Disclaimer: I wished I owned all these characters, it would've been fun, but it all belongs to Janet Evanovich.

A/N: Thank you to all those have reviewed and have been quite patient. Here's another crappy chapter, make it last because I don't know what to write next.

As far as I'm aware of I did not give this a time frame so I'm going to continue and bring in little things from EOT.

Chapter 8: News

God I'm sore. I really shouldn't have had that run yesterday. I don't know if I can stand up! Can I even move without pain? … Wait a minute. I didn't go for a run yesterday. Ohmygod! Ranger!

Suddenly I was aware of the warmth at my back and the arm around my waist.

"Babe." Oh god oh god! I had sex with Ranger again. I felt his body shift and then the warmth was gone. I groaned and turned over.

Ranger was on his back staring at the ceiling. Should I say something? What was last night about anyway? He could have done that when I was at his apartment couldn't he have?

The words Sebastian had said last night flashed in my head. What happens here stays here. Right?

"Steph." He said again.

I scrambled out of bed before he could say anything more and hurried off into the bathroom, all pain forgotten. In the bathroom I wasn't sure what to do, so I just washed my face and screamed when I saw my hair.

There was a knock on the door but this time no one came in. "Yes?"

Then the door opened. Ranger was holding some clothes out to me, which I took. He was now dressed in black sweats and a black t-shirt. "Breakfast?" he asked. I nodded. "Five minutes." he said and closed the door.

I put on the clothes he gave me, which happened to be his silk boxers and one of his t-shirts. The boxers sat low on my hips and I wondered if they would slip off but they didn't.

When I came out of the bathroom, Ranger led me back to the club to where we were sitting yesterday. We took our seats opposite each other and just stared. No words. When he looked like he was going to say something I jumped in. I was determined not to talk about last night.

"So how come… you are partnered with that girl?"

He gave me a look like why are you asking this but then gave a sigh and answered my question. "She had money to start this place, she just needed the contacts."

"What happened to going to school and having fun?"

"Babe. We shouldn't be talking about this." I didn't say anything. He gave another sigh and continued. "She's going to college; Princeton. As for fun, she's had a tough life. I don't think she cares too much about fun. The money she built this place with, was the pay off for her family's death."

I suddenly felt bad that I asked, but was I really getting answers from Ranger? "How come she where's that PDA on her leg?"

"It's connected to the club's computer system. She can check on anything with it. Security, status of the room, tonight's menu, anything."

I remembered last night again, when we were dancing. I remember the girl and Tank getting pretty damn close. "What's going on between Tank and her?" I asked before I could control myself.

"Nothing." He said, simply and firmly.

Before I could ask anything else, the girl came walking around the corner. She was dressed in last night's skirt and a black t-shirt that could belong to Tank; it was so huge on her. She looked much shorter now that she was barefoot. She walked straight to our table.

"Lee!" Someone boomed from the direction she had come from. The voice could only belong to one Tank last name unknown. He appeared around the corner bare chest, last night's black pants. When he saw Ranger he walked back out the direction he came.

"Excuse me." Growled Ranger. I turned to see Ranger getting up.

"Ranger?" I asked, but his face was hard. He followed Tank out.

The girl took Ranger's seat. I guess I can call her Lee, now that I know her name.

"Tank and Ranger will be up with breakfast in… oh say… fifteen minutes." She said, giving me a small smile.

I just gave her a look of confusion. Did she seriously sleep with Tank? I mean, why else would she be wearing his clothes and then come in here with him? Why else would Ranger look so angry?

"Ranger will get over it. Anyway, I wasn't the only one with a busy night." She looked down at my clothes. I felt the heat rise to my face. She gave a giggle. She gave a wave of her hand, like completely dismissing my flush.

"So you're Stephanie Plum," she said. "My name is Lily, but I go by Lee with the boys. You know their monosyllable ways"

"Were you raised by Batman and his Merry Men?" I suddenly asked without thinking.

She laughed at this. "Tank told me you had some interesting names for them… Batman… I see the resemblance; he is very Bruce Wayne-ish. Hunh… would Tank be Little John?"

Now I had to laugh. "Yeah." I paused. Looking in the direction that Ranger had gone. "What do you think they are discussing?"

"Me. Right about now Ranger is calling Tank stupid and asking him what he thinks he's doing. Then he'll order him to stay away and Tank will point out that he has no right… blah blah blah they'll come to some agreement and then they'll bring up the breakfast, which is the part I'm looking forward to. You think I should make Ranger feel uncomfortable?"

"How long have you known them?"

"Couple of years." She waved her hand again.

"And you give orders to Ranger and make him feel uncomfortable? And he hasn't sent you to a third world country?"

"Oh the third world country rumors again?" She gave a sigh. "He sends one person to a third world country and they never forget."

I gaped at this. She's kidding right? She gave me mysterious smile. Hunh?

Fifteen minutes must have passed while I was gaping because here were the boys coming with two trays. They set some plates around the small square table and took their seats facing each other, Ranger to my right and Tank to my left. Sitting right in front of me was a stack of crapes with some dark syrup on them. I swiped a little of the syrup with my finger and tasted it. It was sweet. The same sat in front of Tank and Ranger, but in front of the girl sat two rolled up crapes… stuffed with something I couldn't see.

"What is this?" I said pointing to the syrup.

Lee flashed me a smile. "It's a secret. Don't worry it's not poisoned."

I noticed Tank and Ranger eating. I wonder if they always eat like this when they were here. This wasn't exactly rabbit food. I noticed the girl eat too, so I thought it was time to dig in as well.

After we were all done Tank stood up and picked up all the plates. "Lee, sure you don't want anymore?" Tank asked as he was picking up her plate.

"No thank you Sweetie." Things went very quiet for a moment. Tank was obviously surprised by the sign of affection and he just stood there in stunned silence. All the while Lee watched Ranger. I turned to Ranger and saw that he was glaring at Tank. His eyes hard and his face tensed. Tank was getting a very hard look, if I got that look I'd pee in my pants.

Tank hurried with the plates and was out of the room with in a minute and then there was a giggle that turned into a laugh. Lee was bent over laughing hard. When I got a look at her face, I could see tears in her eyes. I smiled in spite myself.

"Ranger…" Lee gulped some air. "You are…" she laughed some more. "Priceless." Third world country here we come because she continued to laugh and I found myself giggling along. I tried my best not to but I couldn't help it, until Ranger shot me a look that said what are you doing?

I gulped at this and stopped the giggling.

Lee calmed down a minute after. She sat up straight and wiped away tears. "Ranger, don't get so angry. I'm only kiddin'." She said with a sweet smile.

Ranger's faced calmed and now looked more Ranger-like, flat and emotionless. I don't think Ranger's ever caught off guard but this girl somehow managed it without being sent to a third world country. Ranger looked her straight in the eye. "You sure you had enough to eat?"

"Oh Ranger, you worry too much." Just then Tank came back into the room He made his way across the room and took his seat. Ranger passed a look to Tank that I couldn't read, but it wasn't like the earlier one, which is a good sign. "Lee." Ranger's voice was back to business. "You got the report?"

"Hai, hai!" She tapped at her forehead. "It's right here."

"Where's the written one?"

"C'mon Ranger," she whined. "I had papers due today, I was working on them all week." She gave him an innocent smile.

Ranger actually sighed, one of those I give up sighs. "Fine, lets here it."

Lee's face drained away the cheerfulness that she had a second ago. She straightened in her seat and then began to talk very seriously. "Morelli is fine." Her voice was back to the commanding tone from last night. "He's sitting tight for now. They know there's a cop among them, they just don't know who. So everyone is being forced to sit still."

"Doesn't explain why they haven't gone through with the deal." Ranger stated.

"Someone stole the Disk. A guy names Michael Kurtis was rumored to have taken the disk but he's in jail. They searched the place he was staying at but they couldn't find anything."

Lee and I both noticed the look that passed between Ranger and Tank.

"You know where it is." Lee simply stated with a nod of understanding. "Is that all you need?"

"Do you know where they are?"

"They moved things to Boston, a safe house. You planning on joining them?"

Ranger gave a slight nod.

What was going on here? Why was Ranger interested in Morelli? Why was Morelli in Boston? Why does Ranger know about all this? How does he know about this? Scratch that, I don't want to know how he knows.

"Hunh?" It slipped out with all my thoughts. "What's going on?" Everyone looked at me.

Ranger got up and motioned for me to do the same. He walked a head towards the door to the outside. I jumped from my seat and ran to catch up. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"You already know." He said while holding the door open for me.

"No I don't!" I almost yelled. Now getting a little angry.

"Babe." He turned to me after closing the door behind us. "You know most of it. Morelli went undercover. Things went bad. I was hired to make it okay again."

He started walking again and I followed. I thought about what he said, it took me until we reached the apartment to recover and ask more questions.

"How come Lily knew all that too?"

"I asked her to look into it."

"So is she a Rangeman employee?"

"No. It was a favor."

I was starting to think there was more to the girl than anyone was willing to tell me. But she seemed pretty normal to me. Or as normal as you can be after being raised by Batman and his Merry Men.

"We didn't raise her." Hunh? Did I think out loud or was that ESP?

Ranger was looking down at my body now. "You want to take a bath?"

"Sure," I said. "Too bad there's no bathtub." I know I'm playing with fire but hell what the worst that could happen?

Ranger wolf grinned at me. "I guess you didn't notice."

"I think I would notice a bathtub in the bathroom if I saw one."

"If I can show you the bathtub, I get to join you."

Stupid I know but I was feeling defiant. I was pretty sure there wasn't a bathtub up there. "Deal." I stuck out my hand. Ranger took my hand but didn't remove it; instead he dragged me to the bathroom around the corner into the small room where the toilet was.

He let go of my hand and walked up to the wood paneled wall and put his hand on it. He pushed and I heard a click. The wall popped open, or rather the whole panel, well no now it was a door! I was dumbstruck I stood there gaping.

I pointed at the door. "That's cheating."

But Ranger only flashed me a 200-watt smile and said: "you need to be more aware of your surroundings."

He went through the door while I stood outside still in amazement. How could I fall for that, never make deals with Ranger! Argh!

I stepped through into the newly revealed room. The room was a small tiled room one window covered in thick dark brown curtains that didn't let the light in. The floors were tiled in a dark brown the walls were tan. Around the room were as a ledge protruding from the wall. From the inner edge of the ledge there was a stream of low light coming, giving the room a yellow tint.

In the middle of the room sat the tub. It was one of the latest designs for a tub where when the tub over flowed there was an extra tub around it to catch the water. You know the ultra cool ones you see in the commercials. Ranger had already turn on the water and was now undressing.

I was watching Ranger undress! Ohmygod! He didn't have much to take off just the sweats and the t-shirt he was wearing and then he slid into the streaming hot water in the tub.

He then looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Deal's a deal Babe." He motioned for me to join him. He was right, a deal's a deal. I mentally sighed and undressed. Not that this was bad situation.

I left behind Ranger's clothes and stepped into the tub with the naked sex god in it, but then I just stood there not knowing where to sit in the tub. He looked at me expectantly… I guess I could sit at the other end of the tub, it was large enough. But just as I was about to turn Ranger's hand was at my hip. He applied a little pressure downwards and towards him. I let him maneuver me between his legs and up against his body.

I wasn't so sure about the situation; its going to be awkward later isn't it? I was really tense and he felt it. He began massaging my shoulders.

Mmm… this is just as good as an orgasm.

"I don't think I'm doing it right then."

Hunh? Did I say that out loud? Shit.

Time to change the subject.

"So… Ranger." Okay so I'm not that smooth. "How do you know her?" I was determined to learn more about Lily.

He didn't answer me.

"Lily I mean." He wasn't going to give me answers. Oh well… I had to try.

---

I was dressed in a skirt and shirt that were both too short for me. So I was showing a little mid-drift and a lot of leg. Morelli definitely wouldn't be happy with me wearing this around Ranger, but he wouldn't be too happy about me sleeping with Ranger either.

I stepped out into the bathroom with a frown.

"I can't wear this!" I whined to Ranger, but he had a smile on. He's been doing that a lot lately. He finally went to the closet and brought out one of his t-shirt for me.

"Here." He tossed it to me. I took of the shirt and pulled on the t-shirt and felt a little better. Still too much leg but I can deal.

Soon I found myself in the entrance hall waiting with Ranger. Tank and Lily appeared through a side door. Lily was in black cargo shorts, a black tank top and black flip-flops she looked like she fit in with the Merry Men. Wait… this skirt is hers that means the pants would fit me too; at least around the waist. How come Ranger didn't give me a pair of her cargo pants!

I turned to Ranger but he was looking at my legs. I guess that answers that question.

Tank threw the keys to Ranger and Ranger raised an eyebrow.

"Dave took your car back into town. His mom called." Tank shrugged.

Ranger gave a nod as if he knew what Tank was talking about.

Ranger led the way out to the SUV. Ranger got in the driver's side, Tank into the passenger seat and Lily and I got in the back.

There was no music at first and then Ranger put in some classical.

"Tank, put in something better. Wallflowers." Lily commanded.

Tank dug in the glove compartment and came up with a CD, which he put in. I saw Ranger frown in the rear-view mirror.

The sound of Wallflowers filled the inside and everyone except me had entered their own zone. I looked around and was soon staring out the window. Ten minutes later I was looking around again. Lily caught my eye and smiled.

"How did you meet Ranger?" She asked me.

"I lost my job, I was starving, I needed money so I signed up for bounty hunting. Ranger helped me get started." I gave her the simple version.

She was laughing now, I didn't realize I said something funny. "Oh my god. You're the Bounty Hunter from Hell. I didn't realize that was you." She continued to laugh. "You blew up a funeral home."

"That wasn't my fault." I automatically replied.

"And all those cars?" she asked now only in giggles.

"It wasn't my fault. People just like blowing up my cars."

---

Ranger dropped me at my apartment and told me that Tank will be by to take me to my parent's. I groaned. I completely forgot. Dinner with at my parents.

I was ready at 5:30 and no delays Tank was there. We got to my parent's ten minutes early.

"You sure you don't want to join me?" I asked Tank.

He shook his head. "I'll be here when you're done."

I got out and walked to the front door where Mom and Grandma Mazur were waiting.

"Stephanie! He can't sit out there, what will the neighbors say!"

"I invited him but he didn't want to come inside!"

"Is that the hot Ranger guy!"

"No Grandma, that's Tank."

"Go inside Stephanie." My mother marched off to the car. Grandma Mazur dragged me inside. I wanted to watch Mom take on Tank.

Dad was already at the table ready to be served. The kids were running around making a lot of noise, the baby was crying, Val was trying to control everything and Kloughn was trying to help but really was just getting in the way. I was standing there looking at the scene when the front door opened and in came Tank and Mom. Wow, Tank… joining us for dinner. This should be an experience.

I went into the kitchen and grabbed some dishes. Mom took the main dish to the dinning room table. I took a seat next to Tank who was looking very uncomfortable. Dad took his share of the pork-roast and the meal began.

"Tank is it?" Grandma Mazur asked.

Tank inclined his head a little.

"Are you friends with that hottie, Ranger?"

Tank looked confused but nodded.

"He looks like he has a package any woman can appreciate."

Dad almost choked, Tank looked like he was going to start laughing, and Mom just sent Grandma a glare, which I don't think Grandma noticed. Val had clamped her hands over Mary Alice's ears.

"Did you know that a man's orgasm is essential to procreation but the same is not true for a woman."

"Angie!" Val almost screamed.

Mom crossed herself and Dad concentrated on his roast. Tank smiled.

"Well, at my age it's not about procreation." Grandma said. "I'm going out with Tony Folacci. He's awfully small but he can get it up unlike DeChooch."

All our forks clattered onto our plates. I think I'm done eating.

"I ask for one night! One night! With just the family sitting down for a nice dinner without any talk about private parts!" Mom got up from the table and stormed into the kitchen. Hmm… interesting night.

I followed Mom into the kitchen and found her taking a drink from the hooch she kept in the pantry.

"I thought you gave that up?" I accused.

Mom gave me a glare worthy of any burg woman.

I took the cake out and cut a couple of slices for Mom and me. I placed them at the breakfast table and Mom joined me.

We began eating. If there's anything that makes the Plums feel better it was cake. Twenty minutes later and two pieces of cake later Mom was feeling better. She took the rest of the cake into the dinning room.

Desert was passed around, which Tank seem to appreciate and enjoy. There was no more talk about private parts and no shootings or other mishaps to the relief of Mom.

Mom loaded me up with some leftovers since I didn't get to really eat and what was left of the cake. When we were outside Tank immediately took the cake from me.

"Hey!" I don't know what he was thinking he was doing. No one takes my cake.

"You owe me." Tank said.

"What?" Maybe he was right, but it wasn't really my fault.

"That was a nightmare and anyway Lee will appreciate it."

This was probably the most I've ever heard from Tank. It just didn't happen too often. "Oh?" Maybe I could milk him some more.

He slid a glance my way and then walked to the driver's side. When we got in I was still looking at him curiously.

"She didn't want me working tonight. Thinks Ranger did it on purpose." Tank replied finally.

"Interesting." I said to myself.

---

We pulled into Haywood building's parking lot. Tank guided me to the elevator and took me up to the 7th floor He pushed me out and gave a little wave with the cake as the door closed.

I went up to the door and knocked. A few minutes later I was greeted by Ranger; he stepped aside to allowing me to enter. His face was still flat and I wasn't all together sure he was happy, but then he peaked at my leftovers and then just took them.

"Hey!" He raised an eyebrow. "I didn't get the chance to eat yet." Sure there was plenty to go around but I didn't feel like sharing. I didn't think Ranger was going to give me the option either. He entered the kitchen and came out with two plates. We took seats at the table and dove into the food.

Now that I looked at him again, I would say he's more tired looking than anything else. Why was Ranger eating regular people food anyway?

"I'm going to Boston tomorrow."

"What do you mean you?"

"I want you to stay here."

"Really?" My voice came out a little huffy. Okay so I wasn't happy about what I was hearing.

"Dangerous people out there Babe, they already tried to kill you."

"You mean that guy who broke into my apartment?" This was the only guy who's tried to kill me. I didn't know that guy was connected to Morelli, I hadn't even thought about it. I always have psychos after me. "And you didn't tell me this before why?" I was almost yelling I admit. I suppose there are a few things you don't do with Ranger, like hanging up on him or yelling at him. But I continued. "You are not leaving me here! That's Morelli you are going to rescue! And I want to be there so I can yell at him! For once it's his fault that my car got blown up!"

The corner of Ranger's lips twitched up. He was amused, then he finally nodded. "Fine, you can come. We leave at 5 tomorrow morning."

Five! He's crazy. I was actually considering staying here just so that I didn't have to wake up that early.

I helped Ranger clean off the table. Ranger suddenly turned to me. "Where's the cake?"

I sighed. "Tank took it."

He looked disappointed, then shrugged and walked into his bedroom. He returned in a minute with a pillow and blanket. He put them down on the couch and went back to his room. I pulled off my jeans and sunk into the couch for a good night of sleep.

A/N: Okay so I realize I played with Ranger's character, but I liked the thought of him trying to be protective but not having an actual say and the same person having such an influence on him he's completely unaware of himself actually taking orders. I'm sure if Ranger was real and he read this and he could find me, he would hit me over the head with a heavy object