Misunderstandings and Heartbreak

Chapter 4 - Radioactive

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews. I'm so glad you guys are liking the story. My Aunt is doing better but her daughter is in need of a miracle. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers for them.

Many thanks go to my BFF and wonderful Beta, Jenrar!

I thought the song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons really matched this chapter.


Stephanie's POV

I'd spent the last two weeks trying to find out where Ranger was. Every time I tried to speak to one of the guys, they ignored me, but I tried every time I ran into them.

Lester walked into the bonds office, striding past me straight to Connie, acting like I didn't even exist. "Hey, Connie. What do you have for us today?" As usual, he was trying to pour on the charm.

Connie held up the files for him, and he grabbed them and turned on his heel to head to the door.

"Lester, I need to talk to you." I stepped in front of him to stop his retreat.

"I don't have anything to say, Steph." He sidestepped and continued toward the door.

"Yeah, but I have something to say to you." I took off after him.

He reached the door of the RangeMan SUV and looked at me, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Steph. I have orders not to talk to you. Good luck with..." He motioned to the file in my hand before hopping in and speeding away.

I let out an exasperated sigh before turning toward my car, figuring I should at least attempt to catch one of my current skips.

Sometime later...

I glanced down at the picture of my skip. Donavon Sandoval was FTA on a simple assault charge. Seemed that he'd had one too many drinks and gotten into an argument with a bouncer. Based on the information in his file, he was a first-time offender and should be an easy pick up. He was around one hundred and eighty-five pound and stood a little over six feet. His address was on Oakland St., on the outskirts of the 'Burg. I pulled up a few houses down and did a mental rundown of his file before grabbing my stun gun, flex-cuffs, pepper spray, and cell phone and then stepped out of the car.

Looking around, I noticed a lot of vacant homes and a few abandoned buildings. I took a deep breath as I made my way to the door and knocked.

The door swung open. "What can I do for you, sweet thing?" Donavan said as he looked me up and down.

"Hi. My name is Stephanie Plum. I work for Vinnie, your bondsman. It seems you missed your court date, and I need to run you downtown and get that date rescheduled."

"I've got a better idea," he said with a sneer before grabbing my arms and jerking me inside the house. He brought his lips down to mine in a bruising kiss, and I knew I was in serious trouble.

I bit his lower lip hard enough to get him to jerk back. His hand flung out, connecting with my jaw and causing stars to dance before my eyes as I fell to the floor. I reached for the pepper spray in my pocket and regretted not bringing my gun.

He kicked me in the side, hissing, "Stupid bitch!" as he reached down to drag me up.

I sprayed him with the pepper spray and used his stunned reaction to break free from his grasp, and then took off toward my car. Halfway to the car, I heard him thundering after me.

"I'm going to kill you!" he screamed.

There was no way I was going to get into the car before he was on top of me, so I took off running down the street as fast as my legs could carry me, trying to put as much space between myself and Donavon as possible.

I reached for my phone and pressed speed dial one before holding it to my ear.

A recorded, mechanical voice said, "We're sorry. The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected or is no longer in service. Please hang up and try your call again."

I disconnected the call and felt my heart break all over again. Old habits died hard, it seemed, because my first instinct was to call Ranger for backup. But my own personal Batman had left me to the wolves.

I weaved in and out between houses, trying to hide as best as I could from Donavon. I dialed the control room at RangeMan.

A voice I didn't recognize answered the phone. "RangeMan."

"This is Stephanie. I need to talk to Tank."

The guy hung up on me.

I dialed again.

"RangeMan," the same voice responded.

"This is an emergency. He's going to kill me. I have to talk to Tank."

There was a moment of silence before he hung up again.

I weaved my way around to the back of the little abandoned store down the street and checked to see if the door was unlocked. By the grace of God, it swung open.

I crept inside and dialed 911.

"911. Do you need police, ambulance, or fire?"

"Police," I whispered while trying to turn the lock on the door.

"What is your emergency?" the dispatcher asked.

"My name is Stephanie Plum," I said, trying to keep my voice low. The lock wouldn't budge, so I leaned against the door and looked around, trying to see if I could use anything to wedge it shut. "I'm in the abandoned store on Oakland St. I was here to pick up Donavon Sandoval, who is FTA. He assaulted me. I managed to get away, and he is chasing me on foot, threatening to kill me."

"Help is on the way, Miss Plum."

I heard Donavon yelling outside on the street. "I know you're here. Come out, come out, where ever you are."

"Please hurry," I whispered.

I found a chair to wedge under the door, so I quickly picked it up and put it in place. When I stood up, I screamed. Staring back at me through the door were the cold eyes of Donavon Sandoval.

TBC...


A/N: Please review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. I know Lester seemed mean.