Don't I know You ?

It had been at least five years since I had seen her, but the memory of Stephanie was still fresh in my mind. She was wearing killer strappy four-inch heels, a sexy black mini skirt, and a colorful clingy top that hugged every curve. I watched as she sashayed across the club, and it was all I could do to keep myself from running over to her. I kept my cool as I strolled over and positioned myself right in front of her.

" Can I buy you a drink beautiful ?" , I ask, hoping she would remember me.

"Sure handsome", she replied, giving me a smile the lit up her blue eyes.

I searched her expression for some sign of recognition but I found none. It had been a long time, and she was pretty tipsy the last time we saw each other.

"Did you come here alone, or are you with someone ", I ask casually.

"Tonight was supposed to be a girls night out, but when I went to pick up my friend Mary Lou, she had to bail on me because her kid ate a box of ex-lax. I tell you, its' times like this that make me glad I don't have a husband or kid to worry about. My hamster is enough responsibility for me to look after", She joked.

She ordered a Cosmo, and I had a Corona.

"Lester Santos," I said as I extended my hand.

"Stephanie Plum, nice to meet you Lester".

"So tell me about yourself, Stephanie, what do you do for a living" ?

I'm a bond enforcement agent", she said straight-faced.

I stared at her for a few seconds, waiting for the punch line, then I laughed.

"What's so funny"?

"You are a BEA, a bounty hunter, stop playing beautiful".

"I'm serious," she said, not the least bit offended at me having a laugh at what she told me.

"Wow that's impressive, I would never have laughed if I knew you were serious, I'm sorry."

"No hard feelings, so what do you do handsome?" she asks playfully.

"I work in security, when I came back from my last deployment, my cousin hired me."

"That sounds pretty intriguing ".

"Not as intriguing as you out there skip chasing". Tell me, do you catch many high bond skips"?

"Not many at all, just one so far, but if I work hard and use my spidey senses, along with some Burg connections, I do okay."

"Somehow the idea of you out there chasing down criminals seems ….."

"Seems what ?",she laughed.

"I'm just trying to picture you out there cuffing skips"

Don't , I need a class in handcuffing for beginners. There are times I lose more cuffs in a month than the number of skips I bring in.

"Cute", I teased. "So what's it going to take to get you no the dance floor beautiful"?

She hesitated, then gave me a slight smile.

"This is not something I am normally into, you know the club scene. I'm from the Burg,this hip hop thing is new to me. Like I said before, this was supposed to be a girls night out, it was my friend's idea", she explained.

I ordered another Corona and a Cosmo for her.

"Come on, it will be fun, you like fun right, or let me guess girls from the Burg don't know how to have fun," I challenged.

"Is that some type of dare?",she asks gulping down the last of her cocktail. "You should know, Stephanie Plum never takes a dare lightly."

"The dance floor is that way", I said.

Immediately she hopped off the bar stool and strolled onto the dance floor as I joined her. I watched as Stephanie came alive on the dance floor, there was no need for her to worry about a thing. The woman was made to dance, she was gifted with natural ability and rhythm, baby girl had moves. After about two hours, we both needed a break so we headed back over to the bar.

As we left the dance floor and walked toward to the bar a woman stepped in front of me.

"Lester, Lester Santos ?", She shouted angrily.

I stared at her blank-faced, "yes that's me", I answered calmly.

"You said you would call me "!

"How long ago was that, I have not been stateside in over a year?"

The angry woman tossed her entire drink at me, the cup and all. As it hit me in the chest, I looked at her compassionately.

"Whoa sweetheart, please calm down, I have no idea what you are talking about or when it happened. If I hurt your feelings or lead you on I apologize, that is not something I normally do."

This woman was drawing unwanted attention and a crowd had gathered to watch the show she was putting on.

"Girl, get over yourself ! Lester does not promise any girl anything except a good time. "Hey cutie, long time no see," a young woman called out with a wink.

Stephanie looked me. she wore a questioning expression on her face.

Then a man stepped out from the crowd and started a conversation with her.

"It's true, that is love them and leave them Lester Santos honey. You are far too good to be hanging out with him. Why don't let me buy you a drink"?

I watched my dance partner walk off with another guy to the bar. The bartender placed a Cosmo in front her and she sipped it as the two talked. Damn my player ways had come back to bite me in the ass. Jealousy crept in as she laughed and flirted with the guy. I went to the men's room to clear my head and to decide if I wanted to call it a night and just go home. As I walked out of the restroom, I saw Stephanie. She was nearly passed out with her head resting on the bar, struggling to make it her feet. The guy she had left the dance floor with wore a sick smirk as he scooped her limp body off the stool. This dude was way too happy to have a semi-conscious companion. Something was not right, Stephanie had only had a couple of drinks, she should not have been this drunk that fast. I watched as this guy half dragged half carried her out the front door while no one batted an eye. Her clothes were riding up, her speech was impaired, yet it seemed perfectly normal to everyone else. Hell no, not on my watch, I was not going to allow this to go down. I followed him to the parking lot where he was trying to get her into his car.

"So what did you slip her? ", I ask, as I stared at the sicko

"A dose of Great Hormones at Bedtime ", he admitted proudly. "It was easy, she spent way too much time glaring at you instead of watching her drink." The predator explained happily as though he had just hit the lottery.

This guy was sick, there was no telling what he was going to do to her. It was all one big game to him. Anger surfaced and my temper boiled over. Before I knew it, I was on top of the guy with both fists slamming into his body.

I brought my focus back to Stephanie, she was slumped over in the passenger's seat of his car motionless. Gently, I left her out of the car, caring her bridal style, then I placed her in my SUV.

While I was trying to decide what to do next, I looked over at Stephanie and realized she was having a seizure. I knew had to get her to a hospital right away. I was now speeding through red lights, weaving in and out of traffic in a company issued Vehicle. If Ranger found out, he would kill me, but I did not care. I had to get her to a hospital fast.

I sat in there in her hospital room waiting for the test results. After I had explained the situation to the medical staff they had run a series of test, cardiac monitoring, pulse oximetry, urinalysis, and performance of a comprehensive chemistry panel to check for electrolyte imbalance were all performed on Stephanie, and she admitted her for observation. It had been a couple of hours and she had still had not woken up.

"Mr. Santos, Your fiancée is going to be just fine, all her test have come back clear. She does not appear to have suffered any permanent damage from the GHB. The seizure was mostly an adverse reaction from the combination of the drug and alcohol. Fortunately, the drug travels through the body quickly and she has not suffered any of the more serious reaction to GHB " the doctor explained.

"So why hasn't she woken up yet? ", I ask in a concerned voice.

"She is just sleeping off the effects of the drug mixed with alcohol. Then there is also the fact that seizures can leave people exhausted, they can be hard on the body. Give her a little more time, she should wake up soon", the doctor assured me.

There was something calming and incredibly peaceful about watching Stephanie sleep. She was beautiful with her curls softly framing her delicate features as her chest rose and fell with every rhythmic breath she took. I could have sat there for hours observing her slumber if my pager had not been going vibrating every five minutes for the last hour, before that my cell phone had been buzzing on my hip. I knew it was my cousin Ranger calling me about work. The cell phone had been turned off, but Ranger continued to page me nonstop. When the pages started coming in 911 once every minute, I knew ignoring the man any longer was not an option.

Reluctantly I left my chair, kissed Stephanie on the cheek, then I placed her clutched with all her identification next to her in the bed. I wrote her note letting her know where she could find her car, then made sure she had cab fair, just in case she could not find someone to pick her up from the hospital.

My pager continued to buzz as I left the hospital, and I could not help but to be annoyed. Even at 3:00 A.M. and from miles away, my cousin Carlos could still manage to get in-between me and a woman.