I am not receiving money or property off of anything submitted here. I am only borrowing the characters Janet Evanovich created. My use of JE's characters will be different than her use of them and they will change and be considered by many to be OOC. The characters I own are mine and may be borrowed here by anyone for their use here. I will return JE's characters when I am finished with them and they will be in the same pristine condition as when they were borrowed...no matter what their fate is in my fiction. Thank you for reading.

The ship was a hive of activity for hours after that. People went to their cabins, but there were enough of us that had been around that kind of thing before who stayed up in the lounge and waited to find out what the coroner had to say.

Javier found Ranger and me at the bar in the cigar lounge.

"Murder," I sighed.

"His neck is broken," he said quietly. "He's definitely dead. The coroner thinks he was murdered, but we won't know till tomorrow. They're running a tox panel too."

"He was on lockdown," I shook my head quietly.

"Yes," he agreed. "And he had a different guard than Points had."

"Have you finished interviewing the crew?"

"Yea and the cruise line do background checks as well. We're following up on those background checks ourselves, but it could take some time."

"If this was murder, Tank couldn't have been involved. What happens then?"

"Beats the hell out of me," Javier admitted. "I have no idea who could have done this. But…Tank couldn't have done it. Our guys were guarding his door."

"I know, we saw them when we went by," Ranger nodded.

"I'll be honest with you," Javier said quietly, "my men will be happy to be off that detail. Tank and Lula have more sex than anybody I've ever met. It's like nonstop."

I grinned, "Told you."

"You're not helping," Ranger sighed.

I grinned and sipped my drink.

"If this is murder, my office is going to be putting a lot of pressure on me to keep everyone on the ship until this thing is solved. That means nobody goes ashore. That means…"

"No wedding," I said grimly.

"Exactly," he nodded.

The doctor approached us with a grim expression on his face. He leaned down to whisper to Javier and then left us to hurry away.

"Well," Ranger raised a brow.

"Tank is off the hook," he sighed. "But nobody else on the ship is."

"This sucks," I mumbled.

"Yea," Ranger agreed.

"I'm going to go see Lula and Tank, if that's okay," I said.

"Sure…they're letting them know now that Tank's no longer a suspect."

I hurried up the stairs to the Diamond deck and knocked on Tank and Lula's cabin door.

Lula answered the door with a laugh. "They know Tankie is innocent. Did you hear Stephanie? Did you hear?"

"I heard," I nodded. "There's a chance we'll all be confined to ship though."

"What," she blinked tearfully.

"You may have to get married aboard the ship," I said seriously. "We need to consider the logistics of this and how we can do it."

"I'll talk to Molly tomorrow," she said calmly.

"You're okay with this," I blinked.

"Tank's not a suspect. We can still get married. I feel great," she admitted.

"Well, all right then," I smiled. "I'll leave you alone."

"It would be helpful if you'd figure out who did do it before we get to Cayman though," Tank said coming into the room. "I mean, we'd like a honeymoon."

"What the hell do you call what you've been doing every minute on this ship so far," I blinked.

"Warming up," he grinned.

"You guys are shitheads," I sighed.

"Wait a minute," Lula said pulling me down to their sofa, "you're telling me that you and Ranger have been sharing a cabin and a bed for how long now and you're not…he's not…"

I sighed, "No, we're not."

"Well, why the hell not," she blinked.

"Because I love him and it might scar me for life," I said with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to solve a murder or four."

"Well, I'm sorry it's happening now," Tank said seriously, "but I'm not sorry they're dead. It's their karma man, they brought this on themselves."

"How many men died as a result of their betrayal?"

"Only one," he said with an angry expression on his face. "Phillip King was the only man who died. They were transferred out of our unit immediately after that."

"Phillip King," I nodded. "Okay…well, you guys get some rest. We're in Cozumel tomorrow and if they let us off the ship, we should hang out together."

"Sure thing," Tank grinned.

"Well, maybe," Lula giggled.

"Oh gross," I groaned and got up and left their cabin. I went straight to our cabin and opened my laptop and fired it up. There was nothing there from Juliet, but it didn't mean that I wouldn't send her yet another research question. This time I wanted to know about Phillip King. There had to be a connection here. There just had to be. My spidey sense was tingling off the charts.

After I fired off my email I went back up to the cigar bar to find Ranger with a cigar in hand sitting around with my father, Jean Luc and several of the guys including Gabe, Ram, Cal and Lester. Javier was there as well, and he didn't look like he was 'in uniform' at that time. They were consuming brandy and they were all pretty mellow.

"Tank and Lula are relieved," I said with a smile.

"I'm sure," Jean Luc grinned. "I know I sure as hell am."

Ranger tugged me down into his lap, "are they coming up?"

"I think they…they have other things to do," I shuddered.

"They're not going to have anything left for the honeymoon," Jean Luc grinned.

"They said they're warming up for that," I sighed.

The men at the table chuckled. I suppose they understood it. I wish I had a clear understanding. Maybe if I had sex more often, I would.

Ranger grinned, "Babe…"

I groaned. I sure as hell hoped it was his ESP and not my big mouth. "I think I'll have a drink and then head on up to bed. I'll just leave you gentlemen to enjoy yourselves."

Ranger kissed me quickly and softly and helped me to my feet. I went to the bar with a smile and ordered a margarita.

Cal and Lester settled on either side of me and placed orders themselves.

"Any famous tingles," Cal asked.

"Yep…I got one tonight."

"What is it," Lester said.

"Phillip King was the only casualty of the thing with the four dead men," I said seriously.

"Yea," Cal nodded. "I mean there were some other injuries, but he was the only one who was killed."

"Did he have any family?"

Lester frowned, "I think he had a brother. But I can't remember his name."

"Wasn't he engaged or something," Cal said thoughtfully. "Her name was Maria or something wasn't it?"

"Oh yea, you're right," Lester agreed. "The brother introduced them. I just can't remember his name."

"Me either. I don't think I ever met the guy. He was in California or something, wasn't he?"

"Yea, he was an actor or rock singer or something," Lester agreed.

"Well…unfortunately Phillip King is a common denominator outside of your Unit. I am afraid I'll have to dig there, plus…I have a tingle."

"Who's giving you the tingle?"

I leaned over and whispered into Cal's ear.

He raised his head in surprise, "you're sure?"

"Well, it's a tingle. What can I say?"

"I trust your tingles," Lester said.

"You guys could maybe keep an eye on them," I suggested.

"We could do that," Cal agreed.

"I think I'll grab my suit and hit the hot tub."

"All right, be careful," Cal said kissing my temple, "there's a murderer out there."

"Yea… I know," I agreed.

I went to the room and kicked off my shoes into the closet and rummaged through my drawers for a bathing suit. I found my swimsuit and changed quickly. I made my way to the deck with the hot tub and eased my weary body into the warm water and lay my head back. Solving murders was stressful. Having suspects in my mind made it stressful too. But without proof, it did nothing for me. I had to pray that Juliet would come through for me.

I heard someone joining me in the water and opened my eyes to find Marco Garcia in the hot tub with me, "hi."

"You don't mind, do you," he asked.

"Of course not," I agreed.

"I was happy to hear that your friend Tank has been cleared," he said with a smile.

"Me too," I sighed. "Of course, it meant that someone else had to die."

"Yes," he sighed. "How did your friend know the victims?"

"They were in the same unit in Afghanistan. They were all Army Rangers."

"And many of the guests of the wedding couple were in the same unit as well?"

"Yes, quite a few of them," I agreed. "Lula probably wouldn't have invited the four men who are deceased if she had known all the specifics, but they came and that's the way it goes."

"She didn't know what?"

I shrugged, "there was some bad blood. The four men who died were involved in giving away information that got one man killed and several others hurt."

"Were they the only four men involved in that? Should we expect any more murders?"

I smiled, "there were a total of six men confirmed and they implicated a seventh man, but Ranger and Tank both believe he was innocent of the charges."

"What do you think," he asked seriously.

"I think Ranger has great instincts. If he thinks Ghost is innocent, then Ghost is innocent."

"Ghost is his name," he said in amusement.

"Yes," I nodded.

"Is he on the ship," he asked.

"I doubt it," I smiled. "He disappeared in Afghanistan and is MIA."

"Oh…how sad," he said with a sigh.

"Yes…for his family it's very sad."

"Why don't they believe this Ghost had anything to do with it?"

"I'm not really sure," I sighed. "Ranger's an excellent judge of character and he's got his own built in lie detector. If he thought Ghost was involved, he would have said so."

"Ghost is an odd name," he said quietly.

"Yes it is," I agreed. "But no odder than Ranger, or Tank or Score, Points, Cable, or…"

"I think I get your point," he smiled.

"Yea…men are odd," I laughed.

"Was that the point you were making," he grinned.

"No, but it should be interjected into a conversation as often as possible."

He grinned, "You don't hate men do you Stephanie?"

"Oh God no," I shook my head. "I love men. I love them way more than they love me. I also have the most horrible taste in men usually."

"Is Ranger bad taste?"

"No, he's just got a problem with commitment," I smiled.

"I do not have a problem with commitment," Ranger said easing into the hot tub beside me. "Don't listen to her Marco."

Marco grinned and watched me roll my eyes. "You know Ranger…if she thinks you have a problem with commitment," he paused as he climbed out of the hot tub, "maybe it's because your words and your actions don't match."

Ranger just blinked at the man as he walked away. "What does he mean by that?"

"It's pretty self explanatory," I said with a smile.

My father joined us dangling his legs into the hot tub. "Have you solved this crime yet Stephanie?"

"Not yet Daddy, but I have some suspects now," I smiled.

"It would be really helpful if you could solve it soon," he said seriously. "I mean before Tank and Lula's wedding would be nice. Your mother is never going to want to take another cruise at this rate. I like cruises. But she's going to think whenever she goes on a cruise there will be a murder."

"Only if Ranger and I are on board," I smiled serenely.

"I would tell her that to reassure her, but I have a feeling it wouldn't work," he said with a sigh. "Well, you kids take care and have a good night. I'm off to bed."

"Goodnight Daddy," I smiled.

"Goodnight Pumpkin, goodnight Ranger," he smiled.

"Goodnight Frank," Ranger waved him off. He watched him walk away, "you have suspects?"

"I do," I agreed.

"Your spidey sense," he raised a brow.

"Yep," I nodded.

"Babe…we're running out of daylight."

"I know…I am working on it. I promise you, I am working on it."

"Work faster," he said grimly.