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I was sitting beside Ranger in his Turbo cursing up a storm as we drove to our destination - the corner of Stark and East State Streets. Not only was Ranger having me pretend to be a ho, but he wanted me to do it on the most dimly lit and dangerous street in the city.

I was forgetting why I liked him so much.

"Tank is only going to be ten steps behind you, max, the whole way, babe." I grunted.

"You should have asked Lula, she would have been more than happy to help you out. Besides, she has the experience." We pulled to a stop two blocks away from the the corner I was meant for.

Ranger turned in his seat so that his back was to the door and he was staring at me. "If you don't feel comfortable doing it, I'm not going to make you. It would just make things easier, seeing as you have the look this guy goes for."

I reached for the door handle. "How do you get me to do these things?" I looked back in the car quick enough to see him smirk and jog around to my side, where we were met by Tank and three equally impressive RangeMan employees.

"All you have to do is walk down to the corner and stand there. No one is going to give you a hard time, I've made sure of that." How Ranger could accomplished that is beyond me. When I first met Lula and her friend Jackie it was noon in the middle of the week and they were picking a fight with me over their corner.

"This," Ranger said holding up what looked like a square piece of paper, "is to allow us to hear what's going on. If you need help, just say so. Once Black waves you down, just make sure it's him, say his name, and we'll come in and make the bust." He looked me over and smiled. "Where would you like me to put it?"

I rolled my eyes and took the little microphone, sticking it my bra."I don't get paid enough for this." Ranger took my hands into his and looked at me.

"I didn't give you anything I wasn't sure you could handle. Just walk, look around, stick your leg out if you have to. Anyone who's not Black and approaches you will be dealt with." I just nodded my head and looked over at Tank, forcing a smile.

"You ready to go, big guy?" Tank just nodded his head. I turned to Ranger. "Maybe you should give your men a lesson in talking, it's not bad all the time." I turned back towards Tank and started making my way towards Stark Street.

Tank was walking next to me for one block, making sure that everything was clear, and then he was going to be hanging out in front of a favorite spot for depraved of Trenton - the Manor. It was a disgusting little bar where I had been once or twice to make an apprehension. I think arrest would be more appropriate here and would read better as an object noun. There was a tough crowd in there, and the whole place smelled of urine.

The next time I looked up Tank had drifted from my side to his spot and I noticed another of Rangers' guys across the street. I looked up and sighed. I didn't need to see the street signs to know I was on Stark Street. I was hoping no cops that I knew came by and saw this, because if they did they would call Morelli and all of the Burg would know that I was hanging out there in the middle of the night dressed up like I was.

My mother might drink herself into a coma.

A car started to slow in front of me. Nope, not Black. He chatted with me for a moment before one of Rangers' guys came and pulled me away, acting as if I had been waiting for him outside. Only two more cars went by in the next forty-five minutes, but several drunken man had to be taken away by Tank for getting a little bit too close. If Ranger only knew what kind of car this idiot would be driving my life would be so much easier.

I was trying to count to a million when a white Ford pick-up pulled up next to be. Grey hair? Nope. Black eyes? Nada. Smelly alcoholic in the front seat? I wish I had been that lucky. I was now looking face-to-face with Bane. He stuck his hand out to me.

"If you insist on calling me Bane, that's fine, but I think you might be more open to speaking with me if you know that my actual name is Christopher, and I'm not a bad guy." Ah, so the mysterious man had a name, not like that helped me any, he was probably making it up. "Please, tell Mr. Manoso if he wishes to try and be hidden in this area of town, he shouldn't drive such nice cars. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he had just heard every word I said."

Yeah, well I know that Ranger just heard every word that he said, and I couldn't figure out why no one was running over to me. I thought it was pretty obvious that I was a damsel in the remove 'the' distress here.

Bane, I mean Christopher, grabbed something off his seat and tossed it out of the passenger side window and then drove off. I was staring off in the direction that he had driven off in for what I was sure was an hour, though it was probably more like twenty seconds. I bent over at the knees so not to show the world my ass, and picked up the envelope that had been tossed, and then started walking towards Ranger. Tank was now close on my heels. Ranger was out of the car and walking over to me.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"That," I said pointing towards the corner were I was before to add emphasis, "was the mystery guy who's been showing up in my apartment. You couldn't gather that from him talking about you?" I think Batman was off his game tonight, if that was even possible.

Ranger took the envelope from my hand and opened it. "Why did you call him Bane?"

"I didn't mean to say it out loud, it just sort of happened," I argued. "And Bane is one of Batman's arch-enemies. Didn't you ever read comics when you were a kid?" I leaned over to see what Ranger was looking at. "How the hell.."

But before I could finish Ranger was barking out orders and dragging me into the Turbo. He quickly put his car into gear and we were speeding towards RangeMan. He was still holding onto the picture and his knuckles were as white as I have ever seen. I, on the other hand, was having a hard time comprehending how that creep had taken a picture of me kissing Ranger outside of Vinnies' office.

So much for a capture tonight.

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I woke up the next morning to a very annoying ringing in my ear. I reached over on to what I thought would have been my nightstand and found nothing but air. Then I remembered the night before and realized that I had sheets God himself probably used wrapped around me. I sat up and grabbed my phone. Morelli. Just the way I wanted to start my day.

I picked up the phone but before I could even get a word in he was talking.

"Cupcake, do you want to tell me why I woke up this morning with a picture of you kissing Ranger tapped to my front door?" Shit.

"Not really. I have a really good idea, though, why don't we pretend that never happened. Just put the picture into a shredder, go back to bed, and then wake back up. Problem solved." I could hear Morelli breathing heavy on the other end, trying his best to control his temper. Then I heard a lamp break.

"Who took this picture?"

"My mystery guy. He said his name was Christopher last night."

"How did you see him last night?"

"You probably don't want to know."

"Please tell me that it's not true you were on Stark Street last night dressed as a hooker."

"How did you know!" I knew Joe had his contacts and knew a lot of people, but I honestly thought no one would see me on Stark last night. If I did I never would have gone along with that plan. Okay, maybe I would have since Ranger asked me to. I don't understand how that man got me to do these things.

"A friend of mine was undercover and wanted to know if you had taken up a profession." I heard Bob bark in the background and could almost feel the look Joe gave him to quiet down.

"I was there with Ranger trying to make a capture."

"So let me get this straight. You go to Ranger because you don't want this creep to find you, Ranger takes you out to play dress up, and the creep finds you anyway."

"Pretty much." I dangled my legs on the edge of the bed. The smell of sausage was remove 'was' found its way to my nose and my stomach was ordering it to find the source.

"I want you to come stay at my house." Here we go. Attention ladies and gentleman, Possessive Joe has entered the building.

"Are you forgetting that we aren't dating anymore? I just don't stay at your house. Besides, this Christopher guy obviously knows where you live, so it would just be easier to get to me, since he thinks that I have some top secret information on you and Ranger. He hasn't approached me at RangeMan, only when I'm out. I'm safer here." I padded my way into the kitchen and saw Ranger eating some kind of sloppy wet mess that I guess could pass for oatmeal. I went straight for the sausage.

"And what, your dating Ranger now?" Joe sounded almost pained to ask it. Not that he needed to, he had to know the answer.

I laughed at him as I sat across from Ranger with five sausage links. I was holding out, just in case Ella came up with more breakfast, like pancakes or bacon or eggs. "No, I'm not dating Ranger." If this was dating for Ranger than I was afraid, because it was definitely not normal.

Ranger looked up at me and for the first time since I've known him he looked confused as hell. It actually made me feel a little empowered.

"Listen, Joe," I started while sticking a piece of sausage in my mouth, "I'm just going to stay at RangeMan, if that's okay with Ranger. This place is like the Batcave, no one's getting me here. Now, if you don't mind I have breakfast to get to. Oh, and don't forget, we have dinner at my parents' tonight at six."

"There is no way I'm going to dinner at your parents."

"You have to! You're my alibi!"

"Is Ranger going to be there?" I'd have to fill him in on the alibi part later, since he was more worried about Ranger at the moment. Men, sometimes they make no sense.

"Now why would Ranger go with me and you to my parents house for dinner?." Ranger just about choked on his food. "Joe, I have to go, Ranger's choking on oatmeal. Just be at my parents house before six. Please, I'm begging you. You do this and I promise I'll think about coming to stay with you at your house."

There was a beat. "See at you six."

I hung up the phone and looked over at Ranger, who was pounding his fist into his chest to regain composure. He fixed himself and I was thankful that he didn't say anything about the dating comment that Morelli had made.

I was eyeing the last piece of sausage when Ranger finally said something.

"We ran a search last night for anyone named Christopher in our system that had a connection to Morelli and me. We got a couple of hits, but no one matching the description that you gave us. I'd like you to look at some pictures anyway, just in case the guy's changed his features. None of the guys were married at the time we had incidents with them."

I stared down at my empty plate, stabbing it with a fork. "You're not going to keep me hidden in here all day, are you? Because that's not my plan."

Ranger raised an eyebrow. "What is your plan then?" He grabbed my dish and fork, his bowl and spoon, and put them in the dishwasher. I watched with moderate interest as he gave Rex a piece of apple from the counter before biting into it himself. Batman was turning into Bruce Wayne before my very eyes. "Steph? What's your plan?"

"I, uh, I'm going to go to the office and see if there are any new skips and do my basic day to day stuff."

"Not a good idea." Well I thought it was. "Somehow this guy knew that you were going to be on Stark Street, so there's only two options, since we know he didn't tail us. This guy is either very lucky or he has you bugged somehow."

"That's what I was thinking, the bug thing. I tossed out my clothes from the first time that I saw him, but the only thing I have is the bag you gave me with the stuff in it. I didn't think it was possible for someone to hi-jack your stuff. Only other thing was he had the office bugged, but that wouldn't explain how he got on Stark last night." Ranger just nodded his head.

"I'm have some business to do. One of the boys will be up here later to get you to look at the pictures and we'll get you all new stuff, just incase he does have them bugged. Until then, please, don't leave."

"Ranger, I really don't see what this guy's threat is. He's only asked me questions. Yeah, he told me he would shoot me once, but since then, nothing. I thought about this last night while we were coming back to RangeMan. He's not after me, he's after you and Morelli. Besides, I have to go home and get some decent clothes for dinner with my parents tonight." Ranger smiled, knowing the torture that Morelli was in for at dinner.

"You do realize you told Morelli you should stay here because it was safer for you?"

"Morelli worries to much. I told him that so he wouldn't try to break into RangeMan to kidnap me thinking that it was safer at his house." That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

"Just stay in here, it won't be for long. I'll be done around one. By then you should have looked at the pictures. We'll have lunch and then I'll take you back to your apartment to get something to wear since we don't want Ella to accidently bring you something like you wore last night." He enjoyed that thought way too much. Bastard.

I looked over at the clock on the microwave. Eight twenty-seven. Fabulous, only four hours and thirty-three minutes of nothing to do. Hopefully there was a ton of pictures for me to look at.

Ranger was half way to the door before he turned around and came back over to kiss me on the palm of my hand, then go and walk out the door. I couldn't help but feel like a school girl when he did that.