Standard FF disclaimers apply.
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Chapter 2
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Sometime just before midnight, Stephanie awoke with a start. Rex was busy spinning in his wheel, and she could not hear any other sounds, but she knew that something made her wake up. She glanced over at the door. All the locks were in place.
"Wishful thinking Steph," she said with a sigh. Ranger was still gone, she knew he would not be back for a midnight visit any time soon. She shook her head and pulled herself up into a sitting position, she really missed him. Still on the couch, she looked up at the blue screen on the TV, the movie had ended hours ago. Apparently, she had been too tired to watch it all the way through. Turning off both the TV and the VCR, Stephanie made her way into the kitchen, still listening for whatever it was that woke her.
It was quiet, a normal quiet, and Stephanie was puzzled. Moonlight streamed in through the windows, it was actually peaceful. Whatever it had been, it was gone now. What did not leave, however, was that vague feeling of uneasiness that she could feel deep in her gut. It was just strong enough to niggle at her, but not powerful enough to actually get her worried. Stephanie sighed and moved silently through the dark apartment, heading to her bedroom. If she was lucky she could get a few more hours of sleep. She was already dreading the plans that she had made to catch up with her next skip. She definitely needed some more rest. Stephanie took one more look around. Still quiet. She shrugged and crawled into bed. But she found it difficult to get back to sleep.
Now that she had Ranger on her mind, she could not help but replay their last conversation. He had been getting ready to leave, but this time he seemed reluctant to go. She could not see his face clearly during that last visit, the shadows hid him as he sat in the chair over in the corner of the room. But there was something different in his voice when started talking to her. She had held her breath that night as he spoke, not wanting to miss a single word. He told her he'd finally realized something very important. Stephanie had closed her eyes then, wishing, hoping to hear the words that would reflect the way she had been feeling herself. When she heard him say that he wanted to be with her when he got back, she couldn't stop the tears that started to fall.
"Ranger," she had whispered, but he was gone. He'd left before she could ask any of the million questions that she had. Before she could reach out to him, hold him in her arms once more. Before she could tell him that being with him was exactly what she wanted, too.
With another huge sigh, Stephanie flopped over on her back, she remembered every vivid detail of that night. His words were exactly what she had wanted to hear for so long. She had replayed those moments over and over. Hoping it had not been a dream, hoping that she really had heard him say those words to her.
A tightness in her chest made it hard to breathe again. Why didn't she speak up that night, why didn't she go to him, keep him from leaving until he could hear everything that she'd wanted to say to him. Those thoughts haunted her as she tried to sleep.
She only knew that she had, in fact, finally fallen asleep, because the alarm nearly gave her a heart attack when it buzzed her awake.
Pulling her still damp hair into a loose pony tail to keep it out of her way, Stephanie drained another cup of coffee in an effort to shake off the last of her sleep deprived stupor. She was desperately hoping that the coffee could do what her shower had not yet achieved. Looking out of the window she rolled her eyes. It was still dark out there.
"Hey, Rex. Tell me again why I dragged myself out of bed at this indecent hour." Rex stopped only long enough to look at her with his little black eyes and to grab a crust of toast before retreating into his soup can. "Yeah, I could have told you that," she said to his mostly empty aquarium, before pushing back away from the counter and slumping down into the nearest chair.
Once again Stephanie stared at the small pile of folders stacked on her kitchen table. She had only a week left to find these skips before their bonds were up. With a heavy sigh, Stephanie Plum, frustrated bounty hunter, shook her head. She had already wasted so much time hunting these last four FTA's with absolutely nothing to show for it. At least Ritchie's file was no longer in the pile, restoring a bit of confidence in her abilities.
It was now not just the checks that she needed, and make no mistake about it, she did need the checks. It was the hit to her pride that motivated her to be up at the crack of dawn this morning ready to go out once again and bring these people in. Stephanie was nothing if not tenacious about getting the job done. It may not always be pretty, but she liked to think that she usually always found her man. Or woman if that was the case, as it was with Melanie Winkelstein, the woman whose folder was sitting on the top of the pile.
Melanie, or 'Marry me Mel' as she was known in the burg, was a desperate serial divorcee. The thirty something woman had now been married three times. Her particular type of clingy dependence typically manifested itself right after the 'I do's' and had quickly led her into problems each time.
This last go around was especially ugly. Public displays of the marital discord pushed husband number three into filing for divorce in record time, siting 'irreconcilable differences'. But Mel did not like the thought of being alone, especially this early in the game and she fought it. Mel had contested the whole thing, stating that it was just a huge misunderstanding. She was obviously not ready to be single again yet. Some of the people who knew her best, would be quick to say that they thought that she had lost her mind. To them, this latest marriage had looked doomed from the start. But Melanie was in love, she had felt blindsided with the problems that crept up. She couldn't understand why he didn't love her enough to work through whatever was upsetting him.
Melanie Scott- Hooper-Anderson - Winkelstein was caught stealing back the engagement ring, that she had pawned in a fit of rage, after her depressing loss in the divorce court. It was her first offence and Stephanie knew that it would not be a big deal to re-bond her, but Mel was being evasive to the point of frustration. Stephanie had tried everything, but the calm logical approach had resulted with the door being slammed in her face. And finding her at her place of business had only caused a scene when Melanie, the dental assistant, had sprayed her with fluoride. Following Mel only proved that she was really good at hiding. It was time to get serious about bringing in this skip.
True to form, Stephanie had done her homework and found that good ol' Ms. Winkelstein was known to stalk the local fitness center, for future spousal prospects. She would show up just as soon as they opened up at 5am. But she would be gone by 6:30am so Stephanie had to work fast. Her building was completely deserted as she rushed down the stairs and out into the parking lot. The thought, that no one else was crazy enough to be up this early, flitted across her mind. Yeah, she could totally relate to that!
She did not notice the black truck that pulled away from the curb and followed several car lengths behind her. It truly had not even entered her mind that she would have any of the rangemen looking after her. She had not blown up any cars or had any stalkers lately. Besides, Ranger was gone, so she had not had any discussions about her safety with anyone in quite some time.
Vince was her shadow today, he was well aware that things had been slow, but that was a good thing. It meant that she had been relatively safe from the crazy that usually followed her around. Like all of the other rangemen, he liked to be able to look out for Stephanie, especially when Ranger was gone. Whether she seemed to realize it or not, she held a special place in the hearts of all of the men. She was like family to most of them, and they would always protect their own. And they would do it without her knowledge as much as possible, they knew that she hated them to see her get into the messes that seemed to find her so easily.
Pulling her car into the parking lot at Retro Fitness, Stephanie immediately found Mel's cute little compact car. She looked at the small green digital numerals of the clock, it was now just after 6:00 (ugh!) am. Stephanie checked her pockets, she had her handcuffs and a small can of pepper spray, it was all she could carry without looking obvious. She knew she had to hurry, Mel could be done at any time, depending on her success with the eligible bachelors who were working out here this morning. She slammed the car door and rushed to the entrance. Vince watched her go and pulled the truck just out of view.
Loud clanking and the usual gym noises greeted her as she pushed the doors open. Stephanie immediately spotted Melanie, she was anxiously engaged in some serious flirting while using the free weights in the left corner of the large open space. The woman was dressed to kill in bright colored spandex. The midriff showing top was in a nearly florescent tangerine and her tight workout pants, that came to just below her knees, coordinated in a deep coral orange. Her hair was pulled back in a perfect low ponytail tied up with a sleek clip, and Stephanie had a hard time believing that anyone could function well enough to care what she looked like this early in the morning. She shrugged, as she watched Mel for a few minutes more. Stephanie supposed that, for Mel, it was all about being seen and if she did not want to go unnoticed, she had definitely achieved her goal. It was impossible to miss her in that get-up.
Stephanie strolled over, pulling her sweatshirt off over her head as she walked toward Melanie. Her own hair was still messily pulled up into a high pony tail and she wore her black yoga pants paired with a black sports bra covered by a white tank top. Work out gear plain and simple. It was easy to throw on, easy to move in, and it was nothing that she wouldn't mind sweating in. It had never occurred to Stephanie that it would matter much what she wore to a gym. Of course, she was not trying to catch husband number four.
The plan had been to causally move around unnoticed and then kind of sneak up on Mel while she was busy with her workout. But it only took about a minute for Stephanie to realize that the plan was failing miserably. Because that was how long it took for all of the guys in the gym to focus their attention on the new girl.
Much to Mel's annoyance, all male eyes were on Stephanie. At first she was furious that the focus had been pulled away from her. But then she realized who it was that they were staring at, and she panicked. The obnoxious bounty hunter was headed her way. Throwing her stuff into her big duffle bag, Melanie bolted, but not before she pulled the rack of hand weights down into Stephanie's path.
Already in motion to follow Melanie, she couldn't stop when a fifteen pound barbell painfully slammed into her foot, and Stephanie went down. Three large men were instantly there to help her up. She smiled and thanked them for their help, frustrated that her great plan hadn't even had a hint of a chance to work this morning. She struggled to limp quickly out of there, with at least a semblance of dignity, as she followed Melanie. Unbelievably the guys all waved at her as she hurried to the door in pursuit of the woman that they had apparently not given much notice to at all.
With the head start that Melanie had, Stephanie was certain that she was too late, again, surely Mel was long gone by now. But this was Stephanie's lucky day. Running into the parking lot, Stephanie saw that Mel was still standing next to her car, her hand fumbling around in the enormous duffle bag looking for her keys.
Wasting no time, Stephanie covered the distance between them. Melanie was still distracted with her search and didn't hear Stephanie walk up behind her. Without a word she slapped the handcuffs on one wrist and pulling Mel's other arm up behind her back, finishing the job. Mel tried to twist away, but ended up losing her balance and she fell heavily against her car.
"Come on, Melanie," Stephanie said. "Let's just get this done."
Helping her stand upright, Stephanie carefully led Ms. Melanie Winkelstein to her old beat up Ford Escort. It was not much to look at, especially with the impromptu rainbow colored paint job she got yesterday. Certainly, it was not nearly as cute as Melanie's car, but it was paid for. Stephanie sighed, that was really the best thing that she could think to say about her car. The ride to the Police Station was quiet except for the sniffling that Stephanie could hear coming from the back seat.
"Aw Melanie, don't take it so hard," Stephanie said, making eye contact with her in the rear view mirror.
"That's easy for you to say," responded Melanie with another sniff. "You haven't been dumped by every man you have ever loved," she said in a small voice, her head hanging low as the tears streamed down her cheeks. Something tugged at Stephanie's heart. While she did not share Melanie's desire to be married, Stephanie did understand the need to be loved.
"We can get you re-bonded, and you will be out of jail before you know it." Stephanie tried to explain the procedure, attempting to make it sound as painless as possible so that Melanie would stop worrying. But she soon realized that there was nothing that she could say to make things seem any better to her.
"And then what?" Melanie whispered. "Nobody wants me. Nobody loves me." She swallowed hard, and took a deep breath. "You might as well just lock me up and throw away the key, for all anyone cares." She nearly choked out the last few words, and remained silent as they entered the building and she was escorted into a holding cell.
Body receipt in hand, Stephanie stood near the door. The job was done. Why did she feel so rotten. It wasn't her fault that Melanie Winkelstein was broken, alone and hurting. The woman had skipped bail, what did she think was going to happen? She tried to remind herself that this same woman had resisted all of her attempts to bring her in peacefully. Stephanie knew she could get Connie to come in and get the paperwork done to re-bond Melanie as soon as possible. But nothing was making her feel any better.
Stephanie squared her shoulders, pulling herself up to her full height. She had only done her job, she was a bounty hunter, this is what she did. Shaking her head, she turned on her heel and quickly left the building. Stephanie maneuvered her little yellow, paint splattered car out of the parking lot. Body receipt in hand or not, this had not been a great morning for Stephanie.
Pulling into the flow of traffic, she was unable to shake the heavy feeling that had settled deep in her stomach. Thoughts of being awakened in the middle of the night flooded her mind. It still bothered her that she didn't know what it was that she had sensed last night. And now, to make matters worse, she suddenly had the feeling that she was being watched.
From his hidden vantage point, Vince watched Stephanie get into her car. She did not look particularly happy and that worried him. Well, that and the vibe he was getting that there was something not quite right around her today. There was not anything obvious, like someone stalking her or trying to sabotage her car, but he could definitely pick up on that strange feeling that the guys often got when she was in some kind of danger. As he watched her, he wondered if she was feeling it too. He did not like this, not one little bit.
I
His plan was perfect, he allowed an evil laugh to rumble in his chest. His only regret was that he would not be there to see it, as it unfolded day by day. The ultimate success of all his work depended on his anonymity right now. He could not be seen, so he remained hidden. Out where no one would ever think of looking for him.
That evil smile still lingered, as he narrowed his eyes and looked around the small cabin. Every surface was covered with details of the plan. He stared at his sketches, dark and bold that illustrated his pain, and at those photos of her face, reminders of the person he held responsible for all of his problems. He spent his hours perfecting each and every element of his payback. Miss Plum would learn her lesson. She would never put anyone else through the torture and pain that he had been forced to endure for so long. It was only a matter of time now.
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