Enjoy!

Chapter Four

Ranger

As soon as I hopped out of my car at the Bonds office, I glanced around for one person. And when I saw that one person, I headed right over.

Diesel.

This was his fault. It was always his fault. I didn't care how unreasonable I sounded or how quick I was to accuse. I could just feel it, at the pit of my stomach, I could feel it. Whoever had broken into my company had to be connected to Diesel in one way, shape, form or another. I came to a stop before that exhaust fumed motherfucking and-

"Ranger?"

My eyes cut to Stephanie and I blinked. Where the hell had she come from? I looked right and saw that Morelli was here as well, hands in pockets, his head titled to the side. I ground my teeth together. Damn it. I had completely overlooked their presence. I was never unaware of my surroundings. Another downfall on my character I could completely blame on Diesel.

I ignored them both and jabbed a finger in the blond idiot's chest while trying so very hard to keep my cool. "Who broke into my company?" I hissed angrily.

All three of their eyes enlarged to bowling balls. Apparently, I wasn't succeeding at my attempt to seem composed.

"What-? I don't know." Diesel shrugged, smiling dumbly.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at him for a beat. He was lying. I could tell from his shaky smile and his raised eyebrows. That son of a bitch....I might not have been in full control of my actions but old habits die hard. I always knew when someone tried to deceive me. They always had the same damn look. And Diesel face was a perfect replica of it: idiotic feigned confusion.

"Listen you jackass," Mental head slap. I needed to work on minimizing my curses. "Either you tell me what the hell is going on or I'll shoot you in the face."

"In front of a cop!?"

"I'm capable of it."

The dumb blond blinked at me and laughed nervously. He believed me.

Morelli was baffled and amazed. I could see it on his face. "Wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today." I heard him mutter. But before I could turn my rage onto him, Stephanie spoke up.

"Whoa whoa," Stephanie said, her face a cloud of confusion and fear. "What's going on? Ranger, what's the deal? Someone really broke in to Rangeman?"

"Someone broke into Rangeman!?" Morelli exclaimed with widened eyes. I grunted. Great. Now Morelli knew.

"Yes, that appears to be so." I folded my arms across my chest and continued to stare scornfully at Diesel. "When I got there however, the 'burglar' was already gone. All my guys could use to identify the perp with was a thirty second flash of a shadowed figure in the cameras before he disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Stephanie blinked.

"Disappeared." I confirmed, staring hard at Diesel.

"Wait so...what? He didn't steal anything?"

"We're not sure yet. As far as we know, he just broke in, ruffled a few feathers and....left." I tapped my finger against my forearm in an attempt to calm myself. "Diesel, you son of a bitch," Another mental head slap. The idiot just brought out the anger in me. Quite literally. "I know you know. And you wouldn't believe how close I am to disregarding the spell and killing you right now."

Diesel only grinned at my threat. Bastard. He still wasn't talking. I blew out a sigh and decided to let it go...for now. No need to get worked up over nothing.

"Spell...?" Morelli, once again, added in his useful two cents. He was looking from me to Diesel to Stephanie and I could sense that he felt left out. Good. There was no way I'd let him know about-

"I put a spell on Ranger. Y'know, as a gift for dear Stephanie." Diesel conspicuously took refuge behind her back as he spoke. "He has to be open and honest and-"

"Shut up." I warned angrily, my eyes narrowed.

"Uh..." Morelli laughed nervously, obviously uncomfortable from all the tension floating around. "I don't know about you guys but I don't believe in spells." I rolled my eyes. If only he knew.

"Man oh man," Diesel feigned hurt. "Why is everyone so down on my powers?"

"Because you have none?" I smiled at Morelli's taunting voice.

Diesel frowned and wrapped his arm around Stephanie's shoulders. My smile faded. "Fine. Guess I'll just have to demonstrate to you."

"What are you up to-?" Her words were lost as Diesel kissed her. I saw Morelli tense out of the corner of my eye and then all I saw was red.

I didn't know I was holding Diesel by the collar of his shirt until the ringing in my ears were drowned out by Stephanie's screams. She was telling me something, something along the lines of keep my cool but I couldn't concentrate on her fully. My fury was centered on Diesel and I hated it. No one knew about the long, dark hours I had gone through that contributed to my detached facade. And now it was like I had to start all over again. As if I was the same knuckle headed teenage boy that stole cars and got sent to juvie.

Yet it was much worst than that. Because now I couldn't control my emotions and, in my life, that could lead to something fatal. My emotions were explosive and raging. Only one reason why I kept them off limits.

Diesel was, like any good bastard, smiling. His head was lolled back, his collar was being pulled forcefully against his throat, my fist was centimeters from his face and the man was grinning like a dumbass.

"See?" He asked, trying to turn to glance at Morelli.

The only reply the cop gave was a squeak. Whether it was a squeak of stifled laughter, surprise of fear I had no clue.

I roughly let him go and raked my knuckle against my forehead. I was letting him get to me.

"Ranger, are you okay?" Stephanie laid a hand on my shoulder but I violently snatched away and stormed away from them, unsure of my heading. I just needed to catch my breath, calm down, and breathe in. All that jazz. And, if nothing more, I needed to distance myself from Diesel or I might end up committing a homicide.

**************

Stephanie

I turned to glare at Diesel but all he did was shrug. "Would you cut it out!? You're going to make him have a heart attack!" As if such a thing was possible when it came to Ranger. I grew up learning that only people who ate fattening foods had heart attacks and Ranger was all vegetables and fruit. Of course, that didn't mean that he was completely ruled out. I recently saw that heart attacks could happen from stress related events. Another objective I was sure Ranger would never experience.

Until Diesel came, that is. Now the man of mystery was stressed beyond compare.

I watched Ranger get into his car, slam the door and swerve off. Damn it.

"I'm pretty sure I missed something." Morelli was saying as he shook his head. "And I don't even want to know." He turned to me and smirked. "I'll keep you posted on the Vinnie kidnapping. And if Ranger ever decides to come back, tell him that he should probably file a report on the break in." Then Joe walked away and joined the remaining uniforms in the bonds office.

I sighed, put hands on hips and felt Diesel come up behind me and swing his arm around my shoulders again. I instantly shrugged him off.

"Relax sweetheart, Ranger isn't here."

"I know that." I huffed. "That doesn't mean I want you touching me. What's the matter with you anyway? Are you trying to piss him off?"

"He makes it so easy."

I frowned.

Diesel rolled his eyes. "Have either of you stopped to re-examine the event that just happened? I kissed you and Ranger went psycho. What does that tell you?"

I blinked. I had an inkling to where Diesel was heading but kept quiet. I'd rather he say it first.

"He doesn't want anyone to kiss you! Which means, he's obviously head over heels for you." He said it as if it was the most logically, obvious thing in the entire world. I watched him inspect his nails and furrowed my eyebrows. That hadn't been my train of thought. I suspected that Ranger went crazy because he hated Diesel and marginally liked me. But head over heels? That phrase and Ranger didn't even mix.

But a small part, or a big part, of me wanted it to be true. And that part was sad at the moment. Diesel spell was supposed to be helping not hurting. "I don't get it." I sighed wearily. "If he's head over heels then why is he avoiding me?"

"Because now he can't hide it." Diesel explained dully. "I have some words of advice for you sweetheart: Make the initiative. Because when you do, he'll have to spill his guts."

I bit my lip. "Do you think that would work?"

"I have the utmost confidence it will." He put a hand over his chest. "I swear."

"You're lying."

He sighed. "I don't lie all the time, you know."

I squinted at him and then snorted. Yeah, right. If Diesel started to tell the truth then the Earth would lose all balance, topple into the sun and explode.

The universe just wasn't ready for that.

**************

As instructed to by Diesel, I left a voice mail on Ranger's cell which must have shown you how desperate I was to be listening to his words. After I left it, I glanced at him for reassurance and he shot me the thumbs up. I knew that the thumbs up had been more for moral support than him actually being proud of my accomplishment. Because I stuttered, paused and laughed stupidly throughout the whole message. When I played it back and we listened, I sounded like the Queen of all imbeciles. How embarrassing.

"So," I started, shoving Diesel's feet off my table. "Are we going to go do our thing and catch your unmentionable?"

"You're still helping me?"

"I mind as well." I sighed. "You'll be around for a month."

"And I can stay here?"

I shrugged and he made a motion with his hand that signaled: YES! Score. I figured that letting him stay wouldn't be that bad. He'd have to sleep on the couch and provide his own food until I rolled in more dough. Speaking of which....

"If you're not going to do anything then I will." I turned on my heel. "I have FTAs to attend to."

"Who's going to bond them out?"

I froze and hung my head. Damn. "Connie, preferably." I just had to figure out if the woman would be heading back to the bonds office. I dug in my purse, pulled out my phone but before I could dial, it rang. I paused and shot a worried look at Diesel. He just stared. We were both thinking the same thing: Ranger. The fact that we were so nervous about the call wasn't lost on me. It felt like we were waiting for the actors on some cheesy show to suck it up and get together already. A feeling of anticipation mixed with fear. Ironically, Ranger and I could fit into the category just fine. Although the 'cheesy' part would be stretching it.

It was my mom.

"Don't tell me it's true." Was her tightened greeting. "Don't tell me Vinnie has really been kidnapped."

"Sorry." Was my only reply.

I heard my mother groan and the clinking of bottles echoed in the background. "Why me? Why is it that my daughter has cousins that get kidnapped?"

"What!?" I couldn't believe this. Was she really blaming me for this? No way! "Mom, its no my fault-"

"The phone's been ringing off the hook! Your Grandmother is talking to the neighbors right now. They're bringing over salads and cake."

I laughed and shook my head. Leave it to the burg to give you presents and sweets when someone in the family is kidnapped. "Save the cake for me and stay calm. I'm sure he's okay." And before she could retort, I hung up. I turned to see that Diesel had his head down and his shoulders were shaking. I frowned. He was laughing at me. After a swift kick to his shin, I dialed Lula.

"Girl, where you been at? We been sitting here eating doughnuts for hours."

"I went to the bonds office earlier. Where are you?"

"My apartment."

"Connie's with you?"

I could hear talking in the background. "Yep. She looks a little sick though. Might be from all the doughnuts." I heard a sputtering noise. "So what's the scoop? Is Vinnie really gone?"

'Fraid so."

"Man." Lula let out an exaggerated, bloated sigh. "That's tough nuts. Can't say I'm too sad about it." Understandable. "I do hope he comes back though. I need my pay check."

Who was she telling? "Ask Connie if she can bond out my FTAs."

"You're gonna go after them? When the boss is kidnapped?"

"I need food on my table." Hell, I needed a table to put food on. I heard Lula relay my message, heard more talking and then she came back on the line.

"Connie says it's okay with her. She was a little shaken up about the break in but not too much. We'll meet you at the office." Then, as an after thought, she said, "I hope all the cops cleared out."

*********

Thirty minutes later, Lula, Diesel and I were riding around town looking for one of my FTAs named Tubby Florence. Connie was at the bonds office and a uniform had agreed to stay with her for the rest of the day just in case the kidnapper came back. We were all pretty sure that he wouldn't but Connie seemed content enough so we all left it at that.

Diesel had bamboozled his way into tagging along. He said he would conjure up some meatball subs if I let him. Don't judge me. I hadn't eaten most of the day. I needed my vitamins. And by vitamins, I meant cakes and cookies and things that contained tons of sugar. Lula came along because of the same offer. Apparently, the big blond doof wasn't in that much of a hurry to find whoever the hell he was trying to find. Which brought me to that topic.

"Who are you after anyway?"

"Hmm?" Diesel spoke up from the back.

"Your missing unmentionable person. Who is it?"

I heard him chuckle. "Technically, his name is Greg Madison."

"Technically?"

"It's on his birth certificate."

I didn't know what he was implying or how to respond to that so I didn't. Lula decided to speak up from the passenger seat. "Hey, what the heck is an unmentionable anyway? And can you really make meatball subs appear?" She asked, eyeing the man in the backseat. I had partially forgotten about her limited knowledge of Diesel and the baggage he brought along with him.

"Of course I can." Diesel grinned. "Why, I've recently just put a spell on someone." I groaned but everyone ignored me.

"Nuh uh! Who!?" Lula's eyes expanded greatly and excitement danced in her eyes. Magic must have animated her.

Diesel took it all in with a giant smirk, clearly loving the attention he had wanted for so long. "Ranger."

I watched Lula freeze and then she bursts into laughter. "Don't tell me that's why he was acting funny." She turned to me, her smile vanished and she mouthed: "He's a dead man."

"I saw that."

Before anyone could say anything more, my phone started to ring. Diesel leaned in to me from the back and Lula did as well. I waited for a red light to check it. Ranger. My mind started to swirl and I gulped to help my dry throat. Great. I was acting all nervous and giddy again. It was like high school all over again. I was the dorky, acne covered unpopular girl and Ranger was the savage jock.

I blushed. What a weird synonym to use.

"Seriously." Lula snorted. "If I had a fantasy, Ranger would be either naked or dressed in a speedo. A real tight one that showed off all his manly parts."

"Ugh." Diesel gagged, grimacing and stuck his finger in his mouth. "Could we refrain from the mental images of other males?" He nudged me with his elbow. "Now answer the phone before he hangs up."

I did as told and answered with a breathless, "Hello."

"A jock, huh?"

"You bugged my car!"

"Of course I did. And not just because Diesel is around, either. I had it bugged long before he arrived. Mostly to over hear what you say about me." He sounded sincere except this time, he didn't seem especially bothered to share that little secret. I narrowed my eyes and saw Diesel flicking his fingers towards me, urging me forward, telling me to take advantage of the spell.

"So, are you all calmed down?"

"A bit. I thought I told you to stay away from exhaust fume."

"How do you know I'm-" The light turned green and I propelled the car forward while trying to glance out the windows. "Are you following me!? Where are you? You better not have installed a camera in my car!"

"I'm right behind you."

I turned to glance out the back window, saw a flash of Ranger waving, heard a honk and righted myself on the road. "What's the deal?"

"I don't trust Diesel. So, until he leaves, I'm going to be around. A lot more. Just think of me as a bodyguard. Except I'm much more hormonal, angry and talkative than before."

I didn't see anything wrong with that. In fact, I looked forward to it. Spending time with Ranger? That'd be pretty sweet. Oh hell, I'll just admit it already. Spending time with Ranger was what I had wanted to do all along.

Except there was one wrench in that good fortunate.

"I think Ranger's flicking me off." Diesel said, staring out the back window.

I sighed. I needed to get rid of Diesel.

"Okay, I believe you now." Lula said, eyes wide. "Ranger must have a spell on him. It looks like he might explode."

I sighed again. I needed to get rid of Lula as well.

"What about Rangeman?" I asked, going back to the phone. "Is it secure?"

"For now. The guys are still getting use to their 'new' boss but besides that, it's all good. Honestly, I think they're more afraid of me now than before." With good reason. "Besides, I have a feeling that if I stick around Diesel long enough, I'll find out who broke in."

I could understand that.

"But, of course, I want to be around you more." Ranger was smiling..smirking...something. I could hear it in his tone. I felt my face flush. "This spell might have just been put on me but I've always been magical in bed."

The phone slipped from my hand and my heart skipped a couple beats. I glanced in my rear view mirror to spot the predator smile on Ranger's face and it took a few minutes for me to come back down to Earth. By then, car horns were honking like crazy.

"Jeez." Lula was saying. "You look like you died and gone to heaven."

I only shook my head. No, I hadn't reached heaven. Not yet, anyways.