214I literally couldn't help myself. This is an eleven chapter fic for the Janet Evanovich December challenge. I don't own the characters and I'm just playing. I hope you enjoy this fic. It's angsty and honestly one of my favorites.
My choices:
Activity: Bake Cookie
Trope: Enemies to Lovers
Dialogue: "Do you Trust me?" "No." "Smart Man."
Chapter One
Steph POV:
I was going to kill him; at this point I was pretty sure he had made it his mission to ruin my life, or at least make it as complicated as he could. I stood from my desk with a growl. The men in the cubicles around me looked up before looking back down.
I stomped my way to his office, his door closed. I knocked on the door, loud and obnoxious. "Come in!" he shouted.
I opened the door and stepped into his office. He looked up from his paperwork and rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Plum?"
"What is this?" I asked, slapping the papers onto his desk. He picked them up and glanced at them.
"Shipping invoices."
"And what are they doing on my desk? I don't do orders around here," I reminded him.
"No, you do office paperwork. That's office paperwork."
"Ranger, you know this isn't my job," I told him, crossing my arms.
His eyes flicked up and down my body, taking in my long legs framed by a pencil skirt and made even longer by a pair of heels. "Ranger, stop flooding my inbox with useless shit. Send it down to requisitions where it's supposed to go."
I turned on my heel to leave. "Lieutenant Plum, this is conduct unbecoming of an officer."
"Good thing I'm not in the army anymore, Captain Manoso!" I snapped.
"No, but I am your boss."
"No, Tank is my boss. Last I checked he was my reporting superior."
"You are dismissed, Plum!" Ranger growled, sending me a glare.
"Yes, Sir!" I snarked with a salute and a snap of my heels. I walked out of his office and shut the door behind me. The men in the office were staring at me. All core team offices were soundproofed so I knew they hadn't heard that. They were just being nosy.
Tank stood in his doorway across the office, staring. He made a motion for me to join him in his office. I walked briskly across the office, and he held the door open for me. I stepped in and he shut the door behind me.
"What happened in there?"
"He might be the boss, but he's an ass, Tank. He does this on purpose."
"Only because he knows it pisses you off," Tank said, sitting on the corner of his desk. "He does it to press your buttons."
"He doesn't do it to anyone else."
"You're special." Tank snickered before becoming serious again. "How about you go on patrol this afternoon? You have a uniform in your locker, right?"
"Always."
"One of the guys called in sick. You would get a bump in pay working patrol and combat pay if you come across anything that requires you to draw your weapon."
"I know." I rolled my eyes. "Shift starts at two, right?"
"Yeah."
"Have whoever my partner is pick me up at my cubicle," I said, standing.
"If you take this shift you have to be off for eighteen hours," he told me. "Which means you'll work the afternoon-evening shift tomorrow."
"All fine and good." I grinned.
At noon, I was walking out of the women's locker room after changing into a standard uniform. I was the only woman working at Rangeman Trenton, besides Ella. I walked back to my cubicle and got a whistle from Lester. I sent him a Jersey salute and got a chuckle from the guys around the office.
At one fifty-five, a shadow loomed over me, and a tingle went up the base of my neck. I swear to God, I was going to kill Tank. I can't believe he didn't tell me who I was being partnered with. Tank was a dead man. I turned to see Ranger leaning against the wall of the cubicle.
I logged out of my computer, opened my drawer and grabbed my gun belt out, strapping it on. I connected my drop thigh holster as I pulled my Sig out. I slid the magazine home and chambered a bullet. I flipped on the safety and slid it into my holster. I repeated it with my LCP, slipping it into my ankle holster.
"Ready, Plum?"
"Let's go," I grunted, grabbing my windbreaker off my chair, shrugging it onto my shoulders.
We trudged down the stairs to the garage. He slid into our assigned SUV, and I climbed into the passenger's seat. Four hours trapped in a car with Ranger Manoso. If I didn't shoot myself, I might shoot him. I already knew this was going to be a disaster.
Ranger POV:
I was going to kill Tank. He told me he had found someone to go on patrol with me, but he didn't told me it was Plum. When I checked the duty roaster, I felt my jaw drop. Metaphorically of course, not that I would allow it to actually happen. I had half a mind to go strangle the man.
He knew how much Plum got on my nerves and drove me nuts. There was something about her; I didn't know if I wanted to kiss her or take her to the mats. She had a great service record and every one of her commanding officers had nothing but good things to say about her. She would have been a shoo in for a higher position, but she took a medical discharge just before her twenty was over.
The guys around the office loved her; she was efficient, she had whipped this office into shape. We had never run better. I'm pretty sure most of the men were either scared of her or turned on by her. The rest were in love with her. Maybe it grated on me that the men liked her so much. I knew her mouth had a tendency to both turn me on and piss me off.
I pulled out of the garage and risked a glance at her. She really was a beautiful woman. Gorgeous blue eyes, curly brown hair, legs that could kill, delicate hands, alabaster skin, cute nose, and a wonderful laugh. Maybe it made me angry that while I wanted her, she had never shown any interest in me.
Thirty minutes into our shift, we got a radio call from the control room for a break in at a client on our route. In two minutes, we were there. "I'll take the back," she told me as she slid out of the SUV.
"Vest, Plum."
She glared at me but snatched the vest from the backseat and strapped it on as she ran down the alley to the back. I turned my earpiece on and heard her check in.
"In the back, ready. Tell me when."
"On the count of three," I started. "One… Two… Three!"
I heard the back door slam open and the sound of a frame splintered. I found the front door open, stepping through, I started working my way through the rooms. They had already hit the whole downstairs and were now working the upstairs bedrooms. There was a crash upstairs as a window was broken. I found Stephanie in the hallway.
"You drive them out," she said, I nodded and started up the stairs. She bolted out the front door. I cleared each room, before walking into the master bedroom. Two men in solid black stood with bags in their hands, another halfway out the window, having bigger items passed to him.
"We having fun here?" I asked. They jumped, turning to look at me. The one in the window dove the rest of the way out of the window, another one followed him. The biggest of the three was trying to climb out of the window. I pulled him back in and he hit the floor with a thud. "One in custody," I said over comms.
"Two in custody," She replied. I cuffed the man under me and risked a look out the window. Both men were cuffed and on the ground. I shook my head, pulling the man up and walked him down the stairs.
I walked outside as two cop cars pulled up. Stephanie had her two men on their feet and was showing them towards the cop cars. "Damn Steph," Eddie said. "Busy day?"
"Not yet." She smiled.
The three were loaded into the Patrol cars. "Come down to the station tomorrow to fill out the paperwork." Eddie told her. She nodded.
We walked to the SUV, and she stripped off her vest, tossing it into the back seat. She slipped into the passenger seat and wiped the sweat from her brow. Sitting back in the seat, she pulled the tablet out, pulling up our route. She marked down a few notes for the address of the client. They happened to be on vacation, which meant they got a phone call.
She typed in a few things before putting it away. She scratched the back of her neck and glanced out the windows. I think she was starting to get bored. I knew normally when she went on patrol, she went with one of the guys she got along with, so she wasn't happy to be out with me.
Four hours later, we pulled back into the Rangeman garage. I'd never seen someone jump out of a SUV so quickly. She jogged up the stairs and I followed her, curious to where she was going. She emerged on the control room floor, and I followed. She stepped into Tank's office; the man sat wide-eyed behind his desk. I grinned and decided to rescue him.
I leaned against the door frame as she plopped down in a chair. "I heard you had a good shift." Tank smiled wryly, sitting back in his chair.
"If that's what you want to call it." She snorts, before relaxing in the chair. "Step inside Ranger. Join us."
I grinned, and closed the door, taking the last chair next to her. "You would think you would have more respect for a commanding officer after 16 years in the Army." I snickered.
She rolled her eyes. "Good thing this isn't the Army," she replied dryly.
"I don't understand why you two can't get along." Tank sighed. "Maybe you're too much alike."
"I'm nothing like him!" she growled at the same time I growled, "I'm nothing like her!"
"Hmmm." Tank sighed. "You hate each other but you work well together. What are your issues with the other one? Steph?"
"He purposely makes my job harder. Sends all of his paperwork to me. I'm not his personal secretary. Hell, I'd rather be Lester's, at least he can fill out a form right," she grumbled. "I'm an office manager and response coordinator. It's not my job to order new staples and ammunition."
"Is that it?" Tank asked her.
"Do you want a list? If you give me a day, I could probably give you dates and what occurred," she told him.
"Ranger?"
"Well… She spends too much time socializing. Anytime I try to find her she's not at her desk. I know she's sneaking contraband in." I paused, not really able to come up with more.
"That's it?" Tank asked, looking like he wanted to roll his eyes. "The reason you can't find her is she's too busy running your paperwork to other parts of the office when you give it to her. Like she said, she's not your secretary. Look, she fills in for the guys on duty, doing monitors, patrol, and a shit load of other stuff."
He ran a hand over his bald head. "Can you two please work on getting along? It's not good for the guys to see this. Besides, she's remarkable at her job, especially with all of the shit that's being piled on top of her normal job. So, Ranger, send your paperwork the right way. Steph, if you are slipping contraband in, which we have no proof of, can you stop? If Ranger is in the same space with any saturated fat or artificial sugar he breaks out in hives."
I chuckled as Steph laughed. "I guess we can try," she said.
"I guess," I nodded in agreeance.
For the past couple weeks my muse has felt like torturing Ranger. So this fic resulted. I promise there's a happy ending. The angst heats up in the next chapter, so you'll understand Steph's attitude more. Don't forget to tell me what you think?