Disclaimer: See Chap 1

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Like hell it was.

"Don't stop. I want to know."

He nodded. "Our great-grandfather fell in love with a girl that wasn't involved the business. He pursued her for quite a while, ignoring his responsibilities to the family. When she finally accepted him, he poured out his heart to her; told her everything. She told him that the only way they'd ever be together was if he got out."

He stopped, so I prompted, "So he did."

Ranger nodded, "He did.

"That's so…" I was at a loss for a second, "…it's so romantic."

He stared at me, "I wouldn't call it romantic, Babe. They spent the rest of their lives always on the run, always hiding."

"But they were so in love." I argued.

"Sometimes love isn't enough."

"Sometimes it's all you need."

We weren't talking about his great-grandfather, anymore.

We stared at each other, and for the first time ever, it seemed as if he couldn't read my thoughts.

"They had two boys." He said abruptly, tearing his gaze from mine.

I waited.

"When our great-grandfather's brother took over the business, he redoubled the efforts; and eventually they were tracked down. He had them all killed-"

"His own brother!!" I couldn't help the exclamation that left my mouth. Sure, Valerie got on my nerves, but…

Ranger nodded, "Once he'd left the business, he'd ceased to be family."

"Oh"

"He had them all killed, except the younger boy. The younger boy got away."

"You're grandfather." I stated.

"Yes."

"This part of the story is vague. Somehow my grandfather made it to America and contacted a branch of the family that had yet to hear what his father had done. According to the story, I'm not sure how much of it is true, he killed the head of that family and took the position for himself."

My eyes widened, some boy.

"Of course it could have been as simple as the boss passing control over to him." He shrugged, "Whatever it was that happened, my grandfather at the age of sixteen was the boss of the family. How he got that accomplished, how he got their loyalty, their trust, didn't trickle down in the story. He made that branch of the family legitimate; for his father, because it was the way he was raised. It took time, but he did it."

Ranger paused.

I waited.

"He didn't make the same mistake as his father had though, he didn't marry just anyone. He searched for and found another family that had a branch that matched his. A branch that was no longer actively involved and when he found it, he married a girl from it."

"Your grandmother."

"Yes. They had two boys as well. My father-"

"And that Uncle you mentioned."

"Yea." He sat on the side of the bed, looking at me, "My father is the older of the two. The way I figure it, his brother, Ramon, inherited most of what it was inside my grandfather that made him boss at sixteen. The ambition, the thirst, he wasn't happy being legit, he wanted more. More power, more influence, more control; but he wasn't ruthless either; not like that other guy. He wasn't willing to kill his blood to get it."

He stopped, so I spoke, "So instead of challenging his older brother for the position of head-hancho…"

"…he high-tailed it to Florida, where he joined someone else's family."

He looked very grim and I was getting a bad feeling.

"Another family? Is that done can you just decide that you want to be part of another family?"

Ranger shrugged, "It was another Cuban family, who in the past had had ties with the original version of our family. He was accepted, warily at first, but soon he gained the trust of the boss. Soon he also gained the trust the of the bosses daughter, who married him."

"Getting more complicated."

Ranger nodded, "Now he was actively involved in an active family." He stopped.

"Well…"

"The woman he married, the one we've always called Tia and who used to make us sweet tea when we visited and put lotion on our mosquito bites is De Ruiz's sister."

"Oh."

"Yeah, she's his half-sister; they have the same father but not the same mother. It's why we met De Ruiz."

He fell silent again; it was obvious that even as he was telling me he was having second thoughts about it.

"Okay so now tell me how your family, how these people play into it."

He arched that eyebrow at me, "Babe… this isn't as easy it looks… just telling you things."

"Just trust me."

He stared at me, then a smirk covered his face, "Okay fine, but you can't use that line for a year."

That's a long time, "Six months."

"Deal."

I nodded, "Good," I inched forward.

"Our dad was a navy man, and he ran his household like a boot camp. Mom provided the balance. He was killed on active duty when Ralphie was four, that's why… in case you didn't notice, Ralphie isn't as…"

"Rigid." I offered helpfully.

He scowled, "Controlled as the rest of us."

I snorted. "But you were just kids."

Ranger shrugged, "He gave a really strong background of discipline. Ralphie only got it for about a year. It didn't stick with him the way it did with the rest of us."

I nodded, "Yeah, it's like he's human."

He gave that no response, "Anyway, Mom has a Family too, but she…" he paused, "They believe her to be dead."

"Oh"

He nodded, "So on that side we have no complications. When Dad died we were left kind of out in the open. So in steps Uncle Ramon and he's followed by his brother-in-law, De Ruiz. They figure they can take over, use Dad's Navy career as a good cover, and gain themselves a family of boys to carry forward the Business."

"Didn't work that way." I loved stating the obvious.

"Nope, they didn't take into account our mother." He said with pride.

Mama-Bat.

His eyes widened, my eyes slid shut – crap, did I say that out loud?

"Yeah, you did?"

My eyes flew open.

He was grinning, "Yeah, you said that out loud too."

I sighed.

"Wait till mom hears this."

"You can't tell her!" Okay, so there was panic in my voice, so what. "Your family already thinks I'm weird. You know considering that I can't seem to control my emotions, go around hitting people and falling into pools, and with Tan- ugh! With Eddie walking around calling me "Bombshell" the last thing I need is for you to share that."

He laughed, yes, a real laugh, it was really annoying, "They don't think you're weird. They think you're colorful."

"Puh-leeeeeease don't tell her." I whined.

It took a few more puh-leeeeeeease's but he finally consceded.

"Fine, I won't tell her."

"Good, now what did she do."

He shook his head at me before continuing, "We were all pretty young. Marcus was thirteen and Ralphie was barely four with Tony at eleven and me and Lane at eight, they expected to have no trouble getting her to marry De Ruiz. His wife had died a few years earlier. Mom was way ahead of them though, she made it seem as if her Family did know she was alive and had already staked a claim to us. She hired these actors, big burly men with dark hair that looked enough like her to be family, told us to call them Tio; and when Uncle Ramon and De Ruiz arrived at her door she greeted them with one on either side and an automatic in her hand. It was established on that visit that we would all spend two months every summer in Florida with Ramon. Other than that we were all officially off limits and any all actions to the effect of drawing us to their Business would be offensive to Mom's Family."

"By the time they realized the mistake it was too late. We were no longer defenseless. Marcus was nineteen, Tony seventeen, I was fourteen – and we were big and mature for our age."

"What about Lane?"

He smiled, tenderly, "Lane grew up in her own world, while we did target practice, she bandaged the fake surgery she'd done on one of her dolls. That girls wanted to be a doctor since she knew what one was."

"Of course," I said, covering a yawn, "Someone has to patch you all up."

"Maybe you should go to sleep, we could finish this tomorrow."

"Nuh-uh, keep going. So what happened."

"Nothing for awhile. We stopped our visits, and upped on our training, forced Lane to do it with, focused on Ralphie who was only ten. They left us alone mostly, but all bets were off. They could approach us if they wanted, and if we turned them down, then they could act accordingly."

"I don't like the sound of that."

He smiled, "Uncle Ramon came for a visit two years later. He'd never come back after that first time. We were all very nervous, we knew why he was coming, what was going to happen afterwards. An amazing thing happened though, he took one look at us and got choked up… we were his brother's children and he couldn't make an offer he knew we would refuse. So he left."

"He wasn't ruthless."

"No." The word was said warmly, but there was a grim expression in his eyes and I got the feeling that things were about to get bad.

"He wasn't ruthless, but De Ruiz… was upset when Uncle Ramon got back without even one of us."

He was silent and I didn't prompt him. My skin was crawling; I knew what he was going to say.

"De Ruiz had him killed."

"But his sister…"

Ranger shrugged, "He made her a widow, it didn't matter to him. His sister as a widow would move back in with him; And they'd had no children."

I felt sick.

"He knew. He had to of known that if he returned without us, he would be killed. But he… he never even mentioned it. He spent two weeks with us. And they…. they were wonderful. He was so great… so much like our dad."

My hand found itself on his arm, "He loved you."

Ranger nodded, but didn't meet my eyes, "We couldn't do anything; didn't even know for a week later."

"It wasn't your fault."

He smirked bitterly, "I know, the rational part of me knows; he made his choice. The only choice he could make, the same choice I would have made. At the time we all blamed ourselves, especially Marcus and Tony. As the two oldest they felt they should've, could've done something."

I shook my head, "No, they couldn't have. If they'd gone with him, they would've been killed too."

Ranger nodded, "We know. Still we felt… we felt we should have done more… we felt anger… hate. We hated that man. Thank god we were states away. I shudder to think what we would've done if we'd been near to him."

"You would've gotten yourselves killed."

"Probably."

My hand was still on his arm. He picked it up. I held my breath as he intertwined his fingers with mine.

"You sure you wouldn't rather sleep?"

I nodded, not actually breathing.

He smiled, "Nothing happened for a little over four years. I graduated high school without incident. Then I met a girl. She was my age, and gorgeous and I thought I was in love with her." He paused, "I also thought she was on the pill."

My stomach clenched.

He grimaced, "Imagine my surprise when I found out that not only was she pregnant, but she was De Ruiz's only daughter."

"He changed his tactics." I deduced.

Ranger nodded, "We thought it was over. I was stupid. And then I was trapped. I couldn't say no without endangering my family."

"So you married her."

"I married her. Like I said before, we were beyond miserable in four years. We were actually married for five, though, until I was twenty-three. The last year we weren't actually living together anymore. Truth is we were so miserable that she begged her father to let us get a divorce. De Ruiz already had what he wanted, a link that connected our family with his. He would have preferred that Lisa had a son, but as long as there was child it was enough. We were his family now."

"I don't get what the big deal is."

"His Family was in danger. His only child was a girl, his wife was dead, and his sister didn't have any children. He was vulnerable. Our family had four strong males and one female. It's the way this world works, you have to be a big and strong or you're in danger of being taken over. And the boss of the Family that's taken over is nearly always killed."

"But you're family isn't in that world anymore."

"It's a link that will never go away Babe. Every business, every career we are into is legitimate. Everything you see has been purchased with clean money. We have no secret bank accounts, no hideouts. Everyone under this roof is completely legitimate, but…" he sighed, "… I have a daughter whose grandfather isn't. Lacey and Lucas have an Uncle whose family isn't. And if any of us were ever arrested for something serious all these things would come up and no one would ever believe we were clean."

"So even though you're not involved, you are."

He nodded, his grip on my hand tightened, and I met his eyes again, "And now so are you Babe."

I swallowed hard.

"You can never go back"

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice so remorseful, it pierced my heart. "I'm so sorry for doing this to you-"

"No," I cut him off, inching still closer, "I'm the one who asked, Ranger, I demanded to know; and I'm not sorry. I wanted to know, and I still do. Keep going."

He shook his head, "Babe…"

"Just keep going, I'm thinking you're almost done."

He stared at me, before a small smirk appeared, "God you're like a pit-bull."

I scowled, "Talk."

"I told you about the custody hearing. When I got denied custody I went into the Army. Marcus had gone into the Navy before me; he's a Seal you know."

My eyes widened, "I can see that."

He smiled, "He's not as bad as he looks."

"Sure." I loaded the word with sarcasm.

"Anyway, life went on. Eddie… Tank… joined the army with me. Mostly to make sure I didn't get myself killed. We both were selected for the Ranger's." He shrugged, "Things were pretty calm until a month ago."

"Calm?" I asked skeptically, trying to imagine Ranger's life as calm.

He grinned, "On that front, they were calm..."

"So what happened?"

He sighed, "Lisa was kidnapped. I flew down there, for Nica's sake mostly. I needed to make sure nothing happened to her; needed to make sure that what was going on was in no way related to me. It wasn't, but still… Nica was so upset. Regardless, Lisa was a good mother. I tried to work with De Ruiz, for her sake, tried to use my resources. He wasn't very accommodating; everything I did was under suspicion. He even had me tailed. It was a mistake. He was behaving as if I were still that kid he'd duped. I lost my temper."

"Uh-oh,"

He nodded, "Yeah. She was found dead that night."

"Double uh-oh."

"Yeah. So like I said before… see how much I said before…"

I scowled, "I knew nothing before! Not even the tip of the iceberg!"

He smiled, ignoring me, "Like I had said, he's convinced I had something to do with it. Which I didn't." The smile faded. "He'd be willing to overlook it, if I gave him Nica. But I won't, not ever, she's mine. She stays with me."

"He's willing to overlook it!!! The murder of his daughter!"

"De Ruiz is not the nicest guy, Babe. As I'm sure you noticed. If I gave him Nica, he'd have the ultimate bargaining chip."

I thought on that for a second. De Ruiz wanted his granddaughter. Ranger would never give her up. De Ruiz was trying to pin a murder on Ranger. He wouldn't stop until he got his granddaughter. Ranger would never give her up.

"This is soooooo not good." I really do love to state the obvious.

He said nothing.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about how this is going to be resolved?"

"De Ruiz has called on an Uncle for help. A pretty powerful one, he's old but he's ruthless. He's the one providing the man-power for this. It's why we're all here; it's easier to secure everyone if we're under one roof."

"Lock down." I stated.

He nodded, "It wasn't, which is why Suzie wasn't here, but it is now. The fact that De Ruiz handled you personally ups the stakes."

I yawned again, "So how is this going to be resolved?"

"Pit-bull."

"Ranger."

"The only way, Babe, we gotta end it for good, or no one here is ever going to be safe again. You included."

He paused, I glared, I didn't like that answer. "What about pris-"

"There's only one way to end this Babe, and it's time you went to bed."

While I blinked in surprise, he released my hand and stood. He went to the closet, opened it and produced my pajamas.

"Need help?" he asked.

Now there was double surprise on my face, and heat in my blood as I pictured him helping me put them on.

"I-I thi-think I ca-can manage. Tha-thanks."

He nodded, coming back to the bed and tossing the pajamas aside. He sat down again and this time I noticed how close he was. I noticed the heat he emanated, the scent that was uniquely his.

He reached out and folded a strand of my hair behind my ear, "I've never told anyone all that; wasn't sure I even could."

I said nothing. His hand hadn't moved, it was touching me, cupping the side of my face as if I were the most precious thing in the world.

"Thank you for listening, Babe."

They were simple little words, not really significant, not nearly as significant as the three-little-words every girl yearns to hear, but they made that warm feeling in me come a live again. It was big and warm and tender and I wanted to touch him.

Why not?

I reached out and touched his face, the way he was touching mine.

"Always, Rick, always."

I'm not sure why I called him Rick. Especially since I usually had trouble remembering that, that was his actual name, but it just slipped.

Or rather slid…

It slid right off my tongue, because somehow…

Somewhere inside, I recognized that this wasn't Ranger; this was the person who'd created Ranger.

This was Bruce Wayne.

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