Chapter 5

An hour later, seven packages had been lifted, and Silvio was tracking the car with the thieves. Ranger and I were sitting at the dining room table with Grandma, Mrs. Gritch and my mother, who had insisted that we take a little break for something to eat.

Ever the burg hostess, she had planned a nice little breakfast feast with a fruit tray and a basket of freshly baked muffins. I had to be impressed, mom is the quintessential hostess, and she gets to know her guests and their needs.

For me, coffee to keep me alert. For Ranger, fruit was the right choice, and for the ladies, the muffins were not only a great breakfast, but a conversation piece to keep them distracted as we all waited to hear more from Silvio and Hector.

"Newark," Ranger suddenly said. We all looked at him. "The car stopped in a neighborhood in Newark."

"What do we do now?" Grandma asked. "Are you going to storm the place, and take those buggers down?" She and Mrs Gritch looked at each other and then at Ranger. Their faces showed the hope that some severe justice was going to be served up to those low life creeps.

"Technically, they stole our goods, so we have the right to at least question them," Ranger said. "The police would need a search warrant for that," he said. "But security and bondsmen don't," he said that looking at me, including me in his explanation. I felt that it made what I do seem a bit more legitimate to my mother, and I couldn't have been happier that he did that for me. "Not if we have reason to believe that our property or our suspects are inside," he continued.

Now we all wanted to know what was going to happen. Our attention was on Ranger. He must have been listening to Silvio, because he stopped talking and was very still. Sometimes he gets into a zone and doesn't move a muscle for hours, I have never known how he does that, but right now, he didn't need to be in a zone, so I had to wait with everyone else to know what he was finding out.

I am not the most patient person. After I gulped down the last of my coffee, I had nothing else to do. Under the table, my leg started bouncing up and down, and I may have accidentally bumped into Ranger, because the next thing I knew, he put his hand on my knee to stop the bouncing.

It worked, I froze. His touch always does incredible things to me, and this time was no exception. Heat flushed through my body, and suddenly I forgot how to breathe. His hand gave my knee a little squeeze and moved away. I missed the contact immediately, but at least I was able to take a badly needed breath. When I dared steal a glance at him, he was looking at me. The corner of his mouth twitched. It was almost a smile and I suspected that he knew exactly what he did to me.

That realization made me stop and have a small conversation with myself. If I know what he does to me, and he knows what he does to me, and we both seem to like it, then why don't we do anything about it? It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question. Only I just did not have an answer for it.

On one hand, I was not currently in a relationship, in any sense of the word, and had not been for a very long time now. So it was not as if my interest in Ranger could be construed as a rebound after leaving Joe or anything. I could conclude that our reaction to each other was the natural course of things.

On the other hand, Ranger had once said that he does not do relationships. I could quote the excuses he had come up with time and time again. Starting with his life was too dangerous, all the way to the ridiculous condom instead of a ring statement. I had nearly gagged when he had said that. Puleaze! How did he even let these kinds of words exit his mouth.

My distaste for the lame reasons he had given made me wonder if there was any way I could change his mind. He seemed set in his ways. But the fact that those ways included some mind blowing kisses made me want to find some way to open up the possibility that we could be together.

If my reaction to him was any indication, we had a strong connection, and that could mean that there could be something more significant between us someday, didn't it?

"Babe?" Ranger was looking at me again, but it didn't seem like he had heard my thoughts, so at least I don't think I had said any of that out loud. Thank goodness! But I had obviously missed something. I blinked a few times, trying to find a way to ask him to repeat what he had said without sounding too lame.

"Are you coming with us?" Grandma asked. "Come on, the guys are back with the van, and Ranger said that we can listen to everything that is going down in Newark," she said as she nearly ran to the door.

"It might be a little bit crowded," Ranger said, indicating Grandma and Mrs Gritch who had practically raced other out of the house. "Woody has audio from Silvio and the team that followed the thieves to Newark. It should be interesting," he said, holding his hand out to me.

"Yeah, right, lets go," I said, as if I hadn't just zoned everything out with my internal musings. I grabbed his hand, bracing myself for the intense current that would zap through my arm to the rest of my body. The jolt hit and I closed my eyes for just a moment. I was getting to really like this feeling.

Before we got far, mom caught up with us and shoved a plate and a coffee mug in my hands. "See if the man in the van would like something to eat," she said, ever the hostess. But it was a good idea and a nice thing to do, so I smiled and thanked her and we hurried out to the driveway.