Disclaimer: I don't own any characters that you recogonize from the books. Everything belongs to Janet Evanovich

PS: This is my first story and I was reluctant to post but I wanted to try. I will most likely update every couple of days but I will try for more.

Chapter One

I couldn't help but stare at the man lying beside me. I knew if I moved in the slightest or tried to touch him he would be awake before I could even let my breath out. That certainly wasn't what I needed right now. Every part of me is screaming two different things. I want him to stay, I need him to stay, but he should really go. It feels right being here with him, having his arms wrapped around me, but I can't help to wonder if this is really the person I belong next to. For the last 2 years those are where my thoughts lay when I am with either one of the two men I can't stop loving.

Let me back up before we really start getting into the mess that is my love life. My name is Stephanie Plum and I work for my cousin Vinnie as an FAE or Bounty Hunter. I think I am fairly average looking. I am about 5'7" and weigh 125lbs, ok fine, 127lbs on a bad day. I have uncontrollable curly brown hair and deep blue eyes. I am half Hungarian on my mother's side and half Italian on my fathers. The combination of the two has given me an uncontrollable temper, raging hormones and the ability to express all of my emotions through food. It also makes me almost impossible to live with. I'm 33, not married, and I live alone in an apartment that looks like a dorm room with my hamster Rex. Oh yea, I'm also completely incompetent when it comes to my job and at the end of the day I have usually rolled in garbage, wrestled someone naked, blown up a car, or been shot at. Wow I'm a prize to be won aren't I? Maybe that's why my love life is such a mess.

Currently I am laying in bed with one Ricardo Carlos Manoso, better known as Ranger. Ranger is my mentor, best friend, one time lover, and a bad ass mercenary. He's also the sexiest Cuban you will ever encounter. Ranger is 5'10' of complete muscle mass. He was an Army Ranger & I am led to believe he is still Special Ops. Ranger also owns a company called Rangeman. He has skin the color of a mocha latte, brown hair that could pass for black, and chocolate brown eyes that turn almost black when he is turned on, he is sex walking, and he scares the hell out of me. Not in a call 911 he is going to hurt me sort of way but more like a Oh. My. God. I just soaked my panties kind of way. Me and Ranger have sexual tension so thick you couldn't cut it with the sharpest kind of knife.

The problem? Joe Morelli.

Joseph Anthony Morelli is scum. Yep I said it, scum. Ok so he is scum with the hottest ass in Trenton but he's still scum. He also happens to be my on-again-off-again boyfriend for the last three years. Currently, we are off. Joe is 6'0' of pure Italian hormone and rage. He has black hair that always needs to be cut, eyes that can literally melt the clothes off your body, he's two years older than I am, and he's a Trenton Homicide Detective. I grew up around the corner from Joe and he was the boy your mom warned you about. At six he taught me to play choo-choo in his father's garage, I never actually got to be the train. At 16 he took my virginity on the floor of the Tasty Pastry after closing and wrote about it on the wall of Mario's the day he took off for the Navy. Two years later at the age of 20 I ran him down with my father's Buick and broke his leg.

Three years ago I blackmailed my cousin Vinnie into giving me a job at his Bonds office after I got laid off from my job selling lingerie at EE Martin. My first FTA? Morelli. My partner? Ranger. Ever since then my life has been one big cluster of shit. My apartment gets firebombed, my cars go to heaven, and I have creepy people, that either want me in there bed or want me dead, on my doorstep on a pretty constant basis. I am also completely and hopelessly in love with two men who couldn't be any different. That brings us to my current problem.

Morelli and I have been off for about a month after a fight that involved a lot of arm flailing and rude Italian hand gestures. To be honest I can't even remember what we fought about. Probably it was my job, our lack of ability to commit to each other, or Ranger. Probably it was all three. Now I am lying in my bed with Ranger's arms wrapped around me. He showed up at my apartment looking completely exhausted at three in the morning. He had been 'in the wind' for almost two weeks doing god knows what. When he showed up I simply lifted the covers on my bed and he got in. Now I am staring at the relaxed look on his face afraid if I move he will wake up. Although knowing Ranger he was already awake and knew I was staring.

"Babe," Yep. I knew it.

"Ranger."

He tightened his arm around my waist and drew me closer. He studied my eyes for a moment and then brought his lips to mine. The kiss was mind blowing. He started slow but deepened when I molded my chest against his. My toes were curled and my mind was hazy as I opened my mouth slightly and felt his tongue trace my lips before entering. I curled my arms around his neck and tried to draw him closer. At that exact moment his phone started ringing. He pulled back and I moaned a little. The corners of his mouth tipped in what I interpreted as a smile and he rolled over and grabbed his phone off the night stand.

"Talk." he said "Be there in 20" and he flipped the phone shut. I can see his phone skills didn't improve while he was gone.

"Gotta go Babe. Come by tonight around 7. I have a job I want to go over with you. I will have Ella make dinner."

"Dessert?" Hey a girl's got to have priorities.

The corners of his mouth tipped again. "Babe." And he was gone.

I walked into the bonds office an hour later with a box of boston crèmes and 3 cups of coffee. I sat on the couch in front of the window of the small office. The office is owned by my sleaze ball cousin Vinnie. There is a desk placed in front of the door to his office so his office manager can keep out all of the street trash that want Vinnie dead. Vinnie is a tall lanky Italian who tries to look like a mob boss. His hair is brown, greasy, and slicked back. His eyes are dark and beady like a rat, and i'm pretty sure he has a thing for ducks. He's a sick man who cheats on his wife even though her father is a man named Harry the Hammer. Despite all of this, Vinnie is a damn good bonds man.

"Hey white girl, you got any donuts in there for me?" Lula said.

Lula is a 5'5" ex 'ho. She's a size 16 stuffed into size 10 clothes. She has skin the color of a chocolate bar and today her hair is the same color as the bright red firebird she drives. Lula is the filing clerk at Vinnie's except she tags along with me a lot more often than she files. She's a no nonsense kind of girl when it comes to her opinion and she has a hard ass attitude as long as you're not pointing a gun at her.

"Go right ahead" I said to Lula. She already had her hand in the bag anyway.

"Got any files for me Connie?"

Connie Rosolli is Vinnie's office manager. Connie is full Italian and has ties to 'The Family'. That's probably why she's managed to put up with my slimy cousin for so long. No one handles his shit better than Connie. She is a few years older than me, a few inches shorter, her hair is a little higher, and her bra size is a couple cups bigger. She's like a Trenton made Betty Boop.

"Yep. Just got two more. Except one is just Mooner"

"What about the other?" I asked.

"Charles Erickson. Wanted for 1st degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon."

Connie grimaced as she read the description. I sat with my mouth half open. I really hated these kinds of bonds. When I first started these kinds of things went to Ranger but he doesn't generally pick up skips anymore. The bond was only $10,000 anyway so he wouldn't have picked it up unless he was helping me. Hopefully I won't have to ask him to do that.

"Why is the bond so low?" I asked Connie.

"Apparently he is first time offender. It looks like he has been associated with the Grizolli's in the past though. He was caught in a woman's house with a loaded .22 and a diamond ring. It looks like he just went off the deep end a little but no one knows why. He didn't need money. Anyway, Anthony Grizolli bailed him out and he is listed to be staying with his brother on Cherry."

Anything involving the Grizolli's made my stomach turn. They are a low level crime family but they still run Trenton and being on there bad side isn't on my list of things to do. Anthony's daughter is also Morelli's ex-girlfriend, Terry Gilman, and I'm not thrilled about running into her either. All in all this case already sounds like I'm going to end up, up shit's creek without a paddle. I'm going to take it anyway. Hey, I have to pay my rent somehow and my fridge isn't low, it's empty.

I grabbed the file from Connie and turned to Lula. "You wanna ride along and check this place out?"

"I guess I probably should on accounta you always have bad shit happen to you and I might need to pop a cap in someone's ass." Lula said and I rolled my eyes.

"There will be no shooting. We are simply going to drive by and see if it looks like anyone is home."

"Right." Lula said as she grabbed her purse off the desk. "I think we need to stop at a drive through on the way there because I haven't had my breakfast."

"You just ate half a bag of donuts," I told her pointing to the powdered sugar on her shirt.

She shrugged, wiped it off, and said "That was hardly nothin' girl." I rolled my eyes and we walked out of the office.