Janet Evanovich owns the characters she created and the basic guideline to the story. I own the characters I've created. I've borrowed information on Stephanie's father from someone(s) fan fiction. Credit to all I've stolen from…I'm grateful, you can borrow mine. I make nothing of intrinsic value from this.

Instead of heading to Pinos or McDonalds for lunch we went to a little café that had recently opened along our path. They served a lot of vegetarian things like salads. Ranger suggested it. You're not surprised? I wasn't either really.

Mitch opened the menu and almost immediately frowned. "Er…this is all health food."

"Right," Ranger said with a smug smile.

"Dude, there's nothing edible on this menu," Lester sighed. "It's got tree bark and shit on it."

"There is no tree bark on this menu," Ranger rolled his eyes.

"Er…today's special," I leaned over to point out.

"Oh," he blinked.

"I can't eat here," Lester folded the menu and laid it down on the table. "I'll wait in the truck."

"I'm with him," Mitch nodded. "We'll hit a drive-thru on the way to Unit."

"I don't think so," Ranger shook his head.

"I'm driving," Mitch dangled the keys. "Are you gonna stop me?"

Ranger glared at him. The two men walked away with purpose.

"He's not afraid of you."

"Is that healthy," he frowned.

"Healthy," I raised a brow.

"You know for our boss-employee relationship," he said thoughtfully.

"I didn't say he didn't respect you," I smiled. "I said he wasn't afraid of you."

"Oh," he pursed his lips.

"There's a difference."

"Yea," he agreed.

"This menu really does suck," I said. It took every ounce of my will power to stay sitting there beside him versus running for the truck and taking advantage of our later trip to the drive-thru.

"You want to eat McDonalds too," he sighed.

"I do," I nodded with a lopsided smile.

"The bean wants McDonalds," he shook his head.

"She's three years or less away from her first happy meal," I agreed.

"Shit," he sighed. "Let's go."

"Thank you," I said and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him hard. "I love you."

"I'm working on it," he said softly.

"I know," I smiled and kissed him again.

He left a tip on the table and we left the restaurant holding hands.

"Okay kids," he said rolling his eyes as we buckled in. "Go to McDonalds."

"Thanks Dad," Lester grinned.

"Let's roll," Mitch said pulling away from the curb.

We had Big Macs and fries and milkshakes and Ranger had a grilled chicken salad. He even got a vanilla ice cream cone after that while the rest of us had sundaes. Yea, it wasn't bad.

"Man, you might as well get used to coming here," Lester grinned. "Your daughter is going to want to go to McDonalds and get prizes from her happy meals."

"My child," Ranger stressed the word child versus son or daughter, "will not be able to drive until it's forty and it'll eat where I take him or her until then."

"She'll eat at McDonalds," I said with a smile. "I'll take her."

He sighed, "I know you will."

"You should stop fighting it," Mitch shrugged. "She'll be coming here for her friend's birthday parties," he pointed to the play land that was currently hosting a birthday party for a bunch of five year olds. "She's going to eat here often. Her friends are going to eat here. Get used to it."

"Why do you keep saying the bean is a girl," Ranger glared.

"Because Stephanie said it was a girl," Lester said innocently.

Ranger's glare turned to me and he sighed somewhat dramatically, "You're killing me."

I just smiled sweetly at him.

"Is everyone done with their ice cream," Ranger sighed.

"Yes Dad," Lester grinned gathering the trash.

We loaded back into the truck without any problems and headed over to the new Unit location. We ended up having to park halfway down the street near a vacant lot because the parking lot was currently being paved.

Mike met us at the door with a grin, "come on in. I'm so glad you're here."

"The outside is definitely different," I smiled. "It's still got a little bit of the USO feel to it, but I love the camouflage and net on the walls."

"I've got a couple of old army surplus jeeps coming to stick out front. I'm going to use them as seating for the waiting area along with some other stuff like that. I also have an old plane carcass coming to put on the roof. The actual neon sign will be on that plane."

"Oh that is cool," I grinned.

"Come on in and see the rest of the place."

"There are flat screens everywhere," Lester said in awe.

"Yea, we'll use them to televise local games and we'll run war movies on them too. We've gotten permission to use quite a few of them including Pearl Harbor. I'm pretty excited about that," Mike admitted.

"Oh man, Ben Affleck is going to be on your flat screens all the time," I said in awe.

"Yea," he laughed and elbowed me, "your husband is right there."

"Oh," I winced and reached for Ranger's hand, "oops."

"Right," he said dryly but he didn't pull away. Instead he meshed his fingers with mine.

Mike took us to the bar first. It was similar to the bar at his other place, but it was a little bigger. It looked like a base camp, but the seating was more comfortable. Then he took us into the restaurant itself. It was huge.

"Wow," I said turning around and around to get a complete view of the restaurant. "This is great. Women are going to love this. I love the Uncle Sam posters on the wall, especially the fact that they have hot guys on them. You won't have any trouble getting women to come back after their first visit with those posters and a bar full of men in uniform."

He laughed, "We added those after our first conversation. I got all the servers together and asked them what would make them want to come in here with their friends and all the things you said, they brought up. They also suggested the posters since they're in keeping with the style of the restaurant."

"I love it," I grinned.

"I want you to meet my chef staff," he led us toward the kitchen.

As we got closer to the kitchen I could smell food…my food cooking and I could hear music. I beamed, "they're making pot roast and lemon cake."

He laughed, "Yea, they're testing them. They're having a little trouble with the lemon cake. If you don't mind hanging out in the kitchen with them for a while maybe you can assess what they're doing wrong."

"Sure," I nodded.

He pushed the swinging doors open and we walked into a kitchen that at first glance was culinary mayhem. There were half a dozen burley men racing about singing at the top of their lungs. They weren't just singing any song either. They were singing I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner. I have to say, it was unexpected. Even when they realized we were there, they kept right on singing and grinning at us as they continued to work in the kitchen.

I couldn't stop myself, I started singing with them. One of the guys came by and scooped me up and carried me off to the other side of the kitchen as he sang. He sat me down by the baking station and winked before dancing off back to the other side.

Ranger just stood by the door with this bemused expression on his face as though this happened all the time. Well, strange things happen with me all the time. He's really learned to roll with it.

The song ended and someone hit the off button on the player.

Mike grinned, "Guys I'd like you to meet Ranger Manoso, Ghost Wheeler, Lester Santos and Stephanie Plum Manoso. And you guys meet my chefs extraordinaire…Bull, Tree, Hawk, Truck, Wells, and Smith."

"Smith…is that your real name," Lester grinned.

The guy who was obviously Smith replied with a raised brow, "And you're proud of Lester? Yes, my name is Smith. It's actually Steve Smith."

Lester grinned and shrugged, "I think it's actually Luster, but my mother misspelled it."

Ranger shook his head.

"Wait…Ranger Manoso," one of the guys frowned and immediately straightened to attention, "Officer on the deck boys."

The men straightened.

"He's retired," Mike said with a sigh. He scowled at Ranger, "why does everyone keep treating you like you're some kind of demigod?"

Ranger shrugged, "stand down men."

One of the men, who appeared to be close to seven feet tall, relaxed his stance, "an officer, once an officer is always an officer, especially with Major Manoso's reputation." He offered Ranger a salute.

"Thank you," Ranger said with a smile and returned his salute. "So you gentlemen cook for this buffoon?"

The man howled, "Yes sir. We do cook for him. I'm Tree."

Ranger looked up, "I'm not surprised."

"We all met in the hospital after Afghanistan," another man shrugged, "I'm Hawk."

Lester nodded, "now it makes sense."

The guy who was obviously Bull or Truck approached me with a grin, "is this your lemon cake recipe?"

"Actually that one is my mothers," I smiled. "The rest are mine."

"Can you make it with me and I'll watch?"

"Sure," I agreed.

There was more military chitchat going on while Bull, Truck and I worked on the lemon cake. They took turns doing the desserts. They loved the Bombshell Blast and confessed they had been testing it a lot.

Eventually Ranger, Lester, Mitch and Mike left us alone in the kitchen and the guys all gathered around to watch me and to ask me how I came up with recipes. After I finished creating the first batter, Truck and Bull each made one of their own and all three were slid into the giant ovens to bake.

I leaned against the counter, "so what did you guys do in Afghanistan? It's not that I don't think you cooked there, but I have a feeling you did other things," I grinned.

"I drove," Truck grinned.

"I'd have never guessed," I smiled.

"Tree did scouting," Truck continued. "Smith did recon, Bull did munitions, and Wells was a radioman, and Hawk was a sharpshooter."

"That makes sense," I nodded.

"What did you do," Smith asked.

I laughed, "I wasn't in the army."

"Seriously," Bull blinked at me. "I just assumed that Major Manoso married someone that was formerly military."

"Nope, I'm a civilian. My father was though."

"Yea," Tree nodded, "what branch?"

"Army," I smiled. "He was a ranger too. You may have heard of him…Falcon?"

They gaped, "you're Falcon's kid?"

"Yea," I smiled.

"Damn, no wonder you look familiar. He was my CO in Afghanistan," Smith shook his head. "How's he doing?"

"He's great," I beamed. "I'll bring him by to see you."

"Make sure he's here opening night," he grinned. "One of our new chicken dishes is named for him."

"I'll do it," I promised.

"How did you meet Major Manoso," Tree asked as we whipped the icing into shape.

"I got a job doing bounty hunting for my cousin Vinnie and let's just say that I was in no way prepared for what the job would entail," I grinned. The men chuckled. "Connie Roselli, my cousin's manager, asked Ranger to sort of take me under his wing. Ranger was doing the high bonds and I was doing the low bonds. Anyway, we met and it's been steadily building ever since."

"He's got quite a reputation," Bull said quietly.

"I know," I nodded.

"Is he out of the game?"

"Yea," I nodded. "He's out, much to the chagrin of Robert and George."

Tree shook his head, "tell him I said to watch out for them. They've been sniffing around here trying to get us back in. I know they want him. They'd be settling for us. Your husband has a reputation as being the best of the best."

"He says Mitch is better," I smiled.

"Ghost," Smith shook his head. "That boy ain't natural. He can get in and out of places that nobody can without being seen. Yea…he's pretty damn good. I can see why the Major might feel that way."

"The Major can access places that nobody else can too," Bull reminded them.

"Yea, but he's sometimes caught. The Ghost, he was never caught," Smith reminded them.

I smiled to myself. So much would be clear to them if I could only explain the concept of unmentionables to them. But that would take a long time and honestly, the only way you ever understand it completely is to see it when it happens. It's tricky like that.

"Well, whatever they have that makes them come out alive is all that matters to me. I just want them both safe. You know what I mean?"

"I know," Truck nodded.

"So…were you a good bounty hunter," Tree asked.

"That's relative," I laughed.

"What does that mean," he grinned.

"Well, I did have a more than ninety-five percent success rate. But…for the most part I only pulled in low bonds at first. My big bonds came later and I usually had Rangeman as back up then. I did bring in a couple of big ones on my own."

"Like the Forturos," Hawk said with a slight smile.

"You've heard of me," I laughed.

"I put it together already," he grinned. "Gentlemen, the reason the chocolate dessert is called Bombshell Blast is because the creator was none other than the Bombshell Bounty hunter of Trenton New Jersey herself."

They gaped at me.

"Oh come on," I laughed. "I'm not that famous."

"But your antics are," Ranger said as his arm slid around me.

I jumped slightly, "seriously…I'm putting bells on all of your shoes."

He shook his head at me, "how is the baking going? It smells great."

"I'll let you guys in on a little secret," I leaned forward. "Ranger is a slave to the lemon cake. It's one of the few things he pollutes the temple with."

"I can totally dig that," Smith nodded. "This is some good cake," he sighed.

"I know," Ranger said with a grin. "How long before it's ready?"

"The cake has to cool before frosting Ranger," I reminded him. "It's going to be at least another forty minutes or so."

He sighed heavily, "We can't stay that long."

"I'll make you one tonight," I promised.

"You're the best wife ever," he said and kissed my head.

"Don't forget it," I smiled. "Does this mean it's time to go?"

"It is," he agreed.

"Gentlemen," I stuck my hand out. "If the cakes don't turn out all the same, give me a call and I'll get back over here, okay?"

"Thank you," Tree smiled and kissed my hand. "But you don't have to have an excuse. You're always welcome in our kitchen."

"Thank you," I grinned. "I really appreciate that."

"It's been an honor," Smith said. "Don't forget to make sure Falcon is here on opening night."

"I will do it. Should I tell him that Smith says hi?"

"That would be cool," he grinned. "It really has been fun."

"For me too," I grinned. "I had no idea a kitchen could be this stimulating."

Ranger scowled, "come on hussy…get out of here before I bend you over my knee."

I laughed and let him push me out of the kitchen as I waved goodbye to the men.

"What am I going to do with you? You just pick up men wherever we go."

"You told me that I was drying up all my resources by setting up all the guys at Rangeman. I told you that I was going to think outside the box."

"Seriously Stephanie…you're going over my knee," he growled.

"I'm so telling our daughter about this one day," I said with a giggle.

"Brat," he said with a smile and led me through the front doors.

We walked outside as Mitch went to get the SUV. He was just pulling away from the curb when the explosion happened. I gasped and buried my face in Ranger's chest. This wasn't happening. It just wasn't.