are brown and live in woods and stuff. Polar bears are like…the reject wood bears…'

It was my turn to laugh, 'reject wood bears?' I giggled.

'Reject…?' Ranger said, trailing off, 'I'm not even going to pretend to understand. This conversation is really confusing.'

That made me laugh even harder. 'Sorry.' I gasped. Eventually I regained my composure, 'so was there a reason you called?'

I felt the amusement drain out of Ranger, which is a pretty neat trick over the phone.

'Yeah.' He answered, sounding serious, 'can you come to Haywood?'

'I guess so, this stakeout's a bust anyway.'

I gestured to Lester and he cranked over the engine. I mouthed 'Haywood' to him, and he nodded, entering his zone.

'So why are we coming here?' I asked.

'Need to talk.' Ranger said.

'Uh huh. Informative.'

'Later Babe.'

Disconnect.

I really hate that, so I dialled back, 'Yo?' Ranger answered.

'Yo.' I said.

'Babe.'

'Later Ranger.'

And then I hung up.

He's right, it's much more fun this way.

We slid into our space in the underground lot and rode up to the conference room. Ranger and co. were there, looking at something on the table – looking sombre, worried.

It's not a good thing when tough-ass ex-special forces men look worried – except if you've just asked, 'does this dress make my ass look big?' In which case the worry is kinda fun.

But, seeing as how I doubt they're admiring a fashion mag, my stomach's feeling squishy.

'Ok.' I said, 'it's not good news; you haven't brought Disney land.'

Ranger smiled tightly at me, 'no, it wasn't available.'

'Damn,' I said, 'don't you hate that?'

Ranger's small smile faded, he sat down in his Big Boss chair and gestured for me to sit on his lap.

I acquiesced with his request, wanting to feel his arms around me; happy to pretend complying with his request was the only reason I was sitting on him.

Carlos started, 'The body of the girlfriend was badly mutilated.'

Uh oh, I have the feeling this is definitely not going to move 'The Princess and The Pea' off my number one slot on my bedtime story list.

'It took days to ID the body.' Carlos continued, 'the police shared the crime scene photo's with us, but up until twenty minutes ago we hadn't had a picture of the girlfriend prior to the kidnapping.'

'We got this faxed to us.' Said Ricky, handing me the thing off the table they'd been looking at, which was a copy of a photo.

For a split second, I thought it was me.

Shit.

Sisters? Yes. Twins? Yes. I could use her for a mirror for shaving. Well, not quite…and I don't shave my face, but you get the idea. We looked a lot alike.

The more I stared, the more differences I found, she had slightly smaller eyes, and a more delicate nose. A slight smattering of light freckles across her nose, other than that, we could definitely pass as sisters.

I put the photo down and leant back into Ranger's arms.

'How did he kill her?' I asked, my voice holding steady.

No one spoke.

'I have a right to know.' I said firmly.

Nothing.

I was getting pissed, 'Tell me now, or you'll all join Lester in the Antartic.'

'With a Frisbee and the polar bears.' Lester added.

Everyone else apart from Ranger looked slightly bemused.

I felt Ranger take a deep breath, 'She was beaten and flayed to death Babe.'

'Isn't flayed another word for 'whip'?' I asked.

Ranger didn't answer, but his arms tightened around me. I could hear the psycho's voice, '…I'm going to hang you up by your beautiful hands and whip your skin from your back.'

'Shit.' I said. I twisted round and buried my head in Ranger's shoulder, breathing in the scent of him, drawing strength from his warmth. One of his hands was gently stroking my hair, and his other hand was running soothingly up and down my back.

I drew in a deep breath and pulled back, 'anything else I should know?' I asked the room in general.

The room in general shuffled around, not meeting my eye.

'Spill it.' I commanded.

'You're like a pit bull with a bone.' Tank commented into the silence.

'So? Spill.'

Tank sighed, 'her name was Stephanie.'

'It's a good name.' I said inanely, brutally pushing my panic down. 'Not as good as Ophelia though. That's a beautiful name. Are you sure she wasn't called Ophelia? Sometimes, if you have a cold and you're talking on the phone, Ophelia sounds like Stephanie. Maybe it was one of those times, and her name's really Ophelia.'

I was babbling on and on, rushing down the dark roads of panic, trying not to freak, and not doing so well.

Ranger was stroking my back again.

Huh, guess he doesn't need a cat when he's got me, I'll be his pussy any day.

The room went deathly quiet, maybe it's because I'm not rambling on about Ophelia, or it could be…

'Did I say anything out loud besides the Ophelia shit?' I asked.

Ranger's lips were twitching involuntarily, and Lester was biting his lip, holding his breath, and Tank wouldn't meet my eye, but the grin on his face was still visible. I didn't want to look in Carlos' or Ricky's direction, so I didn't.

'Shit.' I said.

Lester couldn't hold it in anymore, he burst into laughter, bent double, clutching his stomach, 'Ranger doesn't need a cat,' he gasped out, 'you'll be his…' he didn't finish the sentence, he'd collapsed on the floor, barely taking in enough oxygen.

I sent Lester the death glare, it must have a delayed effect, because it took nearly five minutes for him to stop laughing.

Finally, when he'd recovered, Lester said; 'Come on Bombshell, we'd better get back to surveillance.'

'No.' I asserted.

'No?'

I'd seen it in Tank's eyes when he'd told me her name was Stephanie; 'There's more.'

Silence again.

'Spill it.' I repeated wearily.

Ranger sighed, 'Pit bull.' He muttered 'My Dad told you it took a while for her to be ID'd – he didn't say why exactly it took so long.'

'Why?' I whispered, not wanting to know.

Ranger hesitated, 'Because she was…missing some pieces.'

'Missing some pieces?' I asked faintly. 'Like…?'

'Like her hands, and her skin.'

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. 'The presents.' I managed to say.

'We've sent them off to be compared…but Stephanie Orrato was one of the names on Lolita's list; she had a French manicure two weeks ago.'

'Good thing I'm sitting on your lap.' I said distantly.

'Oh?' Ranger said.

'It'll be much easier for you to catch me this time.' I muttered.

Then I fainted.

I blinked and slowly pushed myself upright. What happened? Oh yeah. Poor Ophelia…

'I fainted again.' I said to Ranger.

He nodded, not looking happy about it.

'Is it habit forming?' I asked.

'Is what habit forming?'

'Fainting.' I qualified.

Ranger looked at me for a long minute, 'I don't think so.' He finally replied.

'Good, because that'd be inconvenient, you know? Especially at a Macy's sale: imagine if I was in the queue and I fainted – they'd steal the shoes I was trying to buy while I was out cold!' I shook my head, visualising it. 'Vultures.' I muttered.

'Babe.' Ranger said, sounding disbelieving.

'What? You don't think they would? They would! And I bet if I was carrying a dress they'd steal that too.' I frowned, 'that makes me really mad – I liked that dress!'

'Babe…it was an imaginary dress.'

'That's not the point. It's the principle, you know?'

Ranger was looking at me blankly.

Guess he didn't know.

Huh.

When in doubt, change the subject. 'Wanna go to Pino's later?' I asked.

'How about Rossini's?' Ranger finally said.

'That's cool.' I said nodding, 'we could go there. They have great tiramisu.'

Ranger sighed, 'Babe.'