My name is Stephanie Plum, and I'm a bounty hunter, more or less. I have two sisters. The older one is Valerie. She was the one who got all A's and never once tried to jump off the roof in attempt to fly. The younger one is Jamie. She disappeared five years ago and suddenly reappeared a few months ago. After spending a week here getting shot at, flirting with Ranger and Tank, and getting shot at some more, she disappeared again but sends me a couple letters a week. My closet is full of polariod's, letters, cocoanuts, presents, and drawings. Right at that moment I was reading the latest letter from Jamie. She was in the Caribbean.

Dear Stephie-kins,

HOWDEEEEE HO! Jezus Christ on a moped it's freaking nice here. It would be funner if YOU WERE HERE! Howzit' going? Did you get the bracelet I sent you? That guy had better have delivered it to the post office…I gave him 20 bucks. ANYWHO I'm learning how to SURF! There are SO many HOT guys down here (none of them even BEGIN to compare to Ranger/Tank/Woody/Vince/Lester/Bobby) and I got the HOTTEST one for my surfing teacher. Tell Tank that he was right. Surfing IS hard. I keep falling off the freakin' thing but then COOPER rescues me. HOW HOT IS THAT! Heeheehee. So anywho, say hi to EVERYONE for me. Oh and tell Ranger that I went back to The Diving Board…for old time's sake. Don't ask, he'll know what I'm talking about.

Just so you don't wig out, I won't be in contact for about a month after tomorrow. I'm travelin' around South America with some friends but I can't say wear. Sorta like I'd have to kill you if I told you.

Loooooooooooove oxoxoxoxoxoxox

Jamie

Ps, tell Grandma that Cooper has an EXCELLENT package! Tell Vinnie that He would like some of these birds down here, and call Ranger 'Ricky' for me.

I laughed at that last bit. Grandma would appreciate that. I sighed, stood up and headed for the shower. Every morning before I eat or shower I get up and check my mail. I usually get a letter or something from Jamie twice or three times a week. I stripped and stepped into the shower. I stood under the hot water until I became a giant pink raisin. I stepped out of the shower, deciding on the natural-drying of my hair, added the minimum makeup Jersey required, and made myself some breakfast. I dropped a couple of Cheez Doodles into Rex's cage and headed out.

Lula was on the fake leather couch pushed up against the wall and Connie was at her desk on the phone when I swung through the doors. "Anything new come in?" I asked.

"There's a couple here you might like," said Connie, motioning to the files on her desk. I noticed Lula was looking more sullen than usual and wondered if she had had a bad night last night. I picked up the files and flipped through them. The first was an easy pick-up—it was a guy I knew in high school, Walter Dunphy, aka The Mooner. I looked at the second file and my jaw dropped.

"LULA!" She had been arrested for assault. Apparently some former client had recognized her and tried to get her to come back into the business. Lula first had smacked him in the head with her purse and then kicked him in the 'nads. The former client had gone to the police saying she mugged him.

I guessed that was why she was looking so pissed-off. "Why did you skip out?" I asked her.

"Duh. So Ranger could take me in." she said.

"Ranger only takes the high-risk cases," said Connie

"GET HER OUT OF HERE!" yelled Vinnie from his inner office.

"Come on," I said, "Let's just go now."

Lula shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "Nu-uhn. I'm not moving off this couch 'til Ranger gets here."

"THEN CALL RANGER! DO ANYTHING! JUST GET HER OUT OF MY SIGHT!" yelled Vinnie.

I sighed and hauled out my cell phone. Ranger is an incredibly hot, sexy, wonderful mercenary who sometimes does skip tracing for Vinnie. He's Cuban American, wears Bulgari, has offices all up and down the east coast, could melt ice with a look, and scares the hell out of me.

"Yo," he answered.

"I have a problem," I said, getting straight to the point.

"Let me guess, you want me to fix it, right?" We'd done this bit before.

"Yeah."

"Angry skip? Crazy stalker? Handcuffed to your shower curtain rod?" God he knows me too well.

"Well…it's a skip. It's Lula. She's not going to the police station unless you take her in."

There were a few moments of silence, and I suspected he was regretting ever getting to know me. "Babe," he said and disconnected.

"Well?" Lula wanted to know.

"He's on his way." I think.

I stayed until Ranger came and picked up Lula. Then I drove over to the Burg to Mooner's house. I walked up the front steps and knocked on the door.

"Dude," said the Mooner. A man of many words he is not.

"You missed your court date again," I said.

"Don't I know it. I was going to go, but it's not my fault, seriously. I was in the bedroom smoking a joint, getting psyched up, when suddenly I started, like, growing. I was like in Alice and Wonderland, you know? Like when she eats that candy and starts growing. I swear, dude, I was too big to get out the door. When I finally shrunk again it was too late to go so I figured I'd just wait for you to get here."

Logical. "Why didn't you just turn yourself in?"

He just stared at me. "Dude."

I drove Mooner to the cop-shop and got him rebonded. On the way back to my car I ran into Crazy Carl Costanza, my cop friend.

He grinned at me. "Looks like you've had that Mini for a while, Steph. It must be a record for you."

I rolled my eyes and angled into my car. "Probably not for long," I said and he stood there laughing as I drove out of the lot.

I had dinner at my parent's house that night. Nothing really exciting happed unless you count Grandma Mazur dumping gravy on my dad's head because he called her 'old bat' one time too many exciting. I climbed up to my apartment laden down with leftovers. There were two messages on my machine.

The first was from Morelli, "Hey cupcake. Bob misses you. Maybe you could come over tomorrow night and have some pizza and see Bob. I'm not doing anything."

Mmm tempting. The next was from Ranger. "Babe, you owe me for today." Was all he said. I shivered at the thought of what I owed him. I tried to call Morelli back but he wasn't answering so I watched Ghostbusters and went to bed.

I got up the next morning, checked my mail, but didn't get anything from Jamie. I had breakfast, stood in the shower until my skin threatened to shrivel up, and when I was on my way into my bedroom I ran into a brick wall.

"Ow," I said, bouncing back.

Ranger put his hands on my shoulders to steady me. "Pack your bags, babe, we're going to Florida."

"What?"

His eyes were unusually hard. He took a picture out of his pocket and handed it to me. I looked down and inhaled sharply. It was of Jamie, close up so just her head and shoulders showed. And she looked like someone had beaten her bloody.

"Our friend Jack Summer sent this too me," he said, voice tight. Jack Summer is a slimly, evil guy who is out to get Jamie. She had done something years ago that she can't even remember that had pissed him off. He's been after her ever since.

"Fuck," I said weakly. I only had a towel on, and one hand was clutching it to my chest and the other hand was holding the picture, shaking. Ranger's hand was still on my bare shoulder. In any other situation I would be having a hot flash. Right now it seemed more like a cold sweat. I must have stopped breathing because my head went light. Ranger led me over to the bed, pushed me down and shoved my head between my legs. "Breathe," he said, sounding like he was having a hard time with it himself.

The bells stopped clanging and I sat up. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now we contact my brother in Miami and fly down there. The return address on the envelope the picture was sent in was Miami. My brother Jordan runs the Rangeman building down there."

Miami. Brother. One thing at a time. I needed to get dressed. I looked up at Ranger. "I need to get dressed."

He nodded. "Pack whatever you're going to need for about a week. Tank is waiting downstairs with the motor running. Our plane leaves in an hour." He said and left.

SHIT. I can't leave TODAY! Today is Valerie's Anniversary…sortof. A year a go today she and her fiancé, Albert, had skipped out on the wedding and fled to Disney World. And what about Rex? My mother was going to pitch a fit. And Morelli was going to be pissed. I took a deep breath. That didn't matter now. Jamie was in trouble. I got dressed and started shoving things into a duffel bag. I went into the bathroom and packed the necessary toiletries.

We ended up taking Rex with us. I would drop him off at my parents house.

"WHERE!" said my mom, when I told her where I was going.

"Miami. With Ranger. And Tank. They need help with a skip." I didn't want her to worry, so this didn't count as a lie.

She eyed me suspiciously. "Tonight is your sister's Anniversary," she said. As if anything else mattered.

"I know. Tell I said Happy Anniversary. See you in a week." Well that's what Ranger said. I left Rex with my mother and got back into the black SUV.

"I need to stop by Morelli's," I said. Tank nodded and drove away from the curb.

I sighed heavily, already making up a speech in my head.