I woke up the next morning, slightly hungover. Lester had driven me home in my car while Woody followed in a Rangeman car. Argh. Why did I decide so many glasses of wine were a good idea?

I stumbled into the shower wishing for a strong coffee. I'd have to stop on the way to work for The Cure. Then I thought about last night and replayed the events that lead to Lester driving me home.

Oh no! I think I owed Ranger an apology. Argh, Stephanie, why! I asked myself. It was the lack of sugar. And Dickie was away. And he smelled so good. And I wanted to know… oh God… what was in his pants! I couldn't believe that I'd said that to Ranger. At least I hadn't managed to think of a good suggestive one-liner to make.

I finished my shower, got dressed, applied extra mascara for confidence and set off for work. I stopped by McDonalds on the way for a large coke and hash browns. I wished they were serving fries already. Damn this grown up getting up before lunch business. Being hungover was a lot easier when I'd sleep until noon.

Mary Lou eyed me over when I got to work.

"Big night, huh? I hope you bought enough to share," she said, holding out her hand for the hash browns.

"Hash browns are okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah. This week anyway. Being pregnant is a lot like being hungover but without the fun night before. So speaking of, tell me what happened last night."

"Not much. I just got a bit carried away with the wine last night. And maybe with the cake too."

"Didn't you have dinner with Ranger last night?"

"Yes. It was delicious, and it turns out he can pick a great bottle of wine. I think I had three whole glasses."

"I'm surprised you're still standing today."

"I am, thanks to a hot shower and strong coffee."

"Anything else you want to report?" Mary Lou asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

"I'm still a cheap drunk. And I might have embarrassed myself trying to find out where he hides his gun."

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Mary Lou teased me.

"Lou. Stop. I'm embarrassed enough! Geez you have a dirty mind." Mary Lou had always been boy crazy. She'd settled down with Lenny early, but that didn't stop her from looking around.

My phone rang. I checked the screen in surprise – it was Dickie. He didn't call much when he was away, and never during the day.

"Hi Steph! Great news. I'm coming home early. I'll see you tonight."

"You're on your way back early?" I asked in surprise. He wasn't due back for another two days.

"Why? Am I interrupting something?" he asked.

"No, of course not. I'm just surprised! That's so great. I've missed you lately."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to get lonely," he said, and hung up. What was with the men in my life and their lack of phone manners?

I was waiting for Dickie when he got home, excited to see him. I'd picked up dinner from the deli and I was filling in time by checking my emails at the kitchen table. I jumped up to see him and flung my arms around him.

"Hey Steph. That's an enthusiastic welcome. Did you miss me?"

"Yes, and I'm still off sugar," I warned him.

"I'll consider myself warned, but I need sustenance first. What's for dinner?" he asked.

"I got quiche and salad for dinner," I told him. "Not quite as good as Ella's, but better than if I'd tried to make it myself."

"How is Ella?" Dickie asked casually. "Have you heard from her lately?"

"Yes, I have. She's doing well. Did you know that she's working for Ranger?" I asked him.

"Yes, you told me that when you stayed with her."

"Oh right. Well, I saw her last night, she made me dinner," I told him. It technically wasn't lying. Ella had made me dinner. I just ate it in Ranger's apartment.

"How does she find working for Ranger? He's a bit of a loose cannon," Dickie said.

"She seems happy enough. She cooks for the on-shift workers, and I think she enjoys looking after them. She still misses her sons though," I said.

I knew that Dickie disliked Ranger, but I wasn't sure why. Then again, Ranger also seemed to dislike Dickie, so the feeling was mutual. Morelli thought that Ranger was a bit extreme, but seemed to generally like him, and he had said that Ranger had refused to bring him in when he was FTA, which gave Morelli the time he needed to clear his name.

I remembered what Ranger had said about Dickie tracking my phone. Whenever I got a random call from Dickie, I was either with Ranger or had been at Rangeman. I had dismissed Ranger's saying that Dickie was tracking where I was, but maybe there was more to it than I thought.

Did Dickie suspect that I saw Ranger last night? Was that why he came early? Surely that couldn't be it. Maybe being around Ranger was rubbing off on me and I was becoming paranoid.

I couldn't sleep and found myself up late watching television. I'd left Dickie sound asleep in bed, softly snoring. I flicked through channels and settled on The Firm. I vaguely remembered it – young Tom Cruise, something about a law firm. An hour later I was hooked and googling frantically. A promising young up and coming lawyer who received a too good to be true offer from a small firm who then spends a lot of time at work and then ends up spending time in the Cayman Islands because his firm helps clients with money laundering? Omigod! Check, check, check, check and maybe? I'm not sure on that last one but I hope not! I did think it was odd that Dickie travelled so much but he works such long hours when he was here that it wasn't really like it was much different.

But what if it was just like this? What if he was being blackmailed? Would he tell me? How could I find out? I went to bed but I found it hard to sleep. There were too many conspiracy theories in my head. Was Dickie tracking me? Was he working for the Trenton equivalent of The Firm? Did I just perhaps need a long vacation at the beach and a few cocktails to relax and calm down a bit? The cocktails sounded good. I needed to remind Dickie about the beach vacation that he had promised me. Maybe I could get him drunk and interrogate him about what was really going on.

Two weeks later I found myself having dinner with Ranger again. I told myself it was because I wanted Ella's cooking, but I have to admit, having a handsome and very attractive man pay attention to me was a big drawcard too, along with the hope that I might get a few more secrets out of Ranger.

"I'm worried about Dickie," I began, and explained my theory. "Do you do investigative services?"

"No."

"Really?"

"Babe, if there's an issue with Dickie, you need to talk to him."

"Even if it involves… you know… The Family?"

"Dickie doesn't work for The Family," Ranger stated.

"Aha! You do know something. Who does he work for?"

"Babe."

"Ranger."

"Babe."

"Ranger."

"Steph."

Clearly I wasn't going to win this one.

"Why do you go by Ranger? Why not Carlos?" I asked him.

"It's a street name. It's useful to have a street name," he said.

"But why Ranger? I mean, you're not the only Army Ranger at Rangeman. Doesn't it get confusing?"

"It doesn't come from that exactly," he said. I tried to raise one eyebrow at him, gave up and raised two.

"So. Story time?" I asked him. He sighed, but begun to tell me anyway.

"When Julie was little, she'd ask where daddy was. And Rachel would say, Daddy is away, he's a Ranger. I was gone for a long time, and when I came back, Julie was calling me Ranger like she thought it was my name. Lester thought it was hilarious and started calling me that too, and the name stuck."

"I thought it was because you were a super hero soldier. Like, you were THE Ranger," I told him.

"That too," he said, nearly smiling.

"I don't see you smile that often," I said.

"There's not much to smile at where I operate. I'm not exactly seeing the best of humanity here. We operate in a lot of dark places. The security work is probably the happy parts of what we do."

"Why do you do it then, if it doesn't make you happy?"

"I'm good at it. And someone has to do it. I can at least make sure there's less bad guys out on the streets."

"You're a good man, Ranger," I told him.

"I have a lot to be accountable for," he said, blank face in place, eyes dark. Ah, I see, we're back to the Dark Knight, man of misery.

"You don't scare me, Batman," I teased him, and I started singing. He'd told me that he'd watched the Trolls movie because Julie liked it, and it was one of my niece's favourites, so I'd seen it a lot lately and his brooding was reminding me of Branch. Actually given Branch's preparing for the worst and underground bunker, he and Ranger had a lot in common.

"I see your true colours shining through, I see your true colours, and that's-, " I started singing, then stopped abruptly. I wasn't sure if it was immature or not, but singing those words to Ranger, even in jest, did not seem like a good idea. He'd caught on though, so either he was a big Cyndi Lauper fan, or he had watched the Trolls movie enough to know the lyrics, because his eyes starting gleaming in the "cat playing with its prey" look and he moved closer to me.

"And that's why you what, Estephania?" he purred. I was glad that I'd managed to distract him from his dark mood, but I clearly didn't think this plan through enough.

"What about poaching from another man?" I asked him.

"Being married doesn't make you his property, Stephanie. I respect you, and I respect the boundaries you set. But if you give me an opening, I will take it."

Yikes! I was in trouble!