Eliza Higgins and Henry Doolittle

From the end of chapter 6:

"No, the fewer people who know the details, the better. Now go. We'll speak again once the men have joined you." She reached into the pocket of her long, flowing black skirt and handed him a card with her number. "Call me when the four of you have your plan ready and I'll do another reading to check on the outcome."

Chapter 7

Ranger thanked Stella and felt a tingle on the back of his neck when she covered one of his hands with her own. "Be careful, my dear," she told him in a soft gentle voice.

Something, either in her words or tone of voice, nagged at Ranger's mind, but he dismissed it, knowing Stephanie was waiting out in the hallway for him alone. He gave Stella a nod and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

"Are you okay?" Stephanie asked. "What did she say? You look distracted."

Ranger grabbed Stephanie's hand and headed for the front door, but stopped suddenly. "Shoot. I forgot to pay her," he said, pulling Stephanie back toward the sunroom. He let go of her hand and pulled some money from the pocket of his cargo pants. "I'll be right back."

Stephanie leaned against the wall while Ranger entered the room. A few seconds later, he was back with a note in his hand. He looked around, confused.

"What's wrong?" Stephanie asked him.

"She's gone and this note was on the table." Ranger handed Steph the note to read. It said: Don't be ridiculous, Carlos. I have never charged you for a reading and never will. Buy your woman some flowers or ... better yet ... a new hamster.

"Oh my god, she knows about Rex! Where could she have gone? We've been right here in the hallway the whole time. And when did she do other readings for you?"

Ranger shook his head. "I don't know and I don't know. There's a door in the sunroom that leads outside, but it's boarded shut. It's like she just disappeared."

Steph grabbed Ranger's hand. "Let's get out of here. This is the strangest experience I've ever had."

Ranger squeezed her hand and gave her a sideways glance as they headed to the front door again. "The strangest, really? Are you sure it wasn't your affair with Richard III?" he teased.

"Oh, you're as funny as a rubber crutch, Ranger Danger. I can tell you didn't spend the past 700 years working on your stand-up routine."

Ranger opened her door and helped her into the SUV. After closing the door, he ran around to the driver's side and slid behind the wheel. "Warriors don't do stand-up, Babe," he deadpanned, causing her to smile.

They were quiet for the next few minutes as Ranger drove them out of the hood and back into more familiar territory.

He cut his eyes over to Stephanie and saw her punching numbers into the calculator on her iPhone. She paused and glanced at his profile. "So, do you believe her?" she asked.

Ranger drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "If you'd asked me this morning if I believed in soul mates and past lives, I'd have laughed out loud. Now? I can't help thinking there's something to it. How else could she know some of the things she knew? How did she know about Rex or that you kissed me last night? How did she know about my plans to build a business with Tank and Lester and Bobby? How did she leave that note which she didn't even have time to write and how did she disappear?"

"I know," Steph agreed. "It's all very weird, but somehow it must be true. My Spidey sense didn't pick up any deception on her part."

They were quiet again and Stephanie went back to punching numbers into the calculator. "Yowzer!" she whispered rather loudly after peering more closely at the readout on the calculator. "Ranger, if everything she said was true, how many times do you think we've had sex?"

Ranger barked out a laugh. "I have no idea, Babe, but if that's the first question on your mind, it explains why I go looking for you every lifetime and don't give up until I find you," he said with a wolf grin.

Stephanie backhanded him on his arm causing him to laugh even harder. "Smartass."

When he finally stopped laughing, he said, "I guess this blows your theory all to hell, Babe."

Stephanie was focused on her calculator again, punching in a new set of numbers. "What theory is that?"

"This morning, you suggested you don't have what it takes to hang on to a man. Come to find out, you've had me on the hook for over 700 years. I'm guessing you not only have what it takes, you also know how to use it," he said as he pulled into her driveway.

Stephanie felt her face flush a bit, but giggled in spite of her embarrassment. "Another question for you, Ranger Danger. How many times do you think we've kissed?"

Ranger released his seatbelt and slid closer to her. His left hand cupped the right side of her face and he leaned down and thoroughly kissed her. Breaking the kiss, he leaned back a bit and caught her eyes. "I have no idea, but if you're planning to keep track this time, that was number two. I'm pretty sure you're going to need a bigger data plan for your iPhone before this lifetime is through."

Stephanie's eyes grew larger.

"Does the thought of a lot of kissing surprise you, Babe?"

She gave him a playful grin. "No, I just didn't know the calculator was eating up my data plan. I pretty sure you're messing with me about that."

"Possibly," he admitted with a grin, although I wasn't teasing about the kissing." He tugged on one of her curls and smiled as he watched it bounce around once he released it.

"Is six o'clock good, Babe?"

He was sitting so close to her and smelled so heavenly, he was making it hard for her to think. "I'm not sure if six o'clock is good or not. It may be a matter of opinion. It's also possible six o'clock is just a placeholder between five o'clock and seven o'clock."

Ranger barked out another laugh. "Now I know why I keep seeking you out, Babe, you really are good for my soul."

Stephanie didn't reply and he saw the confused look on her face. "Babe, we have a dinner date tonight. I was wondering if six o'clock is a good time to come back and pick you up."

Stephanie shot up straighter in her seat and looked out the windshield, noticing for the first time that they were sitting in her driveway at her house. Holy cow, talk about not being aware of her surroundings! "I knew that," she lied. "Six o'clock is good."

She stuffed her iPhone into her purse, pulled out her key ring, unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door and hopped out all in one quick continuous motion. Without taking time to think about it, she blew him a kiss. "Don't be late, my handsome, brave warrior."

"I shall be one minute early, my beautiful fair maiden," he quipped, blowing her a kiss in return. It made him feel silly, but he didn't care one bit. He was going to spend the rest of this lifetime with a beautiful, smart, sexy, funny, intriguing, blue-eyed woman named Stephanie, and it was gonna be good.

Stephanie went inside and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator, then headed to her office to start her searches for the day. She needed to work fast because she was a bit behind schedule from this morning's outing with Ranger. Her hand went to her lips when she remembered the spark that shot through her when he kissed her. She had no idea how slowly or quickly things were going to move from now on, but she was no longer worried about being in a new relationship. It was as though everything changed in the blink of an eye and suddenly everything felt sort of magical. She sighed as she moved her mouse to bring her computer out of sleep mode. Just yesterday, she had all kinds of reservations about Ranger and now she had to admit she was falling in love.

Ranger pulled out of her driveway, then pulled over on the side of the road. He opened the file for the skip named Doug Griffin and got the address for his sister. Punching it into his GPS, he headed out to bring him in.

Doug was indeed at his sister's house. Another thing Stephanie had been right about. Less than two hours after leaving her house, he was dropping Doug off at the Trenton Police Department. Once he collected the body receipt, he headed to his apartment which was less than five minutes from the TPD.

The apartment was large and had two bedrooms. It was located above an independent hardware store. Ranger had been told the apartment once belonged to the well-to-do owner of the hardware store which explained why it was much nicer than your average two bedroom apartments in the area.

It had two full bathrooms, hardwood floors, large expensive area rugs, a fireplace, and a built-in bar as well as a large living room and combination kitchen-dining room. It also had a small laundry room with a washer and dryer included in the rent.

The owner had passed on and his two sons were running the store, but both owned their own home so they rented out the apartment. The outside door was accessible from a set of steps at the back of the building.

As Ranger ran up the steps, he felt goosebumps rise up on his arms, though his gut didn't sense any danger. Still, he pulled his gun and opened the door slowly after turning the key.

Stepping silently inside, he immediately saw the source of the goosebumps. "Santos!" he said with a big grin. "I was just going to call you. What the hell are you doing here?" He tucked his gun back into the waistband of his pants and crossed the room to share a complicated handshake with his cousin.

"Hey, Ranger. Good to see you, man." Hope you don't mind me letting myself in."

"Not at all, but why are you here?" Ranger motioned with his hand toward the kitchen and Lester followed him.

"I'm not sure, really. I just had a weird feeling I needed to be here so I hopped in my truck and headed this way. The drive is less than an hour, so I figured if you weren't actually in trouble, we could at least visit for a while and catch up."

Ranger grabbed two beers from the refrigerator and they each took a seat at the table. Ranger laughed. "You could have called first, but that really wouldn't be like you. I'm glad you're here, though."

Ranger spent the next fifteen minutes filling Lester in on Pete Saffron, Stephanie and the things they'd been told by Stella.

Lester let out a low whistle when he was through. "That's some crazy shit, Ranger, but the weird thing is, I was getting these weird vibrations when you were talking. They were sort of like little confirmations about the things you were saying."

Ranger got up and fetched two more beers from the fridge. "I know exactly what you're talking about. I've been getting a weird tingling feeling on the back of my neck and spine when I'm around Stephanie and it happened with Stella too."

Lester twisted the cap off his new bottle of beer. "I'm not sure what to make of all this, Ranger, but I do know the next step. "We need to get on the phone and get Bobby and Tank out here."

"That's exactly what I planned to do when I got home a little while ago. I'll call them in a few minutes. You're staying here tonight, right?"

"If it's okay by you," Lester said, glancing around. "Nice place you found here."

"It'll do until I have Rangeman up and running," Ranger said with a shrug. "Once Bobby and Tank get here, we'll have to figure out where everyone will sleep. Tonight you get the guest room all to yourself."

"Sounds good. You wanna rent a movie or hit a couple of bars tonight?" Lester grinned and his green eyes flashed.

Ranger laughed. To Lester, hitting a few bars was synonymous to hitting on a few women. "Can't. I have a date tonight. I hate to leave you here by yourself since you just got here, but I really need to keep this date."

"Stephanie?" Les asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course, Stephanie. You think after everything I just told you, I'd be going out with someone else tonight?"

Lester shrugged. "It seems like after 700 years with the same woman, you'd be ready to move on," he said with a laugh.

"Not this woman," Ranger told him. "And, it's not like we've been together for 700 continuous years, just several lifetimes. That said, I'm hoping when it comes to Steph, I've got a good seven or eight hundred more years left in me."

Lester swirled around what beer was left in his bottle and eyed his friend. "Fine with me. The fewer women you get involved with means more for me."

"And you can have them, man-whore." Ranger held out his bottle for a toast. "I've found the only one I need ... again."

A/N - Hope you like chapter 7. Thank you again for the reviews for chapter 6. I'm glad Stella was a hit.