Chapter Eight


"Stephanie, I need to speak with you."

Gulp. Ranger wanted me. I sucked in a deep breath and then let it out in a gush, walking sturdily up to the man while he leaned on the wall outside of the garage elevator. He was in all black, looked angry and had his arms folded across his chest. I bit my lip. "Yes?"

"I have something to tell you."

I waited, tensing. He was so unpredictable. No one ever knew what he'd have in mind each day.

His face suddenly softened, his arms reached out and he started to stroke my face. "I think you're the most beautiful thing in the world and even though we haven't known each other for that long, I love you and I think we should get married, have some kids, move away from Trenton and join a church that would make both our mothers proud." He smiled a 100 watt smile. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I have never met someone as amazing as you. You are my soul mate. You are my confidant. You are my everything."

The only thing I managed to get out of my throat was a strangle noise. See what I mean about unpredictable?

Ranger than ripped off his shirt. "I'm taking you right now on the garage floor to show everyone you're mines."

I made no complaint. Hell, I nodded and let him drag me down. He tore off his pants with one strong yank. I had been right. He went commando.

God Bless him.

I watched him quickly but smoothly strip off my clothes. Then he swung his leg over to straddle my waist and-

RING. RING. RING.

The images and colors flushed out instantly and morphed into a sea of black. I groaned and cracked my eyes open, surveying the area. Unpainted walls, cushions under me, dresser drawer to the right. Fuck. I was in my apartment bedroom. It had all been a dream. A sweet, sweet, dirty, great dream. I growled low in my throat and laid eyes on the cause of the interruption.

Damn alarm clock.

With a heavy sigh, I heaved myself to a sitting position and pounded on the alarm button until it shut off. I yawned, stretched and then listlessly moved to the in my apartment bathroom.

While I let the cold water hit my...heated body parts, I let my mind wander. Setting my alarm had obviously been a wrong move to make. Then again, it was necessary. I didn't want to be late to work. Especially not on this date.

Today was the day.

I was finally allowed to go after a FTA on my own.

I spent a good three weeks training and learning and obsessing over being a Primo bounty hunter. I spent hours on the shooting range, took some obstacle courses, watched Rambo and Batman movies, everything. It had been made perfectly clear that if I really wanted to go hunting down criminals, I'd need a shitload of preparation. Was I the greatest? Hell no. Was I okay? I'd like to think so. The guys took it pretty serious while I kinda didn't...Don't get me wrong, yes, I did want to become better but mostly because I didn't want to go back to doing desk searches. Ironically enough, I had to work at my cubby while I trained as well. Patience was not my strong suit. Which was probably why I squeezed in a few 'first hand' jobs.

Along with practicing, I went in search of Joe Morelli on the side.

As it stood right now, no one knew about these separate escapades. So far, I had spoken to his mother (who had, very thoroughly, cursed me out), asked around a bit and I had already worked up the courage and free time to trump around his apartment with the permission from the landlord. I had found nothing however. No clues, messages, evidence. Nothing.

I tried hard to keep it all a secret. I knew for certain that Ranger would flip if he found out I was already out skip searching. He was so painfully focused on teaching me more about it first. Ensuring that I knew what the hell I was getting myself into.

Speaking of which, the boss was in one of his 'moods'. Or whatever the hell it was called when he went into his own little world and blocked everyone else out. He had spoken to me a total of three times (two of those times involved one word answers and statements). He just came back two days ago from being 'in the wind' and his temper was rapidly receding. The guys, and I quote, offered this magnificent line to explain his actions:

"There are a lot of things on his mind."

Psh. Right. Like I didn't have a lot of things on my mind? Fine okay, I had shot the man but he seemed perfectly content with it when he kissed me. I frowned. Ever since that damn kiss weeks ago, I couldn't get him out of my head. It was driving me insane. And now I was dreaming about the man. Wasn't that just great? I mean, the kiss wasn't that fucking good!

Okay fine, it was incredible. But I didn't want to bring that up. If he could ignore me and pretend it never happened, I could too!

Turns out I couldn't. Because I was dreaming about him and I doubted he was doing the same.

I got out of the shower, pampered up, dressed in the Rangeman attire and waltzed into my kitchen. I waved hello to a hyperactive Rex while filling up his food dish, took out a cup and started up the coffee maker.

Yes! You heard right.

I now had a coffee maker.

If you hadn't seen it before then you probably didn't realize how utterly lacking my apartment had been three weeks ago. No couch, no TV, no desk, no coffee maker. But after my paycheck came in? Well, let's just say my financial problems disappeared completely. I had a couch, a TV, desks, fishbowl with no fish, stacks of candy and sweets, rugs, a coffee maker, a huge purse-bag, tons of things! Just one perk from working at Rangeman.

Shit, I think that might have been the only perk from working at Rangeman. I swear, they either had to be running some underground, illegal, drug business or were superheroes who received money from the state for saving the world.

As you can see, my imagination is overwhelming sometimes.

"See Rex?"I asked, mouth full of Fruit Loops. "This isn't so bad huh? We're living the good life. So what if my boss is a dick? I can get past that. And just think; after I catch Morelli, things will only get better."

Rex didn't reply. I'm not sure he knew Morelli.

"But first," I hefted my bag onto my shoulder. "I need to go and start my first official day as a bounty hunter. Exciting huh!"

Rex twitched his nose at me. I took that as him being excited. I washed down the cereal with a chug of Sunny D.

"Hey, maybe I'll become so good that Ranger will see me in a new light. Maybe I'll get another kiss." Fuck. I think I wanted one.

Rex stopped running and stared at up me with his little beady black eyes. He doubted it. I didn't blame him.


I take back my earlier claim. There was a second perk that came from working at Rangeman.

Amazing cars.

At the moment, I was sliding into a slot at the garage, sitting in a sleek, black, Mustang. It had been issued to me a few days ago when Lester stated, for all to hear, "We can't have a fellow partner riding around in a tragic vehicle of epic proportions. It'll make us look bad." Thus was born the days of me driving a Mustang. The seats were heated, soft and probably expensive. The wheels were chrome with spinners (an accessories for vehicles I had never fully came to understand the significance to), the exterior was shiny and these was an array of buttons on the dash I had yet to figure out.

I stepped out of the car, feeling like a badass in my dark clothes. All I needed now was a cape and some sunglasses.

"Well, look at you." Brett whistled as I came to stop before him. He was leaning on the wall...in the exact same spot Ranger had been in my dream. I felt my cheeks burn and tried to cover it up with a wide smile. "You're a regular Batgirl."

I scowled at his devilish smirk. A couple of days ago, the guys had heard me refer to Ranger as Batman. In my defense, I thought I had been mentally saying it and now, they weren't letting up about it. They all swore I had a crush on him.

I dished out a lot of punches to the gut that day.

Brett danced away from my swing and stuck out his tongue. "Missed."

"Asshole."

"I love you too." I sneered and he smiled.

"I see you're all pumped up for your first day." We both turned to Lester who was grinning sweetly, eyebrows raised.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Lester walked over to stand before me. "The boss ordered me to make sure you had everything."

I blinked, my smile slowly dropping. "He's not going to see me off?" It sounded like such a dumb thing to say. I wasn't as if I was going into war. But...I don't know, I figured he'd want to make sure I was all set. He had, after all, spent so much time honing skills on me.

They exchanged looks and I knew what they were thinking. "Is that a problem?" Lester teased, putting on a lopsided smile.

"It was just a question." I shoved my purse towards him. "Everything's there."

Lester blinked and poked around in my bag, holding up things to the light to better inspect them. It was filled with miscellaneous things really. Lip gloss, mirrors, wallet, keys. And then the things for taking down a FTA: Handcuffs, stun gun, the badge Tank had given me to flash for authority and authenticity. He handed it back. "Where's the gun?"

Damn. I thought he'd overlook it. I smiled nervously. The gun (which I had named Nathan...don't judge me) was sitting in my cookie jar. Why, you ask? Well...because I don't think Nathan was ready for the field yet. I mean he was going to be held in an amateur's hands and would probably be very, very anxious. I didn't want Nathan to live through the guilt of accidentally shooting someone again.

Brett barked in laughter. "Damn. You sure do make up some outrageous excuses." I had spoken out loud again. No amount of training could help my mouth, it seemed.

"Fine!" I grumbled in frustration. "I'm still not that comfortable carrying it around." More like, I still didn't feel right wielding a gun to an actual person. Show me a target dummy and I'd blow his head off. Show me a middle aged male and I'd freeze.

"Stephanie, you need it." Lester sighed.

"Why?"

"For protection. You do know that most of Trenton is armed, right?"

I did. But I would have rather been in the ratio of people who didn't however. Like my mom and Rex.

"Really? Well would you rather carry it and be in the ratio of people who are still breathing?" Brett asked dryly.

I bit my lip and glanced down at my feet.

Lester sighed again and raised my chin so I had to look at him. "Sweetie, you've been practicing with it for three weeks. Aside from the accident with Ranger, you're actually pretty good with it."

I groaned and stomped my foot. "Fine. I'll carry it."

They both smiled and Lester patted my head. Out of all of the males, I had to admit that Lester was one of my closest friends. Brett, Tank, Hal, Binkie and some others were as well. I had become relaxed enough to be my silly, bipolar, sometimes unorthodox and instinctive self around them. I had yet to show off my crazy side however...if I already, unintentionally, hadn't. I suppose they'd see that soon enough. Good luck could only go so far when it came to me.

I was bound to hit a bit of karma creeping around. And it'd probably come from my lie to the men just recently. I had my fingers crossed.

I wasn't going to go and retrieve the gun.

Twenty minutes later, I was pulling into the driveway of a medium sized, brick walled home on 5077 Limeing Street. It belonged to Clarence Sampson. The first FTA on my list and, technically, the first FTA I'd go after all by myself. The guys kept repeating that the first one hadn't counted due to the fact that I had known the skip. I disagreed but they weren't letting up. This was my first official take down. The picture showed that Clarence was big and fat and the file explained he had been arrested for drunk driving and totaling a police cruiser. Yikes.

Now or never.

I slid out of the car and proceeded towards the door, knocking on it loudly. It came open a few minutes later and Clarence appeared. Same flabby skin, reddened eyes, and scowl from the picture on the Bonds file.

I flashed my badge."Clarence-"

"The hell do you want?" He was drunk. Most definitely. The smell coming off of his breath told me so.

I sighed lowly. Great. Just had to get the drunken FTA on my first try. "My name is Stephanie Plum. I'm here to-"

"I don't want no cookies!"

Right. Because grown women go around and sell cookies. "No. I'm here to let you know you've missed a court date and must reschedule."

"No I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Nuh uh."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

I felt my eye twitch and raised a hand to still it. "Sir, I-"

"Get out of my house!"

I blinked. "I'm not in your house."

Suddenly, his face contorted in rage and he roared something unintelligible before reaching out to grab my wrist violently. Before I knew it, I was flying. I opened my eyes in a daze and groaned at the pain reverberating in my forehead. Sitting up, I glanced around to see that Clarence had thrown me off his porch onto the ground. I looked towards the door. It was closed. Sonvabitch.

With a growl, I sat up, dusted myself off and stomped back up the steps to knock relentlessly on the door. There was no way this fat slob was going to ruin my first capture.

Clarence reappeared, his eyes red and gazing lazily at me. "Who are you?" He asked a beat later.

Mental head slap. I know, I know. I should have probably left. He was at least a billion pounds larger than me AND he was drunk. Not a good combo. But, like the Jersey gal I am, I hiked up my bag and squared my shoulders. "If you would, could you come with me?"

"To where?"

I said, "To get rebonded out. You've missed a court date and-"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Nuh uh."

"Yes-

"NO!"

FUCK! We were just going around in circles. I was getting nowhere. "Listen!" I screamed, narrowing my eyes. My patience had met its abrupt end. "You need to come with me now so-" I reached in my bag, pulled out the cuffs and slapped one on his wrist before he could even comprehend it. "-come on."

Clarence froze, glanced down at the metal item, stared at it for a second and then jerked his hand back, causing me to stumble forward and lose my grip on it. I tried to regain my footing but he grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me back. "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ALIVE COPPERS!"

Yes, coming back was a bad idea.

I landed on my butt again on the grass but this time he didn't give me time to get up before he picked me u by the waist and took off at a trot towards the side of the house. I stated screaming, kicking and punching but his forearms were bigger than my entire body. There was no way I was getting out of his hold.

Ten seconds later, I was lying in a dumpster. Clarence had slung me over his shoulder, threw me in and slammed the lid shut.

I laid there in both stunned silence and outrage. Of course my first take down is a complete BUST. I was too embarrassed to get out. I'd have to return to Rangeman empty handed with banana peels in my hair, soda on my shirt and a bad odor. Ugh.

Wait, no. I wouldn't give up. I needed to go back and try again. Maybe trick him into thinking I'd give him some beer. Yeah, that's the way to go.

Done with my contemplation in the dumpster, I sat up. But before I could raise my hands to push the lid up, it came open by itself. I blinked and watched as a head poked through the opening.

"Steph?"

"Lester?" He reached in and helped me out, setting me down softly on the pavement. Tank and Hal were with him. They were all smiling. "What the heck are you guys doing here?"

"Saving your ass from the dumpster." Hal muttered. I frowned at him. "No wonder Ranger ordered us to look after you." He was quickly pummeled with punches from the other males. My eyes widened slightly at first before narrowing dangerously.

"Ranger sent you...to track me?" Figures. One side of me was, once again, outraged. Did he not think I could do it myself! He had claimed before that he had faith in me. Had that faith vanished suddenly? The other side of me was flattered that he, maybe slightly, cared about my well-being enough to assign bodyguards.

"No, no." Lester quickly bounced back. "Hal meant to say...Ranger ordered us to make sure you...didn't fall into dumpsters?" Smooth, real smooth. He shrugged at Tank's disbelieving glare.

I stood my ground and wiped off the front of my shirt. "Well, thank you but I'm just fine. You can leave now and tell that arrogant jerk I don't need his help."

They exchanged glances. Obviously, respecting Ranger's wishes was higher on their lists of priorities than listening to me. "We'll only help a little." Tank stated while the other two nodded vigorously.

"NO!" I huffed, balling my hands into fists. "I don't need your help. Leave!"

"Steph, you were in the dumpster." Lester pointed out the oh so obvious fact, lifting a wrapper out of my hair.

"I was just resting..."

"In a dumpster?"

"Is that a crime?"

They stared.

"Just...GO! This is my day. My FTAs."

"We just want you safe." Hal added in with a mutter. I often got a vibe from him that reflected his feelings of resentment and frustration towards me. I couldn't blame him.

"Yeah...hey, where's your gun-?"

"I am safe." I cut off Lester quickly to deter the subject. "Now shoo. I have a man to catch."

"Actually-"

I blew past them angrily without listening to the rest of Lester's statement, clenching my teeth. Ranger! Ugh. He was doing it again. Being irritating, sweet and sexy all at once. I know, I know. His action of sending the guys after me didn't specifically single out his sexiness but...Hell, this was Ranger. I bet he looked sexy ensuring the orders. I started to head towards the door again but froze when something caught my eye. I turned slowly to stare into the Mustang's windshield.

Gradually, the anger surfaced.

"YOU IDIOTS!" I screeched, glaring at Clarence Sampson who was tied up, knocked out and packed neatly into the back off the car. "THIS WAS MY FTA!" I repeated in a high whine, stomping my foot. I bet I resembled a five year old having a temper tantrum to perfection. I spun to unleash more of my wrath on the guys, didn't see them anywhere behind me and then twirled back around when I heard an engine rev to life.

I watched with fury laced eyes while they drove off, shooting me wide smiles and peace signs.

My right eye twitched.

Motherfuckers.


"Hello, I'm Stephanie Plum, bonds enforcement agent and I'm here to tell you that you've missed a court date."

As you can see, I wasn't one to be easily discouraged. After dropping Clarence off at the police station and making sure I wasn't being followed, I went straight to the second FTA file I obtained. It was of a Hyde Rolex; a tall, lanky man with gold teeth. He had been charged for physically abusing women, depriving others of necessities and reckless endangerment. Simply put, the guy was a pimp. And, like all lowlifes in Trenton, he lived on a run down apartment building on Stark Street.

Stark Street was a small, dark, desolate part of Trenton where anyone who wasn't a gang member, murderer, pimp, 'ho or overly muscled guy, feared to tread. So yes, a skinny white girl like me? I was most certainty at a disadvantage. Actually, at this point, I was angry at myself for being so stubborn at bringing Nathan and refusing the guy's help.

Yet, there was also a flip side to this. Killing birds with one stone and all that. Not only would I take in Hyde but I'd get to check out Benito Ramirez, a man who was either, directly or indirectly, connected to the Morelli case. Ramirez was a famous boxer residing in Trenton. Word on the street was that he knew the man Morelli had allegedly offed; Ziggy and had some sort of relationship with Carman Sanchez, a woman who had been spotted on the scene but was now missing. It all sounded fishy and weird to me but I'd forge on to do the job. I figured my best course of action would have been to question Ramirez, get his side of the story (if he had one), see if that lead me anywhere and then go on from there.

But first, I needed to take in Hyde. Pimp Hot chocolate, a woman had referred to him as actually. He was at least seven feet, dark black and had a lot of shiny jewelry and chains. His eyes were red but not from lack of sleep. I could smell the fumes emitting from inside.

I resisted a groan. First Clarence was drunk and now Hyde was high. Great.

Hyde squinted at me. "What?"

I tried a different approach this time around. "I'm here to let you know that you've won a million dollars!" I forced a smile his way.

He eyed me. "I won?"

"That's right."

"A trillion dollars?"

"Yep."

He glanced around. "Well, where it's at?"

I motioned outwards towards the steps. "All you have to do is follow me and I'll take you to it."

There was a beat of silence where he just sat staring at me before he shrugged and ambled off down the stairs. I smirked victoriously at his back while I followed him. Hah. This was what drugs did to you kids. Never ever smoke. I did once and everything got freaky. But that was back in college. I was experimenting.

We passed by a few wary looking hookers who Hyde assured to that he was fine and we made it out of the building to see some kids trying to break into the Rangeman Mustang. One had a crow bar; digging into the window and the other was kicking the door. My eyes widened in panic and anger. Damn it. Why'd I leave it unattended here!

"Hey!" I shrieked, waving my hands around and running towards them. They looked back, froze and then took off at a dead bolt across the street. A moment of insanity came upon me and I chased them all the way to the street and stopped to catch my breath when they disappeared over a fence. I'm not sure why they ran but was grateful they had. I'm pretty sure I wasn't that intimidating and wouldn't have been able to fend them off alone.

Satisfied, I turned around just in time to see the Mustang speed by with Hyde in the driver's side. I gaped at it for a long minute, watching the dust trail behind it while it slowly faded down the street.

Sonvabitch stole my car. Stole Ranger's car!

"Huh." Said a voice from beside me. "That's too bad."

I turned to my left to see two women. They both were very heavyset, plump and fat. Their tight attire gave off the impression of being 'hos. But who was I to assume? For all I knew, they liked spandex.

"I saw that coming." The other said. "Hyde does like shiny cars."

"You know him?" I asked.

"Heck yes. He's our pimp. Dumb mutherfucker is always taking off. I'm surprised he didn't-"

Just then, the building Hyde had been staying in exploded. I mean, just...BOOM! Debris flew everywhere; flames licked the air and car alarms sounded. Instinctively, I crouched and protected my head with my arms. When I stood back up, the building was in ruins. I felt the blood rush from my face.

"-set it on fire." The woman finished in disgust. "He did it again."

I gave them wide eyed looks of pure disbelief. They weren't freaking out, no one around was freaking out. There was no pandemonium once so ever. What the hell! Where I lived at, stuff didn't just explode out of nowhere. I could have been in that fucking building! I shuddered at the mere thought.

"Damn white girl." The biggest one scorned. "You all pale. Don't worry, he do that all the time. Hyde cooks up the biggest, baddest weed ever found. Or he tries to. He always ends up doing something wrong and setting the place on fire. No biggie."

NO BIGGIE? No biggie? People had just died and she said it was no biggie?

"You don't look so good. You got white glop on your shirt. What is that? You smell like a dumpster. Maybe you should lay down. "

Yeah. Lie down and never ever wake up again.

"Come on." The bigger one said, craning her neck. "Ima be generous enough to drive you home. I don't usually do this but you look like you're in a pickle."

"What?" The other hissed angrily. "You can't do that! This is our time on the streets. What would Hyde-"

"Hyde is long gone." She turned to me. "And I'm betting white girl here needs a ride considering that her car is gone."

I blinked in astonishment. I wasn't so sure if riding in a car with a random stranger/hooker was such a good idea. I mean, I wasn't one to judge but uh...the woman was big and scary looking. But she was right. I had no mode of transportation. So it was either take her offer or risk my life walking out of here.

I glanced at the burning building and the people watching it. Sirens blared in the distant. "Okay." I agreed finally. "You're right. I need a ride. I'd appreciate it a ton actually."

She smiled. "I thought so. What's your name white girl?

"Stephanie. Stephanie Plum." I replied. "Yours?"

"I'm Lula. And my friend here is Jackie."


A/N: Hah! Fit in Lula. Three days left until School. (counting down, haha) UGH. I'm just glad the first day is a half of day. BTW; they never mentioned who Lula's pimp was did they? If so, I'm sorry for using someone else. Just roll with it for the sake of the story.

Hope you all enjoyed enough to review! More coming soon!