My eyes scanned the now up and running RangeMan clinic Bobby had worked tirelessly to complete. Brown eyed me suspiciously as he cut away the sleeve of my shirt.

"Quite an impressive job that you've done here Bobby. This facility is nicer than Trenton Clinic. Have you found a medic to take charge here or do you plan on staying in Atlanta," I inquired?

The bullet that Bobby had just removed from my arm clinked when it was dropped into the metal tray. "Since you're feeling so chatty at the moment, mind telling me how this happened, Bobby said.

"Someone shot me," I said in a flat tone.

"Yeah, I kinda already figured that out. You know with the bullet and all," Bobby sneered whiled he washed my wound, then prepared the suture kit.

"It's just a flesh wound, man! I don't need stitches," I protested.

"Yes, but this is not neat wound. The bullet tore up your arm pretty good. Must have been done at close range," Bobby informed me.

"Hey, Brown, we have interviews set up in twenty, Lester announced as he barged into the clinic.

"What's going here, Hector asked as he trailed behind Santos? "Wo that's a bullet," Hector said as he stepped closer to the medical exam table.

"Who shot you cuz? You have not been here long enough to make anybody that mad," Lester said as he crowded around Bobby.

"Man, how many stitches does he need, "Hector asked?

"Can you two back up and let me work," Bobby complained. "Just have the medical applicants sit tight until I'm finished. They will understand."

"So you not gonna tell us who shot you,Boss,"Hector teased?

"Must have been a woman's, boyfriend or husband. Is that what happened? You get caught sneaking out some woman's window and her man shot you," Lester joked.

I could tell that these two clowns were not going to stop until I told them what happened.

"No, I got caught sneaking into someone's house. Then Stephanie got all moody and she shot me," I growled.

The room became deadly silent and all eyes were trained on me for several minutes.

"Yeah right," Bobby said as he finished stitching me up. "What really happened?"

"It must be pretty embarrassing for him to make a story like that," Hector chimed in.

Lester leaned back against the counter with a smug look on his face. "He 's not lying. I know my cousin. Bomber shot you!" Santos said as he doubled over at the waist laughing.

"Nothing about Stephanie shooting me is funny" I barked!

"Yes, it is Bobby!," exclaimed now laughing to hard to finish dressing my wound.

Both men laughed for solid ten minutes until they were breathless. Hector stood quietly glaring at me. Then the small man was sitting shoulder to shoulder with me wearing an icy smile.

Hector slung his arm around my he wrapped his hand around my freshly stitched arm and applied vice like pressure. As blood seeped from the wound Hector whispered his warning in my ear.

"Stephanie asked you to leave her alone. Now, I'm telling you to leave her alone. Next time, you won't have to wait for her to shoot you," Hector said before casually sauntering out of the clinic.

It was nearly 3: 00 A.M. and I was now running my twelfth mile on the tread mill. On the other side of the room, my cell rang.

"Yo,"I answered.

"Got some intel for you about Bomber, Tanks Baritone voice informed me.

If he were calling at this hour I knew there had to be a problem. "What's wrong?"

"A friend of mine who works security at one of the hotel casinos in Atlantic city called to tell me that they had Stephanie in custody. He said she was waiting in a holding cell until the police could transport her to the station. Before I could drive up there, Morelli was able to get them to drop the case and release her," Tank explained.

"Is she alright? What was Stephanie accused of doing?"

"He said something about aggravated assault. Steph was with a group of woman who had been bused in to provide a bachelor party with uh eh ah ... entertainment of the grown up persuasion if you know what I mean," Tank whispered.

"THAT'S A LIE, TANK! I DON'T CARE WHAT THAT MAN TOLD YOU! MY GIRL AIN'T NO HOE, Lula screamed in the background!

"Go back to bed , Lula. You going to wake up kids" Tank hissed.

"Tank, you there, I asked?

"Yeah, I was just waiting for the missus to go back to bed.

"Who did she assault?"

" A guy from the party claimed her and another girl lured him to another room and then tried to rob him. Bomber beat the breaks off this guy. They had to pull her off of him. She insisted that they leave that other girl alone and Steph, took all the heat. My friend told me the other girl was pretty messed up."

"What about Babe, "I exhaled.

"Don't know. She was not letting anyone near her, but from what I heard she should be on her way home tomorrow."

"Thanks, Tank. "

It was now well into the afternoon and Stephanie's car was still not back at her condo. Tank had reported that she was due back today. I picked up the phone and made a call. After several rings, I wondered if Blaze was going to answer.

"What do you want Manoso ?"

"I was out of line the other day to tell you how to handle your employees or run your business," I admitted.

"Yes, I know but it's nice that you are man enough to cop to your mistake," Blaze laughed. "But I know that's not the only reason you called. So what can I do for you Manoso," Blaze asked suspiciously?

"Can we meet somewhere and talk face to face?"

"You wanna meet here or should I go there," Blaze replied.

"Somewhere else if you don't mind. I'll text the address.

"Cool" Blaze said and hung up.

Twenty minutes later I was sitting in a booth when Blaze walked in. Expertly his eyes scanned the room until he located me in the back of the restaurant. I studied his approached as confidently strode to the hostess. Blaze flirted with her for several minutes until she handed him her phone. The smug pretty boy flashed winks to several attractive women on his way back to the booth where I was waiting.

"Took you long enough Don-Juan."

"Don't Hate just because you are not hottest guy in the room today, Manoso. When I leave you can have them walking into walls again,"

Blaze laughed.

"Can I get you two a drink, maybe my phone number too," the waitress flirted.

We placed our drink orders and the young woman handed us the menus. As the waitress walked away, Blaze reached into her back pocket and retrieved her phone. I watched him enter his information. The Waitress returned to our table with the drinks then she took our order. Before she able to get way hooked a finger through her belt loop. The young woman giggled as he handed her back her cell phone.

"Call me" he whispered.

The waitress slowly backed away from the table and walked right into another server.

"You done? Because I don't think your woman would be cool with all this flirting. Stephanie can get mean when she is being cheated on."

Blaze raised an eyebrow and then started to laugh. "You think Tundra is my girl? That's funny. Stephanie and me are not together. She like a little sister to me."

"Do you know where is right now," I asked?

He nodded. "Yeah she texted me. Stephanie said that she is in Atlantic City."

"Bet she didn't text you that she was in custody and almost on her way to the police station for aggravated assault."

"Naw, Tundra didn't tell me that."

"And she is not going to let know either. Stephanie is stubborn, she is not going to do anything that might cause you to assign this case to someone else. I'm not trying to interfere here, but I want to make sure Stephanie is safe," I told Blaze carefully.

"So why did the police let her go," Blaze asked?

"Morelli showed up and got them to drop the case."

"Morelli, as in her ex-husband?"

"She told you about him," I asked in surprise?

"Sure did. From the high school years right up until she trashed his car with a baseball bat in front of his side chicks house,"Blaze sighed.

"She did what ?"

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't know that. You were too busy hiding out in Miami,"Blaze sneered.

"How much did she tell you about me ?"

"Enough to know that she trusted you with her heart and you broke it before you sprinted out of town. Then she went back to Joe and he broke her."

I grimaced. "How bad was she?"

Blaze shook his head at me. "So what else do you want to talk about," he questioned as he forked into his entree?

"Like I said, I want to keep her safe. Let's work together to make that happen."

"I'm listening," Blaze said.

"If you take me up on this, you can't tell Stephanie" I warned Blaze.

"Man tell me something I don't know. You think I want her mad me," Blaze sneered.

"So does that mean you will work with me," I asked.

"No, it means I'll let you work with me," Blaze said smugly.

The day faded into night and I realized that Stephanie had still not made it home. According to the tracker Hector had placed on her car, Stephanie's car was still in the parking garage of a hotel.

An hour later there was movement on the tracker indicating that Stephanie was back in Atlanta. I was sitting in the control with the men on the monitors when something caught my attention. Before I could confirm what it was that I was seeing , the monitor in the parking garage of RangeMan was scrambled. I gave Hector a questioning glare. Hector was too busy texting on his phone. Santos slinked into the doorway and made eye contact with Hector. Hector looked up at Santos and nodded before going back to watching the screens. That's when the monitor in the stairwell went out. Before I could investigate both monitors were back on line. Then the camera on four malfunctioned.

"What's going on Hector?"

"It must be something wrong with the camera. I'll go check it out. You stay here," Hector insisted.