Janet Evanovich owns most of these characters. I'm just borrowing them.

Time Out

Ch30

It was late by the time we got back to the house. Detective Wayne was nice enough to give us a ride, since my car was now a crispy critter. It was determined that 'someone' (Jane) had lit an oil soaked rag and stuffed it into the gas tank with a dowel rod. Blowing up cars doesn't take much skill or intelligence these days.

I was glad Wayne was with us when we got home, because it saved us from having to call the cops again. Spray painted across the entire front of the house, across both brick and glass, were a variety of phrases ranging from 'thief' to 'gold-digging bitch' with a few creative and disgusting curses thrown in as well. 'Someone' (Jane) had an impressive little crime spree this evening although the graffiti seemed juvenile in comparison to blowing up a car. Maybe she started with the house and then escalated to the car. I didn't care at this point. I just wanted her to go away.

While Wayne called for the crime scene unit, the only one in town and therefore the one that was just wrapping up the processing of my car, Ranger went in the back door and pulled up the camera footage on the front door. He brought his laptop outside and Wayne and I watched the screen as 'someone', and it was obviously Jane since she looked right at the camera at one point, spray painted her way across my house. When it finished playing, Ranger closed the laptop and handed Wayne a DVD copy of what we'd just seen.

As Wayne grasped the DVD, Ranger held it for a few extra seconds. Wayne met Ranger's eyes and flinched. "Are you going to do something about this tonight?" Ranger asked in a deadly quiet tone.

"If I can find her tonight, she'll go back to jail and I'll make sure she can't get bail again."

"I'll help you find her tonight. It is unacceptable for that woman to continue running loose threatening Stephanie. I have to go back to Trenton in the morning and I will not leave Stephanie here with any potential that Jane might hurt her."

"I understand," Wayne gulped.

"This wasn't your fault, Detective. I just want you to understand my motivation here."

"I understand," Wayne repeated.

"Let's go shake a few branches on her family tree and see what falls out." Ranger grabbed my hand and strode over to his rental car. He stopped and turned back to Detective Wayne. "We'll be starting with her husband, Holmes."

Ranger whipped his rental Jeep out of the driveway and took off for the Holmes house. He quickly settled into his zone and I was left to my own thoughts. This was the first time I'd seen Ranger like this since he arrived in Jacksonville. During the gold thing he was alert, but pretty low-key for him.

The Holmes family lived in a nice subdivision on the western outskirts of town. We cruised down the street slowly and saw two cars parked in the garage. Both garage doors were open. Lights were on in the house. "How should we do this?" I asked the expert.

"We're going to knock on the door. She was dumb enough to get caught on camera and then dumb enough to come home afterwards. Call Wayne and tell him we're here. We'll wait for him. He can knock on the door, you watch the garage door, I'll take the back."

I dialed Wayne and told him the plan when he picked up. A few minutes later the detective pulled into the Holmes' driveway and parked so that neither of the Holmes' vehicles could exit the garage without smashing into unmarked police car and even then they probably wouldn't be able to go any further.

Wayne gave Ranger a chance to get into place at the back of the house. I was waiting in the garage, just to the side of the door that led to the inside of the house. I could hear Wayne knocking on the door. Holmes answered and Wayne asked for Jane. Holmes started sputtering and asked why the detective wanted to talk to her. I couldn't decide if Holmes was that dumb and couldn't figure it out or if he was that smart and was stalling to give Jane a chance to run.

My inner musings on Holmes' intelligence were cut short when the door to the garage crashed open and Jane bolted out. She caught me by surprise and I was a little out of practice with the whole apprehension thing so she got a bit of a head start on me. I caught up to her at the bottom of the driveway and took her down with a flying tackle. She hit the ground face first and I landed on top of her so my fall was nicely cushioned. I yelled to Wayne and Ranger that I had her and continued sitting on her as she flailed about, screaming profanities.

Wayne jogged over and cuffed Jane. Ranger arrived at the same time and lifted me to my feet. Wayne read her her Miranda rights and with Ranger's help got her in the back seat of his car. Holmes was out of the house and yelling at Jane to not say anything. Jane was ignoring her husband and screaming at me that I got only part of what I deserved tonight, that she wished I had been in the car when she stuffed the rag in the gas tank. A confession! Coupled with the camera footage of her graffiti campaign on my house, I hoped that was enough for her to go straight back to jail and not get bail again.

/

Ranger and I were both moving slowly the next morning. It was late by the time we got back to the house after hunting down Jane. Ranger's flight out of St. Louis was at noon, and he planned to be on the road by nine. We skipped our run and breakfast in favor of staying in bed as long as possible. We made love slowly, like we were memorizing each other. Afterwards, Ranger pulled me so that I was draped over his chest. I laid with my head on his shoulder while we made tentatively planned that I would fly out in a few weeks to stay with him in Trenton for a few days. He told me he'd have the Rangeman attorney call me when they figured out what was going to happen to the gold, although it may take a while since the robbery happened several decades ago.

After we shared a memorable shower, Ranger gathered the rest of his belongings together. Over the past few weeks, he'd taken over part of my closet and one of my dresser drawers. He had his own sink in the bathroom. For all intents and purposes, it was like he lived here. He stopped packing and looked at me. "Can I leave a few things here for the next time I'm here?"

A smile spread across my face until I beamed at him. "Yes, of course." Ranger gave me his 200 watt smile in return grabbed my belt loop to pull me to him for a quick, hard kiss.

We walked out to his rental Jeep and I helped him load his bags into the back. He'd had Ella ship a bunch of stuff out to him, so he was leaving with way more than he'd arrived with, even with the stuff he'd left in my closet. We stood there awkwardly after everything was loaded.

"I love you Ranger."

"Love you too, Steph."

I stepped closer and wrapped Ranger in a full contact body hug. He closed his arms around me and held on tight. "See you in a few weeks, Babe."

"Don't get shot." I resurrected our old saying.

"Don't go crazy," he replied, finishing the exchange.

As I watched him drive away, I thought about the past several months. My life had changed a lot in that time, for the better. I was financially independent, I learned more about myself, and gained some new skills along the way. While I didn't plan to be in Jacksonville long, when the plan changed, I was able to adapt and roll with it. All in all, I was truly proud of myself for the first time in years.

That being said, it was now time to think about wrapping things up in Jacksonville so I could stage my return to Trenton. I had a relationship I needed to nurture, and people to show the changes I've made in my life. I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I got back to Trenton, but a few ideas were rolling around in my head.

The End - for now...

/

Author Note: I've decided to finish this story here and start a sequel with Steph's return to Trenton. Hopefully you will all tune in again soon when the as-yet-untitled sequel is posted. It will be very soon, as in maybe tomorrow. Thank you very much for reading my first fanfic! I've loved reading all the reviews and seeing how many people followed the story or made it a favorite. Thanks again!