Previously
We'd almost made it to the freeway when I heard something hit the car. Ranger swore, I screamed, tires screeched, and I came to the terrifying realization that we were being shot at.
—-
I bit my tongue to keep from screaming again as I felt the car jerk in a sharp 180 degree turn.
I had a feeling that Ranger was more than qualified to handle this sort of thing and my gut instinct told me I should avoid distracting him.
He accelerated quickly, probably using all of the horsepower the Cayenne had to give, racing back the way we had come. I briefly saw an older Caddy that must have been behind us before we took a few more hits.
I managed to stay quiet, but winced as each bullet impacted the car. I was expecting one to tear through the metal or shatter a window and hit one of us. I was panicked at the very idea because I had no clue what I would do if Ranger was shot. I was way out of my league here.
"Breathe, Babe," Ranger said, flicking his eyes to me and back to the road he was driving down at breakneck speed. "Car's bullet resistant and we'll be away from them soon."
I bristled a bit at the name. It was the second time he'd called me that and he seemed to be making a habit of it. I decided to let it go when I realized he'd shaken me out of my panic. I wasn't up for talking and didn't think Ranger would appreciate it so I sat and shot glances at him from the corner of my eyes. He was very much in a zone, cool and calm. Who was this guy?
We drove for thirty minutes until we made it to the outskirts of Trenton. I expected him to head for the police station or Vinnnie's, but instead we pulled up in front of a 1950's split level in a run down suburb.
"Where are we?" I asked as I saw Ranger push a button and the garage door started to rise.
He didn't answer until he had the car parked and had grabbed our bags before steering me into the surprisingly modern kitchen.
"Safe house," he finally said.
"A safe house? Are you serious?"
"I don't know who was shooting at me or why. I have enemies but not many resources in this town yet. We should only be here an hour or two tops and then I'll get you to the police station."
"Good," I said. "Can I get my laptop out and do some work while we're here?"
He nodded quickly and then disappeared back into the garage.
I brushed it off and pulled my computer out of my bag. If we were heading for the PD, I wanted to review the photos I'd taken. I was pretty sure I'd gotten evidence the Romanos were holding people in that warehouse and if I did, I wanted to get it handed over as soon as possible so they could be rescued.
While I was working, Ranger walked back in. He was on the phone and carrying his own laptop.
"I need you to come to the house. I took fire while bringing in Vinnie's cousin, but I'm not sure who it was from. The car took five hits, so it wasn't a random drive by."
He disconnected without anything further and then sat down at the kitchen table with me. I saw him plug an SD card into his laptop and couldn't help asking about it.
"What's that?"
"Dashcam footage."
"You have a dashcam?"
"Sure. I'm a bounty hunter and branching into the security industry. It comes in handy sometimes. Like when I want to figure out who was shooting at me."
"You get shot at a lot?" I asked, a bit shocked.
"Often enough."
I gave a full body shudder. "Once was enough for me."
"Babe," he said, giving me that half smile that said I was amusing him again.
"Why are you calling me that?" I asked. I'd never been a fan of pet names, ever since the Cupcake fiasco.
"Seems to fit," he said, giving me a full smile this time. The smile was high wattage and beyond distracting, so I decided I'd let him get away with it for now.
He turned his attention back to his laptop, so I did the same. We clicked away in companionable silence for about five minutes before he let out a soft curse.
I looked up and he must have read the question on my face before I had a chance to ask.
"I have an image of the guys shooting at us, but I don't recognize them."
"Mind if I take a look," I asked.
"Be my guest," he said, motioning me over.
He didn't move out of the way, so I needed to lean in close to him to see the screen. I could feel the heat his body was giving off and noticed that he smelled nice. Sort of earthy and citrusy at the same time, with a hint of something musky and male. I felt a fuzzy sensation low in my belly and suddenly recalled how long it had been since I had a social orgasm. My Hungarian hormones were suddenly finding him very interesting. Unfortunately for them, we had bigger problems, so I squashed them back down and turned my attention to the screen.
"Fuck," I said, hormones completely forgotten as I focused on the image in front of me.
Staring back at me were Joey DeLuca and Micky Romano. I'd spent enough time reading up on the more notorious members of the Romano organization that I would recognize them pretty easily.
"Know them," Ranger asked with a single raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. Joey DeLuca and Micky Romano. Joey's muscle for the Romano family, Micky is a jack of all trades doing whatever his uncle tells him to from what I can tell."
"And you know this how?" he asked. I could see his expression darken before it went carefully blank. He'd said he thought I was innocent earlier, but it looked like he was reevaluating.
"I've been investigating. The money laundering that was happening at E.E. Martin led back to the Romano family pretty easily. But, I've been trying to figure out how to prove that I wasn't involved."
"You know that's what the FBI is for?" he asked. The half grin was back and I was surprisingly relieved to have him not thinking badly of me.
"I haven't had the best run of luck the last few years. I didn't want to gamble a stay in prison on the system working in my favor."
That got me another full grin and I responded with an eye roll.
"So, why were they shooting at us," I asked, looking back and forth from the picture to Ranger.
"My guess would be that they caught on that you were poking around. But I got to you first."
"Thank fuck," I breathed out as dark spots danced in front of my eyes for a moment.
That made Ranger release a bark of laughter. "Not the reaction I usually get from skips."
"Skips?" I asked.
"Failures to appear. People who skip their court date."
"Well, I didn't skip it. I made a clerical error and thought it was next week."
"Babe," he said. "I think you're avoiding the bigger issue here. There are people shooting at you."
"Yeah. That's a problem. You seem like you've got plenty of experience being shot at. Any idea what we're supposed to do?"
"You're right, I've been shot at a few times."
"It was my first time," I said, keeping my eyes fixed on the corner of the table. It still made me a bit woozy to think about.
Ranger reached out a finger to lift my chin so I would meet his eyes. "You did a good job. You stayed calm so I could focus on getting us away. I've seen soldiers react worse to their first time taking fire."
I felt a jolt again at his touch, but I pushed it away and focused on his words.
"You were in the Army?"
"Rangers," he said.
"So Ranger isn't what your mom named you?"
"No," he said with a chuckle. "She named me Ricardo Carlos and is a bit offended that I prefer to go by Ranger."
"I can see that," I said.
"And you're off topic again."
"I know. I do that when I'm nervous."
"Well, you're secure here and I won't let anything happen to you."
That made me feel warm and fuzzy, and for some reason I completely trusted that I was safe with him.
"Why don't you start at the beginning and tell me about this investigation of yours," he said, interrupting my musing on how quickly I'd gotten comfortable with this badass stranger.
So, I told him everything. From my days as a buyer for E.E. Martin, every detail I could remember from the initial FBI bust and my arrest. Then, I pulled over my laptop and started showing him the evidence I'd gotten access to and the evidence I'd gathered myself. I showed him surveillance photos and played recordings I'd made with the listening equipment I'd purchased. I finished up with the grainy photos I'd taken today and my suspicions that they had taken people into the warehouse.
"Babe," was all Ranger said as I wrapped up.
"What?" I asked, feeling panic well up in my throat. "It isn't enough to clear my name?"
"No, Babe. It's enough to bring down an entire crime ring. You said you were a lingerie buyer before this? You've never done investigative work?"
"No. I was just winging it and following my gut."
"I'd say you have a hell of a gut."
My feeling of shock was interrupted when I heard a door opening. I flinched and tensed up further when Ranger moved in front of me, obviously taking a protective stance. I saw him reach a hand to the back of his pants and noticed he had a gun tucked there for the first time.
I felt all the breath leave my body as the largest, darkest man I had ever seen walked into the room. But, while I tensed, Ranger relaxed.
"This is Tank. He works with me," Ranger said, pulling me out from behind him. "Tank, this is Stephanie Plum."
Tank looked me up and down. "You sure? She's a lot less creepy than Vinnie."
"Don't judge the rest of us by the duck lover," I said primly, earning me a deep chuckle from Tank.
"So, I hear you rode out a gun fight with Ranger," Tank said.
"That's not all she did," Ranger answered and proceeded to give Tank the cliff notes version of my investigation.
"Damn, little girl," Tank said, giving me a much more respectful look over.
"Now that you're up to speed, I need you to go look for evidence at the scene. I don't expect you to find much, but it's worth checking out. Steph and I are going to call in the feds."
Tank left as silently as he'd arrived while Ranger pulled out his phone and started scrolling through the contacts.
"You have the FBI in your contacts?" I asked incredulously.
"I bounty hunt for them too," he said, lifting his head and smiling at me before going back to scrolling.
Of course he did.
—-
A/N: I think I'm writing Ranger a bit softer and less guarded here. I tried to reign him in, but he's enjoying this little adventure with Steph, despite the whole getting shot at thing. In this timeline, he hasn't really messed up his karma too badly yet and it's reflected in more lightness than we usually see. Same with some aspects of Steph. She hasn't learned to reflexively dig her heels in or do the opposite of what she's told yet. Kind of a 'what could have been' with both of them.