Earlier this year I read an interview with JE, where she seemed pretty happy to get rid of the number centered book naming thing. It made me wonder about coming up with 27 number themed titles, and then pairing up story ideas with them. In the end, I came up with 31 story ideas (more, if you count the multiple ideas for several of the numbers), and The Number Series was born. Some stories are longer one-shots, some are short, and some developed into multi-chapter offerings. All have the title somewhere in the story. I have no set posting schedule for them.

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All recognizable characters belong to Janet Evanovich, I'm just playing.

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A/N 1: Takes place in the Do You Believe in Reinvention world, approximately 3 weeks after the end of that story and a week after 5 Reasons Why

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A/N 2: Declan McShane belongs to Peritales from her For Loyalty and Revenge story and was gently used with permission.

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We're All Irish on the 17th

SPOV

In retrospect, an Irish pub on St. Patrick's Day probably wasn't the best plan, but research showed our skip, Colin Murphy, was expected to be here tonight. A low-level player on the New York scene, he was busted down on the docks by the FBI for possession with intent to distribute. He didn't see fit to make his court appearance, so his file was kicked to The Jenkins Group. It was a small bond, $25,000 for us, but it was an inroad to the New York FBI office for future work.

It was decided that Megan and I would dress up and hit the pub for the holiday, while Ryan and Jake hung out near the door for back-up, should we need it. As soon as I told Ranger my plans for the evenings, his eyes narrowed, and I knew this would be a test for our still-new relationship. It was a precarious balance, learning to let him in while still maintaining autonomy for work. His Babe hung in the air, and I could tell he was carefully forming his argument instead of just parsing out as few words as possible. In the end, he simply asked if I was alright with him providing extra back-up while spending time together before and after. It was a solid offer, so I took it. And since Megan was here, Lester wasn't far. The boy had it bad.

We had briefly gathered at the Eagle Investigations office to review our intel before we headed into the city. Murphy was reported to have a tenuous connection to the mob, so both Megan and I were going in with altered appearances for safety's sake. Tonight, I was Jennifer Anderson. My brown curls were tucked away; instead, I had the red waves that Ranger first spotted at the hotel bar last Spring. Hazel contacts covered my blue eyes, contouring gave me a slightly higher cheekbones, and a green wrap blouse and jeans made the most of my assets. The spark in his eyes suggested Ranger liked the look. The way he walked me backwards until I was snug against the wall, gathered my hands above my head in one of his bigger ones, and kissed the shit of me, confirmed that he did. When I asked if he liked the red, he responded with, "Not as much as your curls, but the dress you wore that night gave me some ideas I'd still like to explore." Good answer, Batman.

Megan was using her Katie McNeil identity and had hidden her blond hair with the distinctive pink undercoat beneath a dark brown pageboy wig with fringe bangs. Make-up gave her just enough of a different look that Lester tilted his head to the side before shaking his head and giving her a small smile.

We separated and piled into two vehicles for the drive into the city. Ryan rode with us in the Cayenne, and he and I kept up a steady stream of small talk while Ranger slipped into his driving zone. Once in New York City, we parked in a garage a block from the pub, and after a quick goodbye, Megan and I walked to Molly's Pub. The guys would make their way there separately and station themselves around the bar in random groupings. Although Ranger had placed my mic, neither he nor Lester had a receiver; a development he wasn't real happy with. Back in Trenton, I would pretend it was Ranger I was flirting with; now that we were together-together, it was harder for me to find my flirty distraction zone, and it would be next to impossible if I knew he was listening. It felt too much like playing games, a position I didn't want to put us in. I'd have to get there eventually, especially if we were going to work cases together, but tonight I asked him to trust me. I think the fact that he would be inside the bar, making it easier for him to keep an eye on me, made it easier for him to agree.

Once inside Molly's, Megan and I did a slow stroll around the entire bar; it was a bigger space than I anticipated, making me worry that Murphy could be anywhere in here and we'd never see him in the packed in crowd. We separated for a second loop, with me making my way around the space counterclockwise. The crowd was hyped up on beer and holiday spirit, making me feel like an outsider.

Just past the door, a tingle lit up my neck seconds before Ranger's hand on my abdomen pulled me back to him. He was loose-limbed and flirty, playing the part of a reveler enjoying the atmosphere. Tilting my head to the side, I let him nuzzle his way up my neck before moving my hair and placing a light kiss on the shamrock temporary tattoo on my neck that the bouncer had handed me.

"Relax, Babe. You're supposed to be enjoying yourself."

"I feel like I really don't belong here." It's true. Molly's is a trendy place, and the crowd definitely veered toward the younger end of the spectrum tonight.

He chuckles, the sound sending shock waves through me and leaving me to bemoan the fact that I can't leave until we have Murphy. "Babe, we're all Irish on the 17th. You've run enough distractions that this is just going to be another notch on your skips found card. Go get 'em, Tiger."

With that, he's gone, melding back into the crowd. It's been a long time since I've heard the tiger comment and I didn't realize that I missed it, or his faith in me. Squaring my shoulders, I make my way through the revelers until I'm at the bar.

I'm trying to catch the bartender's attention when an honest to goodness Irish brogue catches my attention. Turning to my right, I'm greeted with the lovely sight of piercing blue eyes and unruly, dark hair with a lock falling across his forehead. His chiseled jaw has just a hint of stubble and his large, muscular frame wouldn't be out of place in a Rangeman office.

When he sees me watching him, he gives me a nod. "St. Patrick has blessed me with luck today." He slides closer to me, a smile slowly forming on his face. His gaze lingers on my mouth, painted a very noticeable red. "Your lips look like they were made for sinful things, Lass."

As an opening line, it's effective and I find myself blushing and fighting the urge to dip my head. But when I look back at him, it's Ranger that I see in my head, and the image of what I'm doing to him makes me blush harder even as a smile tips the corners of my lips.

"Well now, Lass. It's seems like we might be on the same page."

That gets a real smile out of me. We might be on the same page in terms of action, but I definitely have a different character in mind for what I want to be doing. His brogue rolls over me, a pleasant sound I don't get to hear every day. Ryan's voice comes over the ear bud. "Cut him loose, Jersey. He has complication written all over him."

The stranger waves the bartender over for me. "This fetching lass has been waiting to order a drink."

"Sorry, Sir."

My order for a Killian's Irish Red placed, the stranger's attention is back on me. When he offers a hand to me, I notice a few faint tattoos on his knuckles and a gold signet ring. "Declan."

Taking his hand I roll the name over in my mind, discarding it as a potential contact for Murphy. There are no Declans on the list. "Jenny."

"Pretty name for a pretty girl. Are you here to sample a taste of the Irish?"

His question is so full of innuendo that it startles a laugh out of me. He reminds me a lot of Ranger; powerful, strong, and able to play the game on a much higher level than me. He's intimidating and more than a bit intriguing, and if I weren't head over heels in love with Ranger or here for work, I might see where this went. But, Ranger's it for me and I'm here to find Murphy. "Just here to meet a friend."

His gaze roams over me, heating my skin with his bold stare. 'That's a shame. We could have a lot of fun together."

It takes less than a minute for Megan to join me at the bar. He gives her the same once-over and smile but makes no comment. After wishing us a good time, he steps away from the bar, and I track him to a door marked VIP. I hope to hell that's not where Murphy is.

While I was watching Declan, Ranger has approached from the side and snags my hand to pull me over to a quiet corner. His voice holds a hint of warning. "Dangerous waters, Babe."

"Why? Who is he?"

Ranger sighs. "Declan McShane, head of the Irish mafia. You want to avoid him."

"Do I want to know how you know him?"

I can tell he's debating on how to answer, and for once in my life, one damn eyebrow goes up. With a sigh, he admits, "Our paths have crossed. I'm surprised to see him here tonight. Rumor has it he spends more time in DC lately. What'd he say to make you smile like that?"

Leaning close enough that my lips tickle the shell of his ear, I tell him the truth. "He said that my lips looked like they were made for sinful things. I was thinking of you, and how you look when you're looking down at me when I'm on my knees."

The hand on my hip clutches me hard enough that I might have a bruise and his head rests on mine. His breathing isn't smooth, and he's leaned in close enough to me that I can tell he's very affected by my words. "Jesus, Steph."

There's coughing in my earpiece, and I remember too late that not only can Megan hear us, but so can Ryan and Jake. Oops. Despite my red face, I give his hand a squeeze. "Raincheck?"

Ranger barks out a strangled laugh before leaning down closer to my ear. "Count on it, Babe. Go track Murphy down. I'm booking us a hotel. Ryan will have to find his own way home."

It's tempting to not care about Murphy, but I lock the lust and playful banter down and move away from him, but not before running my hand along the bulge in his pants. His muttered, "Fuck, you're trying to kill me!" gets a smile out of me and Megan shakes her head as I rejoin her at the bar. We make another loop together, still looking for Murphy. Both Jake and Ryan shake their heads when we pass them. They haven't seen the skip, either. We end up at a table by the bar.

"Jesus, they're like catnip over in the corner!"

At Megan's outburst, I follow her line of sight until I spy Ranger and Les at a table in the corner, surrounded by women. My first inclination is to be jealous when Ranger graces a blond with a small smile. Her boobs are falling out of her shirt as she leans toward him, but his eyes never leave her face. "They might low-level flirt to fit in, but they won't do anything."

She looks back at Lester and the trio of women vying for his attention. "How can you be sure?"

Lester may have had a player reputation in the past, but I suspect he's a lot like Ranger…all-in when he decides on what he wants. "I think one of the things that scared me about getting involved with Ranger was that he was always going to attract attention and part of me was afraid that I wouldn't be enough for him—"

"And yet, you're involved with him and he's not telling her to go away."

As we watch, busty blond leans closer and Ranger says something to her that has her sitting back in a hurry. The smirk on his face is one I've seen before; it's the same one he had right after he told Joyce that he was going to spend the next twelve hours ruining me for other men. It didn't happen that night, but when we came together, he definitely made it hard for me to enjoy nights with Joe for a long time after that. The blond in front of him seems at a loss for words before moving away from him. Whatever Lester adds has the other women following her lead.

Ranger just happens to look at me and I know he's remembering the conversation and that first night. Round one was quick and raw neediness, but after that…I had no complaints about that night, just the morning after. "I guess I've just learned that I have to trust him when he says he wants only me. Spending my time waiting for the other shoe to drop is too depressing and stressful. That's the downside of a distraction; you have to pretend and hope that your partner trusts you."

She blows out a sigh as she looks back at the table and Lester catches her eye and raises his beer toward her in salute before bringing it to his lips. Her breathing goes erratic for a minute before she literally shakes her head and turns back toward me.

They've only had two dates, but it's interesting to watch them interact. Megan's as reluctant to let someone in close enough to hurt her as I was to take a second chance on Ranger. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. Lester, well he's still Lester but more. He's still a joker, but there's an underlying maturity that wasn't there before, or at least one he didn't let me see. I think they'll be good for each other, but I'd prefer to stay out of it, just in case.

"Target, 7 o'clock."

Jake's voice comes through our coms clearly, but Megan maintains her gaze toward the bar behind me rather than joining me on a scan of the room. Finally facing the right direction, I spy Colin Murphy in a dark green Henley and faded jeans. He's holding court over by a jukebox that's seen better days, three men hanging on his every word.

That's a bigger crowd than I want to try and flirt my way through, so I keep an eye on the group while I nurse my beer. Catching Lester's attention, I nod my head over toward the bathrooms before turning to Megan. "Head toward the bathrooms but try and get Murphy's attention on the way. I want to see how he reacts."

She peels off with Lester following from a distance. She makes eye contract with Murphy, and he pauses his conversation to follow her path to the bathroom, a small smile on his lips as he never takes his eyes off her mini-skirt clad ass. That's promising.

"You got a plan forming, Jersey?"

Ryan's question is quiet in my ear, and I answer him by playing with my necklace, our sign for yes. After ten minutes, Megan comes back to me, and Murphy's eyes stay on her the entire time. Noticing that he's watching, she stands closer to me than she needs to and nuzzles her way up my cheek until she's whispering in my ear. "Is he still watching?"

"Uh, huh."

If we hadn't used a similar tactic to reel in a skip last Fall, I would have been a little more freaked out by her move. Turning to look at her, I catch Ranger's grin out of the corner of my eye. I use the cover of playing with her hair to give Murphy another look. He's definitely interested in what we've got going on. Megan also turns to face Murphy, our heads and torso snuggled up close. She gives him a tiny smirk before crooking her finger in a come here motion and ushering him towards us. That's all it takes to get him to abandon his friends.

During his walk over to us, I'm watching Lester over Murphy's shoulder. I would have expected a smirk or an outright shit-eating grin; instead, he's watching the scene with a blank face. Yeah, Lester's not playing around with Megan. Good to know.

Once Murphy has reached us at the high-top table we're standing next to, he leans forward and braces his hands on the backs of two of the chairs, effective trapping us. "Ladies. Come to take a walk on the Irish side?" He doesn't have the brogue, charisma, or sex appeal that Declan had, but he's easy enough on the eyes that he probably does ok with the ladies looking for a bad boy. He gets a little closer to us than I'd like, but his hands are still on the chairs and not on my ass, so I can deal.

Megan purrs out, "I guess you could say we were hoping to get…lucky. Think you could help us out with that?"

Murphy's laugh nearly drowns out Ryan's "Jesus Christ, KitKat!" in our ears. Someone bumps Murphy from behind, pushing him closer to us. He and Megan trade bad pick-up lines back and forth while I watch Lester form a fist before taking a deep breath and fading more into the background. Megan's hand on my back taps me, reminding me to get back in the game. Focusing back on the skip, it's easier to pretend I'm bantering with Ranger when he can't hear me.

We've stretched the game as far as we can when Jake's voice finally sounds in our ear. "I'm outside with the fake Uber. Call me Charles."

Megan taps me again, and I pull my phone out of my pocket, angling it away from Murphy's sight and pretending I'm getting a text. "Our Uber's here. Care to take a ride with us?"

Megan is playing with my hair, and Murphy's on the hook. He hooks an arm around each of our waists and we let him lead us to the door. There are just too many people in, out, and around Molly's, so the plan is to get him in the car and subdue him then. Ranger shows no reaction and to an outsider, he doesn't even seem to be paying attention. I assume that Lester is following behind us and Ryan is probably already outside. It's St. Patrick's Day, so we didn't even bother with the green shirt plan to keep them in our sight.

Once we're clear of the door, we head out onto the street, easily picking up the Chevy Tahoe owned by Eagle Investigations but registered to an LLC. Megan stays on the passenger side with Murphy while I go around to the driver's side to pretend to coordinate with our driver. Once I've made eye contact with Jake, I open the back door and Megan does the same. Murphy slides in the middle, ready to be the filling of a happy sandwich. Both Megan and I surreptitiously pull sets of cuffs from our small clutches and hide them behind the purses as we climb in.

I trust that Jake has already engaged the child locks. Megan nods that she's ready, and soon after we pull away from the curb, we both clutch his arm with a free hand. He looks like he's won a prize until I tell him, "Colin Murphy, you're in violation of your bond agreement and we've been engaged to bring you in," while we each snap a cuff around his wrist and then snap the two free ends together. Shocked, he hasn't made a move, and doesn't until Megan reaches behind him to remove the gun from the back of his pants.

"What the fuck?"

Megan's smile is saccharine sweet. "Sorry, darlin'. Nothing personal."

I nearly roll my eyes at that, but Megan's already moved on, dropping his gun on the passenger seat out of his reach. While Jake pulls over and covers us from the front seat, she grabs and twists the cuffs, putting Murphy's arms at an awkward angle and making it hard for him to take a double-fisted swing or get leverage. She holds him tight while I get him in the leg shackles already attached to the metal loop welded to the backseat frame. Once he's immobile, I reach down and pull a small revolver from his left boot and a switchblade from his right. Both go upfront for Jake to slip into a zipper bag, along with the first gun. Satisfied that he's disarmed, Jake hands me a stun gun over his shoulder and we lean back for the rest of the ride to the FBI office. Ryan, Les, and Ranger will follow and meet us there as soon as they retrieve the Cayenne from the garage.

Murphy is handed off with minimal fuss and I happily claim the body receipt before heading back to the visitor's section of the parking garage. Ranger is leaned up against the Cayenne, legs and arms casually crossed. Once he sees me, he stands to his full height, a smile threatening to peek through his mostly blank face.

"Ryan's going to ride back with the rest of them. I have a room reserved uptown, if you're willing to let me kidnap you for a night."

It makes my heart tap dance, the prospect of another adventure with him. "I think that's a good idea; you and I have unfinished business from the bar."

Jake, Ryan, and Megan groan in stereo and make a big show of removing the receivers from their ears. Laughing, I pull mine out and drop it into Jake's outstretched hand. "Seriously, Jersey. Make sure you turn off the mic. There are some things I just don't need to know about you two."

I give a half-assed salute and lean into Ranger with a small smile when Megan takes Lester's hand before they climb up into the back seat. Once we're alone, Ranger gives me one of his patented wolf grins before helping me into the buttery seat of the Cayenne. I get a quick, but hot, kiss before he heads around to the driver's side. He does his best to keep his eyes forward while I take advantage of the window tinting to undo part of my shirt, removing the mic and tape from under my breast. A ragged breath tells me he wasn't completely successful, and I swallow a smile as I lock the mic in the glove box.

"Ranger?"

"Yeah, Babe?"

"Remember telling Joyce how you were going to spend twelve hours ruining me for other men?"

The glint in my eyes tells me he does, and his eyes glitter at the memory.

"I think I'm going to need a refresher. Play your cards right, and we might even see if your friend Declan was right."

"Babe."