Any Man Of Mine - sade meeks (top young adult novels txt) 📗

body so that we were facing one another. After placing a playful kiss on the tip of my nose, he tried again. "Earth to Stephanie." Ranger shook my body gently.

"Huh? What did you say?" I opened my eyes, blinking several times as though waking up from a delicious dream.

"Want to tell me why you're multicolor?"

"Skip named Marcantel resisted capture by throwing food coloring at us. Lula and I got him rebooked though." I felt like I was on top of the world when Ranger gave me a full on smile.

"Proud of you Babe."
"Proud of you Babe." Ranger released his hold on me. Before I had a chance to mourn the loss of the warmth and strength of his touch, my cell phone rang. I checked caller ID. Connie.

"Yo," I answered. I'm not positive but I think I saw Ranger smirk for the briefest of moments at my greeting. Joe frequently complained that the way I answered my phone was proof I spend too much time with Ranger.

"Steph? Where are you?" Connie sounded a tad panicked. I noticed Ranger's body language shift into a more alert stance, watching me intently; I must have tensed up without realizing it.

"At Rangman. Why? Is something wrong? Is it Lula? Is Lula okay?" Connie calling me wasn't unusual in and of itself; Connie calling me and sounding just this side of frantic on the other hand, was cause for alarm. I was worried about her but I figured if Connie was able to call she was okay. Ranger reached for his cell, ready to make a call to Tank, I guess, if this was about Lula. After the scene Lula had at the hospital last time Tank was shot, none of us were taking the risk of not informing either of them if something happened to the other one. I put Connie on speaker phone.

"No, Lula's fine. She went home nearly an hour ago." Ranger put his phone away. "Steph, you need to get down to the office, and bring Ranger or one of the other guys with you. There are more flowers here and if they're from Joe this time, something is seriously wrong." Ranger indicated we could be there in 10 minutes.

"Connie, leave the flowers alone, don't touch them. Ranger and I will be there in 10."

"I'm not touching them. I'm not even going near them." Click. I sighed as Ranger and I took the elevator down to the garage. In my gut I knew this was an escalation. I was going to be socked with a bodyguard now until this person was caught and dealt with.

Ranger and I got to the office exactly 10 minutes later. Connie was sitting on the beat up couch rather than at her desk when we walked in. I took two steps into the office, looked at Connie's desk and nearly fainted. Sitting in a vase that matched the others was a dozen long stem dead roses. Beside that was a small pot of African violets. I felt my knees giving out on me. Ranger caught me from behind and steered me to the couch next to Connie. The second I was stable on the couch, Ranger had his cell phone out, placing calls. He walked over to the desk and took the envelope off the little plastic trident in the middle of the flowers.

He opened the envelope and read the card inside. His blank face in place, he turned to me. "Take your pick. Who do you want first? Lester, Brett, or Tank?" I sighed. Maybe it wasn't really that bad. I didn't know what the card said after all.

"First tell me what the card says." If it wasn't a threat, I'd still refuse the babysitter.

"Babe."

"Ranger. I'm not accepting a guard until there is a threat. What does the card say?"

Ranger pulled the card back out and read it. "The roses were red, the violets are blue. I will make you see, that I am the only man for you. And the card is now addressed to Stephanie Plum."

I felt myself getting lightheaded. I put my head between my knees and tried to force myself to regulate my breathing. I felt Ranger's hand on the back of my neck and, having been in this position many times before, pushed back against it until the rushing in my ears stopped and I could take a full breath without feeling my chest was going to explode.

I could hear the sirens from the approaching black and white. Please don't let it be Joe I begged the universe. Ranger had his phone open again and giving me a pointed look. I sighed. It was a threat. A veiled threat, but a threat all the same. To be honest, I was more freaked out by the fact that whoever this guy was, he knew my name now. "Lester." I would have said Tank but I figured if he got shot again while out with me, Lula was likely to try and pop a cap up my ass. I wasn't taking the chance.

Ranger nodded, turned, and spoke quietly into his cell phone. He flipped it shut just as the door to the office opened and Joe walked in. Both men nodded at each other by way of greeting. I saw Joe's jaw clench as his eyes found the dead flower bouquet on Connie's desk. He sat down next to me. "You said you hadn't been threatened," he said, his voice a tad accusatory.

"I wasn't. This is the first," I answered softly, my cracking voice barely above a whisper. I didn't think I could take any more grief out of him right now. Joe nodded and stood up. Connie scooted closer to me on the couch and patted my back, trying to help me stay calm.

"I assume there was a message," he addressed Ranger. Ranger nodded and handed the card to Joe. The blank cop face slammed down firmly into place, as Joe read the card. He looked over at me, then the flowers, and finally back at Ranger. "You got someone on her?" He asked, tipping his head in my direction.

"Me for now. Lester's on his way. He should be here in about 4 minutes. He'll have her covered until Cal relieves comes on shift."

Joe nodded again. Then he turned to Connie. "I need to speak with you about this," he waved his arm to encompass the whole scene before him. "I'd rather not use Vinnie's office, for obvious reason. Let's go out by my car." Connie nodded, gave my back a final pat, and followed Joe out of the office.

Ranger sat down next to me on the couch and pulled me over so I was leaning into his side, forcing my eyes away from the dead flowers. It was then that I realized I was shaking.


Again, if you feel inclined to review, I'd like to know what you think so far. Thank you. Any Man of Mine Chapter 4 Continued

I didn't even wait for Joe to finish with Connie before I left the office. I knew Ranger would find out what the cops knew and tell me what he thought I needed to know. Not ideal, but it was going to have to be good enough for tonight. I'd worry about getting the rest out of him later. As soon as Lester was there and had been filled in on the basics by Ranger, I had him take me home. Ranger had offered to let me stay at Rangeman, but I didn't want to give this maniac too much control over my life just yet. It was bad enough I had to have a guard on me 24/7 now, I wasn't about to let him run me out of my own home. My car was still at Rangeman; I assumed Ranger would have one of the guys bring it by later. That was pretty much SOP when my car and I were separated.

Despite the surveillance cameras still in operation, Lester did a walk through of my apartment, gun drawn, upon our arrival, bid me good evening, and went back down to his SUV where he'd stay until Cal arrived or something happened that required his attention. After the Dickie fiasco, Ranger and I had come to an understanding concerning the security camera in my foyer. Given the frequency with which my apartment was broken into, I would activate the cameras when I left the apartment and during any Code Red situations. Code Red is when a nut job is after me and Rangeman goes on Stephanie Watch. When it's not a Code Red situation, I deactivate the system while I'm at home. One of the tech guys at Rangeman set it up so that I can activate and deactivate the system over the phone. The camera set up doesn't provide coverage for the fire escape though, so I guess Lester's walk through made some sense.

Once Lester was secured elsewhere, I went into my bedroom to change. I figured I was in for the night. I also figured that there was a decent chance that I would have a visitor at some point before daybreak. I weighed the options available to me and settled on one of Ranger's shirts and a pair of girl boxers. They hugged a bit tighter and aren't as long in the legs as boy boxers, but certainly covered more than my usual underwear. I made sure my hair wasn't doing its Medusa impression but drew the line at wearing a bra just to sit around my apartment.

After gathering the necessary provisions of chocolate ice cream and some TastyKakes, I settled onto the couch, grabbed the remote and located a retro-replay of an old Rangers-Red Wings game. It wouldn't have Mike Richter as goalie but it sure beat anything else that was on. I fell asleep at some point during the game, junk food consumed, wrappers on the floor.

I heard the locks tumble on my door. Normally I wouldn't have, but I was still in the living room and sleeping very lightly. Slowly I sat up, letting the throw blanket fall to the floor. I reached for the remote and turned the TV off. Given the fact that – I look at the clock…12:30 am – Cal was watching the building, I figured it could only be Ranger but called out somewhat softly anyway.

"Ranger?"

"Yeah Babe." I smiled sleepily at him when he came into sight. "What are you doing sleeping on the couch?"

"I fell asleep watching an old hockey game." I stifled a yawn. He took off his utility belt, dropping it on the table, before coming over to sit on the couch next to me. "What'd Joe find out from Connie?"

Ranger reached over and pulled me closer to him, so we were sitting side ways on the couch, my back to his chest. I wasn't complaining. "Connie wasn't able to give him a whole lot to work with initially. Delivery from Flora's Florals and the delivery guy seemed weirded out by it. Said he couldn't get away from the flowers soon enough, barely even waited for Connie to sign for them. So she opened them."

"Oh," I took a moment to process Ranger's words. "You said initially. Did she remember something else?" I asked hopefully. It wasn't so much that I looked forward to knowing about this guy but more that I couldn't wait for this to be over with.

"Joe relayed the information to Costanza. He tracked down that the flower order was called in, using a credit card issued to a Paul Shapiro.