Connie and Lula were waiting for me as I walked into the bond office on Monday morning.

"Hey, Vinnie!" Connie yelled through the door to the back office. "The plumber's here!"

"Very funny." I lied as I plopped a bag of Dunkin Donuts onto Connie's desk.

"And look at the smile on that girl's face!" Lula hooted. "Looks likes someone's been working on the plumber's pipes."

I grabbed an apple crisp donut and plopped down onto the trés elegant vinyl couch. They were going to enjoy themselves whether I wanted them to or not, so I might as well let them get it over with.

"Tell me, girl friend! Who does the plumber call when she needs someone to snake out her drain?"

Connie snorted a mouthful of coffee all over her desk. She high-fived Lula before grabbing a handful of paper towels to wipe up the mess.

"Done?" I asked with my stone face on. Okay, it actually was pretty funny, but I wasn't going to encourage them any more than I already had.

Lula glanced over at Connie. "No," she stated. "But we'll pause for station identification."

I brushed the donut crumbs from my shirt and walked over to Connie's desk.

"Whatya got for me?" I asked, reaching for the pile of files sitting there.

"Nothing here for you right now." Connie answered apologetically. "We had a shoplifter go FTA on Friday, but he turned himself in today. He was watching a golf tournament on television and got so caught up in all the action, that he forgot his court date."

"Nothing?" I asked, eying the stack of folders. "What are those?"

"Ranger's already dibbed these. He's already been in and out this morning."

"Ranger took all the skips?" I started to feel a slow burn coming on. I knew he was a little pissed at me right now, but he'd never pulled rank on me before.

"It's not like that..." Connie started to say, but I was already punching in Ranger's number into my cell phone.

"Yo."

"Yo, nothing! What's this? You grabbed all the skips! Are you that pissed at me?"

There was a long wait. I was breathing heavy and not from the usual Ranger-induced causes.

"You don't want these, Babe. Trust me."

I grabbed the files out of Connie's hand while I spoke to Ranger. "Whatya mean, I don't want these? I..." I paused as I leafed through the first file.

Gangbanger: Killer Cut. He was right, I didn't want this one. The next file: gangbanger: One of the Kings. Another Killer Cut, two Crips, another King and three Bloods. I threw the files back on to Connie's desk.

"They're are all gang members? And they're all FTA? When did Vinnie become the bondsman of choice for the local turf lords?"

I was asking Ranger, but Connie answered. "Started last week, and Vinnie's maxed out his bonding capacity on the gang members so he doesn't have much left for the smaller felons."

"Crap." I said, plopping back down on to the couch. Ranger was right. I really didn't want to go after any gangbangers. Not this soon anyway. "This really sucks. My sister's moving out of my apartment this week and I'm going to need to start paying that rent again. And I've got no skips to pull in."

"You available for a job for me?"

Every alarm in my head went off. Ranger was still pissed at me. Was he setting me up? I had sworn a half a dozen times before that I would never work for him again, but lets face it: I'm from the Burg and I lie a lot . And if Vinnie was going almost exclusive with gang members, I had better diversify for a while.

"What kind of job?" I asked, making no attempt to hide my suspicion.

I could hear the laugh in Ranger's voice. "Nothing to get your panties in a twist over."

I thought for a moment about Ranger getting my panties in a twist. I took a deep breath and slapped my own cheek for thinking unclean thoughts.

"It's just a simple security job. Part of a body guard detail for a visiting foreign dignitary. Are you interested?"

Sounded basic. I would be part of a team. Probably the Merry Men. I knew that RangeMan paid well and I needed the money. What could possibly go wrong?

"Sounds good. When and where?"

"Tomorrow morning, 7 am. Meet Tank at the LaFayette Yard Marriott. And, babe, come dressed."

"Black?"

"That, and your gun."

Oh that.

He disconnected.

I looked over at Lula and Connie who were watching me like I was some soap opera. I smiled and shrugged.

What could possibly go wrong?