Disclaimer: I do not own anything, save a few characters that I made up. JE owns it all! I wish she would lend me Ranger on occasion though.
Chapter 1
My name is Stephanie Plum and I am a Bounty Hunter. When I was little I wanted to be Wonder Woman and tried jumping off the roof, trying to fly. I was so mad when I was told to come down. Things have a way of not going my way in my life, but whatever happens I have learned how to deal. The funny thing about my life, even though I have had many attempts on it, the most recent being the Slayers trying to kill me in a gang fight, I always come out alive. Most of the time I am rescued by Ranger, the hottest Latino mercenary walking this planet, whom I like to call batman. He acts like he doesn't want me to call him that but deep down it makes his ego swell. He and I have had a rocky "thing". I wouldn't exactly call it a relationship because the one glorious night we spent together in his bed, he sent me back to Morelli, my on-again off-again boyfriend, the next morning. He has told me that he loves me in his own way, but his life doesn't lend itself to relationships. My thoughts about this is it's all a crock of shit, but I would never voice that to him. He would ship me off to a third world country and I would never be seen again. He has that kind of money and power. I'm sure you are wondering by now why I am telling you all of this, but I promise I have a point. And here it is...
Anyone who has seen Ranger and I together for more than five seconds knows that I am madly in love with him. It's been six months since the Slayer incident and I still can't get him off of my mind. He saved me that night and while we were still at the scene, paramedics swarming everywhere, he took me in his arms and kissed my cheek lightly. Coming from Ranger, it felt like a profession of love for me. I have come to realize that I was very, very wrong. Without a word from my Batman, he disappeared and has been gone with no contact to me for six months. This has been a very gruesome six months for me to say the least. The first three were the hardest. I was sad and scared that he was hurt, or even worse dead. When the fourth month hit, all of my sadness and fear turned into anger. He had left me on the edge of a cliff, no word that he was leaving and no word when he would be back. Tank had been tailing me everywhere I went, which only made me even more upset. I went into training after the third month and really got into it. Although I trained at the Rangeman building, none of the guys spoke to me, except for Lester. We would spar together and occasionally grab a bite to eat or go a see a movie. He wanted more but nothing else ever happened. He had always had a thing for me, and I had to admit he was cute, as most of the merry men were, but now all I could think about was getting into shape. If Ranger wanted to cut ties with me the way he did then he could have told me face to face instead of running like a coward. He had made his decision and now I had made mine. It was time to turn over a new leaf.
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I stepped out into the sun outside the office after getting my four body receipts cashed. I now had around 4,000 dollars in my pocket that was going straight to the bank. Since I had been training I had gotten a lot better at my job and I was proud to say that my back account was a lot healthier than it used to be. I had saved up around 100,000 dollars, which is a lot for me. I was saving up enough to buy a house and a car at the same time, with some money left over and after the four body receipts I cashed this morning I was going to be adding 4 more grand to that account.
I was exhausted. I had been up all night, catching them, dragging them in. I had even done a stake-out with Lester at around 2 and we had gotten some vital information. Afterwards he headed back to the Rangeman building and I headed back to my apartment. I slept for about 5 hours and my body decided it was time to get up. I figured I had had enough excitement for the day and decided to head back to my apartment and see Rex. As I walked through the front door I glanced at my answering machine out of habit, and found no messages. No news was good news I guess. I had become a bit of a hollow shell in the past few months. I hardly ever laughed, or goofed off, or even went on shopping sprees like before. I didn't eat junk food, I didn't drink a lot anymore. My life had turned up a bit.
I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and signed on to my computer, connecting to the internet at lightning speed and loaded up my e-mail. The only reason I went to the office now days was to cash my body receipts. I had Connie email all of my skip information to me so I could get up, check what I had to do for the day, and head out without having to make many stops. I had no new skips in my inbox but I had an email from Lester. I smiled, clicking on the link to open the message.
Bombshell,
Hey girlie, how are things? Thanks for the help last night. We should do it again some time and I know you are just dying to work with me again so you can stare at me all night. Haha, just kidding. Well you want to catch that new horror movie this weekend? I'll buy dinner beforehand. Pino's? Sound good? Let me know, and I'll give you a call later.
--Les (The Sexiest Man Alive)
I laughed at his message and shook my head. I swear that man is going to be the death of me.
I needed a shower and then I needed a nap. I was feeling rather tired this evening. I padded to the bathroom, stripped, throwing my clothes in the dirty hamper, and stepped into the warm spray of water, pulling the shower curtain closed.
I used to cry in the shower, because I couldn't help the feeling of hopelessness when it came to my situation with Ranger. Now days I become numb. I lather, rinse, and repeat with shampoo, conditioner, shave, body wash. My routine, it never changes, and never leaves me any surprises. I have come to like it that way a bit. It gives me time to think because my routine is so mechanical and automatic for me, I don't have to focus on what I'm doing. It just happens, and I think about what I need to do, what I did today, and plan out the rest of my week, which is subject to change at any moment, depending on if I get any new skips in.
Stepping out of the shower and wrapping my towel around me, I heard my cell phone singing to me. "Before He Cheats" from Carrie Underwood was playing and I had a gut feeling I knew who was calling. I padded out of the bathroom and grabbed my cell from the bedside table where it had been charging. Sure enough, the caller ID read out Morelli. I sighed and flipped the phone open.
Morelli and I broke up after the slayer incident because he pretty much told me that I needed to ditch Ranger, never speak to him again, and marry him. He also told me I had to quit my job as a bounty hunter when we got married. I told him to go fuck himself. We haven't really talked much since then and I had a feeling he wouldn't try to contact me again. I guess I was wrong.
"What?," I said, annoyance evident in my voice.
"That's a really nice way to answer the phone cupcake," he said, amusement in his voice.
"What do you want Joe?"
"I just thought I would let you know that your boyfriend was back in town," he said with an arrogant tone, and then disconnected.
I dropped my phone and the only words that would come out were "Oh shit."