All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine.

"Hey, Sweet Cheeks! You want a ride? We can use my bike, but that ain't the kind of equipment I'm suggesting you hop onto."

I was so busy rolling my eyes at the idiot, I didn't see Cal grab him. The strangled sound that came next snapped me out of my irritation. I turned towards it and saw Cal holding the guy up by his throat against the outside wall of Tasty Pastry.

"Apologize to the lady," Cal ordered.

"Cal, it's okay. It's not the first or the last time I'll hear something like that. If you have boobs, it seems inevitable. Let him go."

He acted as if he couldn't hear me. He stayed focused on the a-hole. "Tell the lady you're sorry and you'll never do that again to any other female."

"He can't apologize if you're choking the life out of him," I said, cautiously moving closer to Cal. "Let him go. He's not worth the paperwork or police report."

The look in Cal's eyes scared me, not because he was hell bent on defending my honor, but he appeared trapped in a past hell where I couldn't reach him. Separately and collectively, Ranger, Tank, Bobby … and during brief times of maturity, Lester have all warned me this could happen with a number of the guys, yet I'm clearly not prepared to witness or diffuse it.

I knew touching him would lead to a fifty/fifty chance he'll listen or snap. I've never lived cautiously aside from acting on my feelings for Ranger, so I tried to put my face between his and the jerk's.

"Cal? Cal … listen to me. If you kill him, I'll have to watch you do it and Ranger will be pissed if I'm crying when he shows up. You don't want to tick the Boss off do you? Hit the guy for hitting on me if you need to but let him go first."

I don't know if it was the thought of upsetting me that got him to back off, or the mention of Ranger. No one wants to anger Ranger. And it's universal knowledge that upsetting me is a fast track to bringing out the Army Ranger in my Ranger.

I was about to hug Cal just to reassure us both that everything's okay, but he turned at the last second and plowed a fist into the guy's jaw.

"Now you can call Ranger," my Rangeguy told me a beat later. "I'll probably need an attorney."

I was already shaking my head. "Not if I have anything to say about it." I dug my cell out of my bag and sent out the Bat Signal.

"Hey, Babe."

"Hey yourself. So … we ran into a little problem."

I didn't have to see him to know that his entire body just tensed. "What kind of problem?"

Here's the tricky part. Saying someone propositioned me is going to set Ranger off even faster than it did Cal, but not saying anything won't help my Rangeguy.

"Cal was defending womankind and may have knocked a guy out cold in the process. He thinks he's going to be charged with something when numbnuts comes to."

"Why did Cal feel the need to step in?"

"That's not the important part of the story. Cal not getting in trouble is."

"I'm not offering assistance until you answer my question. What did the guy do?"

"Fine, he offered me a ride on his bike and his body. I was going with ignoring him, since no body or voice can get a good reaction out of me unless they belong to you, but Cal was adamant that the guy apologize."

"And he didn't?"

"He was lacking the necessary oxygen supply to accomplish that."

Finally, Cal became the center of Ranger's concern. "Let me speak to him."

Gladly, I thought. I've been working and hanging out exclusively with Ranger and the guys for almost a year, but there are still aspects of them I haven't completely figured out.

"The Boss wants a word," I told Cal, passing him my phone.

I kept one eye on the unconscious idiot and the other on Cal's face, trying to follow their conversation by the non-expressions not changing Cal's face at all.

"Well?" I asked when he handed my phone back to me without a single word.

"Ranger's on his way," was all I got out of him.

"You know I can take care of myself, don't you? If he aimed anything beyond his words at me, I would've seriously hurt him."

"I know."

"But?" I pressed, sensing a story lurking behind those two words.

He went to shove his fingers through his hair in agitation, only to stop short when he remembered that he's bald now. "I can't get into this …"

"I'm not asking as a lawyer or a police officer, Cal. I'm concerned as a friend who cares a lot about you. We can secure him to the tree and head over there," I said, pointing to the empty part of the parking lot a few feet away, "and talk if it'll make you feel more comfortable."

The idea of cuffing the dickhead clearly appealed to him, and Cal attached him to an outside table. Opening up about his overreaction took effort. But I've been taking notes on how Ranger interacts with people and the way the guys communicate, so I knew when to push and when to shut the hell up and let them say what they need to.

"While I was overseas, my sister was murdered by an asshole who saw her and thought she was 'hot'. He decided he should get to have her, she had zero input or warning. What he wanted determined how long I got to have the best sister a guy like me could've been given."

"Oh my God, Cal. I'm so fucking sorry. I didn't know."

"Ranger promised he wouldn't say anything unless I did, and I never wanted to think about it let alone discuss it."

"I can understand that. It must hurt like hell."

"It does. Even though it's been years."

"A loss is a loss no matter how long it's been. I'm just sorry that I'm the one who just brought it all back."

"You didn't do shit to deserve that," Cal was quick to say, looking at the guy coming to with a narrowing of his eyes that had me worrying all over again. "He should know that women aren't here just to make him or his dick happy."

I nodded. "Put that on a T-shirt and you'd have a solid business going."

"I'd feel better if I could just beat respect into fuckers like that. 'Scuse the language."

"You've earned the right to swear as much as you want to."

"Ah … Stephanie! Are you alright?"

I sighed at the interruption. I might actually prefer being shouted at by a harmless prick than have someone my mother goes to church with see me mid-altercation.

I waved. "I'm fine, Mrs. Sandrino!" I said louder than I would've liked. "Feel free to tell everyone that you got to see an arrest in-progress!"

"Oooh that's exciting! Your grandmother is going to be soooo jealous! What is this young man wanted for?"

"Being stupid is at the top of the list!"

"Oh you! Always such a jokester!"

"Tell my mother and Grandma Mazur that I said 'Hi'!"

"I will ... the first chance I get!"

I have no doubt that she'll get a coffee cake from the bakery and be in my mother's driveway four minutes after she leaves here. I didn't give her much thought after that one, because as she went into Tasty Pastry I saw Ranger pull into its parking lot.

"It was nice knowing you," Cal said to me, clearly seeing Ranger too.

"He's not going to do anything except make sure you're alright," I assured him. "You were understandably triggered but you let me help talk you down from your initial reaction. Ranger appreciates growth more than probably anything else. Yeah, you're still in a lot of pain, but you're not living your life from that place. At the risk of sounding like I'm full of myself, I think caring about me had you more invested in stopping the harassment than if you'd been on a job that involved a complete stranger."

What I saw flicker briefly in his eyes clued me in that I'm right. None of the guys would allow a woman to be insulted or threatened on their watch, but I'm betting Cal saw his sister in me and he was doing what he couldn't for her … which was to save her.

"Are you alright?" Ranger asked when he reached us.

I wrapped my arms around him but chose to direct the attention Cal's way, so he'd know Ranger gets what really happened today.

"Cal stepped in when you weren't here to defend my honor. It's questionable honor, but I appreciate it anyway."

"I'll understand it if I'm pulled off jobs indefinitely or let go …" Cal began, but Ranger cut him off before I could.

"You're not being punished or fired, Cal. I appreciate you protecting Stephanie."

"Stephanie can protect herself," I added. "But go on … "

"You can defend yourself, but you shouldn't have to be put in the position to every time you walk out the door. We don't get catcalled, groped, or propositioned whenever we leave home."

"You're being really nice just to prove a point. Grandma Mazur tried to get away with all three whenever you or the guys were around. She only stopped when I threatened to cut off her trips to Atlantic City."

"So, I was really just reciprocating your protection of us," Cal noted.

"Not really. Because I would've turned the guy's nuts into his new nostrils if he'd touched me. There isn't much you can do to an almost-eighty-year-old woman who has defied the typical hormone loss that occurs during menopause."

Cal shuddered. "Please don't link hormones and your grandmother in a sentence again."

"Sorry," I said, grateful that he's back to being horrified by the idea of Grandma Mazur having a sex life, and less like he has one boot stuck back in the past. "So … what do we do with the idiot? As much as I'd like to, you can't arrest someone for being a horndog."

"I ain't done nothing to warrant an arrest," the jerk told us as he regained complete consciousness again. "I know my rights."

I glanced at Cal when I saw peripherally that he was doing the same disbelieving headshake I was. If the guy was smart, he would've pretended to still be out cold instead of drawing Ranger's attention to him. His introduction to Cal was painful enough, facing my boyfriend who just so happens to be Batman isn't going to end well for him.

"And I know my rights when it comes to taking care of my woman," Ranger informed the guy in his scary 'Prepare to meet God' voice.

I almost felt sorry for the dumbass. Almost.

"The name Ranger Manoso mean anything to you?" Cal asked, completely back to being a Rangeguy.

"Ummm …"

"You shouted something really inappropriate to Ranger Manoso's girlfriend," Cal continued.

I gave the guy a little finger wave. "My name used to be Stephanie Plum. But now it seems to have been changed to Ranger's woman, Manoso's Lady, Carlos' other half …"

"Ranger Manoso? Stephanie Plum? Oh shit!"

I'm weirdly pleased that I, like Ranger, have a reputation that results in an immediate expletive.

"Steph, why don't you and Cal go inside and get whatever you were craving from the bakery," my guy suggested/ordered. "I'll make sure this 'gentleman' gets home."

"In a body bag?" I had to ask.

Ranger tugged me close and smiled against my lips after he kissed them. "No. You know those aren't biodegradable, Babe."

He could be kidding or literally dead serious, but I decided to splurge for a freshly made Tasty Pastry birthday cake to celebrate the fact that no other woman will be subjected to that idiot's mouth - or likely anything else of his - once Ranger's finished with him.