Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money.

Chapter 10

"Get Steph outside," I heard Ranger say over the ringing in my ears and didn't fight when someone grabbed my elbow.

I couldn't tell who it was through the black spots dancing in my vision, but I followed along until it registered that I was breathing clean air.

"Here, Beautiful," I heard, cluing me in that my companion was Lester. "Sit down and take a few deep breaths. You'll feel better with some fresh air in your lungs."

I took the recommended breaths and moments later I could tell we were sitting at a picnic table to the left of the doorway we'd gone in through. Les pulled me against him so we were hip to hip with his arm around my shoulders. He was a big, warm, comforting presence that could probably only be upstaged by Ranger.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, leaning my head against Lester's shoulder.

"My guess would be that they're onto our investigation. Your guy, Wright, isn't an idiot. He probably figured out more than is good for us during his arrest. I wouldn't be surprised to find out he was only still in town because he was selling what he learned and providing the paperwork to help them cover their trail. They were obviously moving operations and destroying evidence they didn't have time to move."

"What's that mean for the investigation?"

"Depends," he said, shrugging his shoulders and jostling my head earning himself a glare.

"Depends on what?"

"How serious they are about going to ground. Judging by the carnage inside, I'd say they were willing to destroy a good bit of valuable inventory and cut a distribution route. If we can't pick up the trail, the feds will have to wait for them to pop up again and start over."

"All because a rookie mistakenly arrested a minor player?"

"Yep."

I was about to ask another question when Lester sat up straighter, making me nearly fall into his lap after being dislodged from his shoulder. I was about to bitch him out for his lousy pillow performance when I saw Ranger standing in front of us glaring at Les. Looks like someone might be feeling a touch territorial after our little talk. Food for thought.

"Santos, head back in. Tank is coordinating with the feds to assist with surveillance and tracking. The number of trucks we saw pull out of here shouldn't be easy to hide. We need to catch them before they scatter. I want you to make sure Woody and Zip don't have any issues assisting the CSI techs on site. The faster we can get that scene processed the less likely we are to lose the trail."

CEO Ranger may be the one with room in his life for a relationship, but badass government consultant Ranger was hot.

That thought had barely flitted through my brain when I heard a growled "Babe," making me think I hadn't kept my thought completely to myself.

I just gave Ranger a sheepish look and shrugged. He had to be aware of how attractive he is.

"So, what are we doing?" I was really hoping that whatever our next move was did not involve helping with the scene inside.

"We're heading back to Rangeman. Our goal hasn't changed. We need to find Wright and it's looking more and more like he's deeper in this than we originally thought. If they're moving more valuable inventory than what we saw inside, they're going to need permits if they're stopped. My guess is Wright is supplying forged paperwork. Which means he'll be our fastest ticket to learning the what and where for the bigger issue. I bet he knows that too. So, depending on how disposable he is to the organization we need to get him before he runs or out-lives his usefulness."

Ranger quick tactical analysis and reactions to the conclusions he was coming to were incredibly attractive.

Fortunately, those thoughts were derailed by the sound of more vehicles arriving on the scene before I got too distracted. Pulling my eyes away from Ranger, I saw a couple of black and whites as well as a fire truck, likely to be on site in case there were any flare ups of the fire damage inside.

I was glad to avoid the bulk of the three-ring circus this was about to turn into. That thought had just crossed my mind when I realized I relaxed too soon.

"Of course, you're here," I heard behind me, prompting me to close my eyes and count to ten. Chanting you're a mature adult between each number.

"Yes. I was doing surveillance as part of this investigation, Joe," I said when I felt like I had myself back under control.

He ran his hand through his hair and muttered in Italian, but I was pretty sure I heard the word Malox thrown in there. "Six fucking months I've been working this case. Then you get involved and everything starts getting blown to hell. Someone should tell the feds to just follow you around."

I tried counting again, but it wasn't working. I needed to leave, or I was going to blow up at Joe.

Spinning on my heel, I grabbed Ranger's hand and started heading towards the SUV. Maybe we could get breakfast on our way back to Rangeman and then get something productive done today.

"You can't just walk away in the middle of a discussion, Cupcake."

"We weren't having a discussion. You were insulting me. I'm leaving."

"What if I need your statement?"

"We already talked to the lead agents here and I had the dashcam footage from our surveillance vehicle transferred to Johnson," Ranger said with an air of finality before leading me the rest of the way to the SUV.

I could hear Joe protesting behind us but decided to ignore him.

Once we were safely inside the vehicle, I turned to Ranger and leveled him with my most serious glare.

"I know we have more to talk about, but I swear to god if you try to send me back to him again, I will shoot you with your own gun."

"Not something you need to worry about, Babe," he said before leaning in and sealing his lips to mine.

The kiss was long and lazy, without much heat but a lot of promise. I had butterflies in my stomach by the time he pulled away and felt a bit smug to see that Ranger didn't look unaffected either.

His right hand was still cupping the back of my neck, but he used his thumb to run along my jaw a few times while we stared at each other. I don't know what he was looking for, but by the time he released me and started the engine, I was relaxed.

Our talk earlier and that kiss were giving me ideas. Those ideas along with the tingling I had going on in my interesting bits was making me regret that I'd pretty much only packed sensible clothes the other day when I bailed out to stay at Rangeman.

"Do you mind stopping by my apartment?" I heard myself asking before the thought had fully formed in my mind.

"Ella can pick up anything you need."

I was thinking about a scrappy black lace lingerie set I'd bought on impulse a few weeks ago. It wasn't the sort of thing I'd wear for Joe, but it had been too beautiful to pass up. I had no intention of sending Ella lingerie shopping, but I suddenly wanted it available - just in case.

I also wasn't brave enough to flat out tell Ranger I was hoping to get lucky and had some stuff that would knock his socks off.

"She doesn't need to do that. It shouldn't take long."

"Okay. But you should also pack a few more changes of clothing. This may not be over quickly."

The prospect of an extended stay at Rangeman wasn't sounding so terrible and I let myself relax back into my seat as Ranger pointed the SUV in the direction of my apartment.

We'd been driving in silence for about five minutes when my stomach let out a loud protest of the fact that I had only given it coffee so far this morning. I had packed some snacks and started digging through my purse to find something to take the edge off when Ranger shocked me by offering to stop for breakfast.

He shocked me even more when a couple minutes later I realized we were pulling into the lot of the cafe where we had first met.

"Feeling sentimental, Batman?" I couldn't help teasing.

"I'm feeling like this place has the best omelets in Trenton."

His words may have played off any tender feelings, but the way he threaded his fingers through mine as we walked inside said otherwise.

My mind couldn't help traveling back to that day when we had first met. I never would have imagined that the badass bounty hunter I met would become my best friend. And I definitely would have called bull shit if I'd been told I would fall in love with him.

But here we were, holding hands and looking for all the world like a normal, happy couple - if you could look past the black uniforms and utility belts.

We sat at the opposite end of the restaurant from where we were that day, but I couldn't help looking at Ranger and cataloging the differences.

His hair was still long and pulled back in a ponytail, but he'd cut it short a handful of times over the years. I liked both looks, but there was something about threading my hands through his hair as it dropped over his shoulders that did something to me.

I could see the slight indents of holes in his ears, but he rarely wore earrings these days. Only when he was very dressed up or when he was channeling his street persona. And I couldn't remember the last time I had seen him wear chains around his neck. He was more likely to sport a designer watch now. Beyond that, he was still in exquisite physical condition, with only a few fine lines - likely from too much time in the sun - around his eyes.

Ranger was just getting better with age, and it struck me how much I wanted to be there to enjoy it.

"So, CEO Ranger might have room in his life for a relationship?" I heard myself asking. I don't know if it was the early morning or my growing comfort with Ranger that had my thoughts slipping past my filter more than normal today, but it seemed to be working for me so far and I refused to feel bad about it.

"I'm not sure," he said, causing my heart to stutter before he reached across the table and grabbed my hand. "I've never had a successful relationship. I don't know if I can. But, I'm realizing more and more that my karma is never going to be completely clean. I can wait for everything to be perfect, but that might mean missing my chance with the one woman that's perfect for me."

"I don't need perfect," I said on a whisper. Afraid to believe I was hearing what he was saying.

"You deserve it. But, I'm a selfish enough bastard to try to make you mine anyway."

My eyes filled with tears, and I felt one spill over and make a track down my cheek. I dashed it away with the heel of my hand, frustrated that my reaction to any strong emotion other than anger was tears.

"Babe?" Ranger asked, gently grabbing my hand, and brushing a kiss against my still damp wrist.

"Happy tears. I've wanted 'someday' with you for a long time, but I was afraid I wasn't going to get it."

He didn't get a chance to reply before we were interrupted by the waitress taking our order. I took the opportunity to compose myself and even managed to summon up some amusement as I ordered a three-cheese omelet while Ranger asked for a southwestern veggie omelet.

By the time we were alone again, Ranger was looking serious, and a touch concerned. The fact that he was letting that show was enough to freak me out of the cautiously happy state I was settling into.

"I said there may be room for a relationship, and I'm starting to think it may be possible," he said. "But it's going to be hard. I'm going to mess up. And while my lifestyle isn't as dangerous as it was, there still isn't a guarantee that I won't end up dead or have an old enemy come back to bite us in the ass."

The fact that he said 'us' was all the encouragement I needed to reach across the table and offer him reassurance.

"I don't need easy. If I wanted easy, I would have ignored Dickie cheating or settled for what Joe was offering. I want the real deal, Ranger, and that's worth working for."

"You have no idea how much I wish we weren't in public right now," he said, eyes going the color of dark, melty chocolate.

"I think I do." I was about to say 'screw breakfast' and drag him out to the SUV but our waitress arrived with our orders and my stomach overrode my libido with an embarrassing growl that earned me a laugh from Ranger.

I just rolled my eyes at him and tucked into my meal. I figured I could use the calories. Judging by the look he was giving me, I was going to need them.

The rest of our meal was spent in a tense, but not uncomfortable silence. When we were done eating, Ranger threw a pile of bills on the table and all but pulled me from my seat and back out to the SUV. When we got there, he backed me into my door, kissing me until catcalls from across the parking lot broke through the haze of lust.

He pulled back with a muttered curse and helped me into my seat before jogging around the vehicle and climbing in.

The drive to my apartment was over quickly and I was so wrapped up in contemplating if I could pull off a seduction attempt while we were here that I was up one flight of stairs before noticing that Ranger had skipped over the elevator.

By the time we reached my freshly painted apartment door, I was breathing heavily earning me a look from Ranger that I ignored as I dug for my keys. He had to show off and had my door open before I'd even managed to locate them in the black hole that is my purse.

When I saw him pulling his gun from the small of his back, I switched gears to looking for my defense spray. Guess we were doing the 'clearing my apartment' thing. Least I could do was pretend to help.

But, Ranger never made it through the doorway before a blast of flames shot out, knocking him backwards into the opposite wall.

oOo

A/N: Big thank you to everyone taking the time to read this story. Sorry for ending on another cliffhanger! I'll try to get chapter 11 posted soon.

The idea for this story came to me while I was on a fantasy kick and reading FF in between. That last sentence is the image that popped into my head when the muse whispered 'what would happen if Ranger had to deal with dragons?'. The rest of the story bubbled up around it.