Present day:

Stephanie was sitting at her desk at Rangeman when she heard a knock on her cubicle wall. Turning around she smiled, "Hey there, Big Guy. What can I do for you?"

He handed her a file and responded, "Distraction tonight, but…"

"Of course I'll do it. When and where?"

"Don't be so fast to agree, Steph. This one is different." Tank ran his hand over his face and Stephanie knew something was bothering him. She also knew if she waited a moment, he'd tell her without her having to ask. "This one is tougher. He's a repeat offender. He knows all of Trenton Rangeman. None of us can be inside with you. He sees one of us and he'll rabbit."

"Okay, so…" she didn't want to say no as she knew they counted on her for distractions, and they would never intentionally put her in harm's way.

"I have one guy coming in from the Boston branch to go inside with you but that is all I can get. If it weren't for this guy about to leave state, I'd put this off."

Stephanie could see Tank struggling with his decision and she told him, "Don't worry about it. I am sure whoever you have coming will be protection enough. I'll look over the file after the meeting. When is the Boston guy getting here?"

"He will be here in about an hour. Let's get ready for the morning meeting."

Stephanie walked into the conference room and took a seat between Lester and Bobby. Les leaned over and kissed her cheek, "Morning, Beautiful. How are you?"

"I'm good, Les," she replied as Tank walked in.

"First up, Vince made his check-in yesterday. His mission is complete, should be back on US soil by this time next week. Ram also made his check-in yesterday. His mission is on track, hopes to be home within the next two months." Tank looked around and noticed the guys breathing a sigh of relief. Having three guys out of the office for so long was beginning to take a toll. "Finally, Ranger missed his check-in time, but was able to reach out last night. His mission is not going according to plan. Expect him to be gone for a while."

Steph felt Lester grab her hand a squeeze. She squeezed back and smiled at him. Looking around the room, she noticed all the guys were looking at her waiting for her reaction. "I am fine guys. Vince will be coming home soon, Ram will follow and hopefully we will have Ranger back as soon as he can make it."

They all knew that Ranger and Steph had a connection, but only Lester, Tank, and Cal knew that the two had talked and agreed there would be nothing other than a solid friendship between them.

"Before we move on to the usual meeting talk, we have a distraction tonight. However, it's Paul Hoffman. As you all know, he's a repeat offender and knows all of our faces."

"No, she's not going in alone," Lester stated as he looked at Stephanie. "He's too dangerous."

"Les, I won't be alone. Tank has someone from Boston coming to help."

"Santos," Tank bellowed. "I have that covered. Boston has spared one of their guys to come help out. With such short notice, I was only able to get Junior. But I trust him."

"Trust him? He's new!"

"Um, how new?" Stephanie asked as her head bounced between Tank and Lester.

"He's been a Rangeman employee for twenty months. He's military, a fourth-degree black belt, and looks nothing like any of us. He blends in with a crowd yet is always aware."

Stephanie thought about it and tried to see if her senses went off, but nothing came other than peace. She knew, even though she did not know this Junior guy, that she would be fine. Reaching out, she grabbed Lester's arm, "I'll be fine, Les."

It was agreed that most of Rangeman Trenton would be outside the building surrounding the exits. There would be no way that Paul Hoffman would get past them.

After the meeting was finished, Bobby and Lester hung around to talk to Stephanie. They wanted to make sure she really was okay doing the distraction without anyone she knew inside with her. After talking for a few minutes, the guys seemed to be content with Stephanie being inside with just Junior. But they knew if anything happened during the distraction, Junior wouldn't be going back to Boston the same as he came to Trenton.

Stephanie took the file Tank had given her and spread the papers out on the conference table. She wanted to read up on this Paul Hoffman. The more she looked at the file, the more she felt sick, but knew she'd do whatever it took to get him back behind bars. Armed robbery, attempted murder, murder, rape, kidnapping, torture. There wasn't anything this guy wasn't into. He'd kidnapped, raped, and killed three teenage girls. He'd kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed many women. For some of them, he'd made their husbands watch before he killed them. He always kept souvenirs from his kills...teeth, jewelry, hair, etc.

Looking at the pictures of his victims (before he'd gotten a hold of them) Stephanie tried to formulate a plan to get his attention. Once she was satisfied with what she had come up with, she just hoped this Junior guy would go along with it. Once she was satisfied with the distraction, she decided to head to her cubicle and work on the security proposal.

About an hour later, Stephanie walked to Tank's office. "Tank, here is the proposal for Clementine's. Look it over and see if it looks good."

"Thanks, Steph," he said as he took the file. "Now, Steph, this is Junior. Junior this is Stephanie."

Stephanie turned around embarrassed she hadn't realized there was someone else in the room. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize," she stopped talking when she saw the man in front of her.

He was six foot tall, had short, spikey brown hair, and the most gorgeous blue eyes she'd ever seen, and dressed in full black. "Holy shit," was out of her mouth before she could stop it.