Hello, so here's the long awaited second chapter. I'm sorry that it's taken so long but I'm a university student and writing becomes less fun when you have 5 papers due.

I want to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited and alerted to this story I really appreciate knowing what you think of what I'm writing. Please continue to do so!

Chapter 2:

I was lying in my bed staring at the ceiling. It was going to be one of those days, I could just tell. I was going to roll in garbage, have to chase down a naked greased up fat man, or watch my car blow up. My name is Stephanie plum and the things I just listed are common occurrences in my life; Common enough that when I get these feelings, I normally heed them and hide in bed all day. But today was the day that my iron clad plan of hiding fell through. I needed the money from Igor Franco's bond to pay my rent and buy some hamster food for Rex. The main dilemma was that Igor was in fact a fat man who had been charged with indecent exposure.

My life wasn't as glamorous as the TV bounty hunters, although I was far better dressed than most of them. I lived in a crappy apartment that my nieces could break into without batting an eyelash (and one of them thinks she's a horse), I often didn't eat anything besides olives and peanut butter sandwiches for weeks because of my cash flow problem, and I had no formal training in bond enforcement.

I wasn't skill-less though, Ranger had taught me the basics when I started and I have an uncanny ability to poke my nose in right where it doesn't belong. If I was to be honest I'd say my biggest assets were Ranger and Joe, who also caused me the biggest headaches.

Joe Morelli is a homicide detective who I have known for as long as I can remember. More like I have known of him forever; as a kid Joe was a real trouble maker. He slept with anything in a skirt, did petty crime and was a really sleaze ball. Then he went and turned his life around and became one of Trenton's finest. The only marks on his record are ones that I helped put there.

Ricardo Carlos Manoso, AKA Ranger, is a security expert, bounty hunter, successful business man, sex god and Ex-Ranger (At least I'm pretty sure it's Ex…). I met him a few years ago when I blackmailed my cousin Vinnie to let me do skip tracing for him. He had showed me the ropes when I started, and had been sort of my mentor turned best friend over the last few years. Ranger had a unlimited supply of black vehicles and large men that he often gave me when I was down on my luck.

That was another reason I had to get out of bed. Last week Ranger had overheard me complaining to Connie about my cash flow problems and had tried to give me money. We had a slight argument which ended up with him buying me lunch at Shorty's and keeping the down payment on a house he tried to give me. I think in the grand scheme of things I won that fight.

I groaned as I slide out of bed and made my way to the bathroom in my tiny apartment. 45 minutes later I emerged showered, dressed and hair done. I poured some of the crumbs of the empty cheerios box into Rexes food bowl before grabbing my pocketbook and heading out the door.

Ten minutes later I had parked and was walking up to the store front of the bonds office when Joe walked out of the building with a case file under his arm. "Hey Cupcake, how's it going?"

I shrugged and nodded at the file, "Whatcha working on?" Here's the thing, Morelli and me would get alone perfect if it wasn't for two things my fear of commitment and his hypocrite nature. My job wasn't that safe ( as I mentioned earlier my cars get blown up with alarming frequency) and Joe wants me to quit, but he's a cop his job Is dangerous too and even though I worry about him I don't ask him to quit and go work at the button factory.

"Nothing really, I have a low profile case that I though Vinnie might know something about." Joe's eyes looked past me as he spoke and he was shifting his weight as if at any second he was about to bolt. What he said was a little off too. Unless something had changed in the past 24 hours, I was pretty sure that Joe was working on the homicide unit (my mother was never wrong with her gossip it's a point of pride in the Burg) and homicide is never really low profile. "You want to come over tonight? I'll pick up Chinese and we could-"

"I can't." I responded quickly before Joe could suggest that we get back together. "I have dinner at my parents and then me and grandma are going to Stiva's for Harold Zambelli's viewing."

Joe seemed to take the hint and said goodbye. I watched him get into his vehicle and was about to walk up to the bonds office when a black sedan pulled up to the curb.

My first instinct was Ranger, but almost as quickly I knew that this vehicle was not part of the never ending army of black cars that seemed to be at Rangers' disposal. The windows were tinted black and the chrome accents on the car shined brightly in a way that drew attention that Ranger would never let. I backed away and headed for the bonds door, my spidey sense was going crazy. But before I could hide in the bonds building the window rolled down and a large overbearing presence was at my back pushing me toward the car.

"Ms. Plum, please take a seat." The voice had a heavy accent and was aged but in typical mobster movie fashion I couldn't see what the man looked like. All I knew was that my instincts were screaming danger.

"If it's alright with you I'd rather stay out here." I sounded polite and not nearly as scared as I felt considering the large man holding me in place easily had 200lbs on me and at least one gun that I could feel at the base of my back. The fact that I sounded so calm resolved my resolution to go to the Tasty Pastry as soon as I got of this. Rent could wait a few days, I needed to deal with my emotional trauma first.

"Of course Ms. Plum, may I call you Stephanie?" I nodded briefly before the man continued. "I would like to offer you a job with my…company. You would be fairly compensated and far safer than you would be as a bond enforcer."

I had no intention of taking the job but curiosity was one of my major downfalls. "What kind of job is this?"

"You have experience as a purchaser yes? Consider yourself a purchaser with personal responsibility for the care of my products." I brain was screaming at me to yell 'No way in Hell buddy' but I refrained and instead maintained my polite façade.

"I appreciate the offer but I quite enjoy my job as a bond enforcer." I heard a sigh come from the man from within the darkness of the backseat of the sedan.

"Very well Stephanie. However I will not take this as a definitive no. If you should change your mind, feel free to contact me." With that he handed a business card out the window, extending his light brown skin, well manicure nails and expensive watch that sat on his wrist above what I assumed was the sleeve of a ridiculously expensive suit.

When my fingers gripped the card the hand was gone and the window was rolling up as the sedan drove away. The large man was no longer standing behind me either so I was able to go sit on the bench in front of the bonds office and look at the card. It read Valentine Martinez, entrepreneur and a phone number below that that had an area code I didn't recognize. Damn. I looked at my watch for a second and realized that I was right. It wasn't even 9am yet and I had already gotten a creepy job offer from a guy you most likely ran a drug cartel. And I still had to go after Igor Franco.

I need a Boston Crème. Possibly six.

Please let me know what you think!