Chapter 1: The Things He Makes Me Do
I seriously have to get out of here. I need to get myself a job so I can leave this house. I can't take the abuse anymore. My brother Jack said Joe was a nice guy, but I would like to know where he was a nice guy at, in his pinkie maybe. He also said that if I ever needed help, I could contact some guy named Ranger. I hadn't met him yet because Joe refused to help me find him. He said that Ranger was a thug and likes to kill people and did things illegally, but I don't believe that. My brother thought Ranger hung the moon. He had a hero-worship for the man. '
My brother Jack served with Ranger as an Army Special Ranger. He was always on missions with Ranger. I was 19 when I moved in with my brother because our parents disowned me and kicked me out of our family home. Our sister Valerie is perfect according to my mother and Jack was the greatest thing since sliced bread according to my father, and me well I was the family fuck up! Nothing I did was ever done right. So, when my parents kicked me out, I called Jack and he paid for me to fly to Miami to live with him on base.
I was always my brother's favorite. He always spoke up for me and protected me. When he would leave to go on missions I would go work out in the gym or work odd jobs. Jack wanted me to learn to take care of myself, so I learned how to shoot a gun and I learned how to defend myself. He jokingly said one time when he came back from a mission that I was a badass and I should be a bounty hunter. I honestly wasn't sure what that was. Now I had seen Dog the Bounty Hunter before, but I figured that was just for tv and not all bounty hunters acted like that.
As I got to thinking about it, I thought it might be a cool job to have. I have always been an adrenaline junkie. So, when Jack was on a mission, I went to a local bond company and inquired about how I could become a bounty hunter. I had to pass a bail bond agent licensing exam and complete a 120-hour pre-licensing course and have a business address. The bails bond company I chose was named, Skip a Bond Bail Bonds. The owners were a married couple named Beth and Mike Zimmerman. They were down a bounty hunter, so they were more than eager to allow me to do what was necessary to become a BEA.
I had a partner named Tracks and we went after anyone and everyone in Miami and the surrounding areas. I loved what I did, and I made good money. It was nothing for me to make $2000 in one night. I decided that I was going to save my money for a Porsche because I have always wanted one. Jack thought that I was crazy for wanting one, but he stood by me as I started to save. He would go on missions and tell the guys about some of the skips and what would go down with some of them. Tracks and I had some fun times. I very seldom had to pull out my gun and we were known as the Miami Dog and Beth from Dog the Bounty Hunter.
We got in good with some of the gangs. I even managed to save one of a gang member's, T-Dog's, young daughter Alyiasha and ever since then he would help me any time, I needed help. His girlfriend, Alyiasha's mother, was killed by another rival gang member, so he takes care of his young daughter. I managed to save his daughter from a guy that I picked up that was grabbing kids to sell them on the black market. Alyiasha was one of the kids he grabbed, and I was the one that brought her back to T-Dog, and ever since then he and I have been friends. His grandmother owns a tamale restaurant that serves the best tamales in Miami. He was always giving me some to take home and when Jack came back from one of his missions, I introduced Jack to him, and T-Dog promised that he would always look after me while I was on the streets, and he was true to his word. He became a very reliable and good friend that I could count on if I needed help with a skip.
I was a bounty hunter for 5 years from the age of 20 to the age of 25. I enjoyed everything about being a bounty hunter. After the last mission that Jack went on, he came home, and he and I went out and celebrated because his contract was up, and he was planning on doing something else then. When we went out, we went to a bar/restaurant and met up with some of the guys that he was on the mission with. There was Edge, Snake, Blackjack, and Blast. Unfortunately, no Ranger. I asked him why Ranger didn't come, and he said that he wasn't a very social person. We sat around all night swapping BEA stories or things they did on the missions.
I found out that Jack would go on missions throughout the year and would tell all the guys about his sister, the bounty hunter. Naturally, they all thought I wore all black, which sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. Everyone assumes that what you see on tv is what every bounty hunter looks like or acts like but that is just not true. I also found out that the guys would always ask about me, especially Ranger, as soon as they were on the plane headed to their destination for the mission, how I was and if he had any new stories to tell. The stories apparently kept them sane and made their lives wherever they were bearable.
After 2 hours of talking, I went to go to the ladies' room. When I came out, Blast was there to meet me. I thought that was strange. I tried to go around him and head back to the table, but he wouldn't let me pass. He grabbed my arm and pushed me out the back door into an alley. The thing with Blast is he is a big guy. 6'2 215 lbs. of muscle. He has black hair and blue eyes and is of Spanish descent. He has never been one to talk much and he is always watching me.
My brother and the others were watching a ball game on tv and drinking and were pretty much drunk and didn't even realize that I was gone. When Blast pushed me out in the alley, he started kissing me and trying to feel under my dress. I was fighting him off the best I could, but he too had been drinking and apparently was not a very good drinker because he got mean when he was drunk. He got tired of me fighting him and finally just forced himself on me and had sex with me. He raped me in that alley with a knife to my throat. When he was finished, he left me there and didn't bother to tell my brother or any of the others where I was at. I was also a virgin at the time.
3 weeks after the incident in the alley, I found out I was pregnant, and that same day Jack found out that he had cancer. He only had 4 months left to live. Both were a complete shock to us. Jack knew what happened to me in the alley because he was the one that found me and took me to the hospital. I never did tell him who did it to me. I didn't want to ruin any type of friendship he and Blast may have had.
Jack put me on his medical insurance; now how he did this I have no clue. I don't know if he told them I was his wife or his sister. I didn't ask questions and he didn't say. We talked about the baby, and he said that if it was a boy, he wanted me to name it after Ranger. Ranger's name is Carlos, so we settled for Jackson Carlos Plum. If it was a girl, I loved the name Abbygail and he wanted Grace as the middle name. So that was the name I would give her and call her Abby for short.
Jack didn't make it the 4 months. He died when I was 3 months pregnant. He died on February 21st, 2020. The night before he died, he advised me that he wanted me to call a Joseph Morelli who works for the Trenton PD and tell him who I was and that Joe would allow me to come and stay with him. Then he told me that if I ever needed any help with anything that I needed to make sure I contacted Ranger and that Joe would know how to get in touch with him.
Here I am now at Joe's house trying to figure out what my next move was going to be. After Jack died, I called Joe and he seemed all too happy for me to move in with him. I was 4 months pregnant when I made the move.
That all changed after I had Abbygail. She is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. She weighed 5 lbs. 12 oz and was 19 inches long. She has a head full of black hair and piercing blue eyes. She was the spitting image of me. The only thing that wasn't like me is her skin color and her hair. She is darker than me due to her father being of Spanish descent. She has a birthmark on the side of her neck about the size of a dime. She to me is perfect - 10 fingers and 10 toes. I love being a mom. Even though she was a baby caused by rape, I knew it wasn't her fault and I loved her with all my heart.
2 days after she was born, we went back to Joe's house. I had a few things that I was able to get for Abby. All the money that I was saving for my "Porsche" I had to use to pay Jack's medical bills and his funeral so that left me with hardly anything. On the 3rd day that I was home with Abby, I woke up to get her so I could feed her, and she was gone. I looked everywhere for her. I called Joe at work and what he told me shocked me and my heart broke that day. I became numb to everyday life because I didn't have my daughter.
"Morelli here."
"Joe, Abby is gone! I got up to feed her and she is not there. Where is she?"
"Steph, chill okay, that house is not big enough for the 3 of us so I knew a couple that wanted a baby, so I sold Abby to them for $50,000."
"You SOLD MY BABY! Why would you hurt me like that? YOU BASTARD! I HATE YOU!" I was hysterically crying and shaking. I wanted my daughter back. I was crying so bad that I was hiccupping and couldn't see anything. I slid down the wall clutching the phone in my hand.
"Steph, she is gone now get over it. I will be home at 6 and I expect dinner to be ready when I get there." As the phone dropped from my hands, I heard him hang up.
That was the first time that Joe has ever acted like this. One of the things that didn't change was the food. When I was pregnant with Abby, I always had to get permission from Joe to eat if he was home. Then he would expect me to give him a blowjob every afternoon when he came in from work and have his food ready for him at 6. If I didn't do something right the first time and he thought, I was being "bad" he would lock me in a small coat closet that was about the size of a coffin standing straight up. I would recite the Lord's prayer or sing songs to try to keep from hyperventilating.
I cried every day and every night for my baby girl. My heart was broken. I tried so hard to find her. I searched for her using programs on my laptop that I had on there when I worked as BEA, and I used every one of them to try to find her. It's like she vanished.
I begged Joe to help me get in touch with Ranger. I knew based on what Jack told me about him that he would help me, but Joe wouldn't. For 2 months I took the abuse from Joe. He never kept me locked up and told me that I could come and go as I pleased. However, he always said that if I ever told anyone about the things that he did to me or that he made me do that he would destroy Ranger. He showed me a file one day that had Ranger's name on it, and he said inside was enough evidence to put Ranger away for life. I never looked at the file. I only knew where he kept it.
I didn't know Ranger personally, but I felt like I had to protect him because my brother loved him so much. My brother always said Ranger was like an older brother to him. According to my brother Ranger had promised him that if I ever needed him, he would protect me with his life, so I believed Jack when he told me that.
Joe's behavior got worse after he sold Abby. I still had to have permission to eat, I was punished for doing anything wrong or didn't do it the way Joe wanted it done. When I would ask about finding Ranger, I would get hit. It was usually in a different place each time. We didn't have sex until 4 weeks after I had Abby and then it was forced. I was supposed to have waited 6 weeks to have sex, but because he raped me, I wasn't able to. I was still expected to give him a blowjob every day, regardless. There were so many things that Joe made me do that it was just unreal to even think about.
I applied for several jobs through the internet, and I finally got an interview with a company called Rangeman. It was a security company, and they were looking for a researcher/office manager and possibly a field agent to help with skips. That was right up my alley. The interview was set for the next day at 9 am. I couldn't wait. I so wanted out of Joe's house. It couldn't come fast enough for me. It has been nearly 3 months since Abby has been gone and I'm hoping that getting a job will help me to find Ranger.
As always, I made sure to have Joe's precious dinner ready at 6 with a beer. I already ate ahead of time so; I didn't have to get "permission" from him to eat anything. I couldn't believe it, but he didn't want a blowjob tonight because he was tired and just wanted to eat and go to bed. Fine with me. Joe was the epitome of an asshole so I was just fine going to bed in the guest room, which was my room anyway, so I could get up early and get ready for my interview.
Joe left at 7:30 am I know this because I was awake and waiting for him to leave so I could get ready. I grabbed what I hoped was an okay outfit for this interview. I chose a pair of black dress pants, a blue silk sleeveless shirt that attaches around the neck, and a black blazer. I also chose cute black pump heels. I topped this off with small hoop earrings and I was ready to go.
I had no transportation, so I had to take an uber. I managed to save a little bit of money out of the money I had left after paying for the funeral. I knew at some point I would need to go and get a job, so I wanted to make sure I had the money to do so.
As the uber pulled up the only thought in my head was Let's hope I get this job so I can get out of this hell hole. I can only wish…
