It was the phone call that I had been dreading. Colin Stewart was in the hospital and was not going to make it.

My name was Stephanie Plum, and I was the Executive Vice-President of Research and Investigative Services for Rangeman. It was a large company. Up until five weeks ago, it had 23 locations in the US. Then Rangeman merged with Castle Force and we now owned an additional thirty-eight locations in Europe and another five locations in the US. Ranger, my husband, also owned forty percent of another company, PMC, which worked in South America. While PMC retained its name, Castle Force was in the process of changing over to the Rangeman name. Although we offered Colin, the previous owner of Castle Force, to keep the name, he said that it was time to pass the baton.

This all happened within the last three months, when we met Colin Stewart. It came about in a funny way. Someone claiming he was Colin, had approached us to sell us the American arm of the company. Ranger thought it was a good buy and he asked us to research the company. I personally thought there was something funky about it, and even though I was in the hospital, I asked my research team to look into it. They did, and we figured out that it was identity theft.

The sale, in our eyes, was over, and Ranger called the true Colin Stewart and talked to him about the identity theft. The two got along well, and they started talking in general. Colin had, coincidentally, been looking for someone to buy his company and, after talking to each other, Colin wondered if Ranger would be interested.

What came of that was a week-long strategy meeting. Colin came to New Jersey from Scotland to help develop a combined business plan, to develop goals and organizational charts and budgets and all the things that we needed to successfully merge the companies. Together, with the three divisions, Rangeman was a multibillion-dollar company.

We were happy about that, but we were happier to get to know Colin. In particular, Colin and I got along like a house on fire, and we spent a lot of time talking to each other. He said that his pregnant fiancée had died in a car accident over fifty years before. He said that he'd like to think his baby would have grown up just like me.

That comment meant a lot to me, but then Colin gave me seventy-five billion pounds and a castle and told me that I was a valuable person, that I was everything to Ranger, the kids, and my friends and that, if I ever doubted that, he wanted me to remember that I was so valuable that he was leaving me half his fortune and the house that he and his fiancée had bought for their family.

I was stunned then and, in truth, I'm still a bit stunned. I was the person a few years ago that had been playing Russian Roulette with my bills. However, I was also incredibly touched. In truth, the money didn't matter. But the belief that I was worthwhile and the desire to treat me like his daughter? That mattered quite a lot.

What came out of this gift was a scramble to protect my privacy. Ranger used some of his contacts and created another identity for me and kept Stephanie Plum as a pseudonym. My official name became Cami Coline McAllister. Cami was the name of Colin's fiancée that had died, Coline is named, of course, for Colin, and the meaning of the name 'McAllister' is 'son of defender of man', and being a defender of man was what Colin had spent his life doing. Colin had cried when he heard the name that I had chosen.

Ranger and I, combined, were one of the richest couples in the world. However, because of Ranger's work to make sure we were anonymous, we didn't appear on any lists. Raul Morales – Ranger's true name – did, but his income was listed as diversified. Same thing with me. I was listed as Cami McAllister and my income was listed as diversified as well. By doing that, our identity was further hidden. There were less than five people who knew our true identities, and that was the way we liked it.

However, Colin and I got along well, and when he left Trenton to go back to Inverness, we continued to talk. We would talk for about an hour a day. He had become more than a friend. He had become family, and I enjoyed talking to him immensely.

Like Rangeman, Castle Force did a lot behind the scenes that no one knew about. Both companies had research departments that could find just about anything about a person. Both companies had cybersecurity departments that produced the best firewalls in existence. Both companies had some of the top system designers in the world. Both companies had a large number of security guards, and both companies hid behind their security guards to mask what they actually did.

So what did they do? Rangeman worked domestically in the US and provided military-trained special ops support to the FBI and local municipalities. They performed the same things as PMC, the company of private military contractors that Ranger owned forty percent of that operated out of South America, but they also trained staff in military maneuvers, performed high-risk searches on behalf of local police, served warrants to those believed to be high-risk, and worked as our local SWAT team. Ranger came from the military, and the secret ops that he did were all military-based.

Colin came from a MI6 background and his secret work was espionage. It sounded very 007 and was even more so when you heard his Scottish accent. Colin was a good man and a great spymaster. He had found an incredible spymaster to take his place and, from what we could see, Jock was doing a good job.

While Colin was interested in our company because he knew that we would support and honor the espionage aspect of his, what he was most intrigued with was our research department. I had just gone back to work a month ago after an emergency hysterectomy and double pneumonia, and I had almost finished merging the capabilities of our two companies. Everybody seemed happy with the shift, and the researchers on both sides of the pond were happy to be able to access more information than they could before.

I was pleased with how the research departments were working out. I had one hundred and thirty-seven researchers in my department here in Trenton, and I had another two hundred and three employees in the department in Scotland. Now that we had combined capabilities and research tools, we were both going to market ourselves in a way that made the most of the enhanced abilities. For those in Scotland, they were going to market themselves to bonds offices, police departments and so on. For those in Rangeman, we were going to market more heavily to the big nine – DEA, FBI, NSA, CIA, Secret Service, and the branches of the military – Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines. We had also decided to work more with Interpol.

We planned on going to Inverness in a couple of weeks, and taking Julie, our eldest daughter, and Kai with us. Kai was Julie's boyfriend and a doctor at Rangeman. He was a good man who had also become family. He had been living with us for the last five months. While we were there, Julie and I were going to do some training. For one, we would be training them on In-Spect, the in-house designed software that was the basis of all our research. The second thing that we would be training them on was the development of a capture plan. While a capture plan would be useful for Castle Force's new line of business of helping bonds offices, it would also be useful for the spies that were floating around Europe. Once it had proven to be useful, we were going to market it to the individual European spy networks like MI6.

I bowed my head and focused on breathing, and pushed away the tears that were hovering in the back of my throat. I put my computer to sleep, left my office and shut my door, and walked over to Ranger's office.

The Rangeman facility was composed of four buildings. One was living quarters, one was for administrative functions, one was for the core operations, and one was for my department and cybersecurity. We were a sprawling facility, but it looked nice. Only seven stories tall, Ranger had designed the buildings like old-fashioned factories with large windows and heritage features. Despite the vintage features of the buildings, Ranger had put in a lot of upgraded safety elements. Bulletproof glass, bombproof construction, fire resistant materials, extensive underground parking, and enhanced air systems were just some of the features he incorporated. It was a nice place to work. With the extensive windows, there was a lot of natural light.

Inside the buildings, Ranger made use of plants for division screens rather than putting staff into cubicles. Not only was it a safety feature because people could look at your computer as you were working on it and it was therefore harder to be sneaky and steal information, but the working environment encouraged teamwork. He believed that the lack of cubicle isolation was good for both the mental health of the employee as well as the productivity and workflow of the company. I have to say that, after seeing the results, I agreed.

I knocked on Ranger's door, and he looked up from what he was doing on the computer. He looked concerned as he inspected the tears in my eyes, and he motioned me in. I closed the door behind me and walked over to him. I sat on his knee, buried my face in his shoulder, and proceeded to bawl.

"Tell me", he said quietly.

"I just got a call from Colin's doctor. The doctor figures that he has less than a week."

"I'll shut down everything today if you talk to Julie and Kai. I'll book the plane for late tonight so that we can pack this afternoon. It looks like we are moving up our visit."

"Do you think we can get there in time?"

"We'll try our best, babe. That's all we can do."

I sighed. "I don't want him to die."

"I know. Neither do I. He has become a good friend of mine, and an even better friend of yours. We'll get there as quickly as we can." I sighed. "Babe, if we are leaving today, we need to get a lot of work done. You've got to talk to your team, and I've got to talk to mine."

I stood up and swiped the remaining tears from my face. "Okay. Thanks for the shoulder to cry on."

Ranger smiled gently. "Not a problem."

I walked back to my office, put out a request for my directors to come in for a five-minute meeting and, while I waited, I sent a text to Julie and Kai to tell them that we were leaving that night and they needed to adapt their lives accordingly. That would be easy for Julie. She had just written her last exam the Thursday before, and she was already taking time off. She had been planning on starting work when we went to Inverness. Kai would find it a little harder and would have to adjust his appointments. Since he was a popular doctor, he was usually booked weeks in advance.

As the Directors walked into my office, I sent a quick note to Tracy and Joe, and let them know that we were going to Scotland that night. Ranger and I had given the time when we were in Scotland off to Tracy, but had also told them that if they were interested in visiting Scotland we'd be happy to see them. Tracy and Joe had talked about it, and they decided that they had always wanted to see Scotland. The fact that Colin had also given us a castle to live in was another draw. I didn't know if they would be able to come to visit at the same time as we were, but I wanted to give them the option.

"You okay?" said Miguel. The three Directors looked worried. When I had needed emergency surgery six weeks before, it was Miguel and Dirk and Nick who had insisted on taking me to see Kai. The fact that I almost died? I think it scared the hell out of them, and they had been treating me like I was made of spun glass since. I had tried to tell them that I was okay, but they said that I was their sister and they were going to worry, and that was just the way that it was.

"Yeah. I just received a call from Colin's doctor. He doesn't think that Colin will last another week."

"I'm sorry, chica", said Miguel. "I know that he quickly became important to you just as much as you became important to him. What can we do?"

I sighed. "Ranger is booking a plane to fly out tonight. We are all scrambling a bit."

"What do you have to do at work here?" said Miguel. "I know that you've been looking after the takeover. Is there anything we can do? Is there anything we can fill in so that you don't have to do it?"

I smiled. "I'm actually ahead of schedule on the things that have to be done in the merger. I'm just in the final cleanup stages, and the next thing on my list was to train the staff in Inverness and to meet them and develop a cohesive team between them and us. We might be doing some videoconferencing as we get the team coordinating with each other, but otherwise the merger is in good stead. Miguel, you're running the department again."

Miguel groaned.

I laughed. "Welcome to being a Vice-President. Aren't you glad you accepted the promotion?" When Miguel made another face, I laughed again. "Since I have been working pretty much solely on the merger, there is nothing on my desk that I have to pass over. I will take my computer and work from there, but it should be good. If I need help, I'll let you know."

"Just don't work too hard, okay, Steph?" said Dirk. "Remember that you just had surgery six weeks ago, you aren't completely healed yet, and we won't be there to watch your back."

I smiled. "I know. I'll be careful."

"Good", said Dirk. "Then we should let you go so that you can pack for yourself and the kids. Take it easy, okay?"

"Okay."

"What is the status of your sister?" said Nick. "She has, after all, come at you twice since you had her arrested to try to get you to drop the charges." When I was sick, Val had verbally abused me to try to get me to more fully fund her drinking habit. She told me God would kill me, told me that I had killed the babies that I had conceived ectopically, had told me that I had money and I shouldn't be so cheap to not pay her expenses, and just generally made my life miserable. I was extremely ill and things didn't look too good for a while, and Ranger could not take her abusing me. Neither could the little ones. She came in at one point while our four-year old and our two three-year olds were there, and she was so threatening that the toddlers felt they had to protect me. They each were furious and each decided to punish her in the most horrible way they could think of. Tia wasn't going to draw any pictures for her any longer. Grace was going to refuse to hug her, and Alix was going to kick her where it hurt.

I was too sick to stick up for myself, so Ranger said she was cut off, and if she ever approached us again she would be arrested.

She didn't give up and did come at me again. Colin was with me when it happened, and he was equally as upset as Ranger when she told me that I was nothing, worthless and useless. She said that I wouldn't have a job if Ranger hadn't given it to me, I wouldn't have a title if Ranger hadn't created it for me, I wouldn't have any money if Ranger didn't share his with me. At a time when I was still fighting depression from the surgery, she made me cry.

So I did what we said we would do. I called the police. Val was arrested, my mom was furious because, in her eyes, I should take the crap to keep the peace, my grandmother agrees with Val, and my father agrees with me. I hated the fact that it had divided the family, but I had finally had enough. It crossed the line when she came into my room and told me that God was going to kill me because my babies died. When I was already grieving and still recovering after almost dying, what she said was inexcusable.

I still felt a little guilty though. I'd been conditioned to feel guilty from a very early age, and nothing brought it up more than family. Like Val, I considered myself to be useless and hearing her say that to me felt a bit like she was just confirming that I was right. Of course, that gets Ranger mad again. He has told me repeatedly that I am his everything, his reason for being, and without me he wouldn't be able to cope.

After talking to Ranger, I solved that guilty feeling by giving two thousand dollars monthly to my parents. I told my parents that it wasn't to supplement Val's budget but rather to supplement theirs. I knew that my mother would be feeding Val's family each night at dinner and buying clothes for the children. My mom did it anyway, but my parents didn't have a lot of spare cash hanging around. Ranger and I already paid for a caregiver to come in each day to look after my grandmother. She had Behavioral-Variant Frontotemporal Dementia, and with her loss of empathy and understanding of acceptable behavior, she needed someone to keep her in line, clothes on, and acting appropriately. No matter how much my grandmother liked it, it was not acceptable to pee on the bushes. My mom appreciated the money, but whenever I called her I could tell that she just wanted me to apologize and make the problem go away.

"That's a good point. She goes in front of the judge next week, and we won't be here."

"You can always postpone it. I'd hate to see it thrown out because you were in Scotland."

"True."

"Then we'll let you make that call", said Dirk, "and if there is anything you want us to do, let us know, okay? How long do you think that you will be gone? A month or two?"

I sighed. "Probably", I said.

"We'll look after our department."

"I just feel bad. I just got back to work."

"That just means that we're experienced. Go. Do what you have to do and, if we run into problems, we'll let you know."

As the men left, I called our lawyer and told him that I unfortunately had to be out of town for the next two months. A close friend was dying, and I would be in Scotland by his side.

"That's okay, Steph", said the lawyer. "Sometimes these things happen. I will delay the hearing and let you know when the revised date will be."

"Thank you."

I hung up the phone and thought about everything that needed to be done. I was in a good position to go though, and all that was left was the packing. I turned off my computer, packed it and an assortment of charging cords into my leather laptop tote bag. It was quite a large bag, which I was happy about. It had enough room in it to carry the children's tablets as well.

As I shut down my office, I thought about my luggage. I had a set of matching suitcases in a pearl gray that, although it was a tough fabric, looked like a mottled gray flannel. It was highlighted with black zippers and black piping on the surface, had spinner wheels, and I absolutely loved it. There was a matching suit bag as well, and I thought that it would be helpful for me to take a selection of suits and dresses to wear to work.

The children also had spinner luggage. We had bought it for them when they were born and had used them quite a few times since then. Tia's was hot pink, Grace's was pale pink, and Alix's was dark purple. In all cases, we had applied a large white plastic flower sticker on the surface of the hard shell. It made it much easier to find their bags on the baggage carousel.

I left the office and went as fast as I could up to the apartment. When I got there, I gave Tracy a hug and poured myself a coffee. The girls were bouncing. "We're going to Scotland!" they said.

"I know we are", I said with a smile. I turned to Tracy. "What did you decide to do?"

Tracy grinned. "Joe got the time off. We're going to Scotland."

I smiled in relief. "Thank you. It will be a lot more fun with you there."

Tracy rubbed my back. "How are you doing with this?"

"Not great. But I am determined to see this merger through the way that Colin envisioned. I'm doing it for me, but I am also doing it for him."

"I understand."

I sniffled and looked at the girls. "Did you know that men often wear kilts in Scotland? A kilt is a kind of skirt." The girls looked at me with big round eyes, fascinated. "Did you know they often don't wear any underwear under the skirt?"

"Isn't that cold?" said Alix.

"You would think so", I said. I looked at Tracy and smiled. "That reminds me of a story."

Tracy started to smile. "What's that?"

"Duncan was at the pub one night, and he got completely toasted. After last call, he stumbled out of the building and passed out on the sidewalk. A couple of women tourists were walking down the road and they saw Duncan. One woman said to the other, 'he's wearing a kilt. I wonder if it is true that Scottish men don't wear knickers under their kilts?' The other woman looked at her, looked at Duncan, and decided that Duncan was too drunk to know what they were doing. So she slowly raised the fabric of the kilt, and they found out that it was true, men didn't wear knickers under the wool. The two women looked at the revealed Duncan, and the first one said, 'it's kind of plain, just lying there, don't you think?' The second one took her red ribbon out of her hair and gently wrapped it around Duncan's penis and tied the ribbon in a bow. That done, the women twitched his kilt back in place and went on their way. The next day, Duncan woke up and was bursting for a pee. He got up and hid behind a tree, lifted his kilt, and looked down at himself in surprise. And then he started to smile as he said, 'och, laddie, I don't remember what ye did last night, but ye won first prize!'"

Tracy burst out laughing.

I grinned as the girls looked at me in confusion. "I don't get it", said Tia.

I kissed her on the top of her head. "That's okay. Daddy will, and he will like it very much."

Tia sighed.

My phone buzzed at the same time as Tracy's, and I looked down. Ranger had sent through a message saying that the plane was booked to leave at nine at night.

I smiled at Tracy. "I think you'd better get home so that you can get packed."

Tracy smiled. "I worked out that Joe will pick up Eli from school as well, and he will talk to the teacher at the same time."

"Good reminder. I have to talk to Tia's teacher." I sighed.

"Then I will go home and let you do your chores, and I will do mine at the same time. And in a few hours, we will be on the plane."

I gave Tracy another hug and, as she put Bob on his leash and let herself out, I looked up the phone number for the school and called the principal.