TWENTY-TWO

I woke the next day to the cawing of gulls, the crashing of waves, and the smell of salt air and coffee. I opened my eyes to blinding sunlight, alone in bed. Blinking, I slowly let my eyes adjust to the day. The balcony doors stood open and a cool morning breeze filled the room.

A fluffy white robe lay on the foot of the bed. I slipped out from beneath the covers, shivering slightly as I wrapped myself in the robe. Freshly brewed coffee beckoned from the small coffee maker on the desk across the room, where an empty mug waited for me. I filled it with coffee, several creamer cups, and a few packets of sugar, then joined Ranger on the balcony.

Ranger sat in one of the patio chairs, his coffee mug resting on a round glass table. He wore black lounge pants and a black t-shirt. He caught my arm as I passed.

"Good morning," he said, pulling me down for a light kiss.

"Good morning," I replied, settling into the second patio chair and sipping at my coffee. The beach glittered in the morning sun. A few couples quietly strolled along the water line. Gentle waves crashed into the shore and blue ocean stretched out for as far as the eye could see.

Once the caffeine began to work, I turned to Ranger, asking, "What kind of business do you have this morning?"

"I need to acquire a few more fleet vehicles for Rangeman."

I paused for a second. "Acquire how? I'm not going to need to call Vinnie to bond you out, am I?" Where Ranger acquired his vehicles had always been a source of concern. I'd asked once, and he'd told me he could tell me but he'd have to kill me. I remained only half certain he had been joking.

"You'll see," Ranger replied with a smile. "You're coming with me."

I looked down at the crystal-clear pool below us and the pristine beach. "I think I would rather stay here and lounge by the pool."

"I'm sure you would," he responded. "Doesn't change anything."

Someone knocked on the door. "Room service," Ranger explained as he rose and answered the knock. A few minutes later he walked back onto the balcony with a tray, which he placed on the table between us.

It contained a large carafe of orange juice and two glasses, as well as two covered plates. I took the lid off my plate and found scrambled eggs, bacon, and a blueberry muffin. Ranger's plate had scrambled egg whites, whole wheat toast and half a grapefruit.

I brushed blueberry muffin crumbs off my robe as Ranger stood and told me, "We need to get moving."

I followed him back into the room. I showered first so that I could blow dry my hair and do my makeup while he showered.

"What does one wear to acquire cars?" I asked as Ranger stepped out of the shower, a towel around his waist.

"Nothing to make oneself stand out," he replied. My stomach did a nervous flip.

I pulled on a pair of khaki shorts that hit mid-thigh and a stretchy blue t-shirt with a modest scoop neck. I slid into a pair of flip flops, but then changed my mind and put on ankle socks and running shoes. Just in case. I carefully put mascara on my lashes and a light layer of lipstick on my lips. My hair was a frizzy mess, thanks to the sudden humidity, but there wasn't much I could do about it with just one hand.

"I don't suppose you know how to put a girl's hair into a ponytail?" I asked Ranger.

"I could put my hair into a ponytail at the nape of my neck when it was long," he replied.

I looked in the mirror and cringed. "Anything is better than this."

Ranger pulled my hair back from my face and twisted an elastic band around it at the back of my neck. "You're perfect," he said. "Let's roll."

The valet retrieved the convertible and I slipped into the passenger seat. I felt slightly panicky as Ranger drove us back toward the city. He hopped on the beltway and rode the interstate away from Miami, eventually taking an exit that led us into suburbia. We passed strip malls, chain restaurants, and roads to tightly clumped housing developments. Suburbia began to fade away, houses gained more yard and fewer neighbors. Ahead, I saw what looked like a large municipal building on the right side of the road. A huge gravel lot stood behind it, encircled with a chain link fence topped with shiny barbed wire.

Ranger put on his turn signal and swung into the lot. A big wooden sign staked into the grass read, "Miami-Dade County Confiscated Vehicle Auction" with today's date below it. A bored looking officer directed arriving traffic to park in the grass in front of the building.

"This is a car auction," I breathed, my stomach finally unclenching as Ranger parked in the grass.

"It is," Ranger said with a smile.

I punched him in the arm. "Jerk."

Ranger laughed. "You didn't really think I was taking you to steal cars, did you?" He angled out of the car and I followed suit.

"There are rumors about where you get your vehicles," I said in my defense.

"I know. I started them. Besides, I only get some of my fleet from auctions."

I gaped at him for a second. "This would really hurt your tough guy image if people knew you bought your cars from police auctions. Even if it's just only some of them."

"Which is why no one will find out. I'm invoking spousal privilege." We began walking toward the municipal building.

"I'm pretty sure spousal privilege is only for testifying in court. Plus, we're not married."

Ranger shrugged. "We're close enough."

I stopped dead in my tracks, breathing hitched. Ranger took a few more steps before noticing I no longer walked beside him.

"You're not going to hyperventilate, are you?" he asked, looking back at me.

I made a concerted effort to regulate my breathing. Currently, I lived with Ranger. I slept with Ranger. I sported Ranger's fake wedding rings. I was in Miami with Ranger, going to his cousin's wedding and buying fleet vehicles at a car auction.

"Shit," I finally said, "you're right."

Ranger retraced his last few steps and locked his gaze with mine. "Look, all I'm saying is that there are things I share with you that I don't share with anyone else. Marriage is a piece of paper. I share things with you because I trust you, and to me that's a lot more important than a piece of paper."

"And you trust me not to go ruining your reputation."

"Yes."

I mimed zipping my lips and throwing away the key. Ranger rolled his eyes.

We walked into the municipal building. A large table had been set up just inside the entrance. Ranger filled out a form and received a paddle with the number forty-seven on it for the auction. Beyond the table, lines of folding chairs waited in front of a stage made of moveable risers. A single podium sat on the stage, with a white screen at the back. The chairs stood empty. Everyone appeared to be outside in the impound lot, looking at the rows and rows of vehicles to be auctioned.

"So these are all vehicles the police confiscated?" I asked as I followed Ranger out a propped-open set of back doors and into the fenced in lot.

"Yes. Mostly from drug dealers and cartels that they bust. Anything they can tie back to drug money they can confiscate, and if the charges stick, they become property of the county. Every so often they auction off the inventory to raise money for the drug taskforces in the area."

I looked around at the rows of vehicles. Every make, model, and color seemed to be represented, including a sea of shining motorcycles. There were even several speed boats strapped to trailers in the back.

I noticed two men walking toward us and nudged Ranger. Both stood taller than Ranger, muscular arms covered in tattoos. They looked like they might be here to buy back cars that were confiscated from them.

"Relax, they're my guys."

Of course they were.

Ranger greeted his men in Spanish and they gave each other manly half hugs. One of the men carried a locked brief case, which he handed to Ranger.

"Steph, this is Dante and Tomás. Dante heads my Miami division and Tomás is his Tank. This is Stephanie Plum."

I gave them a little wave.

Dante looked at my bandaged hand. "What happened to your hand?" he asked in a thick Latino accent.

"I had a disagreement with the Trenton mob," I replied straight faced.

I saw Dante glance at Ranger, but Ranger's face didn't give anything away. Dante looked back at me and held my gaze for a few seconds before I cracked a smile and looked away.

"Eh, you almost had me."

"You're the one they call Bombshell, aren't you?" asked Tomás.

"I see my reputation precedes me." I raised my eyebrows at Ranger.

He shrugged. "I can't help it if the guys talk."

"You come with Ranger to pick out a new car? I heard your last one blew up in a mall parking lot," said Tomás.

I sighed. "You guys have a betting pool, too, don't you?"

Dante and Tomás looked confused. "They've got a betting pool in Trenton? How do we get in on this, boss?"

Ranger gave me a sideways look and a nearly imperceptible shake of his head. "Because what I really need is the Miami office betting on your next vehicle catastrophe too."

"Just call me Seabiscuit."

Ranger moved on from the subject. "You two see anything the Miami office can use?"

Dante shrugged and waved toward a row of SUV's. "The usual. But they got a real nice Ferrari 488 Spider that would really class up our operation."

"What color?"

"Black."

Ranger's eyes flickered toward the line of sports cars.

"Are you going to buy it for their office?" I asked.

"No. I'm going to buy it for myself."

We all trooped over to the row of sports cars, the Ferrari easily identified thanks to the large crowd around it. Flanked by Dante and Tomás, Ranger radiated an aura of intimidation. The effects parted the sea of people so we could get a better look at the two-seat convertible the color of midnight. Even I, who knew nothing about cars, recognized a drool worthy piece of automotive technology.

Ranger eventually dragged himself away from the Ferrari to look at the SUVs. He wrote down the auction numbers of a few on a card, then he turned to me.

"See anything you like?"

"I liked the Ferrari."

Ranger grinned. "That one is mine, but I'll take you for rides anytime you want. Pick something else for yourself."

"Wait, you're serious?" I asked, my breath catching in my lungs.

"I'm serious."

"I don't want you to buy me a car."

"I'm going to end up loaning you one, anyway. Might as well pick something you like."

"I'm just going to get it stolen, or set on fire, or blown up, or split in half by a snow plow."

Ranger smiled. The snow plow incident had exceeded everyone's expectations of my destructive ability.

"So pick something you'll really like for the next two weeks."

"I can buy my own car." No, I couldn't. At least not right now. But I didn't like being a charity case.

"Babe, I got the insurance check from the Jeep. I need to replace it either way. Now, I could just pick something I think you'll like or you can pick something you do like. And when you buy your own car, you can give it back."

We both knew the cars Ranger loaned me were almost never returned to him in one piece. They were usually returned in the form of insurance claims.

"Okay, I'll pick something," I agreed, turning back toward the SUV section.

Nothing really caught my eye until I saw a few pick-up trucks at the end of the row.

Ranger eyed me up. "See, that's why I wanted you to choose. I would not have picked this for you."

I examined the trucks. "It saves me from renting a truck to put the furniture back into my apartment once it's fixed." I explained. "It'll be good in the snow, and if I pick up a skip I don't want to ride in the cab, I can always toss him in the bed."

Ranger grinned, probably imagining me trying to toss someone into the bed of the truck.

I stopped beside a black Chevy Colorado with a crew cab and short box bed. It had side rails installed and dark tinted windows. I tried the door handle and found it unlocked. Dark gray fabric covered the upholstered seats. A fancy screen sat where I expected to find a radio and it looked like it had OnStar capability. Not that I needed OnStar when I had Rangeman. I climbed into the driver's seat with relative ease, thanks to the side rail, and scooted behind the wheel.

"How do I look?" I asked Ranger.

"Sexy," he replied, his eyes glinting darkly in the sunlight. He put a foot onto the side rail, raising himself level with me. "I will buy you this truck," he whispered in my ear, "but what you did to me last night, you are going to do to me again, here." He patted the side of the seat.

My knuckles went white around the steering wheel and my heart missed a few beats. "Maybe someone will out bid you." I sounded too hopeful.

"Not likely," he replied, stepping back to the gravel. "You'll find I'm highly motivated to win this auction." He offered me his hand and I hopped out, not entirely trusting my knees to hold me. Ranger shut the door behind me and guided me back to the municipal building.

Despite the number of vehicles, the auction moved quickly. Too quickly for me to fully understand the proceedings. Good thing Ranger controlled our bidding paddle. He successfully won several of the SUVs he wanted for Rangeman. I twitched in my seat as the Chevy Colorado came up for auction and Ranger smiled slightly at my discomfort. To my horror, the rest of the bidders seemed disinterested in the truck. Ranger won it for a steal. I tried not to dissolve into a panic attack. That left just the Ferrari. The room went eerily silent as it came up, the last lot of the day.

Ranger leaned forward in his seat, tense, game face on.

The auctioneer began the bidding and paddles rose throughout the room. I had no idea who bid what, but as the price climbed into the tens of thousands, the less serious bidders dropped out. The bids rose by thousands at a time, Ranger staying in the thick of it. The price reached what I considered an insane level, amounts that could buy a respectable house in the Burg. Finally, two bidders remained: Ranger and an African American man in the back of the room. Ranger bid another ten thousand dollars, reaching the limit for the gentleman in the back of the room. He bowed out and Ranger was declared the winner.

The entire room burst into applause. Several people shook Ranger's hand as they filed out of the auction area.

"You look shell shocked, Babe."

"I think I am. What exactly just happened?"

Ranger shot me a huge grin. "I just bought a Ferrari."

"Okay, that's what I thought just happened."

I followed Ranger out to a line of tables, where winning bidders paid for their new vehicles. Ranger placed the locked briefcase on the table and thumbed in the combination. Inside huddled stacks of bundled hundred-dollar bills. I tried to act like I saw this much money on a regular basis, but internally I freaked out.

Ranger paid for all the new vehicles, including the Ferrari, in cash, and received the keys and titles. He handed those over to Dante and Tomás, with directions to get the Ferrari, my new truck and one of the SUV's loaded on a car carrier and on the way back to Trenton by nightfall. The other SUV's would be driven back to the Miami office.

I slid into the passenger seat of the Mustang and looked sideways at Ranger. "I don't feel so bad about you buying me a truck now. That was just chump change, compared to what you just put down on that Ferrari."

"Babe, that Ferrari retails for over three-hundred thousand. I got the bargain of my life today."

"So, I know where you get your cars from now. Are you going to tell me where the briefcase full of cash came from?"

Ranger smiled as he backed out of his spot. "There are some things that should stay secret, for your protection and mine." I gaped as he pulled out into the main road, heading back toward Miami, our hair blowing in the breeze.