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As always, I don't own anything nor do I make any profit.

Temptation

Chapter Seven: The ex

The next morning Staphanie woke up feeling very comfortable. Her head was lying on Ranger's chest and her legs were tangled with his.

But as soon as she moved the coziness was over.

She groaned.

"Do your muscles hurt, babe?"

Ranger rolled over to his side and looked down at her. Stephanie took one look at him, his hair was mussy, his chest was bare…Hmm, she was sure he could make her forget her sore muscles.

He chuckled. "I'm sure I could." And god he would like to. He had been awake most of the night, enjoying the feeling of holding her, trying to forget what could have happened. "But we have a meeting in an hour and you should take a long hot shower." Besides if he slept with her now she would only be even more confused afterwards. He had to think about their relationship and he had to make a few changes so that a deeper relationship would be possible.

He told her to use the bathroom first and reached for the phone to call Ella.

Then he got up and went to the kitchen to make coffee.

Half an hour later Ranger and Steph were sitting in his kitchen, eating breakfast.

Ranger was eating fruit salat and shook his head when Stephanie reached for her second donut. Ella had wanted her to have her favourite breakfast after the exciting day yesterday.

"What? So dessert is the most important part of my food pyramid. Do you have a problem with that."

He looked at her thoughtfully.

Her cheeks burned when she recognized that he was thinking of a comment he had made during the thing with Julie. (See TS)

They were saved when Ranger's phone rang.

"Yo."

"Hey, boss." It was Lester. "Morelli and Juniak are already here. Do you want them to wait or start the meeting already?"

"Has everyone else arrived, too?"

"Yes, although I don't think that Tank will be much help. He's grinning and sighing non-stop. It's frightening."

Ranger smiled. Tank was a happy man. He looked at Stephanie who was looking back at him curiously. He would be too if he would marry the woman he loved.

"Okay, we're gonna be down in five minutes."

He disconnected and sat back down.

"Get ready, babe. Everybody's here so we will start the meeting early."

"Why were you smiling?"

He chuckled. "Lester said that Tank will be good for nothing today."

Staphanie laughed. He's a lucky man to be in love and be loved back, she thought.

"Come on babe. Drink your coffee and we'll go.

-+-+-

"Well and then I slept as if I was dead until this morning." Stephanie had just finished telling her story to Juniak, Morelli, Bobby, Hal, Cal and Tank (who was wearing a goofy smile).

She didn't see Ranger's jaw harden when she said "as if I was dead" but Juniak did. He smiled to himself. Who would have thought? He had heard about the sexual attraction between those two but apparently there was more…..

"And what is now? I mean don't you have to stay in bed or something like that?" Morelli asked.

Ranger's eyes narrowed slightly. Now he could care but yesterday his job had been more inportant. As it always had been and always will be. How could he have ever thought that Morelli would be any good for Stephanie.

Stephanie looked at Bobby, a pleading look in her eyes.

"Well normaly yes…" Her eyes narrowed. "But if she dresses warm and drinks mutch I don't think she will become ill. As long as nothing else happens."

Stephanie smiled and glared at Ranger when she heard him mumble "nice dog, you're gonna get a cookie now".

Ranger went on. "And now about what Cal and Hal found out." He nodded towards them and Hal stood up and went to the laptop to open a few shots.

"This is the warehouse the truck was taken to. It's at North Pier. Manny didn't come to see if everything want okay. We couldn't go in because we were too less people."

Ranger nodded to him again and he sat back down.

"I have a few men watching the warehouse. We are going to go in tonight."

Joe spoke up,"But you need a search…." He was interrupted when Juniak gave his okay. "But only if we can go with you."

Ranger nodded.

"Anything else?" Everyone shook his/her head no. "Meeting finished."

Everybody stood up. Steph waited for Ranger, who was getting the disk with the shots when Tank came over to them.

"Could I talk to you for a moment?"

"Of course." Ranger nodded. "Let's go into my office."

They went to his office and closed the door.

Ranger sat in his chair, Steph sat on the corner of the desk and Tank took the chair in front of the desk.

"I wanted to ask you two something. Well Lula and me wanted to, but she went to see her sister today and asked me to..well…ask you."

Ranger and Stephanie looked at each other. He looked back at Tank and rose an eyebrow.

"Well Ranger, I would like you to be my best man and well Staphanie, Lula would like you to be her maid of honor."

He looked at them expectantly.

Stephanie smiled and stood up to hug Tank. "Of course I will. It's an honor." She was surprised when Ranger hugged Tank, too. "I would like to be your best man."

They sat back down.

"So when will the big day be?" Stephanie asked.

"As soon as possible."

"So as soon as Steph and me can plan it."

Wait, what? "What do you mean with "as soon as Steph and me can plan it"?"

Ranger turned towards her. "It's tradition that the best man and the maid of honor plan the celebration and everything around it. We will ask them what they want of course, but the planning is our job."

Holy shit.

He smiled at her. "And since Tank's and my family have been friends since forever, you're going to get to know my whole family, babe."

Oh my god. The whole bat-family.

Ranger and Tank laughed out loud.

She really should learn to keep her thoughts by herself.

-+-+-

An hour later Ranger and Stephanie were going through Jackie's appartment.

They had searched her little kitchen, the little hall, the little living room and were now going through her little bedroom.

They were close to giving up when Ranger found the picture.

"Shit."

Stephanie looked up from her place in front of the little bedside table.

"What?"

Ranger moved towards her and showed her the shot.

"You're right. Shit."

It was a picture of Jackie's ex standing in front of a truck they recognized as the truck of "The Pitt Bulls".

Staphanie looked at Ranger. "It could be another truck." She said, her eyes pleading him to tell her that could be the case. Ranger drew her to him and kissed her softly. "You know it isn't, babe."

She sighed and leaned against him.

"Yeah, I do."

They looked around to see if everything was as it had been when they came.

Then they got into the car and drove to Vinnie's. Ranger wanted to talk to Lula.

Half an hour later they were standing in front of Connie's desk.

"Shit you think she may be involved in something like that."

Ranger nodded.

"And what are we going to do now?"

"I would like you to join our team. You have good street connections and everyone knows that Jackie was your friend so they will talk to you."

Lula nodded. "Of course I will. By the way who's the team?"

Stephanie sighed. Now it comes.

"Me, Stephanie, Tank, Bobby, Lester, Hal, Cal and Morelli and Juniak."

"WHAT?" Lula jumped up and Stephanie moved closer to Ranger.

"I have to work together with that bastard?"

"I'm sure he's going to recognize now that Jackie probably didn't do anything wrong."

Lula looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Probably?"

Stephanie decided to interfere before Lula tried to stun Ranger.

"So, when are we going to meet to start planning the wedding?"

Lula was immediately distracted.

"I don't know, when do you want to?" By now, she was wearing the same goofy smile Tank had been wearing the whole day.

"We could meet tonight, if you want to."

Lula nodded.

"But meet at RangeMan, babe, so I can call you if I need you." Lula and Connie fanned themselves.

Stephanie looked at Ranger. "At Tank's or at your appartment?"

He smiled at her, causing Lula and Connie to gasp.

"7th floor."

I hope you like it.

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