All familiar characters belong to Janet. The inevitable mistakes are mine alone.

Knowing that Raphael is on his way back to the Rangeman building with two friends, Sal and Bobby who are also acting as armed guards - and while I was waiting for a positive ID from the store's camera feed along with addresses - I slid onto the bed behind my women and held my wife close.

If I'm here with them instead of downstairs busting some heads, means that Raphael really is alright despite being banged up a bit. I felt her body relax into mine which transferred to our baby who rewarded us with a content sigh as she slipped in-between REM sleep cycles.

I unfortunately had to leave them fifteen minutes later to answer a call. "Do you want to come to my office when Olivia is awake?" I asked in a whisper before leaving. "Or would you rather I come back up here?"

"Up here," she answered. "I don't want the guys to see me lose my cool."

"They were there for almost every vehicle explosion and apartment bombing, the men have already seen you lose more than just your cool. They'll think even more highly of you if they believe you're angry on their behalf."

"Will I be even angrier than I am right now?"

I let that question lie. "Raphael's on his way here ..."

"That's all I need to hear. Olive and I will head down to five when her brown eyes pop open."

"Alright. I'll take both four-legged Babyguards with me."

"You like Gunny and Mo, don't you?" She asked, trying desperately to focus on something good in the middle of our current shit-storm. "Admit it."

"They serve a purpose," I teased, kissing her temple.

"I knew you'd love them. You're too good a guy not to."

I don't know how true that is, but what I really like is my wife believing that about me.

I was already talking to Vince by the time I hit the stairs after exiting the apartment. "Do you have names or bodies?" I asked him.

"Both. Though these two bodies are currently alive ... unless you want Tank to change that."

"No. I'd like 'a word' with the fuckers myself. I feel a life lesson is in order."

"Can you tack on a 'lesson' for every man here? You know, just to pound the knowledge into their skulls so they can't forget them."

"I'll see what they can withstand first. It'd be a shame if they died on our watch."

He laughed. "And the streets think you don't have a sense of humor ..."

"It's good to keep people guessing. Have the assholes brought to the safe house in Bordentown."

Another muffled laugh, but I gave him credit for trying to conceal it. "It's not gonna be too safe for them."

"That's the plan."

And I disconnected. Some people go to school and then onto college for an education. For an unfortunate few, they learn the hard way via my men and I.

I let Gunner and Ammo have free rein of the fifth floor as I made a call to see if Sal's grandmother had been released, being told that she'll be kept for another night to err on the side of caution due to her age. I spoke to the officer that was assigned Raphael's case, talked to the RangeMan himself, and then to Tank to inform him I'd be in Bordentown as soon as Olivia was up and after I can talk to Stephanie.

She came down almost an hour later. Olivia looked happy and re-energized thanks to her Mama's valiant efforts. My wife, however, appeared to be more stressed and sick of life's bullshit than she was when I left her.

"Daaadaaa!" Our baby shouted when they entered my office, followed closely by the hounds who were jumping up as excited as I am at their arrival.

"See how good we are. Olive?" Steph said, pressing a kiss to our daughter's bedhead-plagued hair that is just now letting itself get smoothed down. "We found Daddy right away, didn't we?"

"Likely because I wouldn't hide from either of you."

At Olive's double-hand 'gimme' gesture, I took her from Steph and felt a baby tooth scrape my skin as my daughter kissed me.

"I can see that. You didn't even cringe with that cute drool-face coming at you. I asked Vince on my way in here, and he said Raphael's here but wanted to get cleaned up before seeing everyone."

"Having had to skip showers in the past for one reason or another, the men generally don't appreciate missing even one."

I suspect not wanting to scare Stephanie had more to do with this particular wash-up.

"So we have a few minutes for you to fill me in ..."

"Yes."

"Does Olive need to play with Ella or a RangeUncle?"

"I can take her, Steph," Ram said from my doorway.

They know my wife almost as well as I do. And given who she's married to and who Olivia's father is, Steph is going to flip from concerned to enraged on a dime ... and they knew to stick close for her sake as well as Olive's.

"You're sure?" She asked Ram.

"Yeah. She kicked my behind when it came to stealing and hiding a toy from Lester. I want a redo."

"Take Gunny and Mo with you," I ordered. "And if ..."

"I know," he said, appearing more pleased than Bobby or Cal to babysit as I relinquished my daughter, "if anything happens to Olive or the puppies, I'll be dead even before you hear about it."

"So we understand each other. Close the door but don't latch it behind you in case Olivia wants back in. I want her to be able to crawl it open if she need to or needs us."

"Will do, Sir."

The four filed out and Steph turned to me with eyebrows raised.

That meant start talking, so I did. "The officer I spoke to labeled this attack as a hate crime. The prick heard Raphael and the owner speaking something other than English and he went off."

"You're serious?"

"Almost deadly so. Seeing a Mediterranean skin tone and hearing words he didn't recognize, had the fucker texting his brother who was sitting in the car in the parking lot. The two ambushed Raphael. They hurled a few slurs that I Will Not repeat that are generally spit at people like me."

"And 'people' like our daughter … who is proudly Cuban just like her Daddy is. This is NOT OKAY, Ranger. No one in my family, or anyone else's for that matter, should be attacked or insulted just for being who they are. Raphael only knows English and Italian for Christ's sake!" Steph was emphatic in pointing out. "If that asshole was going to turn into a racist psycho, he could've at least been smart enough to get the country of origin right. Apparently ignorance is only bliss to those afflicted by it."

"Take a breath, Babe."

"I did. That's what kept the top of my head from blowing clean off."