Hot Six

He put his hand to the small of my back, dipped his fingers below the waistband of my jeans, and removed the cuffs.

'Let's go inside,' he said. 'I feel safer in there.'

'Just out of morbid curiosity, do you know how to get around the alarm, or do you know the security code?'

He opened the back door. 'I know the code.'

We walked through the short hall to the back room where the guns and office supplies are kept. Ranger opened the door to the front room and ambient light from the street poured in through the plate-glass windows. Standing between the two rooms, he was able to see both doors.

He put my jacket and the cuffs on a file cabinet, out of my reach, and looked down at the hacksawed bracelet on my right wrist. 'New design.'

'But still annoying.'

He took the key out of his pocket, unlocked the cuff, and threw the cuff on top of my jacket. Then he took both my hands in his and turned them palms up. 'You're wearing someone else's clothes, you're carrying someone else's gun, your hands are cut, and you're not wearing underwear. What's the deal here?'

I looked down at the outline of breast and protruding nipple, straining against the confines of the T-shirt. 'Sometimes I go without underwear.'

'You never go without underwear.'

'How do you know?'

'God-given talent.'

He was wearing his usual street clothes-black cargo pants tucked into black boots, a black T-shirt, and a black windbreaker. He took off the windbreaker and wrapped it around me. It was warm from his body heat and smelled very faintly of the ocean.

'Spending a lot of time in Deal?' I asked.

'I should be there now.'

'Is someone watching Ramos for you?'

'Tank.'

His hands still held the windbreaker, his knuckles resting lightly on my breasts. An act of intimate possession more than of sexual aggression.

'How are you going to do it?' he asked, his voice soft.

'Do what?'

'Capture me. Isn't that what this is about?'

That had been the original plan, but he'd taken my toys away. And now the air was feeling hot and thick in my lungs, and I was thinking it wasn't any of my beeswax if Carol took a flying leap off the bridge. I put my hands flat to his abdomen, and he watched me carefully. I suspect he was waiting for me to answer his question, but I had a more pressing problem. I didn't know what to feel first. Should I move my hands up? Or should I move my hands down? I wanted to go down, but that might seem too forward. I didn't want him to think I was easy.

'Steph?'

'Huh?'

I still had my hands on his stomach, and I could feel him laughing. 'I can smell something burning, babe. You must be thinking.'

It wasn't my brain that was on fire. I felt around a little with my fingertips.

He shook his head. 'Don't encourage me. This isn't a good time.' He removed my hands from his stomach and took another look at the cuts. 'How did this happen?'

I told him about Habib and Mitchell and the factory escape.

'Arturo Stolle deserved Homer Ramos,' Ranger said.

'I wouldn't know. No one tells me anything!'

'For years, Stolle's cut of the crime pie has been illegal adoption and immigration. He uses his East Asian contacts to bring young girls into the country for prostitution and to produce high-priced adoption babies. Six months ago, Stolle realized he could use those same contacts to smuggle drugs in with the girls. Problem is, drugs aren't part of Stolle's piece of pie. So Stolle hooked up with Homer Ramos, who is known far and wide as a stupid shit always in need of money, and arranged for Ramos to act as bagman between him and his accounts. Stolle figured the other Mob factions would back off from Alexander Ramos's kid.'

'How do you fit into this?'

'Arbitrator. I was acting as a liaison between the factions. Everyone, feds included, would like to avoid a crime war.' His pager beeped, and he looked at the readout. 'I have to get back to Deal. Do you have any secret weapons in your arsenal? You want to make any last-ditch efforts at apprehension?'

Ugh. He was so smug! 'I hate you,' I said.

'No, you don't,' Ranger said, kissing me lightly on the lips.

'Why did you agree to meet me?'

Our eyes locked for a moment. And then he cuffed me. Both hands behind my back.

'Shit!' I yelled.

'I'm sorry, but you're a real pain in the ass. I can't do my job when I'm worrying about you. I'm turning you over to Tank. He'll take you to a safe house and baby-sit you until things get resolved.'

'You can't do that! Carol will be back on the bridge.'

Ranger grimaced. 'Carol?'

I told him about Carol and Joyce and how Carol didn't want to get caught on Candid Camera and how it was all sort of my fault this time.

Ranger thunked his head on the file cabinet. 'Why me?' he said.

'I wouldn't have let Joyce keep you,' I told him. 'I was going to turn you over to her and then figure out a way to get you back.'

'I know I'm going to regret this, but I'm going to set you loose so, God forbid, Carol doesn't jump off the bridge. I'm going to give you until nine o'clock tomorrow morning to work things out with Joyce, and then I'm coming after you. And I want you to promise you won't go near Arturo Stolle or anyone named Ramos.'

'I promise.'

I DROVE ACROSS town to Lula's house. She has a second-floor apartment, facing front, and her lights were still on. I didn't have a phone, so I walked up to her door and rang the bell. A window opened above me, and Lula stuck her head out. 'What?'

'It's Stephanie.'

She dropped a key down, and I let myself in.

Lula met me at the top of the stairs. 'Are you spending the night?'

'No. I need some help. You know how I was going to turn Ranger over to Joyce? Well, it didn't exactly work out.'

Lula burst out laughing. 'Girl, Ranger is the shit. No one's better than Ranger. Not even you.' She took in the T-shirt and jeans. 'I don't mean to get too personal, but were you wearing a bra when you started the evening, or is this something recent?'

'I started out this way. Dougie and Mooner don't wear my kind of underwear.'

'Too bad,' Lula said.

It was a two-room apartment. Bedroom with bath attached, and another room that served as living room and dining room and had a small corner kitchen. Lula had placed a little round table and two ladderback chairs at the edge of the kitchen area. I sat on one of the chairs and took a beer from Lula.

'You want a sandwich?' she asked. 'I got bologna.'

'A sandwich would be great. Dougie just had crab puffs.' I took a long pull on the beer. 'So this is the problem: what are we going to do about Joyce? I feel responsible for Carol.'

'You can't be responsible for someone else's bad judgment,' Lula said. 'You didn't tell her to tie Joyce to that tree.'

True.