I do not own anything from Janet Evanovich. I was sitting on my balcony on the 4th when this came to me. I hope you enjoy!!

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With RangeMan being half ex- military the 4th of July is always a special time for the men. Ranger always observed this time of independence holed up in his office thinking back to his stint in the service and how he fought enemies so everyone could enjoy their freedoms.

Today however for the first time Ranger had agreed to allow his men to have a cook out and fireworks on the roof of his 7 story building. Everyone was shocked at the mellowness of their fearsome leader, but they all agreed it had to do with his love for a certain female bounty hunter.

"Man I'm telling you she's not with that asshole of a cop anymore" Lester said as they dressed in their dress uniforms for the 4th of July parade

"What makes you say that Santos?" Tank asked

"I drove her back home after the last distraction job and of course I flirted with her. She usually takes it but this time she flirted back" he told the group of men

"Ranger know any of this?" Bobby asked

"Man do you think I'd be here right now if he knew?" Lester asked with every man shaking their heads knowing the answer to that

They all knew how their boss felt about Stephanie. He'd break his neck if he knew she was in trouble just to get to her. Ranger just hadn't taken that final step and claimed her as his own.

"Santos just because she flirted back doesn't mean she and the cop have called it quits" Tank said "I've seen her kiss Ranger when I know she's with Morelli"

True man but I said to her that I'd better cool it or her cop boyfriend would bust me. Her eyes clouded over and her face went dark, and I swear I heard her mumble "what boyfriend"" he told them all

Before anything else was said on the Stephanie subject the locker-room intercom buzzed to life and Rangers voice boomed thru it.

"Everyone in the garage in 10" he said and it clicked off

All the men jumped from their spot and quickly buttoning, polishing, clipping, and zipping everything on their uniforms. Rushing out of the locker room and sliding into place in the garage there was only 3 minutes to spare. Ranger looked his men over.

"All right team we are to be at the park at 12 hundred hours. When we get there we are to line up in parade formation. We will then march thru downtown and loop back to the park where we will come back here to regroup. All understood?" he asked

"Yes sir" Tank said

Everyone got into black shiny SUV's and drove out to the park. Ranger and Tank were in the lead car of the RangeMan caravan. Lester, Hal, Cal, and Bobby were in the second SUV with all the rest of the employee's in the third and fourth car.

"I'm telling you we need to get those two together" Lester said

"Man your crazy, Ranger will have your balls when he finds this out" Bobby told him from the passenger side seat

"I've even thought of a name for it" he said

"What is it?" Cal asked

Lester's eyes sparkled.

"Operation 4th of July" he said smiling wide

"Ok just out of curiosity what have you come up with?" Bobby asked

"Well it happens tonight of course, hence the name" he said

"No shit" Hal said from the back

"We somehow get Steph on to the roof tonight and somehow get her and the boss man to make some fireworks of their own" he said

"And how we going to do that?" Brown asked

"Not sure" Lester said turning on the exit where the park was

"Good plan Santos" Bobby said rolling his eyes as they parked and got out of their cars

By the time everyone had grouped and got into formation, they all knew of Lester's plan and his problem, everyone that is except Ranger. They all were scared of Ranger they knew if he found out they were even thinking of what they were they would all surely die or he'd cut their dicks off and feed them to dogs. This had to be a strict covert operation.

After the parade was over and everyone was dismantling floats and cars a rusted out green two door car came puttering into the parks grounds.

"Hey guys" Stephanie said as she walked up

"Hey Steph" Ramon smiled at her

"You all looked good marching out there, where sharp" she told them

"Well baby you know us, we like to look good you never know when hot women like you are looking at us" Lester said draping an arm around her shoulders

"Santos" everyone heard and then saw Ranger

Lester slunk away as Ranger approached. He gave the order to go back to RangeMan and to stand down. Everyone shook their heads and left leaving Tank to bring Ranger back later.

"Babe" he said the corners of his mouth tipping up as he watched her look him up and down

Man did you see that. I think we got your problem solved Santos" Bobby said

"Yep make boss man jealous" He said" but who do we set Stephanie up with?"

Everyone looked at each other. They knew also that Lester like Stephanie too, He just wasn't as secretive about it like Ranger was.

"All right ill sacrifice myself for Ranger" Lester said as everyone groaned

"Santos you've been after Steph ever since she helped us clean that building out" Bobby said and Lester smiled

Once everyone was back in the locker room taking off and bagging their uniforms Lester hurried and dressed and ran out of the room.

"Where's Ranger?" he asked Tank

"He's in his office and does not want to be disturbed" he said

Lester went to his apartment and flipped his cell phone open. Dialing a number he waited for it to pick up, when it did he spoke.

"Hey its Lester, do you have any plans for later?" he asked

"You don't? Ok, how about as my guest you come to the 1st annual RangeMan cook out and fireworks?" he asked

"Great, see you at 6, oh and Steph wear something sexy" he told her grinning

"Operation 4th of July commences" he said as he walked out to go to the control room

At 6pm everyone was up on the Rangeman roof. Ella was manning the grill cooking up hamburgers and hot dogs. Usually Ranger demanded only healthy foods be ate here but he made an exception for this with the promise of each man to be in the gym extra this week. Louis was rigging some fireworks to the ledge of the building, when he was almost done Ranger walked out onto the roof. He looked everything over and shook his head in approval.

The cook out was a success. Everyone was having a great time eating, drinking, and talking. Lester around 7 got a text telling him Stephanie was on her way up. Running to the roofs door he needed for him to be the first person she saw instead of Ranger. When the door opened Lester had to bite into his lower lip to keep from moaning.

"Lester" She smiled

"Damn Steph you really did wear something sexy" he said

"Well I thought what the hell" she said walking up to him

Lester took her by the arm and led her onto the roof. When she stepped foot out there everyone stopped and looked. Stephanie wore a short black mini skirt, a wrap around black shirt that showed some boob and to end it all a pair of black wedge sandals.

For the rest of the night Lester stuck to and flirted aimlessly with Stephanie. He would catch Rangers eyes and knew he was going to be in a world of hurt later. Ranger didn't get to be with or talk too much with Steph he still ran his business and would go between his office and the roof the entire time. Finally when it was time for the fireworks to start Lester placed Stephanie in front of him. He looked over in time to see that Ranger had come back out and was over by the coolers getting a bottle of water.

"Baby would you go and get us something to drink?" he asked her

"Sure be right back" she said walking over to where Ranger stood at the coolers

"Babe" Ranger said when she came over

"This was a really great idea. You should really consider doing this a lot I think your mean would appreciate it" she told him

"Ill take it under advisement" he said looking her up and down

Lester gave the signal to the rest of the men to make the tiki torches that had been lit go out. All of them went out putting everyone in total darkness. Stephanie screeched at the sudden blackness. She heard Lester call out that he was trying to locate her wich all he was doing was standing still. Ranger on the other hand moved in back of her and brought her in his arms. Spinning her around and under the blanket of Darkness he claimed her mouth just as Louis set the first firework off. Everyone on that roof watched as Ranger and Stephanie were locked in each other's arms kissing for all they were worth.

Feeling eyes upon him Ranger looked up and saw that everyone was watching and smiling at him and Stephanie. He looked over at Lester who was getting high fived said something to him in Spanish.

"She's mine, hands off"

Lester replied back in the same tongue.

"It's about Damn time and no problem"

For the rest of the fireworks Ranger had Stephanie tucked into his side as they watched the show. He looked down and asked her if she would join him on 7 for a talk. Stephanie grinning shook her head and he kissed her on top of her head. Walking back to the roofs door Ranger turned back.

"SANTOS GYM O-500 HOURS" he yelled

"YES SIR" he said as Bobby clapped him on the shoulder

"Knew that was coming, maybe steph will use her womanly powers when they get to his place and he'll go easy on you" he said

"Yea right, Lester's screwed" Tank said

"I may be screwed but it was worth it and operation 4th of July was a complete success" Lester said

"That is was man" Bobby said as they all sat back and looked over Trenton catching a stray firework or two in the night sky

THE END