I followed Ranger down to the conference room. Hector and Jose followed me, and Tank stood to the right of the door in the conference room at parade rest. He was being his usual quiet self, and I could tell that Dickie was off-balanced. Dickie was a chatterbox at the best of times, and there was nothing he liked better than hearing himself talk and having people hanging onto his every word. Knowing Tank, however, meant that I knew he would be doing anything and everything to make Dickie uncomfortable. Tank knew of the animosity between Dickie and me, and as a good friend of mine, he would do whatever possible to stick it to Dickie for my sake. To do so, Tank wasn't giving any indication that he had been listening to Dickie.

I looked at Dickie. His hair was slowly receding, and every time I saw him he had a little less. While he hadn't developed the middle-aged spread yet, he looked decidedly soft compared to every other male in the room. His weak chin wobbled as he looked up. When he saw me he sprang to his feet and scooted back as far away from me as he could get. "Get her away from me", he said. "The last time I saw her she tried to kill me."

"You should be thanking her", said Ranger. "Stephanie, out of the kindness of her heart, is offering her apartment as a safe house for you to stay in. We have decided that it is the best spot for you to hide out. With your contentious history, no one would ever suspect that you'd seek refuge in her apartment."

"I'm not living with her. Being chased by thugs is better than living with her."

"No, you're not living with her", said Ranger. "Stephanie has recently moved into the Rangeman building. Rangeman is taking over her lease to use her apartment as a safe house. You are the first guest there and are, in fact, one of the first people to know that she has moved."

"Why can't you put me in another safe house?"

"Steph's apartment is monitored by our control room. Her fire escape is alarmed and her front door is currently being outfitted with a camera. No one will be able to go into or out of her apartment without us knowing. Besides, it is the perfect hiding spot for you, just because no one will guess it as being your refuge. There is literally no one in the State of New Jersey that would suspect that you were hiding in Stephanie's apartment."

I went over to the table and sat down. Dickie moved to the other side of the table and cowered against the wall. "Relax, Dickie, I won't do anything with my boss looking on. I particularly like my job at Rangeman. For the first time since we broke up, I have been able to get ahead of my bills. It's not like you've ever paid the support that was awarded to me during our divorce." I could feel Ranger imperceptibly freeze. I hadn't told him that part before. "Yes, I encouraged you when you were going to school. I supported your dream of opening your own law firm. You repaid me by having an affair. I'm over that. I'm happy now, and I feel sorry for you. You will never be happy because you aren't willing to put yourself out there and take a chance. You aren't willing to commit and you've spent your whole life looking for something to make you feel better, whether it was whoring or gambling or whatever. So, yeah. I feel sorry for you and I'm willing to help you by letting you stay in my apartment. The sheets and towels are clean. Don't make a mess of the place. I just detailed the apartment this morning. Don't listen to music or the television loudly, be nice to the neighbors, and take out the trash when you are finished with the apartment. I know that all of those rules are foreign to you, but those are the rules."

Ranger turned to Hector and Jose, and introduced them. "Hector will be guarding you during the day, and Jose will guard you at night. Stay away from the windows, phone through any grocery orders and we'll go shopping for you, and do whatever Jose and Hector tell you to do. They are the professionals, and they are only as good as you let them be. If you don't listen to them, we'll take our retainer and cut you loose. Do you understand?"

Dickie eyed Hector and Jose fearfully. "Yes", he said timidly. Then he cleared his voice and repeated himself in a stronger tone.

"As soon as you sign the contract, the five of us will go to Stephanie's apartment. Stephanie will introduce the three of you to some of the residents so that they don't call the police on you. The fewer people who know that you are moving there, the better. I don't want the whole Trenton Police Department knowing where you are hiding."

"Then why are we telling the residents?" asked Dickie.

"The residents are attuned to traffic and problems in Stephanie's apartment, and they won't respond well if they think that someone is staying there who doesn't belong. They literally will call the police, the army and the Coast Guard if they think you aren't welcome guests."

"Okay."

"We will send someone to your house to retrieve some clothes and toiletries and will leave your car where you parked it. I'm sure the thugs have already identified it and are watching it."

"Can't I go and get my own clothes?"

"No. For the same reason that you have to leave your car behind, you also need to leave your house behind. We'll get your clothes and anything else you may want, whether it is a laptop or e-reader or whatever. Just let us know what you'd like, and we'll get it for you. This is our standard bodyguarding contract", said Ranger as he slapped the contract in front of Dickie and had him sign it. Dickie, in his upset, didn't even read it. Personally, I thought he was a better lawyer than that. "Do you have any questions?"

"Nope", said Dickie.

"Then let's go to the apartment. Babe, do you have extra keys to the apartment in your kitchen?"

"I have two spare keys in the apartment, and Hector can have one while Jose has the other."

"Don't I get a key?" said Dickie.

"No", said Ranger. "You will never be without Hector or Jose bodyguarding you, so you don't need a key."

Dickie was obviously thrown by Hector's and Jose's presence. He looked at them and swallowed hard. Hector and Jose looked back stoically at him, and although they looked formidable, I could see the laughter lurking in their eyes. I looked up at Tank and he looked serious, but I could see that he too was having trouble not smiling. I stood. "Shall we go?"

Hector walked out of the room, followed by Dickie, then Jose. Ranger and I walked out of the room next and, as we passed Tank, Tank winked at me and gave me the thumbs up sign. I grinned at him.

By the time we had made it to the parking garage, Dickie was looking a little panicked. He pulled Ranger aside just before we got into the cars, and spoke quietly to him. Ranger shook his head and spoke quietly back. Dickie threw a few anxious looks at Hector and Jose, and I could tell that he was worried about being guarded by them. If he wasn't such an asshole, I would have felt sorry for him.

"Do you think it's working?" said Hector quietly.

"Oh, yeah", I said as I tried not to smile.

Jose turned his back on Dickie. "This is such an awesome assignment. Hector and I'll be the envy of the rest of the staff."

I smiled. I hoped they still found it fun when they had spent some time with Dickie. It was my experience that spending time with Dickie made one want to poke your eyes out with a spoon or take your gun to shoot yourself. I rather thought that, at the end of this assignment, they should receive a bonus for getting through the assignment without killing him. I knew that I certainly couldn't do it.

Seconds later Ranger ushered Dickie into the car and Hector climbed behind the wheel. Jose got into another fleet car. "Remember to keep your head down", said Ranger, "as you leave the building so that people will assume that you're still here. We don't want those enforcers to find where you have gone." Dickie did up his seatbelt and, when Hector and Jose started their cars, he hurriedly bent over and buried his head in his knees.

Ranger and I got into his 911 Turbo and led Hector's and Jose's cars out of underground for the ten-minute drive to my apartment. Once we were alone, I said to Ranger, "was Dickie a little uncomfortable with Jose and Hector looking after him?"

Ranger smiled. "Yeah. It was freakin' awesome."

"You're having fun with this, aren't you?"

"Absolutely."

"Jose said that this is the best assignment ever, but they haven't spent time with Dickie yet. They don't realize that his name truly is indicative of his personality. I think you should consider giving them a bonus if they can get through this assignment without killing him."

Ranger laughed. "Not all assignments are easy or fun. The guys have the authorization to stick it to Dickie. They will find it enjoyable, especially knowing that you had been hit by him. Both Hector and Jose are very protective. All my staff are, but Hector and Jose are particularly so. They were pissed hearing about your experience with Dickie and will make sure he suffers, especially knowing that they are allowed to do so. Both men have been dedicated to you since Adam accosted you. The staff all are. Adam was a pain and a criminal, but he did a good job getting everyone to accept you." Adam was a man in Sales that a few months ago believed that he loved me and I loved him and that I wanted to run away with him, despite me having barely spoken to him. He was criminally obsessed, and the staff all supported me when I was dealing with him. "They become more dedicated to you when you became so focused on your retrieval of the human traffickers." There was a couple of human traffickers who were stealing women from South America, bringing them up to the States, and forcing them to work for little to no money. Because the women neither spoke English nor had official papers, they were stuck in their lives and didn't feel they had any choice other than to do what the human traffickers wanted them to do. I found the couple to be particularly abhorrent, and Lula and I spent hours on surveillance before we found them. Rangeman assisted us in the capture, a capture that became fraught with danger when the traffickers realized I was tracking them and decided to run to Canada, with me as a hostage to help them escape. Like so many times before, Ranger saved me. "Hector told me that his cousin had been abducted by a gang and was forced to act as their sex slave. They had got her addicted to drugs so that she wouldn't run away. Hector had been furious and had infiltrated the gang to capture the men responsible. He worked with the police and got the gang members arrested, but in preparation for his role, he had the teardrops tattooed under his eyes."

"So he hadn't really killed two people?"

"He has, but he did it when he was in the military rather than when he was a gangbanger. The police were very thankful for his participation and gave him a medal when his cousin was rescued. She is now doing well and has recovered nicely. When the gangbangers were all captured and charged, Hector was offered a role in the TPD. However, I had also heard about his role in taking the gangbangers down, and I offered him a spot on my team. I pay better than the police and I made a better pitch to Hector. He's been working with us ever since. I'm pleased that he has joined the team."

"I was always scared of him."

"He cultivates that tough guy act and enjoys it when people are scared of him."

"Now I understand it when you said that not everything appeared as it seemed when I told you that I was nervous around Hector."

"Part of the conditions he had for employment was that no one knew of his involvement in the arrest of the gangbangers. He said that he had developed the gangbanger persona and he felt that there were times that he could use that persona on behalf of Rangeman. I agreed."

"But you're telling me now?"

"We're together now."

"Does Jose have any stories like that in his past as well?"

"No, but he is also a soft person. He lives with his disabled mother and his grandmother, and he is supporting both of them financially as well as emotionally. He is a very caring person."

When we got to the parking lot, we parked in the back corner. Many of the people who lived in the building were seniors who fought to get the closest parking spot to the building, and I knew from experience that their eyesight often wasn't the best. There seemed to be a direct correlation between the proximity of my parking spot to the building and the number of scrapes and bangs that my car got. The closer to the building I parked, the more scrapes. This wasn't such a problem when I was driving my own car. My cars were all old and already pre-dented. However, it made me feel icky when it happened to one of Ranger's cars.

We walked into the building and I introduced Hector and Jose and Dickie to Mr. Wolenski. Mr. Wolenski smiled and nodded, and Hector and Jose smiled and shook Mr. Wolenski's hand. The old man relaxed and turned to me. "Are you staying in your apartment as well, chicky?" he asked.

I smiled. "No, Mr. Wolenski. With three guys in a one-bedroom apartment, I don't think there is enough room for me. As it is, they will have to share the bed." I could hear Dickie gulp, and I smiled again.

"That's true, chicky." He turned to Ranger. "You, I recognize."

"Stephanie has moved to my building, Mr. Wolenski. However, we are planning on keeping her apartment as a safe house. The residents here are a great group of people who care about their neighbors, and you won't let anything happen to anyone if you can at all stop it from happening."

Mr. Wolenski chuckled. "That's a nice way of saying that we're nosy."

I laughed and looked down at him. I kissed him on his cheek as Mr. Wolenski turned red in embarrassment. "You? Never", I said.

Ranger looked at me, his eyes soft, and I could see that he was thinking about smiling. I grinned at him. Ranger had told me once that I had a high EQ, and that I was good with people because of it, and I could see him thinking about that right then. I didn't know if I agreed with him, but I did know that I liked people. I liked making them smile and making them feel good about themselves. When I knew I had, I felt good about myself as well.

I led the four men into the building and over to the elevator. Hector and Jose checked out the staircase and the layout of the lobby as we waited for the lift. When it arrived, Mrs. Bestler held the doors open. We all trooped inside. It was a little squishy – while Dickie was a little man, Hector, Jose and Ranger weren't. They were sturdy and built, and they took up quite a lot of room.

I introduced the three newcomers to Mrs. Bestler and told her that they would be living in my apartment for a while.

"How long will you be with us?" said Mrs. Bestler.

"At least a month, ma'am", said Hector. He smiled at her, and Mrs. Bestler batted her eyelashes. I looked at Ranger and grinned. Mrs. Bestler would take good care of the three men – or she would, at least, take good care of Hector.

I gave Mrs. Bestler my business card and pointed out my cell number. I knew that I had given her one before, but I wasn't sure if she would remember where it was. It was easier, I thought, to just give her a new one. When we got to the second floor, I gave her a hug and we got off the elevator.

We went down to my apartment. Ranger took the key from me and opened the door, stayed at the entrance for a moment taking the pulse of the place, and when he decided that it was safe and threat-free, he led us into the apartment.

Hector and Jose investigated the windows and the fire escape as Dickie looked at the various rooms. His lip curled up at the avocado green appliances, the orange and brown tiles in the bathroom, and the sub-grade carpet throughout the apartment. He looked down at the light bloodstain on the carpet that, despite the building superintendent's efforts, hadn't come out. It was a leftover from the last person that I had shot. "This is where you live?" he said in disgust.

My face flushed in embarrassment, but then I got angry. "As I said, Dickie. If you had paid your alimony that I had been awarded, I would have been able to afford a more expensive place. But this apartment is safe, in a convenient location, and the residents are nice. Yes, the appliances pre-date Jesus's birth – but they work – and the décor is based on what the landlord could find in the discount bin – but it does the job. Hot water is limited and there is no dishwasher, but the apartment is quiet. All in all, it's a good place to live and is far better than most places available in my price range."

"Better yet", said Ranger, "it is safe for you. No one will expect you to be here."

Dickie nodded. "I'll say", he said. "This is a far cry from what I'm used to."

I turned red and gritted my teeth. My eyes bugged out and my head spun around like I was possessed, and I pretended that I was slamming his head against the wall. I reminded myself of the ruse we were pulling, and the need for us to maintain our cool so that we could bilk him of whatever money we could get. I was partially successful. As I cracked my knuckles, Dickie hastily shot to the other side of the room. When he settled as far away from me as possible in front of the windows, Ranger said, "stay away from the windows." As I barely held onto my temper, Ranger grabbed my hand and said to Dickie and the two bodyguards, "I'll leave you to it. I know that Steph wanted to do some research this afternoon, and we need to go to have a chance of taking the evening off. Call me if there are any problems. We'll just go to talk to the superintendent now, and then we'll be on our way." He tugged me to the door and out into the hall. As we got onto the elevator, he said, "breathe, babe. Think about the end game."

"When I have a chance to use my signature move on him?"

"Sacking him? I thought you were going to use your signature move on him in your apartment. I'm just glad you hadn't already put your gun on for the day. At one point, I thought you were going to use mine." Ranger looked at me. "Remember. Six years in jail and a fifty-thousand dollar payout to Rangeman."

I smiled again. Ranger always did know how to cheer me up.