Disclaimer: I do not own any of Janet's work, though I sometimes would like to own Ranger. But sadly, if anyone owns Ranger, it would be Steph... -sighs-
Hi! This is my first attempt at a Stephanie Plum fanfic, much less a Stephanie Plum crossover. -sighs- I'm really nervous. I haven't read a Stephanie Plum book since last summer, so I'm fighting the evil powers of OOC. I'm sorry if people do seem a bit OOC, please if you find anything that sticks out let me know so I can fix it in the next chapter!
So this is a crossover between Staephanie's world and Jamie's (of the Full Series, another of Janet's work). I had a hard time figuring out the plot so I could probably use some ideas. Please help if you can!
And if you have ever read one of my fis before, you know that its rare that I update. But summer is coming so I'm going to try to keep things moving. I have alot of work, so I'm sorry for delays!
So, now that Im done with the long introduction, here we go!
One
"I don't think we should be contacting this guy, Max. His files had top-notch security codes and fire walls on them. And when I did get into them, the information did not look pretty," said a Marilyn Monroe voice echoed from the dashboard.
"Can you pull up his picture on the monitor and read me his self-proclaimed, horrible information, Muffin?" Max answered his car.
Max Holt was a filthy rich millionaire, and one of the smartest men in the country. He was the owner and president of Holt Industries, and he had a body that any woman would die to sleep with and could probably turn some men gay. Unluckily for those men and woman, Max Holt had the beautiful blond, Jamie Swift in his car. The woman who he secretly thought he was falling in love with.
The computer monitor in the dashboard pulled up a picture of a tall, Cuban man, with dark completion and liquid brown eyes. Hard as it was to say, the man was as well built as Max. Jamie seemed to pick this up.
"He seems pretty good to me," Jamie said.
"Watch it Swifty, remember your mine!" Max's eyes stared at her smiling.
-'-'-'-
"No way! I am NOT going after this guy! Are you mad!?" I said to my cousin Vinny.
It was November in Trenton. The sky was red from the afternoon sunset and the few trees we had in the Burg were all shedding their leaves. It was also fairly cold outside, but in the Bonds office in which I worked, I was sweating.
"You have to," Vinny, my cousin and boss yelled at me. "Ranger has "his hands full" with RangeMan, or so he says, and Barnes is out with a broken leg. You're all we have left!"
I held up the file. "This guy was accused of murder, rape, and breaking and entering. Hell, I'm not taking this case," I yelled back in my Jersey accent.
Vinny looked at me straight in the eyes. Oh god, he must be serious, I thought. "Look, Steph. I really need you to take this case. I know your low on cash; you always find a way to be low. So I'm going to level with you. I need the pay off just as much as you do," he said. I smiled; he must have really been in a shit load of trouble to be begging me like this. It probably had to do with his wife. "So if you take this case and bring the guy in I'll give you half of my pay as well."
I gasped. "Half! Really! That would be great! I can finally get a decent car!" I exclaimed.
Vinny raised an eyebrow at me. "Your still driving your dad's old Buick?"
"The Buick? Yeah, people keep blowing up my cars every time I take a new file! You'd think you would pay me extra!"
Vinny gave me a look that said "Are you serious?". "Yeah right Steph, We all know if you ask Ranger, he'll give you a hot new black car right off the production line."
I locked eyes with Vinny, trying to stare him down. I knew he was right. All I had to do was ask. But my on-again, off-again boyfriend Joseph Morelli never liked me to close to Ranger, or his cars. The cars that no one knew where he perchased from. Plus, I just didn't like being so dependent on Ranger.
But I needed a new car. There was NO WAY I was going to continue driving my dad's "reliable" baby blue Buick around.
Vinny's little, beady rat-like eyes stared at me and I broke off from my momentary mental rant. "So, will you take the file?"
I sighed and mentally cursed my vulnerability around the subject of my Buick. "Yes, I'll take the case." I whipped the yellow folder off of his desk and stormed out the door before I could make any more pathetic deals. But before I got to close the door Vinny shouted back to me.
"Hey, just to let you know Steph! That man was only charged with Breaking and Entering! So, Ranger refused to take him!"
"You Son of a Bit—!" The door slammed shut, drowning out my cursing.
-'-'-'-
"Ricardo Carlos Manoso is his real name. He spent two years at Rutgers collage in Newark, New Jersey, though he never graduated, He has served in the Army's special forces area, his "current" residence is an empty lot in Trenton, New Jersey, he is the CEO of the RangeMan company which specializes in fugitive apprehension, body guarding, real estate, and other business ventures. He has a classified offence in Las Vegas, Nevada and he's not allowed in the state. I'm searching for the records as we speak. In Trenton, New Jersey he is a suspect in the murder of Homer Ramos, but nothing has been proven and there are no current restrictions from the area. Apparently he burned all of his other information because I can't find it anywhere, Max!" Muffin seemed paranoid. Jamie and Max both knew that there was nothing she couldn't find and because she was simply defeated by a fire, it really seemed to tick her off.
Jamie noticed this and tried to comfort the poor car. "Muffin, it's ok! We understand that you can't get ALL of the information. Don't worry about it! It's not like this is the guy we are after. We don't need everything on him." Max cut in.
"Yeah, Muff. Could you bring up the file on Tony Marchouchi now?"
The car gave an audible sigh and a new face appeared on the screen. It was of a man with pale complexion, blond hair, and blue eyes. He was pretty plain except for a scar that ran horizontal across the bridge of his nose.
"Man, Muffin," Max said. "I got to say this guy looks cleaner than the last one," Max remarked.
Jamie glared at Max, "Your only saying that because I said that this "Ranger" character looked pretty cute."
"I got to agree with Jamie on that one, Max," Muffin jumped in.
Max did a very childish thing and stuck his tongue out at the car. He didn't usually do things like that but he was in an extremely good mood, considering it was Jamie Birthday and he new exactly what he was giving her for a present that night. It wasn't that he had not bought anything else for her, but his last present to her was something he was anxious to give.
Jamie noticed his little act and looked puzzled. She did not know why Max would have done something so childish, but she had even forgotten her own Birthday, so that didn't say much.
Muffin started listing off the details of Tony after about a mile. "This guy has a record Max, and I'm going to guess that it is worse than that Ranger fellow. This guy has been charged with five murders within the last two years and two rape crimes. Unfortunately the jury could not come to a decision on his guilt or innocence on three of his murder cases, and on his other two, the two lawyers did not show up for the court trail and were found dead three days later in a dumpster. Unfortunately there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of any of the murders. And about the rape trails. One of the women suddenly dropped the charges the day before her trail. I figure he most likely paid her off or threatened her, personally. And the other woman fled the country the day before the trail. I think she was threatened also. Oh, and to top it all off, it looks like he has mob connections."
Max nodded as if everything made perfect sense. Most people would of thought that he was insane for agreeing with his car; a emotionless piece of metal. But they would be wrong. Muffin had in her technology programs that allowed her to make judgment calls, not based on data, but actual human emotion. His competitors, including the federal government, claimed it couldn't be done. But once they saw it for themselves, they were ready to spend body and soul to get it.
Muffin and Max continued to talk about their plans, or at least the one's that did not concern Jamie's upcoming surprise Birthday party. Not very much interested in the specifics, Jamie went back to staring out of the window like she had been doing before the subject of "Ranger" was brought up. She was going to Trenton, New Jersey with Max because she needed her story. She was the head of The Gazette, a local newspaper of Beaumont, South Carolina where she lived and ran her newspaper. And as her editor Mike Henderson would say, "Good Head-lines are hard to come by." And she was hoping this case would be her "Head-liner", or more precisely, praying. The Gazette always seemed to need more big head-liners and columns so that people would buy it. Until Max had become her secret business partner and given her money to keep the paper afloat, The Gazette had been in debt.
Jamie's grandfather had been the one to create The Gazette. But when he had died her father had taken over the job. He had not ever wanted to be a newspaperman and The Gazette suffered as a consequence. But that did not mean he tried! Jamie's father struggled constantly to keep his paper afloat, and Jamie had always tried to help. Even when she was young she would go to the copy room to make copies or go get coffee for the workers. When she was older she took journalism classes in high school, and told her father she was not attending collage, so she could work with him. But her father would not hear of it and sent her away. When she graduated she came back to work at The Gazette. But within the next few years her father died, and she had full ownership, as well as all the debt.
So now she was looking for a head-liner for her paper with Max as her ticket. They were going to Trenton, New Jersey to check out a guy named Tony Marchouchi. He had caused Max's company some problems when one of the men that he had been convicted of murder for, had been one of Max's closest friends, and employees. But it wasn't entirely for revenge because then that would make Max just as bad as Tony. Tony had also supposedly hired some hit men to take Max out; because Max had something he had wanted. The problem was Max still didn't know what, or so he told Jamie.
Jamie pondered the reason they were going to hire this Ricardo Manoso. She knew from her past experiences with Max that he was not a guy to mess with. He had connections to the military, NASA, and even the FBI. Oh yes, she assumed this new guy had connections too, but not as vast and wired as Max's. So still, after staring at the road and passing trees for a good long time, she turned back to Max and Muffin, still just as confused as she was when she had left the conversation.
-'-'-'-
I walked up to my apartment from big, blue and ugly, and took the elevator to the second floor. I lived in a three story apartment. My small four room apartment overlooks the parking lot so I can always see which bad guys have their cars in my lot, or which good guys, like my on-again, off-again boyfriend Morelli, or my kick-ass bounty hunter mentor, Ranger, are there.
I started to unlock my door when I realized it was unlocked. It was never left unlocked! The reason being, every time I left it unlocked there was some freaking murder or rapist trying to get me, because my idiot cousin Vinny had landed me with his stupid file!
"Ok," I told myself, "calm down. All you have to do is call Morelli or Ranger like you always do to inspect the ro--," I froze before I could finish saying the word "room". Shit! Who was I going to call? "…wait a minute," I thought. I knew Morelli still had the key to my apartment from when he was living with me and I knew Ranger could always do his "magic" with the locks and always find a way to undue them. (Even if I had at least three bolts on them!)
I rushed across the apartment to the ledge from where you could see the parking lot. Sure enough a brand new black BMW sat in the parking lot right next to Big Blue, my Buick. It was Ranger's car. I sighed and suddenly realized that, that car wasn't there when I had pulled in.
"How the hell did he get into my apartment so damn quickly?!" I bellowed. I rushed over to my door and slammed it open, and sure enough, there was Ranger, all in black and sexy sitting on my couch watching the Ranger's game.
-'-'-'-
Max pulled up to the RangeMan building in downtown Trenton in the middle of the night. It was a seven story building, but it didn't look like anything special. Jamie at least wasn't impressed after seeing all of Max's toys from Holt Industries.
Max pulled the car up to what looked like an intercom and he pressed the button. A loud voice echoed from the speaker attached. "RangeMan, what's your business?"
"I'm here to see Ricardo Manoso about a business agreement." Max stated in a polite and concise manner.
"What is your name?" the voice asked again.
"Max Holt"
The speaker went quite but it was still left on. A few seconds later the voice came back on. "Yes, you are scheduled to meet him. Unfortunately he is currently out. Would you like to wait for him inside?"
Max looked at the exhausted look on Jamie's face and nodded to her before responding. He knew she was not used to long car rides like he was.
"Yes, that would be most appreciated sir."
The gate to the garage suddenly opened in silent response, and the intercom shut off. Max pulled the car into the lot. It was filled with black vehicles. His red car stuck out like a sore thumb.
The two exited the car and walked into the only door that led into the building from the parking lot. Inside Jamie had to admit she was impressed. It was painted a tan and had long halls and an elevator at the end of the hall. Right at the door they had entered what was referred as the "control room". It was manned by what looked like three extremely muscular men in all black clothing, and each had the logo "RangeMan" on their attire.
One of the men walked up to Max and shook his hand. "Hello, Mr. Holt. You can call me Tank, like all of the others here call me. I am Ranger's right hand man and in his stead I would like to welcome you to RangeMan's headquarters.
Tank was tall, possibly a foot taller than Jamie was. He was bald and had a chest of muscles much bigger than Max. He was a big man, that was for sure, and he had a darker complexion. Jamie made a mental note not to mess with this guy, or any of the other RangeMan employees.
"Thank you for your generosity, Tank," Max once again said in his professionally polite voice. Tank handed him a room key and went back to the control room. Apparently Jamie had once again missed some very important conversation, because now Max was leading them down to one of the small apartments meant for RangeMan employees who worked from the building.
"What's going on Max?" Jamie questioned, thoroughly confused.
He smiled at her. "You were gawking at Tank, weren't you?" Jamie blushed.
"Yes," she said sheepishly," he was just so big it caught me off guard."
"We are going to borrow a room here until Mr. Manoso returns. Tank said that he was never good with keeping a schedule and he might not come back until morning. He said that our bags were already delivered to our room and that he would cancel our reservations at the Marriot Hotel we were planning on staying at. He said we are free to use the RangeMan facilities during our stay, which includes a gym, which I believe I'm going to use tomorrow. Care to join me Swifty?"
Jamie shook her head soon she heard the word "gym". Jamie hated the gym and she hated exercise of any sort. She liked donuts and the paper, not the evil "E" word that was exercise.
Soon the two reached room 213 on the second floor and used the key card to enter. The room was lush with color. The walls were tan like in the hall, but the floor in the room was a pine type of wood, much nicer than the red carpet in the halls. There was a wood ceiling fan in the room that was more for show than actual use, since the entire building was air conditioned. All of the furniture was made out of wood. There was a king sized bed in the middle of the room, just one.
Max Holt looked at Jamie Swift and smiled. "Guess what were doing on that bed tonight?"
Jamie blushed.
-'-'-'-
"Hey, Babe." Ranger said as I walked in the door and laid down my purse filled with my bounty hunter goodies. I saw pizza on my kitchen table and I immediately took a slice and sat down next to Ranger. "So," I said pizza in my mouth,"why are you here?" I inquired.
Ranger looked at me with those warm chocolate eyes that made my heart melt and said," You just got the file on Tony Marchouchi, didn't you?" I nodded.
"Then we need to talk." he looked at me seriously," That man is wanted by one of my employers, and I need you to help us find him, Babe." For a strange reason I felt that there was more to it than that. And I decided to trust my instinct. The only reason I had survived at being a bounty hunter for so long was because I trusted my instinct, and I was going to trust it now.
"Why does your employer want him, who is your employer and why does it feel like you are personally involved in this?" I asked now intrigued.
"The man's name is Max Holt. Why, I can't give you all the details, but I can tell you our mutual reason. It is firmly believed by both of us that Tony Marchouchi killed Silvio."
I gasped at the familiarity of the name.
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So? How was chapter one? I do not mind advice, but if you flame me, Im going to have to use your car as a sheild and make it blow up!