A/N: All familiar characters/etc. belong to Janet Evanovich, only my words are my own. I am not making any profit from this.

I'm baaaaack! Sorry for the delay - life and stuff happens and I wanted to zany up the plot a little and not just churn it out too perfunctory like. Hopefully it's still interesting and the (massive) delay hasn't been too disappointing. Thank you for all of the follows/favorites/reviews; I appreciate the support and encouragement and I'll do my best to update more regularly.

Also, this has NOT been proof read... just a heads up.

Part III. "A WISH is a powerful thing, especially when it comes from the heart." - Jiminy Cricket

Chapter 16

Stephanie Plum POV - 05 JUN 2015 (Present Day)

"Hmm… could you move it a bit to the left? I liked it better a little closer to the fire pit," I called to Ranger as he finally relented to the sticky heat and pulled his t-shirt off to wipe the sweat from his face and chest before tossing it onto the recently cut grass.

Over the past several days, we'd settled into an awkwardly polite friendship, tiptoeing around each other as we attempted to co-parent. Every now and then, one of us would fall back to the easy going, borderline flirty banter that had reigned our relationship prior to him unceremoniously dumping him. Ranger was content to push those boundaries, but I recoiled whenever I accidentally fell into the familiarity we used to share.

He shifted the round bali bed closer to the stone fire pit in my backyard before turning to face me. He crossed his arms across the expanse of his chest and gave me a pointed look with a raised eyebrow. "Satisfied?" Ranger asked with a smirk. Apparently my borderline ogling of his body wasn't quite as surreptitious as I'd intended. Smug jerk.

"It looks great. Thank you for moving it there Ranger," I said, hoping my cheery tone would cover the stiffness I felt. I chose to ignore the muttered "for moving it there and back and there and back and there again," as he joined me in the shade of a huge maple tree, ruffling the raspberries' hair as he passed them in their walkers.

Ranger had stopped by after finishing up a client meeting in Newark and offered to help me set up the newly delivered backyard furniture in preparation for the twins' birthday party, and I may have taken advantage of his generosity a bit.

"I can't believe they're walking already," I said as watched Serafina shuffle her way back towards us with Theo following closely.

"Ba-Steph," Ranger said with a dry huff, "they're not really walking."

"Ugh, fine," I replied with an eye roll, "they're close and with all of your Batman genes, it's only a matter of time until they're waking up during those pesky AM hours that most people sleep through to go jogging."

"What other prep do we need to do for the birthday party?" Ranger asked.

"Prep?" I scoffed, "it's not a mission, Ranger. It's a party."

"One woman's party is another man's battleground fraught with small talk and family."

"Speaking of," I segued, pulling a squealing Serafina from her walker and into my lap. She immediately busied herself playing with a RangeMan Build-a-Bear complete with plush handcuffs, black CAT boots, and a flak vest with RangeMan emblazoned on it. Ella had gotten them on behalf of everyone at RangeMan Trenton for the raspberries for their first Christmas and thankfully ignored Lester's insistence on including a foam gun for accuracy. "I sent invites to the Merry Men, Ella, my family, friends, w*ish colleagues, and the people from Mommy and Me. Who from your friends and family do you want to invite?"

"Well, Camilla and her… friend," Ranger said stiffly, "although I suspect you've already invited them."

"Yeah, Camilla and Tucker have already been invited. And he's her boyfriend and business partner, either term is acceptable."

"She's my baby-sister," he growled as he scooped Theo out of his walker and held him against his still shirtless chest. He helped Theo stand, leaning against his solid chest as he tested his stability. Theo's look of concentration clearly mirrored Ranger's face though Ranger's had a richer hue and was haloed by straighter hair.

"Sure, Ranger. She's your 31 year old baby-sister," said with feigned sincerity. "I'm thinking we should deliver the invitation to your parents in person when we share the news?" I asked, hopefully masking the anxiety I felt at having to not only meet the bat-family, but tell them I sorta kept their bat-grandkids a secret from them for just shy of a year.

"They're out of town for the next ten days. I've made plans for us to go to dinner there that Friday," Ranger announced offhandedly.

"You what?" I squealed, snapping my neck to face him.

"I made plans for dinner," he reiterated slowly. "We talked about sharing the news with them," Ranger replied, clearly not understanding my shock.

"W-b-yeah, I-I know we talked about it, but you have to give me a heads up when you make plans that involve me and the twins," I sputtered.

"Noted," Ranger said dryly, clearly annoyed at my response. "I'll be sure to run plans regarding our children by you in the future."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way," I replied softly, "I guess I'm not used to have to share the parenting stuff."

We passed a few minutes with the only sounds coming from the twins as they excitedly chattered with a smattering of "Mama's" and "bye-bye's" every once in a while.

"So, are we going to be meeting your whole family or just your parents?" I asked. Camilla had mentioned a lot of things about their siblings since we'd met. After the shock of the raspberries being her niece and nephew, she'd given my a full rundown of all of their other siblings, enough to be wary and know that the news of Ranger's insta-family wouldn't be all that well received.

"Just my parents, grandmother, and Camilla. I figured it would be nice to have someone in our corner."

"Not brave enough to break the news to all of your siblings at the same time?" I joked, glad that I'd be meeting the bat-family in pieces.

"Neither one of us is brave enough for that," Ranger joked, falling back onto the blanket and holding giggling Theo up above him. "I'd rather face a cartel hit squad. Trust me, it's less stressful and oblique."

Great, something to look forward to.

Stephanie Plum POV - 06 JUN 2015 (Present Day)

"I'm not hiding in the dark," Ranger retorted, shutting down Sofia, Lester's little sister.

Buzzing with giddy energy, she'd latched onto our wrists the second we arrived and pulled us into the dark party room lit only by candles on the tables at La Dolce Vita, an Italian restaurant overlooking the beach in Belmar. It was where Lester had brought Calista for their first real date after months of late night trysts. Most of the other guests had already arrived and were contributing to the low hum of conversation. Apparently they'd all agreed to the hide in the dark to surprise Calista when she and Lester arrived, newly engaged.

Sofia just rolled her eyes at Ranger and drew us further into the room. "Steph, you have to make him. You yell at those jerk manufacturing guys all the time and they listen. Just use your scary, loud, mom voice."

I rolled my eyes at the thought that any one, even his real mom, could get Ranger to do something he didn't want to do was laughable. But for Lester and Calista, I thought I'd give it a chance. "Just do it, Ranger. Besides, you hide in the dark all the time."

"Only when I'm taking down hardened criminals," Ranger retorted, clearly affronted at my equating his professional ventures to something as frivolous as a surprise party.

"You played peek-a-boo with the raspberries yesterday," I pointed out, "that's kinda like hiding in the dark."

"No, it isn't," he gritted out in a low growl. Clearly he was embarrassed by his cousin's introduction to his playful, dad-side. "Besides, I was hiding behind my hand, not in a dark room," he muttered before relenting to Sofia's pulling and following her into the room.

"You're right, peek-a-boo and surprise parties are nothing like skulking in the shadows to apprehend bad guys," I replied solemnly, patting his back before following Sofia only to crash into her at her abrupt stop. Even in the shadowed room, I could read the shock on her face as she registered our familiarity.

"What the hell is going on? Do you two know each other?" she whisper-shouted accusingly at us, her inquisitive glare waffling between us. "And why is my cousin hanging out with the twins?" she demanded before her features shifted to shock. "No way! No f-f-freaking way!" she exclaimed before gesturing exaggeratedly between us. "He's your mysterious, dreamboat, baby-daddy who inspired the coquette*ish line?"

I could almost feel Ranger's cocksure smirk in my periphery and I started sputtering a response, glad the dark was hiding my rising blush.

"Coquette*ish Babe?"

"What? No! No, I have no idea where she's getting that from," I replied hotly before mumbling under my breath, "probably Lula and Connie, crazy gossips."

Sofia wasn't deterred by my response and turned her critical glare to Ranger. "And you!" she shrieked, punching Ranger's shoulder before dropping her voice back to an angry whisper at Ranger's expression and my wary glance at the attention we were garnering. "How could you just be gone this whole time? Pendejo (Spanish: Asshole)!"

"No, Sofia. No. It's not like that at all. We were friends- are, are friends and he didn't know until he came back in town for his sister's wedding," I explained at the disappointment in her voice.

"This is crazy talk. I have no words for this," she said, gesticulating wildly at Ranger and me before shaking her head violently as if to dislodge our entire conversation from her mind before pivoting quickly enough to snap Ranger in the shoulder with her glossy pony tail and heading back to the entrance to the party room just as Lester and Calista entered and our friends' chorus of congratulations cleared the awkwardness from the air.

"You were right, we definitely should have come separately," Ranger conceded angrily, as if it was still somehow my fault that someone outside of our immediate circles of trust knew he was the raspberries father. "We need to convince her not to tell anyone until we break the news to our families first," he said resignedly as he led me to join the crowd surrounding our newly engaged friends, his hand hovering at the small of my back.

Calista Cooper POV - 06 JUL 2014 (11 Months Ago)

"And then we watched the fireworks over the water," I finished detailing my first, official date with Lester in a hushed tone so as to not wake the sleeping angels down the hall.

"That is so freaking romantic it makes my face hurt," Victoria exclaimed with a blinding smile and a dreamy sigh, her chin resting in her palm. "Right Steph? Steph?" she asked, poking Stephanie in the shoulder.

"She's asleep, again?" I asked, not at all surprised. After a few bites of a Boston creme doughnut I brought her for breakfast, she laid her head down to rest on her arms and nodded off during my date recap. "Parenthood looks exhausting."

"Eh, I wouldn't know. My parents were more of the children should be seen and not heard type," Victoria explained, wafting the aroma from her coffee towards Stephanie in an attempt to wake her gently. "We were strategic accessories that were brought out for special occasions and then quickly pawned off to the nanny."

"That kinda sucks, no offense. It's like they missed out on the whole parenting experience," I replied.

"I think that was the idea," Victoria murmured before nudging Stephanie with her shoulder. "Wakey, wakey Steph. You're missing out on guy talk!"

"Wh-what? I'm awake, I was just resting my face," Stephanie said, jerking up with a start, a little bit of chocolate frosting smudged on her chin. "Lester brought you a bouquet of office supplies because annoying Hillary at work keeps stealing yours, he drove you to the beach in Belmar, and then what?" she asked while rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Nope, you know the rules. You slept through the story so you miss out on the date details," Victoria joked, nudging me in the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I'm just… I'm so damn tired all the time," Stephanie groused. She took a sip of her lukewarm, decaf coffee and grimaced. "I really do want to hear about your date with Lester. It's been a long time coming."

"Agreed. I can't believe it took you guys months of hookups to finally admit there's something real between you," Victoria added.

"Pot meet kettle," Calista replied dryly, "how long have you and Dreamy Duncan been dancing around each other now?"

"That is totally different. We aren't getting down and dirty on the regs!" Victoria retorted hotly.

"Shhh! You have to keep it down," Stephanie whispered frantically, "Theo is a very light sleeper," she explained just as the baby monitor interrupted our conversation with the sounds of a fussing infant.

Victoria mouthed sorry at Stephanie as she heaved herself out of her seat and shuffled down the hall towards the nursery. "I do not want kids," Victoria announced. "The twins are adorable, but I'm glad we get to be the cool aunts and don't have to help with the crying and diaper stuff. Right?" she asked, looking at me for confirmation over her mocha latte.

"Mhmm," I mumbled, grabbing another rainbow sprinkle doughnut and shoving half of it into my mouth. Victoria knew my diversion tactics and just arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow at me until I responded. "I'm pretty sure Lester wants kids. Plural."

"Pretty sure?"

"He said, and I quote, I think it would be great to have a bunch of little munchkins. And when I asked him how many that meant he said at least enough for a basketball team."

"Well shit," Victoria replied, letting that announcement sink in. "I can't believe you're still dating him after that little nugget."

"He's very, very talented and crazy, stupid hot," I explained, picturing his tanned, muscular physique.

"I guess having a basketball team is better than being a soccer mom, but I think you're still gonna need a minivan."

Ranger Manoso POV - 09 JUN 2015 (Present Day)

"I think I need to up my daily cardio," I grumbled as I laid back on my elbows and looked over at Stephanie. She'd invited me to join her and the twins for an afternoon at the park and I'd switched shifts with Lester to make it. We spent the afternoon chasing the twins around the playground and enjoying the watermelon that Ella insisted I bring when she found out where I was going.

Stephanie chortled and gave me a knowing look. "I'm a little scared to find out how you plan on increasing your daily workout." She laid on her side with her head near mine and her toned legs sticking out from beneath pastel colored shorts. "The raspberries are getting more and more active and harder to keep up with." She ran a hand over the twins who were napping between us, straightening their hair and clothes.

"Maybe I can just hang out with you guys to stay in shape," I suggested, hoping Stephanie would be receptive. While she'd been gradually getting less frosty with me over the past few weeks, we still weren't at the easy, flirty friendship we'd had before I left. After an uncomfortable strategy session with Lester and Tank regarding how to get Stephanie to open up to me with respect to more than just the twins, I realized what I needed was a clean slate. I was going to try to get to know Stephanie all over again. Apparently, that plan required guilting her into invites and occasional small talk. "Thanks for inviting me today."

"Of course," she replied awkwardly. "Well, if you want to hang with us the rest of the day you're going to have to brave a trip to Grandma Mazur's. We're going there for a little housewarming."

"She finally escaped your mother?"

"Yup," she smiled widely at me, "it was my mother's day gift to Grandma Mazur."

"And how'd your mother take that?"

"She was unhappy and vocal about it" Stephanie replied slowly, "and she double banned me from pineapple upside-down cake. But joke's on her because Ella makes it for me whenever I ask."

"Speaking of, Ella wants you to call her about making the twins' birthday cake. I told her it was supposed to be any kind of animal and she just sort of huffed at me and told me to have you call her."

"Yeah, we have a lunch date to discuss the menu. She, thankfully, demanded to be included in the party planning," Stephanie admitted. "Y-you can come too, if you want."

"I'd like that," I replied sincerely, steeling myself to continue with Santos' suggestion of sharing that he lauded as foolproof. "I've already missed so much, so many firsts. I'd like to at least help plan their first birthday."

Stephanie grimaced like she did every now and then when confronted of the reality of my absence from our twins' lives. I know she felt like she'd done the right thing waiting to tell me, but despite that she also held some guilt for not finding a way to bring me into the twins' lives earlier. She fished around in her purse for a few moments and pulled out a cell phone with a plum case with w*ish scrolled on the back of it in gold. She tapped her fingers on the screen for a bit before handing it to me, cued up to a video. "I know a handful of the firsts in the twins lives are gone, but the first time they giggled, well, I managed to catch on video."

"Thanks Steph," I said softly. I reached out tentatively to squeeze her hand, grateful that she didn't recoil instinctively as she had done when I first came back into her life. I watched the video, smiling at Theo and Serafina who were reduced to tinkling giggles and wide gummy smiles by Stephanie tickling them. "Can I email this to myself?" I asked, doing so at her nod. "So," I said, tapping the back of her phone emblazoned with her brandname, "how did I not know that you were planning this?"

"Well, after I caught Dickie with Joyce and I had that impromptu bonfire on the front yard with all of his stuff, I decided to do something for me. I'd always been interested in design, but I didn't feel like it was something I could really pursue until the divorce."

Stephanie Plum POV - 04 APR 2009 (6 Years, 02 Months Ago)

"What the fuck is that annoying beeping?" I grumbled to myself as I reached out blindly for the source of the noise and tried to untangle myself from my bedsheets. I knocked my phone onto the phone and managed turn off the ringing in the process. I stumbled out of bed and towards the bathroom of my new, single woman apartment. I managed to brush my teeth and wash my face before stuffing my feet into a pair of tennis shoes and ambling towards down the hallway of apartment doors.

The elevator opened to and older woman wearing a pink, frilly dressing gown and house slippers. "Going down?" she queried as I stepped on and nodded. "Good choice, first floor has home appliances and linens," she announced and hit the appropriate button.

I walked through the lobby area into the annoyingly bright day, squinting my way to my little red Miata. I drove absentmindedly to the nearest McDonalds and after receiving my drive through order of a super-sized french fries and coke, I parked in the lot to scarf down my very own hangover cure.

The salt, grease, and caffeine helped clear up the hazy bits of my memory from the previous night and I remembered the promise I'd made to Mary Lou, Calista, and Victoria before they'd dropped me off at my apartment. I promised that I'd take advantage of my new found freedom, find my inner Wonder Woman, and fly.

As much as I was loath to admit it, I let my mother and Burg expectations dictate too many of my decisions, including my (thankfully) short-lived marriage the golden boy lawyer with political aspirations that my mother adored. And as hurtful it was to find him cheating with the neighborhood bicycle, I was secretly a little relieved. I was relieved that I wasn't going to be forced to be a stay at home mom whose daily aspirations involved taking care of kids and a grown ass man (why couldn't he take care of himself?), stressing over the status of the pot roast, or worrying what the neighbors would think of any individuality I chose to pursue. In a way, I was free. Freed by Dickie 'can't keep it in his pants' Orr and Joyce 'occupation: serial divorcee' Barnhardt. Who would've thought I'd actually be grateful to them for anything?

Given that my attempt at shoving myself into the Burg mold failed so spectacularly after only a few months and at no real fault of my own, I was free to make my own way and stray from the norm. Besides, divorces were frowned upon in the Burg, regardless of the reason. It's the reason the Morelli women were considered saints for staying with their philandering, drunk, often abusive husbands. I'd already done the unthinkable and gotten a divorce and no amount of toeing the line would garner me admission to the good Burg girl club, so there was no point in settling and trying, I realized with a smile as I crammed another handful of french fries into my mouth.

So, that left me with only what I wanted… Oh the possibilities!

Of course, there'd only every really been one possibility. Between hours of binge watching Project Runway, the handful of fashion related business classes I took, and the fact that I opted for the decidedly dull position at E.E. Martin as a lingerie buyer rather than the other, more lucrative job offers I'd gotten, it was clear what I wanted, deep down in the recesses of my heart where I kept my dreams hidden safe from my mother and anyone's criticism. I wanted to be a fashion designer, lingerie, specifically. And given the settlement money the incensed divorce court judge had generously provided me, I had more than enough to cover the cost of tuition.

All I needed to do was apply to the school I'd discovered months ago in time to start during the summer session. Stephanie Plum, lingerie designer… sounds pretty good. Maybe not quite as good as Stephanie Hemsworth, fashion designer and wife of Chris Hemsworth, but still.

Ranger Manoso POV - 09 JUN 2015 (Present Day)

Stephanie sat up and began packing up the detritus of our picnic. "So, will you be joining us at Grandma Mazur's?"

I scrubbed a hand over my face and sat up. I wanted to get to know Stephanie again and build trust, but despite my reputation as a cold-blooded mercenary, her grandmother was a terror. "Yeah, if it's okay with you. Besides, we'll get to practice breaking the news about me being the father and us co-parenting before dinner with your parents next Sunday."

"You sure? You seem a little hesitant there," Stephanie commented teasingly. "You're not scared of my little ol' grandma, are you?"

"Your grandmother is terrifying. I'm pretty sure she tries to X-ray vision her way through my cargo pants."

"Oh yeah. That's exactly what she's doing. After she got over the shock of you being the twins father, she asked me if I'd draw a to scale picture of your package, as she likes to call it."

"It? Seriously, Babe?" I teased her. "Sorry. Seriously, Stephanie?" I corrected at her furrowed eyebrows.

"Whatever, you know what I mean," she huffed. "So, are you coming?" she asked as she settled our still sleeping twins into their stroller.

At my nod, she led me over to her SUV and after helping strap the twins into their carseats, I jogged over to my Cayenne to follow her to Rush Crossing, an active adult retirement community.

After being waved through at the security gate and following Stephanie drive through the winding roads and passed by an large community center and golf greens we stopped at the end of a cul-de-sac lined with modest but well maintained single story homes.

I reached Stephanie's car just as she started unbuckling Theo from his carseat. I carried the twins in their bleary, sleep addled states up the stone walkway following Stephanie who was carrying a gift bag with an explosion of colored tissue paper trying to escape from it.

Stephanie rang the doorbell and after a few minutes of waiting, she looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. "She knows we're coming," Stephanie offered with a frown and hit the doorbell again just as we heard a muffled yell followed by a crashing noise. "Ranger, did you hear that?" Stephanie looked at me with a worried expression.

"Yeah. Here, grab Theo," I said handing him to Stephanie where he rubbed his sleepy face against her shoulder and I shifted Serafina so I could pull my lock pick set out of my back pocket.

After shimming the door open I followed Stephanie into the apartment and towards the mumbled sounds of voices. We headed through the leopard print accented living room and down a hallway as the voices grew louder. I followed Stephanie into a room when she squealed and turned around, a hand covering Theo's eyes and her one squeezed shut. "Don't look and cover Serafina's eyes! They're too young for this! We're too young for this!"

"What- oh shit," I muttered, covering Serafina's eyes despite the fact that she was entirely focused on the buttons of my henley.

"Oh, hello. I guess we lost track of the time," an older gentleman with white hair styled in a marine fade said a little too calmly given the situation. I averted my gaze as quickly as I could, unfortunately it wasn't quick enough. He and Edna seemed to be filming some sort of bondage themed sex tape. Luckily, we'd gotten here before the clothing had come off and Edna was in some sort of latex rubber bodysuit (that I will never be able to un-see) with a rhinestone collar and her friend was wearing boxers and furry, pink handcuffs.

"Is that the cuban sex god? Now that my baby granddaughter is no longer interested in you, would you like to join us?" Edna said to me giving me an alarmingly lingering perusal, "we were just getting to the good part."

"No thank you Ms. Mazur," I replied over Stephanie's shocked chastisement. I backed out of the room and pulled Stephanie with me by her elbow; we didn't stop until we'd reached the living room.

"Oh my god. What the. I have no words…" Stephanie finally said, looking dazed and unfocused.

"I'm not sure whether I should be terrified that this is part of what makes up our children's gene pool or be impressed that Edna's man friend had better luck convincing her to do something I never managed to talk you into," I chortled.

"This isn't funny!" Stephanie yelled, hitting me in the leg with the gift bag she was holding limply at her side, "and you know this was Grandma Mazur's idea."

"You're right. You could learn a thing or two," I suggested with a smirk.

"If there were two of us, New Jersey would implode," she replied archly before slumping onto the leopard print ottoman.

"You don't think this has scarred the raspberries for life or anything, do you?" Stephanie asked, looking into Theo's eyes in an attempt to discern any psychological trauma.

"I don't think they had a chance to really register anything, but maybe we should leave, just incase?" But before Stephanie could respond, Edna and her friend joined us in the living room, both having changed quickly into something more appropriate for company.

"Sorry about that. We forgot you were stopping by today," Grandma Mazur announced, settling into the sofa with her friend.

"It's…" Stephanie began but just ended the sentence with a vigorous head shake as if to rattle the scene in the bedroom loose. "Grandma, Mr. Morrison, this is my friend Ranger Manoso. Ranger, you remember my Grandma Mazur and this is her friend Luke Morrison," she introduced us, clearly reverting to her Burg upbringing in this strange situation.

"It's nice to see you again Edna, and nice to meet you Mr. Morrison," I replied automatically, shaking Mr. Morrison's outstretched hand.

"Sorry about earlier. We just got carried away. I'm sure you know how it is," Mr. Morrison said as we all lapsed into a few awkward minutes of silence before we headed to the dining table to eat the lasagna Edna had prepared.

Thankfully, Stephanie was still able to maintain our previous division of labor and manned the small talk, giving Edna the gift she'd brought of bath salts, oils, and bombs and complementing how well decorated the apartment was and discussing the various amenities of the Rush Crossing community.

Unfortunately, when those subjects had been exhausted, Edna turned her sharp gaze onto me. "So, Ranger. You're finally back to be a part of your family? I want you to know I've always wanted you and Stephanie together, especially since I'm now spoken for," she added, shooting Mr. Morrison a wink, "but that doesn't mean I won't be keeping a close eye on you."

"I'm here to stay, Ms. Mazur," I assured her, trying not to focus the close eye comment.

"Good," she replied with a swift nod. "Now that we've got that out of the way, when are you planning on telling Helen?" she asked with a mischievous glint.

I can't believe I willingly signed up to spend two nights over the course of one week with Stephanie's crazy family. At least it was highly unlikely that we'd catch her parents getting frisky.

Unknown POV - 11 JUN 2015 (Present Day)

Oh fun, a shopping center, I thought as I drove past the parking lot Ranger pulled into. I drove farther down the block and pulled into a hardware store parking lot across the street from Ranger's destination. What was with this guy? It's like Trenton sucked the fun right out of his life. He was spending his Thursday morning in some sort of suburbian nightmare. His options included a craft store, cupcake bakery, and stationary store.

I watched him lean against his sports car, black and shiny as always, arms crossed across his chest as he watched people walk around through his mirrored sunglasses. Always aware of his surroundings which made tailing him a nightmare. This was one of the few times he didn't loose me before getting wherever he was going. After a few minutes, a blond bombshell with a stroller stopped to talk to him. She was making a big show of flaunting her assets and touching his bicep but Mr. Stoic didn't bite and gave her the brush off. Guess she's just not as pretty as Tank.

She eventually got took the hint and waved as she walked away towards some baby center leaving Ranger to play sentry yet again. After another five to six minutes, during which he didn't move at all, the obnoxious fucker. A SUV parked next to him and he pushed off his car to open the door for the driver who was a stunning brunette, a little more girl-next-door than his reputed type which ran more exotic trollop. Either way, at least things were finally getting interesting.

Ranger gave the woman an entertainingly awkward kiss on the cheek before opening the backseat and pulling out a… a kid. Holy shit! Ranger's playing daddy to not one but two toddlers. This woman definitely didn't show up on any of the background checks I ran or in any of the personnel files I liberated.

Ranger Manoso, a mercenary spoken about only in terrified, hushed tones across several countries was playing baby-daddy for some white bread, girl next door. This was better than I could've imagined; the indomitable Ranger Manoso allowed himself to be vulnerable in the worst way possible, I thought as I settled in to kill some time while they walked towards what looked like a Mommy and Me class. I ducked down a little when I noticed the chic pause and look around, focusing for a moment on the area where I was parked. She brushed off whatever it was that caused her pause and she walked with Ranger, each with a kid in their arms and all smiles.

Finally, after months I finally found my weak point. All I needed to do was exploit it and I'd be a very wealthy, powerful man.

And fucking Manoso would be six feet under, where he belonged.