Previous Chapter: I shoved him in the chest, "Go to bed before you end up with another injury, Officer Morelli."

He grinned and rolled back over onto his side of the bed.

I turned back onto my side and shut my eyes. I think my lack of "cool" just saved me from a too close encounter with the playboy Morelli.

I work up with a jolt — there was a man in my bed. I tensed up not knowing what my next move would be. When he reached over and pulled me into his warm body.

"Good morning, Sunshine," he said with a gruff sexy morning voice as he kissed behind my ears.

I screamed and my fist instinctively flew up and connected with his face quickly hopping out of bed.

"Fuck, Alyssa!" the man cursed.

"Oh crap! I'm so sorry, Joe," I rushed over to him. "I'm not used to waking up with a man in my bed."

"Darling if we're going to keep seeing each other, I'm thinking I'm going to need to wear a helmet."

I looked at him confused. What did he mean keep seeing each other? I wasn't even aware that we were "seeing each other" to begin with.

He planted a kiss on the lips and slid out of the bed, "I'm going to grab a shower."

Joe showered while I put on a pot of coffee. I heard a knock on the door.

Usually I would just throw the door open and not bother with looking to see who it is first since I always knew who was on the other side. Misty — my one and only friend — the one and only person — who would ever come to visit me.

Every now and then a neighbor would come knocking on my door such as Mrs. Bestler looking for her cat, Dillon coming to fix a leaky faucet, or Mr. Woleski across the hall wondering if I've seen his morning paper. But with all of the commotion going on in my life within the past few days, I thought it was best to take a peak before swinging the door open. I peered through the peep hole and saw a pink frosting with chocolate sprinkles staring back at me.

My eyes lit up as I yanked the door open.

"Morning Cupcake!" a voice screeched from behind the cupcake.

I flung my arms around Misty and dragged her into the apartment.

"I thought I'd come over and apologize with a morning cupcake."

"I should be the one apologizing. I was such a bitch. I don't know what came over me."

"I should've minded my own business. I know you are fine."

"No, you were right. I needed to stop sulking around, plus you were just watching out for me. But! I will take that cupcake!" I grinned and shoveled the cupcake into my mouth. "Mmm…Mis. This really hits the spot," I moaned.

I saw Misty's eyes widen and jaw drop open as she stared past me. I turned around to look at what she was staring at. We were staring straight at a towel clad Morelli emerging from his morning shower with a nice purple bruise starting to form around his eye.

He grinned at me. "Cupcake," he addressed me licking frosting off the tip of my nose before heading into the bedroom.

Misty stood there stupefied, "Was that who I thought it was and did you…?" she paused. "What the hell is going on here? Why are you all bandaged up and he's got that shiner. Did he beat you up? Wait! Were you guys playing rough? Crap! Morelli?" she rambled hysterically.

"Mis, take a deep breath! Nothing happened between me and Joe. Someone broke into my apartment last night and he just stayed over so that I wouldn't be alone."

"Bullshit! A Morelli wouldn't just 'sleep over' and not do something unbecoming. And that was no 'friendly' kiss."

"Well, I guarantee you that nothing happened."

Joe cleared his throat behind us. "Ladies, I need to be heading into the station. Alyssa, you should get ready and we'll head in together."

"But I haven't showered and I was going to get some laundry done this morning before starting my day. I'm running out of clothes to wear. I'll just go to the station myself later."

"No, I don't want you being alone."

"I'm not alone. Misty's here. She'll stay with me," I shot her a pleading look.

"Misty, will you be able to stay the day with Alyssa and promise not let her out of your sight?"

"Oh of course, Officer Morelli," she purred. "I'll be stuck to Alyssa, like white on rice!"

"I'm leaving her in your care," he looked at her then turned to me. "And you stay out of trouble."

I scrunched my nose at him.

"It was nice meeting you, Misty." He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. "Cupcake," he smiled and licked his lips.

The minute the door clicked shut; Misty grabbed my arm and pulled me to the couch. "Dish!"

I told her about the break-ins, Pinky.

"I can't believe all of that happened all in one day."

I nodded, "It was quite a day."

"And you're telling me that absolutely nothing happened between you and Morelli?"

I paused.

"Something did happen! I knew it!"

"No! Nothing happened. Well...something almost happened but it didn't. I ended up somehow giving him a bloody nose, so yeah all we did was sleep."

Misty shook her head, "Oh my poor little virgin."

I shot her a dirty look.

"Alyssa, I hate to do this to you, and I know I promised Joe that I would stay with you, but I already made plans to hit the beach this weekend at Point Pleasant with Jared."

"You're still seeing Mr. Energizer Bunny and spending the weekend with him? Wow, Misty. This is pretty serious for you."

She shrugged her shoulders, "Eh, it's no big deal. I just figured it's summer, and I need a summer boyfriend to go on vacations with."

"Well, don't let me hold you up. I had no intentions of you staying and babysitting me. I just didn't want Joe to fuss all over me. I'll be perfectly fine."

"Are you sure?" she hesitated. "I don't like breaking promises."

"Yes! Of course! Go play! God, knows one of us needs to," I pushed her out the door.

"Ok, well, I guess it's not really breaking a promise since I only eat brown rice," she giggled. "Call me if you need anything!"

I gave her another longer lingering hug grateful to have her in my life before shutting the door behind her. I took a quick shower then threw on a faded blue jean mini skirt, navy blue tunic tank top, and a pair of red chucks.

I stopped to look at myself in the mirror, "Today's going to be a great day, Alyssa. You made up with Misty. You woke up with a sexy Italian man in your bed. You got a delicious morning cupcake. Today is going to be great."

With that, I gathered my clothes to take down to the laundry room. Mrs. Bestler was in sitting on the bench knitting as she was watching Good Morning America. I set my basket down and started unloading my basket into the washing machine when a little black plastic piece fell out of the pocket of one of my jeans. I retrieved it off the ground and realized it was a thumb drive.

I looked at the jeans and flashed back to the night Pinky had held me hostage on way home from Club Metro. Then Pinky's words, "I'll give you forty-eight hours to produce what you took from me."

Light bulb moment. Pinky must've slipped this into my pocket the night he took me hostage which was why he tore my apartment apart. Since he couldn't find what he was looking for, he must've thought that I found it and hid it somewhere. I fed the machine some quarters and sat down on the bench beside Mrs. Bestler and fidgeted with the thumb drive anxiously. What could be on this drive that could be making Pinky so anxious?

"Dear, are you ok?" Mrs. Bestler said as she looked up from her knitting.

"Yes, Mrs. Bestler. I'm fine, thank you."

"Your leg is bouncing a mile a minute. If you have something to do, I'm happy to watch your laundry for you."

"Oh, Mrs. Bestler, thank you but I couldn't possibly ask that of you."

"Dear, I have the key to your apartment. I am an old woman who has nothing better to do. Please let an old woman feel needed."

"Mrs. Bestler, you're not old by any means and I'm sure you're needed plenty."

"You're such a good girl, Alyssa. It's a beautiful Saturday. You're young, go out and enjoy yourself."

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Bestler," I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and handed her a handful of quarters for the dryer and headed back up to my apartment.

I ran to my laptop and slipped in the thumb drive. My screen went black and prompted a password. I tried several password variations from "password" to "Pinky" to "Stratton." I grabbed my phone.

"Yo."

"I need your help." I seem to be saying that a lot lately to this man.

Pause.

"Ranger?"

"Are you naked?"

"No," I responded impatiently.

Pause.

"I could be if you want me to be," I teased.

Where the hell did that come from? I don't know on earth possessed me to say that. I must've hit my head in the shower harder than I thought.

"Babe, you're playing with fire."

Ok, scary. "Do you know how to break through encrypted files or know of someone who can?"

"I know a guy."

"I think I have what Pinky was looking for last night. I found a thumb drive in the pocket of my jeans the night he took me hostage but it's encrypted."

"I can have my guy look at it."

"Great! I need to go into the police station to make my statement. Meet me in front in fifteen minutes?"

Click.

Really? No good-bye? I thought that was only a Misty Plum thing.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When I arrived at the precinct, Ranger was already waiting for me out front in his Turbo. I handed him the drive before heading into to the station. I gave my statement to Carl and headed out. I started the day off early and it was only ten in the morning. Since I had nothing better to do on a Saturday morning, I decided to head out in search for Smits. I pulled the yearbook out of my purse that I snatched from Smits house yesterday and thumbed through to the first flag.

Jenny Evans, a pretty blond voted prom queen. The address listed on the sticky note beside her photo said 15890 Rosewood Court. If my suspicions were correct, the people tagged in Smits yearbook are his next targets recalling my conversation with Snake lady the other day.

"I'd catch Gene sometimes in the back muttering to himself in the back something like they'll pay"

What I suspected is that these individuals must've bullied Smits back in high school. When the neighbor kids began bullying him, he finally snapped and is all hell bent on getting revenge. Honestly, I don't blame the guy, but it's just cruel to attack people with snakes.

So my plan was to go through the list and drive by each address and scope it out. With any luck, I'll catch Smits in the act. About two hours went by as I pulled up to residence four out of nine, John Rickers, high school quarterback. I saw a large shadow disappear around the corner of the house.

Jackpot! I put my car in park along the sidewalk and snuck around the corner. I pulled my stun gun out just in case I had to fry some snakes. I peeked around the corner just as I saw Smits prying open one of the windows sliding a snake into the opening.

"Hey! Smits, you missed your court date and I'm here to take you in!"

Smits startled dropped the pillowcase he was holding and more than a dozen snakes fell out. He took off through the backyard. I shoved my stun gun back into my purse, and took off after him dodging swing sets and garden tools along the way.

We ran for about four blocks until he hit a dead end. He tried to climb over the wooden fence but his pudgy little body couldn't make it over. Once I caught up with him, I grabbed ahold of the back of his khaki pants and yanked him down onto the ground.

We tussled on the ground for a couple of minutes until I was able to snap my handcuffs around one of his wrists. I rolled him over on his stomach and pinned him down.

"I suggest you cooperate and come with me willingly, Smits, or I'm going to stick my stun gun into your neck," I said gritting my teeth as I dug my knee into back and twisted his other arm back to secure the other cuff.

I held his head down in the grass with my left hand as my right hand located the stun gun from my purse. I shoved it into his neck, "Well! Are you going to come with me or will I have to force you?"

"I'll come with you," he griped.

I yanked him up to his feet and leading him to the main road.

"I just wanted to teach them a lesson. They deserved it. They needed to know what it felt like to be bullied," he bellowed.

"I understand, but the best form of revenge is to show them how strong you are and that what they did to you hasn't affected you."

"Like you've ever had any problems with bullies or making friends. I mean look at you," he eyeballed me.

I didn't know whether to shutter or to be flattered. "Are you kidding me? I can count the number of friends that I have on one hand alone. Plus, I wasn't exactly Ms. Popularity in school either. I spent a lot of time alone myself."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Well, believe it. Anyways, as I was saying, success is the sweetest vengeance. I mean look around you. This neighborhood isn't Beverly Hills. In fact, it's a dump," I waved my arm around to prove my point. "Although, he's probably married with kids and you still live with your mom," I thought but figured it was probably best to keep that commentary to myself. "What did being a quarterback do for Rickers anyways? If you ask me, you win at life. You had a great job where people respected you for your knowledge and opinions."

"Yeah I suppose you're right," he beamed. "I am really good at my job and customers always come back asking for me. I think my boss is thinking about making me Assistant Manager."

"See! How can you allow anybody to bring you down when you've got so many positive things going for you in your life?"

"How far do we have to walk? My ankle is killing me," he complained.

"It's your damned fault for running. Next time don't fucking run off and we wouldn't have to walk so far to get to the car."

We were within twenty feet of my car when suddenly we were knocked off our feet and flying backwards landing in the bushes. I sat up and looked over in the direction of my car. Clouds of black smoke and a fire covered where my car was supposed be. Panic-stricken, I glanced over at Smits lying motionless on the ground. Oh god, don't let him be dead!

He began to stir and groan. He struggled to sit up. I got up and helped him to a sitting position. Our faces were covered in black soot.

He shot me a terrified look, "You tried to blow me up!"

"I did not! Somebody blew up my car probably trying to kill me!"

"I could've died. I need to get away from you!" he tried scrambling to his feet.

I grabbed him by shirt and jerked him towards the burning car, "You're not going anywhere! Stop being so melodramatic."

My cell phone went off — Unknown Caller.

I answered and hesitated.

"Stop playing games, bitch. The clock is ticking. Tick. Tick. Tick." Click.

I trembled and dialed 911.

Ten minutes later fire trucks, the paramedics and several squad cars showed up at the scene shortly followed by local news vans. I sat in the grass with Smits in front of the clouds of smoke waiting to be approached by an officer.

Carl approached me the minute he got out of his car with a huge grin on my face. "Man, Alyssa. It's never a dull moment with you!"

"Funny, Carl. I almost get blown up and you find it as a source of entertainment." I scrunched my nose at him.

"Officer, please get me away from this woman. She tried to kill me! Arrest me, do whatever, just please get me away from her!" Smits pleaded.

"I did not try to kill you! I told you already, somebody blew up my car. It wasn't my fault."

Carl laughed as grabbed Smits and guided him to the squad car. From the corner of my eyes I saw a tall figure walking in my direction — Morelli.

I got back up on my feet and brushed the dirt off of my skirt as he approached.

His jaw tightened and eyes hardened as they locked with mine. "What the hell are you doing here, Alyssa?" he shouted. "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble! I thought that you were staying in with your friend Misty, and I get a call that you were car-bombed!" He clenched his fists.

Who the hell called him? I looked over in Carl's direction as he winked at me and pointed at Morelli and gave me the thumbs up. Idiot.

I stood there looking at him in disbelief. I almost got blown up and he's yelling at me? My temperature began to rise. "I have a fucking job to do, Morelli. I don't have the luxury to sit back and do nothing," I gritted my teeth.

"Your job? Your job is a joke! You've been a Bounty Hunter for what — a week? And every day it seems to occur in some sort of disaster. Why don't you try to help make it easier on me to do my job and do as I ask? Better yet, do as I say, and find yourself a new profession like retail."

"Fuck you, Morelli," I shoved him hard in the chest. "I'm going through a lot right now and you're standing here yelling at me? Someone broke into my apartment, handcuffed me to the shower rod, and just blew up my car and you have the nerve to lecture me about my job? And that isn't even the worst of it! I just fucking lost Salt 'n Pepa!" I cried remembering my cassette tape that had just gone up in smoke.

He gave me a puzzled look.

Ignoring him I continued, "As if you even care, but I'm fine! Thank you!" I turned to storm off.

A reporter shoved a microphone in my face, "Ma'am, was that your car that just blew up. Can you tell us what happened?"

Joe reached over and grabbed my hand and pulled me back towards him. "Ms. Chau, has no comment at this moment. Please step back this is a police investigation."

"Officer, I overheard you say Ms. Chau is Bounty Hunter. Does this have to do with someone you're trying to apprehend?"

"I am happy to answer any of your questions after we've collected all of the information for this investigation. For now if you could please stand back."

The reporter seemed satisfied with his response and went off to talk to the onlookers that were now coming out of their homes to gawk at all of the commotion.

Morelli turned back to me, "Look I'm sorry. I'm just worried about you. I can't protect you if you keep putting yourself in harm's way."

"I don't need anyone to protect me, Officer," I glared at him. "Unless you're going to arrest me, I suggest you let go of me or I'll scream."

He released my hand, "Wait a few minutes. Let me wrap up some stuff, and I'll drive you home."

"Thank you but I'll find a way back home on my own."

"How?" he smirked. "Your car, if you could call it a car, is now a pile of scrap metal."

I didn't respond to him and kept walking down the sidewalk away from him, away from the wreckage. I saw a tall, slender, long stringy-haired guy walk to a beat up red Nissan Micra.

I approached him, "Excuse me, sir? I was wondering if you could help me out?"

He looked up at me and gave me a lazy smile, "Sure, dude. What can I do you for?"

"My car kind of blew up over there," I pointed at the dissipating cloud of smoke, "and I was wondering if you would be able to give me a ride home."

I know this must have been one of the dumbest moves I've ever made, hitching a ride with a complete stranger who looked high as a kite, but I sure as hell wasn't going to give Morelli the satisfaction of rescuing me. Not after the way he berated me in front of everyone.

"Dude, that was your car? Gnarly! That was totally wicked. Mooner is happy to help out a dudette in distress."

"Mooner?"

"Yeah that's what they call me — Mooner — Moon Man."

"Thank you, Mooner. I appreciate your help. I'm, Alyssa," I stuck out my hand.

He took my hand and pulled me in and gave me an awkward hug. "Alyssa, I feel like we're connected. The stars are aligned and the cards told me that I would cross paths with someone who will bring fulfillment in my life."

I smiled uncomfortably. I'm pretty sure that I was making a huge mistake now.

"Hop in the car. My services are at your disposal today."

I glanced back at Morelli who was staring daggers in my direction. I hauled my ass into Mooner's car. I turned my head and shot Morelli a smile and gave him a little finger wave as we drove past him.

"Thanks for the ride, Mooner. I really appreciate it. I hope I'm not taking you too far out of your way."

"Anytime, dudette. Mooner is always happy to be of assistance. I had no plans for today except to help you."

"Help me? You just met me," I asked perplexed.

I was riding in a car with a potential psychopath and taking him directly to my home.