"No, no way. You're not safe outside of the building."

I groaned. "Tank, he worked with Cannon, I need to talk with him."

"I'll send one of the men. You can confer through the phone."

"That won't work! I need to be there. He'll talk to me. You can send a whole troop of men to bring me there if you want to."

Tank muttered under his breath and then nodded. "Ram, Hector, Cal and Hal will go with you. Two will go in the room with you and the other two will be on the door."

I shook my head. "They need to stay out of the room. We'll be in a secure jail and Ricky will be restrained. He's delusional and I need to make him think he won me over. He won't believe it if I come in with men."

Tank stared at me and I stared back, knowing I was right. He blinked and I silently cheered my win. "Fine. You'll listen to orders and stay with the guys until you're in the room. They'll be outside and watching through the mirror and then you'll come back here."

"Sir yes sir!" I said saluting. I raced up to Ranger's apartment and dug through my clothes in the closet. I changed into a new shirt - not slutty but showing off some cleavage - and touched up my makeup. Time to go flirt with a stalker.

I felt ridiculous as I walked into the jail. My four guards were in tactical vests and completely surrounded me. I couldn't see anything besides Cal's giant back with Hector guiding me with a hand on my back. I knew Tank had called the station and arranged for us to have a hassle free entrance and access to an interview room. We got to the room and my guards positioned me by the wall, covering me while Hector cleared the room. We then waited outside while Ricky was escorted in and securely cuffed to the table, before I was allowed to squeeze past their bulk.

I watched Ricky's eyes light up when he saw me enter. He scanned up my body and I forced myself to hold back a shudder of disgust. "Stephanie! You've come for me at last. I knew you would but you took longer then I expected."

"Oh Ricky. I'm sorry I took so long. I uh - I was overwhelmed with all that you did for me. I didn't think I deserved to have someone who loved me so much, who sacrificed so much to help me."

"I told them you'd understand. We are meant to be. I'm just sorry that I couldn't take out Morelli for all the things he did to you over the years."

My hands fisted under the table but I kept my smile beaming. "You don't have to worry about him. We ended a loooong time ago. He wasn't enough for me. Wouldn't even fight Ranger for me."

"Ha! I always knew that man was a coward. I was going to take out Ranger for you. Had a plan and everything."

"Wow, you were going to do that for me? Thats so attractive. Will you tell me all about it?" I looked up at him and let my lashes flutter.

"Hmm I don't know. I might need it someday."

"Oh please? I bet it was going to be amazing and it will make me very excited to hear all about it."

He leant forward and whispered to me "I turned one of his men against him, made him my inside man."

I gasped. "You were able to get one of his men to betray him! That's amazing."

"His job was to keep an eye on you and inform me of any plans made to catch me. He told me not to go after Morelli but I knew that threat had to be dealt with, whatever happened to me."

"You sacrificed yourself for me. How heroic. So what happened to your inside man?"

"He is still waiting in Rangeman for my orders."

"What did you give this man to get such loyalty from him?"

"Thats the best part. He didn't want anything. He just hates Ranger and wanted him to suffer. We agreed that first step would be saving you so that we could be together and Ranger would suffer knowing that he lost you. Then he was going to take advantage of Ranger's distraction and capture him."

"So he just wanted to help us be together? I wasn't going to owe him? And why was he going to capture Ranger and not kill him?"

"Of course not! His prize was Rangeman. He was going to hold Ranger for ransom and then when the team was getting close he would be the hero who tracked down the location. Unfortunately Ranger would be dead by the time they got there but he would take out the 'kidnapper'. Then he'd have the ransom reward and a promotion at Rangeman."

"Gosh that's a great plan. Everyone wins. He must have a great place picked out to keep Ranger in if he was still going to be working at Rangeman."

"Hmm yeah it was out in the North side somewhere. I honestly didn't care. You and me were going to be long gone by that time."

"Of course…. Well Ricky I have to go. Visiting hours and all."

"You'll come again?"

"Obviously." I smiled and slipped from the room. Immediately the grin dropped from my face and I burst into angry tears. Ram wrapped me in his arms and I buried my face in his chest. "We need to get Ranger now."

"Shh Steph. You did great. We'll find him." Ram said soothingly. The men surrounded me again and I was ushered back into the car.

"That idiot didn't even realize he was the one being used." I said angrily from the back seat.

"No, he didn't realize he was going to be the one set up as the kidnapper. Makes me curious about whether Cannon wanted you from the beginning or if he was using you to keep Ricky in line. Seems like he wants you pretty badly now regardless." Ram agreed.

I sat quietly in the car, thinking through what I'd learned. I was terrified, not for myself but knowing that a dead Ranger was the ultimate goal. I needed to do more but I was running out of ideas that the men would go along with.

"Hey, can we make a quick stop at my apartment? I didn't plan on staying at Rangeman this long and I could really use some of my own stuff." I asked as we neared my building.

"We shouldn't stop. If you make a list we can send a man to get it later." Cal spoke up from the passenger seat.

"Oh please can't we just run in? It's embarrassing to have the guys pick out my things. You know- girl stuff. You guys can come up with me." I begged.

The men conferred and I gave a sigh of relief when they pulled into my lot. Hector jumped out and disappeared inside, coming out moments later after clearing my apartment. I was once again surrounded by my guards as we traveled up to my place.

I hesitated in the doorway before shaking my head and pointing the men to my bedroom. They watched as I threw open drawers and tossed some belongings into my bag. I then moved to the bathroom. They moved to follow and I shot them a glare. "Guys give me a minute. There's not even a window in there." They looked uneasy but thankfully made no move to stop me as I went through and shut the door. I pulled open the cupboard and dug under my towels, sighing in relief as I found what I was looking for. I felt a bit guilty as I tucked the burner phone in my sweater pocket but couldn't make myself regret the decision. I tossed some hygiene products in my bag and then opened the door as I zipped it closed.

We went back to the door and Hector again disappeared down the hall. Cal took up position outside the door and I rested against my hall table while we waited for the all clear to move. Moments later we were back in the car and on our way back to Rangeman. I sat between Ram and Hector in the backseat and fiddled with the familiar item I'd grabbed off my table. The item that shouldn't have been there, the item that I'd last seen exiting Ranger's car.