Chapter 2

I stepped out of the bonds office to see Ranger leaning against his truck parked where Big Blue used to be. Before I could start to panic about my car being stolen, Ranger spoke up.

"Babe."

Babe could mean almost anything to Ranger. Often it meant that I'd amused him. Other times it meant he'd like to get me alone and naked. Sometimes it was a question.

Looking over at him, I could see that this time it meant he was offended that I thought my car could get stolen on his watch. Suspiciously, I reached my hand into my messenger bag and pulled out my key ring which no longer had the Buick key on it.

The sneaky man had managed to pickpocket me, take a key off my key ring, and put the rest of my keys back without me noticing. Sometimes I really did think Ranger was Batman. I mean, he had a dark past, a seemingly endless supply of nice black cars, and a mysterious silent business partner. Maybe it was Wayne Enterprises.

Except, you know, Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises were fictional.

Still, I thought I was onto something!

"I'm not Batman," he told me, slight smile twitching at the corner of his mouth.

He pushed off from his truck and asked, "you all done here?"

Before I could tell him that I was, he was already opening up the passenger side door. Huffing out a breath, I climbed in, smacking away Ranger's hand when he tried to help me. Of course then I started falling, and he had to catch me forcing way more body contact than would have been necessary if I had just accepted his offer of assistance in the first place.

Ranger was deliciously warm and firm all over under his clothes, and he smelled amazing. At his amused but puzzled, "babe?" I could only assumed I'd groan when I'd found myself pushed up against him. Still I didn't acknowledge it and just settled myself into the seat.

Ranger stepped up on the running board and crowded me, and for a moment I held my breath thinking he was going to kiss me. Instead he just grinned an actual grin then pulled my seatbelt down and across, buckling me in quickly.

Before I could sort out what had happened, my door was shut, he was in and buckled on his side, and the truck was driving forward.

I felt hot and my mouth was dry, but I managed to resist fanning myself. And I definitely wasn't sitting there stuttering.

"Should you be going after skips?" Ranger asked after a couple minutes of silence. I just shrugged, and Ranger sighed.

"I have Lula," I reminded him.

"Babe."

He had a point. Shooting accuracy issues aside, Lula was not a great partner. She could be flaky, and on more than one occasion, she freaked out and left me behind somewhere.

"I'll drive," I argued. "Then I can't be ditched!"

"I'm putting a man on you."

"What?! No! There's no threat against me! I can't let you bleed money like that when I'm not even in danger!" I insisted.

"Babe, you're in a cast and you're telling me you're going to go after skips."

"I need the money," I argued.

"I'll give you money," Ranger told me.

"I can't let you pay my rent, Ranger."

That was greeted with a few minutes of silence before he said, "I thought you were living with Morelli."

"I am. I have been," I stuttered. "I just need my space."

Ranger took that in with more quiet brooding, and I got lost in thought about the two men in my life. Ranger once told me that he sometimes thought about marrying me, though when pressed it sounded more like having me move in with him. And even then he wasn't really interested in that either.

He was still trying to fix his karma, and apparently that meant he couldn't have a girlfriend or whatever I would be at the same time.

Karma fixing and girlfriends weren't compatible. Who knew?

"I'll give you a job," he finally said.

"I don't want a pity job," I argued.

"Not pity. You do the job well when you're around. It just drives you crazy before too long," I detected a hint of a smile as he said it.

"Desk chairs give my ass a cramp," I told him.

"Babe," Ranger retorted. That time I definitely had amused him.

He pulled to a stop and I realized we were a couple blocks away from Morelli's house, and I couldn't help but read into the fact that Ranger had brought me to Joe. I mean, I'd just said I didn't really want to live here anymore. Ranger could have taken me back to my apartment and pushed his luck. Tried to get me to sleep with him. But he didn't.

Instead of saying anything, I just sat there quietly as he took the stack of papers and files off my lap and started flipping through them. When he was done, he simply said, "Jason?"

"My dad's former co workers son. It's probably nothing, just overprotective parents. I'm just going to get eyes on him so I can tell them he's fine."

Ranger stared at me for a long moment, our eyes locked. Finally he nodded his head and said, "you're starting tomorrow?"

"Yeah, going to read through all this and come up with a plan first. Maybe make some calls. The usual," I told him.

As I finished talking, a black jeep pulled up and parked right behind us. Another black SUV pulled up next to it. The Jeep's driver got out, leaving the car running. He was dressed in Rangeman black fatigues, and climbed into the second black SUV. They drove off, leaving the Jeep behind.

It was for me.

Rangeman car service valet.

I cut my eyes over to Ranger and he was looking ahead saying, "if you're going to drive with that leg, you can't do it with the Buick."

Remembering how difficult it had been to do just that, I decided to just agree and let it go. It wasn't a fight worth having. Gathering my papers back from Ranger, I offered him a small smile, and quietly said, "thanks."

Then I climbed out, got into the Jeep, and drove the two blocks to Morelli's. Ranger followed me, and idled at the curb watching me all the way to the front door and left as I opened it.

Inside Morelli was watching a Rangers game, but he looked up and out through his front window and started furiously changing channels.

"What's with the Jeep?" He asked. "And where were you?"

"I went over to my parents' house to borrow Big Blue after my doctor's appointment. Then I went to the bonds office. The doctor said I can start moving around as I'm able, so I need to get back to work."

Morelli switched off the TV, and I could practically see him start gaining a whole head of mad.

"Your leg is broken, Cupcake," he pointed out.

"Not anymore. It's healed well, and this brace is more to keep me from rebreaking it than anything else."

"You're a terrible bounty hunter," he told me, eyes narrowing. "You're going to get yourself killed if you try to do it with a broken leg!"

Oh boy, his arms were starting to wave as he stood up, face getting redder as he spoke.

"I'll have Lula do all the physical stuff. I'll just to research and be her backup from the car."

I thought it was better not to mention that Ranger or one of his men would likely really be doing the heavy lifting.

Morelli wasn't fond of Ranger. Morelli had been around the block enough times himself to recognize someone else who was interested in what Morelli considered his own territory.

He also worried that Ranger didn't see the world in terms of lawful and unlawful. Ranger had his own code of morality, and sometimes things that Ranger deemed necessary or right weren't legal, strictly speaking. Morelli worried what would happen if I was standing too close to Ranger if he got caught doing something morally right but legally wrong.

"Why can't you just stay home?" Morelli asked.

"Because I need money! I need a place to live and food to eat!"

"You live here, and you eat here!" Morelli's arms started waving again.

"Yeah, but I have an apartment and I need to pay rent!" Honestly I didn't see why he didn't understand that.

"But why? I don't understand why you don't just get rid of your apartment and move in here!" Morelli was getting in my space, and he was clearly thinking he was about to win and be rewarded with sex.

"I have a good deal on my apartment. I'm still paying the same amount of rent as when I first moved in, and if I move in here and then have to move out, I won't be able to afford an apartment!" I told him.

"But—" he started to argue and I lost it. I was going straight to the point.

"Why aren't we married? Huh? What you're describing is a stay at home wife, and I can't be that for a couple of reasons, but first of all, I'm not your wife! Or even take it back a step! Why aren't we even engaged? You said we were engaged to be engaged and then nothing!" Now my arms were flapping around, probably making me look like a crazy lady.

"Cupcake, we don't need to be married now. We'll get there," he pulled me in for a kiss, and I struggled back until he let go.

I studied his eyes for a few minutes, and I saw it.

Ranger was right.

Morelli had no intention of actually marrying me. I stood there for a few more minutes, stewing and then I stormed off as best I could with my leg as it was and went upstairs. I grabbed one of the laundry baskets and threw stuff in it randomly. I was pretty sure I had at least one pair of pants and a few shirts. I emptied my lingerie drawer because clean panties were the most important part.

"Where do you think you're going?" Morelli yelled at me.

I didn't answer just stormed out to the Jeep and threw my clothes into the passenger seat. Then I turned around and went back inside. I said goodbye to Bob and walked into the kitchen where my hamster, Rex, was hanging out. I grabbed his tank up and awkwardly hobbled out with it.

"Aren't we going to talk about this?" Morelli called after me from the front door.

I carefully placed Rex on the floor in the back seat and then turned back. "We just did!" I yelled at him.

Then I climbed into the driver's seat and started driving, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall.

I knew I should go back to my apartment and get Rex settled in, but honestly I didn't want to walk into an empty home at the moment. Even if it was my home. I drove on autopilot, and parked then looked around for a bit. It took me a couple minutes to realize where I was.

I'd driven to the address Connie had listed on the printouts for Jason. I supposed it couldn't hurt to go up and see if he was home. Maybe talk to a few neighbors if he wasn't there.

I gathered up my messenger bag, exited the car and locked it, then used the remote start to get the engine running again so that Rex would be safe and at a comfortable temperature while I was gone.

Verifying the apartment number, I was grateful that it was on the first floor and I didn't have to hunt for an elevator. Or worse drag my cast up stairs.

I approached the door and knocked, getting an icky feeling in my stomach when the door swung open underneath my fist and revealed a darkened apartment.

"Hello?!" I called out, not really expecting an answer.

I about jumped out of my skin when I did get a response— in part because it was from behind me.

"Hello?" A small brunette woman said from behind me. She looked young, but she definitely was an adult. Still her small, thin frame and the fact that she appeared fresh out of the shower and was barefoot, clearly unarmed set me at ease pretty quickly.

"Oh, hi. I was supposed to be meeting Jason," I told her forcing a big smile on my face even though I my mind was going a mile a minute, counting seconds that ticked by with no response from within Jason's apartment.

She looked ready to question me further, so I pulled my phone out and pretended to just see a new text message. To the woman I said, "Oh, I missed a text from him telling me to just come in and wait. I guess he had to run out for a couple things real quick!"

I hustled in before she could say anything, shutting the door behind me and trying to act casual. Since my phone was out, I set a five minute timer for myself. I wanted to be out within five minutes, just in case that woman doubted me as much as she seemed to- I didn't really want to have to deal with the police at this point.

Bounty hunters had some rights to enter private property if, for instance they thought an FTA was inside. But Jason wasn't a skip, he didn't even know me, and I was definitely trespassing.

I ran my hand along the wall next to the front door, finding a lightswitch pretty easily. Of course, then I switched it up and nothing happened.

"Okay, Stephanie. No big deal. You have a flashlight in your bag," I told myself. "You can use that. I'm sure that the power outage is just a weird coincidence. As is the fact that this apartment is so dark in the of middle of the afternoon. Definitely nothing nefarious happening here. Maybe he just switched to a night shift… at the coffee shop he works in that closes at 4… so he has to sleep during the day..."

Okay, as pep talks go, it was kinda weak, but it was all I had as I dug blindly through my messenger bag. When I found my flashlight, I allowed a small sigh of relief to pass my lips.

That moment of reassurance was short lived once I turned the flashlight on and shined it around the room. The windows were covered in foil of all things, which were blocking out the light.

I moved the light along and realized it wasn't just the windows, there was something foil-like lining all the walls of the apartment.

"Okay, so he's a nut," I muttered to myself. "But that doesn't mean something actually happened to him…"

I was believing less and less that Jason was somewhere safe and having fun as I went on. Looking down, I realized that my phone had no reception, which was just perfect.

Here's the thing. I'm not a private investigator. I do have to find people sometimes, but they're usually hiding. A missing person is like a whole different can of worms, and I was rapidly feeling like I was in over my head.

I looked around as quickly as I could. Rather than stopping to read, I just grabbed the few stray papers and post-it notes I found on the kitchen table that he seemed to use as a desk.

I had a really bad feeling about this apartment, and I didn't want to stick around any longer than was absolutely necessary.

On my way back out, I checked the trash. It was rank. Either he was a really bad housekeeper, or Jason hadn't been home for at least a couple days, maybe longer.

I spotted a stack of mail and grabbed that as well. I'd already done the breaking and entering thing, what was a little postal theft on top of that?

Rushing out the door, I saw that the neighbor was standing at the doorway across the hall still. I forced a smile on my face and said, "change of plans!"

I hustled out of the building as quickly as I could, and I didn't wait to start a call on my phone.

"Babe," Ranger said when he picked up. It sounded almost flirty with a hint of we-just-talked thrown in.

"I was just at Jason's apartment, and it was weird," I said without preamble.

"What kind of weird?" Ranger asked instantly, and I could practically hear him straighten up and go on the alert.

"First of all, he had foil- everywhere. It was over his windows, his walls, all throughout the apartment."

"The external walls?" Ranger clarified.

Closing my eyes to bring up the inside of his apartment in my mind and make sure I was remembering correctly, I said, "The walls to the outside as well as the walls next to the neighboring apartments and the hallway."

I'd reached the Jeep, so I moved the phone to the crick of my neck and started trying to find my keys.

"There's a few reasons a person might do that," Ranger said.

I was too busy listening to Ranger and waiting to hear his theories, that I didn't hear any footfalls or notice anyone around me.

I just felt a prick in my neck.

I was pretty sure I managed to slur out an, "I'm sorry" to Ranger, knowing he'd be disappointed that I hadn't been aware of my surroundings.

I felt someone catch me under the arms as I fell, stagger under my weight, lower me part way, and unceremoniously dump me on the ground. That would probably hurt if I wasn't feeling very numb.

"Was that the neighbor?" I thought to myself. I tried to blink to see better since my vision had gone all wavy, but then I couldn't open my eyes back up.

Good night.