Chapter 1

Today is my second anniversary working at Rangeman. My boss Ricardo Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, asked me to assist with a distraction in New York next week. Ranger and I have been unofficially together for the last year. Neither of us wanted to place a label on our relationship. However, we did agree to be exclusive because neither of us shares. Our relationship is whatever we're able to give each other. Maybe one day it would become more, but it isn't what either of us wants at this moment in time.

I'm Stephanie Plum, a 5'7" woman with brown curly hair and blue eyes. I was born on October 12, 1989, exactly two months after Ranger's birthday. Dad is Italian, and mom is Hungarian. They say I get my curly hair from the Plums and my eye colour from the Mazurs.

I've met all my Mazur relatives. I honestly couldn't see how I got my eye colour from them. Mom and grandma have blue eyes, but they don't match my eye colour. Dad says it's because his sister and cousins have my exact eye colour. They also live in Italy, so I've never had the opportunity to meet any of them to see for myself. His sister moved to Italy when she was 15 to live with her family, but he never knew why. The Plums don't talk about such things. In fact, they were very private people. Because of my mother, Helen Plum, everybody knew the more intimate details of my life.

I met Ranger in March, more than two years ago. He helped me become an adequate BEA. Whenever I was low on funds, I worked at his company called Rangeman. I resisted working at the search desk full time, but once I received proper training, I was able to join the men in the field. My spidey sense and talents are made use as a distraction to track and bring in dangerous criminals.

The Merry Men always had my back. In the beginning, I have to admit I got injured a lot. After months of training, the injuries decreased in frequency. It didn't take long for me to realize most of my initial injuries were directly the result of Lula's and my ineptitude.

Lula joined the Rangeman team nearly a year after me. She's been dating Tank for just under a year. They dated briefly several years ago until she faked an engagement. Once Lula got her act together, she trained hard to join Rangeman. She wasn't happy to discover she needed glasses. With her Rangeman insurance, she was able to wear corrective contacts to maintain her outer image. Lula is a very sexy woman. She lost over 50 lbs and is now a solid five. Her job was to work at the first-floor reception desk. Most days, she sat at the desk and answered the phone. A few times each month, she had to escort someone from the building. Most times, it was one of Lester's one-night stands showing up to see him.

Lester has dark blond hair and green eyes. He's a very sexy man, and he knows it. All women know he's a one-and-done type of guy. Some women think they could tame his playboy ways, but I know Lester would never give them the opportunity. We bonded during one of Ranger's missions. Carlos was away saving the world, and I was feeling lost without him. He couldn't select his team this time, partly because his men didn't sign a new contract with the Ranger spec ops. Mostly it was because he was only permitted to work with one other person. The army selected Rangeman's resident sniper, Ram, to accompany him. Ram still has another three years on his contract.

I have a bit of a confession to make. Before I officially started dating Ranger, I had a brief relationship with Lester. If anyone could change his ways, I knew it would be me. He admitted as much to me, which happened a few months after I met Les on a 'redecorating' job. At the time, Ranger was gone for several months to save the world. Lester kept me company. I had not slept with Ranger yet. Les and I shared a few weeks of fulfilling, passionate sex but decided to end our relationship because of Ranger. It seems Lester's cousin Ranger placed a kind of claim on me. Lester said it's because Ranger already loves me. As sexy as Lester is, his cousin Ricardo Carlos Manoso is sexier. After spending one night in Ranger's bed, I didn't want anyone else. Lester is an exceedingly thorough lover, but his cousin is so much better.

My phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. "Yo," I answered as I rolled my eyes.

"Is that any way to answer the phone? I raised you to have better manners, young lady," my mom shouted.

"Hi, mom. Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for asking," I sweetly replied.

"Dinner. Tonight at six sharp. Come alone. Don't be late," she hastily said before hanging up. Something tells me she set up a blind date for me. I groaned as I dropped my head to my desk.

"Angel?" Hector timidly asked. He kneeled beside my chair and swivelled me until I was facing him. "What's wrong?" he whispered. None of the Rangeman employees knew Hector spoke English. He was entirely fluent.

"Mom ordered me to dinner. I have a feeling it's a setup," I quietly replied, frustration laced my words. He grabbed my hands and pulled me from the chair. Hector reached into my desk for my gun. I raised my eyebrows to question him.

With a slight shake of his head, he put my gun into the back of my pants and led me to the gun range. After emptying a few magazines into various targets, I started to feel better. "I'll come with you," he told me. I tried telling him I was to attend alone, but he stopped me from talking. "I'll come with you," he sternly repeated. We both knew Ranger was currently in Miami trying to solve some staffing issue. He should be returning any day now.

"Thank you, Hector," I said, thanking him for more than just his comfort.

"I will do anything for you, Angel." He gently kissed my lips. His lips were soft, and I could feel how much he loves me. Hector gave me a more passionate kiss before unscrambling the cameras. Huh. I didn't notice he did that when we arrived. My lips were tingling from the kiss. Boy, he can kiss.

Everyone thought Hector was gay. I know better; he just wanted everyone to believe he was to prevent unwanted advances from women. Hector has more secrets than any other man I know, including Ranger. He has been spending time trying to gather some information for me.

A few months ago, Hector and I decided to check out the new ancestry website. If you submit a cheek-swab sample, they could match your mitochondrial DNA to discover relatives. It maps your genealogy through your mother. Using marriage licences and other registries, they could locate your paternal relatives too. My results confused me. I matched to my grandma Plum instead of grandma Mazur. After submitting a new sample, a blood one this time, they confirmed the initial results. Helen Plum was not my biological mother. Dad had one sister, Cassie, and one brother; both are younger than dad. His younger brother, Tony, is my cousin Vinnie's dad. The only way I could match grandma Plum is if she or Aunt Cassie is my mom. Aunt Cassie is my best bet.

Hector and I arrived at my parents' house five minutes early. Morelli parked his car a few homes over. I really wish mom would stop setting me up with him. Joe and I briefly dated after I proved his innocence. He seemed to have changed since our teenage years, but I quickly realized he never did change. During high school, Joe was dating Terry and many other girls. He was a cheater then, and he's still a cheater now. While we briefly dated, I was gifted dated, photographic proof he was seeing other women.

"Why is he here?" I mumbled. I would not date Joe again, even if he is the last man on earth.

"He won't touch you," Hector promised. He knew I didn't want to date Morelli. Over a year ago, Hector confessed to being the person responsible for the photos. Since the day he met me, he was overly protective of me. He would always be in the background to ensure my safety.

"I don't trust him. He always cozied up to me when I was searching for an FTA related to his cases. Joe never gave me credit for solving his cases. I wouldn't doubt he's working on a case involving Jose Gervais," I told Hector as I exited the car. Hector followed me to the door.

My parents live in a house attached to another along one side. Dad painted our half of the house brown and yellow.

Mrs. Markowicz painted her house lime green. She tends to purchase the cheapest paint colour available. As I opened the door, I noticed the nosy neighbour peaking from her curtains. I smiled and gave her a small finger wave.

"I told you to come alone!" Mom growled between clenched teeth.

"Sorry, mom. Hector and I were doing an installation. I didn't have time to drop him off at Rangeman," I readily lied.

"Welcome to our home," she quickly changed tactics.

"He doesn't speak English," I lied again. Hector asked if she spoke Spanish, but she didn't understand him.

"I speak Spanish," Dad replied as he handed Hector a beer. He said a few more words to Hector and smiled at his reply. Even I could understand his confession of being able to understand English. Speaking Italian, dad said, "He wants to find out what your mother's up to with the cop. I'll help you grab dessert after dinner."

Hector was surprised when I spoke Italian to confirm our plans. "Frank, you know how much I hate you and Stephanie speaking Italian. The rest of us don't understand the conversation," mom admonished. Morelli never learned to speak Italian. He knew a few swear words but not much more.

"That's the whole point," I heard dad mutter under his breath. Hector quickly took a drink of his beer to mask his smile. We passed our plates to mom so she could serve our portion of lasagna. Dad added the extra sauce to his serving. Mom always calls it gravy, but it's tomato sauce. Gravy is brown, and it goes with beef, pork, chicken or turkey. She dismisses me if I attempt to correct her.

Joe tried to start several conversations with me, asking if I made any headway searching for Jose Gervais. "Not yet. I've gone through all his typical hangouts but haven't turned up anything," I replied. "How's your case going?" I asked.

"Still investigating. I'm working on gathering information from my informants. So far, they haven't been cooperating," he answered.

I watched Hector lift the layers. Speaking in Spanish, dad told Hector not to expect vegetables. Helen's lasagna contains noodles, cheese, sausage, ground beef and sauce. No vegetables. Hector shrugged his shoulder and dug in. I prefer Ella's vegetarian version of lasagna.

In Spanish, Dad said, "More like Pumpkin is refusing to solve his case for him."

Hector agreed, "He'll have to do his job for once." Dad quickly interpreted Hector's comment to me in Italian.

"He probably hit a brick wall, so he manipulated a dinner invite tonight," I commented back in Italian.

After everyone finished eating, dad offered to grab dessert while I collected the dirty dishes. We purposely took our time rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher I had installed last year. Conversation filtered into the kitchen, but we couldn't hear enough to follow along. We'll need to wait for Hector to provide the details.

Mom baked a pineapple, upside-down cake for dessert, which is my favourite dessert. Dad and I made more noise than necessary as we entered the dining room. He carried the small plates while I brought the cake. Mom grabbed the cake and quickly served everyone. Hector quietly told dad everything he heard from mom and Joe. He, in turn, translated it into Italian for me.

As I started to eat my cake, mom started her rant. "Stephanie, you need to quit your job. It isn't appropriate for a young woman. You need to marry Joe and have children."

"That will never happen. If this was your goal for inviting me for dinner tonight, then I won't be returning," I said in response to the insane demands.

"No daughter of mine will ever work for those thugs!" she shouted.

I pushed my chair away from the table and stood up. Tapping Hector's shoulder, I motioned for him to follow me. "Then I guess it's a good thing I'm not your daughter," I snapped before walking away from the table.

Dad followed us to the door. He hugged me and whispered, "We need to talk."