I don't own these characters. JE does. I just bring them out to play sometimes. :)

Ranger's POV

The road is stretching out in front of me and I can feel the power of the Turbo beneath me. The road is empty and I watch the moon flicker from behind the clouds as the turbo glides to ninety. I'm in the wind again, this time it's for good.

Miami has gotten too hot. I've pointed the turbo towards Jersey. Seems like a good place to start over, to get lost. I feel my pager buzz on my hip and I see her number. She doesn't know my name, but she knows how to get in touch with me. She'll figure it out when she doesn't hear from me. Love isn't something I'm looking for. I don't need or want the complication that being involved with someone would bring. Years ago I did what was right with Rachel and gave our daughter financial security and a name on her birth certificate now she's got the life she wanted with a husband and family. I've got what I want, freedom, speed, the open road and the chase.

I remember a conversation I once had with Rachel. "Carlos, why don't you want to find someone to love? Why don't you want to let someone in?" she had tears in her eyes, not because she was in love with me, but because she doesn't want me to be alone.

"Rachel, my life isn't the kind of life for a wife, kids, family. I live life on the run, I can't give my heart to anyone, I can't rest a minute while I'm living life on the run. Someone is always after me, like a pack of bloodhounds. What kind of life would that be for someone?"

Just like I'd told Rachel, someone is always after me. The cops are looking for me in Florida, there is no use explaining to them that it wasn't me. It is in my best interest to start over before I end up on the receiving end of a gun shot. They don't take kindly to the death of one of their own. Even if he was a dirty cop who was working for Hector Vasquez.

I know they won't find me in Jersey, they never knew my name or who I was. Ricardo Carlos Manoso is safe. I've already got my life set up in Trenton, working with a sexual deviant bail bondsman named Vincent Plum. My skills come in handy while tracking down the felons who have gone FTA. I've been in and out of Trenton for the last year while finishing up my special project in Miami. Now I'm heading back to the smog, the heat, and the big hair.

Jersey is similar to some of the places in the world I'd been as a Ranger. Same stench, same degradation, same killers, hustlers, and power hungry sadists. Same innocents that need protecting. I spent years as a ranger in the U.S. Army. Now I find that I need to continue using my skills. The chase, the hunt, is my life. The adrenaline—there is nothing like it.

I reach the outskirts of the of Trenton as my pager buzzes again. I look down at the number displayed in the window. I pick up my phone and dial the number. At least with this job I don't have to worry about emotional attachments I think to myself as the phone rings.

"Yo."

"Hey, Ranger. It's Connie. I've got a new BEA that could use some training. Thought maybe you could show 'em the ropes."

"Sure thing. What's their name?"

"Her name is Stephanie Plum."

She never knew my name
Least not the one my Daddy gave me
I took off the way I came
Moonlight reflecting off the chrome
She didn't want my story, so I didn't have to lie
If I loved her it was only for a night

Living Life On The Run
You can't give your heart to no one
Your only friend is the setting sun
I didn't do what they said I done
I gotta stay one step ahead
Or one of these days I'm gonna wake up dead
Dropped in my tracks by a bullet from a lawman's gun
Oh, you can't rest a minute
When you're living life on the run

The white lines on the road
That's the only trail I leave behind me
Been chasing high line poles
Ever since the night I skipped out of town
somewhere in the distance is where I need to be
All I care about right now is speed

Living life on the run
You can't give your heart to no one
Your only friend is the setting sun
I didn't do what they said I done
I gotta stay one step ahead
Or one of these days I'm gonna wake up dead
Dropped in my tracks by a bullet from a lawman's gun
No, you can't rest a minute
When you're living life on the run

Here they come now, gotta lay low
Done bent the law till the law got broke
Here they come now, gotta lay low
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa

Here they come now, they're closing in
Pack of blood hounds gonna catch my sent
Here they come now, now I'm gone again

Yeah
Living life on the run
You can't give your heart to no one
You can't rest a minute when you're living life on the run
No, you can't rest a minute when you're living life
On the run

Song :Life on the run-- Dierks Bentley