Hehehe! One of you dubbed me the "dark plum" writer and made me snicker. I'll take it. Oh boy, you should read one twisted version of There is Only One, I wrote. I was in a melancholy mood and my fingers got to typing and phew, it became a twisted mess. That's why I wrote two versions. See, I've known good people that have bad secrets and that is what this is about. I think these characters are capable of that. If they are not going to be moved along in a natural way, at least make them realistic with faults and problems like real people now and then. Even if you want to hate them, it makes them interesting and the story gripping. Right?

Anyway, very positive reviews and I appreciate it. Keeps me tip-tapping on the keyboard. I have a new one and have already wiped off half my letters.

I'm getting better at self editing. So, all mistakes are mine on this one!

Warning - A couple details are spilled about Ranger's behavior with Stephanie.

Previously -

I finally fell over exhausted and spent. I was in a post coital fog and could barely hold my eyes open, moving into a sated state of unconsciousness. Stephanie rolled to her side as far away from me as possible, curling up into the fetal position on the edge of the bed. I had wanted to break her, but the opposite happened. I couldn't physically perform another minute, and drifted into that familiar and uncomfortable dream state I'd adopted. Just before, I almost said, "Babe," and reached for her to pull her to me, then remembered and retracted my hand. This was not my Babe.

My eyes snapped open when I heard a door click. I turned my head and looked at the vacant bed. Stephanie was gone.

Chapter 4

I quickly grabbed some jeans out of my bag and put my running shoes on, grabbing my wallet as I moved. I ran down the stairs and headed to the hotel doors and looked out , I saw her curly locks just as she ducked into a cab. I ran out the door and growled, rudely knocking a guy out the way and jumping into his cab, yelling at the driver to follow the one ahead just moving after a red light.

I felt a burning need now to know her story. The anger was gone and I just couldn't leave like this, with so many unanswered questions. The cab stopped at a small, run down, apartment building and Stephanie stepped out and ran up the steps. She was crying. I told the driver to stop and paid him, ran up the steps, and heard a door open and close a couple of flights up. Looking to my left, I saw a mailbox with the name Plum on it, and headed up the stairs.

When I got to the door, I was shocked to hear a baby crying. I listened another minute, then picked the lock, and opened the door. She and another woman were standing there shaking, and both were holding a gun on me. Stephanie said bitterly, "You may think you can abuse me however you like when I'm on the street, but you will not break into my home. Get out before I shoot you, because I really want a reason to pull this trigger."

I was at first surprised at her tone, and then smirked. "Morelli finally got his way, married you, and then abandoned you, leaving you to hook to take care of his own kid? What a guy you chose, Babe! Or, does it belong to another guy? Were you involved in another sexual triangle after I left? You just like variety perhaps?"

She still had tears in her eyes, and her lips were quivering. Then she pulled the trigger, and I wanted to jump as a bullet zinged past my right ear and lodged itself into the door jamb.

She continued to hold the gun on me. She'd rarely fired a gun outside of Rangeman, the whole time I'd known her. "Get out." She said coolly.

I growled. "Babe?"

Then she screamed. "Don't you dare call me that! You're not that man anymore. I said, get...out!"

"You won't shoot me, and I'm not leaving until you answer my questions." A slow grin spread across her tortured face, and I watched as she did pull that trigger. Like in slow motion, the bullet hit me, knocked me back, and I cursed at the pain, falling against the door and sliding down.

I watched as she pulled a phone out of her bag with shaking hands and made a call. I just sat there disbelieving and blinking, trying to get my bearings and get up. I'd forgotten how fucking bad bullets hurt. The door pushed against me, and then shoved me over, and two big guys came in and grabbed me. Stephanie said, "Use his phone and call 911 for an ambulance, then leave him outside on the doorstep." Her words were cold and her blue eyes were dark as night.

She took a few steps before standing over me. "Don't ever come back here or think about touching me again, Ranger. I swear to almighty God, I will kill you next time."

I was dragged down the stairs by her pimp, or her friends, or just a pair of hoods. One reached in my jacket to grab my wallet, and when I tried to stop him, the other one hit me. Gave me an uppercut in the right place and knocked me over and out.

I woke up in the hospital groggy and out of sorts, then I felt the pain. I groaned and tried to yell out, but my throat was scratchy and dry. Feeling around, I finally found the control panel with the call button and pushed it. A nurse walked in and I told her I needed my phone. She put up a finger and started to leave and I growled at her. "Give me the damn phone first!"

She made a face and slapped the hospital phone off the side table on the bed next to me. "I'll be back with the doctor." She filled a cup with water and dropped a straw in before giving me a look and leaving the room.

I punched in a phone number and picked up the handset. Tank picked up on the first ring. "What the fuck, Ric? You're not at the hotel where the limo driver left you, you're not answering your phone and you missed your flight. He also said that you picked up a hooker. Have you lost your damn mind?"

"It was Stephanie, and she fucking shot me. I'm in a hospital in Newark."

He was silent a minute and then said, "Yeah, you have lost your fuckin' mind. Which hospital?"

I looked at my bracelet and mumbled the name. He said a curt, "On my way," then disconnected.

Tank walked into the room a while later with his arms folded. "Good news. You're gonna live. Now tell me, why the fuck would Bomber take a shot at you? What did you do?"

I was surprised that I had the good grace to blanch a little and turned my head. I had degraded, and I had done it out of more than two years worth of pent-up frustration, and anger at her. The grief was the straw that let the animal out. I had punished her, and she never broke, never whimpered or said a word. I had been relentless, exhausting myself burning through all those raw feelings I had built up. What I had done to her was almost as bad as what I had endured while captive on missions in third world countries, and now I was ashamed. She had reason to resent me, even hate me. I had followed a wrong with another incredibly stupid wrong, and it had landed me in the hospital, and I had hurt someone I used to care deeply for.

Still looking away, I said, "I was angry and I hurt her."

He threw up his hands. "I still don't understand. Why and how?"

I said sadly, "Tank, she was the hooker. I paid her and made her do things..."

He walked over to the bed and looked down at me. "You mean to tell me, you picked up a friend that was down on her luck and took advantage of her?" He ran his hand over his bald head. "Man, Lula would have fuckin' shot your ass too, and still might."

"Tank, she has a baby. Please do some undercover work and find out if she and Morelli had one, and what's up with that. She was evidently willing to kill me over it and..."

He sighed. "I've seen you on a woman when you havin' one of them spells, man. I would have killed you over the other stuff…"

"Tank, I had so much built up… Like Les...I couldn't..."

"I know, brother. I've been there before, remember? I lost my first partner to friendly fire, and that's how I ended up with your sorry ass. I almost killed the guy that owned that bullet. With what we found out, we should all be better on the mend. Lester will eventually compartmentalize and heal. You will too. Fuck, we all will. I miss him every day..."

I got out of the hospital and hung around Trenton. Stephanie's bullet had gone through fat and muscle underneath the breast area on my side. It went through and although I was sore, it was the best place for the bullet to hit me. It made me wonder if her shot was an accident. If it wasn't, I was impressed. Trenton had a new medic checking in on me. His name was Adam, and he was a new hire straight out of the Marine Corp. He was a good guy, and going to school while working for Rangeman.

Unfortunately, Tank had talked to Lula. She had demanded to know where Stephanie was living. She was shocked, and saddened that she was hooking, and wanted Tank to take her to Newark. There was a knock later on the apartment door, the same day that I gave him the location of the building in Newark. I opened the door and Lula blasted in, Tank right behind her.

She looked like an angry bull with her stance, nostrils flaring, and high heel tapping out a beat on the floor while glaring at me. She raised a finger and shook it in my face. "I'm half tempted to pull out my own big ass gun and put a bullet in yo' other titty, motherfucka'."

I looked at Tank and he put up his hands. "I'm out of this. You gonna take the bullet if she does."

Lula got in my face and shook her finger again. She had tears in her eyes when she said the next words. "Ramirez was an animal. I never took you as the same. She trusted you more than any other person she ever knew, and you was her friend. How could you take advantage of a woman down on her luck like that?"

I snapped back. "Besides getting Lester's partner and one of my best friends killed, what the fuck is her excuse this time? Is she swearing none of its her fault? It was never about bad luck, it was about carelessness! She wouldn't talk to me, and I was fucking angry with her. She's a whore, and I paid good money to take it out on her foolish fucking ass!"

Her eyes got huge and she growled at me, reaching in her big purse digging around, and pulled out a big Glock. "She's just a ho', huh? I'ma bust some payback for my girl in yo ass. I swear I will!"

Tank reached out and quickly grabbed her Glock. He said, "On second thought. She ain't as good a shot as Bomber evidently was, and I don't want another dead partner."

Lula turned and glared at him and then looked back at me. She said bitterly, "Just 'cause she didn't want to tell you her story, didn't mean you had the right to defile her like you did. You jizzed all over her, took her where nobody took her before, where she was still a virgin. You hurt her."

I glanced at Tank and he turned his head. I was ashamed that they both knew some of what I'd done to her. I was ashamed that Stephanie now knew the twisted behavior toward women that I was capable of. "And now I'm ashamed of those things I did, Lula. Please tell me why she's doing what she's doing."

"Sit yo ass down. I'm gonna tell you her story and then I'm leavin'. I can barely look at yo nasty Cuban ass. You ain't Batman to me no more, and you ain't no fuckin' hero."

TBC-