Lucky 13 it is.
If you're reading this, I hope you're enjoying it.
All feedback is appreciated.
I know I'm taking a lot of liberties in my storyline, I hope you don't mind too much.
Spoilers: None. It's its own universe, I blame it all on the gin
Rating: PG13 for language, adult situations and whatnot
Disclaimer: I made the whole thing up, I own none of JE's characters, and I'll probably give them back good as new
Out of my Mind
Chapter 13The ringing phone woke me up at 6:30, as the clock radio next to it on the bedside table was quick to inform me.
By the second ring, I had my eyes open. By the third, I had gotten over my temporary disorientation and picked up the receiver.
"I'm here." What kind of way was that to answer a phone? My voice sounded like I smoked two packs a day.
"Good to know." It was Ranger. I could feel him smile on the other end. "Rise and shine, I'll be at your door in 30 minutes."
"But…"
"There are clothes for you in the bathroom. And this time, there are shoes, too."
And he disconnected. Honestly, would it kill him to say goodbye?
I did not get to take the bottle of Bourbon with me the night before. Ranger had accompanied me down to the fourth floor and had shown me into a studio apartment. He had explained the intercom features of the phone to me so I'd know what to dial if I needed anything. I had not embarrassed myself by asking him to define 'anything', and I was still proud of that.
Ranger had then suggested I'd get some rest and had hugged me goodnight. A hug was a good sign, I decided. I didn't hug my customers, I hugged friends.
The apartment was furnished with functionality in mind, no knickknacks or decorations, the color scheme was taupe, white and brown.
A small foyer led from the entrance to a kitchenette in one corner with a small square table and two chairs in front of it.
Next to the dining area was the living section with a loveseat, a coffee table and a small entertainment center that held the TV and a DVD player.
The bedroom was in an alcove and held a queen-sized bed, two nightstands and a closet.
Off the bedroom was the small bathroom that I now dragged my tired butt into.
I hadn't thought I would be able to sleep with my mind going at warp speed, lying in a strange bed all by myself.
But apparently, I had been out like a light, I didn't remember any tossing and turning.
As promised, clothes had been left for me. They were sitting on the toilet cover, since the room was too small for any other surface. A pair of CAT boots sat under the sink. I checked the size. 8.5. Uncanny.
I tossed the lot through the door onto the bed and started my morning routine.
Without even my emergency supply of makeup from my purse, I was forced to go au naturel, which put a big dent in my self-esteem but couldn't be helped. Best not to dwell on the absent purse.
After the shower and hair-drying thing, I got dressed in the new clothes and I realized this black-on-black thing really had its advantages. You'd never have to worry about matching colors.
Of course, you could never have a cat either, or else you'd be lint-rolling constantly. I didn't think RangeMan kept a lot of cats around though.
Interestingly enough, this new set of clothes fit exactly, pants, bra and all, and along with the matching shoe size, that had me curious. How did anyone know these things about another person? It's not like my old clothes had been lying around for reference. It would be tough for me to find out, too. There was no subtle way to ask, "How did you know my bra size?"
I had just finished tying my boots when there was a rap on the door.
"I'm coming!" I yelled unnecessarily as I snatched the windbreaker that came with the clothes package off the bed. In my own apartment, it took me more than five steps to get from the bedroom to the front door, so I usually announced my approach.
I pulled the door open and almost collided with Ranger, he was that close to standing in the door frame.
"Good to know." He said again, as calm as earlier, and I got the impression I was amusing him.
There was definitely an almost smile on his lips.
"Good morning." I said because I didn't have a witty comeback, and pulled the door closed behind me. Ranger head moved a little, a suggestion of a nod, but he didn't return my greeting. Maybe he had greeting phobia, goodbyes included. Or maybe he just didn't consider them cool.
I knew it wasn't a military thing, because my dad had been in the Army and if you didn't greet him or made your exit properly, he'd remind you in no uncertain terms. Maybe I'd get to bring it up if I ever had a personal conversation with Ranger. Probably, I'd get way too nervous if there was no 'business' conversation to hide behind, but it was nice to have dreams.
We turned towards the elevator and I was torn between asking Ranger where we were going and waiting for him to speak.
I decided to give patience a try and bit my lower lip to keep quiet.
If we were going back to his apartment, it would have been easier for him to just ask me to come up, but maybe he didn't like the thought of me wandering around by myself.
Wherever we were going, I hoped it involved coffee. If I don't get my caffeine fix within two hours of waking up, I can get really cranky.
We didn't ride up, we took the elevator down to the garage, and Ranger still hadn't said anything by the time he beeped the black Porsche open.
Fine, I'd play along. I was determined to wait for him to speak first, even though I felt like a preschooler playing a game.
Sitting close to Ranger was bound to make me nervous, and that meant I had to talk. The more excited I get, the more I talk; it's a thing. But for now, I was holding my ground.
I distracted myself by checking out the funny colors the bruises on my arms had turned into. The scratches were a nice touch; I figured I would be able to pull off anything from victim of domestic violence to car crash survivor. At the rate I was going, there wouldn't be much intact skin left on me by the end of the week.
I gasped. The end of the week? How long had I been here? I had totally forgotten to put some effort into calling Jess, she would have to be worried sick or mad as all hell by now. And how long exactly had I asked Sean to feed Riley?
Ranger turned his head towards me.
"You okay?"
Ha, I had won! He had spoken first! I had gasped, that didn't count. Yes, my mind works in weird ways.
"I'm fine." I replied as I was doing the math on what day it was and how I could remember to call my friend as soon as I'd get a chance. I would have to look up her number, but I was bound to run into an Internet connection at some point.
"We 're meeting a friend for breakfast." Ranger said, apparently back in a talking mood.
"Uh-huh."
I could have asked who or why or where, but I was bound to find out all that sooner rather than later, so I let Ranger get back into his zone.
A half hour later, we pulled into a 'Denny's' parking lot.
I stared though the windshield at the sign, then I stared at Ranger. I loved Denny's, just like every other type of greasy-bad-for-you fast food, but it seemed very un-Ranger.
"Wasn't my idea." He almost-shrugged, reading my mind.
When we entered, most patrons looked up from their meals to check us out. Well, to check Ranger out. I couldn't blame them, he wasn't someone you saw every day. I was betting the women were wanting to be with him, the men wanted to be him. Or maybe I was projecting my own opinion on Ranger, but there were definitely a lot of looks. Not a lot of people running dressed all in black.
Ranger scanned the crowd for a beat and then bypassed the hostess by making a beeline to a table in a corner.
I didn't know what he had spotted, since I didn't have the advantage of his height, so I just followed him.
A guy looked up from his bacon and eggs when we approached.
He was medium height, medium built, and everything else about him was medium, too. He had the kind of face you don't notice all that much in the first place, and then forget a minute after you saw it. Gray eyes, mousy-brown hair cut short, no facial hair.
He locked eyes with Ranger and nodded.
Ranger motioned for me to sit down, so I slid onto the bench, sitting across from medium guy, and Ranger sat down beside me. Our legs touched, and I sucked in some air before I could help myself.
There were no introductions. Ranger waited for the waitress to serve our coffee and put down our menus, then he asked "What've you got?"
Medium guy chewed and swallowed and put his silverware down.
He reached under the table and produced a manila envelope, handing it to Ranger.
I was trying to figure out why I had been brought along, since my input wasn't requested. But since I didn't know what to say either, I put milk in my coffee and drank it silently. I had coffee, life wasn't so bad anymore.
"Any word?" Ranger asked.
"Nothing new." Medium guy said.
"Thank you."
Medium guy looked up at this, pushed his plate away and got up.
Either I had missed a big chunk of the conversation or else they had been communicating telepathically.
I looked at Ranger expectantly.
The waitress returned and took our orders. Ranger ordered a grapefruit and I took the Grand Slam breakfast.
"That stuff will kill you," Ranger remarked and I almost giggled. One of his signature lines!
"Well?" I tried again when the waitress had left.
"Well what?"
"What was this all about? What's in the envelope?"
"Not here."
Okay, I accepted, this no-talking or barely-talking thing wasn't for me. I hated having to ask for every tiny bit of information. When I opened my mouth, I said everything there was to say.
Maybe Ranger had taken a correspondence course somewhere, along the lines of "How to drive women crazy by saying as little as possible".
"Morelli called." Ranger said, pulling me away from my musings.
"And?" See, I was catching on. What I wanted to ask was "What did he say, does he need me to call him back?"
"There was another murder last night that looked like the Senor's handwriting. Morelli wanted to make sure you were safe."
Joe had called to check on me? That was nice. Maybe he did care? Wait…
"Why did he call you?"
Ranger just looked at me, as if the answer was obvious.
Of course! Mental head slap. Ranger had given the cops his number to call. So Joe had probably gotten in touch with the team at the fire.
"Did he ask for me?"
"Told you, he…"
"Yes, yes," I interrupted "But didn't he ask to talk to me?"
"No."
All right then. Joe's concerns had been quieted after speaking to Ranger only. Just business. Bummer.
Our food arrived and my mood brightened. I could always rely on heaps of bacon, eggs and pancakes to make me feel better.
Whenever I moved, my leg would touch Ranger's. When I picked up my knife, my elbow brushed against his. I was trying really hard to stifle a moan and shoved some egg into my mouth.
I couldn't bear the silence any longer, it made me even more nervous.
If the real questions would have to wait, I'll go with small talk. I could small talk with the best of them, weather was my specialty.
"Say, do you know Stephanie Plum?" Where'd that come from? That's not what I had wanted to ask! It's what I wanted to know, yes, but why didn't I find a subtler way?
"Yeah, why?" Ranger didn't look up from his grapefruit.
I figured he was studying me out of the corner of his eye though. Or maybe I was paranoid.
"Do you work with her?"
"Used to. She's Vinnie's cousin."
"Is she dead?" He had talked about her in the past tense!
He looked up and his eyes met mine.
"She was a bounty hunter, right? Did she get killed chasing an FTA?" My imagination at work again.
Rangers mouth curved into a smile, it even reached his eyes.
"No, she was doing the filing for Vinnie for a while. It didn't work out. She moved away after she got married."
Come again? There was no bombshell bounty hunter in this version of Trenton?
What the fuck? Had I missed a dimension jump on my way over here?
"Where is she now? I thought Lula did the filing? Or is Melvin still there?"
I had Ranger's full attention now, but I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
"Why are you so interested in her?"
Good question. Because she is supposed to be here, this is her world. Ranger and Morelli were in love with her, or something, and their world revolved around hers. I couldn't find a way to say this though, at least none that wouldn't send me straight to the nut house.
"Just curious." And I cut some bacon. Yeah, real smooth. Even I wouldn't have believed me.
"Lula does all kinds of things for Vinnie." Ranger said slowly. "Sometimes even filing."
"You mean, they're a couple?" My food fell out of my mouth. Anything seemed possible now, with the way things were going.
Ranger barked a laugh at that.
"No, they're not a couple! Lula wouldn't touch Vinnie with a 10-foot pole."
Oh, thank god for small favors. It was not as twisted as I had begun to fear.
Stephanie wasn't in this picture, but Lula, Vinnie and Connie seemed to be who they were supposed to be.
"Sometimes she helps Connie out with the preliminary phone work, sometimes she goes after low-bond FTA's. Sometimes she does filing."
I was willing to leave it at that, but Ranger wasn't done.
"How do you know them?"
I shrugged and faked peculiar interest in my hash browns. Then I remembered my not-so-cool-as-of-late bounty hunter persona and added "They came up when I ran a search on Vinnie's office."
Strangely enough, that seemed to work, Ranger took a sip of coffee.
Big mental sigh. Saved by a fib.
But I resolved to keep my mouth in check in the future. I didn't know how much luck I'd have with that since Ranger seemed to be able to short-circuit my brain with the slightest of touches, but I was going to try.
The truth was, if I knew what was good for me, I'd ask for a ride back to Jeremy's car and head north until I'd hit Manhattan. Then I'd return the car and get on a plane back home, leaving Trenton as far behind as possible.
Unfortunately, I had licked blood. I had met Joe and Ranger and my hormones (or my stupidity) wouldn't allow me to do what was good for me. I was hooked. I had even created this excuse where I might still be a target if I left, so it was best to stay where I could be protected.
My common sense-self never needed a lot of persuasion from my stupid-self.
We finished our breakfast and Ranger paid the bill.
It had occurred to me while I was in the shower that morning that, while Ranger had been too nice to point it out, staying at RangeMan had pretty much been my only option.
I didn't know anyone in the area, I had no money or credit cards. For the first time since I'd moved out of my parents' house after school, I totally depended on another person. The thought had scared me at first, but since the person was Ranger, it wasn't all that bad.
True, my cool image was shattered. Who had ever heard of a kick-ass bounty hunter that couldn't replace cars, weapons, and credit cards within hours? Didn't they usually work as a whole team?
Whatever, I didn't have a team, and I had to focus on keeping my story straight.
We left the restaurant, got back into the car and took off.
Ranger checked his rearview mirror a couple of times, and after a few turns, he parked in the parking lot of a Walgreen's.
He killed the engine and picked up the manila envelope off his lap.
"The guy in the diner was Ed." He said. "If there's anything to know about the Senor's interest in you, he'd be able to pick it up."
That was pretty much what I had figured. Except for the Ed part. Medium guy looked more like a John.
There were several letter-sized sheets of paper and a bunch of photos on the envelope.
Ranger read through the pages and shuffled through the pages.
"You look cute in that outfit." He finally said, handing me the pictures.
The picture on top was of Ranger and me standing by his Porsche, it must haven been taken when he had picked me up the other night.
I was wearing my gray-on-gray rangeresque bounty hunter outfit I had been so proud of. And Ranger thought it looked cute? I knew it wasn't very progressive of me, but I liked being thought of as cute. Cute wasn't 'sexy', but guys usually didn't use 'cute' to describe kittens either.
There was a picture of the mangled beetle, and a close-up of its plates.
Then a couple of photos of a man that looked like Moreno talking to a blond woman. The pictures had been taken from a distance, like with a telephoto lense, and their quality was poor. But I didn't think the woman could be mistaken for me, we only shared a hair color.
Three more pictures of Moreno in his bathtub. They brought back the panic I had felt when I made the discovery, and I quickly gave the stack back to Ranger.
"Anything?" I asked, indicating the papers.
"It looks like they're still trying to check your connection to Nagel. Must not be focusing on the possibility that there's a harmless guy with the same name around. In the meantime, they think they can scare you away. They don't know who you are, but they don't like you."
Go figure. I had pretty much gotten that message when my bed had caught fire. And I was scared, all right.
"Unfortunately, this confirms that the Senor is behind the note and the fire. Ed swiped the pictures when he was compiling the info."
Well now I knew.
"But what did I do to piss him off?"
"You found Moreno. He was supposed to disappear."
Just my luck. I randomly pick a file from the collection of FTA's and piss off a crime lord.
I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
Ranger shoved everything back into the envelope and turned the key in the ignition.
I put my hand on his arm.
This was bad timing, and it wasn't going to make sense, but I had to ask.
"Can I borrow some money?"
"What do you need?"
I looked at the Walgreen's storefront.
"Some…things."
I hoped he wouldn't make me give specifics. I wanted mascara, and I wanted eye shadow and I wanted my brand of deodorant. All details a little to intimate to share.
He turned off the car and dug in his pockets.
"Do you want me to come with?" He asked, holding out some bills.
I took the money and assured him I'd be fine. It had felt awkward to ask for money, but I had needs. They were immature and self-conscious, but I didn't care. If I was to be around Ranger, I needed to fell like I looked good.
I dashed through the store, filling my basket with all the essentials. RangeMan may have known my shoe size, but make-up hadn't been on the care package list. Imagine that.
I was rushing because I didn't want Ranger to change his mind and come looking for me, not really sure why. It wasn't like I was buying condoms or tampons. Buying those always made me feel self-conscious.
When I reached the register, I noticed Ranger had given me some 20's and a 50. What did he think I needed?
I got back into the car with my purchases and smiled.
"I'm ready." I announced, not quite sure what I was ready for.
Ranger started the Porsche and got back into traffic. I couldn't figure out if he was going back the way we had come or somewhere else, my mind had been elsewhere on the drive to the restaurant.
"Where are we going?"
"Got some things to check on at the office. Then we'll try to annoy some of the Senor's men."
Oh goodie. Something to really look forward to.
At least I'd have time to call Jess and put on my face, I wanted to look nice for the autopsy photos.
