Previous Chapter: I walked up to an angry Joe approaching me and threw my arms around his waist and gave him a tight hug. Startled, Joe relaxed his body into mine and squeezed me back. "Cupcake," he replied with concern before pulling me into a warm possessive kiss.
The testosterone level seemed to be an ultimate high knowing that Joe's not the type for public displays of affection, but I knew at that he was putting on a display for Ranger's sake. At any other given time, I would've been angry at Joe but at this moment I wanted Ranger to see what he had done.
I heard the engine gun as he took off out of the parking lot. My heart was torn into a million pieces and I hated myself for feeling the way I did about Ranger and falling into bed with Joe as an easy escape.
CHAPTER 11
I stood up from the old Victorian style loveseat and shook an older gentleman's hand.
"Thank you for helping with all of the arrangements. I wouldn't even know where to begin," I thanked the owner of the Stiva's Funeral Services.
"Alyssa, that's what we're here for. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or if there's anything else you would like to arrange before the service next week. Suzie Oz was a wonderful person and she's incredibly lucky to have a nice young lady, like yourself, making her arrangements for her," Stiva smiled warmly.
"Thank you again," I repeated before leaving.
I got into my new POS car that I purchased from Blue Ribbon Used Auto this morning − an off-white 1981 Nissan Datsun for $200. The radio didn't work, the A/C was busted, and I was warned that the car often overheated so I had to keep a bottle of coolant in the car handy to cool down the engine. I desperately missed my sunny bug. I especially missed the working A/C.
"Hello?" I answered my phone.
"I can't get over it," Misty said exasperated on the other end.
"Get over what?"
"My attack! You're a Bounty Hunter now, help me get to the bottom of it. I just can't let it go. I have to get the bastard that did this to my hair!" she screeched.
"Misty, I'm not a detective. I don't know how to even begin to investigate this."
"You investigated Stratton and the construction site and you investigated Pinky."
"But he was one of my skips, I had a name, a face, an address to go off of. We don't have anything to go by."
"You heard what Mr. Alexander said. It's a big business. We just need to ask some questions, create some buzz and the right information may just fall right into our laps!"
"Why don't you just leave it up to the police to handle this, Mis?"
"Those idiots aren't going to do anything! Come on, Alyssa. You have to help me out here. A great injustice has been done to me."
I rolled my eyes, "Ok, Mis. I'll help you out, but you're taking the lead."
"Great! Come pick me up, my car's in the shop."
Click.
"If I can make it," I muttered listening to my engine cough and sputtered down the street.
Misty lived on the other side of town. All I could do was pray that my little POS Datsun could make it there.
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"We have to talk to the hos," Misty said anxiously.
"What? Why?" I asked.
"Because they've got to be the largest percentage of the consumer base, plus don't you watch Law & Order and stuff on TV? Prostitutes have eyes and ears on the streets; they know everything that goes on."
"Ok then where to first?"
"Comstock and Stark — I've been told that there's a popular street corner there."
I shuddered at the thought of going back to Stark Street. The last time I was there was when I went to question Benito Ramirez. It's not one of the most savory parts of Trenton but as I said to Misty before, she's leading this investigation so we headed into the lion's lair.
We pulled up to Comstock in front of two women who fit the typical description of a street hooker. The one taller skinnier girl with long Beyoncé like hair was wearing metallic gold leggings with a black crop tube top, five-inch gold strappy stilettos, and big round black sunglasses was leaning up against the wall blowing large pink bubbles with her bright cherry red lips.
The other girl was about a couple inches taller than me and looked to be about three hundred pounds was squeezed into a neon pink spandex tube dress that looked to be ten times too small for her with matching five-inch pumps was fanning herself furiously with her pocket book. As large as the woman was in her tiny dress, she carried herself with complete confidence which was something to be admired.
"Nuh-uh, we don't do women," the larger woman spoke up raising her hands dramatically. "You'll have to go down about five blocks and ask for Stella."
"Oh we're not here to be serviced," Misty spoke up. "I'm Misty Plum and this is my friend Alyssa Chau," she pointed to me.
"I think that you two could make some good money here on Comstock being that you're a skinny white bitch and there are plenty of perverts out there with Asian fetishes even though you don't seem to have much junk in the trunk," the larger woman gestured towards my butt. "But you can't be selling on our corner. This here is mine and Candy's corner."
"We're not here to move in on your territory. We're actually hoping you could help us. Alyssa's a Bounty Hunter, and she'd like to ask you some questions."
Candy stood silently against the wall chewing on her gum while the larger hooker seemed to be the only one in a talkative mood.
"Bounty Hunter? Is that like a cop? I don't do well with cops," the larger woman waved nervously.
"She's not a cop," Misty assured her.
She dramatically clutched her chest, "Then you should've said so! You could give a bitch a heart attack with a misunderstanding like that. Since you're not cops, whatcha want to know?"
"Great! Go ahead, Alyssa," Misty nodded towards me.
I rolled my eyes, way to pass the buck, Misty. I stuck my hand out to shake the larger hooker, "I'm sorry I didn't quite catch your name."
"I'm Lula and this is my partner Candy."
"It's really nice to meet you, Lula, Candy. We were wondering if you know anything about black market hair extensions."
"Of course I do! All us hos know of it. You think we get these beautiful locks naturally," she flipped her bright red curly hair dramatically.
"Well, we were wondering if you could help point us in the right direction. My friend, Misty, was just recently a victim of a cut and run."
"How awful! Girl, you have some fine ass hair too."
Misty sniffed dramatically, "I know. I just feel like I need to nail the bastard that did this to me, so that this doesn't happen again to another unsuspecting person."
"Umm…mmm, Girl," Lula shook her head. "It's a shame that people just have no respect. I don't purchase any of that crap off the street, I only buy the finest of hair from Lovely Locks off of New Haven. They import hair from China finest of silk hair from China, you know. But I can see why crime rates would go up in the last month because the store has been closed since they shut down the shopping center for some murder investigation. Hold up, are you that Bombshell Bounty Hunter. You know the one that offed that serial killer?"
"I didn't off him," I said firmly.
"Girl, for a little bitch, you're pretty damn cool. But I'm telling you, many people are in an uproar about not being able to get their hair on account that the store's shut down. I heard that there's an underground market tonight on Stark at nine. I wouldn't go myself but I'm willing to help you two out on account that you're some cool bitches."
"That would be incredible!" Misty clapped her hands. "We'll pick you up here at 8:30 then!"
I shot Misty a dirty look but she kept on smiling.
"Girl, do you know The Champ?" Lula asked me.
"I've had a run in with him before why?" I replied.
"Because he's across the street staring at you like you're dinner."
I gulped trying to keep myself from spinning around to look.
"Ramirez is not someone to mess with. I would stay away from him if I were you. Some of my girls have been on his dark side and came back in a bad way."
"Thanks for the warning. I'll keep it in mind," I quaked. "We'll see you tonight, and thanks again for the help."
"Happy to help, I was just saying to Candy here that I needed a little bit of excitement in my life."
I gave the two ladies a quick finger wave while Misty gave Lula a big hug after the two exchanged compliments on each other's shoes.
I tried to avoid Ramirez's gaze as we headed to my car, but I caught a quick glimpse from the corner of my eye of him standing across the street with his hands on his hips grinning from ear to ear.
"Get in the car, Misty," I said in a low commanding voice.
She complied without question. I cranked the engine. Nothing.
"Fuck," I yelled banging my head on the steering wheel.
"Well, this sucks. I have AAA. Want me to call for a tow?" Misty asked.
"No, let me see if I can figure it out first," I replied popping the hood.
"Stay in the car," I commanded to Misty.
I stared at all of the components under the hood hoping something would jump out at me as the root of the problem but the truth is I don't know anything about cars.
"Alyssa, I know you saw me. The Champ is hurt that you didn't come over to say hi. Instead you went to talk to those hos. What were you talking about?"
"None of your business, Ramirez, and why don't you run along and stop bothering me," I gritted my teeth keeping my gaze on the engine.
He grabbed my wrist roughly and pulled me into him, "You shouldn't talk to The Champ that way."
"The Champ needs to stop bothering me and leave me the hell alone," I shouted angrily trying to wriggle out of his grasps.
"Why aren't you like most women?" he asked softly tracing his finger around the outline of my breasts. "Most women would love to trade places with you."
"I fucking welcome them to it," I sneered at him.
He tightened his grip on my wrist and wrapped his hand around my breast and squeezed tight.
"Let go of me you, asshole!" I struggled under his grip on the verge of tears.
"You know I wasn't every happy seeing Stratton with his hands all over you. He's lucky he's a good friend of mine or I would've ripped his heart out of his chest," he said sinisterly in my ear.
I heard a car pull up. Great, he has reinforcements. How am I going to get out of this one? On top of that, I've possibly put Misty into harm's way. I stupidly stepped out of the car without any protection and we drove my POS car into the most dangerous area of Trenton. I heard the sound of footsteps coming around the side of my car.
"Is there a problem here?" a commanding deep booming voice said rounding the corner of my car behind Ramirez.
Relief tugged at my heart. Tank stood firmly with his hand on over the gun on his hip holster. I felt the presence of someone else standing behind me.
"No problems here," I wrangled my hand harder out of Ramirez's grasp. "The Champ was just about to leave."
Ramirez loosened his grip and I stepped back slamming into a wall with arms that reached out to steady me.
"We're not done yet, Alyssa. I'm going to fuck you so good and hard you'll be screaming my name for hours. Make sure you save yourself for me. You two better not fucking place your dicks anywhere near her," Ramirez jeered glaring at Tank as he walked away.
"This isn't a safe place for you to be breaking down, Little Girl," Tank stated with a stern tone.
I threw my arms around Tank's waist and hugged him. He awkwardly returned the hug.
"What am I chopped liver? Why does he always get all of the hugs?" a voice exclaimed coming from the man who was standing behind me — Santos.
"Sorry," I replied clinging onto Tank and began rambling. "My car wouldn't start and I stupidly left the car without my stun gun or baton. I don't know what I'm looking at and I just wasn't thinking. And I knew Ramirez was watching me from across the street. I was a complete idiot. Ranger would be disappointed in my stupidity. I tried to hold my ground but he had his hands on me and I couldn't budge," I began sobbing into Tank's chest.
"Ranger did instruct you to call me if you had any trouble, right?"
I nodded stepping back and wiping my nose with the back of my arm. God, I hated acting like a female in distress.
"Then what are you doing on this side of town alone."
"Hey! It's fucking hot in here, are you trying to bake me in this hunk of junk you call a car?" a loud high pitch shriek came from inside of the car.
"I didn't come alone," I pointed to the car. "Misty's here with me. It's daytime and we just came to ask some questions."
"Next time call me," Tank instructed.
I nodded my head.
"I mean it. Call me for anything," he said firmer.
"No problem, Big Guy," I said regaining back my composure or would you call it my stubborn disposition. "Fucking, Ranger-bot," I muttered stepping back onto the sidewalk.
"I heard that."
I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Ha ha, Beautiful, you're a riot," Santos laughed.
"I like him," I pointed at Santos. "He smiles and laughs unlike you and Ranger. No fun — a couple of sticks in the mud. If you're quite finished fathering me, you think you can help get my car started?"
Santos still chuckling stepped into the car and cranked the engine, "It's your battery, Beautiful. We'll give you a jump."
The got my car working and it coughed and sputtered like its pathetic old self again.
"Thanks for coming to the rescue. By the way, how did you know I was here?"
"We just happened to be driving through."
For some reason, I didn't believe him but I felt like it was best not to question him since he did practically save my life. "Well, I guess I was just really lucky then."
"Luck has nothing to do with it, Little Girl. Ranger filled me in on your problems with Ramirez. I want you to be careful and I'm not kidding about calling me for anything."
"Gotcha, I heard you the first few hundred times," I said flippantly.
I looked over at Misty and Santos standing to the side of the car having an animated conversation. I slammed my hand down on the roof of the car to get their attention. "Hey if you guys want to take my piece of shit car and continue this conversation, I don't mind riding in the nicely air conditioned SUV with Tank."
Santos stepped out of the car, "Beautiful, I wouldn't be caught dead driving this piece of junk. You should get a more reliable car."
"Thanks for the advice," I rolled my eyes.
I gave them a quick finger wave.
"He's yummy, Alyssa," Misty gushed. "How do you know him?"
"He works for Ranger I think, or he's a friend. I don't know. I just know him through Ranger."
"If all of his friends or employees look like those two, sign me up!"
"Misty, please don't. I have to work with Ranger from time to time. I can't be having you mucking up that relationship."
"Ok," she threw her hands up. "I was just saying it could be fun."
I rolled my eyes. Misty didn't need an introduction to Ranger's Merry Men she could put together her own band of Merry Men if she wanted to. She attracted men like bees to honey barely needing to lift a finger to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
"You should seriously think about hitting that."
"Mis! I'm not going to hit that, if I'm concerned about you mucking up my professional relationship with Ranger, what makes you think that me getting with one of his men isn't going to mess it up?"
"Oh that's right because you're saving yourself for the juicy Ranger, right?"
"No. It's strictly professional."
"Right, speaking of professional, I plan on hitting the guy from the legal department tonight. So we'll have to drive separately tonight. I'll meet you on our corner tonight at 8:30."
"Fine."
"Seriously, you need some spice in your life. Think about it."
Misty had no idea how much spice was already in my life. Too much that I couldn't handle the heat.
