Hair Today. Gone Tomorrow.
(Alyssa Chau Series #2)
Notes and Disclosures: Most of the characters and settings in this story are borrowed from the amazing world of Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich. Some of the plot similarities come from her first book in the series, "One for the Money." I am not making a profit from this story.
A/N: I know it's been forever and a day since I last posted my first story "Sticks and Stones" but for the last few months I met what I felt was my own version of "Ranger" (although he was a marine). And sadly enough it didn't work out and he turned out to be more of a selfish and conceited prick like Morelli instead. Sometimes I find it hard to live in reality. *sigh
But! This is the second installment to my "Alyssa Chua" series and picks up right after "Sticks and Stones." I've written this a little darker than the first story. I hope you all enjoy Alyssa's adventures as much as I love writing about them and I truly appreciate those of you have been sticking it through with me. It's been thrilling writing this series and no more slacking on my behalf! =)
I can't breathe. My lungs are about to explode out of my chest. Sweat was pouring down my face as if someone had dumped a bucket of smelly, salty, warm liquid on my head. I blinked my stinging eyes several times before keeling over in sheer agony. I fell to my knees clutching my chest with one hand while digging my fingers into the grass with the other gasping desperately trying to suck in as much air as I could to keep from passing out.
I'm going to die. Thank god, I put on clean underwear before leaving the apartment this morning.
Collapsing, I rolled onto my back as my fatigued muscles gave out from underneath of me unable to support my weight.
I give up, I can't fight it anymore. I have no more fight left in me.
Closing my eyes and dropping my right arm over my eyes to block out the blazing sun, but a sudden overcast loomed over me. Squinting my eyes, I made out dark shadow of a large man towering over me blocking out the sun.
"Fuck you," I cursed at the shadowed figure.
I yelped in surprise as I was quickly yanking me to my feet by my arm.
"I hate you," I muttered angrily. "Just leave me here to die," I tried wriggling out of his grasp.
"Babe," the figure responded in a no-nonsense tone.
"Don't 'Babe' me, you prick. You're absolute pure evil!" I glared at him. "And how the hell is it that you don't have a single drop of sweat after that treacherous run and I'm sopping sweaty mess?" I shouted.
I scowled at the very tall, very muscular, very sexy Cuban man standing in front of me.
"Babe, sweat is sexy."
I scrunched my nose at him. If I was a woman who was in her right mind, I would've taken the opportunity to jump this man's bones. But as many who know me, I'm not a woman in her right mind. In fact, I'm a lunatic who makes a variety of poor decisions in life.
"Ranger, not everyone has the privilege of being born a Demi-God like you."
He quirked an eyebrow.
"I don't run. I told you that. How is this part of helping me train to be a Bounty Hunter anyways?"
"Babe, how are you going to chase down skips when you can't keep up?"
I snorted in disgust, "I'd casually stroll over to my piece of shit car and run them over. Simple. Just leave me here to die. I'm not running anymore," I pouted like a brat and sat my butt back down in the grass.
My name is Alyssa Chau, and this wasn't one of my finest moments. In fact ever since I became a Bounty Hunter for Vincent Plum's Bail Bonding Company, I haven't had very many fine moments. I'm not what you call a great Bounty Hunter, I often find myself in situations with egg in my face. No really, I literally get covered with egg on my face, sometimes it's trash, food, anything you name it, I'm sure I've been covered in it.
So if I'm such an awful Bounty Hunter, then why do I do it for a living you ask? Well it all happened after I was laid off from my cushy office job and after six months of unemployment I was desperate to find a job.
My best friend Misty Plum introduced me to her greasy, insatiable, sexual deviant of a cousin, Vinnie Plum. After a little bit of blackmailing on Misty's behalf a little over a month ago, I landed myself a job as a Bounty Hunter or Bond Enforcement Agent to be on the more technical side. So far, the job has gone well but being that most Bounty Hunters are usually former law enforcement, security officers, or ex-military, I didn't quite fit the bill.
I've gotten through this job out of pure dumb luck and minimal martial arts training during my teenage years but needless to say I needed to gain some proper training. Any reasonable person would know that one can't just get by on just pure luck. At some point, one's luck is bound to run out. But as I said before, I'm not known for being reasonable.
This is where Ranger comes in. Ranger is former Army Ranger/Special Ops badass who works on retainer for Vinnie on high-risk bonds. High-risk bonds meaning out of my league bail skips.
A month ago, I ran into some trouble with a skip, Wesley Stratton, whose association with a serial killer, Lenny "Pinky" Lupinski, gave me more than I was able to chew on my first week as an official Bounty Hunter. So, Connie, Vinnie's Office Manager, called in a favor to Ranger to show me the ropes.
Ranger is one of the best in the business. And when I say the best, I'm not exaggerating. He's as good as they come. He helped equip me with a gun and offers me tips on the best techniques to apprehend skips — but I've also been told that I'm not the best at following instructions either so needless to say, I don't listen to his advice very well.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried that my temper tantrum with Ranger would end up having me wake up one day in some third world country mysteriously. Ranger can be scary at times and I've been told he doesn't always operate within the confines of the law.
Ranger is a man of mystery. He's Batman. On any other given day Ranger was my mentor and friend but today he was my tormentor.
"It'll get easier as you make it routine, Babe."
"Easier, my ass. I'm not fucking Batman like you with endless peaks and valleys in the form muscles. I'm hurting in places I didn't even know existed. Even my teeth hurt. My teeth, Ranger! Running has made my teeth hurt. What do have to say to that?"
He shot me his infamous blank look which was a thick wall impenetrable to emotions. God, I hated that look. He barely ever spoke more than he needed which usually means his answers were generally consisted of few words. He was infuriating. If I had the capability, I'd kick his ass.
"Babe, temper," he warned.
Shit, I hated it when he did that. He had some sort of ESP or some crap like that — he had a way of knowing exactly what I was thinking without me actually saying it.
"We'll walk the rest of the way back," he pulled me back to my feet sliding his hand to the small of my back and guided me down the dirt path in the direction of my apartment complex.
After painfully dragging my ass back to the apartment, I reached over to punch the elevator button but was intercepted by Ranger steering me towards the stairwell.
"Seriously?" I shouted. "I can't make it up there! I don't even think I can lift my leg up. You want to take the stairs be my fucking guest. But the only way I'm getting up those stairs is if I'm carried up there 'cause there's no way I'll make it."
"It's only one flight of stairs."
"And I only have one life to spare," I sneered. "I'd rather live to see another day, thank you very much."
"Babe." The word Babe could refer to several different things from Ranger. It could be said in affection, raw sexuality, amusement, or I'm not kidding around. This was the later.
"I don't think so, Ranger," I scoffed reaching out to punch the elevator button again.
Ranger grabbed me before I could light up the button and threw me over his shoulder. He placed me down on the ground in front of the stairs.
"I despise you," I growled stomping up the stairs like a child throwing a temper tantrum which was pretty dumb of me because each stomp sent a shooting pain up my legs.
After accomplishing my task of climbing up Mt. Everest ‒ ok, it was only one flight of stairs, but still difficult, none the less — I pushed the door open in a huff stopping dead in my tracks at the sight of a sandy blond-haired man in a nice light gray Burberry suit holding a bouquet of red roses standing at my door.
Ranger stepped up behind me and placed a hand on my waist as if to hold me back. I pulled away from Ranger's grasps marching up to the man with my hands balled into a tight fist and drove it straight into the man's gut dropping him to the floor.
Are you still with me? I sure hope so! Let me know what you think so far!