A week later I found myself sitting outside Jimmy DeMarco's girlfriend's apartment for the fifth day in a row. I had pretty much decided that I was going to take Tank up on his offer to go work at Rangeman. For some reason that was making less and less sense to me now, I was bound and determined to take down DeMarco on my own before I took the job. I guess in the beginning I had just been feeling down about everything and I just wanted to be able to make this transition with a little more confidence, and somehow I thought closing out this file would help me do that. Then when he started giving me the slip every day, I just got pissed and now it's personal. No amount of Mr. Alexander's miracle hair serum was going to save my unruly curls from the humidity after sitting in this sweatbox of a vehicle day after day, and any man that makes a woman walk around looking like a poodle with a bad perm deserves to pay. Jimmy DeMarco better have his pound of flesh ready because I was coming to collect. Yeah, I'm really channeling my inner badass today.

I saw the curtain move in the second story window. Jimmy was in there. Pretty safe bet he was alone. I checked my gun, made sure it was loaded. Like I said, I wasn't playing around with this one. Now, the question was how was I going to get in the door? There were only two ways in, a fire escape, barely attached to the building and missing the bottom ladder. No thank you. Then there was the front door, much more appealing option, but I wasn't exactly known for my door kicking in skills. What to do? What to do?

I looked down at the .38 in my lap and an idea came to me. A reckless idea, but an idea none the less. I tucked the gun in the waistband of my jeans, slid a pair of cuffs in my back pocket, and held my stun gun in my left hand. I looked around cautiously and tried to be aware of my surroundings. It was the middle of the day and most everyone in this blue collar neighborhood was at work. That made me feel somewhat better about what I was about to do.

I made my way up the stairs and approached the door. I took a deep breath and in a voice that sounded much more confident than I was, yelled "Hey Jimmy, if you happen to be standing in front of the door right now, I'd back up real quickly." And with that I pulled out my .38 and shot the deadbolt on the door. I pushed against the door with my right shoulder and threw all my weight against it. The rest of the wood splintered fairly easily and I was in. Standing in the hallway directly in front of me was a stunned Jimmy DeMarco standing there in a bath towel holding a pair of jeans in his hands. It looked like he had just gotten out of the shower and was getting ready to get dressed.

I had my gun raised and pointed at Jimmy and my stun gun still in my left hand. I saw Jimmy's eyes dart towards the bedroom where the fire escape was. "Don't even think about it Jimmy. I've got a gun on you and you're not exactly in any condition to run. It's over. Just come on in peacefully and we'll get your court date rescheduled, easy as pie."

Yeah did you think Jimmy had the brains not to make a mad dash for the fire escape wearing only a towel? Me either. The next thing I knew Jimmy had thrown the jeans he was holding directly in my face, which distracted me just long enough for him to make a run for the bedroom. I threw the jeans down and ran after him, barely registering the white towel on the floor in the hallway. As soon as I rounded the corner and Jimmy came into view my brain registered the significance of the towel. I no longer had a skip trying to run from me in only a towel, I had a skip trying to run from me in his birthday suit. Great, just great.

Lucky for me the window was sticking and he couldn't get it open enough to crawl out. Before he even realized I was in the room, I tagged him on the ass with my stun gun and then quickly jumped out of the way while he went down like a ton a bricks. I rolled him over and cuffed his hands behind his back.

As soon as that was taken care of, I whipped out my cell phone and dialed Tank.

"Talk."

"Hey Tank. About the job at Rangeman, you've got yourself a deal, when do I start?" I said still slightly out of breath, probably just from the adrenaline. It couldn't have been from running the, oh, 20 or so feet from the hall to the bedroom. I couldn't be that out of shape, right? Hmmm, something to ponder over my next batch of doughnuts.

"Bomber, you ok? You sound out of breath?"

"No, I'm good Tank, just wanted to let you know about the job. Hey, while I have you on the phone, think you could send someone over to help me with a transport?"

"No problem. Where are you at?" I gave him the address and he disconnected.

Ten minutes later I heard footsteps approaching the front door. From the heavy sound of the boots I was pretty sure it was a merry man, but I had my gun ready at my side just to be sure. The next sound I heard was definitely unexpected. It was laughter. Not just a little chuckle either, someone was full on cracking up, and I was pretty sure I recognized that laugh.

"Lester, is that you?"

"Yeah, Beautiful," He said making his way back to the bedroom still chuckling. "Did you seriously shoot the lock on the-" He stopped short in the doorway, taking in Jimmy DeMarco lying on the floor, hands cuffed behind his back, towel draped over his backside but obviously naked underneath. Lester doubled over laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. What? At least I had the decency to cover his naked butt with the towel.

My eyes narrowed sharply and I seriously considered using my stun gun, or maybe even my real gun on Lester. But then I remembered why he was here in the first place and decided rather than having to try to carry two unconscious men twice my size down a flight of stairs, I would just have to wait until Lester pulled himself together.

After a few minutes Lester managed to calm down. He came over and threw an arm around my shoulder. "God Bomber, you're busts sure are amusing! We never have this much fun on takedowns."

"Yeah, Yeah, Lester, I'm the entertainment, so I've been told." I said rolling my eyes, "Now are you going to help me get this guy to the station or just stand there all day laughing?"

"I'm going to leave that entertainment comment alone for now,'' Lester said with a mischievous little gleam in his eye that told gave away that his thoughts were less than pure at the moment. "Ok, get some pants on this guy so we can take him downtown."

"Me get pants on him? I don't think so. You're a guy. You get pants on him!"

"Oh hell no! I'm not going anywhere near a naked dude! No way, no how. You called for a transport and that's all I'm doing." Lester said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Just then the naked guy on the floor started groaning and twitching. I nudged DeMarco with my foot and said "You gonna behave or do I have to stun you again?"

The only response I got was another groan. I walked out into the living room and grabbed the pants he had thrown at me in his getaway attempt. I walked back in the bedroom and saw that DeMarco had his head lifted off the ground and one eye cracked open staring at Lester.

"Alright, Jimmy. This is how it's gonna work. I'm going to let my friend here recuff your hands in front of you. Then you're going to put on these pants and come quietly down to the station to be rebooked. What you're not going to do is give us any trouble."

"Uhhhh," was about all I got in response. I took that as an affirmative. I handed the cuff key to Lester, who looked none too thrilled with his role in this little escapade, but said nothing. I tossed the jeans on the floor in front of DeMarco and then I left the room. Figured the boys might like some privacy.

After we got DeMarco downstairs and into Lester's Bronco, I followed them to the station. I took my FTA inside to get the body receipt.

"Hey Cupcake, does your mom know you're playing with half naked men in handcuffs?"

Oh great just what I need right now. Everyone fancies themselves a comedian these days.

"Hi Joe. I didn't realize you were back."

"Got back late last night, just finishing up paperwork this morning." Joe said as he wrapped his arms around me. "The boys missed you." He said quietly in my ear. "I missed you." He was looking into my eyes when he said the last part.

I wasn't quite sure how to respond. There were so many times when it would have meant so much to me to have Joe admit that he actually missed me, not just "the boys". And I had missed him too, but somehow I didn't think we had missed each other in quite the same way.

"I missed you too, Joe." I said pulling away from him.

"Something wrong, Cupcake?" Joe said looking at me with appraising eye. I knew he could tell something had changed. I'm not exactly known for being able to hide my thoughts or emotions.

"No, nothing's wrong Joe. Hey, would you have time to grab dinner at Pino's tonight?" Might as well get this long overdue conversation over, I thought to myself.

"Why don't you grab Pino's and meet me at my house. I can show you exactly how much I've missed you." Joe said with his eyes darkening.

"Actually, I have to stake out a skips place later tonight, but I'd have just enough time to meet you for a meatball sub, if you want." Okay so it was a lie, but just a little white one. I really wanted to have this conversation with Joe in a public, neutral place. If we were alone together one of two things might happen. I might cave and give into my hormones like usual, or we would end up screaming and yelling and saying things we don't mean. I'd still like to be friends with Joe, and I was hoping that a public place might keep us both on our best behavior. Not that public places had always mattered for that in the past.

"Sure, Cupcake. See you there at 6:00?"

"See you there." My body receipt was ready so I headed out to my car.

I was a little a surprised to see Lester leaning against the driver's side door. "What's up Santos? I figured you would have headed out by now."

"Just waiting on you, Beautiful." He said as pulled one of my curls and then let it bounce back into place. "So, I hear a congratulations are in order for the newest member of Rangeman."

'Yeah, I guess so." I replied with a grin.

"Tank wanted me to tell you to take the weekend off and he'll see you at 8:00 Monday morning. Some of the guys and I are going to Shorty's tonight for pizza and beer. You want to join us?"

"Sorry Lester I can't, I just made plans to go to Pino's with Joe tonight." I figured I might as well tell him the truth, it's not like the entire city doesn't end up knowing exactly where I go and what I do.

"Oh, I see." I could see his whole demeanor change. He stood up straighter and his shoulders tensed. And for some reason that really rubbed me the wrong way. What business was it of Lester's even if I was getting back with Joe? It's not like Ranger wanted to be with me anyway, so what did Lester care?

"No, I don't think you see at all. But then again it's really none of your business is it?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to presume… well, anyway, another time then?" Lester looked disappointed.

"Yeah, of course, I'd really like that, Les." I was feeling a little bad about being so snippy with him.

Lester held the door for me and closed it when I got in. I waved as I headed off to my apartment to get ready to face the music at Pino's. And by music I meant angry Italian male with a bad temper.