Disclaimer: The characters belonging to Janet Evanovich are used strictly for entertainment purposes.

A/N: Alright, only three left. New Year's Eve or bust! Thanks so much for your support and patience with me! I hope you all have a great holiday!

...

Chapter 27

The front door opened and Vinnie appeared in a pair of black silk pants and red smoking jacket with black lapels and cuffs. It clung to his skinny, non-muscular frame like plastic wrap clings to a piece of oddly shaped meat. His eyes were a bit droopy and puffy, as if he'd been asleep, which was likely the case.

He looked angry and then a little scared. His fake 'how can I help you' smile replaced the scowl and he stammered through the screen door, "Ranger, what a surprise. C-can I help you?"

"We need to talk."

The smile faltered a little and he fumbled with the lock on the push latch. When the door was open, he said, "Come right in. I, uh …" He struggled for what to say and then shrugged. "We were sleeping."

"This won't take long."

Ranger pushed past him and then I stepped in behind him. Vinnie went from overly helpful to horrified. "What the hell is this? I thought you bought it back in Trenton! Shit, what happened to your face?" Yep, same old Vinnie.

"Nice to see you, too, Vinnie." I looked around the room. No sign of Lucille. There was a plasma screen TV mounted to the wall to the right and two cushioned fake Ming chairs angled toward it. On the left wall was a colorful landscape painting of the Yellow Mountains with a sword mounted over it. Everything was Asian themed. It was a very comfortable parlor type of room.

Vinnie's smile was back and he glanced from me to Ranger and back. "Of course I'm glad to see you're alive. I'm just surprised is all." He gave a nervous laugh and said in a joking tone, "You couldn't get back here before my business ran into the ground, eh?"

He wasn't joking, despite the delivery and I stared at him. He was unbelievable, even if I'd expected him to be more worried about losing his business than about what happened to me. I would have been more concerned if he hadn't mentioned it. That he was acting like 'same ol' Vinnie' would probably save him from Ranger. If he wasn't acting like he had something to hide, he probably didn't know he had something to hide. Well, that and the fact that, if he'd been guilty, he would have been groveling to Ranger in a 'worried-begging-for-his-life' way the second he saw us.

Ranger's cool, professional façade didn't slip. "Where's Lucille?"

Vinnie's fake salesman's look faded and confusion replaced it. "Asleep. She took an Ambien. Lights out, you know what I mean? What's this about? Why are you asking about her?"

I sized up Vinnie. No shifty eyes, at least nothing more than normal, no nervous gestures. He really had no idea why we were here. Oh God, maybe Carlo wasn't here. I glanced at Ranger nervously.

He appeared to be thinking the same thing. He didn't speak for a few seconds and then he said, "We're here for the boy."

Shock, then disbelief and, finally, outrage flickered across Vinnie's face. "You want the kid? No way! We get him and Lucille finally shuts her damn mouth for five seconds. You can't just come in here and take him. If that's all you want, I'll make it easy for you. Get out!"

For a minute, I couldn't even respond. Was that all a baby meant to him? A means to shut up his wife? I didn't realize I was snarling until Ranger ran his hand down my back in a soothing stroke. I looked at him, shaking my head in disgust, and turned back to Vinnie. "You're unbelievable."

"No, you're unbelievable. You don't just come into someone's goddamned house at two-thirty in the morning and tell them to hand over their kid. I'm calling the cops."

"Be my guest," Ranger said in a low, serious tone. "Then we can show them the paperwork proving this child was stolen from his rightful parents. You and Lucille will go to jail. Makes this easier."

As Ranger spoke, Vinnie started waving his hands and shaking his head, chanting, "No, no, no. You're wrong. It was legitimate. We didn't steal the kid. It was a private adoption."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You sure about that Vinnie? Who was your adoption agent?"

"Well…" He huffed a few times. "I mean, I didn't…" A few unintelligible words spluttered out of his mouth. "Shit."

He'd been steadily talking louder and I worried that even with the sleeping pill Lucille would wake up. Had the guys gotten Carlo? Was he safe and out of the house?"

"Talk." Ranger said so much more in his tone and body language and Vinnie got the idea.

"No, okay? I wasn't there. But Harry handled it, found the people. Lucille went and met with the agency, showed up with a baby and adoption papers. All I had to do was sign." His speech was rapid, worried. Ranger always made him nervous, but now he looked caught. "What the fuck?" he said more to himself. He looked ready to dart in one direction or other, undecided, and then opened his mouth and bellowed, "Lucille! Get out here!"

Crap! I hoped the guys were out. Ranger didn't look worried, so maybe their part was done. Then again, Ranger always looked confident.

"Lucille!"

A distant thud sounded down the hall. The creak of a door, then a muffled click as it closed. I held my breath. Ten seconds later, Lucille walked in with the grumpy look of a person woken from a dead sleep for no reason, her thin frame weaving slightly and thick black hair in a loose braid pulled forward just over the top of her shoulder. Angry gray eyes, puffy from sleep, zoned in on Vinnie.

"Vinnie! What the hell is wrong with you! You'll wake the—" She saw Ranger, first, and then me. Her expression went from grumpy to a twisted anger and she turned and ran down the hall.

My heart skipped a beat. Please be gone, I thought to the guys.

A shrill scream tore through the house and Lucille ran back into the room and straight at me in maniacal rage, hands out like claws. "No! NO!" I half expected her to froth at the mouth. Her voice resembled the screaming of a panther rather than a woman. "He killed you. He told me!"

Ranger had grabbed her around the shoulders and held her pinned to his chest so she couldn't attack me. She fought against him. Biting, scratching, kicking her legs out. It was unbelievable. I'd seen her angry before, knew she was demanding, but this level fit more with Bedlam than Burg.

"Let me guess," I said, taunting her. "Dear old dad?"

"You're supposed to be dead!"

"Daddy lied."

She kicked Ranger in the shins and twisted her head down to bite his bicep. He might as well have been made of stone for all the reaction she got. He didn't budge. "That incompetent coward!"

"Oh Jesus," Vinnie whispered, finally snapping out of his shock at Lucille's fit of rage. "Shit, I didn't know about this. I didn't have anything to do with it! Who's damn kid did you steal?"

"Mine," Ranger said. His quiet voice didn't diminish the rage in his eyes. "And Stephanie's."

"Oh shit," Vinnie squeaked, eyes moving back and forth between me and Ranger growing wider as the enormity of what happened hit him. "Swear to God. I didn't know, Ranger! On my mother's grave—on my grave!"

Ranger quietly looked at Vinnie and then let him off the hook in a show of mercy that made my love swell for him even more, even if it was wasted on Vinnie. "I know."

We left Vinnie to stew over the information and turned back to Lucille. We wanted answers. "How did you do it? Find out about my pregnancy, I mean. I didn't even know."

My question seemed to calm her. A malicious smiled played at her lips. "I had a special friend in the lab." The way she said friend suggested more.

"How did you get 'your friend' to put his job at risk just to give you the information?"

"Are you kidding?" she asked. "He was crazy about me. All I had to do was make him very, very happy a few times a day and he'd tell me anything. I asked him to let me know whenever he processed pregnancy tests. He thought I was just obsessed with pregnant women, wanting to give them my congratulations. It worked out well. I got information and a man who adored me, which I desperately needed after being married to this bastard." She nodded toward Vinnie.

"You fucking whore!" Vinnie shouted. "You were cheating on me?"

Lucille sneered at Vinnie. "Get over it, Vinnie. Like I got over you. If it wouldn't have brought shame on my family, I would have left you in the first week. You're such a joke of a husband. Why wouldn't I go get it from a real man?" Put like that, what could Vinnie say?

Preferring to move past the subject of sex in regard to Vinnie or Lucille, I said, "So you found out and then, what, called your dad to get him to take me out of town for a while?"

"Yes, except he didn't live up to his end of the bargain. He was supposed to kill you."

"You planned to kill my cousin?" Vinnie yelled. "Where do you get off doing something like that to my family?"

"Shut up, Vinnie," Lucille and I said in unison. He spluttered a second and went silent.

I put my hands on my hips and stared at Lucille. "Why? I'd never done anything to you."

She shook her head. "It had nothing to do with you personally. You were pregnant. It was too perfect. I figured chances were good it was Joe Morelli's kid. A good Italian baby, one I was sure you wouldn't want. But I did."

Her reasoning almost made sense to me and I began to wonder if I was crazy, too. She'd thought I was pregnant with Joe's baby. She'd wanted a baby. Even better if it was Italian. "Why did you think I wouldn't want him?"

"I knew what your mother would do if she found out. Tell you to marry him. Anyone who paid attention knew you wouldn't give up your side piece here and there's no way Joe Morelli's pride would've allowed you to keep him." She smiled, but her eyes glazed over. "It was fast. I called Daddy and told him what I wanted. He tried to talk me out of it, but I made him see that it was for the best."

She spit at Vinnie. "I can't have a baby, and no judge in his right mind would let that thing adopt one." And, yet, she'd stolen my baby and subjected him to Vinnie. I wasn't going to think about that right now. "I should have left you. You're nothing but a dud, Vinnie. Can't get it up half the time, not unless you're with some freak." She cringed, as if realizing just how crazy it was to have stayed with him.

I couldn't disagree with her there. Vinnie turned a strange shade of gray and plopped down into one of the Ming chairs. I looked at Lucille. "So, you couldn't get pregnant and you wanted an Italian baby and figured if I didn't want mine why shouldn't you take it from me?"

"Yes. It worked out well until my father failed to kill you."

"Jesus God!" Vinnie said and jumped up from his seat. "Shit! What are you trying to do to me? Get me killed? Ranger's standing right there!" He shouted, gesturing wildly toward my silent, angry man.

Lucille chuckled. "You were so easy, Vinnie." Her face screwed up as if she would cry, and she bit out, "I did what I had to do. I wanted a baby and there was no other way. Daddy set it up so she'd be gone before anyone knew. She could have the baby and then he'd kill her for real." She sneered at Vinnie and I almost felt sorry for him. "Believe just about anything, don't you?"

"You're crazy," Vinnie said in a tired voice. He looked at me. "Take the kid. Do what you want to Lucille. I'm done."

Lucille shrieked and twisted in Ranger's hold. "You can't have him back! He's mine! I worked hard to get him, to keep him. You're not taking him from me!"

"I'll have you committed, you stupid bitch!" Vinnie yelled.

In a feat of superhuman strength, probably fueled by all the crazy, she broke from Ranger's hold and lunged at Vinnie. Before my mind could register seeing it, he pulled a gun out of a drawer in the end table next to the chair and pointed at her.

My heart jumped to my throat. It was a big gun. If he shot her, chances were that Ranger would be hit, too. "Vinnie," I said, trying to get through to him. "Put the gun down."

He didn't hear me. Lucille froze, staring at Vinnie with wide eyes. "You've made my life a living hell ever since our honeymoon. 'Vinnie do this. Vinnie do that. I'll tell Daddy. Daddy will nail your balls to the floor.' That right? Where is he? Huh?" He sounded wild, almost frantic.

Ranger stepped in front of Vinnie, hands up. "Vinnie, let the cops handle her. She's going away for a long time."

None of us were looking at Lucille, but her outraged scream drew our attention. She'd grabbed the sword from the wall and was now running straight at me with it. I had no time to react and then a gunshot rang out. Her eyes opened wide and she fell to her knees, then awkwardly to her side on the floor the floor.

Stunned, I looked at Ranger, but his hand was frozen at his holster, gun half drawn. My eyes flew to Vinnie and he still had his arm outstretched, his hand trembling with the gun still aimed at Lucille. I heard a soft thud and looked at Lucille, now lying lifeless on her back, her eyes still open, sword in her hand, red oozing from the side of her chest. It looked like the bullet must have passed straight through her heart to drop her that fast.

"She wasn't crazy when I met her," Vinnie said quietly. "Maybe I made her that way." He sank down onto the chair, gun dangling from his fingertips.

I wasn't sure what to do. Vinnie had shot his wife. She'd been running to kill me. He'd saved my life. And Carlo? I looked toward the front door.

"Go to the car, babe," Ranger said. I saw him pull out his phone when I turned to look at him. He nodded toward the door. "Go to our son."

I went to the door and looked back at the scene. Vinnie had finally relinquished the gun to Ranger, but his face was nearly as lifeless as Lucille's. I heard him say, "Harry's gonna kill me" as if he were saying he had to go to work.

Ranger said, "You don't have to worry about Harry." Then I walked outside. Out of the house of crazy into the muggy Florida heat and looked toward the SUVs and the rest of my life. Oh God. He was there. In the truck. With Lula. He was all mine now. Mine and Ranger's without interference.

I ran across the street, wanting to get away from the mess in Vinnie's house, but even more desperate to get to the truck. Finally, I'd have Carlo in my arms.