A/N: Wow. Some pretty strong opinions across the board for that last chapter. Don't worry, Ranger has self-control.

Chapter Fifteen

Stephanie POV

For a split second, I saw surprise in Ranger's expression, like he didn't expect me to agree to his proposition, but then his features smoothed out and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. His face wore a perfectly blank mask, and I hated it.

Finally, he spoke. "Okay. When you get divorced, come find me." And he stood, seemingly to leave.

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling a little befuddled.

He turned back around to face me, crossed around the desk, and pulled me up to my feet. He took my hand, kissed my nose and said softly, "I don't sleep with married women, Babe. Especially not women who have been dealing with as much shit as you have this past week. You'd regret it and I would regret putting you in that position. I can be an opportunistic bastard, but my moral compass doesn't allow me to go quite that far."

I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it. He smiled gently and said, "when this is settled and you're not in such a vulnerable place, I'd love to show you just how sexy and desirable I think you are." He kissed me chastely on the lips, then left the office.

I stared after him, relieved and disappointed in equal measure. I'd have to set it aside for now, but it'd be something to think about later.

The last of the searches were finally finished about an hour later and I packed everything up and left it on the corner of Tank's desk with a post-it on top for him. I drove home and looked in on my sweet baby girl, fast asleep in her bed. I smiled at the sight, then closed the door until it was open only a crack.

I texted Gigi and told her I was home. She and Tank were still up and wanted to talk to me, so I headed over to the main house.

"Hey guys," I said in greeting. They both smiled and Tank offered me a glass of wine. "Eh, no wine tonight. But I'll make myself some tea." I busied myself at the counter, heating the water in their tea kettle and preparing a mug with my favourite herbal mixture. When it was ready, I sat down across from them at the kitchen table and asked, "okay, what's going on?"

"Steph, I have the weekend off and I was wondering what you thought about something Jeanne Ellen and I have been discussing," Tank began.

Jeanne Ellen continued, "Tank has offered to spend the weekend here with Zoë, so you and I can do some recon work, gathering intel and making sure we have what we need to nail that dick to the wall. We'll go to New York, follow him for the weekend and do some digging for evidence."

I pursed my lips in thought. It sounded like a great idea, and we were rapidly running out of time to do things clandestinely before I had him served with papers. "Okay, that sounds like a good plan. Thank you, Tank. Thank you both for all the help you've given me this past week, from the emotional support to a soft place to land, and Rangeman and the lawyer, and just everything. I don't think I can ever show you just how much I appreciate you for all that. I love you both."

Tank smiled broadly, the whiteness of his teeth blinding against the darkness of his skin. "No problem, Steph. We love you too and we're happy to help you anytime. The Squirt and I are going to have fun this weekend."

The next morning, after giving Zoë some breakfast and cuddling her for a while, I kissed her goodbye and asked her to be a good girl for Uncle Tank, who was watching our farewell with fond amusement. I had never been away from Zoë for two days before, and it was hitting me harder than I thought it would. She seemed completely nonchalant about the idea of my leaving her for two days, and I had mixed feelings about that.

Soon, Jeanne Ellen and I were on our way to New York City with two changes of clothes each. We had made a loose plan of things we needed to find and do, and we were hoping to obtain photographic evidence of The Dick with his second wife. I had no idea if he was planning to see her this weekend though. On our drive, I thought back to our relationship to determine if there were any patterns to his absences from our house. I pulled out my phone so I can check over the calendar app, and noted with satisfaction my list making tendencies made it so I actually kept track of times when he had had to go out of town. Unfortunately, I couldn't discern any particular pattern. Sometimes it was two weekends in a month, and sometimes there were three weeks between absences. I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket.

"Hey Gigi?" I asked, turning to my sister who was driving in her mellow driving zone where she focused on who knows what, but it wasn't chatting, that's for sure.

She looked over briefly. "Yeah?"

"When we get to my apartment, how do we determine if he's there or not without seeing him?"

She smiled. "Surveillance, both digital and physical. When we are near, we're going to call Tank, who will get Hector to ping his cell phone."

"Wow, Hector can do that?"

"Well, not legally of course. I can get the information too, but it would require going through one of my government contacts and I don't want to cash in that favour for this. I have other plans for that favour."

"Okay. So, we get there. Hector pings his cell phone, and he's at the apartment. Then what?" I asked.

"Surveillance. When he leaves the apartment, I'll follow. It's hard to trail someone in New York City. Especially when the subject walks and uses public transit. It's easier to follow someone in a car, though I concede that is also difficult in New York with the traffic. But I brought a disguise, and he hasn't seen me in nearly a year, so I think I can follow him without his awareness. While I do that, you'll get your documentation from your apartment, like your marriage certificate, Zoë's birth certificate, anything that has his social security number, mail with his name on it, things of that nature. Just grab it all if that's possible. Make another sweep through the apartment and make sure to take anything you want to keep. Maybe pack some more clothes for you and Zoë. Let's assume you'll never be back in that apartment again, or at least not for a long time. Since he's maintained residence, he'll get to stay there until the marriage dissolution."

"Then if he goes out to Connecticut, I'd drive and meet you there? We want to get photos of them together, right?"

She nodded. "Right. We want as much proof as possible of what he's been doing."

"Okay, I think I get what we're doing now. Can I talk to you about something private without anyone, including Tank, finding out?"

"You can always talk to me, Steph, and I will not tell Tank if you ask me not to. Unless it concerns his or my safety."

"It doesn't," I reassured her. "It's about Ranger."

Jeanne Ellen POV

Ranger? Hmm. "What about him?" I queried.

Steph blushed so fiercely I could see it out of the corner of my eye. "He, uh, told me he could show me what I was missing with The Dick. In bed, I mean. Since The Dick said I was bad in bed, he says it was probably The Dick's fault and he could show me that it wasn't me."

Only the control learned from years in the Army and my work since with the Alphabet agencies kept her from knowing the thoughts racing through my head. That bastard! He fucking knows she's vulnerable. "You had sex with Ranger?" I asked, striving for a casual nonchalance in my voice.

"Noooo," she said, drawing out the word slowly. "I thought about it and about my marriage and that made me really angry and here's this gorgeous man in front of me telling me he thinks I'm beautiful and sexy and wants to have sex with me, and before I knew what I was saying, I agreed. He looked all surprised, like he didn't expect me to agree, and then he told me to come find him when I'm divorced." She took a deep breath, which was probably because she didn't take a breath at all during her whole retelling.

"I see. Do you regret telling him yes? Because you can always change your mind. I am, however, relieved it's been postponed until after your divorce. There are numerous problems if it happened before that, and especially if it happened before you file for the divorce."

Steph sighed. "I don't regret saying yes, exactly. I said yes, expecting it to be immediately, and then I was simultaneously relieved and disappointed that he said it would be another time. I'm obviously not ready and I do understand that it would be a bad idea. I don't know if it'd be a good idea to do it with him at all. But he's a player, right? He could have any woman he wanted. I just figured a guy like that would be safe, no concerns about catching feelings since I know the deal beforehand."

I nodded. Ranger probably would be a safe rebound or one-night-stand for most women, due to his notorious lack of intimate relationships that last more than a couple of hours. But a large part of me did not want him to defile and then cast aside my younger sister, even if she seemed okay with it. At her core, Steph is a relationship girl. She is not a woman who can have casual sex without her feelings getting involved. And damn it, I can't even confront him without breaking my promise to keep her secret. "Steph," I began, waiting until I had her complete attention. "You've only ever had sex with two people ever. The first time was a hit-and-run, practically rape. In the second, you were in a relationship that was so serious it eventually became marriage. Are you sure you can handle a one-night-stand?"

She stayed quiet for a moment. "I don't know. Right now, I'd say yes, but I am still hurting and going through a lot. When my life has settled down, I imagine my feelings on the subject might change. You're right; I can change my mind and I might. Right now, it's kind of a fun and scary thing to just think about. And I don't know if you've noticed, but Ranger is super-hot!"

I laughed. "I know. It's almost ridiculous. I've known him too long though. He's too familial for me to feel any sort of attraction to him. Tank is a big, solid gorgeous hunk of man who is perfect for me."

"He's a really good man, and yeah he's good-looking too," she agreed.

We were getting close to the city now, and as always, the traffic forced us to go at a slower pace. I took the exit that would lead towards Steph's apartment on the Lower East Side and we made our way slowly across the city.

By the time we arrived at Steph's apartment, it was just shy of ten o'clock in the morning. I parked a few addresses down and across the street from her apartment, but I had a good view of the front of her apartment building. I pressed the button for the trunk release, grabbed a small duffel bag from the trunk, then sat back down in the driver's seat. I opened the bag, Steph watching curiously, and extracted a wig with straight brown hair cut in a long bob style. Next out of the bag was a package of bobby pins and I made quick work of pinning my hair up so I could secure the wig on top of my head. Once I had the wig in place, I pulled out the small bag of makeup. After I started taking contractor jobs for the various alphabet agencies, I took a course in makeup techniques and learned how to apply makeup to make my face look different.

After I had finished, Steph looked at my face and said, "wow! I can barely recognize you."

I grinned. "Good. Now your husband, who hasn't seen me in nearly a year, won't recognize me either, right?"

She nodded her head. "I'd be very surprised if he did."

I put the makeup and bobby pins back in the duffel and zipped it closed, then tossed it in the back seat of my Audi. "If I see him, I'm basically just going to leave the car to start following him. I'll stay far enough back that he won't realize he's being followed. Then you get into your apartment and do everything we talked about. We won't make any phone calls today while I'm trailing him, but texting is good. Once I know where he's going, I'll text you to come join me."

She took a deep breath. "I'm ready. Thank you so much, Gigi. You're so good at this type of thing. I don't even know what would happen if I didn't have you."

I smiled and reached across the center console to pull her into a quick hug. "You'll always have me, so you never have to wonder about that."

Settling back into our seats, we watched her apartment. Not that long afterwards, we saw The Dick leaving the apartment, dressed in dark wash jeans and a windbreaker, looking carefree and happy.

"Fucker," Steph muttered.

I chuckled. "Okay, here we go. Text me or Tank if you have any issues. You can always call Tank too. Good luck and talk to you later."