I still don't own them and I'm not making any money…

Thanks so much to everyone for reading and for all of the wonderful reviews. I love getting your feedback and seeing your thoughts on the story! And also, another bit thanks to Harmne and Haleigh.o for their help editing… You ladies are great! Other than that, please enjoy!

What Happens in Vegas

Chapter 15

Once I'd gotten my head to stop spinning from the sudden mood change, I managed to ask, "Who?"

"Sal Mancini."

I felt all the blood drain from my face at the sound of the name. Mancini was bad news. He was one of the higher-ups in Harry the Hammer's organization, and Harry is Vinnie's father-in-law. Connie had told me when Vinnie bonded Sal out, but I hadn't realized he'd skipped.

If he was FTA, there must be a reason. Harry usually made sure his guys made it to court appointments to avoid bringing attention to his organization. And if there was a reason, Harry probably wasn't ready for Mancini to go to jail. That meant there were more than likely guards and other thugs involved.

"Babe? You okay?" Ranger asked, holding me at arms length and studying my face.

"Yeah," I mumbled.

But I wasn't so sure about that. Even while he held me, running his hands up and down my arms, all I could see were images of him, lying on my apartment floor, bleeding.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah," I repeated, pulling away and shoving him in the direction of the bedroom.

He seemed to accept my answer and went to change. I wandered around the apartment, still slightly dazed, trying to convince myself that I was all right. Ranger had done other, equally dangerous, takedowns since the Scrog incident, and I hadn't reacted like this. I had no right to react like this. Nothing had changed.

Except that now he was mine.

I shook my head at that thought, unsure where it had come from. He wasn't mine. Not really. And even if he was, this was another thing I'd have to learn to live with.

I shook my head again, trying to discard the thought, and walked over to Rex's cage. Not for a one-on-one, since I wasn't even sure what was going on in my head, but for some hamster therapy. While I watched his little paws running on his wheel, I was able to work up enough denial that I thought I could see Ranger out the door without causing him to ask me if I was all right.

I reached that point just in time, because no sooner had I thought it than I felt a strong pair of arms go around my waist and a pair of lips settle against my neck. I unconsciously leaned back into him as a fuzzy feeling spread down through my gut. I had a sneaking suspicion that my worry was somehow related to that fuzzy feeling and tried to stop it.

"You better stop that or you're not going to make it to your takedown," I joked to Ranger as he nibbled up and down my neck.

"Okay," he said, turning me in his arms. "But do I get a kiss for good luck before I go?"

I managed to nod before his mouth came down to cover mine. And it was one good kiss. The fuzzy feeling that I'd been trying to banish moments before took over completely as I fisted one hand in Ranger's shirt and threaded the other into his hair, below his pony tail. Within minutes, I was completely limp, plastered against Ranger and held up by the arm he had wrapped around my waist. His other hand began pushing down the straps of my dress I was still wearing from dinner. He'd just succeeded with both straps when I felt a vibration against my hip.

I sort of enjoyed it, until I realized it was his phone as he reached between us to stop it.

Thinking he was going to continue the kiss, I was surprised when he pulled me against his chest and settled his head on top of mine. I followed his lead and rested my head against his shoulder, reveling in the feeling of his uneven breathing.

"Be careful," I finally whispered.

"I always am."

"I know, but I had to say it. I – care for you." I'd almost said 'I love you,' and was thanking God that for once I'd had control over my mouth when I felt Ranger take a breath to speak.

Before he could say anything, though, I felt his cell go off again and he flipped it open using that same the breath to answer. The only other thing he said was that he'd be down soon before flipping the phone shut.

"They're threatening to leave without me," he said, pulling away slightly and pushing the straps of my dress back into place with a slightly disappointed look.

"Then you'd better go."

I took another step away, but he pulled me in for a fast kiss before disappearing through the door. He was gone before I'd even realized he was leaving.

Stumbling into the bedroom, I flopped onto the bed, still in my dress and heels from dinner. It felt like forever ago that Ranger and I were celebrating my good day skip-hunting while he ordered me Cuban food in Spanish. In reality, it had been about an hour.

I lay on the bed, trying to make sense of my thoughts but they were too scattered and going too fast for me to comprehend. After a while, I finally focused in on one that kept repeating itself.

I'd almost told Ranger that I love him.

I'd promised myself that I would keep that piece of information to myself and not put Ranger in the situation of rejecting my love. I told myself it was because I didn't want him to have to deal with worrying about my feeling for him, but I was lying. It was really because I didn't think I could handle him rejecting me again. Last time, my heart wasn't all the way involved, but now I'd admitted to myself that I was head over toes in love with the man. And that was not information I had any desire to share.

But apparently part of me did.

Lying on his bed, in my thinking position, I wondered what had almost made me blurt it out. It could have been the kiss, or the fact that I was worrying about him. I wasn't sure, but I decided to be on guard in case it decided to try to slip out again.

That settled, my thoughts started whirling again until I had enough and scolded them into silence to be shoved them into the land of denial.

To keep them from resurfacing, I headed for the bathroom to shower, stepping out of my shoes and stripping my dress along the way. In the bathroom, I turned on the tap while pulling pins from my hair and discarding them on the vanity. When my hair was free, I checked the water temperature before stripping the rest of the way and stepping into the shower.

I washed my hair, removing all of the gunk from it, and then instinctively reached for the bottle of Bulgari before deciding to use my own gel. My hormones were sill buzzing from Ranger's good luck kiss, and the last thing I needed was to add his shower gel to the mix.

And there I went, thinking about the kiss I wasn't supposed to be thinking about. Even without his shower gel, my body hummed at the memory and the memory of the kiss this morning after breakfast. Both had felt like they were going somewhere… and then we'd been interrupted. I wasn't sure how I felt about the interruptions, but knew I wasn't happy about the confusion.

Ranger had been letting things go further than normal lately. Since we'd been married, there'd been a few soft, sweet kisses but the ones today felt different. I was just thankful that Ranger wasn't actively applying pressure at the moment, because I'd never survive that. And at this point, I was afraid I'd follow his lead as far as he'd let things go between us.

With that cheerful thought in my head, I shut off the water and climbed out of the shower, wrapping one of the large fluffy towels around myself before padding into the dressing area. I ran my fingers up and down the stack of Ranger's t-shirts until I found one that had been worn soft, and I pulled it out. Dropping the towel, I dug a pair of panties from the dresser, pulled them on and turned to deal with my hair. I ran a glob of gel through it to prevent scary morning-hair and I was ready for bed.

I tucked myself into my side of the bed and curled into a ball to sleep. It was early, but the early morning workouts with Ranger were catching up with me. After ten minutes, I still couldn't sleep. I flopped flat on my back and stared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep when the tendrils of worry that I'd felt earlier began to return. Ranger hadn't been gone long and I shouldn't even expect him back yet, but I still felt myself straining to hear him come through the front door.

Squirming over to his side of the bed, I rested my head on his pillow and breathed deeply, hoping that would help, but it didn't. Instead, it brought back the earlier images of him bleeding in my apartment and I felt myself sob before sitting bolt upright.

I would not lay here crying. This worry was one of the reasons Ranger didn't do relationships. I wouldn't try to convince him to have a relationship if he didn't want to, but I sure as Hell wasn't going to support his reasons against one.

Instead, I pulled the blanket from the bed and carried it with me into the living room to settl on the couch. Grabbing the remote, I flicked through the channels until I found a movie that looked like it could be interesting.

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"Babe?" I heard from far away as I registered a hand tangling itself in my hair.

"Hmmm?"

"Was this where you wanted to sleep?"

Huh? I'd wanted to sleep but I couldn't. "No."

"Good. You want me to take you to bed?"

"Mmmm," I said, with a little smile, feeling warm all through at the idea of Ranger taking me to bed.

He scooped me up off the couch, blanket and all, and I snuggled into his chest as he carried me. I was nearly asleep again when I felt myself being deposited on the bed.

"I was afraid you'd gone back to sleeping on the couch," Ranger said, leaning over me and rearranging the blanket.

"Why?" I asked in a sleepy haze. I wasn't sure if I was asking 'why he thought that' or 'why he was afraid of that.'

"You're in the right place now, so I'm going to go take a shower and I'll be to bed shortly," he said, ignoring my question

"Mkay," I said, smiling as he brushed a kiss across my forehead and disappeared into the bathroom.

Moments later, I heard the shower start up and with the sound reminding me that Ranger was home, I drifted back to sleep.

When I woke again, I was warm and cozy, wrapped up in Ranger. I could feel the even rise and fall of his chest beneath me, telling me he was still asleep, so I did a quick check to see what had made me wake up before him. I was very comfortable and I didn't have to pee, so I carefully cracked one eye and snapped it shut again when I realized the room was full of light.

Carefully this time, I opened my eyes again and moved so I could see Ranger's alarm clock. It said it was 8:23, but I couldn't believe it. Ranger never slept that late. I was just trying to see his face, to double check that he was really sleeping when his arms tightened around me.

"Are you going to hold still so I can sleep?"

"Sorry," I whispered automatically before sitting up a little. "Why are you still sleeping?"

"Didn't get back until about quarter of four, Babe."

"Oh," I said, snuggling my head into his shoulder, ready to go back to sleep.

Then the alarm went off and I heard Ranger chuckling because I jumped at the sound.

"You don't even know how to sleep in right," I grumbled, as I moved so he could turn the blaring alarm off.

"Not in my nature, Babe," he said, dropping a kiss on my head and disappearing into the bathroom.

By the time I'd gotten myself sitting up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, he was done in the bathroom so I took my turn. I quickly took care of necessities and joined Ranger in the kitchen.

And he was making smoothies.

He must have heard my groan of disgust, because he shut off the blender and turned to look at me. "Will you at least try it?"

"I tired one of you're smoothies before. They're yucky."

"I might have tried to start you off too healthy on the smoothie thing. This one's strawberry-banana, like you could get at the mall."

I gave that an incredulous look.

"Okay, almost. It has fat-free yogurt and honey to sweeten it." And then he picked up my hand and put the glass in it. "Try it."

I reluctantly took a sip, and then tried my hardest to hide that I liked it.

"Babe?"

"Fine. I like it. But don't try to get progressively healthy on me."

"Deal," Ranger said, holding out his hand to shake.

I took his hand, while taking another sip of my smoothie, so when Ranger tugged me towards himself, I got smoothie all over my chin. But he kissed me clean.

"That may be the best smoothie I ever made," he said, pulling back and giving me a wolf grin.

Stupid Stephanie told me to kiss that grin off of his face. Smart Stephanie reminded me that my resistance to him was crumbling by the day. And for once I listened to Smart Stephanie.

"Don't think you can get me to drink a healthy smoothies like that," I said teasingly as I pulled away. "I can see right through you."

And with that, I carried my smoothie into the bedroom to get dressed, adding a little swing to my hips as I listened to Ranger laughing.

He came in to finish getting dressed while I was putting on the finishing touches of my makeup, so we were ready to go at the same time.

"What are you up to today?" he asked, as we headed out of the apartment.

"I'm gonna stop by the office and see if Connie has any skips for me. Then maybe go after them."

"Just don't forget your guards."

I mentally rolled my eyes at that before replying. "As long as you don't forget yours."

"I remember the deal, Babe," Ranger said, pulling me against himself.

I squirmed, trying to get free, which made Ranger hold me more tightly. And start tickling me. His fingers danced across my ribs, making me giggle and try harder to free myself. I was just trying to tickle back when we heard the elevator doors open with a ping.

"Oh," we heard a surprised voice say, causing us to pause and look up.

We were once again caught by Ella. And she was looking at us with the biggest smile as she stepped out of the way so we could get off the elevator.

"Uh, hi Ella," I said.

"Hello, Dear. Will you two be having dinner in the apartment tonight?"

Ranger answered in the affirmative and her smile only grew.

"Any special requests?"

"Dessert," I said before Ranger could speak up.

"Wonderful," Ella said, still smiling as she got on the elevator and was gone.

"She didn't wait for my answer," Ranger said in mock complaint.

"You're not as fun to cook for," I said over my shoulder as I skipped off towards the control room.

By the time he caught up with me, I'd made it to the control room and met up with Woody and Ram, my guards for the day. I was just trying to get them moving when Ranger walked in, causing them to jump out of their seats. And me to glare at them.

"You all ready to go, Babe?"

"Yep," I said, still glaring at the guys.

"You have your gun?"

I held my purse out and he lifted it, smiling when he felt the weight of the gun. "And it's loaded," I said.

"Okay. Be safe and I'll see you tonight."

"You too," I said before heading for the elevator, knowing the guys would follow. They were officially on guard duty now and loosing me was a bad, bad thing.

"So," said Woody as we climbed into a Bronco, "what are we up to today?"

"We're going to pick up doughnuts then go to the office and see if Connie has any files for me."

"Ma'am, yes ma'am," Ram said, pulling the truck out of the garage and heading for the Tasty Pastry.

I rolled my eyes and made him pay for the doughnuts, then told the guys that, yes, we did have to go to the office.

"Hey, girl! You bring breakfast?" Lula asked as soon as the guys and I walked in.

"Yep," I said, enjoying the peace and quiet while she and Connie ate.

It wasn't long, though, before the doughnuts were gone and they were fixing their eyes on me. You'd never guess that they'd gotten in an inquisition the day before.

"Any files?" I asked Connie, hoping to stop the questions before they began.

"Nope. No one skipped last night."

"But nice try," Lula said. "Anything new with you and Batman?"

"Didn't we do this yesterday?" I tried.

"Yeah. But you two could have gone all lovey since then."

"Lovey? Ranger?" Woody asked in an incredulous voice from his position by the door.

"Okay, maybe not lovey," Lula said, "but are you two any closer to getting it on?"

"There is nothing going on. We're just living together until it's safe for me to move back to my apartment. Then we're getting a divorce and things are going back to normal."

"Right," Ram said, causing me to shoot him a death glare.

"You know something?" Connie asked, perking up.

"Just if nothing's going on, what was that in the elevator this morning?" Ram asked me as both he and Woody came and joined me on the couch.

I had to think for a moment about which of the 'nothing's' had happened in the elevator. And then I remembered Ranger had been tickling me. "That wasn't anything."

"Why don't you tell us what happened and we'll be the judge of that," Connie said.

"Ranger was holding her and then tickling her, and she was squirming and giggling. They made quite a cute picture on the screen."

"We're friends," I said before either Connie or Lula could say anything about that.

"So, if I ask Tank, he'll say Ranger tickles him like that?" Lula asked.

"Lula," I said, exasperated.

They went on like that, for another hour. I'd think Lula and Connie were satisfied with my answers and then Ram or Woody would say something to set them going again. Apparently, Ranger and I forgot about the cameras more often than we had thought.

When I finally had both of the guys standing and thought we were going to escape, Connie's phone rang. Before we could get out of the office, she waved frantically, signaling me to stop.

"It's your mom," she mouthed.

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A/N: Thanks again for reading! Please leave a review and tell me what you thought :) I love hearing from you!