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Later that evening as Steph sat munching on takeout pizza alone at her stark table in 'Chez Alcatraz' as she'd dubbed her accommodation, she ran through all that had happened since setting foot in the building.

What a day of contrasts. The lack of enthusiasm and the indifference. The down right hostility. The rudeness of the leader Connor and the lies he then went on to feed her.

She thought back to their conversation just after she'd stunned Chase – oh - the arrogance of the man!

After correcting him three times, she'd finally gotten Connor to register that her name was not Stacey or Stella. It could have been that she stopped him mid sentence everytime and calmly said "Stephanie, my name is Stephanie" but she thought it more likely that he stopped being so fucking rude when she started calling him Clarence. She giggled as she recalled the shock on his face and how she'd managed to raise one eyebrow at him to silence his challenge.

Yay, go me! She thought. Steph 1, Atlanta 52…

As she reached for the last piece of cardboard that the pizza base had obviously been made from, her thoughts ran to Ranger and how much easier it would have been if she had been able to hide behind his coat tails, to bask in the strength he used to lend her.

Lend her…

Used to…

What she wouldn't give right now to know that in some way or another he still cared. Despite Rees' adamant belief that Ranger still loved her she knew better. She'd been a bit of light relief, agreed he'd given her things, but she'd given him things too. Granted her gifts had little or no monetary value, but he'd known their true worth, just as she had a good idea of how many dollars he'd forked out.

Despite the 'no price' comment he'd made, Steph knew that the last thing she'd given him had been too high a price. What she wouldn't do to be able to take back her heart. One day she would, either by force or just because bit by bit it would have wriggled out of his hands.

She leant back against her chair and sighed as she rolled her eyes. Now was not the time to think about him and part of her was glad that she couldn't see his influence around her. She stopped suddenly in her mental meanderings.

That's funny, she thought, nothing about this building, its business practices or its personnel reminded her of the man that held her parting gift to him. It was as if he'd never even been here at all. As if this company was not even part of the Rangeman portfolio.

Hmmm, she thought and she quickly stopped her pity party as an idea crept into her head. Jumping out of her seat, she wandered over to her laptop and fired it up. Sauntering back with it to the table, her brain working overtime, she failed to notice the text message alert that caused her phone to vibrate.

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger finished the text he was sending as Julie returned from the restrooms of the little Cuban restaurant he'd taken her to, hoping as he pressed 'send' that its contents would be read in the right way.

"Right, young lady." He said sternly as he crossed his arms and leant back in his chair. "I think it's time we had a proper talk, don't you, hmmm?" He raised an eyebrow as he waited for her reply.

o0o0o0o0o

A couple of hours later Steph went over the information one more time and grinned. She'd found the Atlanta team's achilles heel.

And they were in serious financial shit.

They had poor conversion rates as most of their quotes did not even make the final line up and that was when they even got a chance to submit a tender. They had even worse capture rates. And just last week they'd also managed to lose a couple of sizeable accounts. Funny that Connor had yet to tell anyone about it…

On the flip size, they did seem to be extremely good at some of the more unpleasant things such as redecorating and gang clearing. Why did this not surprise her! Thing was, there wasn't much call for this area of expertise in this neck of the woods.

As she turned off the laptop Steph picked up her phone intending to call Tank to discuss her findings and what she planned to do about it. Hmm, text message waiting she idly thought, expecting Falcon or Lester or… anyone but the person who'd sent her it.

Sitting down on her bed and as she read, she felt the first glimmer of hope grow inside of her. Once she finished she pressed reply. "Thank you, your support means more than you could know. Can I talk to you tomorrow about something really important, please?" She wrote quickly, before turning it off and heading to the bathroom to clean her teeth and change into her pj's.

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger's phone beeped to let him know he had a message but as he was currently discussing schools with Rachel and Ron he ignored it and decided he would read it later.

Later, as he exited the Martine's house, Ranger opened his phone and read Steph's reply. Despite the fact that she was probably wanting to talk about work related matters, a flicker of hope grew in his heart and for the first time in a long time he felt glad to be alive.

o0o0o0o0o

The next morning Steph's alarm went off at 5.50am so she crawled out of bed and slid, absent mindedly, into her gym gear before heading up to three to begin her newly upgraded fitness regime.

The elevator dinged quietly so, again, without thinking she stepped inside and leant on the back wall, her thoughts on the revelations the previous night had brought.

As the car reached 4 it dinged again and the doors opened to reveal Chase who wordlessly stepped in and turned to join her on the back wall.

"Nice work, Pretty Thing." He said slowly.

Steph eyed him suspiciously and said nothing.

Just after they'd begun their ascent, Chase leant forward and stopped the car before turning to her. "Just wanted to apologise for my behaviour yesterday. I shouldn't have been so fucking rude and I shouldn't have underestimated my opponent." He added shaking his head, a wry smile spreading over his face. "You gotta understand this is not a happy ship and most of us would be on the street if we didn't tow the line and as the majority of us have interesting histories, if you get my meaning, employers don't exactly line up to take us on." He looked pointedly at her.

Steph nodded in understanding, hell all she had to do was look at people like Hector and Zero.

"Just know that I'm here for you, Pretty Thing."

Steph looked long and hard at him then pressed the button to start the elevator once more. "Friends?" she asked, extending her hand with a nervous smile.

"Friends" came the determined reply as they shook to cement their new relationship.

o0o0o0o0o

"Report!" Ranger barked as he sat down the next morning to get an update on the week's activities. He pretended to listen, as he chewed over his conversation with Rachel about Julie, but as soon as Lester began to talk about the run in between Chase and Steph he took immediate notice.

He leant forward slightly, steepling his hands in front of his face, elbows on the table. No-one in the room failed to notice how much more he was suddenly listening.

Lester went on to explain how Steph had stunned Chase just after he'd turned on her earring and added that the subsequent meeting with Connor had been tense to say the least but that he had thawed slightly once he'd realised she was more than a beautiful package to be unwrapped, eaten then discarded. Several men in the room had had a faraway look on their faces as they'd imagined Steph being unwrapped...

Eaten...

Tank coughed loudly and then focus was restored.

Les' mood then changed as he went on to talk about the lies Connor fed Bomber about how well the office was doing and therefore how she needed to pack up and go home. He'd book her onto a flight back to Trenton at the end of the week. With her permission, of course.

Ranger looked at his core team before saying anything, however the whole world had stopped and neither Tank, Lester nor Bobby had taken a breath.

"Looks like there's something fishy going on so I think it would be the right thing to bring our good luck charm home, don't you think?" He then stood up, obviously the meeting was over, and turned to leave. "I hadn't realised what a mess Connor has allowed Atlanta to get into." He added sadly as he left the room.

"Yeah" said Lester under his breath "that's because you don't like to spend any time there. The ladies round there are just not your type…"

"I heard that. 0500 mats, Cuz!" came Ranger's reply

All Lester could do was roll his eyes and pout "Well… it's true!" he added petulantly as he went in search of a cup of coffee.

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger walked into his office and sighed.

Sighed? Since when did I, Badass Manoso sigh? He thought as he sat down. Since you first met Stephanie Plum. Came a tiny voice hiding at the back of his brain.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and at that moment, his cell phone rang.

"Ranger?"

"Yo…Babe."

"Hi" came her nervous reply "Have you got a moment?"

All the time in the world "Sure, what's on your mind?"

"I think we have a problem in Atlanta. I've been going through…"

Ranger zoned out slightly as his hopes were dashed. Somehow he'd hoped she wanted more than business Ranger…

…"and it looks like Connor has been playing with the figures he gives you…"

"Sorry, pardon?" Ranger spluttered, his thoughts now fully focused.

At that moment there was a weird muffled clunking noise coming from Steph's end.

"Babe. What is that noise?" he asked, confused.

"Oh, I think it's the waste pipes. I think they must go down the inside of the walls…"

Ranger furrowed his brow "Babe. Where are you staying? Can you describe the room to me?"

"Well, I call it Chez Alcatraz. It's got no windows and it's pretty basic…"

Ranger stood up, anger radiating from his every fibre. Not only were they treating his woman like shit, but they'd housed her in the emergency overnight stay for contractors. He had a perfectly good penthouse, why wasn't she staying there he wondered.

At that point he realised he'd growled.

He also realised he'd referred to Steph as his woman.

"Do you need to feed the beast, Ranger?" Steph asked, a smile in her voice.

"Sorry Babe. Carry on." He said sitting down. It would do no good to explain his outburst. He needed to hear what she wanted to talk about THEN he was going to kick some ass.

"Well, apart from the fact that he's been massaging the figures, I think Connor is focusing on the wrong business. On things that are not as profitable or regular as some of the other work Rangeman does. For example, out of the last 6 quotes he has been asked to bid on, only one of them made the last three and that one went no further. He lost the Brella and Mountjoy accounts late last week – I bet he hasn't told you that yet, has he? And he seems to spend all the men's time fitting them up to put the fear of God into the wrong section of the community or using excessive force when cleaning unwanted scum out of neighbourhoods. Did you know most of his team fear him putting them out on the streets and those that don't hate him are as unpleasant as he is?"

"Are you sure?" came Ranger's stunned reply. "Where did you get all of this information?"

"Weeeel, you know me..." she sniggered. "I looked through the company mainframe and then would you believe Chase corroborated it when we were working out in the gym this morning."

"Proud of you, Babe." Was Ranger's only reply.

"I know I stunned him yesterday, but it was Chase who did the apologising to me this morning. Something about underestimating the enemy and not being aware of his surroundings" she giggled again.

Dios! Thought Ranger as the sound filled his soul.

"Babe."

"Yeah, I know." She replied gently. "So, what's the plan, Boss?" she asked, changing the tone of the conversation before either of them said something they might come to regret.

"Well, for a start, I think we need to move you out of Alcatraz." He said slowly. "Then I want you to go and kick some ass. Leave it with me for a couple of hours, ok?"

"Sure. Ranger, can I just say something."

"oooo kaaaay…" he said slowly.

"it's just… it's just that I thought you hated me after the way we left things and well, yesterday, your text… I know you've still got my back and that means so much to me…."

"Yeah, me too, Babe. Me too." He whispered

As they listened in silence to the words that neither of them could say, they both realised that the opposite of hate was love.

Someone cleared their throat "Gotta go, Babe." Ranger said quickly "Don't go crazy."

"And don't get shot." She replied softly to the dial tone.