Disclaimer: Anything you recognize I don’t own. JE created and owns Stephanie and the Rangeman Crew. I only wished I owned Ranger. Hey, possession is 9/10’s of the law and he is in MY story so I get to own him for a little while. I’m not making any money from this, I’m just writing for my own amusement so don’t sue me.
F14
Prologue
2/27/08
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Morelli didn’t blink, but the muscle in his jaw twitched again. If he clenched his teeth any harder his molars were going to turn to powder.
We were at a standoff – again. It had been a bad week. And, considering my average week wasn’t stellar anyway, well, bad was kind of an understatement.
It had started out when my latest piece of crap car caught fire while I was stopped at a light on Bellevue. I was sitting there, minding my own business, when smoke started coming into the car. I ducked out the door just in time for the hood of my car to blow off and the entire car was engulfed in flames. At least 3 people whipped out their cell phones and called Morelli directly. Bad.
The next day I borrowed Ranger’s Cayenne and I was dropping my latest FTA at the police station when the guy slipped his handcuffs, threw me to the ground and stole the car. I was so pissed off that I pulled out my gun and shot the rear tire. I was surprised I even hit it, but the car limped to a stop and the guy took off. Ranger and Tank pulled up a few minutes later just as Morelli and the rest of Trenton’s finest came running out of the station. Ranger and Tank were grinning like a pair of Cheshire cats at my sharpshooter prowess, but Morelli looked like he wanted to strangle me. Very Bad.
Then, today things went wrong again. I was caught in a shoot-out between rival gang members down on Sloan. I wasn’t hurt, but the fact that I was still driving Ranger’s Cayenne at the time and a bullet had ricocheted off one of the fenders made it extra special. Ranger didn’t even blink when I told him about the car. He wrapped his arms around me, whispered “Babe” and then kissed me breathless. Normally, this isn’t a huge problem. Except today Morelli chose that moment to walk into the room. There isn’t even a chart for how bad this one is.
And so, here we are in Morelli’s new Vice Captain office in the middle of the Trenton PD, having the Mother of All Break-up Fights™. He’d been yelling at me for the past 15 minutes. So far, I was incompetent, stupid and reckless. I couldn’t wait to find out what he came up with next. Although I had an idea.
“How long has this been going on?” Oh boy, here we go.
“Today?” I said, “About 3 minutes before you walked in.” I know I should feel guilty and remorseful and upset, but honestly I was just tired. Tired of defending myself among other things.
Morelli gave me a dark look before slamming his new desk lamp so hard it flew across the room and stuck in the paneled wall. “And before today?” he snapped.
I pretended to think about it for a minute. “I dunno, depends on what you’re talking about exactly. If you’re talking about the kiss, then that goes back quite a ways. When did Ranger go FTA?” Morelli’s look got darker, which should have scared me but was only pissing me off more. “If you’re talking about the handful of my ass that he had, well that kind of goes along with the whole safe-house thing.”
“Meaning?” Morelli ground out.
“Well, when I say ‘safe house’ I mean ‘Ranger’s house’,” I said complete with air quotes.
Morelli grabbed onto the edge of his desk and his knuckles turned red, then white. “You stayed in Ranger’s house?” He gave me an arch look, “In Ranger’s bed too?”
I took a deep breath. I’ve gone this far I might as well go the whole way. “He’s got great sheets,” I said with a grin.
Morelli bowed his head and when he looked back up at me, I knew we were done. I didn’t even wait for him to tell me to get out. I just picked up my purse and walked out the door.
I walked down the hallway and all of my cop friends pretended not to look at me. Morelli and I might have been behind a closed door, but the walls were paper thin. They’d heard everything.
I pushed my way out the door to the parking lot and slipped into the shiny, black Porsche that was waiting for me.
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