Thank you everyone for your patience with this one. I hope that you're all keeping safe and well. I finally have some updating time, so fingers crossed, this one should be done soon! Thanks for sticking with me.

I did think at first that Stephanie was being ridiculous wanting to leave the highly secured building, and then after COVID lockdown for a few weeks, I totally saw her point with this one and let her out.

Ranger did not look impressed at my plan to go to a family dinner.

"It's just dinner with my family," I told him.

"Dickie probably told them where your family lives," Ranger said.

"Dickie never went to family dinner with me. Dickie would be lucky to remember my parents address at the best of times, let alone when being tortured."

"Again, that wasn't torture. Mild persuasion at best," Lester chimed in.

"I'd be in more danger going into my office," I said. "I can't stay locked up at Rangeman forever."

"Not forever, just a few more days."

"Ranger, I'm a grown woman, and I get to say when I leave the building," I told him.

"Fine. But I would like you to take someone with you as your driver and personal protection."

"Fine. But they come inside with me, they don't stay outside in the car all creepy like. People in the Burg will talk. Whoever it is will come as my dinner guest."

"Well then pick someone good because the Burg rumour mill will probably have you married to them by the end of dinner," Ranger said.

"Oooh pick me!" Lester said. "My mother keeps telling me that it's about time that I settle down."

"I'll take Vince. He's already survived my family once," I said.

"Fine. And I want you to take a tracker."

"Don't trust me?"

"You've got some bad men after you, babe. A tracker won't hurt," Ranger said. I nodded. He'd know where I was anyway because I'd have Vince with me, so if a tracker made him feel better, I'd take one with me.

"Ranger, Zip and I will keep working on trying to find Petiak," Lester said. "If we can figure out where he's hiding, we don't need to lure him out with the key. There's limited places he can go, we'll keep looking at property records and people he knows, and see what we can dig up."

"Thanks Lester," I said.

"What time do you need to be at your parents?" Ranger asked.

"Six. Six o'clock on the dot, or dinner gets ruined from being dried out in the oven," I told him.

"I'll let Vince know."

"Any word on tank?" I asked.

"He's recovering. He'll be fine," Ranger said.

"Are you feeding his cats?" Lester asked. I looked at Ranger. Tank didn't seem like a cat person.

"Yes I'm feeding the cats. Ella is getting there when I can't," Ranger said.

"You know that Mr Fluffy needs the special food, right?"

"Yes."

"And Miss Kitty needs-"

"Got it," Ranger interrupted. Ranger didn't seem like a cat person. Lester laughed and Ranger glared at him. Lester seemed to like the live on the edge of danger by provoking Ranger. Maybe it was the dynamic they had growing up that still stayed with them. Lester winked at me.

"I'll come and see you before you leave for dinner," Ranger told me, and headed off to his office.

Lester and I caught the elevator to the fourth floor together.

"So what's the update on Isabella and the girls?" I asked him.

"Sofia and Lucia? They're going to stay in the house until the lease runs out. My mother and one of my sisters have adopted them into our family, I think. Isabella moved up here from Florida to get away from a bad ex. They don't have any family in New Jersey."

"Anything between you and Isabella?"

"I think I'm a bit old for her, don't you think?" Lester asked.

"Too old? No!" I said. He laughed.

"You didn't strike me as the matchmaker type," he said.

"It's the Burg in me. I guess it lurks under the surface. I did warn you off Joyce though," I reminded him.

"True, true. You've got my best interests at heart. Isabella's sweet, but a bit too young for me. I prefer my women around their early to mid thirties," Lester said, winking at me.

"I'll see if I can think of any single friends," I told him. I started off joking, but then I changed my mind. Lester was cute. It would be easy to find someone to set him up with, and a good distraction from my life.

Vince was waiting for me outside my apartment at twenty to six. The elevator doors opened and Ranger stepped out.

"Tracker," he said, holding out a small button to me.

"Where should I put it?" I asked him.

"Somewhere that you won't lose it, leave it behind, or it won't fall out," he said, so I tucked it into my bra. He raised one eyebrow at me.

"What? It's snug in there. It's not going to fall out," I told him.

"Good thinking. Have a great time at dinner," Ranger said, and nodded at Vince. Vince nodded back and hit the elevator button. We headed to the garage and one of the many black SUVs.

"Do you think Ranger would let us take the Porsche?" I asked. Vince laughed so I took that to be a no.

We got into the car and drove out of the underground garage. Another car pulled out behind us. I looked over to Vince. He sighed.

"Zero and Manny," he told me.

"What are they doing?"

"General patrol of the area, and a back-up. We assign cars to wait across town so we have quick response times. They're the Burg team for tonight," Vince told me.

"Mmhmm," I said. Why did I think that their wait locations was going to be right outside my parents' house?

It didn't take long to get to the Burg. The streets got more familiar as we got closer, although I noticed a few changes – new stores, old stores that had been renovated. Things changed slowly in the Burg, but they did eventually change.

When we pulled up outside my parents' house, my mother and grandmother were waiting in the doorway for me. Vince got a park right outside, showing that good parking luck extended to everyone who worked at Rangeman, not just Ranger. We got halfway across the yard before my mother couldn't hold back any longer.

"Stephanie, you didn't say you'd be bringing a man with you," my mother said in a fake whisper.

"Mom, this is Vince. You've met Vince before," I reminded her.

"Oh yes. Hello Vince. Are you here on business, or…?"

"Business, Mrs Plum. I'd prefer to wait inside, but I don't want to impose. I know you weren't expecting company. I'm happy to wait just inside the door," Vince said. He knew the way to my mother's heart.

"Nonsense! We always have enough for company. I'm surprised that Stephanie didn't tell you that. Come on in. My daughter Valerie and her family arrived just before you," my mother said. We could hear Valerie's family from outside the door, so that wasn't a surprise. I could hear Mary Alice neighing, baby Bella crying and Morelli talking to my father. Vince and I walked into the living room where the greetings were repeated. Vince and Morelli exchanged a head nod, and Vince shook my father's hand.

"Dinner's ready!" my mother called out, and we all moved into action, moving food from the kitchen to the dining table, and getting kids served and settled. Val started spooning baby food into Bella's mouth and Bella stopped crying temporarily.

Grandma Mazur was looking bright eyed so I made sure to sit Vince away from her out of her reach. Morelli had to sit next to her instead, but Morelli was well used to Grandma and her wandering hands.

Vince's phone vibrated. He glanced at it.

"Zero and Manny got called away to a robbery on this side of town," he said.

"Do you need to go?"

"No."

"That sounds exciting," Grandma Mazur chimed in from across the table. Vince smiled.

"Usually security work is very boring. There's a lot of sitting around. I don't usually get to have dinner with so many beautiful ladies," he said. Grandma beamed and slid her teeth around her mouth.

"Watch it, she has grabby hands," I warned Vince in a voice too soft for Grandma to hear.

Dessert was a chocolate cake so good that I had two pieces. Vince looked tempted but refrained. I assumed that Rangeman had rules about eating cake while on duty.

I hugged everyone goodbye. It hadn't been long since I'd seen my family, but it had been a long couple of weeks, and I'd missed them. I told the older girls that we would have a sleepover as soon as I'd found a new place to live.

"Can we help decorate?" Angie asked me.

"Sure you can! And we'll set up a room for you and Mary Alice to stay in when you visit. It won't be a guest room, it will be a Angie and Mary Alice room," I told her. Mary Alice stamped her hoof in approval.

"Are you all right?" my mother asked me as she walked us to the door.

"I'm okay, ma."

"You'd let me know if you needed anything? I'm worried about you, Stephanie. The rumours are," she began.

"I'm okay, mom. Don't worry about what other people say, okay? I'm working with Rangeman and they won't let anything bad happen. This will be over before we know it, and I can move on with my life," I told her. She squeezed my hand.

"Let me know if you need any help. I can send your father out with your grandmother's gun," she told me. I tried not to laugh at the thought. I squeezed her hand back and walked to the car with Vince. He looked around before we got into the car, and opened the door for me.

"Dinner went well," I told Vince. "You managed to avoid Grandma's grabby hands."

"Morelli gave me a heads up on our way through to dinner," Vince said.

"Good old Joe. Who would have thought that he'd turn out to be such a decent person," I said. Vince looked confused by that, so I launched into a detailed version of Joe Morelli as a younger man.

A few minutes later, Vince held up his hand to stop me talking. He hit a button on his phone and Zip answered.

"We have a tail," Vince said.

"I've got your location. I'll send the closest team, but they're a few minutes out," Zip warned him.

"Got it. I'm going to try to lose them," Vince said, and did a sudden turn. I grabbed hold of the bar above my head. "Oops, sorry Steph. Better hang on. We could be doing a few more of those," Vince said, accelerating.

"Report," a new voice ordered over the phone. It was Ranger.

"Got a tail, boss. Wasn't there when we left the Plums house, appeared a few miles back. Might have shaken them off now," Vince said.

"Good work. Keep me updated," Ranger said.

"Will do," Vince said and left the line open.

"Vince?" I asked.

"We're okay, Steph," he reassured me. We were slowing down for a red light when a large SUV sped around the corner and aim right for us. Vince reacted and pressed down the accelerator, but we'd barely started moving when the SUV smashed into the driver's side of the car. I bounced around but was protected by the seatbelt from too much damage. The air bags on Vince's side of the car had gone off, but he looked unconcious. Maybe he'd hit his head somehow?

The window smashed on my side of the car and I screamed. An armed reached through and unlocked the door. The door yanked open and there were two men standing there with guns.

"Get out of the car," one said to me, aiming the gun at Vince. "We'll shoot him if you don't," he added, in case I hadn't understood the implications of having a gun aimed at Vince. I unbuckled my seat belt and one of the men pulled me from the car, and shoved me into the back to the SUV. The front end looked a bit crumpled but it was still running.

"We knew that you'd go home eventually," Dave said.

I looked around the car. I was in between two men that I didn't recognise, with Dave driving and Petiak in the passenger seat.

"Dickie said that you stole the key from him. Where is it?" Petiak asked me.

I panicked. I had no idea where the key was. Dickie had said that I'd stolen it from him, but I hadn't. I didn't take anything from the house that wasn't mine. I mean, I'd set his suits on fire and used his expensive scotch as lighter fluid, but that wasn't stealing. I'd been careful not to take anything that belonged to Dickie. I didn't want anything belonging to him, just like I didn't want him to keep anything of mine. That was why I'd taken back that clock from Aunt Tootsie in his office that day. Sure the clock was ugly and I didn't actually want it, but it was the principle of the thing.

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to set you on fire," Petiak said casually.

Wait, what was it that Dickie said? That he'd put it in something so ugly that no one in their right mind would ever steal? Well I wasn't in my right mind when I took the clock. I was in a vengeful state.

I really did have the key.

Where did I leave the clock?

I took it with me to the bar. I still had it when Ranger found me. I'd left it in his car. And now the clock was in Ranger's office.

The most well guarded place in Trenton.

Think fast, Steph, because your life depends on this one.