I had to give him room. I learned this with Joe. Ranger had an excuse; He was a guy. Guys did stupid things. Ranger was a better guy than some, especially Dickie or Vinnie. Joe was up there, but that housewife plan had to go.

I waited in the hall for awhile, not trusting myself to follow him. Besides, I had a few things I needed to clarify. What couldn't he possibly tell me? As a bounty hunter I ran into a whole lot. Mostly trigger-happy drunks, but a few mass murders and all around physcos were thrown into the mix. Junkman was both, and he was after me. I sunk to the floor and leaned against the wall.

If Ranger couldn't tell me, who would? My dad? No, my dad never knew anything I didn't, at least in the gossip chain. The president to the United States telling me I was a danger to Trenton and had 48 hours to pack and then I'd be shiped off to some forein country, that was only in existance because Ranger saved their sorry butt? Not logical.

Joe had nothing to do with this part of the story, I was positive. But thinking of Joe got me on another hot spot. How was I doing with him? The marrige fiasco, the constant bickering, and Ranger. No chance of Ranger letting his guard down, and Joe probably wasn't liking my living arrangements right now. I smiled, thinking of how many pills Joe had probably taken. Thinking of pills got me thinking about Morelli lying there in bed, then to Morelli doing other things I usually did with Morelli on a Friday night.

My cell phone played yankee doodle and broke my thought cloud. I glanced at the screen. Speak of the devil, Morelli's phone number poped up on my ID screen.

"Hey." I said.

"Hey cupcake." I hardly heard him over the noise of-A bar?

"Where are you? I can hardly hear you."

"Just a second." He said. I heard him breathing heavily, then the opening and closing of a door, followed by the soft click of the lock.

"I'm at work." His voice broke the silence.

"What's with all the yelling?"

"Tank just walked in with Anton Ward. Saw him crusing the streets in a steel gray nissan and did us a favor." There was a rap on the door, and a very angry voice told Joe that if his boney butt wasn't out of that office in ten seconds, he'd have to answer to Juniak.

"Still, what's with the noise?" I quized, standing up.

"Ward didn't like being tied to a bathroom cupcake. He spilled the beans, and then broke loose and uh..." The door opened and the closed. "They just now tackled him."

That explained the bar-like noise.

"Anyone hurt?" I asked

"Not as far as I know." Someone called Morelli's name again, and he was forced to open the door.

"Joe's busy now. He'll call back." Said a familiar voice. Before I could put a name to the voice, the caller hung up.

I figured I needed to tell Ranger all of this, so I walked through the open door, quietly shutting it behind me. The shower was going, and I could only guess who was in it. The door of the bathroom opened a little while later, and Ranger steped out in a pair of basketball shorts with a 23 in white on his lower thigh.

"Joe called." I said. He cringed and snatched the remote off the coffee table.

"Said Anton Ward was drug to the cop shop and spilled the beans."

"Its my word against his. I have alibis for you and the girls." An edge of concern was in his voice.

My phone rang again.

"Problem solved?"

"Yeah, but Juniak's alittle hacked I missed it." That statement was followed by a long silence.

"So...how much of the story was true?" Joe finally asked.

"Anton jumped out of the Bond office's bathroom."

"Thats a load of bull."

"You're not going to fight me on this are you? I've got Rangers word against Wards."

Joe cursed in Italian softly on the other end. "I wont fight you. We'll discuss this when the Junkman things over. I love you." He put an edge on the word this.

"Love you too." I cooed and felt him smile before he hung up.

Ranger had found a hockey game and focused intently on it. I knew he was listening to my conversation with Joe though. His face was distressed to a level I'd never see in my life. Either it was because the Red wings were down by 3 at the end of the third quarter, or because of Joe.

"I'm tired. I'm going to bed." I said, pulling the neatly folded sheet off the back of the couch and draping it across my waist.

"I have a feeling you'll be sleeping here tonight?" He motioned to the couch.

"If I get scared, I know where you'll be." I smiled up at him as he got up and tucked me in.

Even when mad, he still cared. The previous conversation about me being entertainment and about him loving me 'in his own way' still played fresh in my mind. He kissed my forehead and said something under his breath.

"What?" I asked.

"Morelli's touble." He said and switched the lights out.

I sat up and tried to watch him leave. This was not an easy task, him being in all black commando wear and him being 'in the wind'. I sat back down and pondered what he had just said.

I knew from experience Joe was trouble. Ever since I was a little girl, I was reminded that all Morelli men were scum. Joe was no exception, I can assure you. Ranger said it in a different sense than my mother had. Ranger's voice told me that I needed to stay away from him, even if my mind told me other wise.

My phone rang again. This time it played a cute little ditty I had set aside for unknown calls. I answered it before the second ring, hoping against all odds, that Ranger was still sound asleep.

"Stephanie." A man called.

I gulped. "W...w...what?" I stammered. The voice sent chills down my spine.

"I know you're scared Stephaine. I know you're curled up or Rambo's couch there in the dark." The man was telling no lies there. I had the blanked clutched against my heart in a fist, curled up in the corner of the couch.

"I saw you go to dinner with you're parents. I saw you drink.You drank too much Stephaine. Not a good thing. I wanted to kill you then. I could have, but that would have been no fun." I slid off the couch and briskly walked into Ranger's room, where he was snoozing soundly on his stomach.

"See, there you go. Manoso will help you. He'll make big scary Junkman go away. That weird dude couldn't do it. Cop-boy couldn't manage. Hell, he sold you out." I crossed the room and shook Ranger awake.

He awoke with a start and then realized I was in moral danger. He twisted the phone out of my hands and pushed a button. Norman Carvers voice filled the room. My new phone had speaker phone.

"Are you depressed Stephanie? Depressed to find out that you can't hide anymore? It took me a long time to find you the first time Stephaine. But lover-boy helped me. Who said you couldn't buy a cop should be shot. I could arrange that."

"What do you mean?!" I screached, tears flowing down my cheeks.

Ranger had tossed the phone to the middle of the bed, and had pulled me under the sheets next to him.

"Morelli told me where you were. I gave him a good price for the information too. It'll come in handy." Shots were fired and glass shattered from the window over head.

"Say nighty night Stephanie Plum." And he was gone.

"Shhh...Babe" Ranger whispered in my ear, brushing glass off the side of the bed.

He put my phone on his side-table and I felt the heat pull away. I rolled onto my back and Ranger sat up. He unlocked the dresser drawer and pulled out a small little black box, no bigger than a perfume gift box, and then drew out a pistol. He replaced the box and didn't bother to close the drawer. Ranger slid in behind me again, and wedged the gun in the waist band of my jeans I had yet to change out of. The metal was cold on my back, but that mattered minimally in this situation.

I had stoped crying. So what? I was being stalked. No different than usual. THIS GUYS A MANIAC! My feelings were at war.

"You know anything about this?" I asked Ranger.

He drew in a shark breath and let it out slowly. "No."

I pulled up to my elbows. "Any chance of telling me whatever it was that you wouldn't tell me?"

"Any chance you still love Joe?"