Chapter 6

A crowd was gathering around the van by the time we got outside, but they parted to give us a path up to the back that had the doors flung wide open. Woody looked up when we climbed in and indicated the jump seats that we could pull down so that we could sit. Ranger took care of the seats while I handed the food to Woody. His eyes showed surprise, and then he smiled. "Thanks," he said.

"From my mom," I told him, glad that he appreciated it, but not wanting to take the credit for the gesture that I really should have thought of myself.

Ranger pulled me back to sit next to him and we all concentrated on the voices coming from the speakers of the van. Woody had turned it way up, so that everyone could hear.

Silvio was talking, detailing everything about the house, and the activity of the thieves. The two they had followed out to Newark joined at least two more people when they got inside the house. It was too bad that we had no surveillance inside of the house. Our equipment was limited to the boxes, and they were still in the car.

Moments later, the garage door opened and the driver came out, jumping into the car and backing it into the big empty garage. As the doors were closing, Mrs Gritch made an observation. She was one sharp gal, not missing a thing.

"No one lives here," she said. "No one has a garage so completely empty, especially not people who end up with lots of things that they've stolen but may not want." She shrugged, an action that I found a bit adorable at her age. "They have to keep stuff somewhere until they sell or pawn it, and that someplace is often in the garage."

Woody had been tapping rapidly on his keyboard and started nodding. He never turned around, but he addressed his comments to Mrs Gritch. "The house is vacant ma'am," he said, appreciation for her attention to details evident in his voice. The bank info was displayed on his screen. "Foreclosure notice means that the bank will hire someone to list the property, but without an anxious seller on their tails, most Realtors won't be paying much attention to a place like this, especially one in a neighborhood that is so badly in need of revitalization."

Ranger got up and stood behind Woody, stooping over to look at the screen. Whatever he saw there seemed to hold his interest for a few minutes.

"Bet they'll be gone by tomorrow," Ranger said. "If we're going to make a move, it might as well be sooner than later," he said. Woody glanced up, exchanging a meaningful look with him. I got the feeling that things were about to get a little bit exciting.

The same feeling must have been felt by everyone standing around the van, because they all started talking at once. Grandma raised her hand and shushed them, she did not want to miss a thing. Amazingly the noise stopped immediately and we all waited. Then we heard it.

The speakers picked up people yelling. "Oh, my G... ack," a guys voice said.

"What the... oh," another deeper voice was heard. "What the hell is this?"

What sounded like gagging sounds came next, and I heard the snickers behind me.

"Out, get out," someone said, and we heard the rustle and footsteps.

Ranger turned to Grandma and the crowd with her. He allowed a bit of a smile. "We can hear all of this through Hector's microphone," he said. "He snuck up to the house and was next to the window when the thieves started opening the boxes."

There were some guffaws and some high-fiving going on with Grandma's friends. Then we all heard the shouts and surprised screams When Hector and Silvio grabbed the thieves as they burst out of the house to get away from the stench.

In the thrill of victory, Grandma and the neighbors burst out laughing and shouting. Some of them even started dancing around, doing what looked like a dosey doe. I have never seen any of these people so excited, or spry, may I add.

Ranger had turned back to the monitors and was talking to Woody and whoever else he was connected to. Now that the thieves had been apprehended and caught with the goods, there was evidence enough to turn them over to the police. There might be some little jurisdiction issues, since the thefts had been done in Trenton, and the apprehension was in Newark, but that was a small detail that no one seemed to care about.

The party moved inside and Grandma had a great time recounting every detail. Operation catch the pirates had been a huge success. But I was worried what was going to happen when they all realized that while the thieves had been caught, the boxes they had stolen this time had been the decoys. No one had said anything yet, about recovering the stuff that had been stolen before. And that is what I would have been most interested in myself.

When Ranger joined me, he pulled me aside, and proceeded to answer the questions I had just been thinking about. "The police are not there yet, but the pirates are subdued and Hector has done a quick run through of the house. He found a room filled with lots of merchandise," he said.

"That's great," I said, my excitement must have shown in my eyes, because he put his hand on my shoulder, which effectively clogged my brain and stopped whatever it was I was going to say next.

"We will need a complete list of everything that was stolen," he said. "That could take some time, since a lot of what was taken were gifts, and no one knew exactly what had been delivered."

I nodded slowly, he was right, but if I knew my grandmother, and her friends, they would contact the senders of those packages and would have that list before anyone could blink an eye. They were a determined bunch of people, and I was pretty sure that they wouldn't let anything stop them now.

Almost immediately, Eddie Gazzara and his new partner pulled up at the curb. I looked at Ranger, he had called in the police, did that mean that his involvement was over now? My heart dropped, he was going to pack up and leave as soon as he gave his statement to Eddie. Just the thought of seeing him go made me want to cry.

It had been a long time since Ranger and I had seen each other much. The flirting was not the only thing that I had missed. But make no mistake about it, I really loved the way Ranger flirts. Its just that he was my friend. Yeah, I would love it to be a whole lot more than that, but I cherish his friendship and I've really missed him. So much.

Five months ago, Ranger had been gone in the wind somewhere. I always get worried about him when he is gone. Looking at Ranger, standing with Eddie by the SUV, it hit me. I had been scared that something bad had happened to him, so scared I had made a trip out to RangeMan to talk to Tank.

While Tank could not assure me that Ranger was perfectly fine, the fact that Ranger had made his scheduled check ins when he was supposed to, meant that he was not dead. A fact that left me more than a bit relieved.

Joe had confronted me that night. Of course, someone had seen me and it got back to Joe that I had been at RangeMan. He hated that, he had even tried to forbid me from having anything to do with Ranger more than one time. That had never gone down too well with me, and we'd fight over it.

I should have made this connection before, the realization washed over me, heating me through even as I stood in the drizzle watching Ranger. Most of the fights I'd had with Joe centered on my friendship with Ranger. I would not give it up, not for Joe, not for anyone. Heat rose to my cheeks, making them burn.

For so long I had been fighting about Ranger. How had it never occurred that what I should be doing was fighting for him. He was turning to leave, his involvement with this was over. But I was not done, not by a long shot.

"Ranger," I called out as I rushed over to him. He waved to Woody, indicating that he was free to go, and he turned to me. Suddenly, I had no idea what to say. 'Don't leave me', came to mind, but it sounded too desperate. 'Do you want to grab some lunch' sounded equally lame, as it was only ten o'clock in the morning. What could I say to let him know that he meant more to me than anything in the world? That I wanted to be in his life, that I couldn't live without him in mind.

My eyes felt wet, as tears of frustration and yes, desperation filled them. I looked down, all I needed to do now was have him see me crying. No, not going to happen. I took a deep breath and raised my head to face him. Somehow I was going to let him know how I felt.

When our eyes met, that familiar jolt, that thrill, that just being near him brought, zinged through me. But before I could say a single word, he reached his hand out to me.

"Babe," he said. And I knew that, in his single word, he was saying he knew. He knew and he felt the same. I let him pull me into his arms, and I wrapped my arms around his waist as he held me close.

I was glad that we had had this little talk.