As I worked on the third chapter of The ABCs of S and R, this idea kept running through my mind. Despite this not being one of the suggestions for the letter C, it just kept bugging me to write it out. It ended up being something that would be longer than a oneshot, so I decided to release it as a stand-alone short story. Chapter three of The ABCs... will be out some time during the upcoming week. Same with the final chapter of Sexified (it's just missing about a fifth of the chap and some edits).

Let me know your thoughts on this one.

Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to JE. The typos are mine.

Stephanie's POV

Opening my eyes only to be greeted by darkness instead of light threw me for a loop. It always did. It either meant I was awake when it wasn't morning and so I could go back to sleep if there weren't any interruptions to my slumber. Or, it meant that I was kidnapped yet again.

Squinting my eyes shut was a safety mechanism I've long ago developed. It's like a way to grant myself some extra time while I try to wrack my brain to figure out what I've gotten myself into now.

For anyone else, waking up in an unknown location with no immediate recollection of how they got there would be alarming. For me? Well, I'm Stephanie Plum and sadly this is déjà vu for me. So far this is not even in the top five or even deserving of an honarble mention.

Taking a slow, silent breath to help steady myself, my mind raced as I tried to piece together how I got to this point.

*Nineteen hours earlier *

The tingling in the back of my neck going haywire pulled me from a dreamless sleep. My body has become quite adept at ignoring that tingling sensation when it's time for sleep, unless Ranger's applying pressure. As I felt his finger skim along my nape, I realized that he was in fact applying pressure. The right kind of pressure too. And lots of it.

"Ranger." I think I was going for a moan, but somehow it came out more like a gasp. His hands were busy roaming all of my extra sensitive zones. That told me that he was going for a quicker route. I'm all for it, rolling over to face him.

"Babe." It was his turn to gasp when I looped my arms around his shoulders, pressing myself against his front and rubbing my body shamelessly against him. I was grinding against a very hard part of him and knew I'd be flat on my back in a few seconds. It never fails to set him ablaze anytime I reciprocate his moves.

"Open your eyes, Babe." He asked as he gently nudged my legs apart, snugly fitting himself between my thighs once he'd rolled me onto my back. "I want to see you." He clarified before his mouth descended on mine.

"You don't need me to open my eyes for you to see me." I shot back just to further pull the tiger's tail. What can I say, I woke up playful this morning.

"Babe." He didn't really find that funny, so on a sigh as I felt him entering me slowly, I opened my eyes. He'd turned on the bedside lamp on his side of the bed, the dim light partially illuminating the bedroom past his broad shoulders.

Our eyes locked as he began moving and everything else around us faded away. It didn't matter how early it was. Nothing else besides us mattered.

Our mouths and hands joined the mixed, caressing and kissing any skin within reach. I'd just bit down on the curve of his shoulder when the rippling waves of my orgasm unleashed throughout my body. His lips latched onto my throat once I released his shoulder on a gasp.

A long moan escaped me as he quickly followed.

We stayed tangled, breathing heavy as our bodies cooled.

"Good morning to you too." I flashed him a sleepy grin as I cuddled against his solid form for warmth.

"Babe." He smiled back, making my heart stutter at the shear happiness that enveloped me as he grinned down at me. His arms wrapped around my waist, so I willingly loosened my body so that he could roll with me on top.

"I got a call from Silvio." Ranger shared what felt like an eternity later, but was realistically only minutes after our roaring orgasms.

"There's trouble in Miami?" I asked, throwing my head back to be able to look up at his face. Ever since Ranger and I became an official couple, even before we began spending every night together, he's made it a point of waking me up if he ever has to leave before his usual wake up time. I understand his need to make sure things are clear between us, but usually he only wakes me up before leaving if we're staying the night at my place. Based on our history, I get it. We're currently in his penthouse and we've been a couple for the better part of a year, so technically we're good. However, I do appreciate the sexy wake up call. Of course, at the risk of inflating his mega healthy ego, I told him just that.

"Yes. I'll be gone for three days." His big hand wrapped around the back of my neck as his other hand used its hold on my hip to help pull me up. When we were face to face, my hair spilling around my face to create a private curtain shielding us from the empty bedroom, he spoke again. "Don't go crazy." The tips of his mouth lifted just as he moved his head up, crushing his lips against mine a second later.

"Don't get shot." I breathed against his mouth, moving my head this time to be able to lock lips once again. Gotta get me some of these delicious Ranger kisses. Maybe stocking up on a few stolen kisses will help keep me on track. Maybe… Nope, hardly.

"I'm serious, Stephanie." The intensity in his eyes as he asked, not ordered, me to be careful. "Take someone with you if you go after a skip." He held my gaze in utter silence for several seconds. Knowing that I was about to argue, he added: "You're part of Rangeman now. Everyone has a partner. It's a minimum of teams of two for a reason." His stern, yet loving tone told me that he needed this in order to be able to focus on his task in Florida.

"I'll be careful." I promised, kissing him again and deliberately squirming above him.

"You're trouble." Ranger declared as he scooped me up, taking us to the shower so that we could spend a few more moments together before he had to leave.

My early morning wake up call with Ranger assaulted my senses as I was trying to regulate my breathing.

I'll be careful.

My promise to Ranger rang through my jumbled mind as I continued to struggle to stay conscious. My head hurt… scratch that. My whole body hurts.

What the hell happened to me?!

Normalizing my ragged breaths as well as taking a more detailed stock of my situation propelled me into a fresh wave of memories.

*Twelve hours earlier*

Pushing away from my cubicle desk felt great. Actually, completing all my inbox searches was quite glorious. For once I was able to get and stay ahead of the seemingly never ending stack of files. But just in case Rodriguez was trying to pull another fast one, I decided to venture towards the restroom and then to the break room. I figured taking my paid ten minute break while munching on some Ella-made goodies should give the ever elusive Rodriguez enough time to fuck with me if that's what the plan was for today's agenda.

I polished off half a turkey sandwich and a water bottle before making my way back to my cubicle. Doing my best impersonation of a ninja, I stealthily ambushed my desk. Luckily, my inbox was empty. Might be a new record for me. Stephanie 1, Rodriguez 0, ha!

"I've finished all of my paperwork." Hal announced as he poked his head inside of my cubby. My eyes narrowed when he said he was free to go out skip tracing with me. "Ready when you are." He finished, flashing me his boyish smile, the one he knows makes him look very innocent in my eyes. I narrowed my blue eyes further, squinting them nearly shut in an obvious statement. "Whenever you're ready." Halosaurus said in his best effort to appease me.

"Ranger put you up to this?" Inquiring minds wanted to know. Okay, I wanted to know. Using my best scary voice did the trick, cracking the Merry Man before me in less time than I'd originally thought.

"I was just looking for some bonus work. Extra cash never hurts." The shrug of his massive shoulders projected that he was sincere. Hal's not tagging along because he was ordered to or because he felt obligated to. NO. He's coming with just 'cause he wants to.

"Good answer, Hal." I praised him as I pulled out my shoulder bag from the bottom desk drawer.

A quick inventory of supplies later and we were ready to go.

"What do we got?" Hal asked as he maneuvered my latest car, a Jeep Liberty that's a good seven years old, out of the Rangeman underground garage. It's one of my most decent cars. Everything works, it's one solid color, a dark navy blue, and the previous owner had spent a pretty penny adding handy mods to make it a faster ride. How was I able to afford it? A couple buddies of mine tipped me off and even got me into a very exclusive police auction. I didn't question my good fortune. Having a reliable car is a great plus in my line of work. I know it'll hurt when this car eventually goes to car heaven. Let's be honest, I'm not as delulsional anymore to think that this will be the car, aside from Big Blue, that breaks my curse. I can fantasize all I want to, but even denial won't help me out here. Hopefully I get a few good months with the Jeep before it's nothing but spare parts.

"Mary Johnson. Thirty-five. Never married. No children. Lives alone." Her address was over in Ewing Township. I've had her file for about a week, yet haven't made much progress. She had no friends, in or out of work. At least none that I coud find. Online penpals was an option, though unlikely. Despite working in the same finance firm for the last ten years, her coworkers knew very little about her. Mary kept to herself. She takes having a private life to a whole new level.

"So what's the plan?" My Merry Man of the day, and one of my favorites if I'm being honest, wanted to know. That's one great thing about Hal. He's always willing to listen and let me take the lead. Of course, within reason. If I'm in danger, he switches over to intimidating Rangeman. All the guys do.

"I've done a lot of footwork this week." Blowing out a choked sigh, I shared all the places that I've hit both virtually and in person.

"So her home and work are no gos. What else?" Hal kept driving down Hamilton Ave as I flipped through Johnson's file and my notes. That's why he took the wheel. He'd get us to our destination as I filled him in on all of the basics.

"You know, this might sound crazy but her mom left her a property near the Batsto river." As I flipped through my notebook, I realized that I'd done some pretty deep digging. Mary didn't strike me as someone who would break the law, much less evade it, so her skipping her courtdate was a complete shock. If there was one safe bet for Vinnie when it came to having a model FTA, Mary was it. She was quiet, polite and had never been in trouble with the law before. Not even a parking ticket! She was squeaky clean. Always had been and seemed like she always would. Having a mental health crisis lead to her committing a series of events that were not only very out of character, but illegal too.

As I struggled to right myself, my jumbled brain worked overtime to fill in the gaps. By the time I opened my eyes again, several light sources were partially illuminating the space in front of me. There was what looked to be a weird mix of artificial and natural light spilling into the dilapidated space. The light was coming from behind me, which should have alerted my senses to react faster had I not been so groggy at the moment.

Dilapidated… ruins… oh my god! My heart was pounding in my chest, competing with the pounding in my head, as I connected the pieces. Well, technically there were still a lot of pieces missing, leaving a big gap in between, but I've always been really good about making do with what I have. I'd taken advantage of having back-up and used the added help to map out our next moves to track down Johnson.

The good news? We found her. My hunch that she'd fell off the face of the earth quite literally, leading me to believe that she was hiding out in a rundown house in the Pines was a loud one. Usually, I listen to my intuition. I'm not a real fan of the Barrens, especially after dark, so I was in no hurry to check out my suspicion without backup. I exhausted every other avenue of information, gladly leaving this for last. With Hal as my partner for the day, what could go wrong?

Apparently things can still go very wrong even with a qualified ex-army/highly trained partner. Making the rough drive through a very remote area of the Pine Barrens was worth it in a sense. I was correct. My FTA was hiding out here, somehow living off the earth. Not sure how she'd been able to manage that as she didn't strike me as the outdoorsy type. Guess that was just one more trick up her sleeve. As my luck would have it, Hal and I bumped into her near the river. What did Mary do as soon as she saw us? She booked it. An FTA running away from you is not uncommon, but there was something about Mary's behavior that struck me as odd. She was afraid, terrified even. Not of going to jail. No, she was afraid of something else. There's no faking that type of terror.

Shaking myself out of the memory, I carefully looked around. Now that I was actively paying attention to my surroundings, I easily noted that both my FTA and Hal were nowhere to be seen. Panic threatened to take hold for a few seconds before I willed myself to stay calm. There's no use in freaking out. Not yet.

A noise behind me startled me out of my internal musings. Craning my neck as far back as I could to get a better look was harder than it sounded. It instantly became obvious that my neck was just as achy as the rest of me. Everything above my shoulders was a ten out of ten level of pain.

Despite the pain, I forged on. That's when I was able to make out a hooded figure hovering just outside of the doorway. The words of my FTA haunted my mind as I struggled to remain composed.

"I'm afraid of them. They're coming for me." Mary said once Hal and I finally cornered her and she realized she had nowhere else to run or hide.

"Them? They, who?" I couldn't stop myself from asking, my curiosity setting my senses on overload as an eerie chill swirled around us.

Suddenly, Mary's response rang through my head.

The cult!

Or sect or whatever my FTA had called them.

And they're exactly as she'd described them, too.

This is definitely not déjà vu, I thought as I watched the cloaked figure lower their hood as they crossed the threshold.