Disclaimer, I do not own any of the recognizably characters in this story, they belong to Janet Evanovich. I owe her gratitude that she allows me to play with them.

A lovely woman named Susan read my request for help, and fortunately felt the urge to correct my inaccuracies and has proofed all the chapters that I had already posted and I hope to provide her with more asap. It is a better read because of her, so, Thank you, Susan for your kindness, time, and work. All remaining mistakes are mine though. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

Let Us Have Faith
(1940)

by Helen Keller
(1880 - 1968)

Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and
behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

Chapter one

She could not believe it. Three pregnancy tests, she had bought and used, and all three indicated she was pregnant. It could not be clearer. Stephanie Plum, eighteen and pregnant… fuck, fuck, and fuck.

Oh God, how will granny and Uncle Luca react to the new predicament she found herself in now? She was officially a slut now. How could she have been so stupid? The question now was what she was going to do about it.

She was not ready to be a mother. In addition, it was not as if she had a great example to live up to, but her grandmother. Could she abort the pregnancy? She was not a religious person, but to 'kill' an innocent 'baby' by doing so… she was not sure she could do that or even wanted to. 'Nothing happens for nothing,' was a quote from her grandma she had heard her declare many times in her life. Could there be a reason for this to happen to her? If so, she could not imagine what that reason might be. However, she really wanted to attend college, how could she do that if she had a baby? She did not even know the father's last name, how could she explain her newest fuckup to grandma, Uncle Luca and Hawk. They had taken her in after her first mistake. Would they help her, or would they throw her out of their house too, now she had failed again?

It all started when she had turned sixteen, Joe Morelli, their neighborhood bad boy, who she had been secretly in love with, helped her lose her virginity on the floor behind the éclair case of the Tasty Pastry where she had worked after school. It had hurt like hell, but it had been over before she knew it. Morelli had said thanks with a smirk and was gone. He left her bleeding, confused and alone, that had hurt as well, maybe even more so. However, even worse was, he left victory scribbles of having had her, on walls of men's rooms all over town, before he left for the Navy the following day. When her parents found out what had taken place, they kicked her out of their house; as they did not want to be associated with a slut like her.

So, when her parents kicked her out of her home. Her grandmother Edna Mazur, who had come to live with her parents too after her husband had passed, had taken her to live with her Uncle Luca Mazur, Edna's eldest child who lived and worked in Newark. Until then Stephanie had not seen much of him, because her father did not approve of Luca's lifestyle. He called her uncle a mercenary and killer, consequently the whole Plum family did not associate with him.

Luca Mazur and his business partner Hawk had a security company in Newark, called LHR LLC; they provide armed security services. They started their company after retiring from the Army Rangers. The services and expertise offered by them are typically similar to those of governmental military or police forces, but of course on a smaller scale.

While PMCs aka private military companies often provide services to train or supplement official armed forces in service of governments, they can also be employed by private companies to provide bodyguards for key staff, or protection of company premises, especially in hostile territories.

Or, you could call them mercenaries, that is what her father used to call them. Although, after living with her uncle and his business partner for two years, she was fully confident most of their employees were honorable men who did the shittiest jobs the army had to offer. However, it paid well, as her uncle and his partner had become very wealthy.

Uncle Luca and Hawk welcomed Grandma and her with open arms into their home. Uncle Luca never had a wife or visible girlfriends for that matter, he said that by the time he was ready, he was too old and too cold for a relationship. Hawk, his business partner who was years younger than him had been married, but his wife had died and he had loved her so much he did not want to repeat that love torture, is what he said. Their house had been a bachelors place before they came along; but the men welcomed some female company.

She no longer had to endure the belittling and hurtful words from her mother every single day anymore, so it was a win-win situation for all involved. As her grandmother told her later that she too was happier living with her son, as the only reason she had lived in the Plum's household, was Stephanie. Grandma had wanted to be there to protect her from her mother, grandma's own daughter, is that not sad!

Luca and Hawk welcomed Stephanie, as the long lost child they never had. Uncle Luca and Hawk both told her as they never would have a son to work with, she would do just fine as a replacement, so funny… not. No really, they gave her so much skills, love and laughter, she loved them as a brother or father, she was so grateful her grandma had taken her to live with these fantastic people. So, the second day of her stay in their house, Uncle Luca started to get her fit by working out in his company's gym, and running on the school track. Hawk taught her gun handling, self-defense, and fight sports. However, what she liked the most was Hawk teaching her military tactics and reading people. Hawk took her to public places, and there he wanted her to observe unsuspecting people, while discussing her observations, which was fun in its self. She always enjoyed learning from Hawk, and was surprisingly good at what he taught too, as her big loving friend informed her, making her proud of her accomplishments.

It is not that it all had been very useful because she fucked up anyway; there had not been any indication that handsome Ricardo could have had super sperm. She chuckled sadly. Now she messed up again, how was she going to explain this at home? How would they react?

/

Her latest fuck up began with...

After two years of living in peaceful bliss, she had finished her high school with excellence and went on a drinking feast (thanks to fake ID's) with her friends to celebrate. Here she made a gigantic mistake, for now she was pregnant. She still did not understand, for two years she had been dating and flirting, but she would never allow a guy to get too far with her. She had been taking birth control pills for protection in case she would slip. She wanted to go to college, get a degree, and work for LHR. That was her dream and she had worked hard for it.

She and a few of her friends went to a club they frequented, a huge place called Night Town; it contained several different spaces, with different music styles in one big building. Normally they went once a week on Saturday night, to drink some, flirt some, dance the night away, and then go home alone.

This time she met a deliciously sexy, good looking, street-smart guy, who was celebrating his joining the army Rangers the following day, as he informed her later in the evening.

She was dancing, with her friends when a drunken fool bothered them, and he was getting really annoying. Next thing she knew the most handsome guy she had ever seen, came up to her and said with a warm deep sexy voice, "Babe, I'm so sorry to be late, is he bothering you?" He looked her in the eye, winked and gave her a soft kiss on her mouth, while putting his arm around her waist possessively.

The guy went away, most likely scared of this badass. She knew she should be scared too, when she saw the dark threatening look he gave the poor SOB. However, handsome gave her a reassuring squeeze, and she knew it would be fine. How she knew that... she did not know. She just knew.

Handsome was tall, with short military cut black hair, mocha latte colored skin; beautiful chiseled like Anglo features and an amazingly athletic body. However, it was his eyes that caught her, brown seductive pools that were intensely scrutinizing her. She felt a blush starting to rise from her bosom to her face. "T ... thank you," she managed to get out; Lord knows she had never been entranced by a man like this before, she felt spellbound.

He gave her a full out smile and she almost swooned, "At your service my fair lady, my name is Ricardo but everybody calls me Rick. Would you tell me yours?"

"Stephanie." she breathed. She thought he was a few years older and he was not at all like the boys, she had normally hanging around her. This one was dangerous. She realized not only for her as his whole energy felt dangerous, in fact, he emanated threat in spades. Yet, the most confusing thing was, that he made her feel save and a little giddy while he still held his arm around her, she had never felt so happy and content before in her life.

"Stephanie..." he said as if he could taste the sound of it. "That is a good name for you, Babe." Then he asked. "Would you like to dance Babe?" Hell yeah!

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