Chapter 2

I took my time getting ready for my un-date with Ranger. He said he had something to discuss, and that meant this was a business dinner. I hadn't expected anything else. Since Morelli became history, Ranger had been keeping to himself.

Ranger had been up front with me from the beginning. He was not the marriage and baby carriage kind of guy. I wasn't sure if I was that kind of girl either, but I was uncertain, and Ranger sensed my uncertainty. As long as I was sending mixed signals, and as long as Morelli was safely in my back pocket, Ranger could tempt me and occasionally seduce me and there was no risk for him. No chance of a messy situation where he had to remove a clinging Stephanie from his body and cast her to the side. Morelli would make sure of that. But now there was no Morelli, and Ranger was avoiding me.

All I had to do to have Ranger in my bed, or better yet me in his, was to find someone to replace Morelli. Ranger was an opportunist by his own admission and his opportunity would come again when I was safely ensconced in a new relationship. There was only one problem with that scenario. It took me, my wants and my wavering morality completely out of the picture. I didn't like the idea of myself being so easily used, torn between two men. But, let's face it, Ranger was hard to refuse.

There was a time when I'd thought I loved him. There was a time when I thought he'd loved me, albeit in his own way. Those days were gone. I knew he still wanted me, but his control was legendary. I still wanted him, and I mostly had no control, but I did have a little self-pride. Tonight, that pride was gonna make me show him what he was missing. It was going to be a big hair, plump lips, and heavy-duty mascara kind of night.

It was almost seven when I walked from my bedroom, my toilette complete. I wasn't expecting a knock on the door, but when I saw Ranger sitting in my lone easy chair, I was surprised. I hadn't even heard the locks tumble.

I gave a quick look down at my jeans and soft teal sweater. I'd been pleased with my results. The sweater hinted at cleavage, the jeans clung to my newly muscled runner's calves and the ankle boots put me nearly at Ranger's height. I'd thought I looked sexy, understated and hopefully, desirable. But then I got a good look at Ranger.

He was lounging in my chair, his legs stretched out in front of him with his forearm resting casually on the arm of the chair. I'd seen the Tag Heuer on his wrist before. Lula and I had looked it up. It was the Carrera model and it had cost more than my car. He was wearing a business suit, all black of course, and he looked so good he took my breath away.

"I, uh," I stammered. "Did I misunderstand? Suddenly I feel a little underdressed."

"I had a client meeting that ran late," he said. "I didn't have time to change. You look fine."

Fine. I looked fine. The Cuban sex god sat oozing testosterone, power and pheromones and he said I looked…fine. Did that mean okay, all right, good enough? I rolled my eyes.

"Do I need to change into something less casual?" I asked. Then I saw how he was looking at me. His eyes were heavy lidded, but intently focused on me. His mouth was parted, and I realized he was looking at me with desire.

"Don't change," he said. "You look perfect."

I swallowed a big lump in my throat. Ranger had been distant for some time, but this Ranger sitting a few feet away from me looked anything but distant. I needed to allay the sexual tension that was bouncing between us. It was unexpected and intense, and I hadn't prepared myself for it.

"I don't know about looking perfect," I said, "but I've been working out. Running. I'm training for a half marathon. And I've lost a little weight. Well, actually, a lot of weight. About 180 pounds," I babbled.

That got a small smile out of Ranger. He stood and in one fluid movement was in front of me. "I heard Morelli moved on," he said.

"I moved on," I replied. "I told him we were through, but you're right. It didn't take him long to dive back into the single life."

"Babe, he's been on the springboard ready to leap for a long time."

"Wha…whaddaya mean by that?" I demanded. I knew exactly what he meant. I'd long suspected Joe was straying but, out of self-preservation, I hadn't pursued the unintentional hints he dropped. And I didn't want to know now. I'd made the decision to move forward, and I wasn't going to let myself fall back into the sorry state I'd been in when Dickie cheated on me. I was more mature and truly happy with my decision to leave Morelli. I didn't want to know the details now, but at the same time I wasn't surprised that Ranger apparently knew them.

He had gone from being in front of me to completely invading my space but, honestly, I was okay with that. All that 'allaying the sexual tension' nonsense had gone south at the thought of physical contact with Ranger. I sighed. I was so easy.

He caressed my cheek and let his hand trail softly down the side of my neck, then lower to let his fingers trace the neckline of my sweater. He bent his head and he found my lips with his. It was a light kiss, playful, but as often happened with us, things heated up rapidly. His tongue parted my lips, and his arms came around me. The kiss began to get serious and then the unthinkable happened. My stomach growled.

Ranger pulled back and laughed out loud.

"Babe."

I groaned in embarrassment and in frustration at the distance between us.

"I promised you pizza," he said. "I guess I'll have to deliver. C'mon."

He reached for my hand and pulled me toward my door. I went willingly. This was the Ranger I remembered. There was an ease between us that had been missing of late and I welcomed it.

When we reached the parking lot of my building I stopped and stared. "What" I asked in confusion, "is that?"

"A Macan," he replied.

"I know, but it's not black."

"It's almost black," Ranger said.

"It's grey," I said.

"Is that a problem for you?" he asked.

"No, but it's just…not black."

"This is my personal vehicle. I thought it might be time to change things up a bit. There's room for a little grey in my life."

That was an odd statement because Ranger operated frequently in the grey, and that was by his own admission. I wondered if he was trying to tell me something I wasn't getting. I frowned as I pondered and then I saw the edge of his mouth tilt into an almost grin. My confusion was amusing him. It felt like old times. It felt good.

I wasn't surprised when our destination proved to be Shorty's. I was loyal to Pino's but even I had to admit, Shorty's was the best. It wasn't a cop hang out like Pino's. I wasn't sure how safe a hangout it was, because the clientele looked rough, if presently peaceable. If I was with Ranger, I knew I could relax and enjoy the meal, but I'd think twice about coming here on my own.

We drank cold draught beers while we waited for the pizza. "You said you had something to discuss with me," I said. "What's up?"

"Later," he said. "I want you to watch a surveillance video. I'd like to get your take on it. We'll head to RangeMan after dinner."

"Okay," I said. "Not that I'm complaining, because I know the pizza here is fabulous, but why didn't you just have Ella prepare something for us?" It was my oblique way of asking if this was social as well as business. I mean, I knew it was business, but it was feeling pretty social, especially after I'd finished my second beer.

"Ella and Louis have a couple of days off. They've made a short pilgrimage."

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "You can function without Ella. Are you doing your own laundry? Making your own bed? Cooking your own meals?" I nodded toward the kitchen. "Or maybe not cooking your own meals."

"Babe. Two beers is your limit." I grinned at him. He was right, but it felt good to be a little silly.

His eyes slid from me to a place behind me and I turned to see what had caught his attention. Lester was walking toward the bar. I watched as he slipped onto a stool next to another familiar figure. Vince. It wasn't unusual. All the RangeMan guys frequented Shorty's. Heck, it was rumored that Shorty was a RangeMan guy himself.

"Excuse me, while I save Santos' life," Ranger said. He pulled his phone from an inner pocket in his suit jacket and texted for a minute. He continued to watch the scene behind me, so I turned to watch as well.

It was no more than thirty seconds until Lester picked up his phone and read something. Then he called someone. I couldn't hear what he said but it was clear the message he'd received hadn't been to his liking. The conversation was short. Lester stood from the stool and mumbled something to Vince and then walked out the door, like a man on a mission.

"What was that all about?" I asked Ranger.

"I texted Tank and told him to call Santos for emergency duty. Santos had plans for the night, but he'll thank me later."

"A hot date?" I asked.

"Too hot for him to handle. He's been talking all week about his latest conquest. Lester likes to kiss and tell, and he's been telling some explicit stories. I don't put a damper on that type of thing, although these days the conversation probably isn't deemed acceptable in the workplace. On Friday he let the name of his latest amante slip and he's apparently the only one who doesn't know she's Vince's sister."

"He's seeing Vince's sister," I said suddenly understanding Ranger's concern.

"Yeah, seeing," Ranger said, "and Lester was saying the kind of things one wouldn't appreciate hearing about one's sister. Normally, I'd put odds on Santos in any kind of dispute between him and Vince, but maybe not this time. Vince has been out of town all week, so he probably was spared the details. I didn't want him to hear them tonight."

"So, you gave Lester some fake work duty to protect him?" I asked.

"And Vince," he replied.

"You're a good boss," I said as the waitress approached our table with a huge mouth-watering, cheese-bubbling pie. I forgot about conversation for a while. In truth I forgot about conversation for a good three pieces. That's when I became aware that Ranger was no longer eating but just watching me.

"Uh, that was good," I said. "I really enjoyed it."

"Babe." It was that all-encompassing conversational phrase that Ranger used so well. I didn't stop to wonder what it meant this time, because I thought maybe I'd embarrassed myself by getting lost in the cheese and meat sauce, but dang, it had been a while since I'd been to Shorty's. His gaze lifted and focused beyond me. Again, I turned to look. Vince had stood abruptly, causing his bar stool to skitter backwards and almost turn over. He looked our way and gave a brief nod and then walked determinedly toward the door, and I wondered if, despite being out of town, he'd heard about Lester's latest conquest.

The waitress stopped at our table. "Can I get you guys anything else?"

I thought about it for just a moment and remembered Ranger was paying. "Can I see a dessert menu?"

A few minutes later I was snuggled into the Macan with a Styrofoam container of cheesecake on my lap. "You said you wanted me to look at a surveillance video," I said. "What am I looking for?"

"It's an old VHS video that's been converted to digital, so the resolution isn't the best. I think I know what I'm seeing, but I'd like another set of eyes to verify it."

"But what is it?" I asked. "A robbery? A mugging?"

"Nothing that dramatic," Ranger replied. "It will be easier to explain if I show you. We'll be there soon." We drove on in silence and I looked down at the package of cheesecake in my lap. I regretted not asking for a plastic fork.

Ranger's phone rang and he pushed a button on his steering wheel. Tank's voice filled the car. "We got trouble. Lester and Vince are trying to kill one another in the gym." That answered the question about where Vince had been headed in such a hurry.

"Can't you defuse that situation?" Ranger asked.

"Already did, but neither one of them is cooling off. I figure if I let them go, they'll just continue it elsewhere. I've got Bobby and Hal holding Vince in one corner and Lester's sitting in the other corner. He's temporarily incapacitated because Vince pushed his balls up to his Adam's apple before I could pull the two of them apart." I saw Ranger wince at the thought.

"I don't have time for this shit," Tank continued. "I need Bobby and Hal back on the floor."

"I'll be there in five," he said. "They're not to leave until I talk to them. I don't have time for this shit either," and he disconnected.

When we pulled into the garage at RangeMan, Ranger turned to me. "I'll have to sort this out, but I won't be long. Go on up to seven and enjoy your dessert."

"Sounds like a plan," I said, and I made my way to seven for the first time in a long time and wasted no time in finding a fork. I opened the dessert box from Shorty's and was delighted to find two pieces of cheesecake. I was certain Ranger wouldn't want his, so I dug in. It wasn't long until the cheesecake was history and still no Ranger.

He'd said he wouldn't be long, but I wasn't a patient waiter. I meandered back through his living room and tried not to think of his bedroom, and noticed his laptop sitting on the coffee table. It seemed out of place and Ranger never left things out of place. It must be the video he wanted me to watch.

I probably couldn't access his files without a password, but I had nothing better to do while I waited for him, so I opened the laptop and hit the power button. To my surprise, the video was queued and ready to play. Ranger was right, the resolution was bad, but I thought the building looked familiar. It was someplace in downtown Trenton. It only took a few more seconds before I recognized, fully, the location.

I watched the video twice and it wasn't until the second time through that I realized the significance of what I was seeing. It had been six—no, seven years ago. Security video surveillance hadn't been on my radar back then. I was a lingerie buyer for Pete's sake. A sudden wave of nausea crested in my stomach, and I realized the cheesecake was going to make a reappearance. I ran for the bathroom.

I lost everything, the dessert, the pizza and my dignity. How? Why? I asked these questions as I found a washcloth and removed the mascara from my cheeks. I did my best to erase the ravages of my recent panic attack and went back to the living room to sit and wait for Ranger.