Ten Big Ones

A challenge.

Ranger glanced at his watch. 'I have five minutes. Tell me about Junkman.'

'Not much to tell. He wants to kill me. I told you everything I know last night.'

'What are you doing about it?'

'Co

Ranger finished his bagel and pushed back from the table to finish his coffee. 'Kidnapping a Slayer is good. Why wouldn't he talk?'

'He didn't want to.'

Ranger paused with the coffee cup halfway to his mouth. 'You're supposed to persuade him.'

'We were going to slap him around, but when we got him tied to the chair it turned out none of us could hit him.'

Ranger burst out laughing and coffee sloshed out of his cup onto the table. He put the coffee down and reached for his napkin, trying not to laugh, not having a lot of luck at it.

'Jeez,' I said. 'I think that's the first time I've ever seen you laugh like that.'

There's not a lot to laugh about when you're knee deep in garbage. And that's where we usually operate.' He swiped his napkin across the table, blotting up the coffee spill.

'If you have all this, why do you still do fugitive apprehension?'

'I'm good at it. And someone has to do the job.'

I followed him into his dressing room and watched him open the locked drawer and remove a gun. I was working hard at keeping my eyes focused above his waist, but I was thinking no underwear!

'Do you still have your Slayer hidden away?' he asked.

'Yes.'

'Is he secure?'

'Yes,' I said.

'My day is filled, but we can talk to him tonight. In the meantime, don't have any contact with this guy. Don't feed him. Let him worry.' He clipped the gun to his belt. 'I need the truck. Use one of the Porsches. The keys are in the plate on the sideboard. The communication room and gym are on the fifth floor. Feel free to use the gym. Ella and Louis live on the sixth floor. You can intercom number six if you need anything. She'll be in today to make the bed and clean and pick up laundry. She'll do your laundry if you leave it out for her.' He glanced at his watch again. 'I have a meeting scheduled. I'm assuming you want to live here a while longer?'

'Yes.' I didn't have a lot of good choices.

His mouth curved into the almost-smile. 'You're going to be indebted to me, Babe. You want to start working on that guilt problem.'

Oh boy.

He grabbed me and kissed me, and I felt my toes curl. And I wondered how long it would take me to get him undressed. And just exactly how many minutes did he have before the meeting. I didn't think I needed a lot of time. After all, he wasn't wearing any undies. That would help, right?

'I have to go,' he said. 'I'm late.'

Thank God, he was late. There were no minutes. No time to cheat on Joe. No time to send myself straight to hell. I smoothed the wrinkles from his shirt where my fingers had gripped the material. 'Do you know where the truck is?'

'It's in the garage. I had Tank bring it in last night. All the cars and trucks are equipped with GPS tracking. We always know where they are.'

Great. Really glad I went to the trouble to park two blocks away.

I showered and dressed and left the apartment, being careful not to run into any of the men. I suspected they were also careful not to run into me. The arrangement felt awkward.

I chose the Turbo, parking at the curb when I got to the office, so I could keep an eye on the car. It was one thing to lose a bargain-basement Lincoln; I didn't want to get a bunch of u

'Holy crap,' Lula said, staring out the window at the Porsche. 'Is that Ranger's Turbo?'

'Yes He's back, and he needed the truck, so he gave me the 911. He's going to talk to our friend tonight. He said we shouldn't have any contact with him. And he didn't want us to feed him.'

'Fine by me,' Co

'Yeah,' Lula said. That was embarrassing.'

'Anything new on the books?' I asked.

'No, but you have three outstandings,' Co

'We'll see how it goes,' I said. 'I'm going to pick up Shosha

Lula looked at me hopefully. 'Need any help?'

'Not with Brown. I've picked her up before. She's usually cooperative.' And to make things even easier, I'd chosen the flashy Turbo. Shosha

'Yeah, what?' Shosha

'Its Stephanie Plum. I want you to look out your front window.'

'This better be good. I'm watching a show on the best bathrooms in Vegas.'

'I came to take you for a ride in Ranger's Turbo.'

'Are you shitting me? The Porsche? You came to pick me up in the Porsche? Hold on. I'll be right out. I just gotta put on some lipstick for my new photo. I've been waiting for you anyway I'm hoping I get sent to the workhouse on account of I got a tooth that's killing me, and they got a good dentist there. I won't have to pay for it or nothing.'

Two minutes later, Shosha

I drove Shosha

Shosha

'You might want to think about staying out of trouble.'

'It's no problema,' she said. 'I only get caught when I need dental.'

Morelli was waiting for me outside. 'Nice car,' he said.

'I borrowed it from Ranger to get Shosha

'Clever.'

I was choking on guilt. My throat was dry and my chest was hot.

I could feel sweat begi

'It was all because of the shower gel,' I said.

Morelli's eyes narrowed. 'Shower gel?'

I made a major effort not to sigh. 'Long story. You probably don't want to hear it. Out of morbid curiosity, what sort of a relationship do we have?'

It looks to me like we're in the off stage of on again, off again. Or maybe we're still on again… but in a remote sort of way.'

'Suppose I wanted to change it to full-time on again?'

'For starters, you'd have to get a new job. Or even better, no job at all.'

'No job?'

'You could be a housewife,' Morelli said.

Our eyes locked in stu

'Okay, maybe not a housewife,' Morelli said.

I sensed a slur on my ability to housewife. 'I could be a housewife if I wanted. I'd be a good one, too.'

'Sure you would,' Morelli said. 'Eventually. Maybe.'

'It's just that I was surprised because marriage is usually a prerequisite to being a housewife.'