Leave me some good reviews this week...cuz next week I'm going to be making you guys mad at me. After that the rediscovery begins. The story will start moving faster in a few chapters (not day by day...we'll fast forward some boring days), Ranger makes his appearance before Christmas (story time). If I am not making a total mess of the days and you are keeping up, we are now at the beginning of the second week after Thanksgiving. Steph doesn't make anything concerning her easy for him or some others.

CHAPTER 12

A CRAZY BITCH Of A DAY
PART 2

I noticed my phone beeping after I left the station. A voice mail from Lester. I smiled to myself remembering this weekend as I listened to his message. He sounded kinda frustrated and asked me to call him back as soon as possible, that he needed to talk to me about something. I hung up the phone and clicked my new number one contact on my contact list, Lester. No answer, I hope everything is alright. He was probably in the field right now, so I left him a message asking him to call me back again or that I hoped I would see him at Shorty's for lunch. The guys usually streamed in and out of Shorty's as they got their afternoon break. Most of the time those who were off usually stopped in for lunch as well. Hopefully most of them would be there today and I would get a chance to see them.

I sat in my car outside the station and read through the file for my next skip again. Molly Madone was my next pick up. Hopefully a drama free one. She worked at one of the local grocery stores, and had been charged with destruction of private property. Supposedly Molly thought her boyfriend was cheating on her and decided to get payback by smashing the windows on the other womans car. MM was also keyed onto the hood of the car. I get being angry, but why are you going to carve your own initials into the car. Even I would know better than to do that.

Molly's house or should I say trailer was in a run down part of town. One of those parts that my mom didn't want me hanging around in when I was little, she referred to them as trailer trash. My mother has always been very judgemental. If you weren't a proper burg wife and mother like she thought she was, then you weren't good enough for her. Just thinking about her made my blood start to boil. I shook it off as I knocked on Molly's door. A woman whom I hoped was Molly answered. She was a very cute petite girl, not someone who I could see smashing up a car.

"Molly?"

"Maybe, who the fuck are you?" Wow, my eyes popped open in shock. I wasn't expecting that, such language for a mousy girl!

"I'm Stephanie Plum, I work for Vinnie's Bail Bonds. You are in violation of your bond agreement, I need to take you down to the station to reschedule your court date." I explained.

"Yeah, whatever. Good luck with that!" She said as she slammed the door.

I stuck my foot in the door before it closed all the way and pushed it open. Damn, that hurt! She was running towards the back of the trailer. Here we go again! I Lucky for me it was a small trailer and she wasn't very fast. I tackled her in the middle of the back yard, which also happened to be the next persons front yard. I snapped the cuffs on her wrists and pulled her up. Looking myself over I felt pretty good, not even a grass stain on my pants.

I heard a male voice coming from the doorway, causing me to look up. "What's going on here?" He asked.

"She's in violation of her bond agreement and needs to go to the courthouse to reschedule."

"I thought you took care of that." The man said to Molly. I assumed this was the boyfriend.

"YOUR JUST TRYING TO GET ME OUT OF THE WAY!" Molly yelled. I was already pushing her towards the house so I could get through and back to my car. "WHO IS THIS? YOUR LATEST FUCK?"

Ok, now that's the second time today, and I haven't even had sex in over a month. That is unless you count my shower massager, because you know a girl has needs.

"Molly, I don't even know this woman." He tried to explain to her. His explanation didn't even sound convincing to me and I knew we didn't know each other. It was more of a pacifying sentence said out of exhaustion. Like he was really tired of her.

I wondered why he bothered to even stay with her if he is tired of her. Maybe Ranger was tired of me. Maybe I wasn't exciting enough for him. I know I'm not up to the supermodel standards of the women he usually 'spends' time with. Why would he want a plain jane like me when he can have any woman he wants? He could be using this thing with Joe as an excuse. Probably had some hot woman already waiting for him in Miami. My mind was sidetracking and losing focus. I could hear them talking but wasn't focused on the words. Then Molly's loud harsh voice brought me out of it.

"LIAR! YOU WANT THEM TO LOCK ME UP SO YOU TWO CAN BE ALL ALONE. YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME THAT YOU WANTED US TO BE TOGETHER." This woman had a healthy set of lungs for her size.

"I do love you and I want to be with you. There is nobody else but you." He told her trying to seem convincing as we came up to the doorway. So wonder why she was so pissed. This guy had player written all over him. I almost felt bad for her.

Why doesn't he just let her go? Instead he is hanging around letting her beleive their relationship was leading somewhere. He needs to talk to her about it though, not just up and leave. Not just leave and let her hang in limbo with no resolution, no closure. There my mind goes again, sidetracking, and not paying attention to what Molly was doing.

Molly leaned back into me, swinging her legs up and placed on foot on each side of the door frame, pushing us both backwards and down to the ground. I didn't let go. Instead she came down right on top of me, briefly knocking the wind out of me. I was able to keep my hold on her as she tried to wiggle out of my grip. She was a small thing, it didn't hurt too much but she was really starting to piss me off. On top of that I was just getting plain tired of being pushed around and knocked around. Usually I stayed in control of my emotions when dealing with skips and just went with the flow, but right now I just wanted to get her to the damn station and collect my receipt. I think the realization that I didn't want to really do this job anymore and the acceptance that I am not actually very good at it, piled on top of what was going on in my personal life was having an effect on my already short patience. Especially after dealing with that other crazy bitch earlier. I rolled the both of us over so I was on her back. Her head was turned to the side.

I got up on my knees straddling her back and smushed the side her face hard into the ground.

"Listen! I don't know your man and definitely don't want to sleep with your man. So just let me do my job and take your ass in and you can be home with him in a couple hours." I pushed a little harder when I didn't get a response. "You understand?" I asked her and then pulled her back to her feet after she nodded in acceptance.

"YOUR BOTH LIARS! DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID? ONLY SOMEONE STUPID WOULD BELEIVE YOUR A BOUNTY HUNTER." She yelled and twisted and turned as I pushed and pulled her around the trailer to the car. Yeah, not trying for the door again.

"I guess that does make you the stupid one then, because I am a bounty hunter." I said quietly, because her words really got to me. Heck, who was I fooling. Nobody took me seriously as a bounty hunter. People joked and laughed about it when I was doing the job before I started working at Rangeman. Heck, half of the Trenton PD placed bets on when I would blow something up again. Why would anyone believe me?

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE" She screamed again.

"Baby, just go. I'll meet you at the station." Her boyfriend said flatly, giving her a kiss and going up the front steps. He didn't even wait until we got in the car before shutting the door.

"YOU BETTER BE RIGHT BEHIND US, OR I'M COMING AFTER YOU AND THIS BITCH WHEN I GET OUT"

This bitch just called me a 'bitch'. First she pretty much accuses me of sleeping with her man and now she calls me a bitch. She is really beginning to work my last nerve. I pushed her roughly into the back car and leaned over to buckle her in and she bit me on my damn shoulder.

That's it! Patience has officially expired!

"YOU BITCH!" I pulled away from her, reached over the seat digging in my bag trying to find...

Yes! Got it!

My gun.

Grabbing Molly by the neck I pushed her hard into the back of the seat and pushed the gun up under her chin. I put my face right up into hers. "Listen." I said in a firm angry voice, pausing for effect and making sure I had her attention. She stared at me, eyes wide open with fear. I'm usually not the violent type unless my life is in danger, but I just kinda lost it. "I'm going to move off you and get in the front seat, and you are not going to move." I paused again waiting for a signal of acceptance and understanding from her. When I didn't get one I pushed on the gun a little harder. I wasn't worried about it accidentally going off, because it wasn't loaded, but she didn't need to know that fact. "You got it?"

She nodded as much as she could with my hand wrapped firmly around her neck.

"And then I'm going to drive to the station and you are not going to say another fuckin' word." I could feel her body shaking. "Do you understand?" I asked her.

She nodded her head quickly. I pulled the gun away and climbed out of the car. I took a quick glance around to make sure there weren't any witnesses to that little scene. Didn't see anyone.

We arrived at the station after a nice peaceful ride about ten minutes later. I went to the desk to fill out the paperwork, noticing that her boyfriend wasn't there yet. Surprise, surprise. She was sitting on the bench quietly, but I could see the fear in her eyes had been replaced by fury. I snatched my receipt and hauled ass out of there before she got brave again and started making a scene.

"Yeah go on and run outta here, I'll be..." I let the door slam shut behind me, silencing her voice.

Holy crap! I thought to myself on the way to the car. Good thing that was the last skip I was going to be going after today. I don't think I could deal with another crazy bitch today. I'm really not enjoying this bounty hunting thing so much anymore.

Once again I missed a call from Lester. Checking the message, he wanted me to call him before I went for lunch at Shorty's. It seemed we were playing a game of phone tag, because he didn't answer again. I left him another message telling him that I hoped he made it to lunch and I would talk to him then.

The ride to Shorty's was about 15 minutes in traffic, so I decided to call Joe to pass the time.

"Hey Joe, you busy?"

"No, how are you? You sound kinda down."

"Yeah, I had a revelation over the weekend." I explained.

"What's that?" He was probably leaning back in his chair, rolling his eyes.

"I don't think bounty hunting is the job for me."

"Huh?" I could hear the shock in his voice. My bounty hunting was always a sore spot in our relationship. He didn't like it.

"I suck at bounty hunting, I don't have the skills to do this job by myself. Everyone thinks I'm a joke." I paused waiting for a response from Joe. He wasn't saying anything. I pulled my phone away from my ear and looked at it to make sure the connection was still there. "Joe? Are you still there?"

"Who is this? What have you done with Stephanie?" He answered. I could almost picture him with a big gloating 'I told you so' smile on his face.

"Ha...Ha Joe, very funny." I said laughing slightly. At least he found some humor in this.

He turned serious. "Yeah, but look...you always get your man don't you?"

"I guess so, but at what cost. Look at all the times I've been stalked, kidnapped or worse. If it wasn't for others..." I didn't want to say Ranger's name. "coming to the rescue and saving my ass, I'd probably be six feet under right now." A shudder went through my body at the thought.

"You would have managed to get out of it somehow." He paused. "Look, you brought me in all on your own."

I thought about it. "Not really, if I didn't have someone to rescue me from my shower rod you would still be free and I would still be hanging there naked."

"I'm sure you would have thought of something." He said through his laugh.

"Hey! You should be agreeing with me here. Telling me 'I told you so'. Didn't you tell me almost every day we were together that my job was too dangerous and I had no business being a bounty hunter?" Now he was trying to make me feel better about bounty hunting when I finally agree with him.

"So, I was wrong." He said.

"What?" I said loudly. "Could you repeat that please? Did you just say you were WRONG?" I asked him with a hint of sarcasm.

His response was to ignore it all together. "So, if you don't want to be bounty hunting anymore, then what are you going to be doing?"

"Bounty Hunting."

"Bounty Hunting. But I thought you just said..." He started to say, but I cut him off.

"What else am I going to do Joe? With the job market the way it is and my lack of skills, I really don't have much of a choice." I explained sounding frustrated. "I thought maybe when I get some extra money I should sign up for some self defense classes or something, maybe that will help a little. Too bad I never took Ranger up on his offer to train me. That would have really helped."

"Yeah, you could've hunted him down and kicked his ass then."

"Joe!"

"Sorry, he just brings out the worst in me."

"Anyways, I'm almost to Shorty's. I'm going to surprise the guys at lunch."

"Alright then. Give me a couple of days, I'm going to check into something. I might have an idea to help you out with some training."

"You don't have to do that."

"Bye cupcake!" He said and hung up before I could start an argument with him.

I walked in to Shorty's belly grumbling and a smile on my face, immediately noticing my merry men at our tables at the back of the restaraunt. Then again, they were hard to miss. The booths were packed full, but I knew they would squeeze together to make room for me as usual.

Or so I thought...