All characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine.

"Oh my God, Steph," Mary Lou said as soon as I'd answered my phone. "You'll never believe it …"

I cut her off. "I don't have the luxury of not believing something anymore."

Being the person who's closest to Ranger, after Tank, he already told me what I know she's calling me about. The Burg isn't going to know who to root for when the local headline is about cop-on-cop crime.

"You heard about what happened to Morelli? Even as far away as you are?"

"Bad news will always find me," I reminded her. "And you don't know if I am far away."

Ranger wouldn't share our honeymoon destination until I'd asked, 'Are we there yet?' for about the thousandth time on the plane. The least I could do was pass on the same secrecy Ranger subjected me to by only offering hints to my best friend about where she and Lenny are going to be joining us.

"If I wasn't looking forward to a vacation, I'd start searching for a new best friend just for not telling me where you are. I'm almost positive Ranger wouldn't have stuck around here. You're Point Pleasant. He's every island in the Caribbean."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with Point Pleasant."

"It's a great place to go, but the chance of what's happening here spilling over to the coast is something I'm sure your husband took into consideration."

She's not wrong. Zanzibar is so far away from Trenton; it feels like I'm on an entirely different planet. A warm, peaceful, private island kind of planet.

"Speaking of what's going on in my neck of the woods … is what happened to Morelli bad news?"

I smiled over at Ranger to assure him that I'm okay, but also because Mary Lou is the best. She would think Joe getting shot minutes after court was in session is a just punishment for what he's put me through over the years. That the shot was fired by a fellow officer would be the entire crust of a Burg grapevine pie.

"Yes, Mare. Someone getting hurt is always bad."

"But he did it to himself, doesn't that make it a self-inflicted wound?"

"Not in the way you mean."

Ranger leaned in briefly to speak to Mary Lou. "Don't listen to my wife, Morelli reaped what he sowed."

"And if he hadn't tried to sow his seed in the wife of a cop from a neighboring township, he'd still be sitting pretty in front of a judge instead of getting a catheter inserted … painfully I hope."

"Ranger's guy said the backstory is that Joe didn't know he was propositioning anyone's wife, let alone a fellow detective. And apparently, she didn't know who the jerk who'd hit on her was until his face popped up on the news. That just shows he's a horndog, not that he did something warranting being shot."

"Someone hits on my wife and he'll be dead seconds after. The asshole got lucky."

I snorted. "Yep. That's what I always say when I get shot … that I'm sooo lucky."

"You're married to Ranger and currently God knows where getting to look at him. You, Stephanie, are in fact very lucky. Lenny wanted me to beg you to make your husband wear a shirt every minute we're there with you guys. After all these years, he doesn't believe I have eyes only for him."

My eyes slid all over the bare, sun and Stephanie-kissed chest, and I momentarily forgot what I was doing with those incredible muscles being highlighted by incredible scenery.

"Tell Lenny that I'll do what I can. If a fully dressed Ranger standing in a dark lot is too much for you, you won't be able to handle the view I'm feasting my eyes on right now."

"I knew it!" She shouted. "You're somewhere tropical!"

"Bye, Mare. I'll see you in a week."

"But …"

I disconnected just so she'll have something else to distract her brain from the shit hitting the Burg's fan. I dropped my cell on one of the day beds I was cuddled up to Ranger on and refocused all my attention on my lawfully wedded Batman … and the reason we're here.

I mean, when again in my life am I going to be having a five-star snack in a shaded Sala looking out over an endless expanse of Indian Ocean of varying shades of blue, toasting Mnemba Island with a Dawa cocktail and having no care in any part of my current world?