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Thank you everyone who has been reading and reviewing! This chapter was one of my favorites to write - I hope you enjoy!

Previously

"It's worth giving it a try," I said. I really had enjoyed the work I'd been doing the last few months. The possibility of doing anything like it again hadn't crossed my mind, but now that I was thinking about it I was starting to feel excited. "Could you teach me some of what I would need to know while we're stuck here? Maybe enough to help me make a decision?"

"Yeah, Babe," he said. "This is going to be good. This is going to be like Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle do protective custody."

—-

"Where do we start?" I asked. I could feel the huge, dopey smile on my face, but I was too excited to try to hide it.

"I have a few other skips that need to be picked up for your cousin. Do you want to try doing background research on them? Might also get you back in his good graces."

"Being in favor with Vinnie isn't something I worry about. If I'm ever in a pinch I could always blackmail him. But, I'll give the backgrounds a shot."

"I think you're going to do just fine," Ranger said before handing me a pair of files.

He told me the kind of information he was looking for to start with and then turned me loose.

I opened the first file and immediately rolled my eyes. It was Jimmy Szabo. He was a Burg native, but not one I knew well. He was about ten years older than me and off the charts on the pervert scale. Guess that's why Vinnie bailed him out, birds of a feather and all that. Actually, I probably shouldn't think about birds if I didn't want to have to bleach my brain. From what I understand, he was involved in the duck incident, too.

I didn't bother running a search. There was a much more effective way to find Jimmy. I started by pulling my cell phone out of my back pocket and dialing my best friend since diapers, Mary Lou.

"Steph! Ohmigod! I heard you got arrested again!"

"What? No! I missed my court date, but everything's pretty much straightened out. Where did you hear I was arrested again."

"I heard it from my Aunt Judy. She heard it at the Clip'N'Curl."

Grandma, I thought and rolled my eyes. "I'm actually helping with some other people who missed court dates for Vinnie. Maybe smoothing things over," I said. I hadn't thought through how I'd explain all this to Mare and I was winging it. Luckily, that was one of my specialities. Unluckily, she was one of the people who knew me best so I needed to keep this short.

"Anyway, Jimmy Szabo skipped his court date and I'm trying to figure out where he's at. Is Lenny's cousin Cathy still with his brother?"

"Yeah, but lord knows why. That family is a mess."

"Could you see if either of them know where Jimmy's at?" I asked quickly before she could get sidetracked.

"Sure, give me a few minutes and I'll call you back."

While I waited, I walked over to the window and looked out. The neighborhood wasn't too different from the Burg and I briefly let my mind wander, wondering if the people in those houses knew there was a safehouse on their street. I wondered if something like that could be kept a secret in the Burg and dismissed it. It would be through the grapevine in days.

I was just entertaining myself with my mom's reaction to that sort of news when I felt an arm snake around my waist. I jumped and ended up with my back pressed against Ranger's impressive front.

"Try not to stand in front of the windows," he said softly. His voice tickled my ear and I felt a shiver run through me before heat pooled low in my belly.

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath while telling my poor, neglected hormones to cool down. All I managed to do was notice how amazing the man smelled. Not good. I needed an escape before I started rubbing myself on him like a cat in heat.

With that pleasant thought, my phone started to vibrate in my back pocket, making me jump again.

Ranger chuckled, giving me a slight squeeze with the arm he still had wrapped around me. He gently steered me away from the window before releasing me. I felt an odd sense of loss along with the chill that came from the sudden removal of his large, warm body.

Shaking myself, I pulled my still vibrating phone from my pocket before it caused other problems.

"Hello," I answered, noticing that my voice sounded oddly breathy.

"Hey, Steph. You okay?" Mary Lou asked.

I laughed and redirected. Another one of my talents. "That was quicker than I expected! What did you find out?"

"Cathy's pissed at Rob and she was more than happy to bitch about Jimmy. Apparently Rob's been letting Jimmy sleep in their camper and he's been smoking in there. She's convinced he's going to burn down their detached garage."

"Did she say if he's there now?" I asked, getting excited. Maybe there was something to this sort of work.

"No, she said he's been spending his days and half the night at the strip club off 95 in Hamilton Township. He comes in at all hours, just to sleep apparently."

"That's great, Mare. Thanks!" I said, before wrapping up the call and disconnecting.

I turned around to face Ranger and found him staring at me with one eyebrow lifted in a question.

"Szabo's probably at the strip club off 95 in Hamilton," I said. "And when he's not there, he's been sleeping at his brother's. There's a detached garage with a camper."

Ranger pulled out his phone and relayed that information to someone on the other end.

"I didn't just send Tank on a wild goose chase did I?"

"Of course not. Don't doubt the power of gossip in the Burg," I said, trying to show more confidence than I felt.

Ranger just chuckled and handed me the second file. "Let's see if you can do it again."

I sat down at the table and flipped it open. This one was an unknown and I'd have to actually start from the beginning. The file was pretty slim on details, but it had enough to show that Jerome Smith was not a nice guy.

Waking my laptop up, I plugged Jerome into my search software. While it did its thing, I looked over his list of priors again. It looked like he was into a little bit of everything with fairly regular drug charges sprinkled on top of the more violent offenses.

This was the kind of guy that would shoot at Ranger. Twenty four hours ago, that was something we were joking about, but now the idea gave me an uncomfortable feeling inside. Probably wasn't good to examine that too closely right now.

Luckily, I was saved by my computer chiming that it had results for me.

Jerome's most recent run in with the law had been after a bar fight had turned ugly and he'd taken brass knuckles to another patron. He'd also had an unlicensed, concealed weapon at the time of his arrest.

Looking back over his priors, he seemed to bounce back and forth between Trenton and Philly with a few field trips to Camden. Most of the violations that broke the pattern were traffic related.

I dug for another two hours, researching the violations and felt like I had some good starting points for Ranger, or Tank I guess, to start looking.

My stomach let out a loud noise of protest, so I stood and stretched while checking the clock on the microwave. It was getting close to four and I decided it was time for a snack break. I dug through the fridge and a cupboard, but couldn't find anything that really excited me. Going back to the fridge, I settled for rolling some cheese and turkey lunch meat together. Boring, but it got the job done.

I'd finished up and was just starting to wonder what had happened to Ranger when he came wandering back into the room.

"I just got off the phone with Tank."

"And? Am I on his shit list for a wild goose chase?"

"No, he was pretty impressed. He found Szabo in the strip club, day drinking with just enough of a buzz that Tank didn't have to do more than look scary to get him to surrender himself."

"Tank can look not scary?"

"Yeah, but don't let him know I told you. Might ruin his image."

I laughed at that, mostly because I wasn't convinced anything would make Tank look anything other than intimidating.

"And how about you? Is there anything that would ruin your image?" I couldn't help asking. I was trying not to come off as flirty, but the man intrigued me.

He was quiet, staring at me for a long moment before one corner of his mouth quirked up. "I have four older sisters who would love nothing more than to ruin my image."

That surprised me. I was having trouble picturing him with any siblings, let alone four. He had such a calm, reserved presence that didn't seem to fit with the energy I associated with big families.

"That may do it," I said with a smile of my own. "Are you telling me you're the baby? That really doesn't go with the badass vibe."

"My younger brother saved me from that awful fate."

"Would he want to ruin your image?"

"Of course. He's a lawyer and says I'm bad for his image."

I rolled my eyes. "Damn lawyers."

"Don't like lawyers?" he asked, with another raised eyebrow.

"Not since I married one."

"You're married?" I may have been imagining it, but he seemed a bit shocked. I didn't think that was something that happened to him often.

"Was. For about five minutes."

"Good to know, Babe. Don't want an angry lawyer husband hunting me down for kidnapping his wife."

I rolled my eyes. "Dickie doesn't want me back any more than I want him."

"Dickie?"

"Not one of my finer moments," I said and felt the need to change the subject before I somehow blurted out that I'd caught him banging Joyce before the ink dried on our marriage certificate. Somehow telling this hot guy that I couldn't keep Dickie interested felt too mortifying to consider. Instead, I turned to the computer. "Anyway, I think I found something on Jerome Smith."

"Yeah? That was quick. Vinnie's other bounty hunter had been looking for him, but wasn't having any luck."

"He seems to bounce back and forth between Jersey and Philly. So, based on his past behavior, my guess is he's holed up in the city somewhere. He has a half sister there and from what I can tell, they seem to be fairly close. Going by her priors, it looks like she's a working girl. A few of Smith's arrests were for altercations with her clients. I'd start with her and see if she's seen him."

"Babe," Ranger said with a grin before pulling his phone out.

"Sending Tank on another field trip?" I asked when he disconnected.

"Yeah. He's going to be begging to keep you if he has another easy capture."