I've been talking to various readers, and it sounds like people have all been having difficult weeks. Mars must be in retrograde or something, because bad luck seems to be following everyone. I empathize. Trust me – I haven't been immune either. In an effort to cheer everyone up (including me!), here's a bonus chapter. As one reader said, reading is therapy. I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and your week improves.

~ Sarah ~

I couldn't get our conversation out of my head after Ranger left, and I was a little mad at Ranger for bringing the possibility up in my mind. Here I was, still getting comfortable with the concept that I was having an ongoing relationship with someone I didn't have a commitment with, and he drops the pregnancy scare on me? A wave of feeling overwhelmed washed over me, and tears came to my eyes.

I walked down to the break room to have my breakfast. I was hungry. That was a good sign that I wasn't pregnant, wasn't it? Didn't pregnant women feel sick? I didn't feel sick.

I selected a muffin, a yogurt parfait, and a fruit salad. I picked up a couple of peeled hard-boiled eggs and put them on a plate, and carried my food over to a table. Miguel and Ramon came into the break room and sat down. "Hey, chica. How is it going?" said Ramon.

I summoned up a smile. "It's busy", I said. "We're working on capturing one person together and I have developed capture plans on three more that I'm hoping that you'll pick up. I'm swamped at the research desk, so for the next little while I might be relying on Rangeman to pick up all my skips."

"Crap. That doesn't mean that I'll be called back to do research, does it?" said Miguel.

"That's an option that we are currently considering. If Ranger lands this contract this morning, we'll be adding another company to our roster that has five hundred employees. They will all need to be researched and, to be honest, I'm already behind on my research just because I had a special research project that I was doing last week that sucked up half my week."

"I had been looking forward to going skip chasing with you, but this news isn't making my day", said Miguel.

I laughed.

I put the last of my muffin in my mouth, deposited my dirty dishes in the bin, and poured myself a coffee to go. As I took a sip, I paused. Coffee was bad for babies, wasn't it? Crap, crap and double crap. There was another reason to not have kids. I think I would fall flat on my face asleep without coffee each day. I lived on the stuff.

I decided that, if I was pregnant, it would be very soon into the pregnancy and a little coffee wouldn't hurt the baby. Besides, I needed the energy. I was way too tired lately.

Oh, crap. That's a sign of pregnancy as well, wasn't it?

I blew out my panic and led Miguel and Ramon into my office and sat behind my desk. I pulled the four files out of my bag and handed them to the two men. They looked them over and turned to me. "Who are we going after first?"

"Declan Willis", I said. "I've been after him for a while, but I don't want to take him in front of his classmates. I never think that it makes sense."

"I can see that", said Ramon. "You would either martyr him or ostracize them, and neither is a good option."

"That's my thought as well. Nothing good can come of it."

"Okay", said Ramon. "Let's get this kid and teach him that it's not a good idea to jack a house and try to drive it down the street."

"That is so wrong on so many levels", said Miguel.

I laughed and followed them out of the office and locked my door. Then I led them down to the parking garage.

When we got to the car, Ramon got behind the wheel, Miguel got in the passenger seat and I climbed into the backseat. We drove directly to the Willis house. We all got out, and walked up to the door. Ramon and Miguel stood to the side, and I banged on the door and jumped to the other side. After a couple more bangings and the assurance of the neighbor that Declan hadn't left for school, Declan finally came to the door. His hair was all over the place, there was sleep in his eyes, and he had drool dried on his cheek. His eyes lit up when he saw me. "Well, hello", he said.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum, this is Miguel and this is Ramon", I said. "We are here representing Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and we are here to take you back to the courts to get rescheduled."

"I don't want to go to court. It was all a misunderstanding."

"That may be, but you have to get the courts to disband your charge, and to get them to do that you need to go into the courts and explain why you didn't deserve to be charged. Until you do so, you are a wanted fugitive."

"Fugitives are on 'America's Most Wanted' television show. They have done terrible things. I simply have stolen a house. It's not like it is a criminal offense."

"Actually, it is", I said. "As I said, if you don't agree you have to go to court and explain this to the judge."

"I'm sorry. Not today", said Declan. He moved to shut the door, and Miguel whipped out his cuffs and slapped half on Declan's wrist. Declan pushed Miguel away, and Ramon stepped in and roughly grabbed Declan's other wrist. He spun Declan around and Miguel locked the other cuff on. "Wait", said Declan. "You can't take me in like this."

"Why not?" I said.

"I'm in my pajamas." I looked down at what he was wearing – glow-in-the-dark SpongeBob onesies.

"So?" said Miguel. "You could go in naked for all we care."

Declan looked shocked. "Surely you wouldn't take me in naked", he said.

I laughed. "It wouldn't be the first time. In fact, the first skip that I took in was naked. He was a nice older man who believed in letting it all hang out. He said his boys needed the air. The problem was that I had been driving a borrowed car, and the person I borrowed it from was horrified to know that someone had been sitting on his car seat bare-assed."

"Who did you borrow the car from?" said Miguel.

"Morelli", I said.

Ramon and Miguel laughed, and Declan looked horrified.

I took a step into the house to retrieve Declan's keys, when Declan started to scream. "Help!" he said. "They're kidnapping me."

I sighed. Sometimes the kids who weren't particularly smart were the toughest to bring in. I turned around, and the neighbor who had been watching said, "are you taking him to court?"

I pulled out my fake credentials and hoped that the neighbor didn't look too closely at them. Bounty hunters weren't issued credentials and all documentation was fake, bought off the internet. While I didn't like using it because of the uncertain origins and how easy it was to purchase, it did come in handy at times. This time was no exception. The neighbor looked at my badge and looked at Declan. "I'm sorry, sonny. This group is legit, and you have to go to court."

"But I didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm sorry", I said. "But stealing a house is doing something wrong."

"It was just a house. I don't see what the big deal was."

"It may be just a house, but you got that house stuck under the bridge. The house was destroyed and the roadway was shut down for hours. Emergency personnel had to be dispatched because a car was hit by falling bricks and a mother was hurt seriously in the accident. A mother broke her arm and is unable to pick up her baby when she cries because of your actions. So yes, it was just a house. But you caused a lot of damage that shouldn't have happened. If you don't agree that you should be charged, tell that to the judge. But be a man and stand up to your charges."

"Yeah, sonny", said the neighbor. "You tell him, missy."

"Ramon, can you get Declan's keys so that we can lock up the house?"

Declan looked at me. "I thought you were a hooker that my friends sent for me to enjoy."

I stared at him. "Dressed like this?"

"You look hot. You could do me any day."

Good grief. I shook my head and thought about how it was good that I had been exposed to children other than those that I met as a bounty hunter. Without that normalizing experience, I would have been concerned about the future of society.

Ramon entered the house to check the windows and to make sure the stove was off and Miguel and I walked Declan down to the car. We had just gotten Declan shackled to the floor of the vehicle when two cars drove up and blocked us in. Rebecca hopped out of the first car and her uncles hopped out of the second. "You bitch", she said. "You stole my boyfriend."

"Pardon?" I said as I straightened up to talk to her. I pretended not to recognize her as Miguel stiffened at my side. He carefully stepped in front of me and I shut the door to our car. Declan looked disappointed when he wasn't in the center of the melee anymore.

"You're Rebecca, aren't you?"

"You know who I am. I want you to leave my boyfriend alone."

"I thought you were mad at me about doing the research on you."

"My uncles are angry about you doing the research on the family. I'm mad at you for stealing my boyfriend. I'll kill you first. Then I'm planning on killing Terry Gilman. She's a friend of my boyfriend and she's always wanted him."

"My boyfriend has never gone out with you."

"Yes, he has."

"I think you are talking about my ex-boyfriend, and your current boyfriend. I'm not seeing Joe. You can have him."

"I know that he was seeing you on the weekend."

"He had dinner with me and my boyfriend, yes."

"Is this her?" said Luigi.

"Yes", said Rebecca. She pulled out her gun and pointed it at me, and Miguel pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. She moved to the side and Miguel moved with her to keep himself between the two of us, and as we moved to the side Luigi swung around behind us and grabbed me. He shoved a gun into my ribs and yanked me back, and as I went with him my only thought was that being shot wouldn't be good for the baby.

Another reason that I hoped I wasn't pregnant. In the past, I had been periodically shot – and there was nothing that I could do about it. It was part of my crazy life, but it was my life and I liked it.

Rebecca started cackling and Miguel sensed that I was no longer behind him. He twisted slightly so that he could see what was going on. Declan was laughing and Ramon came out of the house, his eyes wide as he looked at the scenario in front of him. He took out his phone and frantically typed in a message.

I reached down and activated the panic button on my watch, and I hoped that Ranger would get the message that I was in trouble, either from the control room or from Ramon himself. I wondered how often Ranger could be expected to save me, and hoped that the distress call wouldn't affect his client meeting. I lifted my wrist to look at my watch. It was nine thirty, and I hoped that his client meeting would be over.

"Are we keeping you from something, sweetheart?" said Rebecca.

"No. I was just judging how much time you have left before you are punished for what you are doing."

The neighbor lifted his phone and started to film the discussion.

"Who's going to punish us? Joe?" said Rebecca. "He loves me. He won't arrest me, and that's all assuming that he puts your disappearance together with me in the first place."

"He read the research", I said.

"Did he believe it?" She paused for a moment as I tried to figure out the best way to answer that question. She smiled. "Of course he didn't. If he believed it, he would have arrested me. I didn't do it."

"You and your uncles didn't kill those eight people?"

"Eight!" said Rebecca. "There were only seven. And it was their choice to die. They could have just moved out of the area."

"So you are new members of the Mob and are moving into the area? You are killing people so that there is a space for you within the organization?"

Rebecca went to say something, and Lorenzo looked at her. "Becky, hush."

"What do I care?" said Rebecca. "We'll kill everyone, and there won't be any witnesses."

I ignored how Declan had started to cry in the car. "How are you disposing of the bodies?" I said. "Are you putting them in the lye vat at the pulp and paper plant or the bagel plant?"

"I wouldn't put it in the lye used in the bagel plant", said Luigi. "That's gross."

I breathed a sigh of relief. A bagel was one of my favorite breakfast foods. I would have to tell Ella. She hadn't served bagels in the break room since I had explained my recent aversion to them.

"Yeah, they'd shut down the plant and our bagels would have to be recalled. The paper plant is a much better option", said Lorenzo. "The paper is bleached, so it doesn't matter if blood and guts get in the pulp."

"Besides", said Luigi, "the blood and guts are well diluted by the time the sodium hydroxide is used in the paper process. There's just a bit of scum left over in the tank, but that's okay. Again, it's not like we have food inspectors coming to inspect the plant, and no health and safety inspector has ever picked up on the scum in the tank."