I wouldn't even care if I made money if Ranger could be mine, but he's not and never will be. He and the rest belong to JE. Lines in bold from "Twilight" in response to Jenny's Twilight Challenge on RangemanWriters.

Cupcake warning. There is a little language.

Back In The ER Again

by

SueB

"Cupcake! Steph! Be careful! -------- Hey! Wait up!"

Shit!

I threw the car into park, slapped my flasher on the roof and abandoned the vehicle in front of the doors to the ER. She had bailed before we stopped moving.

Following him.

It was happening again. Damn it!

I was right behind her but, once she cleared the entrance to the treatment area, six hulking RangeMan employees blocked my way.

"You're not going back there, Morelli," one of the RangeMan goons said.

I wasn't sure who he was. I never listened when Steph talked about the guys she called the Merry Men. Hal, Lester, Bobby, Hector, Cal, Junior, etc., etc. Hell, they all looked alike to me. Musclebound, dressed in black. Far as I was concerned thug pretty much described any one of them. Not surprising considering their employer.

I made a move like I was going in. The biggest one, a flaming skull tattooed on his forehead, cut me off with a meaty forearm to the chest.

"Not happening," Flaming Skull said. "You've done enough already."

What was that supposed to mean? I tried another tactic.

Smiling benignly and checking out the wild tat I said, "You go kinda crazy with your Magic Markers there, Big Guy?" If he hit me, I could toss his ass in jail for assaulting a police officer.

Instead he turned to his companions in disbelief. "Fucker thinks I'm gonna hit him. How dumb does he think I am?"

Answering that would get me in trouble.

"Look," I said being reasonable. "we all know Steph has a new stalker. I just want to make sure she's okay."

"She's with Ranger," another of the men chimed in.

"Yeah, well, last I checked he was unconscious and bleeding. Not much help if the bad guy shows up."

"No thanks to you," Flaming Skull spit out.

Maybe he would hit me after all.

"Tank's got her," another guy volunteered. "Nothing will happen to Bomber on Tank's watch."

"I still think I sho.........."

There was a dangerous rumble as the men stood their ground. One guy clamped on to my arm and led me away from the disgruntled horde. I vaguely remembered Steph saying this one's name was Brown.

"You really don't get it do you?" he said.

"What's to get?" I asked. "Steph and I were having a quiet moment. Manoso shows up -- guns start blazing. Not much new there."

He fisted his hand in my shirt and pulled me close hissing in my ear. "Listen, Morelli, you might be a good cop but, I don't like you much. Not sure what Bomber sees in you considering you treat her like crap. If it had been me instead of Ranger, I might have let your sorry ass go down."

He pushed me off, turned and stalked away. No time to dwell on what he was talking about because Steph and Tank emerged from the bowels of the ER.

Tank I knew. Black, bald and three hundred pounds of solid muscle was hard to forget. Wonder where he was when the boss got shot? Being as he was Manoso's right-hand man they were usually joined at the hip.

Steph looked a little worse for wear, but she wasn't crying. Guess Manoso wasn't dead. For sure she'd be crying if he was. I couldn't handle crying. Especially not over him. She spied me and came over.

"Ready to go home, Cupcake?" I asked hopefully.

From the look on her face you'd have thought I'd asked to punch a baby.

"Ranger's in surgery," she said. "I'm staying." She paused a second, searching my face. "You can go home," she told me.

Her voice had a little hitch in it and those big blue eyes were watery. I might have been too optimistic about the crying.

"Come on, Cupcake," I coaxed as she turned away. "let's go home. There's nothing more you can do here."

"Oh I think there is," she said spine straightening, shoulders squaring, eyes narrowing in a classic Burg glare.

Uh oh. I knew that look. Our arguments always started just like this.

"I can be here when he wakes up," she went on. "I can comfort him and hold his hand."

Shit.

"I can thank him for saving your life."

Huh??!!

"Steph! Cupcake!" I called out to her but she retreated to the circle of Merry Men guarding the door and disappeared into their midst.

More RangeMan employees had filtered into the waiting room as news about their boss spread. The place was a sea of black. They were all staring at me.

What the hell! I headed outside. Needing some air, needing to get away from those accusing eyes.

There was a bench a few feet from the door. That's where I parked it when my legs started shaking and it didn't look like I was going to get any further. What Steph said -- that Manoso had saved my life. Couldn't be right. He would never take a bullet for me. Might put a bullet in me -- poaching son-of-a-bitch that he was.

I sat and reviewed the evening's events. I'd taken her out to eat. We were done, standing in Pino's parking lot. I reached out to cop a feel and give a little kiss. Steph smacked my hand away. I laughed and turned around to get the car. There were shots fired and out of nowhere Manoso rammed into me. He went down. I went down. Steph yelled.

I closed my eyes trying to picture it.

"She's right. He saved your life."

Tank's deep voice was soft, but I jumped, not knowing he had followed me.

"Since the stalker made first contact, Ranger's been watching her."

Watching her. Watching me. I hated that.

Tank went on.

"Got some ideas. Came up with a name."

"And naturally didn't share it with the police department," I sneered.

The big man ignored my outburst. "The perp's at the station house. Ranger searched his apartment this evening and found this." He dropped a scrap of paper in my lap, turned and walked away.

The message was written on a notebook page in a childish hand.

It's good you gave up Manoso. Now only the cop stands in our way. But

I'll take care of him don't worry. He's not good enough. I'm the only

one for you. You'll be mine soon.

I do a good job of blocking painful unnecessary things from my memory. But, I couldn't forget what Manoso said to me right before he went to confront Scrog. I'd told him he was nuts and he responded.

"I've never given much thought to how I would die. But dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go."

At the time I told myself he meant his daughter. But, I didn't think too hard about it. Now I knew while his daughter figured in, he was really talking about Steph. He'd been willing to die for her.

He loved her. Loved her enough that tonight he'd been willing to die for what he thought she wanted. Me.

The crazy sick psycho bastard.

Shit. Now, if he lived, I was going to have to thank him. And not examine very closely why I could never return the favor.

TBC