"I forgot your shampoo," I told Dickie. "Sorry, Grandma was a bit crazy tonight and we didn't make it to the pharmacy."

"That's okay, you can pick it up for me tomorrow," he said, not looking up from his computer. Ugh.

"Did the girls get to sleep okay?" I asked him.

"They went up about half an hour ago. It's been pretty quiet," he said.

I heard a truck pull up outside and saw Val get out of Morelli's truck, and then wave good bye as he pulled away. He didn't even walk her to the door. What a bad fake-date.

I opened the door as Val walked up to it.

"Have a good date?" I asked her. She blushed.

"It was a nice night out," she said. "Were the girls well behaved?" she asked Dickie.

"There was a bit of neighing, but other than that, all good," he told her.

The next morning I got a call from Morelli.

"We found Dougie and Mooner. I'm picking them up this morning and taking them home," he told me.

"Are they okay?" I asked him.

"They're in one piece. We'll be home in a few hours if you want to see for yourself."

I pulled up outside Dougie's house a few hours later and went inside. Dougie and Mooner were on the couch, watching Star Trek and eating cheeseballs. Morelli's dog Bob was next to them, looking hopeful. Bob loved cheeseballs. Dougie looked thin and was bandaged quite heavily, Mooner looked to be in better shape. Morelli was watching them with an amused look on his face.

"They're turning out to be quite resilient," he said. "I was worried about them but it turns out that Star Trek and cheeseballs are helping."

"And Mooner's secret stash."

"Yeah, that too."

"So what happened?" I asked Morelli.

"Louie D's wife Sophia held them hostage. She thought they knew where the heart was. The local police found them in a cell in the basement. It was a good thing that we called it in when we did," he said. I shivered. Poor Dougie looked awful.

"Do they know what happened to the heart?"

"No, they don't. Sophia was trying to find it to make sure that Louie would be buried with it. I got the call that they'd found Mooner and Dougie after I dropped Val off. Sophia is refusing to talk but her sister is cooperating with the police."

"Oh! Dude and dudette. Here's the thing," Mooner said. Morelli and I turned to look at him.

"While Mooner and I were in that cell, we had lots of time to talk. We figured out what happened to the heart. But we didn't tell the lady with the dead eyes. She was too scary," Dougie said. He and Mooner shivered.

Then they told us what they had figured out. Essentially Eddie DeChooch gave Dougie a cooler to deliver to Sophia. But before Dougie did that, Mooner borrowed his car and needed the passenger seat, so he took the cooler out and left it on the porch for the trip. The cooler was knocked over when he got back but his in Mooner state, he didn't think of anything of it, and put it back in the car. Then Dougie, not knowing any better, delivered the empty cooler to Sophia.

"Crazy, huh?" Mooner asked, and then they turned back to the tv, slipping into the world of the Starship Enterprise.

Crazy indeed. I was glad that they were safe, and hugged everyone goodbye, including Bob the dog. Bob looked right at home with them.

I went home, and settled down to work. Val was out, working out the details with her new landlords. I think technically it was a house sitting arrangement, but hopefully it would work out for Val. It was going to be nice having her and the girls within regularly visiting distance.

I got some parcels ready and updated the website with the information on the new range, which I was calling Plum Vintage. I was behind in my marketing thanks to the madness that my household had descended into recently. I opened up my spreadsheet and notebook and was deep in thought in my marketing plan when my doorbell rang. I rolled my eyes. What now?! Why me?! I was turning into my mother.

I huffed downstairs and threw open the door, ready to send whoever it was away so I could actually get some work done. First I noticed the black Porsche in the driveway. Then the man leaning against it. He raised one eyebrow at me as I stood there, mouth agape.

"I wasn't sure if you'd be home," Ranger said.

"I work from home. I'm here a lot," I told him. I hesitated. Was it a bad idea to invite the sexy mercenary into my house? But it would be impolite to leave him outside. What would my mother say? She'd say use your manners and invite the attractive man inside, Stephanie. You don't want to be rude.

Two minutes later I had Ranger inside my house, drinking coffee at my kitchen table, and giving me that amused look again. I had no idea why he was there and the man of few words didn't seem inclined to explain.

"Did you manage to get DeChooch back on your own?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I think he was a bit tired and looking forward to some quiet time at jail after having our Grandma talking at home all day."

I could understand that.

He took an envelope out of his pocket and slid it across the table to me. I opened it, puzzled. Inside was a cheque addressed to me from RangeMan, LLC.

"What's this for?" I asked him.

"For helping with DeChooch. You did all the prep work in getting him in place, which made the pick-up go smoothly for me. It's your cut," Ranger said. I was a bit surprised.

"I can't accept this," I told him, handing the cheque back.

"You earned it," he said, pushing it back across the table to me.

"You helped me rescue Grandma. Consider us even," I told him. He didn't look happy but he nodded and folded the cheque away.

"What work is it that you do?" he asked me.

"I'm a lingerie designer," I told him. His eyebrows shot up so I pulled out my phone and showed him my Plum Lingerie instagram feed.

"So what work is it that you do?" I asked Ranger. "I know you do bounty hunting for Vinnie, and Morelli described you as a mercenary, but I don't actually know what it is you do."

"A mercenary is a good way to describe it. I've been doing whatever pays the best since I left the military, but now I'm focused on starting up my own security company," Ranger told me.

"So we're both small business owners," I said. Ranger grinned at me.

"Thanks for the coffee," he said, and stood up. He placed his coffee mug in the sink, just like last time, and I walked him to the door.

"This lock isn't great. Anyone could break in," he told me as he walked out.

"I'll keep you in mind if I need a security specialist," I said, giving him a finger wave goodbye.

I wondered if you got personal visits from Ranger if your alarm went off? I'd imagine they were going to get a lot of false alarms from bored housewives if so. Probably dressed in lingerie. That's probably who I needed to target. Back to the marketing plan!