Chapter One

I took a deep breath to stop myself from throwing up. Ranger looked at me. "Are you sure that you don't want me to accompany you onto the floor?" he said.

I raised a shaking hand and brushed my hair out of my face. "I think this is something that I have to do by myself but thank you."

Ranger pushed my wheelchair to the entrance to the floor, leaned over and gave me a kiss. "Would you mind sending me an email in a bit to tell me how it went?"

I buried my head in his shoulder and sniffed his scent, the scent that had never failed to settle my emotions. This time was no different and I could feel my heartbeat slowing and evening out. "Of course", I said. I took another sniff, kissed Ranger on his neck, and sat back. "I can do this."

Ranger smiled. "Yes, you can. And if people don't treat you properly, I'll fire them."

I laughed and wiped the tears from my eyes, glad that I had put on waterproof mascara – four coats for luck. Then, with a deep breath, I pushed my chair onto the floor.

I am Stephanie Plum, and I am the Executive Vice-President of Research and Investigative Services for my husband's security services company, Rangeman. We provided all things security to all levels of government, from supplementing their military tactical teams and contingents of spies, to cybersecurity to bodyguards to security guards to my area of expertise, research and investigative services. In addition to working for various governments, we also had multiple private companies and individuals on our client roster. I was responsible for both the European and US divisions, but I worked out of our corporate head office in Trenton, New Jersey.

We had recently taken over the Castle Force operations in Europe and amalgamated their company into ours. With that takeover, we now had sixty-six locations in the US and Europe. We had offices in thirty-nine countries. In addition, we owned forty percent of PMC, a private military contractor, that worked primarily in South America. We had over fifty thousand people on staff and had an excellent and growing reputation with governments around the world. We were a multibillion-dollar company. It was hard to believe that six years ago, when I had started with Rangeman, there were only two locations and, although we were doing well, we weren't doing nearly as well as we were now.

When we were in Inverness working with the staff in the head office in the European division, we made some very good friends. One of our friends invited us to her graduation ceremony and, at the ceremony, some terrorists lobbed in a bomb. Ranger and I ran to the hot zone to help people escape the flames. Ranger saved the dean, who had suffered third-degree burns, and I rescued someone lying on the floor on the other side of the auditorium. Fortunately, the man was unharmed by the explosion. Unfortunately, the man I was rescuing was three times as heavy as me, about a foot taller, and the route to get to him was on fire. I walked through the flames to rescue him and dragged him out of the auditorium. I got chemical pneumonia from the off-gases, a muscle tear in my abdomen from moving the man, and a combination of severe second-degree and third-degree burns on both my legs from my knees to my toes. They were healing slowly and the doctors had told me that I would be in a wheelchair for a year before I would find out if I would be able to walk again. I knew that I was nowhere near it now. Firstly, it was only two months since the fire. More importantly, however, I was doing regular physiotherapy and it hurt like hell to put even the slightest pressure on the soles of my feet. That was the area of my body that had been the worst burned and was the area of my body that would be the most likely not to fully heal.

Ranger and our team and I had just come back from Scotland a few days before. It was my first day back in the office. I was only working partial days – growing new skin was incredibly tiring and I needed to have a three or four-hour nap each day, as well as go to sleep at the same time as my young daughters – but I was worried about how I was going to be treated in the office. Staff had been sending me notes of encouragement and one, in particular, had been sent that morning. It was simple – 'You've. Got. This.' Noah had been an incredible support and, having lost his legs a few years before, he understood the anxiety associated with coming back into the workplace.

I took a deep breath and pushed my wheelchair onto the floor and looked up in surprise when everyone started clapping. Across the aisle was a large banner welcoming me back. People were gathered around, grinning as I pushed myself in.

Noah pushed his wheelchair forward and handed me a large bouquet of flowers as I started to cry. I leaned forward and hugged him as I thanked him.

Nick, one of my Executive Directors and a close friend, stepped forward with a box of tissues. "We were wondering if we were going to have to escort you onto the floor", he said with a grin. "We were timing it and thought that we would give you another two minutes or so before we retrieved you."

"Come on into the conference room", said Dirk, another of my Executive Directors and close friends.

I pushed myself through the work area and got a lot of hugs and smiles and welcome home messages, and by the time that I got to the conference room I had regained a bit of my balance. I wheeled my way inside and looked at the spread of food on the table. There was everything from fruit to muffins to cake. There were large vats of coffee and tea, bottles of juice, and cartons of milk. As I looked around the room with my mouth open, Miguel grinned. "You're too skinny, chica. We have to fatten you up."

I laughed. "Ranger will kiss the ground that you walk on if you are able to fatten me up."

The staff laughed.

I looked up at the people crowding into the room behind me. "Let's eat", I said.

"Woo hoo!" said Darcy. "I'm hungry."

I laughed as Miguel dished me up a filled plate, so filled that I didn't know how I was going to eat everything. He set me up at the end of the table, and people all, one after another, welcomed me back to the office. Each person told me how much they had missed me, and how happy they were to have me back. It was one of the most confidence-building parties that I had ever gone to.

An hour later, the food had been picked over and everyone had taken the chance to talk to me. People were amazed at how much I remembered about them, as I asked them about parents and siblings and spouses and children. I learned about additions and deaths in their families. Most of the staff had been there when I had left. I had something personal to say to each teammate, and afterwards Miguel commented to me that he didn't know how I did it. I just shrugged my shoulders. People were important to me, and I loved being a part of their lives. When I had started the department, I had decided that I wanted to be more than a boss. I wanted to be a friend and a teammate. Knowing about my staff's lives was important to me.

There were four new staff members, and I invited them to sit down with me when the conference room cleared out a bit. I talked to all four of them, and we shared about our lives, our homelife, our likes and dislikes, our strengths and weaknesses. I spent about twenty minutes talking to the four of them and, when Miguel interrupted to tell me that we should have an Executive meeting, I smiled at them. "I'm sorry – I was taking all your time, and that wasn't very nice of me. I was just interested in what you had to say. I'm sure that you know where my office is. If you ever have any problems or just want someone to bounce things off, come and find me. I will try to help."

The four staff smiled and thanked me, got another cup of coffee when I suggested that they do that, and left the conference room. As they went, I could hear one staff member say to another, "she is just the nicest person I have ever met."

I could feel my face flood with color as Miguel looked at me and grinned. "She's right, you know. We think you're the nicest person we've ever met as well."

I snorted.

Miguel took my leak-proof, spill-proof coffee cup and refilled it, and fixed my coffee the way that I liked it. He handed me my cup, poured himself another cup, and led Dirk and Nick and me into my office. We gathered around the conference table. "What happened with Val and Steve after we talked to you last?" said Miguel.

"When I last talked to you", I said, "Steve had been put into jail for trying to rape me. Since then, Val paid his bail, begged me for space in our plane back from Inverness for both her and Steve, and threw a bit of a hissy fit when I said no. I explained to her that we couldn't do it according to the terms of the agreement that we had made with the mafia. She said they would never know. I asked her how that was possible when they would be on the plane with us. She got angry and stormed out, but I think she is now understanding the terms of the agreement better. She doesn't like it, but that's the way it is. I tried to tell her that we were trying to take care of her and make sure that someone would look after her for the rest of her life."

"Is that what you were trying to do?" said Nick.

"Of course not. But I couldn't very well tell her the truth."

"What was the truth?" said Nick.

"Steve's true punishment was being partnered with Val. She's whiny, entitled, and she spends money like it was water. However, Val's true punishment is being partnered with Steve. He is whiny, entitled, selfish, and looking for someone to support his lifestyle. He doesn't want to work and the only reason he was interested in settling down with Val was because Val promised him that I would pay their expenses. He was looking for a free ride and is now furious that he has to settle down with her when there is no money to be found."

"They are each other's punishment?" said Dirk.

I smiled. "Yes. They could turn their punishment into something amazing, but they will both have to grow as people quite a bit, and I'm not sure if they are willing to do that."

"It will be interesting to see what happens", said Miguel. "Are you going to follow them?"

I smiled. "Hell yeah. I promised the enforcers and my parents and Ranger that I would do a monthly report on them."

"Do you know where they are now?"

I sighed. "No. I told them to find their own damn way home, so my guess is that they are preparing to leave or have just come back." I sighed again. "So what's new here?"

"That woman trying to sue us for discrimination has been a menace. Adele has had her hands full with that one. She has tried to talk to members of the staff to find out confidential information. I've had a few staff members tell me that she has stopped them outside the building, and I've been reporting what is going on to Adele. Do you know when Ranger is going to meet her?"

"In about an hour. I have to leave in about half an hour and I will be gone for the rest of the day. Do you know the woman's name?"

"Darla Suksalot."

"God, she sounds like a 'ho."

Miguel and Dirk and Nick laughed.

"Okay", I said, "what else is on the go?"

After half an hour of talking about the status of each of the branches, I looked at my watch. "I'd love to stay and talk", I said.

"But you have to get going", said Nick. "Don't take any crap from Darla and have a good sleep this afternoon."

I looked at the three of them with tears in my eyes. "Guys? This morning was incredible. Thank you so much for the welcome home."

Miguel grinned. "That's okay. The other idea we had was filling your room with balloons, but we decided that the environmental impacts were too onerous. Besides, everybody likes cake."

I smiled. "And it was a good one. Tasty Pastry?"

Dirk laughed. "Of course. And it wasn't even the day-old kind."

I grinned. "I could tell. It had my name on it. Normally I get the day-old cakes. For some reason, they are usually made out to Bob. I don't know who Bob is, but I have certainly enjoyed many of his cakes. I've had 'congratulations, Bob' cakes, 'happy birthday, Bob' cakes, and 'our sympathies, Bob' cakes."

"They have sympathy cakes?" said Nick as he stared at me.

"Hell yeah. What else do you serve at a wake? 'Congratulations on your promotion'?"

The guys laughed hard.

I smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow."

The three men all gave me a hug, and they escorted me out of my office. As we passed the conference room, Nick popped inside to get a muffin for me. He came out with a carrot muffin wrapped in a napkin. "It's carrot so that you can pretend that it's healthy", he said with a grin. "And there is cream cheese frosting on it, which is made of cheese. Healthy, right?"

I laughed. "I love the way you think." Nick grinned and handed me the muffin.

I put the muffin in my lap with my thermal mug, and I wheeled myself off the floor and over to the elevator. As I passed by Noah, I smiled. "Thank you", I said quietly.

He grinned. "See you tomorrow, Steph", he said.

I grinned back. "See you tomorrow."