The firefighters were first on the scene, followed by Ranger. He parked down the street and jogged up to the blast site. He gave me a hug and a kiss, and stood with his arm over my shoulder as I watched the blaze. Even more residents were standing around admiring the devastation, and I think I saw one person with a marshmallow on a stick holding it over the fire. Firefighters were having trouble getting their hoses through the crowd to the flaming car. "You okay?" said Ranger.

"Yeah. Who won the pool?"

"Tank. He stuck with his original guess of tomorrow. Everyone else guessed further in the future."

"How much did he win?"

"Not everyone got a chance to guess yet, so he only won two hundred dollars. He's happy though. He said he wasn't sure if you would do one two days in a row, but he was willing to put his money down on it anyway, just in case."

"So did you bring another car for me?"

"No. I thought I'd escort you to the station." I bit my lip. "Is that a problem?"

"It's just that Lula, Darla and I were planning on going to Mooner's to do some shoe shopping prior to going into the station. Mooner has a shipment of Lubbutins. Lula bought a pair the other day, and is very happy with them. And how often can you get a pair of Lubbutins?"

"Aren't they pronounced 'Louboutins'?"

"They would be if they were real, but these are real, genuine knock-off Lubbutins. However, if you don't look closely you don't see the misspelling. They have the red sole, and that's what matters."

"Let me guess – you've always wanted a pair of Lubbutins?"

"I promised Darla. That's how I got cuffs on her. And I promised Lula."

Ranger smiled at me. "Then I guess that we're going shoe shopping", he said.

I looked at him doubtfully. "I know you're a big macho man who is confident enough of your masculinity to do such things like buy tampons without blushing, but are you sure you want to take Lula and me shoe shopping?"

Ranger grinned. "I think I can handle a little shoe shopping." I still looked at him doubtfully. "Bring it on, babe."

Morelli jogged up to us as we started to leave. "Is this a new record for you?" he said. "I see you with one car issue, go to a late lunch, then get called out again with you at another car issue."

"Yeah, I've been a busy – and unlucky – girl today."

"I don't know, cupcake. You weren't in the cars when they were shot out, so I'd say that you were very lucky."

I blanched. That was a thought that I didn't want to have.

"Are you here for official reasons?" said Ranger. "Or were you just in the neighborhood?"

Morelli smiled. "Neither. I'd been called when I was on my way back from lunch, so I thought I'd come and make sure that you were okay. What happened?"

I told him about the youth and the car and how the car had been shot out and how the car had exploded. Morelli listened to me, a serious expression on his face. "You know that could have been you that he shot instead", he said.

"I know, but I did have my gun out and I was ready to shoot him."

"That doesn't make me feel better, cupcake. Are you sure you don't want to work solely for Ranger?"

"Nope. I'm getting better at skip tracing."

"Uh-hunh", said Morelli.

"I've been able to capture everyone I've looked for this week." I didn't bother to tell him that Darla was the only person I had been chasing so far.

"Uh-hunh", said Morelli. "If you are trying to convince me that you are a good bounty hunter now, you're doing a terrible job."

"Getting my car shot out and exploded didn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm a bounty hunter."

"Except for it being the reason that you were on Stark in the first place."

I blew out a breath. I didn't want to admit that he was right. I looked down at the ground where I was scuffing my boot in the slush and tried to breathe through the tight feeling at the back of my throat.

Ranger pulled me closer to him. "Stephanie is a good bounty hunter who is sent into bad situations", he said quietly. "She handles them well, and she handles herself well. It is easy to look in from the outside and say she made a mistake, but when you are actually living it you realize that no mistakes were made."

"She is always going from one catastrophe to another", said Morelli. I looked up at him and his face was turning red and there was steam coming out of his ears.

"You've never lived the life of a bounty hunter", said Ranger. "You don't know the challenges that she faces on a day-to-day basis. I do, which is why I don't get mad at Stephanie. I understand that these things happen and that it truly isn't her fault."

"I come down to Stark all the time", said Morelli, "and my car is never shot out."

"Sometimes people are just lucky", said Ranger.

I turned to Darla and let Ranger argue on my behalf. It was probably better anyway. I was getting upset about the things that Morelli was saying, and he was getting upset with wanting to force me to quit. Ranger arguing on my behalf made me, at least, feel a little calmer. I doubt that it made Morelli calmer, but it did give me a break.

As I turned to Darla, she said, "are those two men taken?"

I smiled. "The tall Cuban-American is my boyfriend." Darla's mouth fell open and I thought I saw her eyes glaze over. I smiled. "And the tall Italian is my ex-boyfriend."

"Wow", said Darla, and I could understand. Ranger and Morelli were both exceptionally hot, and women everywhere drooled when they walked by. "Do you think your ex would be interested in me?" she said.

I laughed. "Unfortunately for you, he's a cop and wouldn't be interested in you because of that."

"Why did you break up?"

"He didn't support me in my job. He said that bad things always happen to me."

The youths were still standing around, laughing and talking, when a fight broke out amongst them. The boys started to push each other and call each other names, and guns came out and were waved around. There was even a grenade launcher. I could feel Ranger tense beside me, and he put his hand on his weapon, ready to use on my behalf. Morelli looked at the kids, sighed and shook his head before wading into the mass of teens. "I understand that everyone is unhappy", said Morelli, "but I need you all to take a deep breath and step back for a moment."

I froze as a teen approached Joe. "What do you about living on Stark Street?" he said. "You don't know nothin'."

"I know you need to chill for a while", said Joe. "Whether you do that here or in lock-up doesn't make a difference to me."

"Who are you?"

Joe smiled and reached into his pocket for his credentials. "I'm Detective Morelli of the TPD", he said. "And you are?"

"Tinkerbell", said the youth. He looked over and saw that I had Darla in custody. "Hey, where are you taking Darla?"

"Darla is in violation of her bond. She has to go into court to be rescheduled before she can be bonded out again. It's a simple process but important."

"You're not taking Darla anywhere", he said. "I'll shoot you if you take Darla."

Ranger threw a look at me to tell me to stay put, then walked up to the youth and got in his face. "You won't do anything other than to wish us well", he said. "No shooting or doing anything other than letting us go for the day."

"It's okay, Bulldog", said Darla. "Stephanie is taking me to buy new shoes on the way to the station."

"You don't need new shoes, Darla. You have a whole closet full of them."

"Yes, but these are Louboutins. They aren't just any shoe. I need these, Bulldog."

I could see Lula nodding in my peripheral vision as Ranger came and stood in front of me. Morelli joined Ranger in forming a human shield as we made our way through the group of teens towards Ranger's car.

"I said, you're not taking Darla anywhere", said the teen. He grabbed the grenade launcher, aimed it at the closest car, and shot the car. The grenade went into the car and exploded, and the car caught fire.

Morelli spun out from in front of us and took out his cuffs. He grabbed the youth, threw the grenade launcher on the ground, and cuffed him before the teen knew what was happening. "That was my car, dipshit", he said. He marched the kid over to the curb twenty-five yards away from his burning vehicle and sat him down. Ranger walked Darla over to sit her down on the curb beside Bulldog, and he turned so his back was against the building and so that he could keep his eyes on the youths still milling around.

Morelli called in the shots fired, and asked for two patrol cars come to pick up Darla and Bulldog. "Does this mean that I'm not getting shoes this afternoon?" Darla said as the fire reached the gas tank and the tank exploded.

I ignored the fire. "It looks that way", I said. "I was prepared to go, but now you are being picked up by the police and I won't have jurisdiction to take you in."

"I want my shoes."

"I'm sorry, but we aren't going now."

"I. WANT. MY. SHOES."

"I know that you're upset, but this is out of my hands. If you want to blame anyone for what has happened, blame lover boy there. He's the one that screwed up your ability to buy shoes today."

She turned and glared at Bulldog. "I was going to get Louboutins, asshole. You lost my chance."

"Darla, you don't need any more shoes, sugar. You need to save your money. You have to think of the baby."

"That's not your concern. Bulldog, I told you that it wasn't your baby."

"But we could make a family, just the three of us."

I let the sounds of their discussion flow over me, and I looked up at Ranger. He was still, alert, watching the group, his body in a fighting stance and ready to jump into action. I moved back until I was standing beside him as Morelli continued to watch the crowd and to talk in the phone to dispatch. Lula moved back until she was leaning against the wall beside me.

When Morelli got off the phone, he joined us against the wall. "This is bullshit", he said. "They torched my car!"

"Now you know how Stephanie feels", said Ranger quietly. "It isn't her fault any more than it was yours."