Chapter 3

Tank's POV

There is this new detective that just transferred from NYPD. Apparently this is his crime scene, being a detective with Vice and Homicide, much like Morelli. So far, not much to scrutinize him with. He stood up to Morelli for disrespecting Little Girl, that is a solid star in my book toward that guy.

Ranger was walked up to me and leaned against the Bronco. "Do a full background check on the new detective. All of his records."

"Something up?" I asked, curious why the FULL background as opposed to the general basic one that we usually do for everyone that usually comes into regular contact with Little Girl.

"Just something about his eyes and surveying a scene before jumping in" then he slid into the Porsche and drove off.

Interesting, well, I gave the order of a full background check on the new detective to Manny as I was watching Ramano headed my way. Still leaning on the Bronco, "Detective" and he nodded and said "Detective Marcos Romano with Vice and Homicide. Want to give me the scoop on how you and your men could be on my crime scene and no TPD batted an eye?"

I looked at him for a minute, mainly his face and then a cursory glance to see whether he served or had some sort of feeling that warranted Ranger's full background check order. He could've served, but most likely gotten out at least a decade ago, no special forces training. Deciding that he did a good thing standing up for Little Girl and putting Morelli in a reprimand, I would help him a bit.

"Look detective, seeing you help Little GIrl out, I will help you out. Little Girl always seems to land in the middle of dangerous plots and catches the attention of all the psychos and deranged mobs and creatants on a weekly basis. Blown up cars whether by Molitov Cocktails or by bullets, those cars do not last long. Luckily, she usually gets by with scrapes here and there. None of us likes it when she's hurt, but being in the bounty hunter business, that is unavoidable."

"Why is she still in bounty hunting if she always seems to be caught in the middle of these… mishaps?"

"Who knows? But we've got her back." I said.

"Who is this 'we' you are talking about?" He asked.

"Rangeman, we are a security company that has many different ventures but at the top, nothing is more important that keeping Little Girl safe."

"Why is that?" He asked

"Because she is the light of our eyes." I smiled, thinking of all the good changes brought into our lives when she first interacted with us. "Do you know who the people were that threw the Molitov Cocktail at her car? Or who she was after?"

"Still under investigation, but she mentioned she was finished surveilling Claire Munez and got hungry so she went to her car to drive to Pinos, but the cocktail was thrown before she could even get in the car. Luckily, she booked it out and made it out with scratches and a few singe marks."

That did not sound good, should have Bobby take a look at her later. I have to deal with the issue now.

"If you find anything out that would be good to keep her safe, let me know. We can better protect her if we know who the players are."

"Why would you go to such lengths for her?"

I smiled with a cold glint on my eyes that made Romano's eyes widen a fraction. "As I said, she is the light in our eyes. Anything that happens to hurt her, gets payback. Word was already put out that she is Manoso's woman, and he protects what is his, so do we."

This caused Romano to furrow his brows… "even kill?"

I smiled, not saying yes, not saying no. He nodded, and switched topics.

"Anything else I should know about this town? Why were they exchanging money within the PD officers and laughing? I don't see anything remotely funny about a blown up car and an injured woman."

I liked him a bit more now… "As before, she gets her cars blown up often, the PD has bets on how her next car or accident will happen. Although it is frustrating to be betting on her accidents that could leave her more harmed, not much could be done if she doesn't firmly address it within the TPD. They grew up together here, so it is up to her to put her foot down and demand the betting to be stopped."

He nodded, at least getting a bit of a picture on the dynamics of this town. Then walked off. I wonder what Manny would find on this detective. He seemed fair and objective in terms of crime scenes.