6.

As I walked in, my heart was pounding. Stay focused, Stephanie. You're here on a mission, to hunt for a man. I scoped the crowd, but it was hard to distinguish people apart. They all seemed to be in one big mass on the dance floor.

We walked through the crowd, with dancers bumping into us. The music was so loud; I could feel the rhythm pumping in my chest. The place was really crowded. We made our way to the bar and Connie and Lula ordered strawberry daiquiris. I was going to need something stronger if I was really going to go through with this. I ordered a rum and coke and downed it in about two minutes.

We scanned the crowd to see what kind of prey we had to choose from. Lula spotted a cute guy with baggie pants and a tipped hat so she made her way over to dance with him. They were deep into some bump and grind thing when Connie spied some guys she liked. "Hey fellas" she said as she made her way over to them. They were total guidos, hair super gelled, three gold chains each, and their shirts unbuttoned half way.

I didn't really see anyone that floated my boat so I ordered another rum and coke. I hadn't noticed that someone had already taken Connie's empty stool at the bar. A man sat down and took off his jacket. He was kind of cute, and when he took his jacket off I could see he worked out. He was no Ranger, but I thought he would make do. He unbuttoned the top button on his shirt and loosened his tie.

I chugged the rest of my drink and thought here goes.

"Hard day?" I asked, trying to make conversation.

He looked at my breasts, and then made his way up to my face. "Yeah, you could say that."

Okay, he was attracted, that was a plus.

"Can I buy you a drink?" He wanted to know.

"Sure, I'm drinking rum and coke."

"Really? You know, it's really hard to meet a woman who doesn't order one of those fruity, girlie drinks."

"I'll take vodka on the rocks and a rum and coke for the lady." He told the bartender.

When we got our drinks he turned to me. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Stan, Stan Harper."

That sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. I hoped to god he was not from the Burg.

"Hi Stan, Stan Harper. I'm Stephanie." I was such a smartass, and the alcohol wasn't helping. I offered him my hand. His grip was firm and he let his touch linger, but not in a creepy, gross guy linger.

"What do you do?" He asked.

"I'm in security." He gave me the once over and raised his eyebrow, so I explained further "I do background checks for a security company."

He nodded like that made perfect sense. I asked "How about you?"

"I'm in stocks, but I'm kind of in danger of loosing my job so I thought I'd come out tonight and get shitfaced."

"I hear that." I replied. I could relate to someone who tried to wash their fear away with alcohol. He smiled at me.

"You want to dance?"

"Sure." He took my hand and I let him lead me to the dance floor.

I wasn't really familiar with the music that was playing. Metallica was more my taste, but it was hard to dance to heavy metal. I started to sway my hips to the music when I started to notice the effect the alcohol was having on me. I grabbed Stan's shoulders while we danced to get closer and steady myself.

Stan looked pretty good shaking his stuff, and I'm sure the bar lighting and alcohol was helping improve my impression of him. I thought he must make a lot of money. He was wearing Armani shoes and suit. And he smelled expensive. I leaned in closer to get a better smell. Mmmm, yum.

He grabbed my hips and drew me closer to him. By the end of another song, we were locked into a deep kiss, barely noticing the music stopped.

I woke up from la-la land when someone was tapping me on the shoulder. It was Connie.

"These guys want me to go to Atlantic City with them, so I think I am." I took a look at the guido guys.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I brought my stun gun with me just in case." She gave me a hug and she rushed out the door with a man on each arm, but not before giving Stan the once-over and winking at me.

Stan grabbed my hand and led me back to the bar when I ran into Lula.

"Hi there." She said, smiling at Stan "Could I borrow Stephanie for a minute?"

Lula was smiling ear to ear now. "He is so cute! You did good, girl. I just got a page about one of my skips. Do you think you'll get home okay?"

I looked over at Stan and he gave me a big smile. "Yeah, I think I can manage a ride. Go kick some butt."

I sashayed back over to Stan and found that he ordered me another drink. I started chugging it down.

"You have some pretty interesting friends."

"Yeah, they're in the security business too." It was amazing how brave the rum was making me. I thought it was totally possible to take Stan home with me now, hell I could take him right now on the bar if I really wanted to. "Hey, what do you say we get outta here?"

"I think that's a good idea." He leaned over and kissed me. He was all tongue and his hands were feeling me everywhere. I broke from his kiss and grabbed his hand. When we reached the door to leave, I asked "Where did you park?" I stumbled a little so he put his arm around my shoulder to steady me. "Right over…"

He was suddenly pulled away from me and I fell on my butt into the parking lot.

"Ow, what the…?"

Two strong arms grabbed my shoulders and lifted me to my feet. It was Ranger.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I was shocked to see Ranger and I was angry that he took my date away.

I looked over to see Tank holding Stan down and Lester snapping handcuffs on his wrists.

"Geez, are you going to arrest every guy who tries to take me home?" I looked at him and he had a large grin on his face.

"This guy's FTA" Ranger explained. "Seems he's been laundering money and the IRS found out about it. Thanks for distracting him, babe. You saved Rangeman a lot of time." His smile got wider. "I'm surprised you didn't recognize him. You performed a background search on him last week."

I slapped my self in the forehead, I knew his name was familiar. "It totally figures. I can't do anything right. I finally think something is going right for me and it ends up I'm about to take some criminal to bed." I let out a big sigh.

Tank and Lester loaded Stan into a black SUV and were off to the police station.

"Well, that was a waste of time."

Ranger had a wolfish grin on his face and eyed my dress. He studied me from my toes to my hair before speaking. Finally, he said, "You know, you didn't really have to leave the house to find a man. I'm always available."

"You're just available for sex! If I want no-strings attached sex I'd rather do it with some stranger that I would never have to see again."

I started to feel a little woozy, so I grabbed his arm for support. He put his arm around me and started to walk me to his car. He drove the Porsche tonight, black of course.

He opened the door for me and helped me in before angling in himself.

"How long did you know I was in there?" I asked. He probably had a whole surveillance team outside and in and could see my every move.

"Tank saw Lula walk in with you, she doesn't exactly blend, you know."

I smiled at this. "She did look hot tonight. Did Tank say anything about her?"

Ranger looked like he wanted to laugh. "Don't even think about it!" He answered. "I see enough of Lula at Vinnie's office."

"You don't think they're cute together?" I asked. He raised his eyebrows and started the car.