The primary characters in the story are not mine, they belong to author Janet Evanovich. There are some secondary characters in this story that do belong to me.

I do not have a beta and all errors will be mine alone.

Chapter 7

Steals and Deals

As I got close to where my car was parked, I stopped. I stood from across the street just staring at it for a few minutes. Written in big letters across the whole side in day glow neon paint was the word 'pussy'. Shit.

I moved my legs and walked across the street and around the car. Same thing on the other side. And I was worried about 'big blue' standing out like a sore thumb. This thing was now a moving advertisement for coochie. When Ranger sees this...

Now what am I going to do? I could either spray paint over it or find another car. I looked over Morelli's file and then put the newly dubbed pussy mobile into gear and drove away as people on the street whistled and yelled at me.

Sheesh. What a spectacle.

I drove to Morelli's apartment building and cruised through the lot. Red Jeep, and matching plate. Check. Possible new set of wheels. He did owe me. Then I headed to the bonds office and walked in.

Connie was doing her nails and looked up at me. She said, "How's it goin' girl?"

"Okay. I don't suppose you know anyone besides Ranger who can break into an apartment."

She thought for a few seconds. "Well, a few of my relatives and Vinnie's father-in-law."

I held up my hand. "No, no, no. Don't need help that bad." She would be speaking of a few members of the mob and those guys you don't want to owe any favors to.

I resigned myself and dialed Ranger. "Yo."

"It's Stephanie Plum."

"Babe."

"Could you show me how to break into an apartment."

"Where are you?"

"Bonds office."

"Be there in fifteen." He hung up. That guy is so rude!

Ranger arrived and smirked with amusement when I got into the pussy mobile and asked him to follow me. I drove back to Joe's apartment building and parked my car behind the dumpster as he pulled right up to the door practically and got out waiting for me. I motioned for him to following me up the stairs until I located the right door and pointed to it. "This one."

He asked, "Whose apartment is this?"

"Morelli, and show me what you're doing." He showed me a tool kit and removed two tools and placed them in the lock and moved them together. The lock tumbled and he was in.

I scowled, "You did it so fast, I couldn't actually see how you did it."

He said back to me sarcastically, "This is not really the place to finish the lesson. The point is to get in without getting caught."

I threw up my hands. Duh! Like I didn't know that.

We walked in and I headed to the kitchen to look around first. Spotting a couple of sets of keys hanging on a hook, I grinned and plucked them off. I then started going through his kitchen drawers and decided to look around the rest of his apartment for any information about Ramirez he might have left.

Ranger asked, "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Anything on Benito Ramirez."

"Why Ramirez?"

I said, "Joe says that he shot the guy in self-defense and Ramirez and a goon were there. I'm trying to gather evidence that might clear Joe. He says they took the gun the other guy fired."

Ranger had a look of distaste on his face like he'd swallowed a big bug. "What? You talked to Morelli and you didn't apprehend him?" He was standing with his hands on his hips glaring at me now.

I rolled my eyes. "Just think about it like we didn't get to that part of the training yet so your ego doesn't get too twisted out of shape."

He had an incredulous look on his face now. "Babe, do you know how much that bond is worth to you and in case Connie didn't tell you, you have a limited amount of time to take him in? You don't have time to play detective and Ramirez doesn't play."

"Yes. I know all that," I said impatiently. Well, I didn't but I do now. "I read the file. I've already talked to some people who say he's a good cop. I may not like the guy, but I know Joe is not a killer and his friends evidently believe that as well. They tell me that jail will be hazardous to his health."

He sighed and crossed his muscled arms. "What's the deal with Ramirez?"

"Joe was working on a case. Dead prostitutes, and thinks that Ramirez is responsible. My friend, Brace, just lost a girl too. They could be related."

He said sarcastically, "You're talking about your old boss? The pimp?"

I glared at the ass. Wanting to be done here and with him. "Let's just finish looking around."

In a nightstand drawer, I found what I was looking for. It was a file on the murders. I took it and walked past Ranger, showing him my ass this time. I said, "Time to go. Lock up behind you." And I kept walking.

Standing next to Joe's Jeep in the parking lot, I clicked the keyfob and the lights flickered on. When I heard the doors unlock, I pumped my fist and climbed in. Yes. This will do nicely.

Ranger had stealthily walked up behind me and grabbed my arm before I had the chance to shut the door.

"We're not finished yet. We're going to make a deal, Ms. Plum."

I looked at his hand on my arm and then up at his face. "What kind of deal?"

"For half of Morelli's bond, I'll help you get proof against Ramirez."

I thought about it. "Half the bond is five thousand. That'll cover my training. Okay."

"I'm not finished yet, babe."

"What do you mean? We split. That would be fair for helping me with my first skip."

"I don't want the actual money." What? …the heck is he up to?

I shook my head. "Sorry. I don't understand."

He let go of my arm, shut the Jeep door, and lounged against it. "For that five grand, you will spend the night with me. During that night, you will do anything and everything that I ask of you."

Holy cow! Is he really serious? I had pictures in my head of a man like him using me and degrading me in awful ways. The only reason Dickie didn't push me too far with some of his kinkier moves was because he was just a little bit scared of what I'd do to him once he went to sleep. This guy was not scared of me, or anybody else for that matter.

Grrr! "Do you honestly still think that I was or I am a high-priced call girl?"

"Answer yes or no, babe. Do we have a deal?"

"I don't know what your game or plan is, but I won't be degraded and I don't do kinky or sadistic in the bedroom. No restraints, no whips, no gadgets, no butt stuff!"

He just gave me one of his wolf grins. Then he leaned in the window and whispered, his breath hot next to my ear. "Yes or no."

I scowled, "I really hate you! You are such an ass!"

"So you keep telling me. I'll let you touch it as much as you want on our night together. Answer me. Yes or no?"

Perusing the man from head to toe, it was tempting. He was so damn beautiful for a man. He wore his dark silky shoulder length hair in a ponytail at his neck with a leather tie and he had dark, gorgeous bedroom eyes with long lashes, chiseled features and a narrow nose, small cleft in his chin, and full lips. He was close to six-foot tall with a broad chest, huge biceps, and I could count a full eight pack even through his t-shirt pulled tight over his abs. You could bounce quarters off his taut ass and thighs. Everything connecting to everything was perfect from head to freaking toe and I couldn't even imagine what a shock to my senses it would be to see him naked. My eyes roamed back down to the front of his pants and I must have licked my lips because there was movement there and his cargo pants seemed to get a little snugger.

I felt a blush spreading, but a thought occurred to me that if I could arouse him just by looking at him that I had some power. I looked up at his face and the slow grin that was spreading made me realize something, even before I looked back down at his package. He had just played me.

His bulge was already smaller. Who has that kind of control? Only Ranger.

I glared at him with his very smug grin. He had read my mind. "You did that on purpose to get a rise...shit...a reaction from me. It was a power play."

He opened the door so fast that I tumbled out into his arms. Pulling me tight against his chest, he grabbed my butt and pressed his groin into me, making me gasp. I felt his erection grow again really fast and very hard against me. "Yes. Or. No," he growled and simultaneously grinded.

I shivered and drew an imaginary square around us. "Th…this is my personal space. Ever hear of it? You are encroaching!"

He jerked my ponytail downward until my chin and mouth tilted upward. His hot lips brushed mine and then he licked a breathy trail along my bottom lip. He pressed and ground against me again, whispering, "If you want my help then this is your last chance to agree to the terms, babe." Then he jerked my head back further and licked a hot trail up my neck ending behind my ear.

Oh Mercy. My doodah was drowning and screaming at me to take the deal. "All right! You are so crude and I know I'll live to regret it."

He abruptly let me go and stepped back. I grabbed the jeep door and took some deep breaths to compose myself and just watched him as he turned that ass to me and walked to his Escalade to leave. He put his sunglasses on and turned to me one last time before putting the truck in gear and pulling out of the lot. What a smug bastard. He rivals even Morelli in that department. Now it was going to be a competition, a race with him too, to solve this Ramirez thing. Can my life get any more complicated or stressful right now?

Probably.

I hopped into Morelli's Jeep and stopped at Pino's for a meatball sub before heading home. As always, I ran into a few people I knew and chatted a few minutes. Laying in my bed that night spread eagle in my thinking position staring at the ceiling, I mulled over my current situation and life. I was moving so far from the person that I was just three months ago, I barely knew myself. What the hell did I agree to today with Joe? And then Ranger? I don't know anything about Ranger and my closest confidant at the moment is a high-class pimp. What I call my spidey-senses were niggling at my guts, telling me that things were about to get really hairy.

Eww. Visual.

If I was going to be an investigator too, I decided that I was going to be thorough. Tomorrow, I was going to see if Connie could come up with any information on Ranger and Brace too. I finally wore myself out counting problems like counting sheep and rolled over, conking out.

The next morning as I was trying to decide where to start for the day, my cell phone rang. It was a number that I didn't recognize. "Hey, white girl. It's Lula."

"Hi, Lula. Thanks for calling."

"Girl, it's been a busy mornin' down here on Stark. Another crack ho' was found dead and they was a murder in that apartment building. Same one where Morelli shot that guy."

A lump began to form in my throat. I had just been there knocking on doors yesterday. Then it dawned on me, only one guy had been nice and talked to me. Oh no.

She continued. "Ain't nobody gonna talk to you about Ramirez on the street. He's bad news and everybody is scared of his crazy ass. He messed up a few girls down here and more than one was never heard from or seen again."

I asked, "Do you remember the names?"

"Yeah. The most recent was Carmen. Don't know her last name. The one they found today was a skinny white girl, Marie. I think her name was Marie Stokowski. Some kind of ski anyway. Ramirez and his goons are like the mob. They run book joints, they got they dirty hands in a lot of the businesses down here. What the gangs don't control, Ramirez does. Mob boys ain't even interested in what goes on down here in this mess."

"How long ago did Carmen disappear?"

"Mmm… 'Bout maybe two months ago."

"Lula, I think I need to check out some things today. Can I take you to lunch maybe tomorrow?"

"Yeah girl. Let me come to you. You like Cluck-in-the-Bucket?"

"Yes. How about you meet me at Plum Bail Bonds on Hamilton."

"Okay girl. I know that place. I used that little fucker before. He's a strange one." I snickered at that. If she only knew. We agreed to meet at noon.

With this new news, I felt like I needed to go back to the apartment down on Stark Street. I was probably crazy, but I had to know who was killed. I decided to take the pussy mobile rather than Joe's Jeep. No sense taking a chance on getting his nice ride trashed too.

The building was quiet when I arrived and the police were long gone. I went in and slowly took the steps up to the floor that I'd been to yesterday and when I opened the stairwell door and looked down the hall, I froze. There was bright yellow police tape across a door down the hall and it was on the same side of the hall that belonged to the man that I'd talked to. My heart just sank. He'd been so nice.

I swallowed and walked slowly down the hall until I stopped at the door. His door. The lock was broken and I pushed it open. Ducking under the tape, I entered the dark apartment. It had been totally ransacked and hardly anything was left. The vultures probably closed in less than five minutes after the police were gone. The police hadn't made this whole mess. All of the poor man's things had been taken. My heart sank and tears came to my eyes. Was I inadvertently responsible for his death and this disrespect for his life? I felt sick.

A little squeaking noise caught my attention and I listened for a minute and then followed it. It was coming from a corner in the living room and under some old magazines. I reached down and moved them aside and there was that little hamster. He'd been on his little wheel and I'd startled him. I squatted down to pick up his cage and he ran under some shavings to hide. His tiny butt was sticking out and shaking.

I said, "I bet you are really scared you poor little thing. Nobody wanted you?"

There was no way that I could just leave him, so I decided to look around for some food. In the kitchen, I found a little box of hamster food and carried it and the little guy out of the apartment with tears slowly rolling down my face.

As I was driving away, I saw Lula with a group and did a drive-by and waved. She waved and then pursed her lips and began furiously waving harder. When I looked in the rear-view mirror there was black smoke dissipating and they all had their hands on their knees coughing and hacking. Some were cursing and flipping me off. Oh…oops. Sorry, girls. I made a sheepish face and hit the gas, sputtering away.