Title: Breaking down Doors
Author: EmeraldSoleil
Summary: After a deadly encounter, Stephanie realizes it's time to take back control.
Rating: Just to be safe, R, for language and violence.
Spoilers: Up through Eleven on Top
Disclaimer: The characters and their respective personalities are the creative and legal property of Janet Evanovich. I just like to play with them.
When I worked for my cousin Vinnie as a Bond Enforcement Agent, I was pretty much on duty twenty-four hours a day. It wasn't that I was exactly bad at my job, but I wasn't exactly the most efficient bounty hunter in the world either. I tended to do my job the hard way. Vaseline, garbage, mud: I'd worn it all, but I always got my man, sometimes even on the first try. Well, I didn't get all of them, but the ones that died don't count, right?
Anyway, about a year ago I got fed up with being shot at, kidnapped, stalked and terrorized and told Vinnie exactly what he could do with my job. I'm not going to lie - I miss the job, but not getting shot at everyday is pretty much it's own reward. Plus, my most recent car has been in my possession for almost eight months and no harm has come to it. No firebombs, no gang graffiti, not even a flat tire. I figure it's pretty much a record for me.
So, at five o'clock on a Monday evening, I wasn't skulking around a back alley trying to figure out how to use a mop bucket to restrain an uncooperative skip. No, sir, that was the old Stephanie Plum. I didn't do that kind of thing anymore. The new Stephanie was nice and safe, riding an elevator down to the first floor of the Rangeman Securities building where my car was parked safely in the monitored garage.
Since I quit Vinnie's and began working for Ranger, a lot of unusual things have happened. My bills get paid on time, my cop boyfriend Joe Morelli has stopped needing Valium after we speak to one another, and no one rigs my cars with explosives when I'm not looking. Plus, I work in the office, so I still get to know what's going down in the bounty huntering world without worrying about getting shot. All in all, I think it's a pretty nice arrangement.
The weather in Trenton was exceptionally pleasant for early October, so I rode out of the garage on Haywood Street with my windows down and my music loud. The office was a few miles from my apartment building but I managed to hit all the lights at green and was home in under half an hour. If I was smart, that little bit of good luck would have told me something and I would have turned around and gone to Morelli's for the night. My good luck tends to balance it's existence in the universe with a subsequent run of extremely nasty luck.
Old Mrs. Bestler was riding the elevator again and I got a friendly smile when I stepped into the car. "Oh, second floor. Lovely choice, dear."
Once on the second floor, I pulled my gun from it's belt holster before I unlocked my apartment door. As an employee of Ranger's, it was a requirement that I carry the gun. I hated the thing, but I had to admit it came in handy. Like now, for instance. It was much more reassuring to open my apartment door knowing I had several rounds of firepower ready to back me up. The business end of a stiletto heel just doesn't do the trick anymore.
Sometimes it seems like everyone in Jersey has broken into my apartment at least once. I've come home to find flowers, body parts, rabbit costumes and dead men in my living room. Between Morelli, who has a key, Ranger, who doesn't, and half the lunatics in Trenton, I never know what to expect when I come home.
I popped the locks on the door and had my .38 at the ready. I peeked through the doorway and didn't see any big scary criminals camped out on my sofa, so I figured it was safe to go in. Moving quickly, I checked the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and my closets before breathing a sigh of relief.
I saw the flowers when I returned to the kitchen to feed Rex. They were on the counter next to the toaster, which is probably why I hadn't noticed them the first time. Two dozen dead roses arranged in a crystal vase, just sitting on my kitchen counter with no note and no card. My insides started squirming.
"Why me?" I complained to Rex, who was busy running in circles. "Why do I attract every crazy person within twenty miles of the beltway?" Rex just gave me a half-hearted stare and retreated into his soup can, which was probably for the best. It wasn't good for him to see me so stressed out.
The dead roses creeped me out, so I did the adult thing and set them in the hallway outside my door. I'd call Joe and make a report later. Right now I just wanted to forget that my apartment had been broken into again.
I went to the fridge and pulled out some leftover pizza, dropping some bits of crust into Rex's cage. I was munching on the pizza when a soft knock sounded on my door. Just in case some creep had come back to see if I liked his flowers, I fished my .38 back out of the cookie jar before I answered.
It was Ranger. He looked from the flowers in the hall to the gun in my hand and back to me. "Secret admirer?"
"What can I say, I'm a popular girl." Yeah, all the crazies were standing in line to make my life hell. I was real popular.
I stepped aside to let Ranger in. "The nasty things were sitting on the counter when I got home."
"You need to move, babe."
"I know," I sighed," but this is my apartment. I like my apartment"
Ranger quirked an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine, " I relented, " so maybe I don't exactly like my apartment. It's more like I really don't want to have to spend the time looking for another one."
"You can use one of the Rangeman apartments until you find a place."
"Thanks, but no." Ranger kept a group of apartments on the fourth floor of his office building for employee use. The one and only time I'd ever tried to stay in one, I'd ended up sleeping on Ranger's couch on the seventh floor. Things have been going better than usual between me and Morelli lately and I didn't think it would be too bright of me to move in three floors below temptation.
See, I can make a smart decision if I have to.
Ranger's mouth turned up at the corners and I got the feeling that he knew exactly why I was turning him down. "Chicken," he said, leaning in close to me and grabbing my hips.
"Damn straight." I wasn't afraid to admit it. No, sir, not me. But that probably had something to do with the fact that I was so distracted by Ranger's hand's on my body that I forgot to make something up.
He grinned and brushed a soft kiss across my lips. "Let me know if you change your mind." And then he was gone, and I was left standing in the middle of my living room wondering if moving might not be such a bad idea after all.