I burst through the stairwell door and into the secured Rangeman parking garage. Hot, angry tears streamed down my cheeks as I sucked the cool air into my lungs, trying to calm myself enough to contemplate my next move. Sure, I wanted to be far, far away from Ranger until I could emotionally sort this out. That said, I wasn't suicidal. I wasn't going to go running onto the street for Wulf to grab. Death by the dragon claw didn't sound appealing. I needed to start thinking rationally before I did anything stupid.

The touch of a warm hand at the small of my back frightened me. I turned to see Diesel standing close, a small, humorless grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You alright?" he asked, pulling me close. I didn't have the energy to resist, so I let him, relaxing into his toned body.

"Ask me again tomorrow," I said ruefully, wiping tears away with my shirt sleeve.

We stood there for what felt like hours, but was probably more like ten minutes, my body held tight to his. It wasn't a romantic touch; rather, it was the touch of two friends inexplicably bonded like family after a multitude of strange, sometimes life threatening experiences together. Life didn't give me any brothers, but if it had, I hope they'd been like Diesel.

I shivered against the cool air, and Diesel motioned toward the Turbo.

"Shall we?"

I raised an eyebrow, but he pushed me in the direction of the car anyway. I walked to the passenger side door and pulled the handle.

Locked.

I gave Diesel a questioning look, and he returned a megabucks smile. He grabbed the driver's door handle, and the door popped open.

I couldn't help it. Even in my distressed state, I rolled my eyes.

Diesel unlocked my door, and I slid into the soft seat of the Turbo next to Diesel, where the air was warmer and the conversation more private. I wiped the tears from my face with my sleeve one last time and clenched my jaw, steeling myself against any more.

"Did he ask you to go after me?" I asked softly.

"No," Diesel responded. "He started shouting orders to his men in black to secure the exits, and that you were not to leave the building."

I sighed.

"I'd make a joke about being held prisoner here, but this isn't really an appropriate time given the gravity of Lizzie's situation," I said. "I know he wants to protect me, but he's taking it too far. Locking me down here? Brainwashing me into staying in? Ranger needs to take a chill pill."

Diesel smirked. "For the record, he didn't brainwash you. He persuaded you to make up your own mind to stay here."

Great. That made me feel so much better about the situation.

"Steph, we've worked together plenty of times, but there's still a lot you don't know."

I nodded. I was fully aware there was a lot I didn't know, and when it came to the world of unmentionables, I was mostly okay not knowing.

"I work for the Board of Unmentionable Marshalls, or the BUM. You know that I track down unmentionables who are using their talents in troublesome ways and extinguish their abilities if tasked to do so. But what you don't realize is that Ranger got this job offer long before I ever got it, and he turned them down."

I sat in stunned silence, so Diesel continued.

"Ranger learned at an early age he had the power of persuasion, but he didn't use it. Not intentionally, anyway. Because of his abilities, people are naturally drawn to Ranger. He's a natural leader, and people trust him or follow him easily. He's not one to intervene like he did with you this week, though. He doesn't really buy into the unmentionable thing, even when he can see the talent he possesses."

I had a dozen questions racing through my brain, but I tried to select one.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"It wasn't my information to share," he said honestly.

I contemplated my next question, worrying my lip between my teeth.

"Why did he turn down the job offer?" I finally asked, curious.

Diesel shrugged.

"The way I understand it, he got the offer maybe five years ago. At the time, he was working as a badass bounty hunter for your cousin and working government contracts, but he was interested in getting his own business off the ground. He wasn't willing to give up his goals for a job with no pay and no room for advancement."

I could feel my eyes go wide.

"You don't get paid?" I asked, completely flabbergasted by this piece of information.

"All my needs are met," Diesel said. "What do I need paid for? Plus I get to see the world, and I have a flexible work schedule. And it's fun."

I tried to process the information I'd just been given, but I was still hung up on Ranger's role in this.

"Anyway, Ranger got offered my job shortly after he met you, but he turned it down. Then I got hired," Diesel explained. "He's always lived off the radar in my world. He's on our books, but we hardly ever interact with him. And he doesn't use his abilities."

"Except this week," I said, frustration obvious in my tone.

Diesel thought for a moment before responding.

"Steph, it would be stretching the truth for me to stay Ranger and I were friends. We've talked a handful of times before, and when your safety has been at risk in the past, we've cooperated. But we're not adversaries, we're just different."

Diesel sighed and slouched into the soft leather seat.

"Even disclosing that much, I know enough about Ranger to know that keeping you out of harm's way is always his number one priority. He may be unwilling to admit it most of the time, but that guy loves you fiercely. With all your past outrageous schemes or hair-brained ideas, Ranger was able to protect you with his innate skills and physicality. Without his body and mind operating at peak potential this week, he panicked. He saw you offering yourself up as the sacrificial lamb to get Lizzie back, but he had no power to protect you in the scheme. The rest of his cards were on the table. He had to play the only card he had left to ensure your safety, even if it was a card he was ashamed to play."

"That doesn't make what he did right," I countered.

"I'm not defending him," Diesel explained. "I'm just calling things the way I see them. He's never tried anything like that with you before, and I can almost guarantee he won't try it again."

"How the hell would you know that?" I asked Diesel, crossing my arms over my chest.

Diesel gave me a shit eating grin.

It took a minute, but the pieces finally fell into place.

"You really can read minds," I said, disbelieving as I said it. "That's why you made the comment about the Turbo."

I swear my nipples got hard just thinking about that single, magical sexual encounter in Ranger's car.

"Jesus!" he exclaimed. "You two think about that time in the Turbo entirely too much. I can't read all minds at all times, but I am better tuned in to some minds. Some people are more forthcoming with their thoughts, too. I tend to do better reading unmentionables since we're on the save wavelength."

"You seem to do okay reading my thoughts," I said.

"Honey, everyone can read your thoughts. You plaster precisely what you're thinking on your face every time. Don't take up poker."

Touché.

"So what do we do about Lizzie?" I asked, changing the subject.

Diesel stared ahead, his eyes unseeing.

"I don't know," he finally admitted. "I've tried everything I know to try. "

"Except dangling me as bait," I said.

"Yeah, except that."

We sat digesting that thought.

"I'm game," I finally said, breaking the silence.

"Hell no!"

I glared at Diesel.

"Huh? What?" I was feeling truly perplexed.

"I'm not doing anything without Ranger's blessing. You're his woman," Diesel explained. "Plus, I feel compelled to protect you too, and I'm not sure I can with Wulf acting so unpredictably right now."

"Wait, hold the phone. We'll go back to Wulf, but I want to address the 'Ranger's woman' crap first. I am not, nor have I ever been, Ranger's woman," I said.

Sure, I wanted to be Ranger's woman, but we'd done the 'no relationships' drill enough times to know our stolen kisses and dancing between the bedsheets wasn't headed in the direction of commitment and blissful matrimony.

Diesel grinned at me. "Keep telling yourself that, sunshine."

I rolled my eyes again. If I kept this up, chances were my eyes were going to roll out onto the Porsche floor.

"Back to Wulf," I redirected. "You said he's acting unpredictably. Explain."

"Wulf is under the influence of an empowered object that was identified by Hatchett. The object is a stone empowered with the deadly sin ira, which is Latin for wrath," Diesel explained. "The keeper of the stone is influenced by the stone's powerful pull. Since wrath embodies emotions like anger, hatred, and rage, Wulf isn't acting his usual, stable self, which only underscores my concern for Lizzie. The stone of ira is one of seven stones empowered by the seven deadly sins-pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. This is the fourth stone we've identified and collected."

I tried to compartmentalize the information I'd just absorbed into logical, rational compartments in my brain, but I couldn't make room for any of it. Instead, I decided to store the information under the 'folklore and crazies' category where Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Sasquatch lived.

"Anything else I should know?" I asked, almost afraid to ask.

"How much time do you have?" Diesel joked, jabbing me in the ribs with his elbow.

"Ow!" I cried out, playfully grabbing my ribs and giving him a smirk.

He smirked at me, but his demeanor grew serious again quickly.

"We've got to find her," he said softly, his voice thick with emotion.

"We will," I replied. "Let's go hash this out with Ranger. I'm going to help you find her."

I opened my door and placed my right foot onto the parking garage floor.

He gave me a sad smile. "Unless you decide not to."

"If he helps me decide not to help, you need to be even more persuasive than him," I said, hauling myself up and out of the car.

"How do you propose I accomplish that?" Diesel asked.

"By connecting your fist to his face until he restores my free will."