Disclaimer : S'not mine, I jus play with them. I apologize in advance for the shortness of the chapter, but I'm really not in the writing mood, and had to force myself to write this.. so.. again, little to no humor, but it's kinda hard to under the circumstances of the story, ya know? Don't worry, i'll inch some in somewhere before the end..

Yee-haw, I finally decided "hey, I have no clue where I'm going with this," so I made a plot outline thing, and according to that, there are about nine chapters left before I finish this thing. I have what needs to be written already wrote down, I just gotta fill in the blanks with details and all that good stuff. So, maybe i'll have this thing over with in a week or so.

Until then, here ya gooooo..

Ranger quickly swung the car around and hit the gas, causing me to be thrown back into the seat.

"Umph," I mumbled, but he ignored me.

Bastard.

We rode along in silence for a few minutes until my phone rang.

Ranger and I both looked at the display : UNKNOWN NUMBER.

"Answer it," he said finally, on the third ring. I frowned at him, but he just nodded in the direction of my phone.

"Hello?"

Very intelligent, Steph.

"Hello, Ms. Stephanie." I recognized the clown's voice immediately.

Asshole.

"Mr. Clown," I growled, "Where is Adriel?"

Yeah, Mr. Clown might not've been the best thing to call him, but I didn't know what else to refer to him as.

"Ah, Ms. Plum," the thing said, "You should have just stayed away from the Manoso's. You drug yourself into this."

I drug myself into what, dammit?

"Where's freakin' Adriel?" I yelled. I shot a look at Ranger, who was glaring at my phone, knuckles white on the steering wheel.

"Adriel is with me," the clown said, "And because you cannot mind your own business, I'm punishing you."

Punishing..

Oh shit.

I froze.

"Who?" I whispered, my voice shaky.

"Your neices, Ms. Plum. Say hi to them." In the background, there was a smack, and then a familiar cry.

"Leave them alone!" I screamed, and Ranger took the phone from me.

I'm gonna kill him, I said silently. I'm goin' to kick that clown's ass to Cali-fucking-fornia.

"Talk," Ranger demanded, his voice dripping with rage.

I burried my hands into my face. Although I'd wanted to sell Mary Alice and Angie at a garage sell, not even I would will them away to some clown. Mom was going to ki-

"Oh shit!" I yelled outloud, realizing that Ranger was off the phone.

I looked up to see him turn his head to me and raised an eyebrow. His face was blank, but his eyes were boiling.

"My mom," I groaned, burying my face in my hands again.

I would never see another pinapple-upside-down cake in my life if my mother found out about this.

Ranger wordlessly picked up his phone from my side of the dashboard and flipped it open.

"Change of plans," he said into the phone. "Make sure everyone continues working. Three other girls missing as well. Yeah. Angie, Mary Alice, and Lisa. Yeah. Stephanie's neices. Going to her sisters house. Get it done."

He pocketed the phone, then, to my surprise, took my hand in his. I could feel his tension, and this time it was me who was the one comforting him, rubbing small circles on the top of his hand. He shot me a look, then went back into his zone.

We rode in silence to Valerie and Albert's house, the dread at what we would find eating away my stomach.

As soon as we got there, we realized the clown had not been bluffing. Albert was laying face down on the grass, obviously stunned.

Ranger, who still held my hand, gripped it harder as we moved into the house. At Angie's door, Valerie lay stunned as well.

Without a word, Ranger scooped Valerie into his arms and deposited her into the small backseat of the Porsche. He did the same to Albert, lifting him as though he were a five year old.

"Get in," he said to me. I obeyed, and within minutes we were parked in front of my mother's house.

Mom and Grandma Mazur were both waiting on the lawn.

Great.

Ranger and I both stepped out of the car. While Ranger pulled Valerie out of the car, I intercepted my mother.

"Stephanie Michelle Plum, wh-"

"Save it, Ellen."

My hero.

The three of us turned to see my father standing in the doorway. Ranger brushed pass us with Valerie still passed out in his arms. Dad and Ranger disappeared, then returned seconds later.

"What is this all about?" my dad asked finally. The five of us were still standing on the lawn outside of the house, and I could feel the neighbors' eyes on our backs.

"My daughter, along with your granddaughters, were kidnapped by a man who assosiated Stephanie with me," Ranger said. "This is in no way her fault, but it is mine."

I turned an incredulous glare at him.

Say what?

"Get them back," My dad said shortly. I looked from him to Ranger, then back. I could tell from their faces that they were doing the silent ESP thing.

"I will," Ranger promised, then he took my hand and led me back to the car. Without another word, we were off.

Lalala, okay, anyway, yeah. There you go. Hold ya over. By the way, I didn't expect to get five reviews so quickly, not that I'm complaining. Ya'll rock. I know I don't thank ya'll near enough, so I apologize and grovel and promise to do your chores for the next ten years (hah. like i do my own.) but THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING! i love you all.

mk, yeah, anyway.. you know the drill

Review!

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvVV