Disclaimer: Janet Evanovich owns all characters, though if I could, I'd own Morelli. Ranger too.

"I'm gonna be sick!" The ground was moving up and down at an alarmingly fast rate as I was carried down side streets, through alleys, and finally loaded into a black SUV.

"You? You've got food poising." Hal leaned over then, proving he was right. He did indeed have food poisoning. The sight and sounds caused my stomach to turn and I had to close my eyes and lean back to avoid pulling a repeat of his show.

"What are you doing here anyways?"

"Ranger asked me to follow you home. Why couldn't you just go home?"

"I needed a drink, or twelve. 'Sides, I don't need a babysitter, I'm a grownup." My words were starting to slur and I was swaying back and forth in my seat. "Pull over, I'm gonna be sick."

"We haven't left yet."

"Good cause-" I opened the door then, leaned over and fell face first onto the sidewalk. The jarring impact of the fall caused me to swallow back the sickness that was coming up. Also it somehow seemed to knock a drink or two out of me and when I stood up I was only seeing two of everything instead of four. "We've gotta go get my car."

"You didn't drive."

"What? How did I get here then Mr. Smarty Pants?"

"Lula."

"Who?"

"Not much of a drinker are you?"

"Not much of a, uhh." I couldn't come up with anything so I crossed my arms and stuck my tongue out at him.

We took off then. We were just hitting the outskirts of the burg when I realized we were going the wrong direction. Instead of heading downtown to Rangeman we were making our way towards the river.

"This ain't right!" For some reason my voice came out so loud it started me.

"I've gotta make a stop before we head home."

"Home? Where you takin me?"

"Rangeman. Jeeze." The volume must have been too much for Hal because he stopped after that, parking the car on the side of the road. "I'm just going to run inside real quick. Are you staying out here or coming in?" I tried to move but there must have been an earthquake at the same time. It shook me so hard I slipped forward and hit my head on the dash. "Never mind. I'll just be a minute. Wait right here."

I leaned my face against the side window, allowing the cool glass to calm my nerves. My head was throbbing, and I was feeling nauseous again. Opening the door I stepped out of the car, not realizing it was farther down than I thought. My feet gave out from under me and I rolled in the dirt. I tried standing up, but it just wasn't working out. Must have been the shoes. Yeah, blame the shoes.

Somewhere off in the distance a car door slammed. Okay so my hearing wasn't the best and the door slamming could have been closer than I thought. In reality it was. The Rangeman SUV started up then and took off down the road. Normal people would have chased after it, but I wasn't normal. Instead I stood there, mouth hanging open, dress covered in dirt.

"My purse was in there!" I yelled as the back of the car disappeared and made a sharp right. Wait a second, there was no road to the right. That would mean the car just drove in the river. My mind was obviously playing tricks on me.

It was pretty dark and my vision was still horrible but I swore I saw someone cross the street right around the spot where the car had turned. After a few seconds headlights popped on and started coming towards me. The car swerved over to my side of the street, stopped a few inches short of hitting me and someone got out.

"Crap." I said as I stood frozen in place. They were wearing a hooded jacket so I couldn't tell who it was and they had a rag in their hand which they pushed up against my nose and mouth. "Whas dabi ider? I mumbled through the dirty cloth but it was too late. I blacked out.

When I woke up it was dark and my head felt like it was about to crack open. Worse than that I didn't know where I was, or how I'd gotten there. I was still fully dressed, so that was a good sign, but there was something hard and cold wrapped around my ankle. Reaching down I felt around blindly. I was chained to the floor.

"Hello!" My voice echoed off the walls and made my brain pound against my skull.

A shaft of light appeared then as a door on the other side of the room opened. In the middle of the frame stood a figure. "Yelling won't do you any good. No one can hear you." His voice was acidic and crackled like static.

"You heard me." Real smart Stephanie, cop an attitude with the crazy guy who has obviously kidnapped you.

"Feisty. I like it."

He started to close the door then, but I yelled out. "Wait! Usually when I get kidnapped it's by someone I've been looking for, or someone who knows me. I don't even know who you are."

"How rude of me. Let me introduce myself. I'm Tim Stringer."

My jaw hit the floor. Shit. I was in big trouble now. Of course I get kidnapped by a serial killer. Just my flippen luck! I finally try to change my life, get a real job and I get pulled into something I had no part of.

He flipped a switch then and the whole room lit up. It was a cement room, much longer than it was wide, and depressingly scary. In the corner behind me was a sink and a toilet, both of which looked like they belonged in a prison. They were the kind that had no separate parts so you couldn't take things off and use them as weapons. Damn. Other than that and myself the room was empty. The chain on my leg was at least two inches thick and welded to a hook that was stuck deep in the cement floor. This was really not good.

My mind raced then. I had to think, I had to find a way out. The longer I worked on it, the more helpless I felt. There really was no way out. The burning started in the back of my eyes and before I knew it I was crying, and not just crying, bawling. Everything seemed to hit me at once. I was going to die here in this cement room, Joe had cheated on me with the devil, my family was a mess, and Ranger was, well Ranger was just another confusing aspect of my soon to be over life.

I wasn't sure how long I cried before I wore myself out and fell asleep. Not only that, I didn't know how long I was out, or even what time or day it was. The light was off again and my shoes were missing. Thinking about it I realized I could have used them as a weapon. My mind was just one step behind, and it would be the death of me.

The door opened and Tim came in, flippen the light on. He had a small box in one hand, a pencil in the other and what looked like a pack of paper. Setting everything down in front of me he backed away, keeping his eyes fixed on me.

"We're going to do a small craft project today." His eyes scanned me over as he set down the items and pushed them towards me with his foot. "I want you to take a piece of paper out and write a little letter to your boyfriends."

"My boyfriends?"

"Yes. Surely you've figured out what this is all about."

"Not really. Look I think I'm still hung over, my brain isn't exactly in working order."

"The cop Morelli, and the man who runs the company that has been keeping tabs on me."

"What about them?"

"They ruined my life. And now I'm going to ruin theirs."

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was going to be used as revenge. My life was going to end because of the men I loved. And all this time they blamed it all on my job. Huhn. Who would guess it wouldn't even have anything to do with me.

"You're going to write a letter addressed to both of them, telling them that you're still alive, for now, and that we are going to play a little game."

"How long is this game going to last?"

"Until I tire of it."

Great. Now I'd have to find a way to prolong this game. I really wasn't up for this. Every part of me was exhausted and I was having trouble finding the energy to think and keep going. I mean obviously I didn't want to die, but I wasn't sure I was smart enough, or strong enough to figure a way out of this.

"Get started, and don't try anything funny because I'll be reading this before it's sent out."

I grabbed the packet of paper, opening it up and pulling a few pieces out. The pencil was dull and had teeth marks all over it. My brain kicked in then, trying to think of some way to get a message hidden inside the letter.

"Why aren't you writing?"

"I'm thinking. This isn't easy you know."

"Just put on there that you're alive and they will get one letter a day until I'm sick of playing with them. If you're smart you'll make this hard for them. The more pain they feel, the longer you live. Though, maybe you want to just get it all over with, in that case just say the word and I'll end everything." He pulled a gun from his back then, twirling it around his index finger.

This just kept getting worse and worse. If it wasn't bad enough I was kidnapped and chained to the floor, now the serial killer who had me captive wanted me to write letters to the men in my life that would hurt them, and if they didn't hurt enough he'd kill me. If I just had to write letters to Joe I figured I could drag this on for a year, but with Ranger in the mix it wouldn't be so easy. This guy wanted pain, and Ranger didn't know the meaning of pain. I'd be dead by tomorrow.

Taking the pencil I wrote a number one in the upper right hand corner of the paper and then put Dear Ranger & Joe, on the first line. After that my mind was blank. Maybe I could stall, talk to him some more while I tried to think up something clever. If I were one of those people who got kidnapped on TV shows I'd be half way to rescued already. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't.

"What am I putting on the envelope?"

"Put the address to the police station on there, and label it as urgent."

Well that not only didn't give me much stalling time, but it sure didn't make me feel much better. Maybe I could write the letter in a way where I could hint at his name. If I started certain sentences with his initials, or used them to spell out his name maybe one of them could figure it out. I ran the thought through my head and started writing. If it didn't work I could crumble it up and start again.

Dear Ranger & Joe,

This letter is to let you know that I'm okay, and alive for now. he wants you to know that this is a game, and that the longer you play along the longer I have. I am not sure what that means, but please just listen. Maybe you two could put things aside and work together because I'm scared and I really don't want to die yet.

love you,

Steph

"Okay, I'm done." I crossed my fingers in my mind and prayed he wouldn't notice what I'd done.

"Set the paper down and back up against the wall." He put on a pair of rubber gloves, picked up the paper, read it and set it back down. "Now fold it, put it in the envelope and seal it." He tossed a book of stamps at me, I put one on and set the finished product on the floor at his feet. He gathered up all the supplies and set them at the far end of the room, way out of my reach.

"Just in time for mail pick up." He walked out the door then leaving me alone in the empty room.

My only relief was knowing that I was at least safe for the day. I know for a fact that even though the letter was going out today there was no guarantee it would arrive tomorrow. After all, my father worked at the post office so I had an insider's prospective on how these things really happened. The only problem was Tim Stringer didn't. He would probably just assume that the mail would be delivered tomorrow and go on with his set plan. Really there was no way to even know when they received the letter, or if they even read it for that matter.

Crap. Thinking was not good. I knew this. I knew from many years of personal experience that thinking was the devil's work, yet here I was, running through eighty different ways I could die. What was wrong with me?

Curling up in a ball I tried to sleep but it was no use. I'd just had a nap of sorts, and my mind wouldn't slow down enough to let me relax. There had to be something I could do to pass that time that wouldn't involve picturing my fingers cut off.

"Hey!" I started yelling at the top of my lungs. "Hello!"

After a few minutes of yelling my throat started to hurt and the door opened. "What?" He looked annoyed, not a good thing.

"I'm bored."

"And?"

"And I need something to do."

"You're a hostage; you're supposed to be bored."

"Oh. I'm not really sure how this stuff works; I was only a hostage for about an hour the last time."

"Sheesh, and I thought I lived a messed up life."

"There is nothing wrong with my life!"

"Then why are you chained up and being held prisoner?"

"That's not my life. That's their lives bleeding into mine."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that." He headed for the door then.

"Wait! You didn't give me anything to do."

"What do I look like? I'm not a babysitter, I'm your captor."

"But I can't stay down here alone with my thoughts."

"News flash! Being held hostage is not supposed to be fun. It is supposed to be torture." He shook his head then. "Now I know why captors don't keep people long."

"But!" He charged at me then, pulling his fist back quickly before hitting me in the face. I flew backwards and must have hit my head on the wall because in a matter of seconds I was out cold.

Opening my eyes was much harder than I remembered it being. There was a loud ringing sound in my ears and a constant throb at the base of my scull like someone was jabbing me with a stick from the inside. Everything was blurry and it was much too bright.

"Wake up." Tim Stringer's harsh voice slammed itself in my ears, causing me to reach up and cover them.

"Ahh. Not so loud."

"Do you want food or not?"

"Food?" Instantly my mouth started to water and my eyes shot open.

He threw a McDonalds bag at me then and I ripped through it, pulling out fries and a burger. I stuffed the food in my mouth as though I hadn't eaten in years. Actually I wasn't sure how long it had been since I'd eaten. Come to think of it, how did a man with a house arrest ankle guard get McDonalds. More importantly how did he get me?

"How did you get food?"

"You're pretty nosey."

"I'm a woman, it's my nature."

"True. I guess I could tell you. Not that it matters because you won't be around to tell anyone else." He leaned against the wall then, slipping down onto the floor. My bag of food was on my lap and I'd finished almost all of it in a matter of seconds. "I've got a friend who's some kind of computer genius. He figured out a way to trick the monitoring device so that I can add distance to my limit amounts. Instead of only being able to go fifty feet he tricks it in to thinking my distance is fifty miles."

"Well that explains a lot." I'd put all my trash in my bag and threw it across the room. "What day is it?"

"Tuesday."

"Tuesday? God, I was supposed to be at work yesterday at ten."

"Looks like you lost that job."

"Damn it. I actually liked that job too."

"You would have lost it anyways." A sickening smile formed on his face then. "Hard to go to work when you're dead."

Standing up he reached for the bag wrapper I'd thrown in the corner. "They'll catch you ya know. You under estimate them."

"You over estimate them."

I was alone then, with a stomach full of food and worry. What if he was right? No. I couldn't think that way. Ranger and Joe had always found me before when I disappeared. Of course there really was no reason for them to look at Stringer. He wasn't involved with me prior to this in any way, shape or form. Curling up in a ball again I started crying. Get a grip. I told myself. For God's sake you're a Jersey girl. Yeah, but I was a Jersey girl who was about to be killed. I think I could let this one slide.

"Letter time." Tim was standing above me, wearing jeans and a dirty Yankees shirt. "Today we need to kick it up a notch. They need to know just how serious I am."

"What am I supposed to write?" He'd pushed the supplies over to me and I put a two in the upper corner just as I had the day before.

"Tell them exactly how you feel. Don't hold back."

"These are guys I'm writing too, they don't want to hear about my emotions."

"Just do it." The gun was in his hands then, pointed straight at me. "Or do you want me to write it telling them the location of your dead body?"

"Okay, okay!" I spelled his last name out in my head, trying to come up with sentences that fit each letter.

Dear Ranger & Joe,

So, today I'm supposed to write and tell you how I feel. The truth is I feel horrible. Right now I have a throbbing headache from where it's been slammed into too many things. I actually have had a headache for two days now, and the days have blurred together. Now I feel sick, like I'm going to cry and puke all at the same time, and I probably will. Guess that's how I'm gonna feel for a while though, at least I'm still alive. Every second that goes by I think will be my last. Right now is the most scared I've ever been.

love you both,

Steph

"Now I want you to kneel down, and lean over the paper."

"Why?" My voice was trembling now and my palms started to sweat.

"Kneel down and lean over, or I'll make you."

I did what he asked, fighting to keep my body steady. My body was jolted to the side and blood fell out of my mouth onto the floor. He was standing over me, holding his gun. Using his shirt he wiped it off, and I realized he'd just hit me with it. The side of my face ached with pain, it felt like it was swelling up to three times its normal size.

"Once the blood on the paper dries, fold it up and put it in the envelope just like you did yesterday."

Now I understood. The blood was a sign, a way to let them know that my life meant nothing and he would end it in a heartbeat. I crawled back into the corner, cradling my face in my hand, trying to ignore the pain.

After I folded up the paper and sealed and labeled the envelope he took all the supplies out of the room, leaving the door open. This meant he was coming back, and the thought sunk into me and froze my bones. He crossed the room and pushed a dirty rag up to my mouth. I tried not to breath but it was no use. As I inhaled I sensed something familiar about the smell. The memory it brought back was recent, the night he kidnapped me. Once I'd made the connection I fell under, soaked in the dread that would be waiting when I woke up.

A/N Much thanks to my mommy who not only betas but takes me to Disney.

We've gotten a little dark here, but there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, but sadly the end is also VERY near.

Thanks as always to those who have read, reviewed, followed, and the like. I'm so happy to have you all along for the ride.