Round Robin

Chapter 13 (RangersBabe76)

RANGER

Dammit, I couldn't stand Farnum. He is almost as bad as Morelli was. He takes the least little item and knit-picks it until he pisses you off to the point where you want to kill him. He doesn't realize that I could do that, and no one would ever find the body. Let's just hope today is not the day for that.

I opened the door to the conference room and Farnum glanced at me with a sneer on his face. Oh, this was going to be enjoyable I could see that now.

"Mr. Manoso, thank you for finally seeing me." Snatching the letter out of my hand as I was trying to hand it to him.

"Farnum, you only waited 2 minutes for me. Get over yourself. Now, what have you gotten so far on this case?" I wasn't going to let him bully me around.

"Manoso, that is none of your business. I should charge you for withholding evidence, but this time and ONLY this time I will let it slide." He glared at me with a smirk on his face, like I was supposed to be afraid of him.

I slammed my fist down on this table, it had the effect I wanted it to because Farnum jumped. "I didn't withhold anything from you, we just got this today. It's out of character for the stalker because he/she normally sends something on Mondays. I have already spoken with the chief. You are to keep me abreast of what is going on with this case. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with him." I leaned back and steepled my fingers together with my elbows on my knees, glaring at him daring him to say something out of line.

"What the hell, Manoso? Why the hell do you think you have to know what is going on with this case, it doesn't concern you."

Leaning forward, "You see Farnum, that's where you are wrong. It concerns me because first off, the letter you are holding in your hand threatens my life, and secondly, it concerns my woman. No one threatens or hurts someone that I care about. Am I clear?"

He scoffed when I told him that. "Your woman? Since when has Stephanie Plum become your woman? Last time I checked she was single."

I didn't want to tell him Stephanie's or my business, but I figured he probably wasn't going to let up until I told him something. "We are keeping it on the down-low but yes, Stephanie and I are exclusively dating each other. So that makes her MY woman."

"Since you are too busy jerking me around, Farnum I'm assuming you don't have any leads on this case, I'm I correct?" I was sure hoping he had something because we had nothing. After finding out that it wasn't Morelli, that blew all our thoughts out the water and now we are back to square one.

"No leads, if I get anything I'll let you know." With that knocked his chair back as he was getting up and stormed out the room.

Ram picked the chair up and turned to follow Farnum to make sure that he was going to actually leave and not try to go to another floor.

I sat there and thought about everything that was going on. There must be something that we are missing. I want to tell Steph about the note that was received but I know if I do that it will scare her, and she will want to leave from here to protect me. If she does that, I can't protect her, and I must be able to protect her.

In the short time that I have known her, she has become very important to me. She calms me with her touch when I'm angry. She can sense when I'm coming into a room or when I'm close to her. I can sense when she is close to me as well. She makes me want things that I swore I would never want or things that I have always felt like I don't deserve.

She is so sweet and innocent, yet so vivacious and sexy. She is extremely smart and has never judged any of us as bad guys. Every chance she gets she offers her help to us. The guys have fallen in love with her and love it when she puts out the jams or jellies that she makes. I know it's against company policy as far as the rules that I have made go, but I just can't say no to her. It makes her happy and right now she needs some happiness.

I'm glad she will let someone take her to work. I always hope I'm the one that gets to take her but if not, I know someone will be there to offer their services.

I would love for her to stay here in the building and take some time off from work, but I know she is too stubborn to do that. She is fiercely independent and that's one of the things that I admire about her. She has an independent streak like nothing I've ever seen.

When this is all over with, I am hoping I can get her to move into my apartment with me. I have admitted it to anyone, but I have fallen in love with the curly-haired white girl from the Burg.

I never in a million years thought that would happen, not to Carlos Manoso, mercenary. Things like that don't happen to me or there aren't supposed to.

My soul has too many marks on it for me to believe that I deserve to be happy or even remotely happy and that's what Babe is. She is the light in my dark world. She is happiness times one thousand. I want to take her away from all of this and keep her for myself and love her and show her how it feels to be loved.

I know that I have to take my time with her because I get the impression that she doesn't trust men that much. Especially with the episode with Morelli. She never said what happened between the two of them, just that they hooked up in high school then she ran him over and broke his leg. He must have done something bad to merit her running him over. It's almost laughable if I didn't think that she would probably do it again if given the opportunity. Something to think about, don't piss off Stephanie. I had no intentions of doing that, anyway.

I was still sitting in the conference room still in my thoughts when Ram burst through the door.

"Ranger, Lester's panic button just went off at the Cluck in a Bucket. There was an explosion..."

He didn't' get to finish his sentence because I raced out of the room and took the stairs two at a time. God, please let her be okay. Racing out the door, Tank was right behind me. I jumped in the truck with Tank jumping in the passenger seat right behind me and we raced to the Cluck in a Bucket.

"Ranger, Hal called and said there was an explosion, but they were not in or around the vehicle when it blew up."

I released the breath I didn't realize I had been holding. Thank God. I don't know what I would have done If something happened to Babe. She has become very important to me. I can't lose her now. Not when I am just getting to know her.

We made it to the Cluck-in-a-Bucket in record time. I screeched to a halt and barely had the truck in park before I opened the door and jumped out. I ran over to Steph and pulled her in my arms. I just held her not knowing what to say. I had to get my temper under control I didn't want her to think I was mad at her because I wasn't.

She wrapped her arms around me and held onto me for dear life. That's okay, that's the only way I would want it to be. God, I can't believe all the feelings that go through me where she is concerned.

After I asked her if she was okay and she said she was, I could still see that she was shaken. I walked her over to my truck and made sure she was fastened in safely. I'm glad she said she wanted to go back to Haywood when I asked her.

I couldn't help but smile when I asked her again if she was okay and she said she needed a nap and one of the Tastykakes that she likes. I don't allow sweets in the building, but I will get one of the guys to get her two Boston Crème donuts to help soothe her. I know she loves those.

When I pulled up at Haywood, I looked at Babe and she was sound asleep. I guess the nap came first. I gathered her in my arms and held her close to me as I rode the elevator up to seven. I could have taken her to the apartment on four that she is using, but I wanted her with me. I laid her on my bed, undressed her, and put one of my t-shirts on her and a pair of RangeMan panties that I had Ella make just for her. I loved seeing my name on her body.

I couldn't help it, I had to hold her to reassure myself that she was indeed okay. I took off my shoes, took a quick shower and dressed in joggers and a t-shirt, and climbed into bed. I pulled her to me with her back to my front and wrapped my arms around her. She sighed like she was content in my arms.

Right before I drifted off to sleep, I whispered "Just relax Babe, and let me love you." That's the last I remember as the dark took over.