This story is inspired by a meme I found a year ago that popped up in my Facebook memories recently. If you're part of the JE Fan Fiction or Steph Tart Stories Facebook groups, I have shared the meme there for reference.

CHAPTER 1

After almost an hour of sitting in tense silence in the middle of rush hour traffic, Ranger finally pulled the SUV up to the front of the house. It was a two-story, nondescript thing that would slip straight out of your memory the second you weren't looking at it, surrounded on all sides by dense trees. Perfectly secluded. Before he'd even put the car in park I was out of the front seat and on my way around the front, heading for the backseat on the driver's side, and I took pleasure in slamming his door closed when he attempted to open it as I passed. Secretly, I hoped that his hand was at just the wrong angle so that the force would cause him an injury, or at the very least a jolt of pain, but I didn't spare him so much as a glance as I focused all my attention on the woman that locked eyes on me as soon as I reefed the rear door open.

A storm cloud was brewing behind Steph's gaze, but I knew it wasn't for me. Her eyes darted to the front seat and back, a question of concern evident in her expression, but I shook my head to defer her questions and comments until later and offered her a hand out of the back seat.

The second her feet were on the ground, her arms were around my waist, face buried in my chest. I let out a controlled breath, working to relax and rid my body of the tension winding it tight so I could return the hug rather than just holding her stiffly. Gently, I rubbed my hands up and down her back, reassuring her that we were all okay, despite everything that had happened. She mimicked my exhale, melting into me further until Ranger thrust open his door again, a growl drifting out to us as he climbed out, and closed the door with enough force to rock the car.

I gave a mental eye roll but tightened my arms as Steph flinched. We get it. You're pissed. Get over it, because you're not the only one.

"We need to get her inside and do a perimeter check," Ranger announced, the ire in his tone no less than it had been when we left Trenton an hour ago.

I nodded, not bothering to look his way as Steph remained burrowed in the front of my tee. "I'll take her in," I said quietly, my voice far calmer than I felt. "If you don't return in ten minutes I'll call for backup and initiate lockdown procedures."

"You don't have the co-" he tried to counter, but I cut him off with a pointed wave of my phone.

"Hector already sent me the codes." Like fuck was Ranger getting his way after the stunt he just pulled… Was technically still pulling. Yes, Steph was in danger. Yes, she needed to get to a safe house while we rooted out the bastards responsible. But we had a plan. A plan that she'd agreed to follow when things went from bad to worse, and Ranger swooping in fresh off a mission and practically kidnapping her away to his own safe house against her will was not it.

I was scared out of my mind the moment the shots rang out in the Tasty Pastry parking lot. Ranger had arrived on the scene, the first we'd seen or heard from him in weeks, and swiftly taken control of the situation, dispatching the mob lackeys, each with a well-positioned gunshot wound that threatened fatality as a message to their boss, rather than just going for the kill like we all knew he was capable of doing. And in the next second, he had picked Steph up, ignoring her protests, and shoved her into the backseat of the Cayenne, closing the door so she couldn't get out. Her fists pounded against the window as she screamed at him from inside, and I saw red.

I had put myself on Bomber Duty today, tailing closely while letting her maintain her independence, as was her preference and it was only because of how close I'd been sticking to Steph today that I managed to tag along on this shitshow. I'm sure Ranger would have happily hit the nightie-night button under my chin and cast me aside instead. As it was, he'd body-slammed me against the SUV when I attempted to oppose him, pulling rank in a way he rarely did where I was concerned. I'd had no choice but to go along with his plan or be left behind, and like fuck was I leaving Steph alone with Ranger in his current state of mind.

The first ten minutes of the drive had been a firecracker of an argument. Steph had called him every name under the sun, trying to convince him to turn around to no avail. After that, the silence had crept in, covering the overabundance of emotions already pinging around the too-small space in a thick blanket of fury.

With one hand, I had reached behind to squeeze her knee, using the other to shoot off a number of texts. One to her, to reassure her that everything would be okay, not wanting to speak aloud and shatter the fragile truce that had crystallised in the air. All three of us were resigned to accept the way things were until we'd arrived at our destination. Another to Lester and Bobby, once I'd determined where Ranger was taking us, requesting one of the emergency duffle bags we'd put together for Steph when we'd come up with the plan, as well as a bag for myself. And a third to Hector, for the codes. The codes that I now punched into the panel by the door with Steph pressed securely to my side and Ranger glaring daggers at me from the gravel drive. He could pull rank on me all he wanted, but I'm pretty sure if he'd tried to switch our assignments, Steph would have given him the what-fors, and it wouldn't have been pretty. She'd been in a constant state of hyper-awareness over the last week, and Ranger's pigheadedness in overriding every decision and compromise we'd worked through to maintain her safety was the straw that broke the back of her calm.

"Ten minutes," I called over my shoulder, as I ushered Steph inside, still not bothering to look at my boss for fear I would snap and throw him to the ground right there.

The second I had the door closed and locked between us I let my calm demeanour drop, knowing how much Steph hated seeing a blank face when she could sense the strong emotions simmering just under the surface. "I'm gonna kill him," I seethed, dragging a hand over my head and letting it distort my expression as it slid heavily down my face. "All the effort we went to to allow you to maintain control over your life while keeping you safe, and he just-"

"At least there's plenty of trees around," Steph pointed out. "It's a decent place to hide the body. Lots of cover"

That stole a rumbling laugh from somewhere deep in my chest, loosening some of the tension that had been growing there since the second I spotted Ranger across the parking lot and I snatched her close again, reminding myself that she was all right, and that was all that mattered. I dropped a kiss to the top of her riotous curls and shook my head, as I led her into the kitchen.

"I would never kill him and bury the body here," I explained, hoisting her up onto the counter and passing her a TastyKake from the stash of snacks I kept in my left cargo pocket just for her. It was a little squished, but she didn't seem to care as she tore it open and started pinching bits of the cake from the wrapper, popping them in her mouth with a happy little moan. "There's too many cameras," I continued, gesturing to the camera in the corner of the room. "And even if there weren't, the property is too easily linked back to Rangeman. And given the witnesses back in Trenton, I'd be a prime suspect." I shook my head again, opening my mouth for the pinch of cake she offered me and mashing it against the roof of my mouth with my tongue before swallowing. "I've got more efficient and untraceable methods than that."

She nodded, just accepting that I would have a plan ready for if I ever needed to eliminate my boss and friend from the earth. To be fair, I'd shared enough with her over the years that I think she was beginning to realise that I had a plan for every occasion. "He's being an ass," she said after a moment of silence had passed.

"He is," I agreed. And I fully intended to point that out to him when he returned to the house. I was going to point a lot of things out to him. And I was going to use my fists to do it. Maybe being knocked unconscious for a while would return him to his senses.

"But I would have ended up in a safe house by the end of the day anyway," she added. It wasn't a question. When we'd first become aware of the price the Irish Mafia had put on Steph's head, I'd invited Steph into the conference room with a selection of trusted men to discuss contingency plans. We all knew that she would want to avoid hiding herself away for as long as possible, but we were able to persuade her to agree to certain conditions at which point she would let us whisk her away. And the shooting in the parking lot of the bakery this afternoon was exactly the kind of escalation we'd been looking for.

"True," I replied, stepping closer, between her spread knees, and brushing my hand over the mark on her chin where it had scraped the asphalt when I'd covered her with my body, shielding her from the gunfire. A wave of guilt spread through me, but I'd still rather her have a grazed chin than a bullet to the chest, even with the vest she had on. "But it would have been calm and respectful, on terms that you'd agreed to in advance. Ranger had no right to take away your choices the way he did."

"No," she agreed, staring resolutely at my chest. "He didn't. He made his choice when he decided that the someday he'd promised was just a pipe dream and pulled away from me."

I cupped her face in my hands, gently tilting her head back so she was forced to meet my gaze. "Even before that, he had no right to take away your choices. No one has ever had that right. Not Ranger, not Morelli, not your mother, not me. No one, remember?" We'd been over this a few times over the years, but recently, the reminder had gotten a bit of a workout as she tried to regain control of her life. I let my thumb rub along her jawline, suppressing a pleased smile when it sent a shiver down her spine and she wrapped her arms around my waist again just as I sensed Ranger's silent approach. I hoped that his return to stealth as opposed to his outward display of emotion both directly out front of the house and back in Trenton was because he'd come to his senses, but I had a feeling it was merely so he could gather intel on the situation before announcing himself.

Well, I wasn't about to change the way I acted just because I knew he was standing in the shadows just outside the kitchen, watching. Leaning down, I pressed another kiss to the top of Steph's curls and squeezed her upper arms gently to grab her attention. "Why don't you go upstairs and run yourself a bath. I'll be up in a bit to check you out for bumps and scrapes."

She nodded, pressing her lips to my collarbone - the highest she could reach without me leaning down again, or her climbing up on her knees - and slid down off the counter, her body pressing firm to mine in the process while I held her steady.

I stepped back to let her go, but just before she was out of reach, I nabbed her hand, pressing another snack from my pocket into her palm. "For the road," I told her, delighted to see her face light up thanks to the gift of a second treat. I couldn't help the soft smile on my face as I watched her go, but the second Ranger stepped into the room, I slammed a hard expression into place overtop of it, turning to face him with arms crossed over my chest.

"What the hell is going on here?" he demanded, his tone venomous, like I'd personally slighted him. Which, in his mind, maybe I had, but like Steph said, he made his bed, now he has to lie in it.

"We're in a safehouse, and I just sent Steph for a bath to destress from a trying day," I explained, purposely evading the question he was really asking.

He shook his head. "Not what I meant," he gritted out. The 'and you know it' was left implied.

I shrugged, leaning my hip against the counter beside the sink, knowing that my show of nonchalance in the face of his ire would just piss him off further. "Then why don't you say what you mean for a change?" I challenged.

That telltale muscle in his jaw was working in overdrive as he glared at me, waiting for me to give in to his will. I hoped he was holding his breath, because I'd love to see him pass out from waiting too long. I'd watched him fuck up his relationship with Steph for too long and I wasn't about to let him continue toying with her now that he'd finally cut her loose. She had been devastated those first weeks, after he said his piece and left town on a job. I'd done my best to be there for her in whatever way she needed, exactly as he'd ordered me to do, but somewhere over the years my dedication to Steph's wellbeing had changed from an order forced upon me by a superior to the duty that comes with friendship. It had only strengthened when I saw how Ranger had hurt her, and I wasn't about to let it go on.

Refusing to give him the information he wanted without a direct question, I turned to the cabinets beside me, pulled out a glass and was about to fill it at the sink when Steph's voice drifted down the stairs, calling my name.

"Yeah?" I replied, setting the glass aside and crossing to the hall.

"I can't get the vest off," she explained, gesturing to one of the velcro straps that had somehow gotten caught in her hair, pulling her head to an awkward angle. "Can you help?"

A tiny smile tugged the corner of my lips upwards, and I didn't bother to glance back into the kitchen to gauge Ranger's reaction before I ascended the stairs to her. There was a time that she would have called his name for help, and this turn of events was probably grating on him even more than whatever else had crawled up his ass.

"How'd you manage this?" I asked her quietly, as I delicately removed her curls from the hook side of the velcro, and covered it with my hand to prevent further snags as I guided the vest up and over her head. The action reminded me of the many times a week I would have to help my cats extract their little claws from whatever fabric surface they'd gotten stuck in, and a flood of love and affection washed through me.

"It's a talent," she replied. She took the vest from me and hugged it to her chest, careful to secure the strap once more so it couldn't attack her again as she gazed past me down the stairs, a furrow forming in her brow. "Please don't make this more awkward than it needs to be," she requested, returning a concerned expression to my face. "This has to be hard on him."

I shook my head, trying not to let the derisive snort escape my throat. "And the way he treated you for years wasn't hard on you?"

"I know," she sighed, tipping her head back to stare at the ceiling. "But-"

"No." I cut her off and gently dragged her head back down to an angle where she could meet my eyes and know how serious I was about this. "He's lucky I didn't hand him his ass on this years ago," I told her, meaning every single word of it. If she had started out as my friend rather than an obligation, I never would have let Ranger pull his bullshit on her, and now that we were good friends, I wasn't going to let him continue. "He decided it was time to get off the pot, and I'm not going to let him come back in here and piss all over the progress you've made. You deserve better than that."

She looked uncomfortable, which wasn't unusual when someone started pointing out that the way she'd tolerated being treated wasn't acceptable behaviour, but she didn't protest, which showed how far she'd come since Bobby finally convinced her to see a therapist.

I let my hands drift down her sides and settle on her hips, squeezing gently. "You are worthy of love and respect," I reminded her. "And sacrificing the latter negates the former."

Her eyes rolled so hard I was prepared to catch them if they fell out of her head. "You know I hate when you use convoluted language like that," she pointed out, poking one of my pecs with her hands still curled around the vest. "But you're right. Love without respect isn't love at all."

"Exactly," I agreed. I wrapped my hand around her finger, most of her hand disappearing from view in the process. "Need help with anything else? I know an efficient way to get you out of your jeans."

Her laugh was music to my ears, and exactly what I'd been hoping to receive for my offer. "No, thank you," she assured me. "I've had a bit of practice at this bathing and dressing thing, and I think I can handle it on my own tonight."

I lifted her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm before settling it back on the vest. "Alright," I sighed. "But if you change your mind, let me know."

When I returned to the kitchen, Ranger was standing stiffly by the sink, a familiar visible tension in his body letting me know that if he were a man who was in the habit of displaying his emotions, he would likely have been pacing the space right now. Saying nothing, I picked up the glass I'd abandoned when Steph had called out to me and filled it from the tap. I guzzled down the water and filled it again before moving to sit calmly at the small kitchen table, waiting for him to take the hint and join me.

It took less time than I would have thought before he stiffly pulled out the seat directly opposite me and lowered himself into it, his all-seeing gaze locked on mine the entire time. His voice was low and menacing when he asked the question he'd meant to open with when he first came inside. "What the hell is going on between you and Stephanie?"

I leaned back in my chair, arms crossed over my chest and one leg extended to the side of the table for comfort, something I wasn't about to afford him. He wanted information? He was going to have to work for it. "If you'll recall," I started, keeping hold of his gaze. "You gave me an order about three years ago to watch Steph's back while you were in the wind. My understanding is that around the same time, you instructed her to come to me if she needed anything and you weren't around. Over the intervening time, this has developed into a reciprocal relationship. That's what's going on between us. We're friends; we're helping each other out."

His face and voice remained the same, which was impressive even for him given how pissed he was. And I knew he was beyond pissed by the open accusation that slipped past his lips in the form of a clarifying question: "Sexually?"

While I was glad he came right out and asked it, instead of using implied language and thinly veiled threats, I was also outraged that he thought he had the right to that information about Stephanie's life. I kept that energy locked away for now. There was no point flying off the handle and knocking him out when he was the only backup Steph and I had at this safe house. I'd wait until Santos and Brown arrived, and then I'd throw him through one of the second-floor windows. That'd shut him up.

I gave my head a tiny shake in answer to his question. "No."

"If you're lying-" Ranger's jaw was clenched so hard I felt obligated to cut him off before he cracked a tooth. It had nothing to do with my impatience and irritation at all, I swear.

"What gives you the right to pry into her personal life anyway?" I demanded, my voice remaining at a normal conversational level so as not to alert Steph upstairs. But I let my eyes yell at him, I let them bellow directly in his face the way I did new recruits back in my drill sergeant days. "What makes you think you're allowed to exert any sort of control over it?"

Neither of us was in good form this evening, it seemed, as I watched that muscle tick in his jaw, his body winding tighter at the accusation I'd thrown his way, but he followed my lead and kept his voice low enough that Steph wouldn't be able to hear. "You know that when Steph and I first met, I -"

"You better watch what you say, Ranger," I warned, "Because I won't tolerate your bullshit, and if you finish that sentence the way I think you're going to, you're sounding as bad as Morelli, right now."

I took a sip of my water, watching him silently seethe, letting that little observation sink in. It was true, the cop had viewed Steph as a possession. A prize even. We'd heard tell of him boasting on multiple occasions throughout the years that he was taming the 'wild Stephanie Plum' like she was some young horse in need of breaking in, saddle training, and discipline. Steph was perfect the way she was. Vibrant, rambunctious, full of life. I'd hated watching her with Morelli, seeing him chip away at all the best bits of her, trying to force her into the mould of the perfect 'Burg wife.

Her mother had been at it for years, and then Morelli came on the scene, flaunting his apparent charm and taking advantage of the history he and Steph shared to string her along and train her to be a good little wife. And all the while he'd been sleeping with Terry Gillman on the side. He'd tried to claim it was an undercover gig when we discovered the trysts and called him on it, but my fist in his gut had convinced him otherwise, and he'd broken it off with Steph for good, confessing his sins and receiving a knee to the nads for his truthfulness, which serves him right as far as I'm concerned.

The unfortunate truth of the matter was that Ranger, too, had been a possessive fucker when it came to Steph. After that first redecorating job he brought her along to, he gave us the warning that she was his and he better not catch any of us sniffing around her. I was happy enough to oblige back then. It wasn't the first time Ranger had laid a claim on a woman. But as time passed, it became apparent that his infatuation with Steph was not some throw-away fling. He was obsessed. And the more she did the yo-yo act with the cop, the more predatory he became, stealing kisses in the alley, making deals with sexual acts, poaching her away from Morelli only to send her back to him in the morning.

That one had been confusing. If he wanted her, why would he tell her to repair her relationship with the cop? But as Bobby had pointed out, maybe Steph being out of his reach was a safety net for him. If Steph was with the cop, he could justify that he couldn't have a relationship with her. Keeping her at a distance that was comfortable for him, not committing to anything more than he was willing to give.

When she and the cop broke up for good, though, that safety net was cut away and he couldn't handle it. He had to push her away and because he didn't have the buffer of her tendency to return to Morelli, after a few months, the temptation and her misery had gotten to be too much for him and he ran away to Florida.