If you like, please R&R!
I don't own any of these characters, though there isn't a few of them I wouldn't mind finding on my door step with a bow tied around them.
This story is post Twelve Sharp, so expect spoilers.
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I woke up feeling groggy, dizzy, and still tired, even more so then usual. I kept my eyes closed tight, even though I could sense someone else in the room with me. I'd grown used to that feeling, someone was always breaking into my apartment as of late, thought, it's been more Ranger than anyone else, even Morelli.
I turned onto my side, still keeping my eyes closed, waiting to hear Ranger tell me to wake my ass up so that we could run. Okay, so Rangers' been breaking in in the morning so that we could run, but a girl can dream, can't she?
I grabbed my comforter and pulled it up over my shoulder, noticing that it was more chilly in my room than normal for a the Saturday before Labor Day. I smiled to myself, knowing that since Ranger wasn't going to say the first thing, I would. Ha! Take that for knowing my surroundings.
"Ranger, I'm not going to go running, so you better show yourself out." Okay, so not all of me wanter Ranger to leave, but I was trying to be as authoritative as I could in the middle of the night, early morning, whatever it was.
"I apologize, Miss Plum, but I am afraid Mr. Manoso isn't here, and running probably wouldn't be in your best interest, not unless you wanted to get shot."
I sat upright in my bed quickly. Another crazy person had found their way into my apartment. Great, this is exactly what I need. Never mind that my sister, Valerie, was guilt-tripping me into going shopping with her today, but now I was being woken up by a psychopath. Great, just great.
The man took a step towards me as I crawled my way to the corner of my bed that was the closets to the window, and my fire escape, thankful that I was dumb enough to leave it open last night. The intruder chuckled and sat on the edge of my bed, allowing me to better see him in the mix of moonlight and early morning sun.
Tall, probably around six feet, roughly three-hundred pounds, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, late twenties-early thirties, no noticeable scares or features. I studied his face closely just in case the police had to be called, which tended to happen quite a lot around me.
My name is Stephanie Plum, and I'm a fugitive apprehension agent, which is just a fancy way of saying bounty unter. I work for my cousin, Vinnie, at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds on Hamilton Ave. Sometimes people go to jail, and sometimes Vinnie bails them out, and sometimes the said arrested don't want to go back and skip their court date. My job is to hunt them down once they become FTA (or Failure-To-Appear).
"I'm not going to hurt you, Miss Plum," the man said. "I just need some information from you." I lifted my chin a bit, but remained silent, causing him to laugh and look at his hands, while he played with a gold banded ring, a wedding ring. Remember that one, Stephanie. "I need some information on a man named Ricardo Manoso. What do you know about him?"
Other than he's gorgeous, wears black, drives expensive cars, and is a Cuban sex God? Not much.
I looked at the man as panic struck me. I have a bad habit of saying things out-loud, and I prayed this wasn't one of those times. Judging by his face I would so no, but I remained quite, just to be on the safe side.
"You helped him with a few of his problems before, correct? One when he was FTA and then once not too long ago with an incident involving his daughter, is that correct?" I remained silent. So the guy did his homework. Big deal, all of the Burg knew about those things. "Alright, what about Joseph Morelli. You know plenty about him I hear."
Now he had my interest.
Joseph Morelli was my on-again, currently off-again, sometimes live-in boyfriend. He was tall, dark, handsome, and a vice cop with the Trenton PD. He hated my job (which has given him an ulcer) and I was pretty sure I loved him, at least I told him I had after almost being killed along with Rangers' daughter, Julie, a weeks ago. Problem is, I'm also pretty sure I loved Ranger, too.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked, giving him a look. Way to go, Steph, let's piss this guy off after he already threatened to shoot you. Nice job.
The man stood, straightening his tan sports coat down over his white t-shirt and blue jeans. "I can see your not in the mood for talking. If you see Mr. Manoso or Morelli, tell them I'm looking for them."
And with that he was gone.
I sat there, I'm not sure for how long, trying to figure out what just happened. I decided I didn't know, at least not entirely. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming,. The small yelp I made answered my question. I looked over to the clock on my nightstand and breathed a heavy sigh. Five fifty-seven AM. I contemplated sleep, but decided against it, knowing my brain was fully awake and turning, even if my body wasn't.
I padded my way into the kitchen, putting some coffee on before tapping on Rex, my hamsters aquarium cage, which was sitting on the counter. Rex stopped running in his wheel, twitched his whiskers, and waited for food. When none arrived he gave me a death glare as best he could with his beady little black eyes, then went back to running.
I walked into my orange and brown bathroom, stripping out of my Metallica t-shirt and panties and climbed into the shower. I stood there letting the hot water wash over me as I thought about what the new crazy person I my life was up to.
A very big man, who was semi-frightening, knewknew where I lived. He knew that I was somehow involved with both Ranger and Morelli. It's not like Ranger and Morelli were friends, they tolerated each other, at best. When me and Morelli were "on", he knew that Ranger was a threat. God forbid he ever finds out about the night Ranger and I spent together. I knew Joe knew deep down, but it was never spoken. Joe and Ranger working together? I guess it could happen, not like they would tell me, though. They had done if before, but, again that was mostly involving me.
I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around myself and shoved it down my little bit of cleavage to stay up and padded barefoot back into the kitchen, the coffee smell hitting my nose. I grabbed the one clean mug I had and searched the fridge for food. Nothing. I was a horrible hamster mother to Rex.
"Shouldn't be walking around naked with your front door open, Cupcake."
I closed my eyes tight and prayed this wasn't happening, but I knew it was. I hadn't seen or heard from Joe in weeks, he was off doing cop business.
I decided that looking in the fridge was the most interesting thing in the world. I heard the front door lock and I was at least one of us had some common sense to close it, I hadn't even looked after mystery man left to make sure it was locked. I just assumed it was. It always was whenever someone broke in and threatened me.
Joe's hands made contact with my waist and I stood up straight before he could get any ideas.
"What are you doing here so early, Joe?"
He walked away from me, allowing his fingers to linger on my back, before sitting at the dinning room table with a bag that I hadn't noticed. I re-adjusted my towel and caught a look from Morelli, the 'let's-have-wild-gorilla-sex' look.
I walked over to the table with my coffee and looked into the bag. Donuts. Thank God for donuts. I dug in, taking a huge bit out of a Boston Cream.
"Hungry?" Joe asked laughing. That was dumb for him to ask, I'm always hungry.
I stuck my tongue out at him as I finished it off.
"What are you doing here, Joe?" I asked, peeking over the top of my coffee mug.
"Thought you could use a ride to work after yesterday."
"Yesterday. Right."
Yesterday I was chasing down a skip named Kyle Montelone who was arrested for possession with intent to sell. He got into his car, I got into my Elentra, and through no fault of my own, my car ended up in flames, and my skip ended up not in police custody.
"I have to go to RangeMan this morning, so I have a ride. But thanks, considering that it's only," I glanced at the clock on my newly bought microwave, "seven am." I think I'll leave out the part that I was going to RangeMan to talk to Ranger about the creep that was in my apartment last night. Didn't need Morelli to upset his ulcer. "Late night?"
Joe only nodded, but he didn't need to. His blue jeans and plaid t-shirt were filthy, his brown hair was a mess. Not to mention the huge black rings under his eyes. And I could smell him across the table. Even with all of that, I had to restrain myself from jumping across the table and having my way with him. He still had the best ass in Trenton, make that best ass in Jersey.
I stood, taking in the last of what I hoped was only my third donut. "Go take a shower. I think I still have some of your clothes here. You can-"
"No, that's okay. I'm just on my way home. Just wanted to see how you were holding up." Joe stood and walked over to me, placing his hand on the small of my back and leaning down to whisper in my hear. "Bob misses you." He kissed me on the nape of my neck.
My brain started screaming. Earth to Stephanie! Get away, get away! Don't get sucked back in! You know how it's going to end! You know, big fight over work, being a housewife, blah blah blah. But, dammit, he always knew just the right spot. I closed my eyes as Joe had his tongue do a bit of magic on my neck, and I started to think about where else that tongue should do magic. Okay, so maybe this isn't so bad. We could just go into the bed, relieve some tension, and then I would go talk to Ranger. The thought of Ranger made me get butterflies in my stomach. Dammit, Stephanie, way to ruin the mood.
I stepped away from Joe.
"We're not dating anymore. We shouldn't do this. Tell Bob maybe I'll come by one day this week to watch a movie." I think that came out a little more hopeful then I meant, but that's okay.
Joe just nodded his head sure, and ran his hand over his two day old five o'clock shadow.
"Be careful, Stephanie." Just grabbed the rest of the donuts and unlocked the front door, and then closed it behind him.
I sighed, causing my wild hair to blow up. He just had to take the donuts.
"Well, Rex, looks like I need to call Ranger." I searched around my cabinets for a few minutes, finally finding some hamster pellets for Rex, and then went for my cell phone.
Oh yeah, it burned to a crisp yesterday, along with everything else in my bag. I walked over to my cordless phone in the living room and plopped down on the couch with it, punching in Rangers number.
"Yo."
"I need a favor. I sorta blew up another car yesterday. Totally not my fault."
"Babe." Why is it that Batman feels the need to only speak on word at a time?
"I was hoping to come into RangeMan today, but I have no way to get there."
"Tank will be there in ten."
"No! Wait!" I shouted. Usually after saying something like that Ranger would just have to hang up. He hadn't quite grasped the concept of good-byes yet. "I was hoping you could get me, if you're not busy. I needed to talk to you about something. Well, someone. They, uh, paid me a visit last night."
"Babe." I knew that was the end of the conversation. I hung up the phone and remembered that I was only wearing a towel.
I rushed into my bedroom, closing and locking my window before I pulled the curtains, and changed faster than I thought possible into a pair of jeans and a baggy RangeMan employee t-shirt. I ran into the bathroom and attempted to do something with my hair, but it was no use. I left it to air-dry for too long. I grabbed a tie and tossed it into a horrible mess on the top of my head, before applying some lip gloss and blue eye shadow to make up for it.
By the time I was hopping into the living room trying to get my boots on Ranger was sitting on the couch. I watched as his lips curled up, the same as a full on smile from him.
"Babe."
"Don't 'Babe' me, when I called you I was in towel. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get dressed and ready that quick?" I had my foot on my coffee table in front of him (also newly purchased) and was lacing up my boots.
Ranger leaned forward. "A towel?"
I looked up at him and new that look in his eyes. I was in trouble, but the kind that I was totally up for. His eyes had turned to black. He was wearing his normal uniform, black everything, with his black hair pulled back. I caught myself staring at the muscles under his shirt, which fit him like a second skin. I gave a nervous laugh. Way to act like a slut this early in the morning.
"Yeah, well, uh," I started rambling on about something, I have no idea what, I was just trying not to mention that Joe was there. I took my boot off the coffee table and grabbed my spare key from the kitchen counter and walked towards the front door.
Ranger was still staring at me, eyes still black, but I could tell he didn't quite understand what the hell I was talking about. Good, because neither did I, and if he understand that I was going to be more confused then I already was.
"Can we go? I was kindda hoping to borrow another one of your cars, I swear I won't blow this one up! Because my bag got burned yesterday, so I need to go get another cell phone, and cancel my credit cards, again, and then go to the grocery store because Rex is going to starve to death if I don't." Ranger got up off the couch and walked over to me, pushing me into the door, letting his hands rest gently at my waist.
We just stood there for a moment, and I was really hoping that Ranger would kiss me. That would be a good morning. A really good morning. That man could kiss like something else.
"Where's your gun?" he asked.
"Huh?" I was pretty sure I was breathing a little heavier and I had licked my lips.
Ranger walked away and went over to my teddy bear cookie jar, grabbing my gun out of it. He checked to make sure it was loaded, which it wasn't, and then shook his head, walking back to me. He grabbed me, so that our bodies were right up against each other, and lifted the back of my shirt, causing me to gasp at the sudden skin to skin contact, before I realized that he was shoving the gun in the small of my back.
Ranger led the way out of the apartment, and I followed him, giving him the best Burg glare that I could.
Yeah, Ranger knew how to play with my emotions. Bastard.
