Awesome reviews and comments! Thank you. You guys are REALLY into this story.

I'm throwing you tiny details and hints of stuff to come, and you're picking most of it up really well. I just want to verify the timeline. It's been two years since Bobby was killed. She was married to Morelli almost a year. She's been living in that apartment for about a year trying to hold her own, and she found Angel, six months ago. She'd been a prostitute for about five months. Being a ho for five months to me, would be like five years. There you go.

Oh, one other thing. A lot of you were perplexed about the fact that she couldn't find ANY job in Trenton. In chap 5, when Lula begins Steph's story I touch on that. It had to do with the rumors and that weasel reporter and his stories. She blows up stuff and gets people killed. LIABILITY. People were afraid to hire her when they figured out who she was. That's why she went to Newark. Good jobs in reality are scarce, if they checked her references, they would find out who she was even there. So, what's left? Fast food, gas stations, labor type work. And, maybe Wal-Mart. LOL

Hahaha! One gal does not like this story and said it was yucky, and she'd rather Steph be a thief than a ho. OH Lawdy! I got this instant flash of an awesome idea for a fun AU story and I'm writing it. Steph is Cat Woman to Ranger's Batman, and she's a cat burglar. Thanks Poppie! (see note below)

Out of 102 reviews to this point, only two have been negative and they were very much alike, and like my previous stalkerish ones. However, this is not the same girl as before. I'm pretty sure this girl has been copy-catting the original ones through my last two stories, and she doesn't know, but I've figured out who she is. Very bad for her, right girls? You know me. When, not if, I get the last bit of proof I need, I will call her out and LOUD.

This is sad. The girl is a fellow writer, and several authors including myself have already figured out that she is taking content from our stories, and has been doing it for a very long time. She admits that she reads our stories, and NEVER reviews when every writer cherishes those reviews. (I have proof). These other two issues are bad enough without adding this new petty behavior to what we already know about her. It's just low-down and the ultimate dirty. The sad thing is, that the woman can write. Here is a tip for you lady, you're becoming obvious. When you leave those stupid guest reviews, muddy them up a little, leave some punctuation out, misspell a word or something...

Back to you readers and my writer friends. Sorry about the drama, ROWW! HISS! LOL Don't be afraid to tell me honestly what you think about my story. I know the difference between a rude or mean review, and someone who is just giving me their opinion. One girl said she hated this Ranger, but liked the story. Well, that's why I'm giving him a big pain in the butt, and it's about to get worse... Hahaha!

Yep, Lula's going to be Ranger's bane of existence for sure. Big snicker!

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

Chapter 7

A few minutes before noon, Lula, Stephanie, and myself were heading into Sara's office. I definitely needed to be present for this visit. The baby, Angel, was a good baby. She rarely cried and, I'd forget at times that there was even one in the house, until I would see Stephanie and the top of that little head sticking out of a blanket in her arms. That was the other thing, it was always wrapped in a baby blanket.

There was only one woman in the waiting room when we arrived and she was called in quickly, then a nurse came out and asked if I was Dr. Torres's brother. I nodded and she asked us to follow her. I took a couple of steps and turned and Stephanie hadn't moved to follow. I did an inward type eye-roll and looked at Lula. She said to Stephanie, "Well, come on, girl. This one is his gig, and he's gotta come with. We gotta get that baby checked out." Stephanie then slowly began to follow.

We were deposited into a waiting room that was way too small, and stuffy for my comfort. Stephanie sat in the chair next to the examination table with the baby. Lula was doing circles on the doctor's stool and humming and I was standing at the window wondering how the hell my life had gotten to this place. I was beginning to miss the desert and the jungle, and seriously giving that last government contract we'd declined another look.

There was a brief knock and Sara finally entered the room. She looked around, stopping to level her eyes on me a few seconds, and then looked down at Stephanie and the baby. "Carlos, introduce me to your friends."

"This is Stephanie Plum, and the baby is Angel. This is Lula, her friend and Tank's girlfriend."

She looked surprised and looked down at Stephanie again. "Your Carlos's Stephanie?"

I glared at her. "Just Stephanie, and she is from Trenton."

She held her hand out to Stephanie. "Nice to finally meet you. The family has heard much about you for a few years. Mostly through our cousin, Lester Santos."

Stephanie lightly touched her hand, but didn't look up at her. Sara looked at me and raised an eyebrow, and then turned to Lula offering her hand. "Nice to meet you Lula. Tank is a fine man."

Lula shook her hand and beamed. "Yeah he is, but you ain't seen nothin' till you see him without his clothes."

Sara's mouth dropped open and she uttered a weird sound. Like her tongue had tripped on whatever word she'd planned to say next. My lips were twitching as I tried my best not to burst out laughing.

Sara gained her composure quickly, and gave me another one of those looks before she spoke again. "I understand we have a special situation here. I'm going to ignore my official duty as a physician only this one time for the sake of the baby. I want to make clear that you'll need to get this mess straightened out and legal before I'll see her again."

She reached her arms out to take the baby, and Stephanie didn't release her hold on Angel. Lula said, "Stephanie, give her that baby. She already told us the deal. Nobody is takin' that baby away from you today." At that, Stephanie loosened her grip and let Sara take Angel.

I watched as Sara spoke to the baby and laid her on the table unwrapping her. She was dressed in only a diaper. I turned to Lula and she shrugged. "Diapers is expensive, clothes is expensive. She had to make a choice. I lived like that before. You buy the necessities. You got a choice between water and heat? You buy the water. You need that to live. You understand what I'm sayin'?"

Sara turned and looked at her a moment, then went back to examining the baby. She spent a good half hour checking her from head to toe and kept going back to her head. She checked her ears and eyes twice. She turned and smiled and said, "Carlos, can I see you in my office before I speak to Stephanie about the baby? We'll just be a few minutes, ladies." I nodded and followed her.

She shut her office door and pointed to the chair across from her desk, then she sat on the edge and looked down at me and sighed. "Carlos, I think that baby is deaf, and at a glance, Stephanie doesn't look normal herself."

"What? Deaf? You think Stephanie had something to do with that?"

She glowered at me. "No, I'm not implying she's responsible. It could be a birth defect, have happened during gestation, during the birth, or when that poor baby was dumped like trash. A specialist can better determine the cause and possible treatment. What I heard in there is that Stephanie doesn't have the means to care for a baby with an issue like this. Unless you plan to adopt a baby, she has to relinquish it for the good of that child."

Oh Dios mio. Not even a bloody mission will make this go away. I got up and paced the room.

Sara snapped, "Carlos! I don't know what has happened to Stephanie, but she looks like she needs professional care as well. Also, that baby kind of looks like you. Is it possible..."

"No, Sara!" I growled at her. "Prior to finding that baby, she was married to an Italian! I hadn't seen her since right after Bobby..."

Her face changed and she stood, and walked up to me. She put her arms around me, and hugged me, surprising me. Then she said softly, "I know that's still painful territory. Regardless of what you might think, I'm proud of the man you've become. Down deep you have a good heart, and I'm sure that it will lead you in the right direction here."

Direction? Right now, the four winds couldn't help me. They'd all just come together to form a hurricane big enough to tear my well planned and comfortable life apart. I sighed. "Can you help with a specialist?"

Both women bawled nearly the whole way home. They didn't stop until I made a turn and told them that I was taking them for the best comfort food in Miami. Then they both began to sniffle and dry up a little. I pulled into the parking lot and walked in the door. The hostess spied me and squealed, "Uncle Carlos!"

I couldn't' help but smile. This was Sara's second daughter, Zoe, and she was prodigal, and outspoken, an artist, and my favorite niece. She'd dropped out of college recently to work at her aunt's restaurant until she decided what she really wanted to do, which was mostly have fun. She jumped at me and wrapped her arms around me. "Aunt Ana is going to be so glad to see you!"

Ana Lucia was the sweetest of my sisters. She was the third born to my parents. All of my siblings had left Newark as soon as the opportunity had presented itself. There was nothing much there today for children with hopes and dreams. They all loved Miami because our grandparents had lived here, and we had fond memories of our visits when we were kids. My brother was the first to leave New Jersey after I asked him to manage Miami Rangeman. He'd graduated college with a degree in business and was struggling with mediocre management jobs for a few years. He had adopted it and taken to our business like a true military man. He was now lean, mean and the best branch manager we had.

Sara had ended up at Pittsburgh University which wasn't too shabby. It was like number seven in the country for med schools in pediatrics. She met her husband while there, David, and he's now a dentist here. They both decided to move to Miami to begin their lives and careers. The move had worked out well for both their practices.

Ana Lucia had come to stay with Abuela Rosa while I was in the military, and met her husband, Alonso. His line was pure Cuban, relocated from the mother country. Even had some royal blood in his family tree. He embraced his heritage, and his dream had been to open a Cuban restaurant. He was an excellent cook, and Frank, Sara, and I all had made an investment to get them started. Now, La Havana Mejor, or The Best of Havana, was one of the best Cuban restaurants in Miami.

Then there is my baby sister Celia, who never stays in one place long enough to grow roots. She's more an opportunist than I could ever be guilty of being, uses a guy until she gets bored or his money runs out. Then she moves on to find another sucker. I had no idea in which state she currently lived, but I would find out soon enough when she called for a loan. When she reached twenty thousand, I told her to just call it what it was, a gift.

Zoe disappeared and I turned to Lula and Stephanie. Lula said, "This place belongs to your people, huh? Tank talks about them sometimes. Says they're real nice. What happened to you?"

I was saved from having to acknowledge that question by my sister grabbing my arm and rising up on her toes to kiss my cheek. "Carlos, you live here now and yet I never see you. You have guests with you?"

I smiled and hugged her. "These are two of my friends from Trenton. We came for some comfort food."

She smiled. "That we have plenty of. Follow me."

She led us to a table in the back of the restaurant where she knows I like to sit, and gave us all menus. She rattled off some specials, and I told her speaking in Spanish to just to bring us orders of some of the most popular dishes, and the flan for dessert, my favorite. Alonso's Cuban-style flan was better than Mama's, but I would never utter those words out loud.

I spoke to Lula. "I ordered some of the favorites here for all of us. The food is excellent."

She said, "Sure does smell good, don't it Stephanie? We need to put some meat on my girl. She's just skin and bones. Don't even have no booty no more." A recent memory flashed me and I blanched. I knew very well how thin she was now.

Stephanie didn't say anything. She just rocked Angel, and played with her hair, and little hands as a tear escaped from her eyes now and then. It was clear how much she loved the baby, and couldn't be separated from her now. I had almost made the decision not to tell Stephanie about the baby until the specialist confirmed that she was deaf, and then changed my mind. Sara and I agreed that it might be best to let that news sink in, so that Stephanie would have a chance to think about the responsibility involved with having a baby with special needs. Sara had said that the baby was otherwise healthy, and doing well. She'd given her the immunizations due, and told me she would call me. This situation meant that I would have to make the birth certificate priority number one, and fast.

The food came and Alonso came by the table to say hello. Stephanie had smiled at him and Ana, and did eat well, giving Angel tiny soft bites to nibble. I had to laugh when the flan came, and Stephanie gave her bites of that. She had smiled and her little hands were working like she was excited. There was nothing wrong with the little girl's sense of taste, it was developing very well.

We finished the meal and said goodbye to my family and thanked them. I slipped Zoe a hundred and she squealed and hugged me again. Ana scolded me for spoiling all the kids when I did see them. What she didn't realize was that when I gave them money, they just skipped away happy. That meant peace and quiet, and Uncle Carlos was still the big hero. I sighed and opened the door to head out to the SUV. Until recently, it had been good being me.

I called Betina and dropped the women off at home to go shopping for items needed for the baby. Then I called our Rangeman attorney here in Miami, Dominic Anthony. He answered right away. "Dom, it's Ranger. You in the office?"

"I just finished lunch. What's up?"

"I need to see you about something asap, in person."

"Okay, I don't have court this afternoon, and I can move one appointment. Want me to come to Rangeman or you want to come to my office?"

"I'm at home now, and closer to your office. I'll meet you there. This is a personal issue anyway."

"Should be there in less than fifteen, Ranger."

I disconnected and walked in the kitchen pulling out my wallet to get my credit card. I pulled out my personal American Express black card, and held it out for Betina. Lula's eagle eyes zeroed in on it from a distance, and suddenly her hand was there snatching the titanium card from my hand like a piece of hot crispy chicken, before Betina had as much as blinked.

I made a face and looked at her. "I'll be in charge of this. I know what my girl, and baby Angel needs," she said.

I said, "Lula, it has a limit." I took my hand and leveled it at my forehead. "It's called up to here..."

She just snickered and motioned for the women to follow her out.

TBC -