Lester POV

In a discreet seven floor building on Hamilton, all was peaceful.

There was a low level hum, the kind that only came from constant albeit silent action. Most of the men had headed home or to their apartments in the building for the night, leaving the night crew to man the monitors and respond to call outs (which really meant hanging in the break room watching football or spinning round on wheelie chairs catching baseballs in Lester's case).

It had been a relatively boring week at Rangeman, no massive security breaches, only one new account (dull aging couple who'd barely notice if someone stole an entire house out from under their noses) , no redecorating jobs and more importantly there had been no need to collect Stephanie from a bombsite or throw a stalker out of a tenth story window.

So naturally Lester was bored beyond belief. Bored enough to go looking for trouble. He wouldn't have to if Stephanie would just drop by for a visit, then he could tease and flirt with her and Ranger would perk up like he always did whenever the Bombshell bounty hunter was within ten feet of him.

But there had been only radio silence on the Stephanie front recently, it was eerily quiet considering the mayhem that usually dogged Stephanie's footsteps like a fucking shadow. Lester shook his head, Stephanie was a tough nut, and there wasn't anybody who enjoyed retelling her stories like he did, but even he knew it took balls to keep going back and only dusting herself down briefly before diving right back in.

It was a good job she had Ranger, he dreaded to think what would have happened to Steph without her mentor. Then again he thought, leaning back in his spinning chair to peer into the tiger's office, Stephanie's luck and natural tenacious talent rivaled the trained skill of every man in the building that played fortress to Ranger's Bruce Wayne.

The man himself had been locked up tight in his office for most of the day, no one had spoken to him except Tank. He hadn't been called out, either in the field or to clients and he'd skipped the morning meeting, leaving Tank to deal out responsibilities and schedules for the coming week instead. It wasn't unusual for Ranger to sit and spend hours laboring over the masses of paperwork a business the size and nature of Rangeman created, but usually he'd come up for air or leave the building to hunt down a certain curly haired bounty hunter.

But it seemed the Stephanie silence as Lester had taken to calling it extended to Ranger also, and that bode well for a grand total of nobody. Stephanie usually guaranteed either entertainment or peacefulness or Rangeman, but now there was only a trickling tension, as if the building was holding its breath waiting or something to happen.

Waiting for what, Lester had no idea.

Ranger POV

Ranger Manoso wasn't a complicated man, but in no way could he ever be described as straight forward.

Oh he could be honest, and he could be brutal. But he preferred keeping his deck to himself rather than risking a foolish slip of the hand to send cards tumbling to the floor, clear as day to whoever he was facing off.

No, keep your words few and let your actions speak for yourselves. The military doesn't just teach you how to wear your hair short.

He knew how he was perceived by those around him, either in anonymity or his current territory. He knew how to wield other people's perceptions as a tool, allowing him as much room to maneuver as he liked. He knew how to work a case to his advantage.

But there were some things that stunned him into silence. Certain blue eyed riot curled 5'7 things that he still couldn't quite figure out to handle. He figured he didn't need to either, she could handle herself, and when she couldn't her luck kicked in.

One day, her luck was going to run out. He planned on making sure he did everything in his power, used everything in his substantial arsenal to make sure she could deal with whatever got thrown her way if it ever happened.

Then again, life has a funny way of taking things out of our hands.