Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight (Stephanie Plum #28)(33)

“Six different people called me. One of them was my dentist who had the day off and was waiting for the train to the city.”

“I have some scrapes and bruises and I’m waiting for my eyes to clear, but nothing serious. Diesel is driving me home.”

“Do you know who pushed you?”

“Oswald.”

There was no reason to keep Oswald’s role in it secret. Morelli would have access to the security cameras on the platform.

I disconnected with Morelli and Ranger called.

“Babe,” Ranger said.

Ranger was my mentor when I was an inexperienced bounty hunter. He’s close to my age in years but he’s way ahead of me in life experience. He’s former special forces, and while he’s lost his military standing, he’s kept his skills and perfectly toned body. He’s six feet of awesome, brown-eyed sexiness. He was working as a bounty hunter when we met and he’s since progressed to owning a high-tech, exclusive, under-the-radar security firm. He’s my friend and on a few memorable occasions he’s been my lover. He’s also decided that it’s his job to keep me alive, so his monitoring system goes into red alert when my name pops up on police chatter.

“I’m okay,” I said. “I was trying to make an apprehension and it didn’t go as planned.”

“Do you need help with anything?”

“No. Diesel is here and he’s driving me home.”

“Babe,” Ranger said, and he disconnected.

Babe has many meanings in Ranger speak, depending on the inflection. His final Babe wasn’t a question like his opening Babe. His final Babe was more of a warning to be careful.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN


Diesel got me into my apartment, and I took stock of myself. There were bloodstains on my shirt and my jeans, and my jeans had been cut off above the knee so the EMT could clean the cinders out of my scrapes.

“I’m a mess,” I said. “Good thing I’m still partly blinded, or I’d probably be twice as horrified. That was freaking scary. I thought I was going to get run over by the train. I wasn’t able to see enough to get myself off the tracks.”

“It could have been a lot worse. The train wasn’t that far away when I grabbed you. The engineer must have been in a panic. I’m sure he saw you fly off the platform.”

“Oswald was calm. Smiling. Not at all agitated. He said, ‘Goodbye, Sugar Cookie’ when he pushed me. It was creepy. Do you think he got on the train?”

“Probably not. It would have been too easy to locate him. He would have been trapped.”

“I’m surprised no one stopped him.”

“There was a large crowd and a lot of confusion.” Diesel grinned. “I had to knock a couple people over to get to you.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. I’m going to change into clean clothes, and then I’m going to get something to eat. I’m nauseous from the pepper spray.”

“Do you need help with your clothes?”

“No!”

Another grin. “Too bad. I’m good at undressing women.”

There was no doubt in my mind.

“Since you don’t want help with your clothes, I’ll get us takeout lunch,” Diesel said.

He returned a half hour later with smoothies.

“No dairy,” Diesel said. “Just fruit and vegetables and a protein and mineral supplement.”

I took a sip. “It’s like a frozen slushie. It’s not bad.”

“I couldn’t see you choking down peanut butter and white bread after getting pepper sprayed.”

“This is perfect. Who would have thought you’d turn out to be a sensitive guy?”

“Don’t get used to it. It takes too much effort.”

“I screwed up. I almost had Oswald.”

“He’s going back and forth to New York but he’s not going to his condo,” Diesel said. “And he’s not driving. He’s leaving his car with the New York plates here.”

“Mail,” I said. “Maybe he has a PO box in New York. He goes in to check it and then he hops back on the train. Or maybe he’s buying drugs. Or getting romanced by a girlfriend. He was wearing a backpack. He probably had his computer in it so he can work on the train.”

“Good to see that your brain is operating,” Diesel said. “How’s your eyesight coming along?”

“Not perfect, but much better.”

“Are you okay to be left alone? I have some leads I want to look into.”

“Anything really promising?”

“No, but I’ll run them down anyway.”

“I’m okay. I’m going to take a nap and rest my eyes. I promised Grandma I’d take her to the Stupin viewing tonight.”

“I should go to that, too,” Diesel said. “It’s unlikely that Oswald will show up, but he’s psycho, so anything is possible.”



* * *




My car was parked at the bail bonds office, so Grandma and I hitched a ride to the viewing with Diesel. I was wearing navy slacks with flats, a white sleeveless sweater, and a short red jacket, all designed to hide my Band-Aids. Not that it mattered, because pictures of me getting rescued seconds before the train rolled in had already been splashed all over the internet, and a short clip made the six o’clock news.