Chapter 14

I had finally decided; I was breaking it off with Adam. The only problem now was to figure out how to do it. I knew it had to be in person. I could not use Facebook as a shield. But I was going to use Facebook for one part of the break up plan. I needed to get a feel for what his life had been like the past few days.

There wasn't too much. He wasn't the type who posts something new every two seconds. He had a status about a sports loss he'd found surprising. He'd become a fan of the Yankees (hey, if he asked me if I was dumping him because of the sex, I could lie and say it was that). And, he'd added to the short conversation that Ashley had tried to have with him.

"Well that was descriptive," Ashley had commented about his very brief response to her post.

"I felt it summed it all up pretty good," Adam had replied.

"Well, I need more," she said. "Tell me," she had added a line below it.

"Trenton is good, the job is nice, and I'm dating someone," Adam summed up again.

"That's nice," Ashley had said. I wondered if she'd become less interested when he told her he wasn't available?

"Yeah, it is," he agreed.

"Well, I'd love to chat or visit you sometime," Ashley had added nearly 24 hours after Adam's comment.

"That would be nice," he had commented. I noticed the time of his comment had been a few hours before our 2nd date. Had Ashley started traveling right at that moment? She was apparently in Trenton the next day. I clicked on Ashley's name. According to Lula, the reason why I had still been able to see information on Buddy's page after he'd deleted me was because he lad light privacy settings. When I got to her page, I saw some things were available for me to view, but not her main page. I had sort of hoped I could get some idea of what was going on between them by seeing her page. I guess I couldn't. I guess it really didn't matter. I was dumping him today.

I went back to my page and opened up an email message to Adam. I knew he checked this thing frequently, so he'd see the message here more likely.

"Can we get together soon?" I typed. Then I paused and tried to figure out what to say next. If I wrote, "we need to talk," it would be obvious. But that was exactly what we needed to do. "I need to see you," I wrote. That sounded more positive than it was meant to be. But I hoped it would work.

I hung around my computer waiting for him to respond. But I grew restless. After sitting there an hour, channel flipping and drinking a beer very early in the day, I got a call on my cell. I answered it hurriedly. But it was just Connie.

"I've got an FTA for you," she said. Ugh.

"I'll be right in," I told her. I then got packed up and left. It didn't seem like Adam was going to respond yet. If he did, I'd see the message later.

"He's going to be difficult this one," Connie told me when I came in. "He's a multiple offender. Ranger has generally been handed this case before."

"I'll give it a shot," I told her. "What's his deal?"

"Murder," Connie said.

"Oh goody!" you can imagine my tone.

"His name is Maxi J. Pieterhoffer."

"Wow, terrifying," I joked.

"Don't be afraid to call Ranger if you need help," Connie told me, handing me the folder.

"I'll take that under advisement," I told her. "But let me be in charge of that. Don't let Vinny call Ranger in on me."

"I'll try," she said. And then I headed out.

I found from his folder that he worked at a warehouse. Apparently he often took breaks out back in the alley. One of his murders had taken place there. He had only committed one. Two had lived. He'd gotten off on technicalities. Except this time according to the folder, he wasn't going to be so lucky.

I went to the front desk of the warehouse to see if he was at work. He was, and was taking one of his many breaks. I drove around to the alley. I figured I could block one way out with my car. That way he'd have less running options. But when I pulled in, I saw another car was blocking the other way out. It was black, mysterious, and sexy. Ranger's car.

I watched him get out and we met in between our cars.

"I left Vinny's at 12:30," I said. "It's 1:00 now and I just got here. What time was it when Connie called you?"

"Quarter to 1," Ranger said.

"Really, she waited that long?" I said sarcastically

"Connie has some faith in you," Ranger said, focusing on the 'some.' "I was in the area, that's why I was here first." It all made more sense now. I looked around the alley and in the warehouse back door window for any sight of Pieterhoffer.

"I hope you didn't scare him off," I said.

"Hoff isn't scared of me," Ranger said. "He used to work for me."

"Has he come out yet?" I asked.

"Just a little while before you got here," Ranger told me.

"Shit, did he run?"

"No,"

"Well then what happened?"

Ranger opened the driver's side door and invited me to peer in. Maxi J. Pieterhoffer, or Hoff as apparently he goes by, was in the back seat.

"You are unbelievable," I said when I brought my head back out.

"But you love it," Ranger teased.

"Not right this second I don't," I disagreed, folding my arms. "The money on this guy would've done wonders for my bank account."

"I might be persuaded to give you a good share of the reward," Ranger told me as he guided me toward my car.

"I'm not sleeping with you for it," I warned him.

"That's not my price every time," Ranger said offended. I chose to lean up against the brick wall next to my car.

"I'm just stating my limit."

"Limit accepted."

"What is your price?" I asked him.

"Break up with your boyfriend already," Ranger said.

"I'm working on it," I told him. "He hasn't replied to my message yet."

"And if he doesn't soon, you'll chicken out."

"No I won't."

"I know you pretty well."

"I won't." I repeated.

"Well," Ranger smirked and stepped closer to me. "Here's a desperate attempt to make you braver." And he kissed me.

"Cocky," I said after he was done.

"Just thought I'd give it a try." And then Ranger went back to his car and backed out of the alley. I watched him leave and then looked the other direction out of instinct. I had felt like I was being watched. When I turned, I saw Adam standing next to a mailbox, staring at me like I'd just done something really terrible.

He'd seen me kiss Ranger. Shit. I started to walk across the street toward him, and he turned to walk away.

"Adam!" I called out. I jogged to get closer, but he wasn't stopping. "Please stop!" He didn't. I saw him opening a car door and was about to get in. So I tried something desperate. "It wasn't what you thought!"

"Are you kidding me?" he whipped his head toward me. I knew he would stop if I said that. "You were kissing some other guy!"

"He did it on purpose," I explained. "He knew you were watching. I didn't."

"What kind of excuse is that?" Adam asked. "I didn't see you fight him off. You could have rebuffed him."

"Ranger and I have a very strange relationship." I said. "He is very forward and flirtatious with me. In the past I let him get away with it because I knew there was no use fighting him."

"If he's harassing you, then why don't you report him?" Adam said snidely.

"It's complicated," was all I could say.

"Do you love him?" Adam asked.

"No." I said. "Yes," I reneged. Why lie to him?

"Interesting way to answer that," Adam said sarcastically.

"I was already planning on ending it with you when he did that," I said. "Ranger kissed me with you watching because he knew I was chickening out."

"You could have just emailed me," Adam said.

"That would be terrible," I told him.

"Trust me, I would have preferred it."

"I didn't want it to go this way."

"Me too," he agreed, but in a much different way. "I wished I'd never wasted my time with you." We stood in silence for a moment, long enough for me to see the car he was planning to get into.

"Where's your Aston Martin?"

"It was a rental."

"Seriously?"

"Yes! I can't afford a car like that. I was just trying to impress you. Happy?"

And then he got into the inferior car and left. After watching him drive off I slowly walked back to my car. I did what I had to do. Just, not in the way I had hoped.

When I got back to my car, another one of Ranger's cars was there. I recognized the guy driving. He came out to meet me and told me that Ranger had given me the right to the Pieterhoffer bond: 10 percent of 7,500. Pretty decent. I knew that he'd given me all the money due to what pain he had just caused me. Sure I was planning on breaking up with Adam already, but not like that. I went back to Vinny's and got my check, cashed it, and then went home and took a nap.

I was woken up by a knock on my door. Was it Adam? I went to the door and peeked through the peephole. It was Morelli. I looked away and leaned against the door.

"I know you're home," I heard him say on the other side. "I saw your car, and you walk really loud when you've just woken up." I still didn't open the door. I seriously wasn't interested. But then I heard keys rattling, and then I heard my lock tumble. I took a step back and watched him enter. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm awesome," I replied. Morelli knew me well enough to know I was lying, but I was in a sarcastic mood.

"I don't like Ranger putting the moves on you," Morelli said. "But I liked that Adam guy doing it even less."

"Wait, what?" I was fully alert now. "How do you know what happened?"

"Your new ex spent no time waiting to retaliate," Morelli told me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Got your computer handy?"

"What for?"

"Adam Litchfield has a web journal," Morelli told me. He seemed to be fighting a smile.

"He wrote about me on his blog?"

"Well, wrote seems like a pretty mild word."

I went to my laptop and opened Google. I typed in, 'Adam Litchfield blog.' The website had his name and photo much like the newspaper. It had some little italicized sentence that I guess is meant to tell you the point of the blog. 'What the Times doesn't pay me for.' There was a new entry entitled, 'Bitch.' I clicked on it, read the first paragraph, and screamed. He had written an article about our relationship, shared personal comments about me, and even had a photshopped photo if my head on a body that belonged to someone of Grandma Mazur's age group.

"Now I know better than anyone that you look a million times better than that," Morelli said from the doorway to my living room.

"DICK!" I screeched.

"Me or him?" Morelli asked.

I read the entire article and thought my head was going to pop off. The final paragraph really pissed me off. It was an insulting poem about the one time he and I had had sex.

"And you got mad at me for writing a much more complimenting poem about you on a sub shop bathroom wall when I was a kid," Morelli said. "I don't know about you, but I think this is so much worse."

"I want to kill him." I said through my teeth. "I want to get my 38. Smith and Wesson out of my cookie jar and shoot him in the crotch. I want to pull a Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride and write a letter to the Trenton Times editor. I want to write an article like this of my own about him. I bet I could entertain millions with my retelling of how terrible he was."

"But that would only make you as immature as him," Morelli said, being the reasonable one in the room. "But if you really need to get back at him, I'd chose the letter to the editor."

"They probably can't do anything about his blog," I said, feeling completely put out.

"His blog's description is, 'What they don't pay me to write.'" Morelli said. "What are the chances they don't know this exists, and that it's not grounds for him getting fired."

"Why would they care?" I asked. "Free speech."

"His blog isn't advertised on the Times website."

"So?"

"…Look at his past entry from a month ago," Morelli told me, smiling evilly. I looked, and saw one titled, 'Asspaper.' It was a rant about his job. And then I got where Morelli was going with this. Plenty of people have been fired for posting bad things about their employers online.

"You think the Times will care?" I asked Morelli.

"They might," he replied. "Give it a shot." I was very tempted. While I was thinking about it, Morelli went to use my bathroom. I turned back to my computer. But instead of trying to write my response, I checked my Facebook. Adam hadn't deleted me, but he had sent me an email.

I was planning on dumping you anyway just so you know. I decided to go back to Ashley. She's so much better than you.

-Adam

When Morelli came back into the room he sat down next to me on the couch. I snuggled up to him, and he put his arm around me. We sat like that for a bit before Morelli sat up to do something on my computer. He clicked on my edit button on my Facebook page. He went to the relationship preference and changed me from single to in a relationship.

"You're kidding right?" I asked him.

"Why not?" Morelli asked, and then he smiled. I had been thinking about going back to Morelli the last few minutes. But Ranger of course, conflicted my mind. I still didn't have the ability to love just one of them. So I sat forward too and clicked on relationship preference again. I selected, 'It's complicated.' It seemed to make much more sense.

*Anyone see the underlying message of the story? No one is better than Ranger and Morelli. Steph is doomed to be stuck with the sexiest guys in literature. Such a tough break, right? Ha ha. I hope you enjoyed my story. Who knew Stephanie Plum would ever encounter Facebook? -DD *