So there are basically three parts to this story, and they each have a theme to them that can really be set by these songs, in their respectable order. Note that the first part has two songs. They both fit really well. You'll understand why after you've (hopefully) finished the story. You don't have to listen to the songs while you're reading or anything, I just thought they fit really well, and actually, I listened to these songs, and that's pretty much where I pulled this story from. Part 1's song is: "Giddy on Up" by Laura Bell Bundy. Part 2's songs are: "Before he Cheats" by Carrie Underwood and "This Little Girl" by Candy Groves. Part 3's song is "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera, and, obviously, the namesake of this story. Cupcakes beware. I think Joe should be stunned-gunned in the bitte until it falls off or gets taken off with a rusty spoon, and quite frankly, it fucking shows. Happy reading! ~ Kitty
Chapter 1 - My Happy Ending
It was dark, my ass was numb, I was seven shades past bored, and it was raining, which, of course, had to make the air feel even colder than an already cold normal mid-November night in Trenton. I couldn't even remember why I'd let Ranger talk me into wasting my night on a surveillance job. It's not like he desperately craved my company, ever so pleasant as it no longer was. In fact, most of the time when he managed to coral me into joining him on a stake-out - not that it really took much corralling - he blatantly ignored me until my fidgeting got too distracting.
I sighed for the twenty-billionth time in the last two minutes and gave up on trying to keep my numb ass dry, plopping down to the ground and, of course, right into a soaking wet pile of crunchy leaves. Ranger actually spared me a glance before turning his attention to the totally unchanged house we'd been watching for the past three hours. Only forty-some minutes to go, Steph.
And then my phone chirped, letting me know I'd received a text message.
Ranger's eye actually twitched for a second, before he whispered, "I thought you left your phone in the car, babe." Now, this was a fair assumption; usually I did leave my cell phone in whatever vehicle Ranger picked me up in, simply because twiddling with buttons and playing Angry Birds wasn't helpful during surveillance. However . . .
"Sorry. My spies were after something urgent tonight." I replied snippily, and when he raised a single brow in amusement -damn him, how does he do that? - I added, "Probably a good piece of advice is to never trust a 'Burg girl, or take anything we say at face value." I flashed him a smile, but it wasn't a pretty smile. It was the cold and ruthless smile of someone who knew much more than they were supposed to, and planned to use that knowledge to destroy. Didn't matter who or what, just to destroy. "That classic saying, 'they'll smile to your face and stab you in the back the first chance they get' comes to mind."I could've sworn I felt the air cool further, and I watched with satisfaction as he - Ranger Manoso, ultimate badass and master of self-control - shifted uncomfortably. Almost as though he were scared. Ha!
After a few minutes of uncomfortable - at least, for Ranger, I think - silence, he quietly asked, "What was in the text." I paused, wondering how much to tell him.
Should I really confide in him that I had smelled Bath N Bodyworks' Malibu Heat body sprits on his jacket? That when I was going through the dirty clothes I was going to take over to my parents to be washed, I had found a phone number written on a napkin in distinctly feminine handwriting, complete with a heart at the end?
"Evidence." I finally ground out.
And help up the phone, letting him see the picture of a hairy-assed naked Morelli. And the equally naked slut in his bed.
Her name, not that it really mattered to me, was Leah De Nofio, a raven-haired green-eyed pale-skinned skinny little bitch-ass nurse at St. Francis. She'd been an oboe player in the school band, and had never gotten over the fact that I had accidently hit her in the face with my baton while practicing in the lunchroom with a friend that no longer lived in the 'Burg, causing her to fall on her non-existent ass and spill the lunch she wasn't going to eat all over herself. I'm sure that only added to her pleasure of assisting my boyfriend to screw around behind my back.
Ranger's eyes met mine while he asked, "So what are you going to do about it?"
I laughed, short and harsh, and replied coldly, "What am I going to do about it? I'm going to ruin him."
Sorry this chapter was short. Hope you enjoyed it anyway, and yes. I do plan on finishing Secret Teller. Unlock my Heart is sorta just at a stand-still for now. I have absolutely no excuse for my hiatus, but I'm here now, right?