I just keep surprising myself. Just when I thought I wouldn't get this out... Yay! The fact that you guys were anxiously waiting kept me going. So thank you for being there mentally to kick my butt and get me to finish this.

Not mine, I just wish.

Warning: Tiny bit of smut.

Just so you all know, I re-uploaded 11. There was an error that I couldn't let go.

The first thing Ranger did when he woke the next morning was yawn.

Next, he grinned. He couldn't believe that all of his dreams were coming true. First, Stephanie dumped Morelli. Then she finally figured out that he was in love with her.

Ranger thanked every God he could think of that she was in love with him too.

Stephanie was curled into his body, her back to his front, sleeping peacefully. To Ranger, she looked like the angel that was meant to save him.

And perhaps she was.

He tightened his arms around her and vowed that as long as she was his, he wasn't letting her go. Stephanie sighed contently, but didn't wake.

Ranger leaned in and kissed her neck. Her citrus shampoo filled his nostrils and his cock twitched. He couldn't believe that even after all of the rounds of love making they did last night, the simple smell of her hair made him hard.

Of course, he had a lot of catching up to do. He hadn't lied to Stephanie. It had literally been eight months, three weeks and four days since he had sex with another woman. And that woman, ironically, was Stephanie.

In fact, the minute he found out that Stephanie and Morelli had broken up for good, he threw his little black book out. There was no one else for Ranger. All the other women were place holders until he could claim his woman. His grin widened. And claim he did.

As if she was reading his mind for a change, Stephanie moaned and stretched like a cat. Her pert little ass rubbed right onto his now twitching member.

"I can't believe you're ready again." She said, her voice still thick with sleep.

"You're the one rubbing against me like a cat in heat."

She stopped and looked at him over her shoulder. "Are you complaining?"

"Hell no."

She looked pleased. "Good." She tried to stifle a yawn. "What time is it?"

"A little after seven."

She groaned. "And you woke me up why?"

"Hey I did nothing of the sort! You did that all on your own."

She turned in his arms now. She had a teasing smile on her face. "Sure, but with this thing poking me in the back," she started to stroke him. "It was very hard to sleep."

"Well, we'll just have to remedy that."

Ranger nuzzled his face into the skin between her breasts as she continued to stroke him. He worked his way over to her left breast and kissed the little mole next to the nipple. Ranger loved her body, but this was his favorite spot. He spent a few more moments there before he was done with the teasing. Ranger grabbed Stephanie's leg and hitched over his waist, giving him the right angle to slide into her.

The feeling was pure perfection.

Stephanie arched in pleasure and let out a little gasp as Ranger gently rolled her onto her back. He waited for her to adjust and then began his thrusts. When she began to meet his hips, he found her clit and she was gone.

When they finally came back to earth, Stephanie had her head under a pillow. "Well, that was a nice way to start the morning."

"Glad you enjoyed it."

She pulled the pillow away long enough to roll her eyes.

Ranger just grinned as she fell back to sleep.

"So," Anne started with a big smile on her face. "How did you two meet?"

The three other ladies that had joined us, turned to look at me. Mary, Julia and Christine were all carbon copies of Anne, right down to their different colored track suits. Anne was in pink, Mary in blue, Julie had green and Christine was in yellow.

I suddenly felt overdressed in my jeans skirt and t-shirt.

"We met at work."

"Was he lifting something? I bet he's a good lifter." Christine interjected while she fanned herself.

"No, he was… um… in the office. I barged in and that was that."

"What did you do there?"

"I was trying to get a job, but instead, landed a husband."

"Those are the best jobs." Julia said. The other ladies nodded.

"So… none of you work?" I asked, surprised.

They chuckled. "Please, honey," Mary said, putting her mimosa down. "The only thing we work at is spending our husband's money."

"So they just sit around and plot shopping trips like d-day." I told Ranger when I got back. We were moving his stuff into our bedroom.

Our bedroom. It gave me a little bit of a tingle…

We were taking turns, moving back and forth through the room like a see saw.

"Isn't that what you and Lula do?"

"Sure, but at least we work for the money we spend. They just get it from their husbands."

"Did you actually learn anything useful today?"

"Yes! I learned that they hate their maids."

Ranger stopped me from putting the shirts in the drawer. "Cute."

"What can I say? I was around a bunch of society women all day." He let me good and I went to the dresser. "Although, I did learn something."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yep."

We worked for another moment. "Are you ever going to tell me?"

"What are you going to give me for it?"

Ranger's eyes darkened. He pushed me up against the wall. "What do you want for it?"

I smiled. "I believe this would be giving information to the enemy."

His smile turned full on wolf. "More like I know how to work my sources." He deftly unbuttoned my skirt and slipped his thumb across the top of my panties. "Please tell me."

I groaned. "You don't play fair."

"Never said I did." His fingers slipped lower. My eyes briefly crossed. "Well? What did you sleuth out?"

I snickered. "I don't sleuth. I detect."

He grinned. "You're stalling."

"Yep. And that's because two can play at that game." I said, slipping my hand down his pants. It was his turn to let his eyes cross.

"How did we get anything done before?"

"I think it's because I was cock blocking you."

"True."

"I tell you, we have sex. Deal?"

"Deal." He replied quickly.

"The husbands? They're in on it."

Ranger picked me up and threw me on the bed. "Later, I'm going to ask you how you know."

"Good. Later works for me."

Later, we were sharing one of Ella's meals in bed.

"Okay, spill. How did you figure it out?" Ranger asked. He was leaning on the foot of the bed in his boxers, twirling wheat pasta with marinara sauce.

He never looked sexier.

I smiled. "You won't believe me."

"Try me. And if you spill sauce on my favorite shirt, you're not going to like the consequences."

I played with the buttons. "I have a feeling I will though."

"Stop distracting me."

I sighed and twirled some pasta on my fork. "They told me."

He stopped and looked up. "They told you?"

My smile widened. "Told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"I believe you, but I'm just trying to understand."

"Julia is married to Julio Juarez."

His brow furrowed. "Is that name supposed to mean something to me?"

I was shocked. He didn't remember? "I thought you read the file till you knew it backwards and forwards."

"I did. I've had other things on my mind." His hand creeped up my leg until I swatted it away.

"You're nasty."

"But you love it when I'm nasty."

True. I rolled my eyes and grabbed the folder, tossing it to him. "Look."

Ranger read aloud, "Julio Juarez, leader of the Medellin cartel." He looked at me. "Holy shit."

"Mary and Christine are married to his lieutenants."

"You had lunch with the wives of the drug cartel."

"I sure did." I seemed pretty proud. "This just got a whole lot bigger."

"And I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

Tank, Bobby, Lester and Natalie showed up a few hours after sunset. Hal and Hector had showed up and were monitoring our players. Lester was trying to be all incognito.

That was, until he pulled up in a yellow corvette.

"That was a genius idea." Natalie scoffed.

"You know I'm just full of genius ideas." He replied, his eyebrows twitching.

Natalie rolled her eyes and blushed.

I smirked. They had the glow of their new relationship pouring out of their pores. Plus they were sneaking looks at each other, which were fooling no one.

Ranger and I filled them in on the information that I had gathered. Expletives came from the guys and Natalie sat back and sighed. "This just got more complicated."

"How so?" I asked.

"We're not up to taking on a whole cartel. We're not here to kill the monster, just cripple it."

Ranger nodded. "Getting rid of this guy will definitely take some steam out of their operation."

"We can't just let this go."

"We can't do anything about it. We're here for one man, not hundreds."

"There has to be something we can do."

"Gather what we can and give it to the right people. They'll see it through."

I nodded. I knew, in my head, that this was out of our control but it still sucked. "So we're not going to modify the plan."

"No. Just keep doing what you're doing."

Lester and Bobby filled us in on what they found. Mostly records and a few taped phone calls that they had managed to get after tapping the lines. It wasn't much, but it was a good start.

"We're going to take out his normal supplier and let Ranger take over that job. That should give us the information we need to make an arrest."

We all nodded. This was a good plan. Catch him in the act and maybe get some more information on his cartel buddies. The next shipment was supposed to leave in a week. This was our time table.

"Can't sleep?" Ranger asked me when we had gotten into bed. I was tucked into his side, using his chest as a pillow. He used his hand to massage my back, hoping to calm me down.

I sighed. "I keep thinking that we'll save the people the cartel has in mind for the guns, but what about the guy who takes his place? There will always be someone else in line."

"Yes, and when we take him out, they'll have to wait until the heat dies down before they start moving again."

"But they won't stop."

"No, they won't. I won't sugar coat this for you, Stephanie. Because it's an ugly world you're in right now. They'll stop for a little while, but then they'll do anything they can to cover the ground that they lost."

That's what I was afraid of. This was only a band aid to cover a bullet hole. Eventually, things would leak out again.

Ranger was silent as I worked out my feelings. This was what he had to deal with when he was in the wind. He could stop it for a little while, but the problem was never fully fixed. I looked up at him and I could tell that he knew what I was thinking. My heart skipped a few beats when he let me see the pain that he felt after all those missions.

"I had no idea." I whispered, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"There are dark corners of my world and I don't want you to see them." He whispered back. He cupped my cheek. "I don't want them to touch you."

"I know." I put my forehead on his chest. He hugged me closer.

All the things that we left unsaid, were conveyed in that hug. The fact that he has them and continues to be a good man to me and everyone around him is one of the reasons why I love him.

I sighed once more. "I don't like it, but I'm going to do everything I can to bring this guy down and if I find something to bring them down, then it's just a fringe benefit."

"There's my girl."