Disclaimer: You know the deal. Don't own shit.

A/N: A bit THANK YOU! To all my reviewers. You don't know how happy it makes me to read a little bit of support. Thanks! I know you all don't have to and it means a lot to me that you want to.

Hope this chapter meets up to your expectations…

Chapter 18

I was about to rush off towards Ranger, the guys and, to my surprise, Cammy and Amia when I heard a gun being cocked.

"Don't move Miss Plum, I am sure your little friends didn't come all this way to watch your head explode in front of them."

I sighed and turned my head to see Rio aiming at me.

I looked back at the guys who had lowered their weapons.

"Put the gun down Rio." I heard Ranger say.

Rio laughed slightly and slowly walked towards me, "I don't think so Manoso."

How did he know Ranger?

"I found out that I was, in fact, your file. You simply used Miss Plum to lead me to you, not a wise choice." He said, now right next to me with the gun pressed against my head.

I looked at Ranger who was tense, as was everyone else.

"But I am willing to make a switch, you can have Miss Plum for Miss Rippami." He said slowly and I sighed.

Amia was biting her lip and looked like she was going to do it.

I decided now was the time to use my language skills.

"No se mueva!" I said to her and she shook her head. Don't move!

"No lo dejaré matarle!" she replied shaking her head. I will not let him kill you!

"Él está mintiendo!" I said slowly. He is lying!

Amia looked like she was going to say something else but Rio interrupted.

"Stop talking! What are you going to do Manoso?" he said leaning in slightly to my face, kissing my cheek.

I gagged involuntary but didn't hurl – thank god.

"Don't touch her!" Ranger said fiercely.

I've never seen Ranger so angry, and if Rio had any sense he would stop and just give up.

I know I would have if the situations were reversed.

Rio wasn't me though and didn't seem intimidated, he just laughed.

"It seems Manoso cares for Miss Plum a little more than just a worker. How interesting…" Rio drawled.

Now he was making fun of mine and Ranger's relationship.

I know it was complicated and very confusing but it was a damn good one.

He just took it too damn far.

In flash his gun was on the floor and my fist was in his face.

He stumbled backwards and in the split second that everyone realized that I was no longer being held at gun point, everyone started fighting.

I was just cocking my gun and aiming at one of Rio's goons when Ranger shouted over to me, "Don't kill anyone, the cops want them for questioning."

I sighed angrily and holstered my gun again.

Stupid goddamn cops ruin everything.

"Fine" I muttered angrily.

One of the goons saw me holstering my gun and decided to play unfairly.

He pulled out a 7 inch switch blade knife and sliced my unprotected arm.

I let out a cry of pain and jumped back.

Okay now I was really, really pissed.

The goon had a smug grin on his face and was edging further towards me, his knife raised.

I went into psycho mode suddenly, knocked the blade from his hand, continually punched him in the face like he was a punch bag then raised my knee to his groin, then finally I turned to the side and kicked him in the stomach sending him a couple of yards backwards onto the floor.

I sighed heavily at him and frowned at my new cut. I ripped off the bottom of my long shirt and tied it around my cut.

I looked around to see everyone in action, even Cammy and Amia who also new how to fight dirty.

Amia was the one who convinced me to go to the Army Cadets. Cammy unfortunately didn't have army cadet training like us, she just used her instincts which was working out to be pretty good.

She had a very hard punch and so continued to beat the crap out of any guy who came up to her.

Well done Cammy!

I scanned the area again and grinned when I saw that Rio and his goons were more than a little out numbered.

Ranger was kicking Rio's ass and the rest of the goons were being beaten up by Cammy, Amia, Tank, Lester, Bobby, Woody, Guy and Hal.

Soon Rio and electric blue eyes goon were the only ones left standing and I grinned triumphantly.

The smile soon slipped off my face when I saw two more trucks coming towards us from the distance.

"You are taking the fucking piss!" I swore and I saw everyone grin slightly.

The trucks pulled up sharply and about 7 more goons appeared.

Okay now we were even.

I was in the middle of dodging knife swipes when I saw someone aiming for Amia.

The guy wasn't being marked by anyone and no one had even noticed that he was aiming for Amia.

I looked back at my opponent who had a mad look on his face.

I quickly kicked the knife out of his hand and kicked him in the groin.

I rushed towards Amia and pushed her out of the way as I heard the gun fire.

"What the…?" she said as I pushed her down.

I felt pain explode in my chest and I rolled off her.

Amia looked at me and saw my quick short breaths.

"Shit." She muttered and tried to talk to me.

"Steph, hang on. We're gonna get you to a…"

I sat up and raised my shirt to see the bullet lodged in my Kevlar vest on my chest.

"Don't sweat it, I wore a vest." I whispered still a little winded.

"You little …" she muttered hand over her heart, relief flooding her face.

"Shut up, come on, we gotta kick ass." I said to her getting to me feet.

I looked around for the little schmuck who shot at Amia.

He was raising his gun again and aiming for us.

I made a quick decision and prayed that Ranger would forgive me.

I flipped out my gun and shot at him. I was surprised to see that I wasn't the only one, and looked beside to see Amia's gun also smoking.

I grinned at her and she returned the grin.

The guy stumbled and fell backwards dead.

Rio seemed to be momentarily distracted by me and Amia shooting and killing one of his cronies and he stopped fighting Ranger and looked at both me and Amia shooting us a dagger glare.

Ranger had once told me that he was an opportunist, and he showed me this when he seized the moment when Rio was distracted and twisted his arms behind his back and held a gun to his head.

"Everybody stop, or Rio's dead. Call off your men if you want to live, Rio." He said to Rio's goons.

Moments later the cops were here and Rio and his goons were in the cop cars, cuffed.

I sighed again (I seem to be doing that a lot lately!) and walked over to the SUVs where everyone else was standing waiting for me after I gave my statement to the cops.

I walked over and was instantly hugged by Cammy and Amia.

"I'm okay." I said to them and pulled back, "this used to be a regular occurrence, back when I lived in Trenton."

"Jeez you used to lead a dangerous life." Amia said grinning.

Cammy looked confused and Amia translated for her and then she laughed.

After receiving many, "Glad your okay, bombshell." From the guys and hugs, I received a toe curling kiss from Ranger.

I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes with raised eyebrows.

"I'm glad too, babe." He said slowly.

I grinned, "Me too."

It was only when we got into the car did I realize that Amia and Cammy had really hit off with the guys.

Amia was on Lester's lap and Cammy was on Bobby's.

I raised an eyebrow at them both and sat down in the spare seat; Tank was riding shotgun and Ranger was driving.

I remembered Cammy's fighting skills and turned to her.

"Since when have you been able to fight?" I said to her in Spanish.

"I can't, I just punched anything that came near me. I guess going to gym and running with you, sort of helped." She replied in Spanish causing me to giggle slightly.

"You kicked ass Cammy!" Amia said to her also in Spanish, "Your better than Steph, and she went to the Army Cadets for gods sake!"

I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop as she said it.

The car swerved slightly and Tank shouted, "What!"

Bobby just stared at me with a open mouth fish expression.

"Amia! They didn't know!" I shouted at her in English, and then added, "Besides you can talk, you're the one who didn't even notice that you being shot at!"

She narrowed her eyes at me, "But I'm not the one who got shot was I?"

I narrowed my eyes too, "Oh please, you were a fucking general, you could get drunk and you'd still be able to see a shot."

Lester looked at her with wide eyes, "General?"

"STEPH! At least I didn't get drunk and get a goddamn tattoo!" she said with a smug grin.

I felt the car swerve again and Tank turned around to look at me with a look of complete disbelief on his face. Bobby had the same look and Lester just was shaking his head in incredulity.

"AMIA! At least I wasn't scared of getting one!"

"Hey! I wasn't afraid…I just didn't like any of the designs."

I gave her a raised eyebrow expression, "Sure."

I looked to the right to see Cammy shaking with laughter, Bobby was translating everything we were saying to her.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh please, you can shut up too, you got drunk and kissed a girl!" I said in Spanish.

She soon stopped laughing and looked at me with wide eyes, "In my defense, it wasn't a very well lit bar and I was so drunk I would have kissed you." She said angrily in Spanish.

"Thanks, it's nice to know you think so much of me." I muttered to her.

"Yeah well, I'm not the one who kissed a guy and bit his tongue." She said smiling.

"Hey! I was drunk and didn't really want to be kissed!" I shouted back.

"Oh please, you loved it!" Amia backed her up.

"Whatever….you kissed a girl!" I said to Cammy and she sighed and buried herself in Bobby's shirt.

Amia laughed and hugged Lester.

I rolled my eyes but chuckled all the same.

"You've been quite eventful babe, by the sounds of it." I heard Ranger say from the front and I watched as the girls smirked.

"A tattoo, bombshell?" I heard Tank say as well and I groaned with my head in my hands.

"Usted es ambos muertos!" I muttered to them and I heard them both laugh.

You're both dead!

TBC