Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.

Trial no.1

Connie started nervously as the front door to the bonds office opened. She relaxed when Stephanie walked in, dropping a bag of donuts onto her desk before settling on the faded brown couch with one of the donuts.

Lula looked sharply at Connie from where she was standing at the filing cabinets. "What the hell's the matter with you, girl? You been jumping like a rabbit every time the door opens for the last two weeks."

Connie glanced across at Stephanie, who looked calmly back at her as she bit into her donut.

Lula turned to look at Stephanie, then back at Connie, and narrowed her eyes. "OK, what gives? There's something going on and you ain't keeping me out of it." She swung round to glare at Stephanie. "And I'm guessing it's got something to do with that black shirt you wearing."

Connie met Stephanie's eyes, looking to her for guidance.

Stephanie shrugged. "He didn't say it had to be a secret. I say tell her."

Connie closed her eyes briefly, and wished desperately that she'd never seen that damned book sitting in the storeroom with all the other crap handed over by families as part of their bond security.

"When Vinnie asked Ranger to have his men fit a security camera to cover the parking lot at the back, I might have… sort of… maybe… well… asked my cousin to fit an extra one."

"You have a cousin working for Ranger? I never knew that. Who? Have I met him?"

"Slick, and no idea."

"Well that don't sound so bad. Extra security ain't no bad thing. I mean, what if them animal welfare nuts decided to rescue Vinnie's duck one night?"

"Thanks for that picture. Anyway, Ranger found out and was more than pissed about where he put the extra one."

"Which was?"

"In the alley."

An unholy grin spread across Lula's face. "You wanna say that a bit louder, Connie?"

"In the alley, OK?"

Lula looked across at Stephanie, who was watching Connie's face with every indication of polite interest in what she was saying.

"So you had a sneaky camera put in the alley, just for extra security, of course. And what did you watch on your secret extra camera, Connie?"

"Oh, don't you even pretend that you haven't wondered what happens in the alley when he drags her out of the office. Well, I took the opportunity when it arose."

"I'll bet that wasn't all that arose, neither," Lula muttered under her breath.

Stephanie caught what she said and snorted.

"Tell her the rest, Connie, you may as well."

"Well, you know that little Green Eggs and Ham rhyme that's been doing the rounds?"

"Hell yeah. Tank told me that Ranger was royally pissed about that."

"That was me."

Lula whistled, "Damn, girl, are you nuts? You spied on Ranger, and then you wrote a poem about it and drew little pictures so that everyone knew it was about him and a cop's girlfriend? No wonder you nervous! I coulda told you not to even think about doing something like that 'round Ranger. You know the rep he's got on Stark? Don't no-one fuck with Ranger if they can help it. But then I can see you scared, so maybe you know that. Have you seen him yet? And what about your family, they'll protect you, right?"

Connie shook her head. "Oh, yeah, he saw me all right. And the family would step in if they thought he might hurt me, but he's already said he won't because it isn't worth a war. They'd prefer not to tangle with him unless they have to for the same reason, and I made a deal with him to keep the family out of it. I have to do ten jobs for RangeMan. He didn't say what they were, and frankly I was too scared to ask."

Lula nodded, and turned to look at Stephanie again. "So what's with the uniform? Now I got this much, you ain't telling me you just upped and decided to go back to work for Ranger just 'cause you felt like it. Everyone knows Joe was so mad that you ain't seen him since, and you going back to work for Ranger after that would take you out of that frying pan and straight into the flames."

"Connie wasn't the only one that made a deal."

"What?" Connie and Lula both stared at her.

"What the hell did you have to give him?" Lula asked.

"Me." Stephanie saw Lula's incredulous expression and laughed. "Relax, Lula, it's not that bad. I'm not some kind of sacrificial virgin or anything." She stared into space and her eyes glazed briefly, then she shook her head and carried on. "I agreed to go back to RangeMan for a while in exchange for early warning of Connie's trials and a chance to help her. A steady paycheck for doing the same job doesn't hurt either, so it's not like it's a big problem for me work-wise. You're right about the frying pan though. When Joe found out, that was the final nail in the coffin for him and me."

Lula shook her head in disbelief. "You and Ranger got some really fucked up shit between you, you know that? So now what happens?"

"Now we wait to find out what she has to do."

o0o0o0o0o

When Stephanie got back to RangeMan that afternoon she found a post-it note stuck to her screen.

Call me when you get in.

R

She rang his cell phone.

"Yo."

"Yo yourself. You need to talk to me?"

"It's time. Come to my office in a couple of minutes and I'll brief you on Connie's first job."

She spent a couple of minutes checking her messages then headed over to his office on the fifth floor. She knocked twice then put her head round the door. Ranger was speaking on his cell phone, but waved her in and pointed to the couch under the window as he continued his conversation. She settled herself on the couch and watched him while she waited for the phone conversation to end.

He was in corporate mode this afternoon, wearing a black shirt under a black tailored suit. His tie was hanging over the back of his chair and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. The gun in its leather holster should have looked wrong with the business clothes, but instead it somehow seemed a part of him.

Finally he finished his call and came to sit beside her on the couch, casually slinging an arm behind her and pulling her against him. She raised her eyebrows but relaxed into his side all the same.

"You went to the bonds office to pick up the files today. What can you tell me about Connie's state of mind at the moment? How's she handling it?" he asked.

"She's rattled, jumpy. Lula called her on it today, so we told her the whole story. It's not like you wanted it to be a secret, right?"

"No, that's good. The more people that see her scared, the better the whole thing works."

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

"Sticks and stones. Just remember that the more I can make my point using fear, the less I have to make it by hurting people."

"So tell me about the task."

"We've had a tip-off about a guy we're hunting on behalf of his employer, Max Wilson. He embezzled around twenty million from them before heading for the hills. We think that he's currently holed up in a hotel in Philly. Rumor has it that he's had some surgery to change his features, so we need to confirm that it's him before we move in."

"So where does Connie come in?"

"According to an old girlfriend, he has a distinctive tattoo of a pair of entwined lizards on his left hip. He may have had it removed, but if we can confirm its presence or some scar tissue in the same place, it'll be enough for us to move in and hold him while we alert the local police to pick him up. Connie's job will be to get him out of his pants and get a visual on the site of that tattoo."

Stephanie recoiled in shock. "You're not seriously expecting her to have sex with someone just to confirm his identity?"

"I don't care how she does it, as long as the job gets done. Sex would be one way."

"Is he dangerous?"

"No prior history of violence, but anyone with the cops after him and 20 million dollars of someone else's money in his pocket should be considered a potential threat. I promised that she would have protection, and she will, although she won't know it."

"Is this one of the jobs you would have asked me to do?" she asked curiously.

"No, I would have used Jeanne Ellen for this one."

She pulled away and turned to glare at him, her eyes snapping. "Why? Don't you think I could do it?"

"No, it's just that if you got close enough to him to I.D. that tatt, I would have had to shoot him."

She settled back into his side, shaking her head. "One day we really have to have a long talk about us."

"Babe."

o0o0o0o0o

"I have to do what?" Connie squeaked, looking up from the file.

Stephanie cringed. "You just have to get a look at it. How you do it is completely up to you."

"And how does he propose that I get a look at the lizards without getting friendly with the snake next door?"

Stephanie was careful not to meet her eyes. "He, ah, said that he was sure that someone as resourceful about getting to see things as you would find a way."

"Oh great. Fantastic. One mistake and I'm labeled a peeping tom forever, aren't I?"

"He may have mentioned the punishment fitting the crime."

"Son of a bitch!"

Lula's shoulders were shaking so hard with laughter that the contents of the filing cabinet she was leaning against were rattling. "Better be careful, Connie, he could have a python in there keeping the lizards company."

Connie glared at her. Typical of Lula that she couldn't see the problem. "But I don't do this sort of thing!" she wailed. "I wouldn't know where to start."

Lula beamed at her. "But that's OK, girlfriend, because you have us. What you need is some lessons in flirting. And we're the women for the job."

o0o0o0o0o

"Now the trick," said Lula as the three of them walked around Macy's, "is to let your clothes do the talking. Wear something short enough and tight enough and you're halfway there." She sorted through the racks and pulled out a piece of orange spandex pretending to be a dress. "Something like this."

Connie's eyes widened in horror as she eyed the barely-there scrap of fabric. She turned pleadingly to Stephanie, hoping to hear something different, but Stephanie just nodded.

"She's right, but maybe not in orange. We'll find you something you're more comfortable in than this, but if you wear the wrong thing you'll have to work twice as hard to catch his eye."

"What if I don't want to catch his eye?" Connie mumbled under her breath.

Stephanie caught it. "Don't go there. If you don't give it your best shot, Ranger will know. He always knows. Just trust us and Lula and I will get you through this."

"Hell, yeah. When it comes to men, remember you're talking to two professionals here."

Stephanie winced.

"There are all kind of professionals. Your distraction jobs count. Just 'cause you never finish the job don't mean they don't count."

"Lula, I'm a bounty hunter, not a sex worker."

"Reckon your mom wouldn't see much of a difference."

Looking at the expression on Stephanie's face, Connie brightened. At least she wasn't the only one suffering on this trip.

o0o0o0o0o

Three hours and several fitting room arguments later, they were finally able to agree on an outfit. The dress was tight, red, came to Connie's mid thigh and plunged so low between her breasts there was no way she was going to be able to wear a bra with it.

Lula handed a roll of double sided tape to the sales assistant while talking to Connie. "Now this stuff is for the early part of the evening. If you think you might get lucky, go to the bathroom and take it off. Ain't nothing more embarrassing than taking off your dress and it's still stuck to your boobs."

"I don't want to get lucky!" Connie shrieked, then froze in horror as every shopper in the vicinity stopped and turned to look at them. She carried on in a hiss, "This is not a date, remember? I have a job to do."

"But he could be hot." Lula was unrepentant. "Never say never."

"What did I do to deserve this?" Connie moaned.

Stephanie caught her eye and lifted her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah," Connie sighed. "Now I remember."

o0o0o0o0o

At Stephanie's apartment that evening they continued with Project Connie. Connie had almost lost the will to live and was wondering if she could re-negotiate the deal with Ranger to a quick and painless end instead.

Stephanie had tried hard to explain the techniques that she used to bring skips out of bars, but Connie just couldn't get it together.

In desperation, Lula had volunteered to be the honorary man and Stephanie was trying to demonstrate the fake stumble cross-combined with the fluttering eyelash hook. It might as well have been a scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because there was no way that Connie could do it. There was a world of difference between a graceful stumble that ended in a gentle touch on his arm and hitting the floor like a wet sack.

"I'll get it," Connie said as Stephanie applied ice to her ankle. "I have to get it eventually, right?"

Lula and Stephanie exchanged pained looks above her head.

o0o0o0o0o

Another hour later, Stephanie was applying arnica cream to a large bruise on Connie's hip following another painful failure.

"It's lucky that you had all this stuff here, otherwise I would have been in real trouble," said Connie.

Stephanie looked at her in surprise. "This is pretty standard stuff. I usually have to ice something or treat bruising at least once a week."

"That often?"

"Yeah, plus a trip to the hospital now and then if I'm really unlucky."

"What about Ranger's guys? Do they get hurt too?"

Stephanie shrugged. "Not so much. Tank told me once that they didn't usually run. My problem is, skips aren't scared of me, so I get to do it the hard way." She shot Connie a wry smile. "Still think my job is exciting?"

Lula came out of the kitchen with three mugs of coffee. "I been thinking, we're going about this all wrong. Steph's way ain't my way, and my way ain't your way, everybody got their own way. That's why you just can't do Steph's way. We need to find out your way."

"But I don't have a way. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't do this," Connie protested.

"What, does somebody put you in a box and take your key out when you get home every evening?"

"Sometimes it feels like it."

"Don't give me that, girlfriend. I remember you in Vegas. You weren't no shrinking violet in Vegas."

"Yes, but I wasn't trying to pick up a guy in Vegas, I was just gambling and having fun!"

Stephanie broke in, "I have an idea. We need to find out Connie's style, right? Connie needs to practice doing this deliberately and work out what her style is. We need a guy to practice with."

She picked up the phone, and Connie went past wishing for an early death and moved on to wishing that she had never been born.

o0o0o0o0o

The doorbell rang and Stephanie went to the door. She returned with the largest man that Connie had ever seen, with the exception of Tank. He wore jeans and a green polo shirt, and his blonde hair was cut military short.

"Connie, meet Hal, one of my favorite merry men."

"Merry men?"

"I work for RangeMan, ma'am. Steph likes to call us merry men. It's a pleasure to meet you." He put out an enormous hand and Connie shook it.

"Thanks for coming at short notice, Hal. I really appreciate it," Stephanie said.

"Anything for you, Steph. So what do you need help with? You didn't say what it was that you needed, but I've got my toolkit in the car in case you needed something fixed. I figured it was something like that or you would have called Ranger instead."

"Oh, that's OK, Hal, you won't need tools. Connie's going to be doing some distraction work for RangeMan and needs to work out her style. Lula and I are girls and not really wired that way, so we need a guy for her to practice on and tell her what would work to lure him out of a bar."

Hal looked up at Stephanie with horror dawning across his face. "But, Steph, I can't do… I mean, I'm sure she's… Ms. Plum, I can't do this, please don't make me."

Stephanie gripped his shoulders with both hands and looked up at him. "Hal, you are here and I need you to do this. This could be a matter of life and death."

It was the first time that Connie had ever heard a grown man whimper.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie tried, but she was blazing with humiliation and her sexy walk felt more like a waddle. Hal froze with terror every time she got anywhere near him and just stuttered every time Stephanie or Lula asked him a question.

Eventually she sighed and conceded defeat. "This is a nightmare for all of us. I think we should quit for tonight. There has to be another way. Maybe I can offer to clean the RangeMan floors for the next ten years instead."

She reached out and patted Hal on the shoulder. "Hal, I appreciate this more than you will ever know. Thank you for trying. And now I plan to go home and get drunk and try to forget that tonight ever happened. In fact, I owe you a drink for tonight's pain. C'mon."

Hal swallowed and followed her out like an enormous, muscle bound lamb.

Lula turned to Stephanie, "Look at him. She's got it, just as long as she has no idea that she's doing it."

"But there's no way that she can do the job without knowing that she's doing it."

"No, but we could do the next best thing."

"What's that?"

"Get her drunk first."

Stephanie thought for a few moments. "Practice run tomorrow night?"

"Hell yeah, I'm in."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie arrived at the bar they had chosen at 9 pm and the place was already packed.

Lula stood and beckoned her over to their table and pointed to a margarita already poured and waiting for her. "Hey, girlfriend! You ready to relax and cheer up some?"

"Thanks, Lula, Steph. Only way is up, right?" and Connie grabbed her margarita and took a long swig.

Three margaritas later Connie was feeling no pain. The drinks kept on coming, they had danced for a while and Lula and Stephanie had told outrageous stories about skips and Lula's old tricks until she was helpless with laughter.

Stephanie leaned forward, "Hey, Connie, remember our trip to Vegas chasing after Singh?"

"Oh, God yeah, it was the most fun I ever had in this job."

Lula joined in, "Vegas was a riot. We should gamble tonight to celebrate the one and only job all three of us did together."

Connie frowned. "How? We can't really gamble here, there aren't any cards, or tables or anything."

Stephanie grinned. "We could just bet against each other, for the hell of it."

Connie drank some more of her margarita. "OK, I'm in."

Lula and Stephanie both smiled.

"I call first," said Stephanie. "Lula, I bet five bucks that you can't get that big guy in the blue shirt out the front of the building. Connie, you reckon she can do it?"

Lula snorted. "Ladies, have your money ready when I get back."

Connie and Stephanie watched as she pushed through the crowd to the man that Stephanie had pointed out. She tapped him on the shoulder, said something close to his ear then gestured towards the door. He quickly headed over to the door, looked both ways and went outside.

Lula walked back over. "I believe you ladies owe me some money."

They handed over the money.

"What did you do?" laughed Connie.

"Told him my man was outside with some quality grass but that he was heading out soon and he'd have to be quick if he wanted in."

"Impressive," commented Stephanie.

"OK, my turn to call it now," said Lula, scanning the crowd. "Twenty bucks says that you can't get Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome over there into the ladies' room."

Stephanie raised her eyebrows, "The ladies' room?"

"You're the expert at doing this shit. You need a bigger challenge."

"You're on, but you have to come rescue me once I get him in there."

"Connie, you in?"

"I'm in. Let's see the master at work."

Stephanie made her way over to her mark. She smiled her good-girl-plays-bad smile and brushed against him slightly, and Lula and Connie watched him fall into a state of slightly befuddled lust. He was almost panting.

"She's good," commented Lula.

"You realize that probably no woman has ever properly witnessed her at work before?"

"It's practically art."

"There she goes," said Connie. "We'd better get ready to pull her out."

Stephanie's mark was following her towards the bathrooms, looking like he'd just won the lottery.

Lula and Connie got up to follow them.

"You know, I almost hate to do this to him," said Lula. "He looks so happy."

"You want to explain to Steph how we left her to extract herself because he looked happy?" Connie asked.

"Hell, no. Lets break up this pretty picture."

They rushed into the ladies' room.

"Cheryl, honey, what are you doing? You promised the doctor you wouldn't do this any more!" Connie ushered Stephanie out of the bathroom and away.

Lula subtly body-checked Stephanie's victim to stop him following. "I am so sorry, she must have forgotten her meds tonight. I swear, we only took our eyes off her for a second."

"Jesus, lady, what are you doing bringing her out in that state?" He stalked past her and returned to the bar.

They met up round the corner and dissolved into laughter.

Stephanie held her hand out. "Come on, pay up."

"With pleasure. That was a joy to watch. You might as well have tied a rope around his dick." Lula handed over her money, and Connie followed suit.

They headed back to their table and poured another round of margaritas out of the jug.

"So, Connie. Ready for your turn?" Stephanie said in a deceptively casual tone.

Connie was thoroughly caught up in the game. "OK. Who, where and how much."

Stephanie's eyes swept the crowd. "OK, fifty bucks say that you can't find out what color shorts the blonde hottie at the end of the bar is wearing."

"That's too easy. What's to stop me from just asking him?"

"Oh no, we'll need proof before paying up."

"OK, I'll meet you by the bathrooms with him in a few minutes." And with that, Connie sashayed over to the bar to speak to her intended victim. They watched her lean over the bar next to him and introduce herself, pointing them out to him and saying something that made him point to himself and laugh. She nodded, laughing along with him, then seized his hand and towed him out towards the bathrooms.

Stephanie and Lula looked at each other then scrambled to follow them.

They followed Connie and her mark to a quiet spot in the corridor and watched him unbuckle his belt and drop his pants just far enough to show the color of his shorts underneath. They whooped and raced over to a grinning Connie to exchange a round of high fives. The guy pulled his pants up quickly, laughing as he did so.

Connie laughed and held out her hand, "Pay up."

Stephanie and Lula both handed over their money, at which point she handed half of it over to him with a huge smile. "A deal's a deal, and thank you." She patted his cheek. "It was good to meet you."

Lula grinned at Stephanie. "I think we just worked out her style."

"I think you're right."

o0o0o0o0o

"I can't do this!" Connie was white and shaking as she paced the floor in the Philadelphia hotel room. "Of course you can. Remember Hal, remember the bar?" Stephanie gripped her shoulders and squeezed gently.

Connie was beautiful in the red dress. It clung to her ample bosom and showed off an hourglass figure that her office clothes tended to conceal. But her fear was overriding every signal that the dress was intended to send out. There was no way that she was going to be able to lure a suspicious criminal anywhere in her current state.

Stephanie sighed and picked up the telephone to call room service. "Can you send a jug of margaritas to room 221, please."

Connie was back to pacing the room. "Just let Ranger kill me, I don't care any more. I'll write in my will that I asked him to do it, it was assisted suicide. There'll be no retribution, I swear it. I can't do this."

"Connie, do you really want to have to face Ranger and tell him that you're not going to do this?"

"No," she replied in a small voice.

"I was there when you made the deal, remember? You agreed to do the jobs quickly, efficiently and to the best of your ability. Nothing in there about having to succeed, just trying your best. If you fail he calls in Jeanne Ellen."

"OK, no pressure. No pressure, he has a backup plan."

"Of course, I don't trust that bitch as far as I can throw her, and if you are truly my friend you will make sure that he doesn't need to call her."

Connie groaned. "Shit, no backup plan. No backup plan."

"Breathe, Connie, if you faint he'll have to call in Jeanne Ellen."

There was a knock at the door, and Stephanie went over to collect the jug that had been brought up. She poured a margarita and handed it to Connie. "Here you go, liquid courage. It'll help you relax."

"Relax. Yeah, just relax." Connie emptied the glass in one go. She held her empty glass out again. "Top me up."

"You know, there's relaxed and then there's comatose."

"I'm not relaxed enough! Give me some more relaxation, quickly!"

Stephanie shrugged and refilled the glass.

By the time she finished the second glass, Connie was feeling pleasantly fuzzy around the edges and wondering what she had been so worried about. "So, Steph, jealous of Jeanne Ellen much?"

Stephanie glared at her. "I think I liked it better when you were scared."

"Too late now. What don't you trust Jeanne Ellen with?"

"Never mind."

"No, I really want to know. What's between you and Jeanne Ellen?"

Stephanie was silent.

"It's Ranger, isn't it. You don't trust her with Ranger."

Stephanie's glare was now intense enough to burn holes in sheet metal. "Let's go over what you have to do one more time."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie stood at the entrance to the hotel bar and held on to the door frame.

Stephanie gave her a gentle nudge from behind. "Go on, he's at the far end of the bar, in the grey shirt."

"I can't. My legs are frozen."

"Think about the look on Ranger's face if you stop now."

"Walking, I'm walking. See me walking." She tottered into the bar feeling like Bambi as she tried to balance on shaking legs.

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie stood at the entrance to the bar and watched Connie with her fingers crossed. "Come on, baby, do me proud."

A warm hand covered her neck and a kiss was pressed into her hair. "You only have to say the word, Babe."

She leaned back, pressing her back into his warmth and resting her head on his shoulder. "You know what I meant. All set?"

"His room and hers are both wired, and there's another wire in the hem of the dress that she doesn't know about. Tank and Hal are on standby. It's up to her what happens next."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie sat down on the stool next to Max Wilson and ordered a beer. She raised the bottle to her mouth with shaking hands and slid a surreptitious look at him. He looked around thirty five, with floppy brown hair and a body that looked as though he had been fit once, but was starting to go slightly to seed. And he was completely ignoring her. Now what was she supposed to do? She had the bruises to prove that Stephanie's style wasn't right for her, and she doubted that she would be able to pull off the style of a plus sized hooker. Probably the best thing was just to have another drink. If Ranger was going to kill her, she might as well die happy.

She signaled to the bartender and asked for a large vodka, then raised her glass in a toast to her impending doom. "It was a short life, and generally a boring one. Cheers." She gulped the vodka and slammed the glass down with her eyes watering.

When she could see again, she was confronted by a pair of amused eyes. Max's eyes.

"Problems?"

"You have no idea."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"May as well. I'm going to die anyway."

He laughed. "I doubt that somehow. Why do you think you're going to die?"

"I have this job to do. And I just can't do it. Haven't got what it takes." She signaled the bartender for another vodka.

"What do you have to do?"

"I can't tell you." Baaad idea, telling your mark what you're up to.

"C'mon, how bad can it be? Maybe I can help."

She laughed shakily. "Somehow I doubt that." Not unless he was willing to drop his shorts right here and now and show Ranger his tattoo.

"At least let me buy you another one of those while you think about it." He ordered another vodka for her.

She stared into the glass while her mind whirled. Finally she took a deep breath and turned to face him. "OK, you really want to know my problem? I need a model. I need to draw a male nude for my art class, I'm too embarrassed to ask anyone I actually know and I'm going to flunk out if I don't do it. I thought maybe I could find someone I didn't know so that it wouldn't get back to my family, but I can't do it. Haven't got the guts. What was I going to do, just walk into a bar and ask some stranger to take his clothes off so I could draw him? I don't know what the hell I was ever thinking."

Surely he wasn't stupid enough to fall for it. He'd just had surgery on his face for God's sake, surely he'd be suspicious.

"Ask me."

"Seriously?"

"Ask me."

Oh please let it be this easy.

"Will you help me?"

"Of course." And he smiled at her in a way that made her stomach churn queasily. "After all, I'm sure you'll be very grateful. Shall we go up to my room?"

Maybe not that easy.

"I'll need to grab my sketchbook first."

"I'm in room 354. I'll be waiting for you."

Connie got up and walked slowly to the door, trying not to let the panic show.

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger faded into the shadows as Connie approached, leaving Stephanie standing alone in the corridor.

Connie hissed, "Powder room, now!" as she walked past her and continued down the corridor without stopping.

Stephanie waited a few moments then followed her.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was pacing frantically as Stephanie walked into the powder room.

"I need a sketchpad and some pencils, quickly."

"What? Why?"

"I'm in, but I…"

"You're in? Yes!"

"Easy for you to say. This is the point where your private army steps in. I have to do this alone."

"No, you have me and you will be fine. Now, you head up to your room while I try to find you some paper. And you are so telling me why you need it when I get back."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie headed out to the parking lot and, just as she had expected, Tank had a sketchpad and a box of pencils waiting for her.

"I will never understand how you guys do that."

"Trade secret, Bombshell."

She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down to kiss his cheek. "Thanks, Tank."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie went up to room 354 armed with her new art materials.

"Here goes." She took a deep breath and knocked. The door opened to reveal Max standing in the doorway.

Oh God.

"Max! You're… already naked. Great," she said weakly.

He grabbed her wrist and drew her into the room before she could run.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie's heart felt like it was going to pound its way right out of her chest. Max was posed on the bed, legs akimbo and, oh God, dick rising to half mast, but she still couldn't see the spot on his hip that she needed to.

"Max? Could you kind of throw your left knee across to your right so that your body twists?"

"That's so you can see the definition in my ass better, right? Sure, baby." He moved his left knee, and suddenly the tattoo was visible. Two blue-green lizards twisted around each other and biting each other's tails. All she had to do now was figure out how to get out in one piece and report the information.

"Baby? Are you drawing me right now? Because it's okay if you don't want to. There are lots of things we could do instead. I kinda wondered if it was just an excuse anyway."

"I'm drawing," she squeaked hastily and frantically put pencil to paper and started to sketch.

o0o0o0o0o

Five minutes later her nerves couldn't take any more. She closed her sketchbook and started to edge toward the door. "Well, I'm done, I can't thank you enough, you have no idea how grateful I am, and…"

He jumped up from the bed and grabbed her arm. "Hold on, not so fast, I want to see it." He took the book with his other hand and flipped it open. "A cartoon? This is just a cartoon! If you just wanted to get me naked why didn't you just… hey!"

Connie was twisting, trying to get free from him.

He gripped her arm harder. "Oh no you don't! We have unfinished business." He started to pull her back towards the bed, fingers sinking painfully into her arm.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she continued to struggle. She realized that, pound for pound, there was no way that she could match his male strength. Instead she stamped on his instep and pulled away hard as he yelped with pain. She broke free and tore the door open then bolted out into the corridor.

She was too panicked to see Tank and Hal sprint around the corner and force Max back into his room, kicking the door shut behind them. She raced around the corner to the stairs, where a hand grabbed her wrist. She screamed.

"Shh, shh, it's just me." Stephanie's voice filtered through her panic.

Connie tried not to sob as the adrenaline wore off, leaving her shaking and exhausted. "It's him. I saw the tattoo." Her voice trembled.

"I am so proud of you." Stephanie drew her into a hug and let her cry.

Through her tears she saw Ranger walk around the corner and stop where he knew she could see him. He was more frightening than Max, standing there in his painted-on black t-shirt and cargos. He looked at her impassively, then nodded slowly and raised one finger. One trial completed. Nine to go.