A/N: The truth is, I wrote myself into a hole. I had an idea and published it, with no idea where it was going with it. I've finally figured out how to climb out of said hole and have the next part ready to go as well.

All characters are JE's and thank you to the wonderful txbabefan for her beta assistance.

The next day.

This was a bad idea. Bad with a capital B.

Connie had Marco on a Zoom call. It wouldn't do to have him come by and be seen near the bonds office.

"So, you want me to flirt with Stephanie here, to make this guy jealous? And he's an ex-military, security expert who could probably snap me like a toothpick?" He paused considering. "This is a huge favour, Connie. Is he at least an 8?"

As far as I was concerned, Ranger was an 11. I pulled out my phone and showed Marco a photo.

He let out a whistle. "Damnnnn….. Can I flirt with him to make you jealous? Because that would require no acting skills at all. Connie, if I do this, you owe me big." He paused for a moment and added, "And if he does hit me, you're paying for the physio and a facial and Stephanie has to accompany me to the next Family wedding."

"He's not going to hit you. He sees guys crack on to me at distractions all the time. I guess we want to see if he's…" I stopped and tried to think of the right word.

Lula butted in "He's nappin'! This is a shit or get off the pot moment. We need you to make Batman's realise he's gotta swoop in, or Wonder Woman here is going home with someone else."

He better swoop in. I didn't want to go home with anyone else.

"Batman?" asked Marco, clearly confused.

Connie ignored him. "Ok so, what's the plan?" She was trying to get us back on track – the distraction was tonight.

"We've got a lead that a skip, Laurence Russell is going to be at that new nightclub, Electric Dreams. Rangeman run security for them, so they've okay'ed us picking him up there if I can lead him off the premises with no fuss. We don't know when he's going to be there though, so I'll be in place from 9pm just in case. The skip's not violent (he's wanted for fraud) so I'll be the only one inside the club, but I'll be on camera and wearing a mike. He likely won't get there til 10, so that leaves us about an hour before I need to actually start working. If you hit on me, Ranger will hear everything."

"Ok", said Marco, warming up to the idea. "Can I create a new persona? You know, to get in character? I could be Eduardo, a successful paediatric heart surgeon from New York, looking for someone to share my life and private plane with…" He stared off into the distance, somewhere above our shoulders. Marco clearly had a flair for the dramatic.

Connie snorted. "Eduardo? And heart surgeon? We're going for believable, not Mills and Boon."

Marco looked a bit put out. "Yes, but I need to be intriguing and he has to think I'm competition. It looks like it'll take a lot to rattle this guy."

I didn't know that anything would rattle Ranger. He was gorgeous, successful and justifiably self-confident. And I wasn't 100% sure that he was going to care if Marco was interested in me and that made me anxious.

"Alright," Marco continued, trying to flesh out his character. "I'll keep Wall Street banker then and focus on the fact that I live in New York. At least that adds a bit of mystery and I have material to draw from. What about the name Paolo?"

"Meh…" Connie waved her hand so-so.

"Joe?"

"No!" The three of us burst in unison.

"Ok, not Joe…. Leo…?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah, Leo works," I replied, not sure that this was our most pressing concern. Or that this plan was going to work.

"So find you, hit on you, wake the beast and get out alive? Is that about it?"

"Yep, that's the plan" I replied. This was so not a plan - this was a suicide mission.

A Rangeman black SUV pulled into the parking lot. As usual, their parking karma meant they found a spot right outside the front.

"Bye, Marco. Gotta go," Connie blurted out as she quickly disconnected the call.

We watched as Zip and Woody got out of the car and came in to collect the high value bond files.

"Ladies." Zip, like most Rangemen, was a man of few words.

Woody was more talkative, "And how are we all this fine afternoon?"

"We're good. Just tryin' to talk Steph here into signing up for some dating apps. Everyone's on apps these days. There's apps for everything. I hear celebrities even got their own apps. Are you boys on any apps?" Lula ignored my glare.

"Here you go", said Connie, handing Zip some manila folders and coming to my rescue. And it seemed to theirs. "You gentlemen have a good day," she added with a smile and a meaningful nod. They saw their exit and were out the door in record time.

"What was that?" I shrieked at Lula, once they'd gone.

"Batman needs to know you're looking to date. Now he will."

I groaned.

A/N: Don't worry, I've already written the next two chapters.