If you recognize them, I can't take the credit. :) And a big thanks to Margaret once again for reading ahead and pushing me to post :) Thank you Margaret.

And a great big Happy Fourth of July to everyone! Enjoy the fireworks wherever you are :)

Chapter 13—The Intruder

Stephanie's POV

"That went well," I said to Silvio as we drove back to Rangeman. Hector was in the back this time. His wound was hurting and Maria and I finally convinced him to take a painkiller. He was as bad as dealing with a two-year old; every other word was 'no'. But at least we had an opportunity to tell her the whole story and settle her in. Lynn and a couple of the guys were going to stop by her apartment later and pick up some clothes and things and bring them to her via a roundabout route. Even if someone were watching, they wouldn't be able to follow. And since Maria was pretty shaken up, Lynn volunteered to stay with her tonight.

So finally I was on my way back to Carlos. Wondered how he was coping with me being gone for so long? Only one way to find out—I whipped out my phone and texted him.

STEPHPLUM: 'On my way. U ok?'

RANGER: 'I'm fine. Maria ok?'

STEPHPLUM: 'Yeah, Hector showed her his stab wound'

RANGER: 'You're shitting me, right?'

STEPHPLUM: 'Nope. But it did the trick. She's going to stay in the house until we've eliminated the threat'

RANGER: 'That could take a while, she's ok with that?'

STEPHPLUM: 'Her boss is covering for her and she won't lose her job. Both he and she understand what all this means. We promised her a throwaway phone though, she's afraid to use hers now. Lynn's going to bring her one this evening'

RANGER: 'Glad Lynn got involved. Where R U?'

STEPHPLUM: '5 minutes away'

RANGER: 'Good. We have 8:00 dinner reservations'

STEPHPLUM: 'You're not giving me a lot of time'

RANGER: 'Babe'

Obvious end of conversation.

I shoved my phone back in my bag and turned around to see how Hector was doing. He was sound asleep.

I took a sneak armpit sniff as I turned back to face forward. I hoped wherever we were going to dinner was close by. I really needed a shower before I went out again. It was hot and sweaty at the hot dog place and I was nervous that Maria would say no. I sweat a lot when I'm nervous.

As we pulled into the garage at Rangeman I leaned over the seat to nudge Hec.

"Hey, wake up. We're back."

"Madre de Dios. You scared the shit out of me. Gentle next time."

"I'm sorry Hector. We're here."

"Ok. I need to stop at Victor's, I tink I'm bleeding again."

"Do you need help? I can ask Carlos..."

"I'm good, but can you text Victor for me while I wake up?"

I did. He wanted Hector to go directly to his infirmary. He would meet him there.

Once we parked and locked up the car the three of us took the elevator up. Hector got off on two, Silvio four and I went up to seven. Carlos was in the hallway waiting for me.

"Proud of you Babe. You did a really nice thing today," he said before pulling me into his arms and crashing his lips down on mine. And yeah, tongue was involved—lots of tongue. "I know you want to take a shower, the water's running. I'd join you but then we'd never leave."

I was pretty sure the cameras caught all of that. And I was really glad we didn't have sound, bad enough the kiss was going to spread like wildfire. I was expecting a text from Santos in three, two, one…ding. My phone buzzed with a new incoming text. Yep, it made it around that quickly.

LES: 'That was HOT and it's gone viral'

STEPH: 'Oh no. Just within Rangeman?'

LES: 'Nope. Someone posted it to Facebook'

STEPH: 'Fuck. It's going to be all over the Burg'

LES: 'And Miami, and Atlanta, and Boston'

STEPH: 'We should have thought about the cameras. Can u delete it for me?'

LES: 'I'll try but you should ask Hector. He's the master'

STEPH: 'Thank u. I'll ask Hec 2. Gotta go. I have a date:)

I took a quick shower, being careful not to get my hair wet since it took so long to tame and Carlos was only giving me an hour in total to get ready. I got my curls to behave and then I put on a few coats of mascara. Aside from clothes, I was as ready as I'd ever get. I walked into our closet to see what I could wear at the same time texting Hector to see if he could remove the video that was circulating. He texted me back that it was already done and he'd also removed it from Roland's Facebook page. I didn't know Roland very well, but I had a feeling he'd be sporting bandages in the near future.

I looked around the closet and couldn't help but notice a couple of new dresses that weren't there this morning. Carlos was getting out of control. I was about to call him on it when I took a careful look at one of them. There was a note pinned to it: 'Just a token of my love for you. If you wear this tonight I have something that matches it. Love, C.'

He was going to wear a matching outfit? So not his style and I'd believe that when I saw it. I picked up the dress and looked at it closer. It wasn't exactly a dress, the back was attached but the top and bodice were separate pieces in the front. I just hoped my belly wasn't going to stick out. I tried it on and wow, it was perfect. Of course, knowing how much Carlos likes me in blue, it was a blue paisley on white with a touch of yellow and green thrown in for accent. It was a stunning outfit, for lack of a better word. I paired it with wedge sandals and went out to see what Carlos was wearing.

Surprise, surprise he was dressed in grey slacks with a white shirt, obviously not matching me. He came over when he saw me and pulled me to him for a kiss.

"You look gorgeous, Babe."

"Where did this come from Carlos?"

"India, do you like it?"

"India?"

"I was on Biscayne Blvd and saw this in a window. The owner took pity on me when I couldn't figure out the Indian equivalent of your size. She also showed me this," he said handing me a box.

"What is it?"

"Open it."

I did. Inside was a gold necklace with blue stones hanging from it. Might be sapphires, might just be glass but it was gorgeous.

"This is beautiful Carlos. Thank you."

"She told me it's called Kundan. It's gold leaf over a hardened tree sap called lac. The stones are semi-precious. I doubt they are sapphires. I thought it was unique and beautiful, like you."

"It's gorgeous. Thank you, " I said again.

He took the necklace from my hand, lifted my hair and put it around my neck.

"I thought it would look good with the dress. Take a look Babe," Carlos said taking my hand and leading me to the mirror in the foyer.

"It's very pretty but you have to stop buying me things."

"Why? It gives me pleasure and I enjoy seeing you in nice things."

More like he envisioned taking them off of me.

"Are you ready to go Babe?" he asked taking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah. Where are we going?"

"It's called Casa Tua. We have a table in the garden. I think you'll like it, it's very pretty and considered the most beautiful restaurant in Miami."

"I thought we went to the most beautiful place for lunch? Does this beat Juvio's?"

"Juvio's has the best views; this is the most beautiful place and I took the liberty of pre-ordering for us. I hope you don't mind."

"What did you order me?"

"I ordered us a tasting of different things. I'm hoping to broaden your horizons."

Oh boy, I've heard that one before.

Fortunately for me, Carlos' phone rang just at that moment so I didn't have to come up with a good retort.

"Tell me this again Hal," I heard him say. "My sister did what?"

Carlos put his phone on speaker so I could hear.

"Lauren just activated her panic button. We're getting a live audio feed from the house. Looks like she may have an unwanted guest. Want me to patch you in?"

"Yes. Where's Brett and my niece?"

"Brett's in Newark with Erik. They're checking out a break in. Avery should be with Lauren. Ok, you should be able to hear now, switch your audio over to Trenton."

"Babe, let's go to my office."

Carlos half ran and I followed a few steps behind. He pressed a couple of buttons and then we heard Lauren's voice, "What do you want from me?"

A heavily-accented voice replied, "I want Tank Sherman. You and the kid are my bargaining tools."

Shit.

"I'm a nobody. They're not going to trade me for Tank," we heard Lauren say, trying to reason with the intruder and probably hoping to buy some time.

"Do we have someone on the way?" Carlos asked Hal.

"Yeah but we don't want to walk into a trap. I'm trying to use her security cameras to scan for lookouts. I also notified TPD but we should get there first; I didn't call them until now."

"Good," he replied to Hal. "How did someone get past the alarm system?"

"It doesn't look like it's functioning yet. Brett was putting it in during his spare time. Don't get angry with him. Lauren's trained, she won't panic."

"Lauren's trained?" I asked.

"She made fencing nationals in college; it's not our training but she's good with sharp objects."

"Don't joke at a time like this."

"I'm not joking. If she can get to one of the sabers on her wall he's a dead man."

I remembered seeing her and Brett fence at our house. She was light on her feet and tricky. She beat Brett more often than not.

The Spanish accented man must have been close to Lauren's panic button as he came in loud and clear over Avery's fussing, "Can you shut it up? If you can't get it to stop crying, I'm going to kill it."

"That's my daughter, she's not an 'it' and if you'd let me hold her she wouldn't be crying."

"Stay where you are. Oh fuck," he said, his last words garbled.

"Can you see anything Hal? What's going on?"

"The security cameras are aimed outside. Give me a minute to turn one around. Wait Lauren's calling us. 'Rangeman. Hal here.'"

"Hal it's Lauren. I'm pretty sure I just killed a man. Can you call the police and then get Brett to come home?"

"Rangeman is outside, we're still trying to ascertain if your intruder had a lookout. If so we need to take them out before we try to enter. Where did you stab him?"

"Through the heart. He was gurgling and now he's not, so I'm pretty sure he's dead."

"Are you ok? Is Avery ok?"

"We're fine, but this man is losing all his fluids. I think I'm going to be sick."

"Lauren. Lauren, listen. There were two men on lookout outside. José and Emmanuel got them. They're waiting for backup. Someone will get to you momentarily. Hang in there Lauren, please."

There was no reply. I had a feeling Lauren was praying to the porcelain gods at the moment. I understood that feeling entirely; the couple of times I've had to kill someone I felt the same way.

"Hal, I think she's probably throwing up," I said. "Maybe the guys can take her and Avery to Ella until Brett gets back. I don't think she should stay in the house by herself. TPD can visit her at Rangeman if they need to talk with her. And we have the recordings to prove it was self-defense so they'll want to visit us anyway."

Lauren's POV

We'd just come back from Avery's first doctor's appointment and I was about to put my key in the lock when the knob moved by itself. I activated the panic button I always carry and went inside to see if anyone broke in while we were out. Our foyer opens into our living room and there sitting on the couch was a Latino man with long braids and tats all over his neck and arms. He was pointing a gun at me.

He got up and motioned for me to put Avery down on one of the chairs. My sabres were on the wall to the left of me. I was pretty sure he assumed they were just for decorative purposes so after putting Avery into a chair, which I didn't feel good about because she could roll off, I made a few minute moves towards the sabres. I knew they would come off the wall easily as Brett and I had a practice bout last night.

Thankfully my intruder was too dumb to realize what I was doing.

It was when he threatened to kill my daughter that I went into full protective-mother mode. I challenged him and then when he glanced over at Avery I grabbed the sabre, pivoted and plunged it into his chest.

I had really hoped my panic button was in working order but since I didn't see any Rangemen barge in, I was afraid it wasn't. I picked up the phone and called their main number. I was glad it was Hal that answered as his very soothing voice calmed me down immediately.

He told me they had audio of the whole thing and thanked me for hitting the panic button before walking into what could be an unsafe situation. He also told me he had my brother on another line and was trying to get in touch with Brett. When he offered Ella, I immediately agreed. Ella was so calm and patient and I'd bet anything she had fresh-baked cookies or bread in her apartment. Ella liked to bake.

I looked over at the body lying on my floor one more time and I felt the wave of nausea come over me. I grabbed Avery and put her in her crib on my way to the bathroom.

That's where Manny and Ramon found me fifteen minutes later.