All Recognizable Characters are owned by Janet Evanovich, I am not making profit from this and not trying to get into any sticky situations. I am using the characters and spin my own story out of this. Hope you guys like it. I honestly do not know where this goes, was thinking of doing it chapter by chapter. Stay tuned!

Chapter 1

Stephanie's POV

What does blown up cars and I have in common? Everything gets blown up and the debris scatters everywhere leaving me to deal with the gossips of the Burg and the wrath of my mother. Always have a call from her saying "so and so's daughter doesn't get their cars blown up or chasing after criminals" and it goes on and on from there. Will I ever catch a break? Does she not realize, if I don't put them back in the system, they will be out there REPEATING the same crime? Gosh, sometimes I really wonder why I put up with that…

If you haven't noticed already, I talk to myself a lot. Sometimes people can hear it because I unconsciously say it out loud, or they can read my expression and guess fairly accurately which direction my thoughts lead.

That aside, my name is Stephanie Plum, Bounty Hunter extraordinaire. In all fairness, I have at least a 90% average on capturing skips. Sure, I may get them unconventionally or much more messily compared to military trained men or members of the Trenton PD but more often than not, I get my skips.

Which leads me to my current situation. My car had the pleasure of eating a Molitov cocktail as a last meal before earning membership to car heaven. I was just getting into the car when the cocktail was thrown, so I had precious few seconds to book it out of the car. That leaves me singed a bit, but luckily I was wearing a bomber jacket so that took most of the damage. Main damage was the back of my neck and ends of my hair. Scrapes on my hands and knees from the blast impact. Small things like that.

I was on my way to Pino's for lunch after a surveillance on Claire Munez who skipped bail for slapping a waitress in the face. She is a housewife, no kids, husband is Anthony Munez. They both recently moved into the burg, on the outskirts of it anyway.

As of right now. I am by the curb looking at my burning car and seeing the cops, EMTs and Rangmen show up. Cops were exchanging money and Ranger and the Merry Men were looking at the situation and eyeing to see if I was okay, which I was for the most part.

At least I did not have to worry about Joe coming here and blaming me for another car blown up. Joe was the one who played choo choo with my body and took my virginity behind the Tasty Pasty display case. He then got falsely accused of murder and turned out to my my first FTA, or skip. I helped him find the real murder and now he is back in his detective role, mainly homicide, occasionally vice and always seemingly when it involves me.

We had a heart to heart honest as can be talk for once in all the years that we have been in an on and off relationship. He wants to have a wife to settle down with and raise a family. I can't even take care of a hamster so being a mother to kids at this point in life was not really ideal. There is also the factor of Ranger, always there for me but does not have a life that lends itself to a relationship.

Ranger is my mentor in bounty hunting, best friend in all the ways that count, and one time lover. We had a deal that he collected on (had an amazing night where we made love all night long) and the next day he told me to fix my relationship with Morelli. That literally broke my heart and I did what I have always done, booked myself a one way ticket to Denial Land. It was awkward the first few weeks afterwards, but things went back to normal after a bit. I needed him to be in my life, one way or another. I was resigned that he would never have a relationship with me. Maybe in the future, but as far as I can see, the Someday that he mentioned where we could possibly be together does not seem to be on the horizon.

They were both looking at me. Joe trying to not flap his arms and asking what happened, Ranger just silently looked me over to assess the damage to me. After that, he silently gave me a nod and went to see the situation with the car and crime scene. I couldn't be sure, but he seemed more agitated than normal. DId he see something different about me? I get my car blown up and it being sent to car heaven all the time, so that should not be the case… right?

Oh well, that would be filed to be addressed later. Now, I have to give my statement to the police and go home and change. Hopefully I can get my statement done by Eddie Gazzara, he is married to my cousin, Shirley the Whiner and has three little mischievous boys as kids. Keep the embarrassment and jokes to a minimum.