I opened my text messages. The first was from Miguel. "Attached is the overview on Darla. She has a long history of pulling scams like this. I'm looking forward to the smackdown." I opened the attachment. Darla had done her Bachelor's in Criminology and, although she had done her Master's, she had done both on a small Caribbean university that was not known for their post-grad courses. In fact, the university at that island didn't even list Criminology as one of their degree programs that they offer, which made me wonder if she had even done her degrees at all.

However, since she had 'graduated' from the program six months ago, she had threatened to sue three different companies for discrimination. Each one successfully paid Darla the money that she had requested. To date, she had scammed a total of four hundred and fifty thousand from three other security guard companies.

Miguel had checked into her medical history. There was no record of her having MS. There was also no record of her having bought a wheelchair. She was, in fact, in perfect health.

She did fairly well in school, didn't have a lot of friends, didn't have a job, and was doing well financially after having the large deposits from the settlements. By the end of the report, I had decided to ask Ranger to contact the other three companies that had been scammed so that we could take her to court on a joint ticket.

I then turned to her brother, Zack. He was her older brother by two years. He was not a lawyer at all. He was a security guard that had worked for Rangeman until he started not showing up to work. He was let go. Just after he was let go, he joined with his sister and started scamming people.

It appeared as though they were working up to scamming Rangeman. I suspected that, because Zack was unhappy that he was let go, Rangeman always was their end game.

I read through Zack's review. He also didn't have many friends, was a bit of a loner, had no medical issues. He had worked for Rangeman for four months before being let go. He lived with his sister in a two-story house in a not-so-nice neighborhood near the good end of Stark.

When I finished reading the reviews, Miguel said that he would contact the university in the Caribbean to see if Darla actually had earned her degrees there, and he and Dirk and Nick were going to divide out the other scammed organizations and do quick overviews on them. He also said that he felt there was more there for Darla, and he would look at her more in-depth that morning. He said that he would send both the overviews of the companies and the in-depth to me today, and he asked me if I was planning on being in the office.

I forwarded the in-depths on Zack and Darla to Ranger and Adele and Joe, and I opened a note to Miguel. "Thanks for the reviews. I'm shocked that they were able to get money out of the other three companies, but I am proud to say that they won't get money out of us. I have sent the reviews on and will suggest to Ranger to join with the other organizations and sue them in a civil court as well as have the TPD charge them in a criminal court. You did a great job on the reviews and with our other work that we have done, this has been a slam dunk. It's always nice when they are like that.

"As for me, Grant discovered that I've got an infection growing in my burns. Because it's just a 'teensy' bit sore, I am on a heavy-duty painkiller and Grant has been dosing me every four hours. I had a high fever and things weren't looking too good. However, for the first time in 24-hours, the fever is being controlled and the painkillers are knocking me out so that I am sleeping pretty well constantly. When I am awake, my stomach is incredibly nauseous and Grant is treating me for that. Apparently it is a side effect of the antibiotic, but Grant and Kai wanted to hit it with a sledgehammer and this antibiotic is definitely a sledgehammer. The bad news is that I won't be in the office for a while and, when I first come back, Grant has told me that he is limiting my workday to two hours a day, he wants me to split those hours to one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and he wants me to work from home. Ranger is a 'little' upset, and I suspect that I won't be coming back to work for a while. The good news? I'm getting better and Ranger made me pineapple upside down cake for breakfast. He is just getting me a piece now. If I wasn't in so much pain, I'd try to milk this a little longer. It's not bacon, but apparently I'm not in enough pain for that."

I sent the message through just as Ranger walked in with the cake, and I grinned when I saw the tall mound of whipped cream on the side. "I didn't put the whipped cream on top because I wasn't sure how it would be with your stomach. I figured that you could use it as a dip anyway, if you were interested."

I pulled myself up to a sitting position, put my hands out, and slowly started to eat. Ranger had also brought a meal replacement drink for me to sip. I was able to get the whole drink in, and about half of my cake. Ranger grinned with relief when he saw me put the rest of the cake aside. "You ate far more of it than I thought you would."

I smiled. "It was good cake. Can you ask Grant to keep it on my nightstand? I'll eat the rest when I wake up."

"I can dump it and get you some fresh cake when you wake up."

I stared at him. "That is sacrilegious. You can't throw out cake."

Ranger laughed. "Are you ready for your painkiller, babe?" he said quietly.

I sighed. "Yes. My legs are getting more and more uncomfortable as time goes on."

"What are they on a scale of zero to ten?"

"About a nine."

"So it's climbing fast."

I sighed again. "Unfortunately."

Grant walked in just as Ranger was getting to his feet to go and retrieve him. "Ready for your painkiller?"

I groaned. "Smartass."

Grant laughed. "Levels?"

"Nine."

"Okay. Let's fix this."

He got out the shot and added it to my IV. As he did that, I looked at Ranger. "Read your emails. Miguel and the team did some incredible work."

"Any spoilers?"

"Darla is a serial con artist, and Zack isn't a lawyer but is a former Rangeman employee."

"Oh boy."