Chapter 9

"Stephanie!" Anita enthused. "It's so great to finally meet you!"

"It's great to meet you, too," I managed to get out. What did she mean, finally? It was my turn then to give Ranger the single-eyebrow-lift, except I'd never been able to perfect that move. Just as well, since he wasn't looking at me anyway. He was eyeing his sister warily.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him again. "I didn't even know you were back in town."

"It's been a busy week," Ranger said flatly.

"Too busy for a phone call?" she pressed. "A text message? 'Hey Anita, I'm back from the jungle or whatever. Still alive. Thought you'd want to know. Give my love to the kids.'"

I snorted, and then immediately pressed my lips together to squash my smile when Ranger shot me a look. I busied myself with a sip of my coffee.

"I got back late last Friday," Ranger said.

Anita cocked her head at him. "So it really has been almost a whole week? Seriously, not even a phone call? No one mentioned at Sunday dinner that you were back, so I have to assume you didn't call Mama or Papa or anyone, either."

"I've been working."

Anita seemed to shrink by about an inch and a half as her shoulders slumped and her posture went resigned.

I was caught between the two of them, blinking, scrambling to grab the bits and pieces of information they'd just scattered like confetti. Ranger had just confirmed what I'd so far only suspected - that he'd come straight to my apartment last Friday as soon as he got back into town. And I'd also learned that apparently there was such a thing as a Sunday dinner that presumably involved members of Ranger's family, including a Mama and a Papa. Last but not least, Anita's reaction to his 'work' excuse confirmed that she was accustomed to that particular brand of write-off and wasn't expecting to get any further by questioning him. At least I wasn't the only one. A bit comforting, that.

Anita perked up considerably, the smile returning to her face. "Oh, duh! You're here for Cisco's party, right?"

"No. Actually, we're heading back to Trenton right now."

Anita was looking partially crestfallen and partially annoyed, so I jumped in. "We're coming back tonight, though. I'm sure you can make it in time for the party," I told Ranger.

"Great! He'll be glad that you can make it!" Anita said. Then she turned to me. "And Stephanie, of course you have to come, too."

I blinked, not having expected that part. "Oh, no, I couldn't."

"Of course you can. You just said that you're both coming back here tonight, right?"

Well, damn. She got me there.

She pushed on. "Everyone will be there, and I know that they'd love to meet you. This is actually perfect. It'll be super casual, just a backyard barbecue at our parents' house."

"I'm really not sure that's a good idea," I stammered. The idea of meeting Ranger's parents was… thrilling. Terrifying. Confusing. All of the above.

Anita waved off my concern. "It'll be fun, I promise."

"For you," Ranger muttered darkly.

I looked up again to see him still looking at his sister. This was a whole new facet to Ranger that I'd never seen before; one I'd never even imagined existed. Surly, reluctant sibling. Who would've thought? Logically, I knew that Ranger had a family. He'd told me that he had four sisters and a brother. He'd mentioned his parents in passing, as well as a grandmother. Obviously, that meant that he'd grown up as part of a big family. Somehow though, I'd never quite put that part together. It was hard to imagine Ranger 'growing up' at all - being a kid, annoying his siblings, causing his Mama heartburn.

Now that I thought about it, this was a huge gap in my knowledge of Ranger. And some higher power had just gifted me an opportunity to close that gap. Who was I to squander a divine gift?

"We'll be there," I said. The burning sensation on the back of my neck could only be the result of Ranger turning his stare on me, but I ignored it.

"Great!" Anita hiked her bag up on her shoulder. "I've got to run, I'm late for a Pilates class. I'll see you both tonight!"

Ranger's hand left the small of my back when Anita gave him a quick hug, and then she turned to me. I returned the hug awkwardly, both of my hands still occupied by my breakfast and coffee. Add this to the list of things I never would've thought to be true - Ranger's family were huggers.

Ranger returned his hand to my back to usher me down the sidewalk and back to the car, and I amended that thought. He had always been touchy-feely with me. Maybe I wasn't so surprised about the hugging, after all.

He ushered me into the car and then angled in on the driver's side without further comment. We drove for about ten minutes, and right when I started thinking that maybe he was really just going to leave it at that, he finally spoke.

"I've been thinking," he started. "Maybe the Newark house isn't actually the safest place for you. I have another safe house up in Maine that might be better. You could -"

"Don't even try it."

"It would be -"

"Nope." I shot him a look with no small amount of mirth. "There's no backtracking your way out of this one, mister. Come hell or high water, you're going to that party. Who's Cisco, anyway?"

"My brother. His birthday was last weekend."

"Why is his party tonight, then?"

"Because his wife was out of town," he said. "She's a pilot."

"Why don't you want to go to the party?"

"It's not that I don't want to go. I've just had a few other things on my mind," he said pointedly.

"Is this the type of family thing that you'd usually go to, all else being equal?"

"You mean if you didn't have two different cartels after you, and hadn't been shot less than five days ago?"

"Geez louise, you and this whole me getting shot thing…"

He tore his eyes from the road long enough to give me a dark look, and I shrugged it off.

"Well?"

"Barring all that, and if I were in town, and if I didn't have to work, and if I had time to drive up here… then, yeah. I'd go."

"Then you're going," I told him. "You don't get to use me as an excuse to ditch this."

He didn't have a response to that. His gaze was back on the highway, his hands at ten and two. After a few minutes, I decided I had more to say before he fully settled into zen mode.

"You don't have to take me, if you don't want to."

He stayed quiet for nearly a minute after that, and as each second passed, a ball of strange, unnamed emotions grew tighter and tighter in my chest. Finally, he spoke. "I'm game if you are."

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

He frowned, though he kept his gaze straight ahead. "Why would I be uncomfortable?"

"I don't know." I fiddled with my seat belt. "I mean, they're your family. I don't want to horn my way in or anything. You didn't seem very excited for us to run into Anita. If you'd be more comfortable if you didn't have to introduce me to anyone else, then you should just go without me tonight."

"Babe." He reached over to pluck my hand from the strap of my seat belt and held it in his, resting both against the middle console. "It's not me I'm worried about. It's you I'm trying to protect."

"Don't you think you're taking this bodyguard thing a little too far? You really think I'll be at risk while attending a family barbecue?"

A corner of his mouth tipped up. "It's a different kind of risk. In this case I'm not worried about your safety, it's more about your sanity. My family can be a little… intense."

"Have you met my family?"

The twitch spread into a full smile. "My family is different. There are more of them, for one thing. And they're going to be all over you. I've never introduced a woman to them before."

I turned fully in my seat to gape at him in profile. "Never?"

He thought about it. "Obviously they've met Rachel."

I nodded. Obviously.

"But no one else. Not since I was about 12."

"I sincerely hope you weren't bringing women home at the age of 12."

He grinned. "Not a woman. And not plural. Just one girl."

"And now me?"

His eyes flitted to me briefly and then back to the road. "And now you."

I leaned back in my seat and turned my attention to the scenery flashing by outside the window, ignoring the butterflies that were swarming in my stomach.

###

"What's the number one rule?" Ranger asked again.

I rolled my eyes, but answered dutifully. "Stay safe."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Maintain awareness of my surroundings. Remember my resources," I recited dully. "And don't hesitate to use them."

Ranger gave one sharp nod. Satisfied.

Halfway between Newark and Trenton, he'd pulled off the highway and driven us to the back parking lot of a deserted office complex that looked like it had just completed construction. We'd spent half an hour practicing some very basic self-defense moves. Ranger had produced a shiny new stun gun, a can of heavy-duty defense spray, and a baby Glock from the back of his SUV. I recognized the gun; he'd shared it with me before. It wasn't my preferred gun to handle, but then again, I'd never met a gun that I did prefer. All things considered, I supposed the baby Glock would suit my needs just fine. Particularly since I was hoping that my needs for a gun would be zilch.

Ranger had taken us through several scenarios - what I would do if someone approached me from behind, what I would do if they rushed me from the side, and so on and so forth. He talked me through each scenario first, and then we role-played each one. Ranger played the assailant and I played myself. He never forgot about my gunshot wound, and he took care to be extra gentle with me. By the time we were done, my success ratio in fending off my fake-attacker was only about one and a half out of three times, but I placated myself with the knowledge that my attacker was Ranger. Probably, any real attacker I may encounter would be a little less capable than him.

"Where are we headed first?" he asked me from the driver's seat. I hadn't noticed that he'd pulled off of State Street and we were pulling into another parking lot. This one was in front of a convenience store, and he didn't turn the car off, just put it in park. "Who have you got?"

I pulled my FTA files from my bag and handed them over, watching while he flipped through them. After he'd had a chance to review them all, he flipped back to the middle of the stack and handed me a file. "Let's start with one that's relatively low-risk."

I opened it up and looked down at the mug shot in front of me. Roger Klueger. "Oh, goody. Armed robbery. You and I must have very different definitions of low-risk."

"I picked based on location," he said. "I'm aiming for us to not go near Stark or spend too much time hanging out in the Burg."

"Why not the Burg?"

"Los Reyes will likely have eyes out for you there."

My heart clunked around a little as realization settled over me. "My parents are being watched?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't look like it. But I have men on them 24/7 right now, just in case."

"Thank you," I managed. I let out a slow breath and tried to calm my heart rate after that spike of fear. "But then why can't we hang out in the Burg?"

"It's mostly precaution. I still have a team out there who are carrying the tracker that Reyes planted on you. They're still being followed, so it seems like no one has caught on yet. I'd like to keep it that way as long as we can, and that means that the less you're seen out in public, the better."

"Got it. So we steer clear of my usual haunts."

"What's your plan for Roger Klueger?"

"Um." I doubted that Ranger would appreciate that my plan consisted of wandering around Roger's usual haunts until I got lucky. "My research indicates that when he's not at home, he's either at the video game store on Sheridan, or he's at his mother's house."

"Where's home?"

"Vine and Maple."

"We'll try there first."

Turned out, Roger wasn't at home. Ranger had already sent a pair of his men to drive by the video game store, and they confirmed he wasn't there, either. That left his mother's house. If we struck out there, too, then I'd be out of luck. Roger was one of my highest-bond FTAs at the moment, and if I could bring him in, I'd make a decent dent in the amount needed for my rent next week. I was keeping my fingers crossed that the universe would throw me some pity luck, and that Roger was going to be at his mother's house.

We were heading back down State Street, having essentially just made a big loop around the east side of town. I was looking out the window, feeling a little surly that we'd just wasted the last hour when I knew my time in Trenton had a limit on it, when I took notice of our surroundings.

"Pull in here!" I shouted.

To his credit, Ranger hardly blinked. He flipped his turn signal, cut across two lanes of traffic like a hot knife through butter, and pulled into the parking lot of the Cheshire Motel. Once the car was in park, he turned to me. "Not that I'm complaining, but when did our plans for the afternoon change?"

"It's not what you think," I told him. Although maybe we could spare an extra twenty minutes for… No. I blinked the mental images away. "One of my FTAs was arrested here while she was sort of stalking her husband. I want to look around, see if anyone knows him."

"Is there a reason that we're investigating the husband, and not the FTA herself?"

My only response to that was a sharp look in Ranger's direction while I climbed out of the car, and I closed the door on his soft chuckle. He followed me to the front door of the motel and into the lobby, where a pimply-faced youth sleepily manned the front desk, looking far too stoned to likely be of any help. Still, it couldn't hurt to try.

Ranger stood at parade rest near the door while I approached the desk. The youth's nametag read Derek. "Good morning."

Derek blinked slowly at me. "Can I help you?"

I flashed him a smile, figuring I'd try the charm offensive first. "Gosh, I hope so. I'm looking for someone."

"Lady, you're in the wrong place. Does this look like a lost and found? This is the type of place where people come when they don't want to be found."

Fair point. I tried a wider smile, and then leaned my elbows on the counter and pitched myself forward a bit, letting the guy get a view of some moderate cleavage displayed by my V-neck tank. "His name's Chris Fitz."

Derek snorted. "Yeah. You're not the first lady to come looking for that guy."

He hadn't even glanced once at my chest, so I gathered myself up and changed tack. Probably the types of women he was used to seeing had a little more than a V-neck's worth of cleavage going for them. "Here's the deal. I know that he's come here before, and I'm willing to bet it wasn't just once."

"We got a lot of regulars."

"When do you usually see Chris Fitz?"

"Why would I tell you anything? What's in it for me?"

This guy was barking up the wrong tree if he was looking for a bribe. I still only had fifteen dollars on me, and not a whole lot more to my name. But since the charm offensive hadn't worked, I could go the other way. I pulled a badge out of my back pocket. I flipped it open and flashed it at Derek with my best menacing scowl. "How about charges for obstructing justice?"

Clearly, it wasn't within my power to charge Derek with anything. The badge I'd flashed came from Amazon. There were better sources for fake law enforcement badges, but my Amazon one was a lot cheaper. But Derek didn't know any of that.

He went pale, and his eyes started to dart around the lobby. His gaze landed on Ranger, and as if he were seeing him for the first time, his eyes widened and he took a tiny step back. "Whoa. Whoa, whoa, hold up. What do you need to know?"

"When was the last time you saw Chris Fitz?" I demanded.

"Last Friday," he said hurriedly.

"Does he come here often?"

Derek nodded. "Yeah. Every week. Sometimes multiple times a week, but always at least once. On Fridays. Fridays at noon, like clockwork."

"Is he always with the same woman? Or different women?"

Derek's eyes widened even further and he held up his hands, palms out. "I've never seen a woman. I swear."

Huh. Okay, so he has his women meet him in the room. "Let me tell you how this is going to go. I'm going to come back here tomorrow, a little after noon. And you're going to tell me what room Chris Fitz is in, and give me a key."

"I can't -"

I interrupted him and leaned in close once more, keeping my voice low. "See that guy standing behind me?"

Derek's eyes darted to Ranger and then back as quickly as humanly possible. He nodded like a bobblehead.

"He's going to be with me tomorrow, too. And if we don't get a key to Chris Fitz's room, he's not going to be happy. You don't want to be responsible for his unhappiness."

Derek started shaking his head, back and forth, eyes still wide. He didn't stop until I backed away.

"We understand each other?" I verified.

More nodding.

I gave him the pleasant smile again. "Great. Thanks, Derek. We'll see you tomorrow."

I turned on my heel and exited the lobby, Ranger falling into step behind me when I passed him. He moved his hand to my back while we crossed the parking lot back to his car. "Nice intimidation, Babe."

"Thanks. But I think it was the threat of you, just standing there, that really got to him the most."

"Even so. That's just an example of remembering and using your resources."

I supposed that could be true. That made me feel a little better.

"But speaking of resources, remind me to get you a real badge," Ranger said.

"You mean a real, fake badge?"

"Yours looks like it came from a toy store."

"It's from Amazon," I corrected. "It came with a Naughty Cop Halloween costume."

A smile pulled at Ranger's mouth and he stopped us next to the passenger side of the SUV. "What else came with the costume?"

"A little romper that zips all the way down to the crotch, and garter holsters."

Ranger's gaze slipped down my body and then his hand followed, caressing the outside of my thigh while he pressed me closer against the car door. His eyes were doing that sort of melty-chocolate thing again, so I thought it best to divert.

"I only bought the costume because the whole thing was still cheaper than any other passable badge I could find online."

"Seems it works," he said, inclining his head back toward the lobby and the poor guy who was likely now suffering from an intense bout of paranoia.

"It's come in handy."

"Do you still have the rest of the costume?"

"No," I lied.

Pretty sure he knew I was fibbing. He studied me for another couple of seconds, and then he leaned down to kiss me. Just when I was getting ready to see his kiss and raise it, he pulled away and stepped back. I stayed plastered to the door for another few seconds, getting my bearings.

"Remind me why we're looking for Chris Fitz, when his wife is the one who's FTA."

Ranger was good at compartmentalizing. Me, not so much. He had always been able to switch from business to flirting and back again in the blink of an eye, and I found myself panting and out of breath - often both physically and metaphorically - while trying to catch up.

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "His wife suspects him of cheating, and she was arrested in the process of trying to catch him in the act. I guess I just feel like I don't want him to think that he's getting away with it."

"Babe."

I sighed. "Plus, I'm hopeful that I can get him to watch their three kids for long enough for me to run Kate Fitz to the courthouse to get rebonded."

"So we're going after Fitz tomorrow?" The layperson wouldn't have been able to pick up on the hint of exasperation, but I was pleased to say that I'd learned at least a couple of things about Ranger in the years that I'd known him. He was letting me take the lead, for which I was grateful, but I knew it was costing him. He was used to calling the shots.

"We'll swing by here first to see if we can catch Chris, and then either way, we'll head to the Fitz residence and bring in Kate. I'll ask Mary Lou to be on standby to babysit if we need her to."

"I'd rather get everything wrapped up today, if we can. The less time we spend in Trenton, the better, for now."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I don't think five captures in one day is entirely feasible for me."

"Don't underestimate yourself."

"Just trying to be realistic. Besides, don't forget that one of my five skips is the girl who is somehow evading an entire cavalry of Rangeman guys who have been turning the city upside down looking for her. If your men can't find her, I doubt I'm going to have much better luck."

"If only that were true," Ranger said. "But Gabriella is trouble. And you have an uncanny ability to find trouble, even when you're not looking for it."

"It's not like I ever go looking for trouble on purpose," I protested.

Ranger did the one-eyebrow thing that very clearly said he didn't believe me.

A variety of scenarios in which I had, in fact, sought out trouble flashed before my eyes like a mental View Master. I winced. "Okay, fine. Maybe on occasion."

Ranger went around the front of the SUV to climb into the driver's side, and I swung up into the passenger seat. He turned over the engine and looked to me. "What kind of trouble are we looking for next?"

"The kind that I suspect is hanging out in Mrs. Klueger's basement."