Val and Grandma looked in shock at the castle as the cabbie unloaded their bags, and I could see the calculating look in Val's eyes as she added up dollar signs. Grandma, however, just looked gleeful.

"Where are we going to put them?" I said. "We don't have any bedrooms free on the second floor, and my grandmother might find climbing to the third floor too hard."

"We'll put Tia and Grace and Alix in one bedroom, and put Edna in one of the girls' bedrooms and Val in the other", said Ranger. "Do you want to stay or do you want to go back to our room?"

I sighed. "I'll stay for a few minutes, but then I want to go back. I've hit my wall, and I'm not sure how much more I can take."

"Do you want me to welcome them to the castle and explain the do's and don'ts?" said Kai.

"I'll go too", said Julie.

Ranger and I looked at them with gratitude. "Thank you", we both said at the same time.

They left the room and walked down to the front door. As we saw them go outside and talk to my family members, Ranger sat beside me on the edge of the sofa. "You don't have to do this, babe", he said quietly. "You don't always have to be a superhero."

I took a deep breath and shuddered it out. "I just want to get it over with, and then Kai can give me that magic medication that makes me feel better."

"Morphine?"

"That too, but I was talking about the one that makes me feel more peaceful. That makes me feel like I can cope."

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Steph, there's no shame in seeing your sister later", said Miguel softly. "You don't have to welcome her to the castle. Maybe it would be better to see them when you still have a little of the sedative in your system."

I thought about that for a moment. "Okay."

"Okay as in Ranger, darling, take me to bed?" said Ranger. He smiled, but his eyes were worried.

I snorted out a laugh and sniffled. "Take me to bed, soldier boy", I said.

Ranger popped to his feet and picked me up. "Thank God. I thought you'd never ask."

I giggled at the same time as I was crying, and he quickly carried me out of the room and over to the stairs, and he ran up the stairs two at a time. "Show off", I said. "I could never run up the stairs, let alone two at a time or when I was carrying someone."

"Your feet will heal, babe."

"Oh, no. That had nothing to do with burns on my feet. That had everything to do with me not being able to run up the stairs. It's like that shirt that I once saw. 'I never run with scissors. The last two words are redundant'."

"You wouldn't run up, even for chocolate?"

I paused. There was little that I wouldn't do for chocolate.

My name is Stephanie Plum, and when I wasn't doing things for chocolate, I was the Executive Vice-President for Research and Investigative Services for Rangeman. We owned twenty-eight locations in the US and thirty-eight locations in Europe. We also owned forty percent of PMC, a company that operated primarily in hot zones in the world. Our three divisions did everything related to security. Most people thought that we were a security guard business – and we were. But we were a hell of a lot more. From bodyguarding to cybersecurity to designing complex security systems, from providing spies to providing soldiers to doing intensive research into felons and other suspects, we basically could do anything needed security-wise by whatever level of government or private individual or corporation. We were the best in the world at what we did, and we were paid well for it.

Recently, we became interested in buying Castle Force – which was now our European division – and we met the owner, Colin, as we went through the buying and amalgamating process. Colin was a wonderful man and we got along like a house on fire. He connected with our family, and we connected with him. He very quickly became one of my best friends, and I adopted him into our family. Unfortunately, he was quite ill. By the time he left us to go back to Scotland, he told me that his pregnant fiancée had died in a car crash over fifty years earlier. He said that I reminded him of Cami, and after meeting me he said that he liked to think of his baby as being someone just like me. Then, because he said I was the closest thing to a daughter that he'd ever had, he gave me the family castle, the place that he and Cami had bought to raise their family. He also gave me half his fortune, seventy-five billion pounds. The money was nice, don't get me wrong, but the fact that he was giving me his family home, the place where he and his partner had dreamed and planned? That meant so much more. He had died two months before, and I still missed him every single day. It was strange how you could just meet someone and they instantly have such a huge impact upon your life. It was strange how you could just connect.

To hide the fact that I was one of the richest people in the world, I legally changed my name to Cami Coline McAllister. Less than a handful of people knew that I had changed my name though. Everybody else still knew me as Stephanie Plum, and that was the way that I liked it.

We had come to Scotland to bury Colin and assume ownership of his company. While we were here, we became friends with a woman named Heather. Heather was graduating from her Master's program and had invited us to the ceremony. Ranger and I were honored. Unfortunately, one of the guests was the head of MI6, and during the ceremony some terrorists lobbed a bomb into the auditorium with the intention of killing him. Ranger and I went running to the front of the auditorium to help rescue the victims. Ranger picked up the dean and carried him out. Somehow, no one knows how, I saw the head of MI6 across the auditorium through the thick smoke. I ran across a flaming floor and dragged him up an aisle and out of the building. He weighed three times as much as I did and stood a foot taller. However, what was really shocking was that I was still recovering from pneumonia and had a hysterectomy just three months before.

So I got a little banged up. I developed chemical pneumonia, which luckily didn't stick around longer than a week. I tore my abdominal muscle, but the worst injury was the second and third degree burns on both legs from my knees down to my toes. That had happened a week ago and, to be honest, I don't know if I had noticed any difference in the level of pain. Because of the unrelenting pain, I was starting to suffer from regular panic attacks and was trying not to show it. Having my sister come was not going to help. We had a tenuous relationship at the best of times.

Ranger carried me into our bedroom and placed me carefully on the bed. He spread the light duvet throw over my body, the blanket that Lindsay had bought me. Lindsay was Colin's sister and like he had adopted me as his daughter, she had adopted me as her niece. The down throw she gave me was incredibly warm but, even better, it was incredibly light. I told Lindsay that it felt like a cloud and, now a few days later, I couldn't think of a more apt description. It was pretty – one side was a silky-smooth material while the other side was an incredibly soft plush. I absolutely loved it.

"How are you doing?" said Ranger. I was shaking, and he pulled me into his body, held me securely, and smoothed his hand up and down my back.

"Not good."

"Tell me what's going through your head?"

I sniffled. "Ranger, I am barely able to cope with just the people in the house right now, and there isn't one person in the house that has any ill will towards me. If I say that I've had enough and want to go back to bed, every person near me would be happy to take me, and would stay and talk to me until I felt more stable. I know that every single person in the castle would do whatever I needed, no questions asked. Every single person in the castle understands, on a gut level, what I am going through and wants to support me through it. Now I have two people, one hostile and one a gleeful and mischievous sprite who has no concept of consequences, who are going to demand attention that I don't have to give. It's taking all my patience to deal with the level of pain that I am feeling. I'm getting panic attacks all the time. I don't know if I can take any more." I swallowed back a sob.

"I'll spread the word, and all the other people in the castle will work to protect you from them."

"I'm scared too. Grandma is the sort of person to touch my feet just to see what would happen, and Val would 'accidentally' and on purpose touch my feet to prove that I am making up the pain. I don't want to be alone with them."

"Shh. We'll keep a guard on you, and you know that Grant and Kai and I won't take that shit from them. Babe, slow down your breathing. You're letting yourself get too upset."

"I can't do it, Ranger."

"Do you want me to kick them out of the castle?"

I gulped in some air and wiped away the tears. "I would never forgive myself for that."

"That's what I figured you'd say. Just remember that you have a lot of people here to protect you. We will make sure that you always have a guard on you, someone to help protect you from Val and Edna."

I buried my face in his shoulder and broke down. Ranger rubbed my back soothingly. He kissed my head periodically and let me cry. As my tears petered out, he said, "what is your pain level out of ten?"

I sniffled. "My lungs are a two from crying. My abdomen is an eight. And my legs are an eighteen. I just don't have anything to fight it with."

"What do you mean?"

"This is kind of the way that it always is, but because I am happier I can fight against it and can rise above it. So normally I report that my abdomen is a six, and it is. But that's with support and nothing going wrong. When something goes wrong, I can't make myself feel better any longer. I can't rise above the pain. I start to concentrate on it, and then the pain grows and grows until it's unbearable."

When I had been burned, Ranger got mad. He called over the Gurus, my team of elite researchers, and a strike team to identify, find and capture the assholes that did it. My team worked their usual magic and within four days had identified all the people involved, found proof of their involvement, and sent a strike team on their heels. Just a few minutes before, our strike team had captured the three terrorists and transferred custody to the British team. It was a good thing to happen, but it also was an emotional event for me to hear that the people who had caused me so much pain were being arrested.

And now Val and Grandma arrived. I just wanted a break, wanted to pause the world for a while so that I could catch my breath.

"Let's practice riding the pain", said Ranger, "just like you did when you were in labor." He eased me back on the bed so that I was leaning against the pillows, and he thumbed my face dry. He started smoothing my hair out of my face, over and over, and I closed my eyes and tried to float above things. But I was in agony, I was panicking, and my body didn't want to relax.

Kai, my doctor and Julie's boyfriend, slipped into the room. "Miguel said it wasn't going well?"

"Steph hit her wall", said Ranger, "and she is very upset about our newest guests. She is terrified to be alone with them. As she said, Edna would touch her legs just to see what would happen – she will also want to unwrap her legs to see the level of damage – and Val will put pressure on her legs to prove that they aren't painful. Because this is coming on top of an emotional day, she's having trouble coping."

Kai crouched beside the bed and took my pulse. "Do you want a sedative again?" he said. "I think it would be a good idea. Your heart is galloping as though you just sprinted the last mile of a marathon." He paused. "Steph, you've got to slow down your breathing. Perhaps Ranger can put his hand on your diaphragm, and you can concentrate on moving it up and down with your breath." Ranger moved his hand over, and Kai quickly filled a needle, got out an alcohol wipe, and disinfected my arm and gave me the shot.

"You'll feel better in a minute", said Kai. "And you have to remember, Grant and Ranger and I are not going to let you be alone with either Val or Edna. We are no longer protecting you from terrorists, but we are now protecting you from your family members. And that's okay. Some assignments as a soldier are more challenging than others. We may have men begging to be sent back behind enemy lines after this assignment, but I'm sure we'll get through it. The men in this castle would do anything for you."

"Steph's pain level is a two for her lungs, an eight for her abdomen, and an eighteen for her legs", said Ranger.

Kai sighed. "Steph, I can't give you anything for the pain yet. You still have another two hours to go before I can give you some morphine. However, that sedative will make you sleepy, will make you relax, and will let you rise above the pain. If you can, go to sleep and then you won't be aware of the pain the same. Okay?"

"Okay", I whispered.

"Concentrate on breathing. Breathe as slowly and as deeply as you can." He took down his stethoscope and listened to my lungs and heart, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt my body relax and unwind. "Good, Steph. Close your eyes and let yourself drift. How are you feeling?"

"Better. I can breathe."

"I'm glad to hear it."