Thank you for all the reviews; you guys are amazing:) If you recognize them, they're not mine :)

Thank you Margaret for reading ahead as my beta once again.

Chapter 33—Getting in on the act

Ranger's POV

Steph was finally nodding out. She was stubborn when it came to taking painkillers but I could tell that she was in pain and it was keeping her from sleeping. It took some convincing on my part but about 20 minutes ago she finally allowed the nurse to give her a shot of Demerol. I wasn't going to leave her for too long but I wanted to know what, if anything, we learned about her assailant. I knew Manny and Cal were on the overnights tonight and of the two of them, Manny was the most talkative although I was pretty sure Cal had already paid Whittier a visit. I took my phone out of my pocket, moved into the hallway where Sy and my, newly-back from extended-vacation, brother-in-law Brett were keeping watch, and I called Cal.

"Report," I commanded, issuing one of my standard greetings.

He told me about the photos of Steph and me on Whittier's laptop and I could tell there was more to it than that.

"And?" I prompted when he wasn't forthcoming.

"Hector was able to blow up the pic taken in that Cuban place you guys go to and we have the photographer's image."

"I'm assuming it's not Whittier."

"No, it's not Whittier," Cal said, going into detail about the hat and mustache.

"And," I asked again, knowing there was still more he hadn't told me.

"Um," he said, stalling.

"Out with it."

"There was also a picture of Steph and Morelli. A recent picture."

"Taken where? And what is the significance?"

"Taken at Pino's about a week ago. They looked too cozy," he added, muttering.

"Say that again."

"They looked too comfortable. I think the photographer waited to get a picture of them both looking like they were enjoying themselves. I think blackmail was probably next on Whittier's list if Eula didn't work."

"Send me this picture. And ask Manny about that day..."

"I already did. Insignificant. They may have laughed once or twice but mostly they talked. The photographer waited for the right moment."

"Send it to me anyway."

I wasn't crazy about her seeing Morelli at any time but I wasn't going to forbid it just because I didn't like the idea. He was a good cop and had good instincts but I just didn't trust him to not try to win Steph back into his good graces…ultimately into his heart…and then back into his bed. Although I try to be open to her having him as a friend, whenever I hear that she's meeting him I always ask a team to discreetly pay attention. As much as my men love Steph, they are loyal to me and if something had transpired during one of those lunches, I knew that I'd hear about it, someway.

I hung up with Cal and checked my phone for a text.

The image that appeared made me cringe. No wonder Cal was reluctant to talk about it. Steph looked happy to be with Morelli and visa versa. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were a couple.

Probably that's what the photographer was waiting for. And I'm glad my men pointed that out to me. I walk around with blinders on as far as Steph is concerned and I would not have taken this the right way had I not had some warning.

I looked at the picture again and my fist came slamming down on the end table in the waiting area. The lamp jumped a few inches before I reached out to steady it and prevent it from falling over.

"Fuck," I couldn't help myself from venting.

"Ranger?" Brett looked over at me questioningly.

"Fucking Morelli," was all I said.

"He's not behind this, is he?" Brett asked, a totally dumb question. If he weren't my sister's husband, I'd take him to the mats for that one.

"What do you think? Do you think he's smart enough to set up a multi-sting operation? Don't even answer," I replied, pissed off at his stupidity.

Tank and Lula were back. After making sure Ernie was ok after his surgery, they had run out to the vending machines to pick up something to eat. For as thin as Lula had gotten, you did NOT want to deny her food. That girl would bite your ass off if she were hungry enough.

"So Batman, what's up?" she asked as they approached. I cringed. I didn't mind the playful name from Steph, but I hated it from anyone else. I was just a man, after all.

"Ranger to you, Tallulah," I replied trying to make her as uncomfortable as possible. As with Pierre, I knew she hated her given name.

"Sorry," she mumbled, hopefully humbled back into humility. "We just want to check on our skinny white girl one more time and then we're going to call it a night. With the time difference and all that flying, I'm finally feeling pooped."

It was now 2 am. I figured it would take Tank, Lula, Brett, Lauren and Avery at least three days to 100% acclimate back to Eastern Standard Time.

Lula went into Steph's room while Tank stayed in the waiting area with me. I quickly caught him up to speed on the latest developments and showed him the picture Cal sent me.

"The cop is a total dick," he said, glimpsing at the picture for a second time. "Why the hell does he think he can get away with touching her?"

Touching her? I looked at the picture again and sure enough, he had his hand on her forearm. I didn't look that closely before and assumed it was in the air in one of his exaggerated Italian gestures, but no, it was on her arm.

"Fuck," I said again. "I wish I could make him disappear."

"Yeah and you'd be the first suspect."

"I know and I wouldn't do that to Steph anyway. Obviously she sees some good in him."

"Hmmph. Yeah, well if you want me to pay him a visit, just ask."

"Noted."

Lula came out of Steph's room at that moment.

"Whatcha got there?"

I was about to say 'nothing' but I saw her looking at the picture on my iPhone, so I passed it over to her.

"Were you able to say good night to her?" Tank asked as she looked intently at the picture.

"Yeah, but she won't remember, she's really out of it. Where did you get this? Is this recent?"

"Cal just sent it to me," I answered. "It was taken last week. Cal thinks the guy that assaulted Steph was going to do some blackmail next."

"Sure looks real to me. Kinda like the way I remember them acting when they was good. Before she fell in love with you," she added, looking up from the picture to me. "Don't you got this dude in your cell?" I nodded. "Let me talk to him. I'll find out what he planned to do."

I was pretty sure she wouldn't get anything out of him that Cal hadn't already extracted, but what the hell.

"Tomorrow. You guys need to get some sleep."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

Lula's POV

We went straight from the airport to the hospital. We learned during the flight that Steph had been assaulted by some white dude while sticking up for Eula. And that he had used a box cutter to sever one of her arteries. Now I don't know too much about medicine but I know severed means cut in half and that didn't sound too good to me. So…I convinced Tankie to pay a visit to the hospital before we headed home.

What I didn't know was that my cousin Ernie was also taken there with a broken clavicle…the result of somebody else that was trying to blow up Ella's car. Why Ernie was driving Ella's car was too much for me to take in at the moment, but I knew we had to make sure both of them were safe and well cared for.

We visited with Steph first and then we went to see how Ernie was doing when we heard that he was out of surgery. They didn't have a room for him and were planning to keep him in a bed in the hallway for the night. I had to go a little ape-shit on that Rodriguez woman but after I mouthed-off and Tankie told her that Ernie worked for Rangeman, they were able to accommodate us with a room for him.

Of course by then it was ten at night and we'd spent the last nine hours at the hospital. Not haven eaten anything since we were on the plane, I was feeling weak and Tankie and I went in search of some serious food.

Unfortunately the cafeteria in this place closes at nine and we had to come up with an alternate meal plan. There ain't no plan of mine anymore that works offa vending machines but it was either leave the hospital and not be allowed back in or find a couple of those machines.

Course they were in another building and no one told us that. Working your way through a hospital is like working your way through the department of motor vehicles. No one knows nothin' and when they do, guess what…they's wrong.

By midnight we'd eaten enough crap from the vending machines to make me feel like I needed to go out for a run to get over that sluggish feeling but that was something I could do tomorrow. Instead, we went back to make sure Ernie was in a room and was feeling ok. When I was sure he wasn't in any pain and safe for the night, we headed back to yet another building to find Steph.

I was pretty sure I burned off all a them peanut packets and Smart Food cheddar popcorns just by running from building to building, but I'd still have to go for a serious run in the am.

By the time we were ready to leave, it was 2 am and way past my bedtime, even if I wasn't suffering from a serious bout of jetlag. I saw the picture of Stephanie and Morelli that Ranger had on his phone and I planned to talk to Tankie about it as soon as we were outta this place.

Tank mentioned that someone from Rangeman had driven our car from Hamilton to Philly and had parked it in the lot for us. I knew my Tankie was too tired to drive safely so I mentioned it out loud before we left the fifth floor.

Miraculously there was a black, new, shiny SUV right at the front door as we exited.

We both got into the back seat and were driven in style back to our house on the outskirts of Trenton.

"Baby, did you see that picture Ranger had on his iPhone," I asked after closing the partition between the front and the back seat of this retro-fitted Escalade.

"Yeah. And yes, I noticed that Morelli had his hand on Steph's arm. Something, by the way, that Ranger never noticed."

"He love her too much to see that shit. What we gonna do about it?"

"About the picture? Or about Morelli?"

"The picture. Someone was gonna try to blackmail Stephanie and that don't sit well with me."

"I know Lula baby, but it's almost three in the morning, can we talk about this tomorrow?"

"Hmmph. You shutting me out baby?"

"Lula! Tomorrow."

Cal's POV

I got a call from Tank as I was ending my shift on monitors. He and Lula had spent most of the last 15-hours at the children's clinic in Philly and were pretty much caught up to speed. Tank wanted to see the other pictures I pulled from Whittier's laptop and we planned on an 11 am rendezvous at my place. Lula was insistent on talking to Whittier after that. I wasn't too sure about that, but we'd take one step at a time. Right now my eyes were bulging out of my head from 8-hours straight of staring at two screens and I had a date with my pillow.