Disclaimer:Janet Evanovich is one clever lady. Charactes and everything you recognize are hers. I'm just playing.

Chapter 10

Cooking with Bobby was fun, but nowhere near as fun as cooking with Ranger. Go figure. All kidding aside, I finally got an answer from the guys as to what time it was. Turns out with the time change and all that, it was still morning in Hawaii. Good thing I slept so well on the plane.

Discussions immediately started about what we should all be doing on our first day. I guess the trip, just like everything else lately, was rather spur-of-the -moment, and not much had been decided beyond the flights.

I didn't really care what we did, I'd have fun either way, so while the Merry Men were all arguing amongst themselves, I slipped back out the side of the living room, found my bag, and carted it down to the guest house. I knew it would be fully stocked with everything I needed for a Hawaiian vacation of unknown duration, so I wasn't surprised when I found a teeny, tiny black bikini and a black sarong.

The bikini was black-on-black polka-dots, and the sarong was the simple around the waist variety that just covered up to mid-thigh. I slipped them on and studied myself in the mirror and decided that they were working for me, so I redid my hair now that it had started drying. I dug out some sunglasses, a hat, and some spray on sunscreen. I applied my sunscreen and headed out into the yard with a towel, my phone loaded with music, and some headphones.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a hammock in the yard, so I settled myself in and vegged out listening to my music. Inevitably my vegging turned into dozing, and that's when it happened. WHAM! Out of no where I got hit by a water balloon, which startled me awake and made me jump.

Of course, I was in a hammock, so jumping turned in to frantically trying to stay in the hammock as it began to rotate. Of course, me being me, I was unsuccessful and wound up face planting in the now wet dirt below me coming up steaming mad and covered in mud.

Before I even wiped off my face I was up and screaming, "LESTER SANTOS!"

"Beautiful! How did you know it was me? It could have been anybody!"

"Could have been, but wouldn't have been! Why do you even HAVE a water balloon? What are you, ten?"

"Duh, beautiful, war games."

"What now?"

"War games! They're an absolute must when we're on vacation together. Helps us stay sharp; plus, they're just lots of fun. You'll see, Beautiful, you'll love it!"

"Nope. I am so not 'playing war' with a bunch of ex-military, ex-gang men who are trained in combat!"

"Babe, you can be on my team, we always win. Plus, pretty soon you'll be trained too!"

"Carlos, pretty soon isn't now. And why would I want to slow you all down and immediately lose? Can't I just be scorekeeper or something? Preferably from a remote viewing location with drinks and the beach?"

Carlos came up and found a clean corner of my towel to wipe my face off a little more before leaning down and giving me a mesmerizing kiss. "We'll talk about it later, it's a ways off yet. But for the record, I don't think you'll be the first out or that you'll be slowing our team down at all. I think you're going to be an asset."

I could tell that by the gleam in his eye, there was no way I was going to be getting out of this because he already had a plan in mind. Oh well, at least it wasn't doay.

"So, what are we doing today?"

"We're going ATV riding. We were able to call up an ATV place on a former sugar plantation and convince them to cancel today's appointments and give us the space for the afternoon. Let's go get changed and then we'll all head out."

I was pretty sure that "convince them to cancel today's appointments" was a euphemism for "bribe them with way more money than they would have made today if they kept all their appointments and strongly hinted that there would be similarly generous tips coming their way," but I let it slide.

"Do I get to drive my own ATV?"

Carlos's lips twitched, "of course."

"Okay," I shrugged, "if that's what you all want to do." I was impressed that I managed to keep my grin to myself. I don't think they were quite ready for this.

Carlos took me by my hand and led me off to the guest house. I hopped in the shower to quickly rinse off, and Carlos just shook his head and said, "Babe." I'm pretty sure that one was meant to point out the fact that I was just going to get dirty again anyway. That may be true, but that's no reason to sit around filthy between now and then.

"Ranger, what should I wear?" I called out.

"I set some clothes out for you on the bed, Babe."

I walked out and found what else but a Rangeman uniform. Complete with Rangeman panties and a Rangeman sports bra. All in black, of course. I chuckled to myself and got dressed, then stepped into the bathroom, quickly braided my hair, applied the bare minimum makeup, slicked on some deodorant and I was ready to go.

When I walked into the sitting area, I found Carlos with a thigh holster and gun. Since he already had a gun on his thigh and this one was smaller than his, I figured it was for me and stuck my hand out. He ignored my hand and knelt down to strap it on me himself. He showed me how to get the gun out of the holster. I didn't bother asking if it was loaded; I knew what the answer would be.

Then he handed me a bandana to put in my pocket, a panic button, and my cell phone. "When did you get a new phone, Babe?" he asked.

I looked at him funny, "When you sent it to me? You were in the wind. I assumed you had it sitting around ready to go with instructions to give it to me the next time my purse was in my car and it exploded or burned."

I noticed Ranger's jaw tense and he took my phone back from me then stormed up to the main house. I cautiously trailed behind him and heard him rapidly speaking in Spanish to Hector.

He turned to me and said, "Babe, we didn't give you this phone. Why did you think it was from us?"

"Well, Bobby and Lester dropped off the keys to a car and told me to please use it instead of Big Blue. And when I got out to the car later that day, the phone was sitting in the cup holder charging. So, I figured that it came with the car. It was already programmed with my phone number and had all the usual pre-sets from when you give me phones."

All of the Merry Men were gathered around now, wondering what the hold up was.

"Which car fire was this? Which skip?"

"No, it wasn't a skip. This was the one that happened while I was at the funeral home with Grandma. We never figured out who started it, and TPD didn't really look all that hard if you ask me. I just figured it was one of those freak things because well, you know my luck with cars."

Hector had the phone apart in pieces now and he exchanged more rapid Spanish with Ranger.

"And you're sure your phone was in there when it burned?"

"I mean, I'm not 100% sure, but I'd left most of my stuff in my purse under my seat, including my phone, so I assumed it burned too."

"Okay, Babe, I understand why you would think it was from us, but, unfortunately, it wasn't. And, well, Hector's going to look into it more later, but it appears to be bugged. There's probably all kinds of other tracking software and whatnot programmed into it as well."

Carlos wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. He shot meaningful looks around the room and said, "for now there's not a lot we can do. Let's pack up and head out like we had planned for the day. We'll look into this more when we get back tonight."

With that, he left the phone in Hector's capable hands and lead me out as the men dispersed to various rooms. He settled me into the back seat of the SUV and gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "I'll be back in a few." He went around to the driver's seat and turned the SUV and the air on before giving me a quick look and closing the door again before walking back toward the house.

I just nodded mutely and sat there trying to put all the pieces together in my mind. Who had left the phone? Why were they spying on me? Did this mean I had another stalker? Something told me vacation was about to get a lot less fun and relaxed.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of the Merry Men talking and the SUV doors opening. With not just a little surprise, I realized that it looked like the men were packing EVERYTHING back into the SUV. Certainly more than we needed to take with us for ATV riding.

That was confirmed when Carlos walked up with our bags from the guest house. Guess that didn't last long, I thought with a frown.

Ranger climbed into the back seat with me, sliding me into the middle. He leaned in and kissed the frown off my face. "Don't worry, Babe, vacation isn't over, we're just moving elsewhere. Whoever bugged your phone will know where we were staying and who knows what else. We're just going to plan B. You'll see, we'll still have fun. Though we are going to have to be a little more careful now."

"Okay," I agreed, not wanting to put myself or anyone else in any kind of danger, "that makes sense. And I'm glad we aren't just going home right now. I haven't even gotten to go to the beach yet."

I heard Ram chuckle at that as he climbed past us into the very back row of the SUV. Soon we were all piled in and were on our way. I cast a wistful glance at the gorgeous rental house and ocean view before snuggling into Ranger and putting my head on his chest.

Tank drove us back to the main highway, Bobby and Lester following in the convertible.

As soon as the highway split into two lanes, Lester was honking and flying past us in the convertible. I just shook my head, giggling when I heard Cal say, "Santos doesn't know that there are mats at the new place, does he?"

I felt Carlos's chest rumble with laughter that sounded almost evil, "no, I don't think he does."