A/N - Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and encouragement. I just wanted to address one thing quickly, then you'll get a new chapter. There will be an HEA at the end, although how and with whom is still up for debate. I will say that all the main characters will have some serious growing pains, either during the six months before the story that will alter their character, or as a result of the altered environment around them. I'm pulling from a variety of inspirations for this and I will say again, there will be violence and mature situations.

WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH

Lester POV

I hate these damn meetings Ranger insists on having. I try to block out Ram's voice, and I know I'm not the only one.

I've shifted to the one thing I can't get out of my mind. Stephanie. My little kitten. That's what Hector and I had taken to calling her before her forced exile from our presence.

She wouldn't say much to me when I cornered her a week after she dropped off all her Rangeman possessions. She told me she loved me, and then she stunned me. I felt like Hal for a minute, and it really sucked. The little minx got the jump on me because I was so relieved to see her face, and I was proud of her for using it to her advantage. Twisted, but I'm proud of how far she's come.

Since then, she's literally run from any Rangeman in public and we've seen a variety of tasers, stun guns, other non-lethal weapons, knives and semi-automatics on her person. She's taking her job and her safety seriously and we're all proud of that. We just don't want it used against us. We can't get her alone, thus we haven't figured out why she pulled away.

I knew it wasn't Morelli. She had told me that she was seeing someone and it was all new and she wasn't ready to talk about it. She also told me she had found someone to train her that she trusted. I hadn't told anyone that, but it's obvious in every action she's taken in the last six months. There's serious physical and mental training in every move she's made.

I asked why she didn't come to us. It's not that she didn't trust us, she had said, just that she felt like she couldn't take advantage of us that way. That was a classic Steph move and was a week before her silence began.

Connie wouldn't tell me much, but she did say Steph had slowly with-drawn from everyone but Lula. And she kept Lula on the fringes, 'just like Ranger did to her in the beginning'. She deals directly with Vinnie now. She takes skips from Les Sebring and Thomas Brown too. According to Connie, she's making a lot of money. We knew Jean Ellen was pissed, we just didn't think Steph was the reason; we thought it was because Ranger wouldn't give her the time of day.

It was almost silent around here lately. Unless there was work to be talked about, we didn't socialize anymore. We didn't hit the clubs. We just put our heads down and wallowed in the lack of her presence. And we drank in the privacy of our apartments. I know this because of the sheer amount of Tylenol Bobby has been ordering. I didn't know they sold it by the case.

Ranger's phone was ringing. He never interrupts meetings with phone calls anymore. Not when Steph isn't going to call and make our day with her smile or give us heart attacks from a bad situation. And I guess they're not leaving a message either, judging by the lack of buzz.

Ram kept droning on and then Tank got a buzz; must be important too, since he practically ran out of the room and tried to make it look like he didn't. Oh good, Ranger's done for now.

Hector and I nodded to each other. I knew we would be meeting later to take the edge off. We'd been doing that for a couple of years and it worked for both of us because it was simple and we cared about each other. And we were both in love with someone we couldn't have.

Hector and I were walking past Tank's office and I just stopped. I couldn't explain it if I tried, but I felt like I had to stay there. Something important was happening. Hector just looked at me for a minute before taking up a guard position on the other side of the closed door.

I was really trying to wait patiently for Tank, something anyone who spends any time with me will tell say is virtually impossible, so I was fidgeting. I was immediately set on edge by Hector's whisper.

"Gatita."

Fuck. Tank was talking to our girl. I don't even question Hector anymore. Either he really had ESP or he had super hearing. Either way, he knew these things. And that meant the call Ranger didn't take had to have been from her too. I almost went to punch him in the face. If she was calling us after this long, she had to be in serious trouble.

The door slammed open and Tank took off. He was totally oblivious to anything around him, focused on getting down the stairs as fast as he could. And he was doing something I had never heard before. He was pleading. She was walking into a bad situation and she wasn't going to wait. She was either calling to say goodbye, or she wanted him to monitor her somehow.

And that's when I remembered the watch. Ranger had given it to her months ago so she had a way to reach out to us if she didn't have any other way to signal she needed help.

Morelli's name in this conversation sent fear and fury through me like I've never felt before. I knew he was looking a little rough lately, but I didn't think he was drinking enough to make him a danger to her. She had bowed to her mother's pressure, as far as I could tell, and gotten back together with him about three months ago. I started inventing Spanish curses to keep from flying off the handle then and there. I could hear Hector doing the same, and making fun of some of the things I was saying. He was taunting me to get me focused on the rage and away from the fear. And it was working.

The phone clicked shut and we picked up the pace, nearly flying into the nearest SUV. Tank was driving like a maniac towards the Burg.

Hector's phone rang and he put it on speaker to answer it.

"¿Qué?"

And then we heard her sweet voice and a drunken Morelli.

Fuck.

"No, Cupcake, you listen. I'm done with you running around making a fool of me. You've been such a good girl since you stopped seeing Manoso, but it's time to give up the job and get this all settled."

"Settled. Yes, it's time we settled a few things. I'm not interested in having children, getting married or moving into the Burg. You and I have a lot of history and I'd like to be your friend, but I can't be in this relationship anymore."

There was a loud thud and she cried out. I was gripping the seatbelt so hard I was afraid it would snap. Tank was white-knuckling the steering wheel. I couldn't see Hector in the back. If I moved right now, I would lash out and it wouldn't be pretty, but I could feel the rage almost rolling out of him.

"No one wants you, whore. You'll do what you were raised to do, have my babies, keep my home, service my dick, and you're not leaving this house until I've gotten that through your brainless skull. Ranger's not going to rescue you this time. He can't. I've made sure he'll be busy tonight. His band of thugs is going to get arrested right along with him. His Jersey Penal Stop-Over Station is going to get shut down."

He was laughing but the joke was on him. I knew we were clean. I had done a thorough walk-through this morning, just like every other morning since we were tipped off that some pissed off cops and Feds were gunning for us.

"Joe, I'm leaving town."

I knew if she wanted to, she could disappear. Hector and I taught her all the tricks we knew and even introduced her to a few decent forgers. Fuck. We had to stop this.

"You're not going anywhere, Cupcake."

There was still laughter and now a smug asshole-ness in his voice. I could feel the smirk spread across my face. I couldn't wait to get my fists on him.

"I'm leaving and you're going to let me. Or I'm going to allow certain documents, videos, audio recordings and pictures to be released to certain individuals."

Her voice had gone so icy, I felt my balls retreat a little. I never expected to hear anything like that from her. She was sweet and innocent and resilient and tender. And it made me wonder just how much she knew about us if she had blackmail on him that was good enough for that threat. I desperately wanted to know what she had on him. It had to be good. Maybe he was as dirty as we had heard and she had the proof.

There was another, louder thud and then Morelli started laughing. It was a sick sound that made me want to puke and shoot him at the same time. That would actually be interesting. Maybe I could get some ipecac when we get her home and see if I could actually do that. It might come in handy.

He was moving around, there was more thudding, she was groaning in pain, and then he began to talk.

"You're not going anywhere, Cupcake. I'm never letting you leave here and I'll take away all your toys so you won't get rescued. Then I'll find what you've done with what you have and destroy it. You'll be mine forever."

The sick laughter sounded again.

"While I have you just as I like you, I'll get started on teaching you how to please me."

All three of us were breathing hard, barely holding in the beasts we hid inside our human shells. He had pushed this over the line.

I could feel the monster in me, the one I never wanted Steph to find out about, pushing against my skin, begging to be let loose to rip this piece of nothing to shreds with our blades. I started fingering the steel. I could see a glint reflecting against the windshield. Hector was going to help me carve him up. We'd let Tank tenderize him before we put that carcass to good use.

I wanted to see how many times I could slice into him before he bled out. I hadn't done or even thought of anything like this in a few years. Maybe I was rusty and should start with little tiny slices on the torso, just to get a feel for the blade breaking through skin again.

Something crashed to the ground next to Steph and she grunted with effort. We could hear her moving and breathing hard. It sounded like she was trying to get out of there.

"You're not going anywhere, whore. I own you. I paid for you."

Morelli was still drunk but he was slurring more. That meant she hit him over the head with something. Shame he didn't pass out. He would have loved our wake-up call.

The sound of clothing tearing came through. She let out a little scream of surprise and pain as she fell and I would guess she landed on broken glass of some sort, judging by the crashing sound from a few seconds ago.

"If you won't listen to me and be a good whore, I'll teach you to obey."

Our SUV screeched to a halt behind hers in front of his house on Slater Street. We were out the doors before the engine had time to shut off.

We were going to kill him. I was going to let the monster out, in front of Steph, and deal with her fear afterwards. If she could never look at me again, it would be worth it. I had a feeling this wasn't the first time he had done this to her.

Our boots hit the porch just as she let out a scream that sounded more like fury than fear or pain.

Tank's size fifteen boot kicked the door in and we rushed into the living room.

She was straddling his waist, a huge piece of glass falling from her left hand onto the carpet, her right hand digging into the hole just below his rib cage almost up to her elbow, her shirt in tatters, her hair wild. And she was fucking beautiful. She pulled a knife out of her boot and pushed it up into the hole in his chest. I knew what she was doing. The monster inside of me and the man agreed. She was fucking beautiful. She wasn't our little kitten anymore. She's our panther. And she'd rip our hearts out if she had to.